6 Money-Drainers of Small Businesses (and How to Overcome Them)

Is your business seeping cash for no reason? Some expenses are like a dripping faucet: you know it’s there, but it seems insignificant, so you let it go on too long. Others are more like a broken pipe underground, well-hidden but causing massive damage. Here are some places to check for financial leaks so you can stop your biggest money-drainers.

Leakage in your small business finances

Watch Your Staffing Costs

Staffing is a massive cost for most small businesses and a huge area of waste. Underperformers must be replaced quickly, because they prevent you from hiring excellent staff who could be moving your company forward. As your company grows and changes, your staffing needs will rapidly change.…

Continue reading

People vs. Robots: When Google Translate is The Wrong Choice

As a small business owner you may have already experienced just how global business has become. Many geographical borders that previously made trade virtually impossible, have been transcended by tech and you’re probably finding yourself emailing a freelancer in Belgium, ordering supplies from Taiwan and recording data on software hosted in the US all whilst sipping your (Spanish) local barista’s single origin Guatemalan brew.

Spanish language

Most of the time you’ll manage just fine speaking only English in the Global Village. But there will be times your language arsenal needs to be extended.

For those times, there are plenty of free programs out there, such as Google or King translate.…

Continue reading

UK Startup Paves the Way for Standardised Parking Spaces

The blossoming sharing economy owes much of its success to the simple fact that it connects and empowers people. With the consumer becoming an increasingly willing collaborative participant in the digital rental phenomenon, entrepreneurs have been quick to capitalise on the business potential of tackling everyday irritations.

Ferrari car park

From ride-sharing apps that put an end to cab-hailing, to online chore marketplaces that advertise local odd-jobs, it’s clear that technology is making our lives more convenient.

But as technology replaces old systems that simply relied on advanced planning, for example: booking a specific parking space through an online parking marketplace rather than hoping to find one in an area while driving, we can expect discoveries that highlight industry inadequacies.

Continue reading

10 Ways to Optimize Your Business Manufacturing Process

Streamlining your manufacturing process can help to save time, save money and help to minimize operational discrepancies. If you are looking for ways to optimize the manufacturing process for your product or factory business, read on for 10 invaluable tips.

Steel manufacturing

Sourcing and Partners

1. Consider Asset Finance

The most cost effective way to replace or upgrade your machinery and equipment is to lease. This relieves the pressures on your business cash flow and gives you a monthly repayment plan. If you want top of the range equipment but can’t put out a large cash outlay, asset finance could help. Find out more about asset finance on Gov.uk

Continue reading

Bringing the World to Australia: Shipping Containers Available Now

If you’re involved in shipping things overseas, you already know how centrally important shipping containers are to your business. If you are shipping to Australia, here is a look at a few places we recommend for acquiring high-quality containers for your shipping business.

Shipping containers at a port

Start with the big names

The place to start regarding affordable shipping containers for sale in Australia is Port Container Services (contact phone number: 1300 957 709). This well-established organization has outlets in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Central Coast, Newcastle, Grafton and Brisbane (local addresses are listed on the website), as well as a service featuring containers for hire.…

Continue reading

Reward your Small Business with the Capital One Spark® Cash Card

Brought to you by Spark Business from Capital One

Obsessed about your business? No, you’re driven. Driven to go above and beyond. So why settle for a business credit card that limits how much cash back you earn? Or charges you for an employee card? In your business, you accept every obstacle, deadline, and challenge but that shouldn’t extend to your business card.

With Spark BusinessSM Credit Cards from Capital One®, you could earn 2% cash back on every purchase, and receive free employee cards. Now those are rewards you can accept.

Learn how you don’t have to settle for less and get all the details at www.capitalone.com/smallbusiness

Continue reading

How to Avoid Late Payments as a Small Business

For small and big businesses alike, late payments can be the bane of a company. It’s a hassle to chase clients around, hounding after them to please pay up.

Sometimes it’s simply because it slipped their mind. Sometimes it isn’t, but either way there are strategies you can put in place to help avoid them.

Invoice

From invoicing techniques to contingency plans these techniques will help you to get paid on time.

The devil in the details of your invoice

Whether your invoice is digital or paper it needs to be as clear as possible. You want it to be easy to pay, and thus the amount owed and ways to pay should be marked clearly.…

Continue reading

When Should You Consider Using a Virtual Office?

Virtual offices stand out as great options that can be used to offer an extra edge to a business. There is the possibility of getting a professional address in a hub that has a great economic reputation. That is always great and the best thing about it is that you do not have to pay too much for this privilege. We are basically faced with something that seems to be a perfect win-win situation. However, since you are definitely an entrepreneur, it is obvious that you will realize that there are some things that have to be considered since the virtual office is not always the best opportunity available.…

Continue reading

Major Components of Kosher Certification

There are many reasons a company would be interested in gaining Kosher Certification. One of the major ones is the large market for kosher products amongst members of the Jewish faith. A second is there is an increased public perception that slaughter practices under kosher rules are healthier and therefore kosher meat is a better option for consumers in general who are worried about their health.

Kosher certification for restaurants

For these reasons many companies are exploring kosher certification and the process involved with it. For many companies it can involve setting up a separate set of processes either within the same facility or in adjacent premises to ensure that all of the food is prepared in accordance with kosher regulations.…

Continue reading

Top 5 Online Invoice Generators for Small Business Management

You don’t need to pay for native invoicing apps and software programs for your mobile devices or office PC. There are tons of great online invoice generators out there, that do just as good a job as more complicated paid solutions like Intuit, Freshbooks, Oracle, etc.

Shopify online invoice generator

Most small business owners don’t need complicated accounting solutions and will have an outside private business accountant that takes care of crunching the numbers anyhow. This makes the need for a clean and simple tool for creating and downloading your receivable’s invoices a must for many SMB owners out there.

Here’s a list of the top 5 web-based generators that you can access any time, to make a quick invoice on the fly, from any device and as many times as you like – for free!…

Continue reading