Cash Flow(er) Part One

For startups, building positive cash flow can be a hefty challenge. Businesses are notorious for over-projecting sales and under-projecting expenses. Hidden costs are a given, and even a great idea may take its time to blossom. What to do?

1) Start with a plan and a budget. Fancy or no, planning can be a huge factor in how long it takes you to go from ramen to the Ritz Carlton. Having at least a basic business plan and budget may shave 6 months to a year off the time it takes to get your business from the red into the black.

2 ) Spend your money like it’s 1999. Learn to be frugal in both your personal and business spending. If there is cash in hand, whether yours or borrowed money, for some it can feel like a weekend in Paris.

Wouldn’t that big, shiny new planner make your business great? Time to swap the still-functional inkjet for a $500 color laser printer?

Okay…these things may be necessities for your business (or mine), but the main point is: Don’t make a purchase to make a purchase.

Sure…shopping can be fun, but if it made the difference between cutting loose from your day job in a shorter time frame or sooner finding the break even point for your business, you might reconsider how badly you need something.

3) Come and Get It vs. Go out and Get It. For many businesses, it can be so exciting to open the doors of a new venture that it might be hard to imagine the business not swamped with customers. New business owners often sit, wait and become anxious when their bank account is slowly or quickly dwindling, for customers to rush in and buy out their stock or enlist their services. If your business isn’t getting off on the right foot, there may be a number of easy to implement ideas that can things rolling.

Are there low-cost trade shows you can attend to get some pointers or inspiration?

Exhibiting at a local event, fair or festival (make sure the event is the right fit for your business) can be a great way to get exposure. Events can have a very wide range in cost. You want to test the waters, so try an inexpensive event that comes recommended by someone you respect.

Firstly, you may be able to sell your product or service at the event. Secondly, showing at a public event helps you to polish your act, get your lines down. Hint. The people that sit down, nod and smile don’t usually get much business and sometimes lose money at such events. If you wanna get out of that office chair and into the lush life, look people in the eye, say hello and make an honest attempt to connect with them. Sure, many will not care about you or your product whatsoever, but it is better to get accustomed to that up front, so that you develop the patience to find your true customer.

4) Marketing hero Seth Godin mentions worldview as being an extremely important factor in marketing and business success. A worldview is the perspective of an individual or group of people. Seth refers to worldview in regards to the marketplace, and how it is so important to find a good match between your product/service and your target market.

Case in point. Recently I was in a nearby town and stopped into a new restaurant that specialized in waffles. I talked with the owners for a while about their concept and found it interesting that they wanted to target the college crowd. Their town had some college students, but not in the numbers they imagined. The decor of the place looked more like a brightly lit ice-cream parlor than a joint that might pull in young hipsters. Clearly their business image did not match the worldview of their target clientele.

Seth makes a simple and powerful point. It is far better to market to people that already have an appreciation for your offering or to change your business to meet the worldview of the available customer pool. Many businesses lose the ranch by trying to change people’s worldview instead of meeting people where they are at.

Stay tuned………..

JB

Live The Life You’ve Imagined

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined!”
Thoreau

Green Your Business Baby

“There is no business to be done on a dead planet.” David Brower (Sierra Club Executive Director)

Fact: Most businesses are not making much of a positive contribution to the longevity of the planet. Strangely, if you ask some of the people who are responsible for much of the environmental destruction in the world and our communities, “Do you love your children and grandchildren?”, their answer would most likely be an aggravated, “of course I do, what do you think!!??” But what is the true legacy being left to our children?

The complication here is that what feels good today, is left for coming generations to cleanup. Okay, so maybe we hear enough about the problems in the world everyday. Where to start? Start where you are at. If your business has been in place for ten or thirty years, introducing change can take a little more effort than for startups. The effort is worth it though. You can conduct business in a way that you can feel good about and that you can proudly share with your offspring if you have any.

Greening your business can start as simply as buying paper that is 100% recycled or paper that has a higher recycled content. Even office chains like Staples now offer 100% recycled copy paper. Use less paper. Read your document drafts on your desktop before printing. There are always misprints, so use the backs of them for note paper. Make sure that your company has a recycling program. Bring dead CPU’s and monitors to your local transfer station (the dump), and inquire about the proper disposal of them. The fee you pay for disposal is tax-deductible and simply throwing them in the trash may plant more chemicals in your local ground soil and rivers.

There may be community recycling resources in your area that accept unwanted business supplies. Ruth’s Reusable Resources in Portland, Maine is one such undertaking.

In Ruth’s words, “Maine has a long tradition of “neighbor helping neighbor.” That spirit has been the foundation of Ruth’s Reusable Resources (3R’s) for 13 years. Businesses and industries have provided their excess supplies so that school teachers, students and nonprofit organizations have access to practical and creative materials they would not have been able to find or afford elsewhere. As a result, over 70,000 students and 7,500 teachers have benefited from from resources from over 400 companies.”

Recycling is simple, smart and saves us all money in the long run, not to mention having a healthier living environment.

Here is a short list of easy to implement changes to GREEN your business from http://www.recycleworks.org/:

• Buy only recycled content paper and copy double-sided

• Use efficient lighting systems to save energy

• Promote walking, biking, taking public transit or buy alternative energy or hybrid vehicles for your fleet

• Remodel with green materials such as using low-Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) paint

• Conserve water with low-flow toilets and faucet aerators

Do your best.

JB

If The Robot Makes It

“If The Robot Makes It, Let The Robot Buy It”

Bumper sticker seen in the window of Emilio’s in Portsmouth, NH

I Want Something To Believe In

“I want to work for a company that contributes to and is part of the community. I want something not just to invest in. I want something to believe in.”

Anita Roddick