Business Planning (Last Part of a Series)

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Finally, we are onto the last part now. This planning stage is really crucial as this will determine if your business will make or break. Suitable planning and proper focus on the activities are needed to build a brand that will surely be a success.

Planning Connotations

To build a business or practice that consistently generates growing revenue and profitability and is saleable requires you to think years into the future. Nowadays, the required capabilities in order to build a successful financial advisory practice are far more demanding and wider in scope. Financial advisors are required of marketing and sales abilities, as well as business, financial and resource management capabilities.

Importance of Business Planning

Planning is very important. When you have a business plan, you are not playing blindly. You are in a position to put business planning into practice and be able to control your work as well as your life. Placing your business plan in writing and be able to share it with others is the same as that of a pilot’s flight plan. Now let us check the components of a good business plan.

The Business Plan

A good business plan should contain these four areas:

Identifying your business. The business definition includes the basic which is vision, mission, values, and business opportunity.

• Vision. The vision is the direction where you want your business to go to. Two essential questions pertain to your vision: What role do you want to play in your business and how big do you want your business to become?
• Mission. The mission answers the question: Why am I here? The mission will describe on how you want to make a difference.
• Values. The values describes on what is important to you. The two most important points of what you consider important are how you spend your time and how you spend your money.
• Business opportunity. This area of your plan addresses the following questions: Where do you make your money, and how is your time spent? Who are your possible clients to sell to and what are your products to sell?

Setting up of business objectives. To start with, put up your objectives for the first year and then for the next succeeding three years. These objectives are the quantifiable results that are reachable within a specified timeframe. Examples of objectives are the revenue targets, the profit that was earned, among others. A SWOT analysis must also be completed. The Strengths and Weaknesses of the business are scrutinized and the Opportunities and Threats are also observed.

Strategy. This describes the activities involving marketing, sales and service that will be done to attain the objectives. This will show the resources needed to obtain the goals, and finish the major work at hand, and also conquer whatever obstacles that will be potentially met.

Financial Management. This is the final stage of your business plan, and it will contain the so-called financial pro-forma. This part will show the projection of the source of revenues, income and expenses, and of course, the profit.

I just hope this latest series of reading helped you in one way or the other. Always remember that a good business will not succeed unless hard work and determination are included in performing the objectives.

It is important to set aside some time to make your business plan, and it is an ongoing basis. Your business plan is a preview of a moving picture ahead. At present, certain limitations have changed radically and the success rules are very different as compared before. Your business plan will help you to achieve your goals and fly high in the standards of business.

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Making Money through Online Selling

An online shop certainly has its benefits and drawbacks. Maintaining it is not an easy thing to do. It may be more tiresome than having an actual physical store as in an actual store; you may pay somebody to take care of the place itself. An online store thus requires development of technology and its enhancement, updating of the site constantly, research of the site and you have to do this constantly, among others. You need to pay for a domain and hosting services as well, and it is not a joking matter. You really need to know the so-called tricks and trades of being able to promote the presence of your site in the web. It entails lots of hard work to have your investment returns.

Some advantages that may come out of it though are as follows: physical space is not required, so rental and utilities expenses are minimized; and the time to receive inquiries and take orders is 24 x 7 operations through an online payment gateway system. No shipping costs are nil if you are selling downloadable products like ebooks, music, and some documents. Local, national and international markets are targeted, and most likely, high income is obtained from international clients---endless opportunities ahead.

Expansion of products and services are easily done due to market demand. Hiring sales people will result to lower cost to market your site, and also there is a lower cost of hiring an e-commerce site due to the availability of the different web hosting and web development companies. Referral is also the key, as visitors to your site will be able to refer your website to other people who are also interested in the products and services that you are offering. And most likely, web visitors can turn into probable customers.

Having a website for your business enhances perceived professionalism. Through your website, you prove to the prospective clients, visitors, and customers that you have a viable business if you have a site.

Transacting all over the world is easily done, and a double exposure through your website is easily obtainable. Potential customers nowadays always expect a business to have an online site that is visible and available to them online.

However, if you do not have a website right now, nobody knows you exist. There may also be some instances when international customs may not accept some items, and even if it is not the site owner’s fault, the client will tend to put the blame towards the owner of the site. In this case, terms and conditions must be made clear especially to the international clients.

In this advanced technology age, there are still some people who are scared of purchasing online by giving out their credit card details. This is due to a lot of credit card fraud incidents. Because of this, site owners and new online shops need to get expensive required certificates that states that the sites are legitimate online sellers and the payment are secure in the site, among others.

Lots of research is needed to keep up with the latest trend, in order for shoppers to go to your site. Certain limitations as well as rules and regulations of each country who would want to accept orders should be studied well.

Trust is a very important word in the net, especially in the world of online selling. More than 100% extra effort should be done to obtain trust in the long run.

Always remember to always offer a wide variety of items and continuously look for new products so that the viewers will regularly come back, and a steady flow of clients and customers will be obtained which means that 90% are assured sale to date.

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If Money can’t buy you Happiness—Maybe Credit Cards will do…..

Many people are always debating on the notion whether money can buy you happiness or not. At the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, a study showed that there was a positive connection between wealth and the well-being of a person. It was further found that the rich and developed countries, in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, was placed at the top of the surveys with relation to happiness, while the poorest developing countries was at the bottom. It follows that bigger income means higher ratings of life satisfaction.

The study made could be used to encourage more wealth distribution. A regular 10% increase in the income of a poor person will always have the same benefit, in terms of happiness, as that of a 10% advantage for a rich person. Thus, redistributing the income from the rich to the poor would eventually increase the country’s overall happiness quotient.

As opposed to what the economic theory assumes, more money does not necessarily make people happier. Majority will be able to increase their happiness by dedicating less time to making money, and more time to social goals like family life and health.

As stated in one of the discussions in a social bookmarking site, “Money can bring happiness, but the absence of money will be an obstacle to happiness. In failing to fulfill all the obligations in terms of money, it will be very stressful. There are not that many people who are happy while there are so many bill collectors hovering around by getting dozens of calls a day or having the car to be repossessed, and juggling about the decision whether to buy groceries or paying the utilities."

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LGILC: Living a dream of educating special minds

Every business has its moral responsibility to the great majority of people. Every endeavor they have embarked into affects in one way or the other the lives of those who prefer to acquire their services or buy their products. Therefore, every business has a great undertaking in its shoulders to contribute to the common goodness or moral degradation of the public.

Such cases rarely happen nowadays, pollution and environmental degradation mostly are caused by factories handled by big businesses. The top multinational companies manufacturing cigars and liquors are as common as their ads everywhere. Where does this thing lead to?

That’s why when we chance upon businesses that still ideally comply and adhere to the basic goodness of man and still stick into the fundamental structures of common virtues, we are more than willing to support them.

Logic-Gestalt Integrated Learning Center is one such institution that still holds integrity and honor in everything they do. It is indeed a breath of fresh air in this day and time to help and patronize such establishment. The school, although still in its infancy is catering to those special education (SPED) children with ADD and ADHD cases as well as mainstream nursery, kinder and preparatory (NKP) level.

The growing number of children with such condition just can’t be ignored; it’s a world-wide phenomenon among our midst that was undetected 15 to 20 years ago. LGILC is a dream-in-realization of Teacher Rebecca Lomedario, the school directress and a good friend of mine.

Through the effort of friends who donated school materials such as books, toys and facilities, Logic-Gestalt slowly takes its form, struggling through the thick competition of mainstream community school that sprouts at every corner of suburban residential. The school is slowly gaining recognition among the community; thanks to friends who in one way or the other render their support by sponsoring a child, recommending and donating their talent and resources for the realization of the dream.

Let’s help support businesses such as these who still upholds moral responsibility above financial gains. Although businesses still needs to survive through return of investments and profit, little are those who still find a place in their ledger for the welfare of the Special Children.

Let’s help support LGILC by watching and sharing this video!

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Sustaining the Motivation (Second of A Series)

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People tend not to maintain the optimistic and energetic attitude all the time, especially in business and in earning money. We decline in our moods and energy levels. Hey, that condition is normal. You may wonder how some people maintain their “up” attitude most of the time. Well, they adopt some methods in order to keep their motivation high. You may want to try some of the suggested approaches.

Do what you love to perform and money will eventually follow. Whatever your interests are, if you really love what you do, you will definitely succeed. The interaction with other people, the tests, and the rewards that you get out of what you are doing will definitely push you on an uphill climb with a staggering growth potential to succeed. Just always find time for what you love.

Improve yourself continuously. You may set reasonable goals that are definitely attainable in a short period of time. Bigger goals can be broken down into smaller parts so that in case an opportunity comes along, a much needed sense of accomplishment will be experienced always. Remember that success feeds on success.

Be proud of what you do and it will be very meaningful to you. Everybody starts at the bottom of a corporate ladder, even the successful tycoons and businessmen started there. Always take pride in what you are doing and do the best you can, no matter how menial the task is. Just do your job with pride and professionalism. Doing so increases your competence, self-esteem and sense of control over your whole life and your work as well. Your superiors will take notice of what you are doing eventually. Excellence has its own reward and will eventually be recognized.

Consider your career path seriously; it’s not just a job. Job commitment is hard to find nowadays. Many young people keep on changing jobs; it seems they don’t have a career path in mind. Do your best always in your present company, and bear in mind that very few jobs last forever. Your vision of the future should be your utmost priority while minding your present condition will push you on where you will be going.

Give yourself rewards for successes and failures. Think of ways on how to reward yourself for all your efforts, even if you are not that successful. Also rate yourself an “E for Effort”. That will keep you going, so that sooner than expected you will be rewarding yourself for the success that is bound to come.

Be responsible with your career and your life. Make sure you understand that you and only yourself can make or break your future. Consider at all times that positive steps, no matter how small, will lead to much bigger payoffs in the future.

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