Great Ideas for your Small Business: Discount Accounts Receivable Here’s another cash-flow boosting idea. If people owe you money, consider offering them a discount on the balance—if and only if they pay up immediately. Try this only after you’ve called and asked why they haven’t paid up on time. This incentive often does the trick … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Ask for a Deposit For many entrepreneurs, making a sale is easy. The tough part is getting paid. But without steady cash flow, even the strongest business will starve. In 2000, small businesses buffeted by the recession began asking customers for deposits before they started the work or filled … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Expand Your Vendor Network Is your business overly dependent upon one or two suppliers for the things you need on a regular basis? What would happen if your primary supplier called today and said he or she unexpectedly ran out of the materials you need? What would your employees … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Fight Unnecessary Chargebacks Every year, hundreds of small apparel manufacturers are charged millions of dollars for failing to ship clothing to stores in “floor ready” condition. Retailers, contending that without specifications there would be chaos in their stores, deduct funds for items that are not packed in the right … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Hire a Debt Arbitrator At ten, robert “bobby” blumenfeld was already working the sales floor of his parents’ retail stores in the Catskill Mountains. At twelve, he was selling men’s suits. So Blumenfeld isn’t bragging when he says he knows every aspect of the retail business. He’s worked both … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Collect the Money People Owe You When people owe you money, it hurts you and your business. No matter how careful your credit-granting policy may be, someday, sometime, some people will fall behind on their bills and owe you money. The key to collecting money from customers is to … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Be Prepared to Accept Credit Cards Many big and small clients prefer to pay their bills with credit cards. If you run a retail business, restaurant, or offer professional services, such as consulting, production, or design, you will need to enable your business to accept credit cards. A plus … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Join a Captive Insurance Company to Cut Costs Sign maintenance workers perched in “cherry-pickers” three hundred feet above Times Square would make most insurance brokers sweat. But not Richard Butwin, who has been the Artkraft Strauss Sign Co.’s broker for the past seven years. Six years ago, Butwin, a … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Create an Employee Stock-Ownership Plan When a small business owner wants to cash out or pull some equity out of his or her business, there are several options. One of the best options for both employers and employees is an employee stock- ownership plan, or ESOP. ESOPs allow business … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Set Up a SIMPLE Retirement Plan Until recently, a business as small as Grassland Media in Madison, Wisconsin, had few pension plan options for its owners and three employees. The nearly twenty-year-old company, founded by Stu Stroup, makes industrial videos for a variety of clients. “We had been interested … Read more
