Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

A Cash-flow Positive Business of your Own – Must Do #5

cash flow
We’ve discussed the importance of using other people’s money to invest in your company, keeping your fixed costs as low as possible, keeping the ratio of direct costs to indirect costs very high, and having a profitable business model. Now, here is the final thing you must do to have a cash-flow positive business.

5. You want an impregnable niche.

You want to be in a space that is so “you” that nobody else can get into it. In Chicken Soup, nobody could compete with Jack and Mark. We took the leadership role; and although a couple of companies tried to beat us up, they couldn’t touch us. We owned the niche of self-help books that touched your heart.

How many of you would like to own the concept of YouTube or Google?

The way you get a niche is by going for something very, very narrow. Being all things to all people is not having a niche, and it is a formula for a business that will not make money. It will never make money. You cannot manage it; you cannot finance it. You don’t know who to hire, people get distracted, and you lose money. You want to have a narrow concept.

In Japan I started a company that was the first company in Japan to do high-energy, high-entertainment training. We have audio and video equipment. It is a mix between a rock concert, a Broadway musical, and having your own TV station.

But once you have the niche, you own it. It is a very narrow kind of thing.

To give you a final example, there is a piece of equipment called the video toaster. The video toaster is from the very early days of computers. The creators offered the first hardware and software that would allow you to do broadcast quality video production on a PC. They owned the space for 15 to 20 years, completely owned it. Nobody could compete with them for that time because they had taken this completely narrow space and said, “We are going to be the people who do video production on the computer.” And they still own probably half the market for personal computer video production.

It is amazing what you can do by occupying a very narrow niche; it is hard for people to come in and compete with you in that space.

If you do these five things, your business will absolutely pay you every time.



By: JamesSkinner

About the Author:

James Skinner is a world-renowned business man and philosopher. He is recognized as one of the world’s foremost business thinkers and appears regularly on Japanese television. He has built two global financial groups that manage billions in client assets. His success is limitless, and he can show you how to achieve your own greatness. Get his valuable insight at http://www.IdeasThatCanChangeYourLife.com.



Zandra Guillerault

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Get Cash Flow For a Structured Settlement

cash flow
There are various companies that offer a lump sum payment in exchange for cash flow streams generated by structured settlements. Beneficiaries of structured settlements often have to sell settlements when faced with an urgent or near-term liquidity need.

The process of selling structured settlements begins with understanding one’s requirements and the immediacy of the need. This can be done with the help of a financial advisor. In fact, in several states in the U.S, it is mandatory to take legal advice before selling a structured settlement. Brokers who are knowledgeable about the court procedures involved in the sale of a structured settlement can be of great help. Brokers are in contact with numerous settlement companies and upon understanding a seller’s unique requirements they can guide the seller to the most appropriate settlement company. Either with the help of brokers or by searching online, one can select a financial institution that appears to offer the best price for the structured settlement at minimum cost and in as less time as possible. Sellers should also check the prospective buyer’s credentials, the rate of interest they offer, and their record for prompt payments.

Sellers are usually required to fill an application form that provides the buyer with necessary information such as amount required, nature of the structured settlement, and the insurance company. Upon approval of the application, the buyer forwards closing documents to the seller. These should be studied and understood by the seller with support from his financial advisor. Once the provisions mentioned in the closing documents are met, the funds are released to the seller. The insurance company is made aware of changes in ownership of the structured settlement. The receipt of cash flow by the seller is subject to court approval. The court assesses the seller’s circumstances and then decides whether the sale is in the best interests of the seller and his dependents. A court approved sale of structured settlements is tax-free for the buyer and seller.

The cash flow received in exchange for the structured settlement is minus the buyer’s fees and other expenses such as broker commissions, application fees, and legal expenses. These costs are not out-of-pocket expenses for the seller nevertheless they should be carefully considered with respect to different buyers and the maximum amount that can be obtained by the sale of a minimum number of structured settlements.



By: Herbert Hodges

About the Author:

Herbert Hodges recommends you visit http://www.cashflowforstructuredsettlement.com/ for more information on how to get cash flow for structured settlement.



Kimberlie Renneker

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A Cash-flow Positive Business of your Own – Must Do #4

cash flow
We’ve discussed the importance of using other people’s money to invest in your company, keeping your fixed costs as low as possible, and keeping the ratio of direct costs to indirect costs very high. Now, here is the fourth thing you must do to have a cash-flow positive business.

4. You want to have an insanely profitable business model.

You all have seen books and articles about business models; the only problem is that nobody ever bothered to define what one was.

We define a business model as a brief, concise description of why your business makes money.

A business model is a brief concise description of why your company makes money.

It should be understandable to anyone because you are going to hire very average people. If your business ever gets big, average people are still going to be executing the model, so it needs to be easy to understand.

As soon as your business becomes complicated and your business model is no longer understandable, you will lose money.

We have had bitter, tearful experiences of overcomplicating our business model.

We had a business in which we made direct sales to corporations. We had retail, we had catalog sales, and we had Internet sales. In our catalog we offered 37,000 SKUs, which are independent items. Can you imagine offering 37,000 items when we are a training company? It was too complicated for any human being to manage. I know, because I was managing it!

You want to keep it as simple as possible and insanely profitable.

Let me give you an example of a business that I ran. We used to have a training program in Japan where we would train executives. We would charge them $16,000 a year for 12 sessions in which I would teach them all the things I am teaching you now. We upped the price over time to $30,000 a year for these twelve monthly sessions, one day a month. The sessions were held in my living room. We paid the salespeople 30 percent of the value of the sale for making the sale. So, I would get $21,000 for every person who came, for one day a month in my living room. How do you lose money doing that? It can’t be done. If one person signs up I make the rent for the whole year. Everything else is gravy.

You want to have an insanely profitable business model, a model that is set up so that it just automatically makes money.

Many financial services businesses are insanely profitable. If you go to the financial district in your city and look at all the largest buildings in the highest rent area and find out who owns them, every single one of them will be owned by a financial services company. That is something to think about.

I used to think about it when jogging in the morning in the Otemachi business district in Tokyo, and I realized that it was a business that I needed to get into.

You might have a business that makes only a little bit of money when the business is going really well and that loses money when it doesn’t go well.

You do not want to be in such a business.



By: JamesSkinner

About the Author:

Author Bio:

James Skinner is a world-renowned business man and philosopher. He is recognized as one of the world’s foremost business thinkers and appears regularly on Japanese television. He has built two global financial groups that manage billions in client assets. His success is limitless, and he can show you how to achieve your own greatness. Get his valuable insight at http://www.IdeasThatCanChangeYourLife.com.



Grant Reta

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A Cash-flow Positive Business of your Own – Must Do #2

cash flow
Here is the second thing you must do to have a cash-flow positive business.

2. Keep your fixed costs as low as possible.

I started a training company in Tokyo. We made money on every single program that we did if we sold three seats. Is that good? If three people showed up, then we made money.

This is how we did it. Our office was in my old apartment. So our entire rental payment was $2,000 a month.

I told people that they could use it any way they wanted as long as they continued to fit in the same office. I said, “You are not going to get a bigger office; this is your office.” You have $2,000 a month for rent and that’s a fixed cost.

Everybody in the company was involved in what activity? Selling! They were all paid on full commission; so if they didn’t sell anything, they didn’t get paid.

So what is the most money I could lose in a month? $2,000. Is this comforting? It was very comforting.

We wouldn’t let them buy a copy machine. Then we would have been paying the lease on the copy machine, and we would have a fixed cost instead of a variable cost. Whenever they needed to make a copy, they had to go to 7-Eleven to use the copy machine there and put in the ten yen coins. It was great because they realized if they had to go to 7-Eleven then the copy wasn’t that important; we made fewer copies, so we had less total cost as well.

We wouldn’t let them buy a business phone because then we would have another lease we would have to pay. They had to use their own cell phones and charge us for the amount of cell phone time they actually used; that is not a fixed cost but a variable cost.

Since our fixed cost was $2,000 and our seminar seats were $1,000 a seat, if we sold three seats, we made money.

Be fanatical. Be absolutely fanatical about holding the fixed cost down. It is so easy to create an obligation that is going to be recurring to you every month. Be fanatical. Think two, three, or four times before getting the cell phone or the copy machine for the office or the employee.

You want to have as few employees as you can. All the employees are fixed costs. You have fixed costs that have a tendency to go up. Healthcare goes up, and insurance goes up; even security goes up. Everything goes up.

What we do at our company is outsource everything we can. Today you can outsource almost anything.

For example: We are writing books right now. At the end of every session that we are teaching here, the file is sent to the other side of the world to an outsource supplier who transcribes it. It is then sent to an outsource supplier who proofreads it, then sent to another outsource supplier who edits it, then sent to an outsource supplier who designs the cover, then sent to another outsource supplier who does the layout; and we have a book!

We have how many employees doing all that? NONE.

We are not employers.

You are looking at three people going after a billion-dollar goal who have no employees!

We think that everybody should outsource to everybody. Everybody should be in business. It is a brand-new concept that we have engendered, and we know it is going to work.



By: JamesSkinner

About the Author:

Author Bio:

James Skinner is a world-renowned business man and philosopher. He is recognized as one of the world’s foremost business thinkers and appears regularly on Japanese television. He has built two global financial groups that manage billions in client assets. His success is limitless, and he can show you how to achieve your own greatness. Get his valuable insight at http://www.IdeasThatCanChangeYourLife.com.



Sandie Portilla

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Discover the Gratitude Process for Increasing Cash Flow

cash flow
To succeed in business, your chances for success increase if you have in place a business plan and business systems. In addition to these foundational pieces for business success, another area that is often overlooked but is critical for building a profitable business is the conditioning of a business owner’s mindset.

There are many methods and philosophy’s to do this. One method that is effective and easy to implement is based on gratitude. Wallace D. Waddles, in his book The Science of Getting Rich, expresses his views as follows: “The grateful mind continually expects good things and expectation becomes fate.” To expand on Waddles statement, one can look within their own life to find things to be grateful for. One can condition one’s mind to continually seek out and find these things to be grateful for. After awhile, one begins to do this on an every day basis, going beyond the looking-for-things-to-be-grateful-for phase to the expectation phase that good things will be present in ones life to be grateful for.

Ron Rogers from The Ron Rogers Group, Inc was in a situation where he had a customer that had not paid him for services rendered. Rogers was worried that the customer was not going to pay and he continued to worry. The customer finally ended up having to file bankruptcy and never did pay Rogers. That was exactly what Rogers was focusing on and it’s exactly what happened. The customer did not pay Rogers.

Realizing that, as a business owner, his mindset was focused on something in his business that he did not want; Rogers began to work on reconditioning his mind. On a daily basis, he started using the gratitude process where he began writing down everything in his business he was grateful for. He wrote down and clearly defined what he wanted for his business. This time Rogers wrote that he wanted to increase his cash flow by creating more referral business.

Rogers wrote in his journal that he was grateful for a specific customer. He was grateful for all the value that he was providing for that customer. He was grateful that this customer was paying him on time and that this customer was happy with his work. Even though he wasn’t receiving referrals he wrote that he was grateful that this customer was creating a positive buzz about his work and that this customer is referring people to his business.

After a few weeks, referrals began to come in to Ron’s business and cash flow increased. Ron was able to take what he already was grateful for in his business, write it down and make it much more powerful by using the gratitude process. He conditioned his mind to attract what he wanted in to his business and life by using gratitude.

Another powerful way to enhance the gratitude process is to take a special object, which is small enough to carry in your pocket, and use it as a touching point to remind you throughout the day what you are grateful for in your life. In the movie The Secret, a rock was used as the special gratitude object. One can use, in place of the rock, a locket, a coin, even a piece of ribbon. Each morning, as you place the object in your pocket and every time you touch the object, think about what you currently have in your life that you are grateful for. At the end of the day, when you empty your pockets, think of your day and all the things that you were happy to have experienced or received.

Other people prefer to use a visual reminder as part of their gratitude process. One method is to place small colored pieces of masking tape around their house (i.e., door knobs, bathroom mirrors, refrigerator handle, on a hair brush, etc

By: Sharon Marsh

About the Author:

Resource City Connections, your knowledgeable and nurturing business community, for business owners and entrepreneurs looking to accelerate their business. If you’re ready to super charge your sa1es, easily attract perfect customers, and have more fun and freedom, get your FREE success tips from Resource City Connections on how to improve Cash Flow by using The Law of Attraction. Go to http://www.acceleratecashflow.com Now!



Buster Okelberry

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A Cash-flow Positive Business of your Own – Must Do #3

cash flow
We’ve discussed the importance of using other people’s money to invest in your company and keeping your fixed costs as low as possible. Now, here is the third thing you must do to have a cash-flow positive business.

3. Keep the ratio of direct costs to indirect costs very high.

In business you have many, many functions. A lot of you work at companies. It could be the accounting department, the human resources department, or the sales and marketing department.

There are many functions in a business, but only some of those functions are directly related to your sales.

Is the manufacturing department directly related to sales? Yes; they are actually producing the thing.

If you have a seminar business, is the person who teaches the course an indirect or a direct cost? That is a direct cost of getting and delivering the sale.

Are the sales people for it a direct cost or an indirect cost? They are a direct cost.

Everything else is indirect.

So the only people you want to be paying are the people doing the doing or doing the selling.

You want everyone either doing the doing or doing the selling!

You want to keep all the other costs infinitesimally small.

If you do that, do you think your company will make money? Think about it for a moment. All of your costs are going to selling and delivering. It is really hard to lose money.

If you have one salesperson and one delivery person and you have three people in accounting and four people in HR taking care of the two people that are doing the work, it won’t work. I wish I were joking, but I have seen companies just like that. I have seen a 20-person company that had seven layers of management. I was called in as a consultant for this company that had 20 employees and was saying “Who at the bottom of the pyramid is holding this thing up?” It didn’t take much to tip it over. If all of the people at the bottom are doing all the work, then they have the entire structure sitting on top of them.

It is a very simple principle.



By: JamesSkinner

About the Author:

James Skinner is a world-renowned business man and philosopher. He is recognized as one of the world’s foremost business thinkers and appears regularly on Japanese television. He has built two global financial groups that manage billions in client assets. His success is limitless, and he can show you how to achieve your own greatness. Get his valuable insight at http://www.IdeasThatCanChangeYourLife.com.



Joanie Dandrade

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Do You Make These 7 Deadly Cash Flow Mistakes?

Cash Flow
Managing cash flow is every small business owner’s most important function. Avoid these seven deadly mistakes to make sure you aren’t creating cash flow problems in your business.

1. Using the “Fly By The Seat of Your Pants” Accounting Method.

When tax time rolls around do you find yourself pawing through piles of paper on your desk looking for credit card receipts from your business trip? Or are you upside down digging under the seat of your car trying to figure out where all your gas receipts are? Are you wondering if that coffee stained piece of paper is an invoice from a supplier? Do you have a vague feeling that someone, somewhere owes you money but, you just can’t remember who it is? If so, you’re probably guilty of operating with the “Fly By the Seat of Your Pants” accounting method.

Using this accounting method has a tremendous impact on your business’s cash flow. Unless you have a system to track your business finances, you’ll always be operating in the dark and in danger of imitating George of the Jungle as he slams into a tree.

2. Not Knowing What the Numbers Are All About.

Once you have a real honest to goodness useful accounting system that’s where the real fun starts. You’ve got a bunch of numbers but what in the world do you do with them? Understanding what the numbers mean is crucial to your cash flow. Are sales trending up or down? Are expenses rising faster than sales? Is one product more profitable or better selling than another? How much do I need to sell to meet expenses each month? Can I take a paycheck this month? The answers all lie in the numbers.

3. Mismanaging Credit: I Owe You, You Owe Me.

There are two ways to mismanage credit in small business:

1. Granting credit without wise credit policies 2. Using credit with no plan of how to pay the bill.

Both have a huge impact on your cash flow and are often closely related. Here’s a scenario to demonstrate that point. You have an opportunity to work on a big project but to do the project you need to order materials. So, you order materials from a supplier who expects payment in 30 days but you won’t receive cash for the project for 60 days (or 90). Immediately you’ve put yourself into a cash flow crunch that could take months or years to recover from financially. In the meantime you’ve passed on smaller jobs that would have provided quicker cash at less cost. And, if you’re not able to come up with the cash for your supplier, you’ve endangered that relationship as well.

4. Ignoring the relationship between Receivables and Payables.

Do your Receivables and Payables “play nice” with each other? In a perfect world your receivables (what customers owe you) would be paid just in time for you to pay your payables (what you owe your vendors). But, if you’re a small business owner you know Rule #1 is “Stuff Happens”. The customer you thought would pay his bill this week, doesn’t. So the bills you thought you could pay this week, don’t get paid.

Are your Payables in balance with you Receivables? If what you owe to others is far more than what is owed to you, then, Houston, you have a problem.

And it’s not just the balance that’s important, it’s the quality as well. If your receivables are as old as your Aunt Tilly, chances are good you’ll never see the cash.

5. Focusing on profit instead of cash flow.

Ahh, Profit. The ultimate goal of every business. Or is it? Did you know that many businesses that fail are operating at a profit? How can that be? For the small business, cash flow is the ultimate goal. No cash flow. No business. Period.

What’s the difference? Mostly the difference is in the decision making process. “If I take on this big job, it will earn me a huge profit, but if I take on five smaller jobs, I’ll have cash to pay my bills.” Yes, you want to be profitable but every decision has to be measured against the effect it will have on cash flow.

6. Forgetting your debt to society.

Some bills are easy to forget. Bills like sales tax, payroll taxes, estimated taxes. They sort of sit out there, almost off the radar screen. They don’t have to be paid right away. It’s easy to forget them until BAM! they’re due and they’re due right now. And you better have the money to pay them or you’re in hot water with the Tax Man. That’s not a place anyone wants to be. Pay them late or not at all and you end up with penalties and interest on top of what’s already due. Cash flow problems result as you rob Peter to pay Paul. It can take months or even years to recover.

7. Spending your company’s future on a speed boat.

Haven’t you always wanted a speed boat? Or a fancy car? Or an all expense paid trip to the Bahamas? It might be tempting to try to pass your personal purchases off as tax deductible business expenses. But, it’s a bad idea for two reasons.

The folks who work at the IRS are over-worked but they’re not stupid. The last thing you need is an audit. An audit that could reveal your transgressions and could result in an unexpected tax bill plus penalties and interest. Again, huge cash flow headache!

Here’s the other reason it’s a bad idea. Are you spending your company’s future on frivolous or unnecessary expenses? Small businesses operate close to the edge. Unless you have a reserve to see you through the tough times, you’re always in danger of being on the wrong side of that edge. You’ve got to take care of the golden egg laying goose first. Then, you can pay yourself a properly taxed bonus and buy all the toys you want.



By: Caroline Jordan Mba

About the Author:



Cordell Tannehill

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Manage Your Cash Flow or Perish

Cash Flow
Effectively managing the cash flow of your business is really about protecting your bottom line. Turning a profit is great but only if you see the cold hard cash that those paper profits are supposed to be bringing in. If to many customers fail to pay you or pay you late on a consistent basis then your business could land itself in serious trouble without you being aware of how bad the downward spiral really was.

Forward thinking entrepreneurs are acting to protect and even grow their businesses. But this means they are protecting their greatest asset. Cash in the bank. Successful entrepreneurs and growth businesses understand that there is a need especially in rough economic times to protect what they have. Otherwise they may find themselves turning a good profit on their goods or services, but they simply don’t get enough money in quickly enough to cover all the money going out of the business to pay for materials, stock, staff and all the other costs of running the business.

The flow of cash into and out of your business is of even greater concern to start up businesses as they are in the position of having to also grow a customer base. This means that a great deal more money will be going out the door than is coming in. With the economy being the way it is, managing and monitoring cash flow is definitely a priority for any business because you don’t know what’s coming in the door at any given time. You can find your cash levels fluctuating wildly.

The key to managing your cash levels is not to let your debtors get out of hand. Understand your monthly income and expenses. Learn to anticipate and avoid cash problems. Discuss with your banker our accountant how to build working capital reserves. A company may have excess cash but be unprofitable. A company may be profitable but lack cash. You want to be profitable and have that cash as well.

The Solution is to keep cash flow plans up to date. Make sure cash flow plans are realistic. Allow headroom in your cash requirements to counter unexpected variances. Be aware of your current cash position, forecasts and bear in mind potential fluctuations. Closely manage your stock and debtors to minimize needs for working capital. And manage your supply chain to gain maximum credit. Talk to creditors early if you need to extend. The bottom line is that you need to control your cash flow and not be at its mercy.



By: Cash Miller

About the Author:

To learn more about the importance of cash flow management as well as other keys to business success please visit http://smallbusinessdelivered.com . As a bonus visitors that subscribe to the FREE Newsletter will receive 5 FREE E-Books and an additional FREE E-Book each week.



Kelvin Brewer

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What Your Cash Flow Stinks? Making Money Online is About Cash Flow

Cash Flow
Cash flow is when YOU actually get paid money

Not the other way around…when you pay someone else. Too often, online businesses end up getting into a negative cash flow position. They end up paying out more money to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who they think can help them make money online. All that really happens is more money is going out of their bank accounts than actually is going in. Sound familiar?

Cash flow is the biggest business necessity for anyone starting out. Cash flow, when it runs short, indicates that there is a serious problem.

Cash flow is crucial to the survival of an online business

In the long-term, a viable online business must eventually get profitable or find some investors to keep giving you cash to make up for your losses. Unless, you are the next scientist with the answer to cold fusion, you are unlikely to get outside investment for your small business venture.

Making money online requires getting into a positive cash flow position as soon as possible or else you’ll be burning through your own cash, bank accounts, and credit cards. This situation hurts, hurts, really bad.

Most people want to make money online and get rich

Of course, everyone does but just getting by with a few hundred dollars a month in positive cash flow would go a long way to being successful with a business venture. Having ample cash on hand will ensure that the wheels of the business keep turning. There must be enough cash to continue marketing efforts, re-invest back into the company, sink into new R & D, and most importantly to provide the owners with the life style they seek.

Cash flow isn’t the same as profit and loss

Believe it or not, a company can be profitable while experiencing cash flow problems that drive it to bankruptcy. Cash flow is a popular way to see how well a company is performing excluding specific line items or tax strategies caused by accounting practices. Cash flow is a critical area for all companies to manage, improve, and forecast. However, it means different things to different organizations. Cash flow is different from profits. Profits don’t guarantee money in the bank. Money in the bank is the most important ingredient to daily operations.

Making money online; living by profit numbers and sales goals

To be perceived as a value and a source of positive cash flow, online marketing efforts must align with sales objectives. One can’t get caught in the trap of exaggerating their revenue forecasts only to realize later that there is no marketing budget to support it.

Sales may generate revenue, but that revenue may be delayed in receivables or it may be earmarked for inventory purchases. Meanwhile, employees, hosting expenses, advertising, and monthly bills must be paid.

All business growth steams from positive cash flow

If at all possible, an online business owner should seek out an opportunity where no inventory must be purchases and maintained. To remain the most flexible, inventory management, money collection, and product fulfillment should be handled by a third party. These situations provide the best situation for an online business owner to remain in a positive cash flow position.

Profit growth does not necessarily mean more cash on hand

Profit is the amount of money you expect to make over a given period of time. Profit and loss is only one component of your cash flow. You have to have a clear picture of how each of the other areas affected your cash flow each month in order to understand, take control, and plan strategically around cash flow. Profit within a company is not a guarantee that the company can develop or even survive. A lot of new businesses fail due to lack of cash flow.

Increased cash flow means more funds to grow your business Improved cash flow means there is more money in the bank that is immediately available to re-invest in new assets or growth opportunities. Increasing your online marketing budget just a little can have a tremendous result long term.

Try taking a look at viral marketing challenges and avenues where a little physical effort on your part will drive much more targeted traffic to your online business offerings.

Leverage online advertising that doesn’t kill cash flow

Increased or better designed advertising may be one of the cash flow solutions that can make an impact on one’s business health. A free placement of your ad in a popular, manual traffic exchange could be a wise investment of your time when sales seem to be flagging.

Traffic exchanges are often the first stop for new online marketers. If you are starting out, you are looking for free and inexpensive ways to get traffic to your website which in turns begins to build your positive cash flow. Traffic Exchanges are great tools.

For home business owner, his list of prospects is the most valuable asset. Traffic exchanges are an excellent way to drive traffic to your site and boost search engine rankings. Some of them even pay you for surfing.

Positive cash flow is a sign of a healthy online business

Positive cash flow means you have enough cash coming in. It is over and above what you have going out. It is important to keep track of good and bad uses of your limited cash flow. This is a very logical and straight forward math problem. It is mind boggling how many online businesses keep plugging away each month throwing money into a hole hoping a money tree will sprout.

Getting cash flowing right from the beginning will make a world of difference

Positive cash flow for a company means everything. Cash flow means no more worrying and fretting about the amount of funds that are coming in and the amount being used up keeping the company thriving. Cash flow means being able to re-invest in new ways to grow your business. Cash flow is an enabler for healthy, balanced life and a company that will actually make money online.



By: Daniel Stouffer

About the Author:

Cash flow is king for any business. I had a real problem. No money coming AND a lot of money going out was draining my bank account. My business was dead. This amazing, free report showed me how to make money online…FAST. Read it. Follow it. It works — http://www.DomainExperience.com



Brett

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Cash Flow Rules!

Cash Flow
There are alot of definitions as to what exactly cash flow means which can cause a little confusion. This is how I explain cash flow. It is the amount of money you have left during a given period of time once all your bills are paid. But lets not confuse this with profit and loss statements. Cash flow is a physical thing, how much actual cash is left in the bank, while profit and loss statements are recordings in your financial statements but don’t reflect physically held money.

Now if you run a retail business that generates immediate cash from each sale then cash flow and profit and loss statments will more closely reflect each other. But if your business is in the position of having to bill your customers and then waiting to get paid then cash flow becomes the more important of the two.

So that we can fully explain what cash flow is we’ll compare it to a profit and loss statement. Over the course of a month or year you’ll make sales to customers and you’ll bill them at either the time of the sale or once the order is filled depending on the business you’re in and the accounting methods you use. When you buy something or pay someone you account for the money right away even if you have thirty days to pay them. Again this depends on your accounting methods but for many small businesses this is the simplest method of accounting to use. Once a bill comes due you pay it.

With cash flow we don’t worry about what is billed but instead we worry about how much money is actually collected. On the other end we worry about how much money we actually give to our vendors, employees and other people we owe money to. To stay in business we have to keep paying them. We may be late on occassion but that bill isn’t going anywhere till we pay it. So cash flow in it’s most basic form is how much money we collect and how much money we send out. For businesses in a position of having to extend credit this can cause a problem. Not every customer you have will be able to pay you on time.

It is totally possible for a company to show a profit while in fact losing it’s shirt. Inevitably your going to have customers that can’t pay their bills on time. This of course can be for any number of reasons. The one’s you’ll need to watch out for are the one’s that don’t have the money to pay you. That’s the one you could end up facing yourself if you’re not careful.

Ideally the amount billed in a given month and the amount collected will be virtually the same or you’ll have collected more than you sent out. Then it’s a simple matter of managing your expenses. If we lived in a perfect world than that would be the way it goes but we know better. What you as the owner of your business need to do is to effectively manage your cash flow. You need to make sure that what you are spending isn’t exceeding what you are collecting not what you’re billing. Hopefully you have a credit line with your bank that can help alleviate the problem but if not you need to be very careful or you might wind up using something like your credit cards to help cover the bills. This can only be considered a short tern fix. But it will compound the problem later.

So while your profit and loss statements are in themselves just as important as ever the real gauge of your companies immediate health might better be found in your cash flow statement. Because ending up with a negative number on that balance could eventually leave your bank account empty.



By: Cash Miller

About the Author:

Cash Miller is an experienced entrepreneur and speaker who has spent the last decade devoted to being a small business owner. His years of experience in small business has provided invaluable experience in such topics as planning, management, marketing, human resources, ecommerce, and taxation. If you are looking for more information on this subject and others related to starting and running a small business you can visit his website at http://www.SmallBusinessDelivered.com



Mason Blais

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February 2012
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