As an entrepreneur and with so much of our focus on profitability, it is sometimes easy to forget about our good old friend "the balance sheet".
So what if I asked you that this question... "How is your balance sheet doing?". I am not sure most people would know exactly what to answer, but here is a quick way for you to know the answer:
Check for business solvency by checking your ratio of current assets to current liabilities.
So do you know now how your balance sheet is doing?
If your new business is built around the offering of natural products, you should definitely consider joining Abe's Market. Abe's Market is an online market for sellers of natural products that goes beyond access to new clients. Their buyers are all looking for natural products, they provide an easy way to upload and manage your products, they give you the ability to chat with clients, have conversations with them and truly sell the benefits of your brand. Plus they have great marketing tools and good PR. To learn more about Abe's Market, see Why Join.
A lot of us spend our days balancing out our responsibilities as moms and our responsibilities as entrepreneurs. It is not an easy task but I see it as having the best of two worlds.
Sometimes however it is hard to keep the balance. If you find yourself needing ideas for work life balance, time management, project management, planning for business and life, one of the best resources you can find online is www.entrepreneur.com/mompreneur. Check them out!
There has got to be a better way than printing an invoice, putting it in an envelope, printing a label, printing or just gluing postage, mailing it out and waiting for days to receive payment.
If you are curious about a "better" way to manage your invoices, check out http://www.invoicera.com. They offer web-based billing and payment services with features such as multiple language and currency support, multiple payment gateways, recurring billing and much more.
And if you need invoicing plus bill management, try www.bill.com.
Check them out and share your experience with us.
Short on money to pay your business bills? BillFloat can help! They can provide you up to US$1,000 dollars of unsecured credit for 30 days to pay any bill.
They charge a flat fee plus 3% interest rate. But if you find yourself in a cash shortage, this may be an easy way to solve it. Check it out!
Come back and share your experience with them!
Crowdfunding is a very interesting concept! Finding people to donate money to support your entrepreneurial projects. Leveraging the power of social networking, you can use crowdfunding sites to reach out to your network of family and friends, or even to strangers to convince them to donate some money (donations can be as low as US$25 dollars). You will need to create a solid profile and provide updates of how your project is going, but it is definitely worth a try.
Some crowdfunding sites:
Check them out for yourself and let us know if you were successful getting some funding!
Check out www.MicroMentor.org. This is an online service that connects small business owners with experienced volunteer business mentors.
Get the business advice you need as you start and/or grow your small business.
Watch this video for a little inspiration! remember when you were a kid and felt that you could do anything? well.... you still can!!!
Do not ignore the power of social networking for business growth purposes. So if you are not leveraging those tools yet, see below to start:
1- Join facebook and connect with business contacts. Create a page for your business. Advertise.
2- Create a myspace page. Specially important if you are a musician.
3- Join Linkedin. Great for making business connections.
4- Create your own Social Network at Ning.
5- Check out Twitter and understand how people are using it for business purposes.
Automated Software Agents
Upsellit.com. Using a combination of artificial intelligence and web analytics, the software monitors each site visitor's progress. If a customer tries to leave the site without making a purchase, an "agent" pops up in an IM window to chat up the shopper without being overly solicitous.