Small Business Marketing

Marketing research “The systematic gathering, recording and analyzing data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services”.

Market research on the other hand, is only a part of marketing research that covers a few of aspects of marketing. It is only the sub function of marketing research ’some companies use “market research” for describing research into markets the size geographical distribution incomes, and so on. However it fails to cover the idea of research into the effects of marketing efforts on markets, for which the term marketing research is the accurate. Elements of marketing research.

1. Market Research. It covers the aspects regarding size and nature of the market including export markets dividing the consumers in terms, of their age, sex, income (market segmentation), economic aspects of marketing etc.

2. Sales Research. This relates to the problem regional variations in sales fixing sales territories, measurement of the effectiveness of salesman, evaluation of sales methods and incentives, etc.

3. Product Research. This relates to the analysis of strengths and or weakness of existing product testing problems relating to diversification, simplification, trading up and trading down (all product line decisions), etc.

4. Packaging Research. In essence, it is a part of product research. But the recent development in packaging and its contribution in the advertising made it to occupy an independent position. This necessitates a separate study concerning the aspects of package to know its impact and response in the market.

5. Advertising Research. It undertakes a study relating to the preparation of advertisement copy (copy research), media to be used (media research) and measurement of advertising effectiveness.

6. Business Economic Research. Problems relating to input output analysis, forecasting, price and profit analysis, and preparation of break -even charts are the main fields of the research.

7. Export Marketing Research. This research is intended to study the export potentials of the product. In such cases any or all kinds of research mentioned above become necessary.

By: Younus Rathore

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The two best times for investment property is when you buy a property and when you sell a property. The time in between is where the holding costs add up with time. In my market, investment properties are taking longer and longer to flip. The times on the market are increasing and the eventual contract price that you will get is also decreasing.

It is in this time that you must be fully aware of your holding costs and how time will affect your bottom line. I have seen many experienced investors ignore holding costs, or not understand all the costs associated with holding property. It usually works out for them because there was usually enough profit to cover these holding costs. Not to mention the fact that properties sold faster. Sometimes when a investor is initially estimates the rehab costs they focus on things like the roof, furnace, carpet, etc…

Holding costs are the expenses that are not associated with the expenses that are directly incurred in the rehab of a investment property. Holding costs are costs that are incurred even if the property just sat idle. Some examples of these costs are as follows.

Interest

Mortgage interest and credit card interest associated with the property. There may be times where you don’t have enough cash to cover all fix-up materials and you may have to finance them with a credit card.

Taxes

Property taxes broken down into a monthly amount to track the expenses.

Utilities

Gas and electric bill. In a colder climate the cost of utilities in the winter increase dramatically.

Maintenance Property

Landscaping and outdoor maintenance. Factors such as bed work and size of lawn etc… can increase costs dramatically.

Neighborhood fees or dues.

Some neighborhoods or condos have fees associated with the property.

You can imagine that there could be many other expenses associated with holding real estate that may be specific to your area and the list could go on and on. Knowing your holding costs are a great way to be profitable in this business. Especially in a time where it takes longer to sell a property than normal. A lot of times a contract on a property does not necessarily mean that you are going to be able to get your money in a reasonable amount of time. Without a good understanding of the costs behind the scenes you may never actually know how profitable a property is going to be. Knowing these costs may be the deciding factor on whether or not you are going to take a lower offer on the property because it may in fact be a better deal in the long run. Or it could be the difference between hiring a job done or taking longer to do the job your self.

By: Craig A Williams

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Investment

An income statement a.k.a. Profit & Loss, is a summary of income received and expenses reported during a stated period. The periods are usually stated in monthly, quarterly, or annual terms.

A mid-month statement can misrepresent the data. For instance, if your business records most of your sales in the first 7 days of the month but does not record expenses till after the 20th of the month. This mid-month statement will overstate income and understate expenses.

Income can also be called sales or revenue.

Income can be subcategorized by type of sales. For example a fish store could have: Freshwater Fish, Saltwater Fish, Equipment, Tank Supplies, and Food. Breaking down income this way at the end of the period helps the owner look at her Income Statement and know the dollar total of each type of sale. Another tool is to know what percentage of your sales come from new customers versus existing customers.

One common mistake is to track income that is not earned by selling your business’ product or service in the income section of the statement; e.g. sales of assets, loan deposits, or tax refunds. Loan deposits are tracked on the balance sheet. Other income generated from other business activity such as gain on sale of assets and tax refunds is reported at the bottom of the statement after expenses in the area reserved for non-operational income.

When is a sale a sale?

A cash accounting method records the sale when the customer pays. An accrual method records the sale at the time the customer order is confirmed. Payment is handled separately on the balance sheet against the receivable generated from the sale. Why is this an issue? The accrual method attempts to match a sale’s income with its expenses to better determine if the sale was profitable. Cash accounting tracks sales and expenses as they are paid by your customer or you making it harder to determine if the sale was profitable.

When printing out your P&L use the feature (within software) called percent of income. What this does is divide each account for income and expenses by the total sales for the period. Monitoring this percent allows you to compare periods regardless of the amount of the income or expense. For example, if sales for the month are 50,000 for January and your payroll is 10,000, then 10,000 divided by 50,000 equals 20%. This translates to: for every dollar of sales you spend 20 cents for payroll. The next month your sales are 40,000 and your payroll is still 10,000. 10,000 divided by 40,000 equals 25% or for every dollar of sales you spent 25 cents for payroll. You can see how knowing the percent of income can be a valuable management tool.

By: Bruce D Hunter

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Kansieo.com

Most of the nation is in debt to some degree. There’s nothing shameful in it, but it can be emotionally crippling to be several thousand pounds in debt and feeling like there’s no way out. But there is a way out, if you have the strength to help yourself.

The biggest mistake to make when you’re in debt is to ignore it. Burying your head in the sand only causes the debts to pile up and get worse, and can even result in mild panic attacks whenever the phone rings or the letterbox clatters. Admitting you’re in debt and facing up to how much you owe is the first step towards solving the problem.

Once you feel you can face it, get a copy of your credit report and systematically go through every entry, contacting creditors if needed, to ascertain exactly how much debt you carry. If you’re making monthly payments already, calculate all these and work out how much of the debt you have left. The aim of this step is to get a full, frank and accurate picture of your financial situation.

Next, prioritise your debts. Those debts which carry higher interest rates are best paid off in instalments of more than the minimum amount, to clear the debt faster. Those with lower interest can be paid at the minimum amount. Contact your creditors, explain the situation and what you’re trying to do, and ask if they can arrange a ‘payment holiday’ for you, to give you time to concentrate on the higher-interest debts. If you’ve kept up payments, some companies will allow this.

If you haven’t already, set a household budget. It may mean carrying on as normal for a month to assess your spending patterns and outgoings. Keep all receipts, and you may even find it helpful to carry a diary to keep track of everything you spend, and on what. Once you have a good idea of where your money goes, you can begin to budget. Start off with the most important fixed costs such as rent or mortgage, and council tax. Then work out how much you spend per month on food, fuel and electricity, and any other monthly living expenses. Finally, look at what you spend on non-essentials like toiletries, clothes and meals out. You need to look for things you can either cut down on or cut out altogether, until your debts are cleared.

You should then be left with your ‘disposable income’. Note that up to now, we haven’t included the repayments you’re already making. This is because, at this stage, you will need to contact all your creditors to see if they can offer you a new repayment plan. Assign a percentage of your disposable income to each creditor based on their priority, and give them a call proposing a new repayment. Some may not accept at first, but if they can see you are genuinely trying to clear off the debt, they should accommodate.

If you find that you have too many debts to keep track of, or the creditors won’t re-negotiate with you, it may be worth taking out a debt consolidation loan to cover the existing debts and condense your monthly payments into one. Follow the steps above, call your creditors for a settlement fee – sometimes lower than the normal amount – and apply to borrow only enough to cover all your debts. Don’t be tempted to add on an extra couple of hundred as you’ll only have to pay even more interest. Once you receive the loan, make sure you pay off each creditor and get confirmation in writing that each debt is cleared. Then avoid getting into any more debt, and keep up the repayments on your single loan.

Getting out of debt is a long slow process, but it’s worth it in the end. It’s worth getting a copy of your credit report regularly to see how things are going. Settled debts are usually cleared off your record after 7 years from date of final payment, so don’t be dismayed if your score is still low within this time.

By: Jay Tillotson

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Debt Management

Acquiring new clients is one of the first aspects that businessmen concentrate on whenever they start off a business. Of course, they also need to have the necessary skills to survive in the business in the first place. The project can begin once the clients are in and the work continues while the money comes in after the clients have been acquired.

This cycle continues until the business finds new clients or the clients themselves find new places to take care of their business. However, only a few among the thousands of businesses I have had the opportunity to see through has ever concentrated on marketing a business.

Only a few businessmen realize that marketing a business is one of the most important things that can help them make their business grow. A lot of people see getting new clients as marketing a business but this is far from the truth. Of course, getting new clients is one of the aspects of this important business method.

However, marketing a business involves a whole lot more than merely getting hold of clients. For example, branding and sales are also major parts of it. Even something as backend oriented as accounting and book keeping is also considered as an integral part of marketing a business.

Creating a brand for the business is an important aspect of making a business grow. Any business that has a brand will begin to gather a reputation. Clients will then flock to it once it manages to gather a sufficiently large reputation.

It is important that you should not assume that marketing a business is easy work because it is a serious and back breaking business. It takes years of assiduous application, a whole lot of patience and constant, consistent and dedicated effort before a business can even begin to build a reputation.

The troubles of making a business do not end when a reputation has been built because it needs to be sustained. This is the only effective way to reap the benefits. You should seriously draw up a plan for marketing a business on the next time you entertain the thought of starting your own business.

By: Morgan Hamilton

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Debt consolidation loans can be effective debt-relief tools for those struggling with high levels of credit debt. A personal debt consolidation loan is one option to regain financial control and to eliminate high-interest debt. In shopping for a desirable personal loan, beware of potential scams offered by unscrupulous companies and brokers.

There are three very common scams. Two scams start with the same type of promotion, either through mailed advertising, or e-mails. A low-cost personal debt consolidation loan is advertised. A link is provided to the lender’s Web site, a fake lending Web site that frequently carries the name of a well-known lending company, without authorization.

In the first scam, the person seeking a personal debt consolidation loan is requested to supply personal and financial information through the Web site script. If the information is supplied, the person becomes a victim of identity theft.

In the second scam, the fake lender Web site asks for personal and financial information and for a processing or application fee. If the borrower agrees to the fee, the fake lender keeps the fee and the fake lender Web site soon disappears.

A third type of scam for personal debt consolidation loans is available through real lending institutions of dubious reputation. Again, the person seeking the loan is drawn by an advertisement of low-rate loans and other savings. In these types of scams, the basic game is what is known as the “bait and switch.”

A person who applies and is approved for a loan ends up with a much higher interest rate than one agreed on and many unanticipated fees, costs and charges. A person fails to check out the details and signs this loan has terms unlikely to make debt consolidation successful.

There are plenty of reputable and legitimate loan providers that can provide a personal debt consolidation loan for the borrower to regain control of finances and eliminate problem debt. Maintain awareness of the common scams and perform due diligence about the personal loan provider and the fine details of the agreement before signing up for a personal debt consolidation loan.

By: Scott Sumerford

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Debt Consolidation

If you are like millions of other Americans, you are probably sick and tired of the bills that keep piling up in your mailbox every month. Do not despair because you’re not the only person with this particular financial problem.

Let’s say you are already several payments behind and have no idea of how to pay for everything you owe. It’s probably high time to consider consulting with financial experts.

There are plenty of money experts in the country that can teach you all about consolidation loan, debt reduction, and other procedures that can help you get on the path to financial freedom. However, you do have to be careful in selecting a reliable company because there are several unscrupulous people out there who like taking advantage of people’s financial problems in order to make money for themselves.

A legitimate company that offers you a consolidation loan, debt reduction service, or financial assistance in any form will not charge you for an initial consultation. They will first assess your financial status and will state up front whether they can actually help you or not. You must stay away from so-called non-profit lending institutions that ask for donations or contributions outside of your loan payments.

Before you consider taking out a consolidation loan, debt reduction loan, or any other service that would help take you out of your financial rut, you need to understand all the possible consequences in case you are not able to complete the payments in time.

When you apply for a consolidation loan, debt reduction companies will require that you put up your home or other owned property as collateral that would sufficiently cover the amount of debt that you owe. If you fail to repay your consolidation loan, debt reduction institutions would immediately take over the ownership of your properties.

The primary benefit that you can get from consolidation loans is that you will be able to pay your debts at a much lower interest rate. We all know that many credit cards and student loans come with sky-high interest rates and this is one of the main reasons why millions of people end up bankrupt.

When you get a consolidation loan, debt reduction companies will still require you to pay an interest, but at a considerably lower rate.

An added advantage of taking out a consolidation loan is that you no longer need to write checks to several different companies. You just have to send the payment to the lending institution once or twice a month.

Once you have been granted a consolidation loan, debt reduction is certain – but it is still not the end of your problems. You will have to learn how to spend wisely and manage your finances much more efficiently in order to attain complete financial freedom.

By: David Faulkner

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My personal philosophy is to seek out a free service first and then compare it to a paid service, there will be huge differences. Take time to find out what the differences are.

There are three different types of Debt Management companies all of which are very different. The first is a paid service that will offer you help and advice and who will administer your debt management plan for you. This type of company will normally charge an upfront fee dependent on the size of the debt or the number of creditors that they will need to administer and it will be expensive! They also charge a monthly fee for administering your account – this is usually part of the monthly payment you make to your creditors.

The second type of Debt Management Plan is run and administered by a charitable organisation. These charitable organisations are funded by donations and they offer you help, advice and will administer your plan for free. By doing this you will find that you are making a bigger contribution to your creditors; this means that you will pay off your debt faster.

The third type of company offering you a debt management plan could be an introducer company. They will be more interested in introducing you to an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) than a debt management plan as that they receive a bigger commission for their introduction. They will also be mercenary about who they recommend you to. Caveat emptor or Let the Buyer beware is my only advice here.

Make sure you have all your facts, documents and details of your finances when talking to any of these companies. Ask lots of questions and ask those questions again and again until you understand the answers. Remember you are in a very vulnerable position; you lack experience and knowledge of this situation. As you are likely to feel exhausted with your circumstances you will probably be nervous and frightened and feel relieved if someone takes your debt burden off your hands.

Wait! Think! Don’t Rush into something you will regret.

Warning: There are unscrupulous people around and they come across as genuine and concerned about your predicament and your personal circumstances. They will often evoke fear about what could happen if you don’t let a professional help you. Remember, another 24 hours to consider and think about information from the companies you have spoken to is time well spent.

Finally, search out a debt forum and ask someone who has been in your position on the forum about their experiences. Find out what other people think about the companies they are dealing with. You can also go to our forum where you can ask me for free advice or talk with other members of the public – as long as you don’t mind other people reading the responses. I don’t have an axe to grind! Seven years ago I owned a Debt Management consultancy – I have extensive knowledge and experience of this subject.

By: Mark Aucamp

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