How Simple Suction Cup Sign Holders Can Bring In Business

July 4, 2017 Finance Tips

We live in a society built on consumerism. It’s all about supply and demand, what the customer wants, and how a company can best catch the eye of the consumer. It can be a tricky thing to do, to be the most visible to potential customers and clients. Businesses need to constantly rebuild, rebrand, and rethink marketing in order to stay relevant and appealing to the masses. Sometimes it comes down to major marketing campaigns, sometimes a growing online presence is particularly helpful, and sometimes it can be as simple as the right suction cup sign holder on the door of your brick and mortar business.

The perfect suction cup sign holder

There are plenty of ways to catch the interest of consumers and get them in the door. Fancy flashing lights and rolling marquees, enormous signs or exuberant mascots, and catchy signage indicating a major sale are all methods to keep a steady stream of customers headed your way. But in all of your brainstorming, don’t forget to fall back on simple, tried and true methods as well, such as a suction cup sign holder advertising your store hours, special sales or events, or other relevant information that customers need to know.

How do you present your business?

Presenting your business and special sales or merchandise is about more than just the right window sign holder with suction cups. From glass door signs to product stand displays and the actual layout of your store and merchandise, you want every aspect of your company and product to be appealing to your customers. The right signage is important, as one study showed that merchandise selling at full price sold 18% better when represented with signage than without signage.
But it was also found that customers will make as many as 82% of their buying decisions while they are right there in the store, so the setup and presentation matters as well. And about 16% of unplanned purchases were made as a result of a well positioned sign or display that shoppers noticed while in the store for another reason.

Running a business can be a tricky thing. But when you pay careful attention to people, and how your customer base responds to different marketing methods, you can watch your company grow and succeed.
Helpful links.

Are You Considering a Cash Management System for Your Small Business?

July 1, 2017 Finance Tips

Cash recycling systems are a great investment for businesses of all size. Managing coins, recycling coins, and counting bills are just some of the services offered by these cost efficient, theft reducing machines. In fact, cash recycling systems provide a more trustworthy system between employers and employees, while at the same time allowing workers to interact more with the paying public.
Purchasing a cash recycling system from a company that provides 24 hour troubleshooting services can help you know that you will always be able to accurately and efficiently process the cash, coins, and checks that your business takes in.
Retail Cash Management Can be Full of Errors and Time Consuming
At the end of the the two the two things that matter most in a retail setting are the service you provide your customers and the accurate collection of payments. Cash recycling systems, as well as currency counter machines and counterfeit detector machines allow employees to focus on customer care while the automated machines take care of the accuracy.
Unfortunately, human error is a real problem when it comes to handing cash. Both the error in judgement of employees who pocket profits and the error in change making can, in fact, have a devastating effect on a business. Employing the use of the best cash management solutions, however, can help eliminate these tow errors. The fact that many of the newest and best machines also come with counterfeit detection technologies means that those losses can be avoided as well.

Money counting skills are not a strength of many of the people in today’s work force. Using an electric cash counter and change making machine, however, can help eliminate costly errors that are made by workers.
A currency counting machine is a mechanism that counts money, both stacks of banknotes or bills and loose collections of coins.
Keeping large bills out where they are easily accessible to employees is not good practice. A currency counting machine can pull the largest bills out of circulation and prepare them for deposit.
Estimates indicate that cash counting machines allow a business to maintain 100% assured accuracy for cash transactions.

In some modern automated teller machines, currency counters conveniently allow for cash deposits without envelopes, because these machines can identify which bills have been inserted instead of just how many.
The decision to make sure that you provide your employees the tools to accurately collect cash payments and make change is the decision to protect you, your employees, and your business.

Check scanners allow businesses to scan and electronically deposit checks throughout the day instead of waiting until the end of the day.
One of the major reasons companies and businesses use money counters is because of the amount of time it saves them.
Unfortunately, counting notes and bills by hand is time consuming and usually has to be done two or three times to make sure the numbers are correct to account for any human error.
Not new, fully electronic counters that have the ability to count batches of coins or of notes without having to process them individually, were introduced in Great Britain in back in the year 1980.
The one-dollar bill accounts for 48% of the paper bills printed by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Choosing the Right Business Broker to Help You Sell Your Business

June 7, 2017 Finance Tips

Owning a business and watching it grow and flourish can be one of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences if you are an entrepreneur. People with good business ideas routinely establish and build their businesses with the hope of seeing it flourish in the competitive market and reach new heights of success, something that sometimes happens and sometimes does not. If you have an established business that you have built with the right intentions and have watched grow over the years, it can definitely provide you with a feeling of success and accomplishment. However, there are certain situations where businesses need to be sold. Some people develop businesses with the definite aim of sending them down the line to the highest bidder, so that they can walk away with a large amount of money. Some people, on the contrary, are pushed towards selling their businesses depending on the circumstances that they are faced with. There can be a thousand different reasons why you would need to sell your business in a particular situation, and if you are facing circumstances like that, the one thing that you need to ensure is that you get the right price for your business when you sell it.

Buying and selling businesses is something that is also regulated by the law and a number of provisions and recommendations brought into effect by both local and national entities. Enlisting professional help should always be something that you need to consider whether you want to buy a business or are wondering how to sell my business. The professionals in this regard that you can engage deal with the buying and selling of businesses on a regular basis, know all the legal details that are necessary to accomplish these transactions without any problems, and have complete insight about the different recommendations and regulations and best practices that are usually associated with the buying and selling of businesses. Enlisting the help of the right business broker can be one of the best things that you can do if you are looking to sell your business for the right amount of money, or to purchase a business that you can then further developed. Business brokers carry out the important task of representing either side of the spectrum and look out for their best interests while ensuring that everything is kept under the purview of the rules and regulations in the legal framework.

If selling your business is what you are after, you definitely need a business broker to represent your side of the deal, find the right party for purchasing the business, ensure the best possible valuation for your business, and broker the deal with your interests in mind. This kind of arrangement is usually provided by business brokers that act as sell side brokers or sell side advisory. Business brokers of this kind can help you accomplish quite a lot of things that you are required to accomplish during the period of time during which you are preparing for the sale of your company, and having the right business broker in your corner looking after your interests and the interests of your company can be one of the most important assets that you can have at this point of time. Some of the most important things that your business broker can help you accomplish during this phase of the process is to ensure that you have the right valuation so that the highest possible monetary number can be assigned to your business, ensuring that you get the best return possible when you eventually sell your business. Valuation can be a complex process, and making sure that everything is done by the book can definitely expedite selling process and bring you a better value, and this is something that your business broker help to accomplish faster and smoother.

With all this in mind, you can definitely maximize the value that you get for your business with the help of the right business broker if you just spend some time and effort choosing the right broker for your requirements and making sure that everything is done according to plan, thereby getting you the best value.

Have You Failed in a Past Business Attempt?

May 30, 2017 Finance Tips

Small business valuation multiples by industry

Hindsight is 20/20, but in the case of your mistaken business investment, you needed more than a better vision, you needed a better product, a better location, and a better pricing system. In fact, the decision to go into your business adventure without a complete understanding of the available business valuation tools was a very unwise decision.
Fortunately, you have been able to salvage some assets from this failed attempt at your first business adventure, and you hope to take what you have learned and make a new start before long. Company valuations are never an exact science, but with a better understanding of the small business valuation resources both new and unexperienced investors can make more informed decisions.
Business Valuation Tools Serve as an Informative Way to Approach Investing in a New Business Opportunity
Whether you are in the process of buying or selling a business, understanding the resources that are available to you can help you find a more accurate way to understand the value of a business. The business valuation process is largely an exercise in economic analysis. For this reason it should come as no surprise that the company financial information provides key inputs into the entire process.
In almost all valuation methods, the two main financial statements needed for business appraisals are the balance sheet and the income statement. In fact, to achieve a proper job of valuing a small business, it is important to have three to five years of historic income statements and balance sheets available. Using this information investors and sellers can start the process of determining both asking and selling prices.
Other key key starting points in establishing a business worth include:

Determining why you need business valuation.
Assembling all the required information.

With these two points determined, the investor or buyer can then find an institution or a computer program that can help measure the business valuation. Typically, the evaluation process then follows one of three approaches:

Comparison made to recent sales of similar businesses. Sometimes the similarity is found in number of employees, locations, products or services sold, or a combination of these and other factors.
Determinations based on the earning power and risk assessment of a business.
Determinations based on the assets of the company.

References.

How Cash Counting Machines Improve Efficiency and Security

April 5, 2017 Finance Tips

For businesses that handle large amounts of cash, cash counting and cash recycling machines offer a number of advantages. Coins counting machines and other automated money handling processes help businesses to improve efficiencies and security, reduce losses, and to streamline the overall cash flow. Dealing with a large volume of cash, coin or cheques is easier when processes are automated.

Currency counter machines for businesses
Coins counting machines and currency sorters can count large stacks of notes or loose coins quickly and accurately. Currency counting machines have been around since the 1980s and were first used in the U.K. For business owners, controllers, accountants, CFOs, and COOs, they offer solutions for asset protection, loss prevention, security and other cash management needs.

Improve efficiencies
Counting large amounts of cash and coins can be slow and time consuming. When counting notes and coins by hand, the process must be repeated several times to avoid error. Even so, the possibility of mistakes remains.
With coins counting machines and currency machines, counting cash becomes quick and 100% accurate. It frees up staff for other tasks, especially customer oriented ones. Money counter machines can even reduce labor costs as staff time that was spent on counting cash and notes by hand is now use more productively.
Greater security
Coins counting machines and currency sorting machines not only remove the possibility of human error, they also put an end to losses and employee theft. All businesses that handle large amounts of cash face the problem of regular losses due to theft. Automated cash handling removes this problem at the source.
Automated cash counting machines can also improve security by reducing the frequency of armored car pick ups. Overall, better and automated cash handling improves both efficiency and security.
Detect counterfeits
Coins counter machines also function as counterfeit detector machines and can help identify and eliminate fakes. Counterfeit coins and notes have been a problem throughout history. In the nineteenth century, when banks issued their own currency, it was a serious problem. The secret service was actually founded in 1865 with the primary task of detecting counterfeit currency.
Currency counter machines can detect fake notes and bills and separate them, minimizing losses.

For businesses that handle large amounts of cash on a regular basis, currency sorter machines and coins counter machines offer multiple advantages. Greater security, accuracy and efficiency help to streamline the cash flow and improve opportunities for customer facing interactions.

When It Comes Time To Sell Your Business, Get a Professional Valuation

March 31, 2017 Finance Tips

If you own your own business, you will likely need to consider selling it at some point. You will retire at some point, and you could need to sell before then because of financial hardship, illness or another reason. Even if you are just selling the business to an employee or a relative, you need to know what it is worth so you can be fairly compensated. To get an accurate business valuation, you may need to avail yourself of business valuation services.

What your business is truly worth may be more or less than what you believe it to be. If you have an inflated opinion of your business valuation, you may set the price way too high and not be able to sell it. If you think your business is worth less than what it really is, then you could wind up leaving money on the table. Neither of these situations is ideal, and they can be avoided by using the expertise of business evaluation services to get small business valuations.

When looking to value your business, a valuation professional is likely to take one of three approaches. He or she might use comparable sales of other businesses, take the value of the assets or look at the potential for future sales and weigh it against the risks. In some situations, your valuation professional may use a combination of two or more of the factors to come up with a price. What type of business you have can influence what method to use as well. For example, for an online service business, it would make much more sense to use a valuation income approach to look at prospects for sales. On the other hand, a manufacturing business with lots of expensive machinery may be better off being valued based on its assets.

At a minimum, you can expect to need to show your valuation expert about three to five years worth of balance sheets and income statements. You might also be asked for client lists, an inventory of intellectual property and other documentation that might show the worth of intangible assets.

Keep in mind that selling your business is more of an art than it is a science. Even if you have a firm grasp on assets and sales, it still comes down to whether you can find an interested buyer, and you may have to decide whether you want to get your business sold for less than you expected or hold out for a certain price while facing the risk of not selling your business at all. For more information see this.

Reasons You Might Need an Accurate Company Valuation

March 28, 2017 Finance Tips

When you are self employed, it can be difficult to accurately establish the value of your business. It is much different than working at a salaried position, where you are provided with detailed W2s. When you are the business owner, you cannot simply take into account the total income of the business. You have to also account for things like costs, rent and utilities, product development, marketing, employee wages and benefits, and even expected losses. However, it is important to have an accurate company valuation for many reasons.

To obtain lending

If your business requires additional capital for expenses or to expand the business, you will have to apply for a loan. When you apply for a small business loan, the bank requires specific information about the business, including its business valuation appraisal. If you are unsure about calculating the worth of my business, you may not have the necessary information to obtain a loan and may need to create an evaluation.

Business valuation is largely an economic analysis exercise. Not surprisingly, the company financial information provides key inputs into the process. The two main financial statements you need for business valuation are the income statement and the balance sheet. To do a proper job of valuing a small business, you should have 3 to 5 years of historic income statements and balance sheets available. These small business valuation resources may be especially helpful if you are wondering the best process for calculating the worth of my business.

To sell the business

Perhaps you are ready to move onto other business ventures or you want to retire. Either way, you will need an accurate business valuation of your company to sell it. Buyers will not even consider buying your business if you have never been involved in calculating the worth of my business. The business valuation with the intent to sell may be a little different than the valuation used to obtain lending.

It may seem surprising at first that the valuation results are influenced by your need for business valuation, but business value is not absolute. It is a process of measuring business worth, which depends on two key elements, how you measure business value and under what circumstances. In formal terms, these elements are known as the standard of value and the premise of value. Simply put, your reason for sale will factor into calculating my business worth. If you are selling because you no longer have time to run the business, yet it is profitable, you are likely to receive more. However, if you are losing money and cannot afford to keep the afloat, this will also be taken into consideration.

Insurance purposes

You may also be tasked with calculating the worth of my business for insurance purposes. Your insurance policy needs to align with the type of business you do and the amount of customers you service. Small business valuations can help an insurance provider understand your insurance needs. Small businesses involved in more dangerous of working conditions, such as construction companies or electrical workers may require higher amounts of insurance. The business valuation gives them a better idea of the needs of the company.

To go public

Gaining IPO status is a goal among many medium sized businesses. When you trade publically, you are opening up your business to endless growth opportunities. There is a lengthy and complex process involved with going public. One of the most important steps is calculating and publishing the true value and evaluation of the business. You can determine the value of your business using these three approaches, by comparison to recent sales of similar businesses, based on the business? earning power and risk assessment, and based on the company?s assets. All of these factors are likely to be taken into account when attempting to go public.

There are many reasons that you may need to calculate an accurate business valuation. A few of the most common reasons include obtaining lending, purchasing an insurance policy on the business, selling the company, or going public in the IPO market. Ensure that you have the necessary documents and that you are using the right method of valuation for your business.

Benefits Of Coin Sorter Counters

November 30, 2016 Finance Tips

How does your business tally up cash sales? Do employees count money by hand? If so, perhaps you haven?t considered the advantages of using a currency sorting machine or coin sorter counter. A currency counter is simply a machine that counts money for you, allowing businesses to maintain perfect accuracy and save valuable time.

Accuracy
Counting money by hand gets tedious, and the chance of human error is high. Cash counters don?t make mistakes.

Saving Time
Counting notes and coins by hand takes longer than a machine, and due to the high probability of error, usually has to be recounted two to three times to ensure accuracy. A good coin sorter counter can count an average of 200 coins every minute, and paper currency goes even faster.

Security
A currency counter can be used as a machine to detect counterfeit money. Although fighting currency fraud has been an issue for over one hundred years, contemporary money counter machines use technology like infrared spectrum analysis, metallic alloy detection, and other methods to detect counterfeits.

Cleanliness
It?s been said that a dollar is dirtier than a toilet; studies show that multiple viruses and bacteria live on paper money and coins, and can live from 2 to 15 days. As money changes hands, those germs get passed around too. Using a coin sorter counter or other money counting machine can prevent the spread of sickness amongst employees.

Once convinced that a currency counter is beneficial, there are a few comparative aspects to consider before purchasing one.

Hopper Size
Coin sorter counters come in different sizes; the size of the hopper determines how many coins it can process at one time. Obviously, smaller businesses with lower cash volume will be able to use a smaller machine.

Counting Speed
Coin sorter counters work at different speeds. When researching, compare the coins per minute; the average machine can handle about 200 coins per minute, although some are faster.

Coin Wrapping
Look for a machine that wraps the coins after sorting and counting them. It is a frustrating and time-consuming task to have to do by hand, and new mistakes can occur.

Value Counting And Recording
Some coin sorter counters and currency counting machines simply sort the money into denominations and count the bills or coins within each category. A better machine will do the math for you, displaying the value of the processed money, and recording the total. Some even provide a printed copy for easier record keeping and cash management accounting.

Coin sorter counters are inexpensive and offer many benefits that will quickly become essential to your business.

Real Estate Notes for Commercial and Residential Properties

November 21, 2016 Finance Tips

Location, location, location. Anyone with any experience at all in real estate knows that this is what the market boils down to. Those looking for a new property to buy or rent are considering many different factors, but location is often the one that carries the most weight. A couple looking to buy their first home will likely be willing, albeit probably not happily, to forgo the large bedroom balcony that caught their eye if the home is located 50 miles from the nearest school. But knowing that location is such a large factor, realtors also have a lot of factors to consider, especially when dealing with commercial real estate.

The big business of real estate
Commercial real estate companies deal with several different businesses and types of properties. Typically these commercial buildings are divided into two subgroups, those that are valued over $2.5 million, and those that sell for less than that amount. Though the concept of commercial business often conjures up an image of large buildings where major corporations hustle and bustle about, around 70% of commercial buildings are relatively small in size, usually totaling no more than 10,000 square feet. These buildings are often home to retail spaces, smaller offices, and strip malls and small shopping centers, in comparison to their larger counterparts like warehouses and multi-level and multi-corporation offices.

Comparing residential and commercial real estate
A good realtor knows that both commercial and residential real estate are completely subjective to their prospective buyers, but realtors looking to sell residential properties are going to be paying attention to different aspects than those attempting to sell the perfect commercial space. The right residential property will obviously have more ideal features that make living more comfortable. A good kitchen, functional bathrooms, the right number of bedrooms, maybe a big yard, and any specific areas or rooms that are particular to the lifestyles of those doing the home shopping. Conversely, the right commercial buildings and spaces need to have the appropriate layout for the job at hand, and depending on the nature of the business, specific spaces designated for activities other than simple office space.

Real estate notes for the right property
Oftentimes, in both residential and commercial real estate buying situations, it is necessary to make use of real estate notes. Real estate notes indicate the agreement between the borrower and the lender in regards to the mortgage transaction. These real estate notes differ from the actual mortgage agreement in that they do not necessarily lay out the terms of the agreement, rather they detail the acknowledgement and promise of the lender to pay back the borrowed sum. Real estate is valuable, especially in the right location, and there are very few individuals or even companies that can buy a property outright without the help of a loan.

The success of businesses with the right storefront
The economic struggles of 2008 left lasting effects, but things have steadily improved. Across the United States, the values of commercial real estate properties have seen a significant improvements since then, as much as 42%, in fact. And there continues to be a demand for the right commercial space, particularly for those businesses that generate significant customer traffic from the ideally prominent and visible storefront. A business looking for a retail store for rent will want it to be in the right location, where the right amount of potential customers will be able to identify and easily access it. These storefronts for rent will allow for prominent and notable signage, ideally with convenient parking and sidewalk accessibility as well.

But of all the commercial real estate sectors, or CRE sectors, the most dominant are multi tenant buildings and industrial spaces such as factories and warehouses. The apartment sector in the United States was averaging 125,000 rental units just four years after the recession, up a significant amount from the mere 45,000 that was the yearly average before that. The percentage of apartment vacancies across the country is as low as 4.8%, and the demand for commercial real estate as far as the industrial spaces are concerned has also risen quite higher than before the economic dip. It appears that things will continue to improve as we gain time and distance from the recession.

Hard Money Loans What You Need to Know

November 8, 2016 Finance Tips

Have you heard of house flipping? It is a term that has become more popular in part because of T.V. episodes that show exactly what it entails, albeit with better editing than real life. Commercial real estate investing is not as easy as these shows make it seem. What enables people to do so with some success is most often due to having investment property mortgage lenders backing them. In other words, someone else foots the bill. You shouldn’t be discouraged. To find out more about commercial real estate investing basics, read below.

What Are Some Reasons to Invest in Commercial Real Estate?

There are a few reasons real estate is seen as a good investment.

Are you ready to seek out investment property mortgage lenders? You should know about the funding process first.

So, How Do You Get the Money to Buy Some Land?

As stated in Gone With the Wind, “Land is the only thing worth working for,…because it’s the only thing that lasts.” It seems not many would disagree, as owners of lots of land are generally regarded as very wealthy. Do you have to have money to make money, as the old adage goes? Not always, if you know the right people.

The typical business loan offered by banks has a few requirements: the borrower must have been in the business for at least two years, have great personal and business credit, be cash flow positive, and pull in at least $250,000 annually in revenue. There are plenty of people who fit that requirement, and double that who do not but would still like to buy, renovate, and sell a house for profit. Investment property mortgage lenders, or hard money lenders, can step in.

What is a Hard Money Loan, and Is It Even Legal?

There is nothing wrong with seeking a hard money loan, it is simply that most people would rather deal with a public lender, rather than a private one. The lender is putting up their own money for the house to be fixed up. Renovation lending, as it is sometimes called, follows the simple process of buying a cheap, somewhat run down house, and through renovation dramatically raising the value. These hard money loans are well protected, as the equity on the house must be somewhere between 30 to 50%.

Is real estate investing something that interests you? It is not outside the realm of possibility. Hard money loans are not for everyone. But they do make it much easier for many people to get into house flipping. Who doesn’t want to start making more money, that much faster?

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Author: Finance Tips