Interested In Setting Up Your Own Business?

Particularly when sales are down, you must be "hard-nosed" with people trying to sell you luxuries for your business.When business is booming, you undoubtedly will allow sales people to show you new models of equipment or a new line of supplies; but when your business is down, skip the entertaining frills and concentrate on the basics.Great care must be taken however, to maintain courtesy and allow these sellers to consider you a friend and call back at another time.

Your company's books should reflect your way of thinking, and whoever maintains them should generate information according to your policies.Thus, you should hire an outside accountant or accounting firm to figure your return on your investment, as well as the turnover on your accounts receivable and inventory.Such an audit or survey should focus in depth on any or every item within your financial statement that merits special attention.In this way, you'll probably uncover any potential financial problems before they become readily apparent, and certainly before they could get out of hand.

Many small companies set up advisory boards of outside professional people.These are sometimes known as Power Circles and once in place, the business always benefits, especially in times of short operating capital.Such an advisory board or power circle should include an attorney, a certified public accountant, civic club leaders, owners or managers of businesses similar to yours, and retired executives.Setting up such an advisory board of directors is really quite easy, because most people you ask will be honoured to serve.

Once your board is set up, you should meet about once a month and present material for review.Each meeting should be a discussion of your business problems and an input from your advisors relative to possible solutions.These members of your board of advisors should offer you advice as well as alternatives, and provide you with objectivity.No formal decisions need to be made either at your board meeting, or as a result of them, but you should be able to gain a great deal from the suggestions you hear.

You will find that most of your customers have the money to pay at least some of what they owe you immediately.To keep them current, and the number of accounts receivable in your files to a minimum, you should call them on the phone and ask for some kind of explanation why they're falling behind.If you develop such a habit as part of your operating procedure, you'll find your invoices will magically be drawn to the front of their piles of bills to pay, while maintaining a courteous attitude, don't be hesitant, or too much of a "nice guy" when it comes to collecting money.

Something else that's a very good business practice, but which few business owners do is to methodically build a credit rating with their local banks.Particularly when you have a good cash flow, you should borrow $100 to $1,000 from your banks every 90 days or so.Simply borrow the money, and place it in an interest bearing account, and then pay it all back at least a month or so before it's due.By doing this, you will in crease the borrowing power of your signature, and strengthen your ability to obtain needed financing on short notice.This is a kind of business leverage that will be of great value to you if or whenever your cash position becomes less favourable.

About the Author

Uchenna Ani-Okoye is an internet marketing advisor and co founder of Top Affiliate Programs

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Protect Yourself against Financial Fraud

Although advances in technology have made life easier for you, they have also increased the chances of you becoming the victim of financial fraud and identity theft. Many people find themselves in financial difficulties through no fault of their own when someone steals their identity and uses their financial information to obtain loans and leave the person to pay for them. You have to be extremely careful about where and to whom you give your credit card information because it could become public knowledge and thus an unscrupulous person could gain from it.

Credit card companies are always sending out promotional material with a pre-approved credit card. All you have to do to be able to use the card is to sign the form and send it back to the company. If you are not interested in this offer, make sure you shred the card and the information so that no one else can use it. In many landfills, there are people who do go through the trash to find cans and bottles that they can return for the deposit. If through the process of going through your trash, they find such an offer letter that has not been torn, they can easily sign your name, change the address and get a credit card in your name that they use and you are responsible for. Do not throw any bank statements, credit card statements or any information related to your finances in the trash without shredding it first. Even the account number can give someone else access to your account.

You are entitled to have a free copy of your credit report once a year. It is important that you take advantage of this so that you know what information your credit report contains about you. Scrutinize it carefully to make sure that all the items listed on the report do in fact apply to you. This is one way you can be sure that you are not a victim of financial fraud. If you see an item that you know for sure is not an account that you hold, you should contact the credit agency immediately and start proceedings to have the information corrected. It is too late to find out that there are inaccuracies on your report when you are turned down for a loan because of negative items that you did not know existed.

When you shop online or over the phone, you have to be extremely careful about giving out your credit card information. Before you enter your credit card information online, you must check to make sure that it is a secure site. Read the privacy policy of the site to make sure that any information you provide will not be sold or given to a third party. You also have to ensure that when you do give out your credit card information over the phone that the company you are dealing with is legitimate.

The Internet is loaded with phishing scams. These are emails you receive that seemingly come from your bank asking you to update your information. You may receive an email saying that your account is locked and until you perform certain actions, you will not be able to continue using the account. If you bank online, log onto your account immediately to see if there are any inaccuracies. If not report the email to the banking authorities. If you use an offshore account, such as Paypal, you should check your account regularly to make sure that there have not been any unauthorized deductions or deposits. Some people randomly select addresses and make small deposits just to see if such an account exists. If this is so for you, you need to take steps to have the situation investigated.

When you use a shared computer to do any of your banking, never save your password on the computer. Anyone can then use that computer and retrieve your information leaving you open to financial fraud and theft. When you use an ATM machine or use your debit card at a store, always make sure that you enter your PIN so that others around you cannot see the numbers you enter. If they can detect the number and there is a chance that you forget to take the card, then this person can then take all the money out of your account or at least up to the daily limit. By the time you discover your card has been lost, it may be too late and you money may be all gone.

Fraudsters have various ways of obtaining information about a person to gain access to his/her finances. One such scam is by telephone. You may receive a phone call telling you that you have won a trip and you have to press 9 to get more information. When you press 9, you do not receive any information but you have opened yourself up to financial fraud because the callers have access to your telephone number that they can use for long-distance calling. You do not even realize it until your receive your statement in the mail. If you receive any unwanted telephone calls, hang up immediately and never follow the instructions.


About the Author

Peter Kenny has been writing financial articles for 10 years and is a writer for The Thrifty Scot, please visit us at

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