Friday, May 29, 2009

The Benefits of Article Marketing for Online Entrepreneurs

Writing short literature is a true enhancement for online business promotion. The possibility of receiving targeted traffic is greatly increased by using this technique. When traffic is increased, so are sales, an important factor for success in the online business community.

Article marketing is utilized in many different ways within the online community. It is utilized to tie like systems, ideas or functions into a single structure while ensuring each piece of these structures stands on their own merits.

Is there really strength in numbers?

Yes, there really is strength in numbers. People have been utilizing article marketing since the beginning of time by establishing communities while using the strength of these communities to overcome atrocities. With article clustering, the articles combined will be feeding off one another while together becoming a strong entity for you online business.

What article marketing is?

When the technique of marketing your articles is applied to marketing methods this effects your results. Internet marketers have been applying this method of cluster marketing daily in their marketing techniques. When a new product is launched, they join forces with other marketers advertising the launch. If you were to become a member of these particular marketers opt-in email lists, you will receive an email informing you of new events pertaining to the new product. The reason they join forces is the foundation of cluster marketing.

When marketers launch a new product, they do not simply email as their only form of advertising. They will use press releases, webinars, tele-seminars and direct mail ads, to name a few. These many types of advertising are pointing to a particular website that the marketers’ want the consumers to visit. The only limitation with cluster marketing is that it is a one-way street. This means that article marketing within itself can be very powerful ways to advertise if the money is present. This allows the public to catch the message the companies are trying to deliver.

Cluster marketing provides one-way links to your website. The process of clustering is marketing with a one-way design that has become very powerful as well as useful over the years. This satisfies the basic need of people to be directed. Three-way links have been found to be popular but very time consuming unless you already own numerous websites where you can add the links required for such a process.

Clustering articles for greater success in generating traffic?

This technique entails using a group of topic related articles to create back links to your company website. These back links would not only relate to your targeted website but to other websites in other locations. This technique shows that link popularity can increase while using fewer resources than one conventional way of performing this.

One of the most popular ways of clustering articles is utilizing free internet resources as compared to paid advertising. The back links can be established in a shorter amount of time using different variations of the original articles. It is possible to use un-related topic articles groups but the popularity is not as great as compared to using same related themes within these groups.

It is important to note the groups, which are created from original content as compared to copywriting someone else’s work. The article directories as well as search engines will pick up plagiarism. Original content along with variations of the original content in clusters have been found to produce the greater desired results.

About The Author
I’ve been involved with internet marketing for many years and love writing articles. I know it is difficult to put words and thoughts together. The thoughts are easy but getting it down into a document can be difficult.

Article writing services will end this difficulty. Quality services are now available so writer’s block is no longer an issue. For high quality SEO content and articles visit now for professional writing services and start increasing traffic to your website.

Article Source:
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Affiliate Marketing-A Lot of Ways To Earn Money

A lot of people are now getting into online businesses and online marketing either to supplement their “real world” income or for it to become their primary source of income. Why? Because online marketing just provides them a lot of benefits!

First, you can reach just about anybody in the world who has Internet access if you market your products online. That means a wider market for you, which can translate to larger profits. Second, setting up an online business requires only a fraction of the cost required to set up an actual business establishment, which means a lot of savings for the business owner.

Another aspect that has attracted a lot of people towards online marketing is the fact that one doesn’t have to have his own products to get started. In online marketing, one can start making a lot of money just by selling, or even by just trying to sell, other people’s products. And getting started with this kind of marketing strategy is actually quite easy. All that one needs to do is to set up an agreement with an online retailer or merchant, and after everything is settled, one can immediately start making money by selling the merchant’s or the retailer’s products.

Incidentally, the most popular and the fastest growing method of selling other people’s products online is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing, in its simplest definition, is a relationship between an online merchant or retailer, who has products to sell, and his affiliates, who are willing to promote the merchant’s product on their website.

In a typical affiliate marketing set up, the merchant provides his affiliates with banners and text ads that links to his site. The affiliates will then get these ads posted on their website and they get paid whenever traffic or sales is directed to the merchant’s website. Affiliates are often paid on commission basis, although other online merchants would opt to pay a fixed fee for the affiliate’s compensation.

Starting to make money online with affiliate marketing is relatively quick and easy. All that one has to do is to sign up as an affiliate for an online company that offers affiliate programs. An alternative method, and usually an easier one, is to sign up as a member of an affiliate network—a network that hosts a variety of affiliate programs for different online merchants or retailers. Signing up is usually free, although other companies and networks may require you to pay a particular fee. Such fees, however, are made as payment for additional services that the company may render, like providing you with tools and assistance to jumpstart your online business.

When you sign up with an affiliate marketing program, you are usually required to fill out a form containing information about yourself. Some affiliate programs may also require you to present the URL of your website and describe its contents. This will allow the retailers to verify that you actually have a website with contents that are relevant to their products. Some affiliate programs, however, won’t require you to have a website. After filling out the form and all, you are then allowed to choose the affiliate programs you want to promote.

After signing up with an affiliate program and being an actual affiliate, you are now ready to start making a lot of money by selling other people’s product online. How do you make money? There are actually a number of ways for you to earn money as an affiliate, and most of these ways depends on the type of affiliate marketing program you’ve gotten into.

Many affiliate marketing programs compensate their affiliates in either of three ways: pay-per-click (PPC), pay-per-sale (PPS), or pay-per-lead (PPL). In pay-per-click affiliate marketing, the affiliate is paid whenever he directs traffic to the merchant’s site. PPS and PPL affiliate marketing programs work rather differently. In PPS, the affiliate only gets paid when his referral converts into an actual sale. In typical PPS affiliate programs, the affiliate would usually get 15 commission for each conversion. PPL affiliate programs work the same way, although affiliates are paid a fixed fee whenever his referral converts into a lead for the company.

Some affiliate marketing programs are two-tier programs, wherein the affiliate is also allowed to recommend other affiliates to the merchant. In such affiliate programs, the affiliate would not only be paid for the traffic or sales that he would direct to the merchant’s site but also for the traffic or sales directed by the affiliates who signed up with the program through his recommendation.

Yet another way of earning more profits with affiliate marketing is through residual affiliate programs. Residual affiliate programs are affiliate programs where the affiliate gets paid a number of times for as long as the merchant keeps the customer the affiliate has referred to his site. One form of residual program gets the affiliate paid a commission every time the referred customer purchases something on the merchant’s site. Another form of residual affiliate program gets the affiliate paid a percentage every month for as long as the company keeps the referred customer.

With a lot of options available and a lot of ways to earn money, affiliate marketing is undoubtedly the most popular and the easiest way to make money by selling other people’s products online. As to how much money one can get from affiliate marketing actually depends on the affiliate. A dedicated and hardworking affiliate would certainly get more from the program compared to those affiliates who would simply sign up and forget about the program later.

About The Author
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Sunday, May 24, 2009

Childcare Management & Daycare Software

Running a childcare facility can be an exhausting, 24/7 job. There are always kids to keep track of, records to update, fees to collect, bills to pay, reports to write, and so on. Often, your To-Do List seems both frighteningly endless and drearily cyclical.

If you're not careful, trying to keep up with all your duties could wear you ragged. You also run the risk of spreading yourself too thin. And that could spell the difference between delivering quality and substandard childcare.

Fortunately, Professional Solutions' ProCare software provides a way to streamline your operations. With this line of childcare management and daycare programs, you can quickly automate your facilities for maximum efficiency and minimum headaches. This means you can now instantly accomplish tasks that would otherwise take you minutes, hours or even days to complete. This also means that investing in the ProCare system can save you a fortune in wasted time, effort and money. It can very well be the soundest business decision you'll ever make.

Automation allows ProCare to simplify many monotonous and mundane administrative chores for you. With just a few keystrokes and mouse clicks, it can help you organize customer information into easily retrievable records. It can also help you perform other time-consuming duties, such as scheduling, bookkeeping and generating reports, in practically no time at all.

ProCare knows that the decision to automate your center is no small matter. This is why ProCare willingly provides you with a free software demo (available for request at http://procaresoftware.com/demo.shtml that will walk you through the system. This gives you a firsthand feel of the features and benefits without having to shell out any funds.

ProCare is a completely customizable software package solution. With the comprehensive ProCare Family Data program at its very heart, managing child and family data becomes swift and simple. Other optional modules can be purchased as add-ons to this core software. Each module is intended to target a specific function, such as accounting or attendance tracking. While the Family Data software is a must-buy, you only pay for the add-ons that you want or require. ProCare can therefore be designed to meet the individual needs of most any preschool or daycare. It can even be designed to fit most any budget. A pool of well-trained and dedicated ProCare consultants are always on hand to help you pick out which features will work best for your particular center.

Once you choose and install the ProCare package best suited for your needs, you're ready to hit the ground running. Its intuitive interface guarantees ease of use, with absolutely no learning curve necessary. Even computer novices will be able to successfully navigate through the application's user-friendly menus and functions. So from the moment you fire up your software, all you have to worry about is what you're going to do with all the time you'll save.

Can You Play the Drums?

When I was a child, all I wanted from life was to be able to play every instrument under the sun. Pretty lofty goal, right?

I spent a couple decades learning numerous instruments, a couple I matri-toms, the bass drum, symbols, and so on. Being the overachiever that stered; with many of the instruments I considered myself an
average player, but that was ok – at least I could do it! Years went by, I kept learning new instruments, and I was very proud of myself.

One day, I decided it was time to learn the drums. I started with the snare drum, and I was fair at playing that. Next, the
I am, I decided one day to get a drum set. I
worked on it, day in and out, striving to make some sense out of this set of drums. I banged on them endlessly, struggling to find
my beat – to make them all work together while in my hands. My father, being a kind soul, walked in on me playing my drum set
and said, “You know, you look like a maniac flailing around over there.”

Skip forward several years later. I still have that drum set (in my shed), and I still play it occasionally. No set of lessons, books, or study seems to teach my feet and hands to move as they should with the drums. My beats end up half-witted, and I’ve resigned myself to the fact that 1) I can’t do it all myself and 2) If I need a drummer, I might as well hire a professional.

The moral of my story is, I know what I can and can’t achieve. The drums are not my ‘cup of tea’, but I know of several
individuals who are very good at the drums. This is true in my business as well; while I can keep my books and do my personal
taxes, when I put all of the accounting/bookkeeping together, I end up flailing like a maniac once again.

Many business owners seem to be under the assumption that they can do it all, that they can be the catch-all support that their
business needs. In my experience, this is only not true, but can also make your business look very unprofessional. Your ability to say, “I’m not a web designer” or “I’m not an accountant” or “I don’t know my head from a hole in the ground in regards to [fill in the blank]” will set your business apart from the crowd. I can
give you a great for instance: I know next to nothing about real estate. I know it has something to do with houses, mortgages,
listings, and showings; but what good does that do me? However, I know a friend of mine has ample experience in real estate, and this is her niche market. Thus, every inquiry I get about real estate I send to my friend.

We all forget at one time or another that we can’t do everything, and take on projects we are blatantly not qualified for. It is imperative that we not only find our niche market, but also figure out what we cannot accomplish successfully, and pass it on to someone who does.

I cannot play the drums, but I am a master at the flute and trombone. I cannot do bookkeeping/accounting, but am a whiz at
marketing and design. How about you?

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Business laws basics

A professional degree in Juris Doctor relates to a higher grade of studies in law. With business houses expanding in size and the legal issues gaining higher importance for day to day working of large corporates, demand for Juris Doctor professionals has been increasing. As the business interacts more with the society and their other counterparts need to resolve legal matters emerge simultaneously. All this has given an impetus to students aiming for career in law field. But a purely law background without any corporate experience may not be well accepted by business industry. Top ranked services in companies also demand a graduate in business organization along with lawyer’s degree.

As demand for combined degree in JD and business is being a preferred combination to build a rewarding career in law. Business and law schools at various places have joined hands to impart students with best career courses. At many places Law Schools providing degrees of Juris Doctor and business school providing Master in business administration present a cooperative program for the convenience of aspiring students. This opportunity to avail concurrent degrees in both fields is a stepping-stone for success of students. Students who cannot travel to different places at the same time have a best prospect of finding excellent professional training under one roof.


Surviving in the law field gets tougher from the day one tries to enter the school of law. Getting admission requires fulfilling entire formalities along with earlier creditable basic high school record, clearing the admission test for the law school and even recommendations from people. The same is applicable for business studies a student is required to prove his quantitative skills and efficiency in microcomputers to get admitted. A dedicated and hard work during the courses ensures students with excellent results which in turn to provide better career opportunities.


A law person has various prospects for different types of career that he would like to accept. Depending on his caliber and willingness to work hard a lawyer can decide upon practicing law in an exclusive law firm or he may choose to be an in house lawyer. An exclusive law firm requires an extensive knowledge of one particular area in law where as an in house lawyer is required to deal with entire aspects of legal issues that relate to the particular company in which he is involved.

While undergoing training in one of the law schools a student would learn about different aspects of law like civil law, criminal procedures, constitutional law, contracts, property, professional responsibility, basic federal income taxation, legislative and administrative interpretation and many others. The syllabus is cautiously devised to ensure that students receive exhaustive training to deal with maximum situation in the professional front. Similarly Masters Degree in Business administration imparts education in business for global society, corporate finance, managerial accounting, information resource management, strategic management, master’s project and other similar relevant courses. Anyone pursuing both law and business studies simultaneously has an advantage of studying some courses that are counted towards both degrees and hence a considerable amount of work is reduced for these students.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Bottleneck-oriented Business Management

Simple and effective Business Management


In every enterprise there are, at every time, one or more bottlenecks, which have influence to the commercial situation. Bottleneck-oriented business management has the purpose to early track the bottlenecks and to remove them, to allow an optimum of commercial development. To know at any time, what a business lacks of and to be able to add the missing things, is today a determining competition advantage. Bottlenecks can be, e.g.:

low sales proceeds
high due or overdue accounts receivables
low liquidity (Cash on Hand, etc.)
high amount of liabilities
low number of customers
too many new customers
too high capacity utilization
defective administration or management
and a lot more.

These example show that bottlenecks not only concern negative circumstances, but also can apply to positive commercial development. If an enterprise takes up many new customers, this results in new orders, which lead to other circumstances, like a possible excess in capacity utilization. In case the excess of capacity utilization stays for a longer time, this may result in a lower employee motivation, because of a slump in working atmosphere within the company, which then could lead to less qualtiy of the work performed.

Due to a TIMELY reporting system many companies take care of reaching the desired commercial development. However, a regular analysis of expenses or the annual reports are not enough to control a business today. In the today's dynamic markets these evaluations are too statical, too much oriented on the past commercial development, which had been achieved. Also cost accounting only shows what has happened in the past. The actual direction in which a business is running could not be seen.

Imagine a business to be a car. If you sat down in a car, do you like to receive information from the instruments from the last year or month? Probably not. You would like to have actual information about fuel tank content, coolant temperature and a lot more. Bottleneck-oriented business management should exactly bring the most important and actual information about a business to you, including so-called early warning signals (Screenshot abenetis ERS-Diagram).

Data oriented to the past for early-warning-systems?

A working early-warning-system needs data which are not oriented to the past, like from cost accounting or year-/month-end-closeings. It needs data from so-called early indicators, which has to be gathered from different areas of an enterprise. Of course, figures from the finance and accounting department belong into an early-warning-system, but they only have a subordinated role, because they are oriented to the past.

Nowadays the reporting must show the present situation of a business. In many businesses the expenditure of time for the reporting rose considerably, due to the today's flood of information. Aggravatingly added to this, is the selection of the really relevant business ratios, which allow an appropriate overview of the actual business situation. Too often reports are prepared, which are not perceived by anybody, due to the lack of necessary statements about the business development.

There are already proven business-ratio-systems, that enterprises only need to take over. Get back into the car again, imagine you have only one instrument in front of you, which shows the value "35". What does this signify? It is not recognizable how many fuel exists, how the Temperature of the coolant is or how fast the car is driving, etc.

At this example you could recognize the little expressiveness of only one business ratio. It shows the importance to use the right business ratios, which must have a connection to each other and which have a different temporal origin. Nevertheless, many business ratio systems are mostly based on data which originate from the past.

This turns often to the problem, that immediate information are not available, to indicate the actual situation of a business. However, there is still the alternative, to reduce the period of the past. How would it be with one week instead of analysing business data every 4 weeks? This would lead to the fact that you could act a few weeks earlier, if something should run a little bit inclinedly.

Only very few data are needed to receive an informative evaluation. This again is comparably with a car. If you are driving with your car, you only receive a small, well-chosen number of information and nevertheless, have an actual picture of the situation. This is also possible for businesses, as well!

As a motorist we receive only one fraction of the data which is acquired by the system of the car, and just these fraction of information is enough for us to reach the desired destination. When traveling usually we are well prepared, but the principle of the preparations is often neglected in business operation. As it is with traveling, the final goal has to be clearly stated by the business management. This could be done by having planing data available. Only by target/actual comparison divergences of the commercial development will be recognized.

Unfortunately, many small businesses renounce to use plan data. Besides, it is not about, to cut plan data into the smallest pieces, but only to get a rough picture, what the business is going to achieve. It is absolutely possible to run a business on the basis of the figures from the previous year, however, to use these figures, the past commercial development should be taken into consideration. So the figures from the previous year should be improved to fit with the new goals. And finished are the planning data and the basis for an operational risk management are laid. Still if it is most important to know the actual bottlenecks in business operation.

Recognize problems and act!

One of the most important factors in business management is the early recognition of problems and potentials. There are bottlenecks in every business, which could have serious results. Pecuniary difficulties could lead to bankruptcy for example. Therefore symptoms must be recognized early, in order to turn a possible crisis away and to secure the future of your business. Also to use available potentials, regular analyses should be done. Nowadays products and services could not be sold forever, because product cycles become shorter and shorter due to market dynamism. The recognition and development of potentials is exceptionally important, to avoid losing the already achieved basis of a business.

Bottleneck-oriented Business Management

Simple and effective Business Management

Asset and liability basics

Knowledge of accounts can make life much easy. If you are to invest in a new business or joining your forefather’s business, planning to take some loan, looking for job in any marketing company, desire to be the manager of a multinational company or have the onus to manage your own assets and liabilities, knowing some basics of accounts becomes mandatory.

Broadly, accounting is bifurcated into two categories-

Cash Bases Accounting

Accrual Accounting


The Cash Based accounting pertains to the management of an individual’s personal monetary transactions. In this case, he keeps a track of the money he withdrew, deposited, gave or received from someone etc. This accounting comes to life when actual cash transactions take place.

The Accrual Accounting requires an accountant who notes the transactions even if no money has been actually exchanged. This method works on the principle of comparing or seeing the ratio of the expenses to expenditure. If the expenditure is more, you need to cut down your luxuries, if not then it’s always good to have some savings for future. This type of accounting tells you the amount that you owed; this might not match with the figure of your bank balance.


In the language of accounting there are several key terms that one needs to be familiar with. Some of the crucial ones are discussed below-

The Assets- the assets are generally those possessions of an individual that have a good market value or are quite valuable. Assets are mainly classified into three types-Current Asset- the cash is the most basic asset of any individual. The money that is being held in accounts like the checking and savings accounts is also included in the cash. Also inclusive are the marketable securities in the form of bonds, stocks, shares etc. The money lent or payments due from clients, even form a part of it.

Fixed Asset- comprises of all the tangible valuable things like property, machines, equipments, land and the like that are not meant to be sold.


Intangible Asset- incorporates all the untouchable things like copyrights, patents, trademarks etc. that have tremendous monetary significance.


The law of opposites governs the nature; where there are assets, there will be liabilities. These are the debts that you have to pay back to your creditors. This can be done through giving cash or any other asset like jewelry, some other goods etc. Liabilities again are of two kinds-

1. The Current Liabilities- the liabilities that are to be paid back within a certain time limit and most often through your current assets. These include the accounts payable i.e. type of bill that you have to monthly, the Notes Payable-loans taken from banks meant to be repaid within 30 days and the Accrued Expenses- the compulsory expenses like taxes, wages, interests etc. where the bills are not received but the balances of each must be repaid.

2. Long Term Liabilities- those debts that can be repaid at ease for the tenure is more then a month.



The Financial Capital- is the economic capital. It is any liquid medium or merchandise that stands for wealth or other styles or capital. There are four ways to manage and display the financial capital. First, this capital is needed when a contract is made with any sort of capital asset. The financial instruments work in the form of currency in case of sale, purchase or trade of goods i.e. the medium exchanges. Second, it works as a settled medium or mode like gold for the
Standard of Deferred Payment. Third, The Unit of Account has a market value attached to it which in turn varies with the economy of the country. Fourth, The Source of Value is concerned with financial capital that needs to be saved and recovered. It is a collection of things like gold, real estate, collectibles etc.


Petty Cash is an important factor in business. It is the smallest account within a business setting or the cash in bills and coinage required to pay little expenses.

Types of Business- there are several kinds of business one should be aware of like


Sole proprietorship- where a single individual who starts the business owns it too.

Partnerships- the companies or businesses started by two or more persons where they conjointly own it.


Corporations- involve lot many shareholders or investors who are responsible in taking decisions for the company.

Limited Liability Companies- can be said to be sisters of corporations. Here the business members are not under a legal obligation to pay the debts if the business fails.


Payrolls- the term payroll designates the manner in which you will be paying the employees of your company and even yourself. Many multinational companies cater to payroll service provider companies that do the work quite efficiently.


These are some of the broad guidelines that will help you grasp the basics of accounting. It is essential to have some such wisdom for accounts as it is fruitful in all walks of life.

An introduction to point of sale software

Point of sale software gives business owners a convenient way of checking out customers and of recording sales. It can keep a record of the store inventory, updating it when an order is processed. It can also print out receipts, carry out credit card processing, track customers, etc. Point of sale software eases the flow at checkout terminals, while recording all the information that can help you make better business decisions.

Point of sale software allows users to input via keyboard or mouse, and some even have a touch screen interface. You can install the software on your checkout register.

When checking out a customer you can either input the sales item yourself or use a bar code scanner. The point of sale software will look up the item in the inventory and bring up the price. It can also calculate tax on the item and change for the customer.

POS software can print out receipts and reports. Point of sale software makes your business accounting a lot easier by creating reports on inventory, sales, customers, etc. Since it is already recording each sale, it can easily tell you the sales and revenue of the day.

Point of sale software can also help with credit card processing. Credit cards are the preferred method of payment. People do not want to carry around cash for all their purchases. Credit card is a convenient method of payment and if you do not have credit card processing, your business can lose some of its competitiveness.

Point of sale software receives input from the POS hardware, which is the scanning station for the credit card. The software will process the credit card payment for you. It can check that the card has not expired and is valid. You will need a merchant account for the point of sale software to do its job.

POS software is generally easy to install and easy to use. You will need to know how to update inventory and record a price change for an item. Point of sale software usually provides an easy to use interface to do this. It can make the job of the cashier a lot easier by automating the routine tasks of the day.

There is a wide variety of point of sale software available. You can choose one that fits your budget and meets the needs of your particular business. The software will have compatibility requirements with the point of sale hardware. It will also have operating system requirements such as it might need a Windows or Linux system.

Point of sale software can more than pay for itself over time by making checkout faster and doing your accounting for you. Point of sale software may be the right solution for your business and can provide you with tons of benefits.

After the latest and accurate help in relation to accountancy.

When you are looking for high-class advice concerning accountancy, it will be hard sorting out the best information from foolish accountancy proposals and guidance so it's best to know ways of moderating the information offered to you.

NetSuite: Small Business Accounting
NetSuite offers an integrated online accounting application with ecommerce, sales, inventory, shipping and support. Free Trial.



Now we would like to offer you some advice which we advise you to use when you are searching for information about accountancy. You need to realize the guidance we put forward is only pertinent to internet based information concerning accountancy. We don't really offer any direction or assistance when you are also conducting research in books or magazines.

OpenPro: Web Based Accounting
Offers Web-based, open source ERP accounting system with financials, supply chain, manufacturing, CRM and ecommerce features.



An interesting tip to pursue when you're presented with information and suggestions on a accountancy website would be to determine who owns the site. Doing this could reveal the owners accountancy credibility The easiest way to reveal who owns the accountancy web site is to find the sites 'about' page.

Any reputable site providing information concerning accountancy, will always have contact information which will record the site owner's contact details. The details should make known some key points concerning the owner's requisite knowledge. You can then arrive at a decision about the webmaster's depth of experience, to offer guidance about accountancy.

Accounting Methods – Cash and Accrual

When starting a business, you have to determine the method you are going to use for accounting and paying taxes. The two choices are the cash method and the accrual method.

Cash Method

If you are looking for simplicity, the cash method is probably your best accounting choice. Generally, income and deductions can be claimed when payment is actually received or made. This is best shown with an example.

I open a small business and have to order business cards and stationary. I receive the products and pay the invoice on November 18, 2005. Under the cash method, I can deduct the cost on my 2005 tax return.

Some businesses are restricted from using the cash method. C corporations may only use the cash method if they have less than $5 million in gross revenues for a particular year. Professional Service Corporations can use the cash method without limit, while farming corporations can due so if gross revenues are less than $25 million. Tax shelters are prohibited from using the cash method.

Accrual Method

The Accrual Method of accounting is a bit more complex. Under this method, the focus in on the date the expense is incurred, not paid. Although this may seem a small difference, it can play havoc with your books and piece of mind.

Using our previous example, assume I order business cards and stationary on the December 18, 2005. I receive the products on December 30th, but don’t pay the invoice until January 20, 2006. When can the expense be claimed? It depends on when economic performance occurred.

Generally, economic performance occurs when goods or services are provided to you. In the above example, economic performance would arguably occur when the business cards and stationary were delivered with the invoice on December 30th. Thus, I would be able to deduct the expense for the 2005 tax year.

In Closing

As you can see, the cash method is the easier of the two accounting methods. To determine the best method for your business, speak with a tax professional.

10 Amazing Ways To Jump Start Your Sales

If you follow the step get bet result as you dreem....

1. Find a strategic business partner. Look for ones that have the same objective. You can trade leads, share marketing info, sell package deals, etc.

2. Brand your name and business. You can easily do this by just writing articles and submitting them to e-zines or web sites for republishing.

3. Start an auction on your web site. The type of auction could be related to the theme of your site. You'll draw traffic from auctioneers and bidders.

4. Remember to take a little time out of your day or week to brainstorm. New ideas are usually the difference between success and failure.

5. Model other successful business or people. I'm not saying out right copy them, but practice some of the same habits that have made them succeed.

6. Take risks to improve your business. Sometimes businesses don't want to advertise unless it's free, sometimes you have to spend money to get results.

7. Include emotional words in your advertisements. Use ones like love, security, relief, freedom, happy, satisfaction, fun, etc.

8. Ask people online to review your web site. You can use the comments you get to improve your web site or you may turn the reviewer into a customer.

9. Out source part of your workload. You'll save on most employee costs. You could out source your secretarial work, accounting, marketing, etc.

10. Combine a product and service together in a package deal. It could increase your sales. If you're selling a book, offer an hour of consulting with it.

Best of Luck....

9 things you must do to maximize your chances of obtaining a small business loan

To get approval for your small business loan application, you must be able to meet the lending criteria set down. Some organisations are more risk averse than others, and will therefore have more stringent criteria.

To vastly increase your chances of a successful funding application, you will need to present the following information:

1. The reason for the loan. The lender will be looking for something that fits within the normal range and expertise of your business. The amount may cover a number of items, so you will need to cover each.

2. The amount required, and the repayment term of the small business loan you want. (e.g. $10,000 term 5 years, payable quarterly).

3. Details of how you will repay the amount borrowed. For example, “From the increase in profits of reduced running costs of the Whizzbang Go4It”

4. Details of security you will be able to offer to the lender. This will act as reassurance for the lender. If you’re not prepared to put up some aspect of security, then why should they?

5. You will need to include your business plan which will serve to answer essential questions relating to management capabilities, information about the market you operate in. What kind of business you are in etc.

6. 3 Years financial statements. You will need to present quality financial information from your accounting software, preferably signed off by your accountant or tax advisor.

7. Latest Set of Management accounts. Again produced from your accounting software.

8. Accounts receivables (debtors) and payables (creditors) ageing reports.

9. Principals financial statements. – Particularly required if some form of security is necessary.

If you are a new company, the emphasis is going to be on your business plan , and the security (also called collateral) you or your business can provide against the loan.

You must take the time to practice presenting your case to the bank or lender to iron out any glitches. Practice on your colleagues and family (you never know, they might be so impressed, they'll invest or lend!). It may help to role play the lender and come up with as many pointy questions as possible. The more time you take the better your chances will be. (But remember, don’t fall into the analysis paralysis trap!)

Good luck!

7 Things to Consider Before Buying Small Business Accounting Software

The world of small business accounting software can be a minefield for any business owner. However choosing the right package is one of the most critical business decisions you will make.

Here are the seven things you must consider before making a purchase that will help you achieve your businesses goals.

1. Scalability

Businesses change over time so it's critical that the small business accounting software you choose can change too. Some things that often change are the number of products and services offered and the number of employees. When you choose your package try and imaging the business in 5 years or 10 years time and how different it will be. Use this information to guide your purchase decision. It may well be better to pay a little more now for the software knowing that it can be easily upgraded when needed with minimum disruption and cost to your business.

2. Support

It is important that any software has great support for when something goes wrong (and it always does). Most major companies offer support but you also need to think about support in your local area. It's often much easier to have someone locally come in and do things you need done with your software than have someone trying to help you over the phone. Make some
enquiries with other businesses about the package they use and who helps them.

3. Accountant Interface

It's most unlikely you will handle every aspect of your businesses accounting. Your accountant is an important factor in making the right decision. What software are they used to working with and what do they prefer? Can you easily supply them data and reports from your package without the need for any extra work (which you'll have to pay for). Don't be afraid to ask their opinion as they live and breathe this stuff.

4. Best Value For Money

Once you have selected the right package for your business you may as well get the best value. Shop around as the price can vary greatly and the product is exactly the same. Online merchants such as Amazon may offer better pricing because of the sheer volume of products they sell. However price is only one part of the equation so if their is great merchant locally with support or installation assistance this may be far more valuable.

5. Major Brands

There are two major players in the small business accounting software market. They are QuickBooks and Peachtree. Microsoft is expected to enter the market soon. I recommend choosing a major brand so that you can get regular updates and you know the company will be around as long as your business needs them.

6. Ease of Use

Ease of use is a personal thing but it is worth trying the software before you buy it if you can. Remember to get the person who will be the main user to test the software as well. Also consider how well the package can interact with other software you use. This is an advantage the Microsoft package may have when it's available.

7. Features Needed

I touched on this earlier when talking about thinking ahead as to where you business will be in 5 or 10 years time. Most accounting software packages come in several different versions. If you don't need certain features now and can't see a need for them in the future then don't buy them. The major differences are usually - number of users allowed, inventory management capability and number of reports available.

To sum up think ahead when planning your purchase of small business accounting software. You will make a much smarter business decision that will save you plenty of trouble and money in the future.