Want to stay in business and be profitable in this economic climate?  The answer is to plan, but it is difficult to think in terms of three to five year plans these days.  So focus instead on the next 12 to 18 months and use “what if” scenario planning and stress testing along the way.

Build scenarios
Create a forecast for the next 12 months to 2 years. Take your business plan and then impose a series of scenarios. A business-as-usual scenario, for example, might have flat growth. Another scenario might project a 10% drop in revenue and a 20% increase in input costs.  These scenarios show you the effect on the business of outside forces, and allow you to develop contingency plans to mitigate their effect if you start to detect their impact through your monthly reports.
You might decide that if revenues decline for two or three consecutive months, then you will implement a stronger marketing and sales program. If that fails, then you might move to significant cost reduction activities. Look at what happens if the company loses customers and suppliers.
You might need to draw up plans to create other ways of drawing revenue, like discounting, or going to other markets or changing production. Identifying a critical threshold means you can start thinking about how to mitigate it.

Develop your business plan
Critical to forecasting is your  business plan;  it should cover market analysis, organization and management, strategic analysis, marketing and sales, products and services, the amount of funding needed to start or expand the business, and financials. The best business plans are updated every six months, though you should be reviewing it quarterly.

Do you find when it comes to a choice between serving a paying customer and writing a business plan, like most small businesses, you go for the money? Lack of time is a major reason many small companies don’t have plans. The answer for some businesses is to prepare the plan on the weekend. It might take an entire day, but it’s a worthwhile exercise.  continue

They both record the same information:  SALES.  Invoices record sales on an accrual basis, sales receipts record sales on a cash basis.

An invoice records the sale as income and increases accounts receivable, as of the date of the invoice, even though you haven’t received the PAYMENT for the sale.  To complete the sale process started by using an invoice, you must “Receive the Payment” against the invoice, which will reduce your accounts receivable.
This is a two step process:  Increase to Accounts Receivable = Sale and Payment = Reduction to Accounts Receivable.

A sales receipt is used when you receive the PAYMENT at the time of the sale. In other words, this is a cash sale.  In completing a sales receipt in QuickBooksTM, you record the sale as income and deposit the PAYMENT in to Undeposited Funds or a bank account, at the same time, using the “sales receipt” form.
This is a one step process:  Sale = Payment.

In addition, in QuickBooks, a sales receipt is also often used when a client gives you a deposit towards future work.

To learn how to use QuickBooks more efficiently in your business, contact Teri at 619-463-6851 or by e-mail at teri@terimilligan.com.

Recent economic trends have caused many contractors and other businesses to deal with accounts receivable issues.  Five years ago, when the economy was better as a whole, there was less concern with enforcing a contractual right to payment because bills were being timely paid.

For those contractors dealing with collection issues, not much can be done to “squeeze blood from a turnip”—if your customer has no money, collection efforts are often futile.

But to best assure your ability to collect debts, a few steps can be taken at the contract stage and during your work to best assure your ability to collect.

As a litigation attorney, I can advise you that these are the circumstances that best allow me to collect debts owed to my clients:

• Clear and certain scope of work terms set forth within a signed contract, including signed change orders confirming any revisions to the scope of work or the contract price (don’t forget to make sure your home improvement contract meets the legal requirements of Business & Professions Code section 7159, otherwise collection will be even more difficult);

• Attorneys’ fees provisions in a contract that help you leverage payment short of incurring attorneys’ fees;

• Service charge provisions in a contract that further help you leverage payment of at least the principal balance owed; continue

Despite the benefits of online contact any time, from anywhere, personal interaction is as good for business now as it was 20 years ago. In the world away from your desktop, your competitors are shaking hands with your potential customers over lunch or a laugh right now. What are you waiting for? Get out of the office and network.

Making personal business connections may take longer, but they are potentially as important as driving web traffic and planning your advertising campaigns. For relatively little expense, seeking industry events and other face-to-face business opportunities should form an equal part of your marketing strategy.

When business is slow, mass marketing or email marketing your existing clients seems the obvious low-cost option to generate sales, but forging personal networks with face-to-face contact brings a unique set of advantages. And there’s no ‘delete’ key.

Networking builds trust

The important thing missing from online contact is the real connections that create genuine trust.

The advantage good networkers enjoy is access to more private or useful knowledge only available through personal contact. Filing unmanageable amounts of downloaded documents or exchanging emails is no replacement for conversations that spill over into further mutual contacts and unexpected opportunities.

Meeting with people also brings different skill sets to a business relationship. Online, you tend to stick to one topic or problem. Where a gathering incorporates socializing, common interests outside business tend to crop up too, leading to wider networks and experiences. continue

Pro Painting Net started out as something. Now it’s evolving into something else.

We started out creating well optimized mini-sites as an additional online presence to help painting contractors generate leads…and it’s working!  Our page holders are getting ranked in Google and generating some leads:  Here’s what one of our page holders had to say recently:

I just landed my second job from the PPN site.  Thanks a bunch!

Mark Bromfield, Richmond VA

What we have found out from our clients is that they want and need more, so Pro Painting Net is now offering or will be offering in the coming weeks the following search engine marketing services and more:

• SEO Audit of your Website
• Key Word Research
• Competition Analysis
• Site Optimization
• PPC Management

What our clients need more than anything is reliable, concise information about Internet Marketing.

As a business owner, you are likely bombarded weekly if not daily by companies who say they are the answer to search engine marketing. How do you know what to believe?  We can help.

Sign up for our free newsletter.  Here’s what’s in it for you:

How do you keep up with all the latest online developments?  How do you decide which web strategies and tactics to employ?  You’re busy running a successful painting business - where are you supposed to find the time to conquer the internet too?

You don’t have to - we’ve got your back. continue

This past December, QuickBooksTM added an online payroll option to their payroll lineup of QuickBooksTM Basic Payroll, Enhanced Payroll and Intuit’s Payroll Service.  How do you decide which one is best for you and your company?  Let’s take a look.
QuickBooksTM Basic Payroll – Allows you to create paychecks to pay your employees using the most current federal and state payroll tax rates.  You have the ability to print federal payroll tax forms, but not state payroll tax forms.   I don’t generally recommend this version, since it does not come with the state payroll forms.  continue

Absolutely!! Harassment and discrimination claims in the workplace should not be taken lightly.   The Department of Fair Employment & Housing defines sexual harassment as harassment based on sex or of a sexual nature; gender harassment; and harassment based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.

Every company, even companies with one employee, are required to take actions against sexual harassment and to have a sexual harassment policy.  The guidelines employers must follow are clearly outlined in the “Facts about Sexual Harassment” DFEH – 185 pamphlet.

At the time a complaint occurs, the employer must:  quickly stop the harassment; investigate; properly discipline if harassment is proven; correct the effects of the harassment; put actions into place to ensure harassment does not recur.  At no time shall the employee be retaliated against for filing a complaint. continue