FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets Archives

05May 2015 by William Simi

Focusing on Overhead: The Nonprofit Circle

Business Advisory, FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets, Non Profit Principles: Steering You in the Right Direction

Think about how you donate to charities; do you focus on the percentage of your dollar that will actually go towards the cause? If for every one dollar donated 50% of the amount goes towards the cause, would you still donate? How about 40%? 30%? 10%? Here is some food for thought. Overhead expenses and the cause or goal of the nonprofit can be two good measurable indicators of success within a nonprofit organization. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation point out that they use many measurable indicators to prove their cause is a success without limiting themselves to JUST the overhead metric. Their causes or goals are measurable, attainable, and set within a time limit to encourage continued movement towards the goal/cause. SMART goals, as you might have heard them referred to in…

21Jun 2014 by William Simi

Small Business Owners: Tools to Sharpen your Competitive Edge

FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets

Today's small business owner is confronted with new business problems and opportunities on a regular basis, but rarely do they have the time to investigate all the possible solutions and opportunities. We at CPA Corporation want to become a valuable resource for businesses to help them solve these problems and take advantage of the opportunities that exist. In an effort to do this, we will be posting frequent Blog posts several times each month featuring our (Small Business Advisor Toolkit) SBA. These Blog entries will include among other things: Best Practice Checklists, Self Assessment Questionnaires and modifiable Templates. These tools in our SBA portfolio will incorporate the latest ideas in areas as diverse as customer and supplier relationships, financial matters, employee and industrial relations, production processes and waste management. Using…

08May 2014 by William Simi

Principle 11: Board Diversity

Business Advisory, FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets, Non Profit Principles: Steering You in the Right Direction

In order to obtain board diversity, the board of an organization should include members with diverse backgrounds (including, but not limited to, ethnic, racial and gender perspectives), experience, and organizational and financial skills necessary to advance the organization’s mission. A board should have a variety of skills, expertise, backgrounds, and perspectives in order to make informed decisions. Boards of charitable organizations generally focus on including members with expertise in budget and financial management, investments, personnel, fundraising, public relations, and marketing. Every board should have expertise in budgeting and financial management. The board must ensure that all financial matters of the organization are conducted legally, ethically and in accordance with proper accounting rules, therefore making an effort to ensure that at least one member has financial literacy. Some organizations seek to…

14Nov 2013 by William Simi

Simple Accounting Tips for Small Businesses

Business Advisory, FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets

Do you manage a small business and are overwhelmed with dealing with taxes and invoices while trying to keep your business afloat? By following these tips, you can simplify accounting for your small business. You should first break down the accounting into smaller pieces and set easily attainable goals for yourself. Know that accounting is a time consuming process so splitting it into parts will make is more manageable. This will also help with your stress and anxiety about accounting since you will see the completion of your smaller goals. -Calculate minimum and ideal monthly profits Keep track of all invoices and calculate revenue each month to make sure you can successfully keep your business running. Calculating a number for the invoices will allow you to have an exact number…

06Nov 2013 by Fred Crooks

How to Generate More Money for Small Businesses

Business Advisory, FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets

Preparing for Small Business Saturday By: Fred Crooks, CPA On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, customers will shop in small businesses for Small Business Saturday. This new holiday was conceived in 2010 to promote sales in small business since Black Friday was such a huge revenue booster for the big–box stores. Small businesses were left out of the huge sale weekend and now they have a chance to join in on the fun. Last year American’s spent $5.5 billion dollars in small businesses the Saturday after Thanksgiving! This new holiday is making a name for itself slowly but surely. In 2011 consumer awareness measured at 44 percent and rose 23 percentage points the next year. Small Business Saturday with 100 million shoppers is still overshadowed by the 247 million shoppers who…

02Oct 2013 by William Simi

Knowing Your Company’s Critical Success Factors Can Increase Performance

Business Advisory, FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are measures of business performance. They are used to check performance against targets, or as benchmarks to signal areas of performance in need of improvement. They are, therefore, measures of a firm’s Critical Success Factors. In any company there may be dozens of Critical Success Factors and literally hundreds of KPIs to use to track your performance. Which ones are significant for any particular company at any particular time depends on what you are planning to achieve and what your current situation is, so a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) paradigm provides a way of classifying Critical Success Factors as in the Table below. factor example kpis MONITORING OPERATING STRENGTH: those factors that are the basis of continuing successful performance 1.Percentage of seats filled…

09Jul 2013 by William Simi

From Scouts to Managers

Business Advisory, FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets

We want to welcome Amelya Stevenson at e-VentExe as our guest blogger this week. She submitted this article to us and we think it is a great help for business owners. Attention managers! Here at e-VentExe, we are rounding up the troops and initiating our very own set of guidelines to becoming a superstar manager. Ever wondered what makes a good manager great? Sure, anyone can become a manager, but not everyone can be a great manager. Do your mind, body, and company good -- challenge yourself and commit to your important leadership role by taking the exclusive Manager's Oath. The Manager's Oath has three components: The Manager's Code, The Manager's Promise, and the Manager's Law. The Company Manager's Code As a Manager I will do my best to: -Be clear and concise,…

26Feb 2013 by William Simi

A Period of Reengineering: Your Current Business Situation

Business Advisory, FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets

Welcome to our guest blogger this month, Amelya Stevenson. Amelya is president of e-VentExe, a full service Human Resource consulting company. Born from the commitment to three core concepts, “employees, Ventures, and Executives,” e-VentExe operates under the belief that without the right placement, structure, and development of people, each business venture will have a difficult time succeeding in today’s competitive environment. We all know what the economy downturn has done to our businesses. The unexpected collapse of our financial health of our country just about wiped away many dreams and plans for our business future. Those companies that stayed open, our workforce changed and took a very different shape. Employees were laid off; those that kept their jobs had to wear many hats to get the job done. Depending on…

17Oct 2012 by Fred Crooks

Are You Managing Your Brand Correctly?

FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets, Marketing

Brand management is key to business success! You want your clients or customers to see your brand, logo, or design and instantly recognize who you are AND what you do. The second requirement is much harder to determine than the first. Many businesses can recognize the logo design or brand, but when asked specifically about what that company does, they hesitate… “Is it a car brand? Or a tire brand?” Think back to how many times you have watched a commercial on television and really thought to yourself, “What an awesome commercial!!” Can you remember what the commercial was for? Or the brand? Awesome marketing, poor execution of the brand awareness and recall. Brand recall is IDEAL for top-of-mind awareness with marketing. For a person to recall your brand in…

16Aug 2012 by Fred Crooks

Getting Your Employees to Grow YOUR Company: Tool #4

Employees, FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets

Use an Employee Suggestion Form! A suggestion is an idea that will benefit the business by solving a problem, reducing costs, improving operations or procedures, enhancing customer service, eliminating waste or spoilage, or making it a better or safer place to work. One of the most efficient and economical ways to gather new ideas is through the use of the people who know your operations intimately - your employees. Listening to and acting upon sensible employee suggestions presents the opportunity to improve profitability (many employee suggestions relate to wasteful practices and irrational policies) and at the same time increase the level of trust and teamwork within your business. At a time when businesses are paying consultants and advisors to find newer, better, and faster ways of doing things, sometimes the obvious…

Category: FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets