David Gass


Effective management is crucial for a business to succeed, and it is possible only if the right candidate with the right qualifications and expertise does the job competently. The greatest challenge to good management is hiring a good team of managers to do the job assigned to them in such a fashion, as to guide the business towards its target goals in an accelerated, well-coordinated fashion. This can be a problem especially to new businesses, as they must hire the right personnel, who can also become a part of the team, work together, and create an atmosphere conducive to the growth and development of the business. Building a senior management team can be a difficult task. Below is a list of tips for building a senior management team

Tips

1.Since money may be an issue for new business start-ups, hiring qualified and experienced people may be the answer.

2.Check to see the availability of volunteers in order to build a volunteer advisory board.

3.Check to see if outsourcing the management team will be a viable and cost effective option.

4.Be certain the personnel hired are qualified and experienced. Crosscheck their references.

5.Make the part timers feel that they are a part of the team, as it will motivate them to give the job their best effort.

If the business is under the guidance of a good management team it will lead to success. Therefore, it is necessary to select and build a senior management team with a lot of care. The next important thing is to retain the team. Motivating them and making them feel that they are an essential part of the team by using collaborative leadership techniques helps to build the team. By hiring the right blend of experienced personnel you will obtain optimum results. Make sure that the hired personnel’s values match that of the business and also make sure that they are enthusiastic, have the right aptitude for the job, and possess integrity as well as a desire to learn new things. It is ideal for the candidates to have a record of accomplishments.

Hiring the team is one important thing. Getting them to work, as a team, is another important thing. They must cooperate and make decisions as a team with the company’s best interest always being the priority. Ensuring there is good communication between team members is essential. The team must carefully collaborate and work in unison to achieve the target goals of the company with minimum expenditure and maximum profit. The team must ensure the quality of the product or service offered is never compromised.

Additional Help

Building a senior management team is a crucial when ensuring the success of the business. There are firms that offer their services and products to help new businesses succeed. This includes software geared toward managing companies properly.

Kris Nickerson


“Access to timely and relevant information has always been the purpose of business management software, but traditional systems have often left small- and medium-sized businesses with an expensive infrastructure and outdated reports,” says Michael Emaus, President and CEO of eEnterprise (www.eEnterprise.com), a global integrator of NetSuite, the world’s leading on-demand business management software. “In contrast, Web-based solutions level the playing field.”

Owners of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often underestimate the necessary expertise or the budget to implement and support a traditional on-site Information Technology business management solution. “In essence, business owners can think of on-demand, Web-based applications as a revenue stream, while the traditional Information Technology department requires both an initial investment and abundant expenses to support it. Managers need real-time, actionable information in order to grow and gain profitability, but instead become distracted with untimely and distorted reports,” says Emaus.

In contrast, on-demand, Web-based applications such as NetSuite allow business owners and department managers to focus on the “Information” necessary to grow the business while the traditional requirements of “Technology” – updates, security, hosting, and support – are intuitive. “NetSuite on-demand removes traditional IT requirements, and the expenses required to support that infrastructure,” says Emaus. “In that sense, on-demand is the great equalizer, allowing small- and medium-sized businesses to have the sophisticated tools that are available to their big business counterparts.”

For example, NetSuite integrates four major components – sales (CRM), back office (ERP), support, and eCommerce – and makes them accessible in a single system via the Internet. As a result, when an employee, a partner, a vendor, or a customer enters information, it is available to the enterprise in real time, regardless of location. Previously reserved for the Fortune 500, this integrated solution is particularly crucial for businesses with growing market pressures to offer support for real-time partner, vendor, and multi-location relationships.

As a result, managers and owners can spot data trends as they occur and drill down to determine the factors involved. “Small- and medium-sized businesses can focus their attention on the information, not the technology, and quickly make informed decisions based on actionable data,” says Emaus.

For the growing small-and medium-sized business, traditional software continues to require a significant investment with the goal to have many disparate systems talking with one another. Generally, in today’s SMB environment, accounting is not integrated with sales, sales are not shared with support and eCommerce is a report that is fed back to sales and accounting. For the NetSuite workplace, each employee, vendor, partner location, and global resource shares a common communication network. “In today’s world of virtual offices and multiple locations, the inherent drawbacks of traditional software are taking their toll on small business,” says Emaus. Not only are businesses faced with a variety of computers and operating systems that may not readily “speak” to one another, but redundant resources are hired in each location to support the enterprise. “With an on-demand solution, timely access provides better managerial control of the business.” says Emaus.

Kris Nickerson


“With the continuing explosive growth of e-commerce, small- and medium-sized businesses that are able to reap actionable information from a rich online platform are uniquely positioned to compete in the online marketplace,” says Michael Emaus, President and CEO of eEnterprise (www.eEnterprise.com), a global integrator of NetSuite, the world’s leading on-demand, Web-based business management software. “Today, e-commerce demands sophistication, in terms of the online shopping experience, which products are presented to customers, and how sales are tracked.”

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, e-commerce sales rose to $25.2 billion during the first quarter of 2006, an increase of more than 25 percent over sales during the first quarter of 2005. Adjusted for seasonal variations, the first quarter 2006 growth of e-commerce over fourth quarter 2005 was more than double that of retail sales overall.

“Although online sales currently represent only about three percent of all retail sales, that number is sure to climb,” says Emaus. “It’s crucial that online retailers position themselves to take advantage of this trend. NetSuite business management software integrates a flexible e-commerce platform with the critical, real-time information e-tailers need to make sound decisions.”

With NetSuite, online retailers can easily increase sales by automating up-sell and cross-sell recommendations on the shopping cart page, as well as by allowing customers to purchase and use gift certificates and coupons online. “Because accounting is integrated into NetSuite’s e-commerce solution, a customer can shop with a gift certificate any number of times, until the balance is used,” says Emaus. “An e-tailer can even offer downloads for purchase, using NetSuite’s ability for password protection and license codes.”

Behind the scenes, NetSuite gives a business owner or marketing team real-time, actionable information that they can leverage to increase their exposure to potential customers. “Instead of simply seeing which paid keyword campaigns are driving traffic to the site, an online retailer can see which campaigns are generating the most sales revenue, and make adjustments as necessary,” says Emaus.

The same holds true for inventory management, since NetSuite allows just-in-time restocking by dynamically calculating reorders based on seasonal demand or historical sales data. “Successful e-tailers don’t have inventory sitting around, nor are they caught with an item out of stock,” says Emaus.

He continues, “NetSuite removes the limits imposed by a traditional Web architecture and provides the online retailer with a marketing powerhouse. Small- and medium-sized businesses simply don’t have the resources to support the in-house staff necessary to design and maintain the e-commerce solution that NetSuite provides. Best of all, NetSuite is a Web-based application that can ‘turn on’ fully supported global resources in about five minutes.”

With the growth of online sales clearly outpacing traditional retail sales, NetSuite helps small- and medium-sized businesses level the playing field.

luky77_7


I need to know how to make a profit and loss statement…
not one for a business, but one for me personally.

an example would help too.

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Linda Dawson


You would be surprised how valuable your Profit & Loss Statement is and how it can help you manage your business. It can show you if you material, labor or administrative costs are too high or too low. It can also show you the trend in your business so that you can capitalize on favorable trends and mitigate negative trends. And finally, your Profit & Loss Statement can provide the foundation for creating a budget and truly enable you to get control of your costs.

 

Most small-business owners think of their bookkeeping as a necessary evil that is useful only for the preparation of tax filings. But your Profit & Loss Statement is much more than that. Comparing the current year financial activity to the prior year can tell you how your business is progressing – whether the trends are headed up or down. If they are headed up then you can expand on what you are doing right. This will increase your profits and make your business stronger. Conversely, if the trend lines are heading down, you can identify what is causing the negative trend and then make changes to rectify the situation. Maybe your quality is slipping or your vendors are causing delays in the production cycle. Whatever the problem, by figuring out what is going wrong, you are sure to improve your business.

Another useful tool is calculating costs as a percentage of sales. This calculation will tell you if your material or labor costs are too high and show how your selling and administrative expenses are tracking against sales. Costs that are too high will eventually put you out of business. But costs that are too low are a real danger too. It could indicate a decrease in product quality or reduced customer service.

By digging a little deeper you can identify which product lines are most profitable. It might surprise you that a product receiving little attention has a great gross profit. That is your starting point for a marketing program to push a product with low sales volume but great gross profit potential.

Your Profit & Loss Statement is also a useful tool for creating a budget. Once you have identified your sales streams and costs, you can estimate what those items will be next year. It might surprise you that a small increase in sales without a corresponding increase in costs can have a dramatic positive effect on the profitability of your business. At the same time, increased costs without a corresponding increase in sales can cut deeply into the profitability of your company. This is especially true of labor costs which are often the highest cost in a business.

So take a few minutes and look at your Profit & Loss Statement. Compare it with last year and see how your business in progressing. Then look at those percentages to see if your costs are too high or too low. You will be surprised at how much valuable information is available just by reading your Profit & Loss Statement.