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Saturday 25 October 2014

5 Tips For Branding Your Business

If you’re just starting out in your business, or are ready to get more professional, it’s time to look at how you brand your business. Branding includes everything from your website to your logo to the message you put out on social media sites. You want your branding to be consistent, appealing and professional. Here are five tips to get you started.

1. Know How Colors Make People Feel

Colors make people feel a certain way. That might be anxious, calm or energized. Be aware of the message you’re putting out through the colors you use on your website and on your business cards. Consider the colors that are associated with your industry. For example, recycling or eco-friendly companies are often green, as that’s the color associated with healthy actions. Professional companies sometimes use a dark blue to signify seriousness. You don’t have to use these as a rule, but know that some colors will give off a more casual or serious vibe, and use them accordingly.

2. Invest in a Designer

Small businesses often assume they can’t afford to hire a graphic designer for logos and business cards, but sometimes you can’t afford not to. Freelance and contractor designers offer quality designs at a fraction of the cost of larger firms, as do college students. Another option is crowdsourcing design on sites like 99designs, which gives designers the chance to present you with several options for a design for one flat rate. You pick the one you like best.

3. Keep it Consistent

If you have a whimsical website, your logo and business cards should also be whimsical. Tie in elements from your site or logo on your social media platforms. The more consistent all of your branding is, the more people will begin to remember your brand.

4. Let People Take Assumptions from Your Branding

Even if you work in your pjs at home, your logo doesn’t have to say that. Professional branding can make your company seem bigger and more successful than it is. Let it! People want to have confidence in the companies they work with, and branding helps them feel that way about yours.

5. Stick With Your Branding…But Don’t Be Afraid to Update It

It’s important not to change your website design or logo every six months, because you want to create a lasting impression with customers. However, after a few years, consider updating your logo to ride with the times. Make small changes so it’s still recognizable (check out how Pepsi’s logo has evolved over time).

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Recognizing your potential

In order to determine how best to utilize your personal dose of potential, you must first recognize that you have it! The greatest legends weren’t born with an exceptional amount of ears, eyes, legs, feet, or hands. We all start out in life on the same track, and with the exception of a few bumps on the road, the highway for success is created with the same pavement.

In order to keep up with the greats, it requires that you first be willing to go along for the ride. By seeing yourself as a potential millionaire, billionaire, social innovator, or tech company guru, you must first believe that you have the potential to BE that person. It’s not just a cliché, you can and will evolve into the person or thing you aspire to become.

Trusting the process

Once you’ve decided that you have potential, you must recognize that maximizing it happens when you take calculated and unpopular risks. The reason the 1% of the world is at the top isn’t because they’re all brilliant, it’s because they decided to go against popular opinion and make tough decision based on their unwavering faith in the process.

Stepping out on a belief that tells your inner conscious that the reward is far greater than the risk (even if your friends and family don’t think so) can be intimidating and scary. But remember, no one ever apologized for being great.

Never forget the basics

All too often people reach success and miraculously forget about the core principles that helped them acquire wealth in the initial stages. Maximizing your potential happens when you religiously remember how you made your first penny, and use that formula to produce your last million. In a world of uncertainty and ambiguity, the only people that will survive are those that remember the basics. Success is a science and must be exercised repetitively for the maximum results.

No one remembers 2nd place

Although Americans ceremoniously recognize 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, the only names engrained in stone are those that finish 1st. In order to truly maximize your potential and reach success, your body, mind, and way of living must become allergic to 2nd place. 3rd place shouldn’t even be an option. Maximizing your potential requires that you consider yourself 1st. Learn to discipline your mind and eliminate the old grade school adage that everyone is awarded a prize, because in life’s pursuit of greatness through potential, the only prize is 1st place.

Always expect more of yourself

Every morning is another opportunity to look at yourself in the mirror and ask life’s most urgent and persistent question, “How can I improve?” Many people fail to maximize their potential because they lack the independent assertiveness to challenge themselves daily by becoming their own motivating critic. While critique, even from others can serve you well, it’s important to evaluate self through the eyes of the beholder. Being born with potential can be considered a gift and a curse. And for those that don’t utilize their potential, unfortunately, they’ve waived their first-class bus ticket to greatness

Business partnerships can be either general or limited, and as far as tax codes are concerned, exist as long as profits, losses and costs of a business are shared. While general partnerships are more common, limited partnerships are a popular method of raising capital from passive investors who prefer to not be involved in day-to-day business operations. Limited partnerships (LPs) have two sets of partners, namely one or more general partners who have personal liability and one or more limited partners who are not liable for debts. Business owners who do not want the liability for the debts incurred by the corporation prefer this option. Limited partners usually do not play any role in the day-to-day management of the company.

Credits to www.businessdictionary.com

Pros of Limited Partnerships:

Generally, pass-through taxation is applicable to limited partnerships, meaning that the tax burden is passed on to the partners instead of the partnership itself. Thus, profit earnings are passed on to the partners in the form of wages, income, and profit payments and each partner pays tax that is proportionate to his individual share of profits.
A business can obtain much-needed investment capital by giving more passive investors the option of reducing their risks by becoming limited partners
Since there is no direct involvement of limited partners in the management of the business, general partners enjoy full autonomy and have the right to make important business decisions.
In the case of a general partnership, all partners are responsible for the debts and other liabilities. The liability of a limited partner does not exceed his capital investment in the company.

Preparation Needed for Selling a Business

So you’ve decided it’s time to sell your business. You may want to retire, or you simply want to unload the company before the market turns against you. How do you go about finding someone to actually buy your business?

Determine Your Business’ Valuation

Before you can sell anything, you have to determine its market price. If your business is privately held, you can value the company based on annual revenue and earnings, combined with physical assets – such as real estate and equipment, and then deducting debt. Patents and existing partnerships should also figure into this total. If your company is already publicly traded, then its value has already been determined for you by its market capitalization, and you won’t be able to sell right away unless you are in possession of the majority of outstanding shares.

Either way, as a seller you should ask for a healthy premium over its current valuation, citing future earnings and growth potential. It’s not unusual for larger companies to pay over 50% of the current “market value” in an acquisition. If in doubt, hire a business broker or mergers and acquisitions professional to help you get the best deal for your company.

Prepare a Selling Memorandum

Before you reach out to any of these prospective buyers, you need to prepare a selling memorandum, or “business plan in reverse”. This is intended to clearly outline all the main details that buyers would request.

These would include, but are not limited to -

Your company’s history, structure, products and operations
Your business’s valuation and asking price
Your industry peers and competitors
Your employees and leadership structure
Past financial statements
Future guidance and projected revenue and income
Potential problems within the company (this is very important, as any attempt to cover these up could be viewed as fraud)

The selling memorandum is an extremely sensitive piece of information, and you would be wise to have prospective buyers sign a non-disclosure agreement before reviewing it.

It can be a very compelling and driving force – you’ve got a great idea, a unique service, a fantastic line of recipes, or a can’t-miss product. But launching a business is not the next step…it’s the last step on the road to entrepreneurship. Your time, money, and future are on the line, so take some time to get your ducks in a row and look at the business with a rational eye.

Make a Business Plan

A business depends on a lot more than great products and services to be successful. Like a newborn child, it has its own life force that comes with certain needs and requirements in order for it to survive and thrive. Plan out the structure and processes of your business first. You will need a hierarchy of management, which may be very limited at first. You will need to keep financial records and file taxes. You will need to determine if you should form an “S” corporation, a “C” corporation, or a limited liability corporation (LLC), which could make a big difference in your profitability.
Of course you will also need to find a location, design the customer interface (whether it is a store, a website, or a mailing list), price out everything you will need to get set up, and determine the size and scope of your business. You will need to define your demographic so that you can choose the right location and/or target your marketing properly. You will need to research city codes and know what licenses are required.
Making and serving your gourmet lasagna is a very small part of the whole operation, so before you get too far, make sure you are up for all of the other tasks involved and then get things in order.

Importance of Developing Leadership Skills

What makes a good leader? The answer varies widely depending on who you ask, with researchers disagreeing on the critical components that go into the most effective corporate chief. But there are traits they do agree on, including personality components and acquired skills. Some believe even the situation for leadership itself has a bearing on the effectiveness of the leader.

Important Leadership Skills

Commitment, resolve and perseverance – driving every aspect of the organization toward a singular unified purpose.
Risk-taking – breaking conventions and developing new products and services to establish marketplace dominance (and possibly even create a unique market).
Planning – though a leader typically doesn’t get too involved in the details, he or she must orchestrate a high-level plan that drives everyone toward the unified goal.
Motivating – an effective leader must be able to encourage contributions from the entire organization, navigating the specific motivators of each individual or group to push the right buttons and inspire employees at every level to achieve not only their personal best but the best for the organization as a whole.
Communication skills that rely on active listening – far more than just being able to speak and write persuasively, leadership communication skills incite others to work toward the stated goal in line with the path the leader has chosen.
Possessing or obtaining the skills required to successfully achieve business goals – bringing a unique knowledge set to the table or acquiring it personally or through employees and other subordinates.

What Makes These Individual Skills So Important?

First, a distinction needs to be made: the difference between a leader and a manager. A leader is someone who does the right thing, whereas a manager does things right. Or to put it another way, management is an occupation, leadership is a calling

The Basics of Finance and How it Determines Success

Owning a business can be one of the most rewarding and satisfying ways of meeting financial goals and ensuring that a person’s future is secure and fulfilling. Today’s economy yields many opportunities to people with different skills and strengths. One of the most basic aspects of running a business that is often left by the wayside is that of financial management. Usually only an afterthought, it is the financial management of a company that determines success. The perfect product or service doesn’t mean anything if the money generated goes into the business only to be misused or unaccounted for. Spending the money earned wisely and knowing when to save or invest in growth should be of paramount concern for a business.

Everyone is aware of the fact that most businesses fail within their first year of operation. Often a major contributing factor that leads to failure is poor financial management. A review of the financial information for many failed businesses shows that the business would have actually been quite successful if the owners had just made sound financial decisions in all aspects of the business. It is always recommended to employ the help of a professional like a banking institution, financial planner or accountant. However, a business owner should understand, at the very least, the basic principles regardless of whether a professional is hired or not. This protects the business and the business owner from fraudulent activities. Keeping up to date with the finances and being aware of the principles involved will also beneficially affect other aspects of running a business.

For smaller businesses it may not be practical to hire a professional for all of the financial work, but there several software programs available that help to educate the owner on basic bookkeeping techniques.

A business owner should be familiar and comfortable with using the following:

Day to day expense tracking – an owner needs to be able create and analyze reports that give an idea of the health of a business.

Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable – An owner needs to be able to tell when payment is expected and prepare for any outgoing expenditures

Of equal importance is the ability to determine the current financial state of a business and whether expansion is possible or even necessary due to competition. Being able to identify future trends that can positively or negatively impact a business will go a long way toward helping a business develop staying power in ever shifting market places.

Regardless of the size of a business, the goals of the business and the owner should be kept firmly in mind. While smaller businesses may not immediately benefit or be able to afford an accountant that is an expense that should be worked into a budget as soon as possible. Accountants and even financial planners are able to keep a business on track. They can help to establish realistic long-term goals to increase the chances of success. With the help of a financial professional, cash flow problems can be spotted and tackled.

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