4 Money management tips for small businesses

The key to maintaining and managing a successful business has a lot to do with money management. Here are some tips that will assist small businesses to manage their money.

Start budgeting – Budgeting is a way to fix problems that may arise from cash management. Start by tracking your expenditures, revenues, and your savings. Budgeting will also give you a clear picture of the future and how you can invest in other areas of your business.

Save – Saving money for your business’s emergency fund is a great way to keep your business afloat when you have unexpected expenses, or your sales are low. Another good way to save more is to buy second-hand items, for example, consider buying second-hand furniture, equipment, and vehicles.

Hire a CFO – A CFO will be able to manage your money and have the professional experience to help manage your finances. Avoid the fancy title and hire a good accountant that has some experience in business operations which are similar to your own.

Create strategies to increase your cash flow–To increase your cash flow, you can give your customers discounts and points for paying early. Another way to increase your cash flow is to add more services to your product listing, which will broaden your appeal to customers within your industry. When business is slow, provide a credit line, so that more customers will choose you over your competitors.

Things you should know before opening a frozen yogurt store

Written by Gelato Products

The frozen yogurt industry has grown in the US, and currently, there is a long list of frozen yogurt products and stand-alone stores in the market. However, the industry is still growing and if you are considering entering the market, here are a few key areas that require further analysis.

Know your customers – Look for a location that you see a demand for a frozen yogurt store. Start by conducting a survey and look at speaking to a range of people from your target market. It is important also to gather information on employment, income and how people spend their money.

Know your competitors – Your immediate competitors will be other frozen yogurt and ice cream stores in and around the location you choose. You can have a quick look at the nearby stores by scanning the area or by performing a web search. Visiting your competitors is a good way to understand what you are competing with and the standards you have to maintain.

Know the rules – You will have to pay tax for your business and these rules will vary from state to state. To start your business, you will also require special licenses and permits to serve food safely. If you intend on hiring staff, you will have to register your business for an Employer Identification Number and complete I-9 forms for all new hires.

Know the costs – Usually starting a yogurt store will cost between $10,000 -$50,000 up front. Look into renting costs, hiring staff, inventory and supplies. You will also need serving equipment like dispensers, bowls, spoons and tasting spoons.

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Gelato Products has everything you need for your ice cream parlor, including frozen yogurt paper cups and other Los Angeles gelato supplies.

Set up an e-commerce shopping cart

Written by Secure Net Shop

Sales on e-commerce sites are growing at a rapid pace. Shoppers are increasingly turning to websites rather than going out. The change of shopping habit is partially for convenience and partially because it is easier to check multiple websites for what you want rather than running around from shop to shop. Regardless, if you haven’t already, it is time to get your e-commerce shopping cart up and running. Here is a basic rundown of the steps:

Information – First get all the information you need in one place. For example, The product pages of the website will require images, descriptions, and categories. Lots of companies do not have most of this information available, so it saves a lot of time to get this together first. Talk to your cart provider and get a list of everything they will need.

Payments – Any shopping cart e-commerce operation needs to accept payment from credit cards. Talk to your bank or choose one of the many online payment gateway providers. Keep an eye out for long payment periods or higher per-transaction rates. If you cannot afford the hit on your margin, consider other providers.

Implementation – The next step is to add all the products and categories. Adding everything in your inventory can take some time and requires maintenance. Whenever you discontinue a product, remove it from the side to avoid confusion. This step includes changing the design of the cart to match the look and feel of your website. Shoppers will go from one to the other and should not notice a difference.

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Add the ability to sell goods or services from your website with e-commerce shopping cart software from Secure Net Shop.

Staff requirements for colocation

Summary: More and more IT departments are moving server workloads to data centers or the cloud. This migration of hardware means organizations can survive with smaller teams.

The bigger the organizing, the bigger the IT department. However, with a lot of in-house server rooms moving to third-party data centers, the headcounts get smaller. Here are the basic staff requirements once you move your equipment to a Los Angeles data center:

IT Manager/Head of IT

The head of the department will remain. Rather than focus on running a data center, more time and attention can go towards aligning the goals of IT with the organization. Also, the IT manager can take on a more business focus.

Network/Systems Engineer

The majority of the workload will fall to the network and systems engineer. Since equipment maintenance in no longer an issue, the work will mostly revolve around the technical aspects of running the systems and the systems themselves. In short, the sole engineer with managing the remaining infrastructure.

Technician

The organization will need a single technician. This technician will deal mostly with issues at the premises and sometimes at the data center. Some of the issues left to deal with will involve wiring and network issues, printer problems, etc.

Helpdesk

The helpdesk role will probably be the only one that remains unchanged. The number of desktop support staff depends on the total headcount of the organization, and that is unlikely to change much. The only possible change is an increased role in application support such as Los Angeles web hosting as the primary network engineer will focus on managing the infrastructure.

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Bio: Written by Rack Alley. Providers of  premium LA colocation services perfect for small and enterprise customers at their data center.