About Business Bankruptcy

Though businesses aren't immune from the financial struggles that individuals and families face, they also have similar solutions. A business becomes bankrupt when its cash flow isn't enough to pay all the bills. While businesses have the option of filing for bankruptcy, sometimes business owners wait too long and an involuntary bankruptcy is forced upon them. Creditors can even impose a lien that forces business owners to make payments on assets. Fortunately, the negative effects of bankruptcy don't affect businesses nearly as much as individuals or families.

Regardless, business bankruptcy is a complicated process that takes owners away from the duties of running their business. Before considering a business bankruptcy, most business owners should:

· Negotiate with creditors to try to determine a different repayment plan that is manageable for business and its finances

· Discuss strategies with their CPA to determine if there are areas where costs can be cut and cash used more effectively

· See if they qualify for an emergency loan through the Small Business Administration

How to File for a Business Bankruptcy

Even if you take all the necessary precautions, it might not be enough to solve your business's financial quandaries. When filing for a business bankruptcy becomes the only option left, working with a bankruptcy attorney ensures that you correctly go through the process of filing and follow federal bankruptcy rules. With so many differences between a business bankruptcy and an individual one, not to mention the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, the expertise of a bankruptcy attorney becomes a major asset for businesses.

To successfully file for bankruptcy, businesses must determine which option is best for them:

1. Chapter 7. Most businesses try to avoid a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, since this usually marks the end of the business. With this type of business bankruptcy, assets are liquidized and the funds used to pay back the debts of the business. The court appoints a trustee to administer the entire process and ensure that creditors are getting their fare share.

2.Chapter 11. With a Chapter 11 business bankruptcy, the organization is restructured to allow the company to continue operating. Both the court and creditors can be highly involved with how the business restructures itself for future growth and financial health.

3. Chapter 13. This option is usually limited to sole proprietors who individually want to protect their assets and ensure that they are protected from the business bankruptcy. Like Chapter 11, the business is restructured and the court reviews the reorganization plan.

How to Choose the Right Type of Bankruptcy

While Chapter 13 is clearly for sole proprietors, other businesses and organizations can struggle to determine which business bankruptcy option is right for them. Fortunately, a bankruptcy attorney can help determine if liquidation or reorganization is best. Typically, a bankruptcy attorney will suggest Chapter 7 if the business is not a major public corporation, doesn't have any foreseeable economic boost, has no intangible assets, and if the owner wants to close the business. However, a bankruptcy attorney might suggest Chapter 11 if the business can survive in the long-run.

Why Strategic Planning Is Important for Small Businesses

When a person starts a business whether it be a restaurant, bakery, small manufacturing plant, etc they do not want to always remain a "small fish in a big pond." They want to become one of the "big fish" and in order to do that requires strategic planning. To increase their businesses revenue the owner needs to not only plan intelligent strategies but they also need to implement them wisely. If not implemented wisely the business is not going to see a profit and they may even be forced to go out of business.

Strategic planning involves formulating business growth strategies and policies over a specific period of time. If your business involves mobile or internet technology the trends in these fields change quite often so you would have to do it more often so formulating a six month to one year business strategy plan would make more sense than doing a five year plan. When doing business strategies or strategic planning you or the management team can concentrate on the entire business or just one aspect of the business.

Writing a business plan deals with the challenges that you are likely to occur when the business is just starting out. The actual strategic planning will deal the opportunities to grow the business and the methods that will be used. Although they are two different things, you do need to make sure that you have a business plan written up so everyone will know just what direction the business is going. If you do not have a business plan which is usually used for strategic planning there is a strong chance your business will not succeed.

In strategic planning there is no definite model that a business can use because each business is different and usually formulates their own model that will work with their particular business. Although the model may vary there are some important compounds that you need to include.

One component is the purpose of the business which is when the business will explain the entire idea of why your business exists. This component is not complicated and will focus just on the businesses objective. Another component is the ultimate goals of the business called organizational objectives which will help you achieve the purpose of the business. You want to make sure that goals you set are achievable within the time period you set up.

The next component is strategy planning for every goal. Having strategies in place will help to insure that you will accomplish each goal that you have set out. You should also make checkpoints so you can see if the strategy is working or not and if you need to make any changes. The last component is monitoring implementation of your strategy plan. If your strategic plan is not monitored you will not know how effective it is and whether it needs to be revised.

3 Easy Ways To Increase Sales For Your Small Business

Having started my business career using the more traditional bricks and mortar business route I know only too well how difficult it can be to increase sales for a small business. Sadly, nowadays it is even harder for local businesses to survive as more and more of us opt for the more convenient route of ordering our goods online... But are there any "tactics" that small businesses can employ to lure more of us to buy their goods or services?

Mobile Marketing-Promoting To The Converted

Many local businesses miss out "big time" as they waste too much valuable time and resources chasing new customers when the real money (and consistent income) comes from marketing to existing customers. After all, people who have already bought from you will already be aware of the quality of your product or service and providing that the buying experience that they had with you was good, then chances are that they will buy from you again and even encourage others to buy from you as well... They just need a little prompt or reminder that you are still open for business.

One of the easiest and most instant ways to promote to existing customers is to use mobile marketing. Let's be honest most of us now carry our mobiles with us 24 hours a day and more texts are opened straight away than any other form of communication.

Indeed, most of us now provide a mobile phone number as our first point of contact as opposed to the more traditional landline contact number. Therefore all you small business owners out there need to make a point of storing these valuable mobile numbers and start using them to promote your business via a cheap text messages. Don't worry of you don't know how to get started as there are affordable training packages out there that will show you step by step how to set a mobile marketing campaign.

The best way to achieve instant results for your business by using this method is to promote an offer or a promotion. Let's be honest we all like a bargain so simply offering, for example, a free glass of wine to customers who book a table at your restaurant on a quiet evening will help to attract more business. Even though it will cost you a glass of wine, you will more than make up for it by filling empty tables with paying customers.

Mobile marketing can benefit other small businesses too including texting appointment reminders for businesses like dentists or doctors, luring people into car showrooms via Bluetooth messages, promoting special offer up sells for businesses like beauticians or health spas. There are endless benefits that using mobile marketing as part of your local business marketing can offer, not least of all that it's cheap, quick and offers instant results.

What Is A Business Without A Good Website?

I am amazed by how many local businesses are still not online. Given the ever growing popularity of the internet, small business that are not promoting their business online are losing out on massive income potential and are passing that business onto other business savvy owners instead.

Creating a website for your business does not have to cost a fortune... In fact some websites even offer free templates that you can use. You then simply need to purchase a domain name and some hosting for your website. If you lack the confidence or knowledge to do this yourself, there are websites out there that offer a way of outsourcing this task to others quite cheaply, simply check out outsourcing sites for that offer that type of service. Often you can put a bid on the outsourcing websites that will invite people to bid for the work. This can be a great way of getting the best value for your money.

Again, there are training packages available that offer step by step training on the best ways to create a website for you business together with the cheapest ways to drive traffic to the website including how to get onto page 1 of Google.

Start Online Business Easily

The internet has brought about great improvement in the way business is done nowadays. Earlier traditional methods used to stay in touch with clients has changed. With the advance in technology, it has become easier to conduct business online and get more profits in return. An online web presence not only makes a huge difference to your business but it also helps in promoting it on a global level.

Social media has opened new opportunities to business owners. You can target your audience and get in touch with them faster and more direct. Starting an online business is definitely a wise decision. There are no requirements to start online business, apart from the fact that you have to make your business visible for people to see and find you. There are lots of ways to do that. You can either create a website for your business, which is simple and effective, or you can also make the use of Facebook to target your audience. Facebook allows you to create fan pages as well as ads that will redirect the visitors back to your site thus boosting the traffic towards your business. It depends entirely on how you market your services online, which offers multiple ways of making fast money.

So if you are interested to start online business, here are a few benefits from doing so:

Freedom - In an online business, you are the boss. There is no one to direct or control you. You are free to make your own decisions and decide your working hours. In an online business, you are open 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year therefore increasing your earning potential from anywhere. You can sit and do whatever you wish. You can devote as many hours you want. There is no need to spend a fixed number of hours, by creating a simple yet effective marketing plan, you can choose the amount of hours you want, based on your schedule.

Personal growth - With an online business, you can learn a lot. Every day you will come across something new that you will want to try. A tool that may be beneficial to the growth of your business. Unless you try, you won't understand how it can be incorporated in your business and what the outcome may be. There are plenty of opportunities to grow and expand your business. By researching online promotion techniques, or even taking an SEO class, you will benefit greatly personally, and in your business.

No to low start-up cost - To start online business, there are no specific requirements. All you need is a laptop or desktop computer and an internet connection. As compared to the offline business or brick and mortar, you need a proper place to conduct the business, insurance and benefits for the employees and staff to handle the customers. This can increase the overall cost which is greatly reduced in an online business. You can hire freelancers and pay them according to the work they do. This is quite inexpensive, but is rewarding.

Get connected to social media - Social media brings countless benefits to your business. It has become a popular platform for people to connect and is worldwide. The top networking sites like Facebook and Twitter help you to connect to your customers on a daily basis and let them know about newly launched products or services and specials. There is no need to individually connect to every person but a group message is often effective. Creating fan pages and tweeting are the best way to spread information and people come to you.

To start online business is simple but you have to put in effort to create a product or service that is marketable. You can't just do whatever you like but, you will need to plan as well as use of excellent marketing strategies. That is why it is beneficial to gather information from books, or other successful online business to start an online business. Without the direction or good information you will just waste your time. Perhaps talk to an expert to establish and start your business. Their expertise can be very helpful in making the right decision for the business. Once you get familiar, you will be able to manage it well.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7742123

The Physics of Business

Running a business is part of life. And life is subject to the laws of Nature. Therefore, it is logical that business must also follow natural laws.

Just think of some of the sayings that are commonly used in business. "We need to accelerate the growth of the company." The business is starting to gain momentum." "Things will take off when we get enough leverage with the market."

It is clear that people intuitively know that life and business follows the laws of nature. The problem is that we tend to forget that since it is a 'law," it always applies. We think that we can escape through some short cut or special exception. However, to hijack the famous quote from George Santayana "Those who cannot remember the laws of nature are condemned to repeat their failures."

Basic Physics

To start off with the science discussion, let's first visit some laws of physics. Sir Isaac Newton developed Three Laws of Motion, which describe basic rules about how the motion of physical objects changes. Newton was able to define the fundamental relationship between the acceleration of an object and the total forces acting upon it.

To illustrate the relationship with life and business, let's focus on just the first and third law for now.

The first law states that every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. A pool ball runs in a straight line until it hits another ball or one of the bumpers. If a business is failing, it will continue to fail unless some action is taken.

The third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If one jumps off the dock into a rowboat, the rowboat moves away from the dock. If a business lowers their prices, sales will increase.

"A more meaningful translation of Newton's third law is -- for every effect there is a cause," says Hugh Shearar, an international trader who developed a course blending business, life, physics and ancient wisdom together called Wisdom, Wealth & Success.

If one's business or life is not where it should be (the effect), what is the cause? To make any changes, one needs to move beyond the "effect" and focus on adjusting the "cause." If a car is stuck in the mud (the "effect"), there is no sense focusing on that fact. Action needs to be taken to create a new "cause" and a different "effect."

Just because we live in the physical world, we experience the impact of these laws everyday. We as humans often feel we are exempt from the consequence if we ignore the laws. A business owner needs to keep these laws in mind and apply them to their advantage.

Thermodynamics and Energy

Jumping to thermodynamics, the First Law is that heat supplied to a system equals the increase in internal energy of the system plus the work done by the system. In its simplest form, the First Law of Thermodynamics states that neither matter nor energy can be created or destroyed.

The amount of energy in the universe is constant - energy can be changed, moved, controlled, stored, or dissipated. Heating up a pot of water will increase the energy (temperature) in the water while the bubbling and steam can be considered work (release of energy) done by the system.

For a business, the energy one put into the business, will be transformed into the energy of the business. The trick is to put the energy into the right parts of the business. How often will a small business owner put tons of time into something like designing their own website, only to see the return on their effort as a failure. Website design is a commodity that is best outsourced if one is an insurance agent.

The focus of energy for an insurance agent should be on selling insurance. A business owner that wants to grow should shift their focus from them personally selling insurance to instead creating a business structure with many employees that sell insurance.

Many people work really hard on their business with poor results. The key is to use their energy in the areas that are most meaningful. A small concentration in the right area will deliver better results than spreading lots of energy over a wide area. The goal is to work on the business, notin the business.

Also, if the right amount of energy is focused in the right area, but the results are less than expected, then the energy is being dissipated, usually through friction or resistance. Friction and resistance take energy to overcome. More "work" can be done with less "power" when "friction" and "resistance" are reduced.

Note the areas in the business where "friction" or "resistance" is wasting energy and causing poor results. This could be an employee with poor morale, or a producer that ignores policies and procedures, or a client that always has problems. Removal of "friction" should then produce the desired results.

Power, Time and Work

Another law of physics is the equation for power. One way to define it is that power is equal to the amount of work done over a specific time period. It takes a certain amount of power to push a stalled car along the road for 5 minutes.

In life, the power we achieve is based on the amount of work we do over a period of time. People who have a lot of "power" in a small town are those that spent a lifetime building up their success. It is important to note that power can be derived from the accumulated work of others. Rockefeller, Gates and Buffet leveraged the work of many people to gain tremendous amounts of "power."

"Power can also be measured in terms of money," notes Shearar. "Those who producer more work over more time have generated more money." This is a tangible way to show the value of work and time. An experienced CSR that handles a large book of business should get a larger paycheck that a new employee that is less productive.

Shearar also points out that the time to do a task can be "calculated" by using the power equation. Time equals the amount of work done divided by power. So, in other words, the time for someone to do a task decreases with the amount of power they have.

Think of employees, if they are not given a lot of "power" (such as resources and authority) it will take much longer to get the job done. So, providing employees the right "powers" to get the job done will make the business much more productive.

Summary

How can this be applied to business and the daily lives of a business owner?

There are no secrets to life and business success. It is all out there in the open. Successful people have "learned" how to apply the laws of nature to their lives and their businesses.

How To Run a Home Based Business For Maximum Success

There are many factors to consider when running a business in your home. Do you have the personality and business skills to run a business? Does it make sense to operate the business out of your home? How will this business affect the family environment? Is there sufficient demand for your product or service? What price should be charged for your product or service?

These and other important questions can be answered by writing a sound business plan. A business plan is a basic description of the goals and objectives of your business and how you plan to achieve them. Developing a business plan will help you answer important questions about your business and help you device constructive strategy to running it successfully.

Characteristics You Need to Operate Home Based Business

There are invaluable characteristics that you might want to develop if you don't already have them. This will help you focus on your business goals for a very long time. These characteristics are the backbone of every successful home based entrepreneur.

1. Having a desire to be your own boss. You want to be the master or be in control of your financial situation.

2. Have significant specialize business ability base on education and experience.

3. Have an inherent sense for what is right for a business and the courage to pursue it.

4. Your life is characterised by willingness and capacity to persevere.

5. You posses a high level of energy and perseverance over a long period of time to make the business successful.

What you Need To Operate Your Home Based Business

A. Business Address. You need to choose your own business address where customers can check you out if they want to. Getting a business address shouldn't be a cause for headaches. You can choose your home address--if you are comfortable with receiving customers at home--or the address of a place you can meet-up with customers.

B. Business Structure. If you want, you can hire a virtual assistant to do a part-time work for you. A virtual assistant might be important if you don't have certain skills or characteristics that you might need to operate. A virtual assistant will fill the space for you. It solely depends on how you want to structure your business. If you decide to do everything yourself, then make sure you have the necessary tools that will make you independent.

C. Internet Banking. It is very important for you to have a bank account with internet banking activated with it. This is where your customers will pay into when they buy something from you or when you offer them your services.

D. Networking. Attend important social events and connect with others in your niche. Make friends with other like-minded individuals who have the strong will to get things done. They will help motivate you and you can also learn from them. This also helps you to get your business out there to prospective customers

E. Business Line. To improve the quality of home work time, consider installation of a separate telephone line for the business and attach an answering machine to take messages when you do not wish to be distracted, or when you are away from home.

F. Marketing Plan. The marketing plan is the core of your business rationale. To develop a consistent sales growth, a home-based businessperson must become knowledgeable about the market. To demonstrate your understanding, this section of the home-based business plan should seek to concisely answer several basic questions. What Market do you target? How Large is the Market?

G. Competition. No small business operates in a vacuum. Get to know and respect the competition. Identify direct competitors (both in terms of geography and product lines) and those who are similar or marginally comparative. Begin by listing names, addresses, and products or services. Remember, your business can become more profitable by adopting the good competitive practices and by avoiding their errors.