Posts Comments

Five Modern Marketing Methods You May Not Know About

April 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment

online-marketingOlder marketing methods like direct mail and cold calling just don’t work as effectively as they did a few decades ago. There are two reasons for that:

  1. The trust level between people has dropped more than 20 percentage points in the last few years; people are more skeptical and untrusting of each other than ever before.
  2. The amount of marketing messages we receive on a daily basis has increased exponentially, to the point where most everything is simply treated as white noise.

What is there to do if you still need more clients? Sharpen your marketing skills and try out these newer ideas from the 21st century:

Website Landing Pages

A landing page is a web page that is not listed in your website menu.   It’s a hidden page that advertises something very specific, such as a free report, a service, a niche, or a sale item. The landing page includes a description of an offer and a call to action, such as a Buy Now button, or a signup form where you enter your name, email, and possibly phone numbers.

You can drive traffic to your landing page through social media, online ads, or email notices. Once someone has taken action, a sale team often follows up with a phone call or an email to encourage further action.

Free Trials or Samples

Although there is nothing new about free trials, they are certainly popular and they still work very well. You might think they are only for magazines and software companies, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

You can offer free food samples or free servings if you own a restaurant, catering or other food service company. If you own a training or consulting company, you can offer a free course or a free consulting hour. Physicians often offer free pharmaceuticals, and dentists offer free toothbrushes. Think about how free trials or samples can be used in your business to attract new clients.

Webinars

The online equivalent of a class or lecture is a webinar. If your company sells a product or service that requires a lot of client education, you can deliver this information via a webinar. The benefits to offering a webinar are that people do not have to get dressed up to go anywhere, you can have people from all over the world attend, and people will be able to get to know you and how you think so they can make a decision about whether they want to do business with you.

To offer webinars, you’ll need webinar software such as Citrix GoToWebinar or WebEx. You could also use Google Hangouts for free, but the number of people attending is limited. Invite people you know via email announcements or social media. You can make a sales offer during the webinar as well.

Email

Email is a great way to make sales offers to people, especially if you have a list of people who have given you permission to send emails to them. If you send out a monthly newsletter, include a Product of the Month or a Deal of the Month. It’s much less expensive than direct mail, and often there is a much better response rate.

Online Ads

If placing ads in newspapers and magazines is not working in your industry any more, then try placing online ads. There are lots of choices. You can go with Google AdWords and Facebook Ads. Twitter and LinkedIn have ads as well.

You can also try banner ads. There is a special type of banner ad called retargeting. Have you ever been on a company’s website, then left it and started seeing advertisements for that company on the websites you visited later? That’s called retargeting and it’s very popular.

Before you create your marketing plans for next quarter, give these ideas some consideration. You may get more bang for your marketing dollar.

Filed Under: Blog, Business Development, Business Tips Tagged With:

Cool Tech Tools: Google Drive

April 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment

googledrive Google Drive, which used to be called Google Docs, is a great way to collaborate with team members and stakeholders that are in a different location than you are. Here’s a quick introduction (or refresher) on how to use this powerful collaboration tool.

Google Drive is a browser-based application that allows you to create documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and other documents that reside in the cloud. They can easily be shared with others, and both of you can see and edit the document at the same time.

Using Google Drive

To get started, you’ll need to have (or set up) a Google account. If you have a gmail account, you can use it. Log in to your gmail or Google account, and at the top right corner of your screen, you will see a square made up of nine small squares. You can click on it and select Google Drive.   Alternately, you can go to drive.google.com.

Time to Create

Once you’re on the Google Drive main page, you’ll see a large red CREATE button on the top left. Click it to create your first Google document. Select among the choices of spreadsheet, document, presentation, and more. Give the document a title, and start editing. The commands are very similar to Microsoft Office®, so there’s no learning curve.

Time to Share

When you are viewing a document, you’ll see a blue SHARE button on the top right side of your screen. Click it to enter the email address of a person you’d like to have see and/or edit the document.

You can tell who else is viewing the document at the same time you are because you’ll see a colored box and perhaps their picture on the top right side. You can also tell where their cursor is in the document; it will show up in another color.

As you create documents, you will see your list growing under My Drive. If someone else created the document and shared it with you, you’ll see it under Shared With Me.

So Many Uses

Here are a couple of ideas on how you can use Google Drive.

  • As a bulletin board for your employees or customers
  • For status reports on projects
  • As a to-do list when multiple team members are involved – they can check off the items as they go
  • As a collaborative note-taker when you’re brainstorming with another person
  • With a client when you need to explain part of a document – you can copy and paste from Word or Excel to Google Drive (but check to make sure everything came over)

Google Drive is great for productivity and makes communications easier. Try it and let us know how you use it.

Filed Under: Blog, Business Tips, Favorites, Technology Tagged With:

Does Your Accounting Department Have Holes in It?

April 2, 2015 by Leave a Comment

holes-leakYou’ve got someone to do your federal and state income tax returns, and you have a bookkeeper. So that’s all that a small business needs when it comes to having an accounting department, right? 

Wrong. 

Large companies have many functions in their accounting departments, and small and mid-sized businesses need many of the same functions as well. They just won’t need as many staff to handle them. Many of these functions will fall on the CEO, but a smart CEO will find a way to delegate some of the accounting duties to free their time up.

Here are just a few of the things you’ll want to make sure that you have covered in your small business accounting department:

Accounting Software Expertise

Who do you have on your team that can identify opportunities for making your accounting function run more efficiently? The solutions could include training on your current system or could be more comprehensive such as identifying a new accounting system that will save a tremendous amount of time and money.

Let your accountant get to know your processes because they may know of some software applications that can do what you need faster, better, and cheaper. Manual data entry is a hot spot of potential; today, you can find software, scanners, and even smartphones and tablets that can automate the data entry, even if all you have is paperwork to enter.

Business Performance Advice

Are you getting accounting reports that tie to the areas where you have challenges and issues? If not, let your accountant know where those areas are. They may be able to suggest some reports that will provide you with insight and enlightenment.

If you are receiving reports with lots of numbers that you’re not quite sure how to interpret, ask your accountant for help. They can not only help you interpret the numbers, but they can also put the report into a graphical format so that it’s more visual for you.

It’s All About the Revenue

The number one challenge of most small businesses is to attract more business and generate more revenue. Your accountant can help you study your revenue patterns by presenting “what if” tools that can help you see what happens when you change price, impact mix, or adjust volume.

Keeping the Cash Flowing

If your business seems to stampede through cash, you’re not alone. A cash flow forecasting report is in order so you can plan ahead and be ready for the valleys and hills.

Beyond Compliance

If your accounting department focuses on compliance work alone, such as taxes and recordkeeping, you’ll miss out on allowing it to become a profit center of sorts. With these added functions, you’ll discover new actions to take in your business to drive profitability. You’ll have clarity about decisions like price changes, and you’ll know your accounting function is efficient and not wasting time and money.

Take a look at your accounting department, and let us know if we can help you plug any of the holes.

Filed Under: Blog, Business Tips Tagged With: , ,

Veteran’s Day Tribute to My Dad

November 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment

My Dad passed away last month at the age of 91. As a child of the Depression, he was working by the time he was 8 years old and hopping freight trains up and down the West Coast by the age of 10. He dropped out of high school as a sophomore to get work. When he enlisted in the Army Air Corp, his boss fired him so he wouldn’t have to re-hire him when he returned from the war.

The men and women who served in World War II returned as heroes, but seldom spoke of their experiences. Until I started attending the reunions of the 73rd Bomb Wing Association with my Dad, I knew very little of his involvement in that war. Ed Lawson of the 500 Bomb Group sent me this upon learning of my Dad’s passing:

“He was the aircraft commander of Z Square 34, Frisco Nannie and completed 35 missions. While many air crew personnel received an award of the Distinguished Flying Cross, he received a second DFC with the following citation:

First Lieutenant James R Farrell, 0735068, 882nd, Bombardment Squadron, 500th Bombardment Group, Air Corps United States Army. For extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight on 25 May 1945. Lieutenant Farrell was Airplane Commander of a B-29 aircraft which flew from a base in the Marianas Islands on a night bombing mission against the heavily defended city of Tokyo, Japan. En route to the target rapidly changing and adverse weather conditions made navigation extremely difficult and serious mechanical difficulties necessitated excessive fuel consumption. Despite these obstacles, numerous search-lights and intense anti-aircraft fire, Lieutenant Farrell made an excellent radar bomb run and all bombs fell on the target. Immediately after bombs away heavy flak and violent turbulence were encountered and he underwent continuing fighter attacks from the target area to a point one hundred miles out to sea. Attacks by Japanese flying bombs created additional hazards requiring Lieutenant Farrell to employ evasive tactics. His courage and determination in the face of enemy opposition combined with his skill and professional ability which made possible the successful accomplishment of this mission reflect great credit on himself and the Army Air Forces.

Jim had a distinguished career in civilian life and was a popular member of the 73rd Bomb Group Association and the 500th Bomb Group Memorial Association.”

JamesFarrell

Although not shy, my Dad was a private person and very humble. He was adamant about not having a funeral or memorial service. This is my little tribute to the man who inspired me with his strong work ethic, his positive attitude and unceasing optimism.

Filed Under: Family Tagged With: ,

Five Fun Things to Add to Your Invoices

October 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

paidstampWhen it comes to marketing, the company invoice might be the last thing you’d think about. But think again: it’s a great place to make every attempt to get paid faster and have your customer coming back for more services and products. Here are five fun easy-to-implement ideas to add to your invoices:

1.     A Thank-You

A simple “Thank you for your business” or a “We appreciate your business” is a nice added touch on the bottom of every invoice.

QuickBooks invoices include a comment line where you can choose your comment or write one for yourself. You can also customize the form so that it appears on every invoice.

2.     Your Current Special Offer

A customer that just purchased from you now trusts you; it’s the perfect time to let them know what else you have available that they could benefit from. Your offer could be a small amount off their invoice for referrals they send you, your monthly special, a sale item, or an item related to what they purchased.

Just add a quick text line to your invoice letting them know the special and where to call for more information. If you haven’t ever tried this, you will be surprised and delighted at the results.

3.     A Prominent Due Date

Most invoices include terms, but you can make it even easier on your client by computing their specific due date. If at all possible, include the due date on your invoice so the customer can see clearly when they need to pay you.

Make the due date stand out, too. Bold it, print it in a different color, increase the font, or do all of the above. You want it to be really clear when that payment is due in your office.

4.      A Payment Link

Can you take payments online? If so, include the web link that customers can use to pay you online. This might be to a shopping cart, Intuit Payment Network, PayPal®, or another online payment system. If it’s convenient for your client to pay, you’ll get paid faster.

5.     A Friendly Warning for Overdue Invoices: “Does your mother know you haven’t paid this invoice?”

If all the above fails and the customer does not pay you by the invoice’s due date, you’ll want to have a process for re-sending the invoice and/or statement until the customer pays or until you’re ready to turn it over to a collections agency. Here are some sample sentences you can choose from:

“We hope you’ve just overlooked this bill and can send your payment right away.”

“We’re re-sending this invoice in case it got lost. Please send payment right away.”

“Could you check on the status of this payment for us? Our records show it’s past due.”

“Please contact us if you have questions or issues with this invoice. Payment is now past due; please remit immediately.”

“Hey, we need to pay the rent! Please send your payment as soon as possible.”

When the invoice gets older, sometimes it helps to add a little humor:

“Does your mother know you haven’t paid this invoice?”

Marketing to Get Paid

With these five low-cost ideas, you’re sort of “marketing” to get the payment sooner. They are easy to implement, cost very little, and will improve your cash flow. Try them and let us know how they are working. 

Filed Under: Business Tips, Money

Do You Know Your Small Business Vitals?

September 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment

checkingvitalsOn a doctor’s visit, the first thing the nurse does is take your vitals: your temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiration rate. These basic measurements are the first place doctors look to see if something is wrong with our health.

Knowing your vital signs, and especially when they are out of whack, is good for your health. In the same way, knowing your business’s vital signs, and especially when they are out of whack, is good for the financial health of your business.

Vital Measures

If you’ve been in business a while, you might already know the “vitals” you like to track. Here are some common ones for a small or new business:

  • Checking account balance(s)
  • Amounts owed (bills, payroll, and loans)
  • Revenue for the month and year-to-date
  • Sales by customer so you can see the top five to ten largest customers

As time goes on and your business grows, you may want to add some of the following:

  • Revenue for the month and year-to-date compared to last year
  • Net income for the month and year-to-date compared to last year
  • Days Sales Outstanding which is a measure of how long it take to collect on an invoice from a client
  • Revenue by service or product line in a pie chart

These are just a handful of the many options there are when it comes to measuring the results of your business, and it would be difficult for us to list all of them here. The point is to decide proactively what you’d like to track on a monthly basis. Then you can set up the process it takes to get those numbers delivered to you in the format you prefer.

Once you decide on the numbers you need to run your business, you’ll be able to take your “vitals” whenever you want. But you can take this to the next level with one more idea: exception reporting.

Being Exceptional

It’s great to glance at your numbers periodically, but there can be a lot of data to wade through. How about getting a report that tells you only when the numbers go out of range? This is called exception reporting, and requires that you set ranges for each measure you want to follow. If the measure stays within range, you do not have to be alerted. However, if it falls out of range, then you can get a report to tell you what’s going on so you can take the right business action.

Exception reporting is not all that common in small business, but can save a busy owner a lot of time.

A Clean Bill of Health

By determining the vitals you want to watch for your business and putting a process in place to monitor that information, you will be helping your business stay healthy. If we can help, please reach out and let us know. The doctor is IN. 

Filed Under: Business Development, Business Tips

Five Ways to Rev Up Your Referrals

September 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Man and woman shaking hands isolated on a white background.In the vast majority of industries, referrals are the most cost-effective way to gain new clients and grow your business. When you attract new clients through referrals, your marketing costs are lower, your selling process is easier and more effective, and the referral usually makes for an excellent client. It’s just good business sense to look at how we can proactively increase our referrals. Here are five ideas.

1.     Your Email Signature

We know it can be embarrassing or uncomfortable to ask your clients and friends directly for referrals. A great compromise is to add a line to your email signature that takes care of it for you. Here are a couple of wording options:

Your referral is our greatest compliment!

Referrals are the lifeblood of our business. We thank you for yours.

We appreciate your referrals.

Adding one of these lines to your email signature file is a subtle notice to everyone you email that you are open to taking referrals. It’s indirect enough to where no one feels put on the spot, and it takes all of five minutes to implement.

2. Acknowledge Your Referral Sources

When you find out someone has sent you a referral, be sure to acknowledge that person with a thank you note or a gift. (Be sure to check any licenses you hold so you know what restrictions you are under concerning gifts to clients; some industries disallow it.)

You might want to reward your top referral sources with more than a thank you note. If you are not sure who your top referral sources are, we can help you create a report in your accounting system so you can track that information on a regular basis.

3. Set Up a Referral Program

Creating a formal referral program generates several benefits:

  • It formalizes the process of asking for referrals. This lets clients know you’re serious and interested in referrals.
  • It gets the word out to everyone without anyone feeling pressured.
  • It is cost-effective and still far lower cost than using other marketing channels.
  • It is not too time-consuming and produces results.

To set up your referral program, decide how you want to reward your referral sources. It could be as fun as awarding prizes such as Kindles and tablets to clients who send the most referrals to you. The cost of the prize is a small price to pay for the lifetime revenue of several new high-quality clients. Send a letter or email out announcing the program, and then set up a process for tracking.

If you’re in an industry where prizes and programs are simply not done, then a simple letter requesting referrals will work too. Be sure to include a description of the specific type of client you are looking for; you are far more likely to get referrals when clients know who to look for.

4. Develop Referral Sources

One way to truly quantum-leap your business is to find new sources of referrals. Your clients are a great source, but they each know so many people. If your clients have been with you for a while, your referrals could stagnate because your clients have referred just about everybody they are going to.

Keep your referrals growing by tapping into power partners. These are small business owners that have the same type of client you do, but are not competitive at all. The best way to reach out to them is to send them a referral!

5. Set Up Referral Processes

There’s a lot your back office can automatically do when it comes to referral processes.

  • You can remember to ask how a new lead heard about you when they first call. Then you can record and track that, so that you will know where your top referral sources are.
  • You can systematize the thank you notes and gifts so they go out timely and automatically.
  • You can regularly schedule times with power partner to keep them up to date on your business changes and opportunities.
  • You can systematize a referral program or related communications to keep everyone informed.

Once you set up these processes and delegate the tasks, you will grow your referrals and subsequently your revenues.

Oh, and by the way, we appreciate your referrals!

Filed Under: Business Development, Business Tips

Five Fall Projects to Refresh Your Financial Results

August 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Autumn Leaves

As we move into the fall season and the final quarter of the year, it’s a perfect time to commit to a project in your business that will help you reach the year’s end in better shape. Here are five ideas:

1.     Back-to-School Time

If payroll expenses are one of the higher costs in your business, then it makes sense to boost your team’s productivity and maybe also your own. Fall is back-to-school time anyway, so it’s a natural time of the year to take on a course, read a business book, or hire an organizer to help you get more from your workspace.

If you spend a lot of time doing email, consider taking a course on Microsoft Outlook® or even Windows; learning a few new keystrokes could save you tons of time. If you need more time, look for a book or course on time management. Look for classes at your local community college or adult education center.

2.     A Garage Sale for Your Business

Do you have inventory in your business? If so, take a look at which items are slower-moving and clear them out in a big sale. We can help you figure out what’s moving slowly, and you might even save on taxes too.

3.     Celebrate Your Results

Take a checkpoint to see how your revenue and income are running compared to last year at this time. Is it time for a celebration, or is it time to hunker down and bring in some more sales before winter? With one more quarter to go, you have time to make any strategy corrections you need to at this time. Let us know if we can pull a report that shows your year-on-year financial comparison.

4.     Get Ready for Year’s End

Avoid the time pressure of year’s end by getting ready early. Review your balance sheet to make sure your account balances are correct for all transactions entered to date. You will be ahead of the game by getting the bulk of the year reviewed and out of the way early.

Also make sure you have the required documentation you need from vendors and customers. One example is contract labor that you will need to issue a 1099 for; make sure you have a W-9 on file for them. If we can help you get ready for year-end, let us know.

5.     Margin Mastery

If your business has multiple products and services, there may be some that are far more profitable than others. Breaking these numbers out to calculate your profit margins or contribution margins by product or service line can help you see the areas that are adding the most income to your bottom line. Correspondingly, you can determine if you have any items that are losing money; knowing will help you take the right action in your business.

Refresh your financials this fall with your favorite idea of these five, or come up with your own fall project to rejuvenate your business. 

Filed Under: Business Development, Business Tips, Money

What Does Popeye Have to Do with Accounting?

August 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

sailorhatYou might have heard the terms “cash basis accounting” or “accrual accounting.” Your net income number can change depending on which method your books are set up for. Here’s a simple explanation of the difference, with a little help from one of the most famous cartoon characters in history.

Popeye and Wimpy

You might recognize Popeye the Sailor Man from the television cartoons or other media. His sidekick, Wimpy, was the one who was always hungry and always out of cash. One of his favorite sayings was, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”

It’s All in the Timing

Let’s make today Thursday. If Wimpy wants to pay us Tuesday for a hamburger today, here’s how it would be done for a restaurant on cash basis:

Cash basis recording Wimpy’s hamburger purchase

Both the sale and the receipt of cash would be recorded on Tuesday. Companies on cash basis only record the transaction when the cash is received.

But, if the restaurant’s books were on the accrual basis, it would be a different story:

Accrual basis recording Wimpy’s hamburger purchase

Wimpy’s hamburger sale would be recorded on Thursday, the day he ate the hamburger. The receipt would then be recorded on Tuesday, assuming Wimpy made good on his promise to pay.

You might be asking why a few days is such a big deal. Outside of cartoon life, a couple of extra twists can happen. It can be far more than a few days from the time you do the work to the time you get paid for it. And often, these dates span different months and even years, affecting the amount you have to pay in taxes to various agencies. Manipulating these dates (legally, of course) is one of many tax planning strategies that we can help you with.

Choosing for Your Business

In many cases, the government has chosen which method you must use when it comes to sales tax, payroll taxes, and income tax. That’s part of the reason we make the required adjustments to your books at year end.

To help you run your business in a forward-thinking way, the accrual method is best. You can record invoices for work you’ve done even though you haven’t received payment yet. You can enter bills you need to pay before you pay them to forecast cash requirements. Using accrual accounting, you can budget for cash flow needs as well as see more accurately what your revenue and income is looking like.

For clients who remain behind in their bookkeeping and just want to catch everything up once a year, the cash basis is adequate. However they lose out on all the good information they could have had throughout the year to run their business better.

For other businesses, a hybrid approach between cash and accrual accounting can be the most cost effective.

A Little Help from Popeye the Sailor

What would Popeye say about all this accounting talk?

“That’s all I can stands, cuz I can’t stands n’more!” 

Filed Under: Business Tips Tagged With:

Mobile Accounting

August 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment

mobilephoneIf you are the type of person who loves mobile apps, texting, and getting your email on your phone, then you’re in for a treat: accounting has finally come around to your smartphone. Here are a couple of great developments you can try so you can stay on top of your numbers.

Accounting Apps

For users of QuickBooks desktop and QuickBooks Online, an app is available to help you stay on top of your accounts receivables. You can send invoices, view and update customer information, mark an invoice paid, and check up on customers’ balances.

Examples of other accounting apps that you can access through your phone and sync seamlessly with QuickBooks are: Concur Expense Reporting and ExpenseCloud for expense reports from credit card charges. Bill.com automates your payables, receivables and cash management. SmartVault is a secure document management system. TSheets Time Tracking for Employees.

These apps work on the iPhone, iPad, and Android. Most have a small monthly charge after a free trial.

Bank Apps

If you’re banking with a major bank, chances are “there’s an app for that.” Downloading your banking mobile app will allow you to stay on top of balances, receive alerts, and manage your cash flow more effectively.

Payment Apps

More and more businesses are collecting customer payments via their smartphones. You don’t even need a merchant account for some of these payment apps, like Square, PayPal, or Intuit Mobile GoPayment, but it is cheaper if you do. If you’re not already taking credit cards, it’s an effective way to get started; your customers can pay via Visa, American Express, MasterCard, and Discover.

With many of these payment apps, you download the app, receive a reader in the mail, and are then able to swipe or key in a client’s credit card information. You are charged by the transaction, or monthly, if you sign up for a merchant account. Plus, you can often customize the receipts the client receives with your logo to make them look professional.

Add-on Apps

There are many other mobile apps that can increase your accounting capabilities. Both ADP and Paychex have payroll apps for their clients. There are numerous apps to extend many of your accounting functions, such as expense management, document management, invoicing, time-tracking, bill payment, and even work order management.

Accounting to Go

Now you have a choice with your accounting: you can “eat here” or take it “to go.” If we can help get you equipped as an accounting road warrior, give us a shout. 

Filed Under: Cloud Accounting, Mobile Accounting, Technology
« Previous Page
Next Page »