Archive for June, 2009

4 Tips To Increase Motivation At Your Work Place

Successful companies often see a sudden rise in the number of people leaving them. Employees often leave a good company for a better one, and competition is high in the market place today. If your company is losing a lot of its trusted employees, you need to re think about the motivation factors in affect at the work place. Keeping your employees satisfied does not necessarily mean that you would have to spoil them or let them be lazy. Here are a few ideas to help keep the employees happy, while getting the work done at the same time:
1. Have a little fun at the work place!

You need to understand that maybe your employees are under a lot of pressure to perform at work, and maybe it is the high pressure that causes some of them to throw the towel in and leave. Adding a little bit of fun at the office may just encourage the workers to be a little more at peace with the environment in which they work. You could create breaks where everybody forgets work for a few minutes. At other times, you may see employees sharing a quick joke, and it is better not to discourage that. A happy employee will do a lot of work in a smaller period of time than an unhappy one being forced to sit at his desk and not move from there.
2. Treat your employees on a personal level.

Very often there are misunderstandings at the work place, and being the boss you could sort them out the best, provided you know every employee on an individual basis. Misunderstandings are often the result of poor communication, and knowing each worker on a personal level can help you see where a misunderstanding could have happened.
3. Give Incentives and Bonuses.

This goes a long way in making the work place more effective. Just make sure you do not have favorites who you just need a reason to reward – that is more destructive to the other employees than not giving bonuses at all.
4. Respect the expertise that an employee may have.

If someone is an expert at his own area, he really doesn’t like being told how to get the job done. So, try and not interfere with the methods employed. Instead, concern yourself only with the results that are achieved.
You may well want to add to this list of how you could make the work place an enjoyable place to be in for the employees as well as for you your self. Remember, there is no harm done with a little bit of a casual atmosphere, as long as work goes on smoothly.

Abhishek is a self-proclaimed Personality Development Guru and has written several books on this topic! Visit his website www.Positive-You.com and Download his FREE Personality Development Report and discover some amazing self-improvement tips for FREE. Become the best you can become and reclaim your life! But hurry, only limited Free copies available! www.Positive-You.com

What a Taxation Finance Attorney Can Do for you

Don’t make the mistake of representing yourself; get real help, advice and results from a taxation finance attorney that knows about the rules and regulations of the laws in your state. If you owe thousands upon thousands of dollars, you may feel like there is no end in sight and that you should claim bankruptcy. You won’t have to go down that road. A tax finance attorney can take several hundred dollars in debt and reduce it to only a couple thousand owed to the IRS.
People Who Benefit From Taxation Finance Attorneys

  • Victims of identity theft
  • IRS pursuing a debt for more than 10 years
  • People at risk of going bankrupt
  • A failed business
  • Natural disaster

You don’t have to claim bankruptcy; you can have a normal life. Stop running away from your problems and get real help from experts whose job is helping people overcome extreme tax cases. Thinking that your situation is just a unique case- that no one could possibly know how to handle what you are going through? Think again. A taxation finance attorney’s job is helping you make your tax burden disappear- or at least reduce the burden into something that is manageable, realistic and within your reach.
If You Are In Trouble With The IRS And You don’t Seek Out A Taxation Finance Attorney

  • Increased fines
  • Loss of home or business
  • Jail time
  • Bankruptcy which leads to poor credit
  • Mental anguish and stress

Don’t be a statistic of people who didn’t know where to turn. You can get through this. If you are willing to make the first step to contacting an attorney who will work for you, you are already on your way to financial freedom. Then you can ask yourself what will I do with all the money I saved? Vacation? New car? Down payment on a home? You can do it and they can help.

About the author:Melissa Peterman is a web content specialist for Innuity . For more information about finding the right taxation finance attorney , go to www.ypguides.com.

Business Strategy Fundamentals

Over the years, I have met and worked with literally hundreds of business owners. At one time or another, many of them have written a business plan. But very few of them have a working business strategy. A business plan and a business strategy are two very different tools. A business plan normally is prepared for a financing partner, either a bank or an investor. The purpose of the plan is to let investors know about the business and its potential for success in order to encourage them to invest in the business.

A business strategy is quite different. Rather than a document for investors, this is a plan for the owner to follow. It begins with an evaluation of the business’ goals. Where does the business owner want the business to be in 5, 10 or 20 years, both in terms of fair market value and cash flow? What are the plans for exiting the business? Will it be sold to an outside party or to key employees, or will it be turned over to the owner’s children?

Next, we have to do a thorough evaluation of the current state of the business. This includes a valuation of the business and an evaluation of the business’ strengths and weaknesses. The more thorough the evaluation, the better the potential outcome, but even a cursory evaluation is helpful.

Most businesses have a tendency to identify strengths and weaknesses solely from input from top management. The approach needs to be broader than this to get a true assessment. A broader approach includes interviews with key personnel and surveys of all staff levels. A side benefit of the interviews and surveys is it provides significant insight into the opportunities of the business.

Also included in the evaluation should be benchmarking. Benchmarking identifies areas in which a business is above or below the industry averages. This analysis can immediately identify areas of opportunity.

Now we need to create a strategic plan to overcome the business’ weaknesses and to use its strengths to create the desired value and cash flow. The valuation is key to this process. Most businesses never have a valuation done until they are ready to sell or gift the business. This makes no sense. If we want to target a specific value in the future, wouldn’t we want to know the current value and the method of valuation that is used in our market? By doing a current valuation, we can develop a plan that will use the principals of value in the valuation to build the value of the business.

Once we have a conceptual strategic plan, we need to determine those tactics that are likely to achieve that plan. “Strategy” is most often defined as an elaborate and systematic plan of action intended to accomplish a specific goal or goals, while the “tactics” are the actionable steps that will carry out the strategy. Having a well thought-out strategy keeps the company focused and on target while implementing and tracking a list of actionable tactics ensures real results.

Tactics are the specific tools you will use to carry out your strategy. Your tactics will need to adjust to the conditions of the market. For example, your strategy may include multiple locations. Your initial tactic may be to acquire other businesses like yours in strategic locations. But you may find that there are not qualified or motivated sellers in your targeted locations. You may have to change tactics and build your own office in your desired location.

With tactics tentatively in place, it’s time to begin implementing your business strategy. This includes building your team, developing your reports, creating your systems and procedures and putting in place internal controls. When building your team, be sure to have clear agreements in place with each team member regarding their roles and responsibilities towards you and your business. Clear communication is essential to implementing a successful business strategy.

Be sure that the reporting is set up to give you the information you need to make sure everything is implemented and running smoothly. Good reporting relieves much of the stress of running a business because you know what is happening and why it is happening.

Good reporting is also part of good internal controls. You must have internal controls in place, not only to prevent fraud and theft, but also to ensure that the work is being done in the way you expect.

Creating workable and efficient systems and procedures allow you to run the business by managing systems rather than managing individuals. With proper systems in place, you can build your business as large as you want while maintaining efficiency and high levels of profitability.

Tom Wheelwright is not only the founder and CEO of Provision, but he is the creative force behind Provision Wealth Strategists. In addition to his management responsibilities, Tom likes to coach clients on wealth, business, and tax strategies. Along with his frequent seminars on these strategies, Tom is an adjunct professor in the Masters of Tax program at Arizona State University. For more information please visit http://www.provisionwealth.com

Car Finance Loan â?? Get Your Car Finance Now

If you are finally finding yourself in a position where you would like to get yourself a car in the world of today thing you are going to realize that you are going to need to see it as much of your hard earned and precious time as well as a finance is for you to go about getting one.  It really is not an option for you go about getting yourself a car just straight up out of your bank account as most people do not have that much disposal income laying around for such big purchases.  The solutions this is to get yourself a  Car Finance Loan through the use of an Internet website.  So when you realize is comes the point where you should be looking for a very good deal on getting yourself a Car Finance Loan, getting yourself one through a vast array of different financial lending institutions that are on the Internet is going to empower you with the ability to get yourself a great deal on any low interest car loan without having to expend as much time and energy like it would take for you go from one bank to another bank or from one car dealership lot to another car dealership lot for all of the information is required to make a educated decision on what we give you the best possible solution.

When you decide to go about getting yourself a inexpensive low interest New Car Loans and it is going to allow you to get yourself a preapproval noticed in a very timely manner as well as saving an un heard of unknown of your time and energy simply because you had to go about filling out stacks and stacks of the paper work as well as terms and conditions that you go about doing if you’re to go about getting yourself a used a car finance through a bank or a car dealership.  While this is not only the case, your also to be able to acquire self with a low interest car loan in only a matter of one day for you to be able to get your preapproval noticed when you go about getting yourself your low interest car loan online through the CarMoneyRealFast.

Car money real fast provides exceptional Car Finance services for the people of all credit situations including bad credit. Get car loans online now though you have bed credit.Car Money Real Fast offers a variety of New Car Finance at relative low interest rates. Get the best used car loan low prices with easy instant approval basis.

Creating a Car Wash Business Plan

Before embarking on writing a business plan for starting a car wash, a definition of what a business plan is in order. A business plan is a document to identify an opportunity, research why this opportunity is profitable and the steps needed to capitalize on the opportunity. The business plan can be a formal document or it can be written on the back of a napkin but the mere act of writing the idea down forces you to get the idea out of your head and on paper which helps find hidden business flaws and makes you think carefully about each phase of your business.

Creating a business plan is something anyone can do, even if you don’t know anything about business or finances. Even though the business plan is critical to getting the idea off of the ground, many entrepreneurs procrastinate when it comes to preparing a written plan. If you don’t know anything about business or finances, this is the best time to begin learning as the chances of your business being successful will be limited without this knowledge. Just as a builder won’t begin construction without a blueprint, entrepreneurs shouldn’t rush into new ventures without a plan. The old saying that “those who fail to plan, plan to fail” is very relevant when talking about starting a business. SBA’s statistics claim over half of new businesses fail in the first three years and the common factor is poor planning or under-capitalization (which is also poor planning).

Getting Started
The first step in creating a business plan is just getting started. Writing the business plan may seem overwhelming at first, but if you break the plan down to bite sized pieces and work on one section at a time won’t seem as daunting. Begin with what you know first and describe your business and your product or services. Work towards the more difficult subjects such as marketing, operations and financials. Don’t worry about it being perfect now, just get the concepts on paper – expand and refine later. If you get stuck on a section in the plan, skip it for now and come back later when you have more details.

Who is your audience?
When writing your car wash business plan, you need to keep in mind who your intended audience is and why you are writing the plan. Why? A plan for the bank will be less interested in the exit strategy and return on investment than one for equity investors. Additionally, a plan for written for internal use will be different than one looking for financing as a bank is not necessarily interested in detailed operations of the business.

Structure
Business plans tend to have a lot of elements in common. While there is not a format that all business plans follow, there are generally accepted guidelines that most follow as the order in which the subjects flow are not random. The Business Description of a business plan is aimed at painting a picture of your business and why this business will be successful. The Marketing, Management and Operations sections are researched and a strategy of how your business will compete and operate is developed. Last financial projections show in numbers what you explained in the business plan for the sales and expenses.

Breaking these three major sections down even further, a business plan consists of six key components:

  • Executive Summary
  • Business Description
  • Marketing
  • Managers & Employees
  • Operations & Location
  • Financial Projections
    In addition to these sections, a business plan should also have a cover, title page and table of contents.How Long Should Your Business Plan Be?
    The answer that nobody liked in school applies to a business plan which is, “as long as it needs to be”. The more complex a business or the more sophisticated investors or funds requested will increase the length of a plan. An average car wash business plan narrative should be 4-15 pages plus financials and appendix items.

    Business Plan Outline

    Executive Summary
    The executive summary is the first part of the business plan but is the last to be written. It gives the reader a quick glance of what your business proposal is about and what you are asking for. This part is critical as most readers will scan this section before deciding whether to read further.

    The executive summary should typically be about one-half of a page in length and include what you would cover in an elevator pitch such as:

  • Explain the condensed version of the business concept
  • Product description or service proposition
  • This section should emphasize any unique features or benefits that what is currently in the industry or area, aka why would someone buy your product over the competition.
  • The demographics of your market
  • The Management team
  • When the anticipated start date is
  • Your equity position
  • How much are you asking forConcise is the key in the executive summary. You will go into more detail later in the business plan.Business Description
    The purpose of the business description is to objectively describe the car wash business details and future potential include:
  • Mission
  • What the business does
  • Description of products and/or services
  • Industry information
  • Business Organization
  • Status of the business (start-up, expansion or purchasing)
  • Current and future goalsAny facts or figures should be noted and sources included in the business plan. This information is important should you need to defend your data and assumptions. The business description is where you are trying to paint a picture of the potential of your business along with the facts to support it. Try to inject energy and excitement to get the reader enthusiastic about the idea, without going overboard of course.After describing the business, it is time to describe and additional products or services your car wash is selling. Keep in mind that it is important to show how your products and services are better than the competition. If you don’t have a good answer than you should rethink your strategy. What is it about your car wash that is going to get the customer to change doing business with the competition?

    Marketing
    A very important part of your business plan is the marketing section. Regardless of the quality of your products and your services, your business will be lost in the clutter of advertising. If you don’t know your customers, how will they ever find you? All of this begins with doing some research.

    Customers: Who Is Your Market
    The first step is to determine who you are going to sell to by identifying common characteristics of your market such as age, income, race, religion, education, interests and/or geographic locations. While everyone will want to wash their car product how are you going to effectively advertise to everyone and still make a profit? What you need to do instead is determine the group or groups of people who are most likely to use your car wash services and market to them. After all you are trying to generate a positive return on your marketing dollars, so use them wisely.

    Competition
    In today’s ultracompetitive marketplace, there is going to be competition, no matter how creative your business concept is. Attempting to run a portion of your car wash business better than the competition may be a difficult challenge so it is often better to focus on planning on being different and competing with them less directly. Can you serve a particular market niche such as the elderly that isn’t being looked at? Can you identify a unique operations/marketing/distribution strategy with a mobile approach? Even if you don’t have direct competition in your area meaning someone selling the same or similar products/services, you will have indirect competition for replacement products/services. If you indicate in your plan there is no competition it will be viewed that there is either no market for your product or you have not done your research.

    Optimally you will want information on at least three but no more than five competitors. List information about who they are, how long they have been in business, location, products or services offered, perception on pricing, quality, etc. and compare your advantages and disadvantages. If the information you are looking for is not available online, you may need to pretend you are a customer to get some of this information.

    Distribution – How Will You Get the Product To The Customer: By looking at who your market and competition is, you will have an idea of how to get your product to them. Perhaps through your research you will find a strategic advantage to serve the customer that the competition does not.

    Promotional Strategy
    With the above steps researched, the promotional strategy follows. The promotional strategy is where most entrepreneurs fail as they use the blanket statement that they are going to advertise in the newspaper, radio and/or television without thinking through the process or the customer. The promotional strategy provides you a map of how you are going to reach your market in the most efficient manner possible. Advertising is expensive, use it wisely.

    Sales Projections
    On of the more difficult areas of the business plan is coming up with sales projections. This number is probably going to be wrong and that’s ok. What you want is a figure backed up with justifiable data. Just grabbing a number out of the air saying you will make $300,000 won’t work. There are many sources to help come up with this number including:

  • Industry journals
  • Trade groups
  • Car washes in similar demographic areas
  • Industry experts
  • Census dataPricing
    The effects of pricing play a large role on how your product is perceived in the marketplace. Price too low compared to the competition and your product could be perceived as cheap and unreliable. Price too high with the features and benefits of your product and few customers come through the door. While this is a complex issue, here are a few things to keep in mind.
  • Make sure you can make a profit at whatever price you are selling at.
  • If you want to have lower costs and “get your foot in the door” it may be better to offer discounts or coupons initially until your business is better known.
  • Don’t be afraid to charge more for your product or service than the competition if you have something of more value to offer.
  • Pricing is the easiest of the marketing mix to change. You may find that a large competitor will under price you to ensure you can’t make a profit and your car wash goes out of business.Management & Employees
    In this section you would describe who is going to manage the business on a daily basis as well as provide strategic direction (if these positions are separate). Each of these people need to have a brief biography included as well as a resume in the appendix. Try to show how the experience and education of these people will be able to successfully execute the strategy in the business plan and succeed. Many times the owner may not have the specific experience for this business, so it is very important to pull their other professional experience in and explain how it will make for a successful operation. Next, a brief explanation of the employees is in order including:
  • What positions need to be filled
  • When they need to be filled (This is important in developing financial projections as you may have some employees come on after you start)
  • How much they get paid (Be sure to calculate payroll taxes as well, estimate 15% if not sure)It is also recommended to add the professional and advisors to your business. These people include:
  • Board of directors
  • Consultants
  • Accountants
  • Attorneys
  • Bankers
  • MentorsOperations & Location
    The operations and location section of the plan illustrates how you are going to make or acquire your product and information about your business location.

    Operations – Explain how and where your products or services are made. A few points to include in your plan
    How does your car wash operate, what steps are in your service?
    Who are your suppliers?
    What are the terms and lead time for this product?

    Location – Location is where you will be doing business out of. If you are in the classic, I can’t get my location until I get a loan so I can’t finish my business plan scenario, list what features you are looking at in a building along with average prices or rents and pad that number a little just in case. A few things to add:

  • Department of Transportation traffic count – most states have this information online to show how many vehicles pass your location each day.
  • Building description
  • What is the size
  • Where is it located
  • Specific reasons for this property
  • Proximity to suppliers, roads, airports, railroads, and shipping centers, etc.
  • Zoning
  • Average utilities – Be sure to get the last 12 months from the electric company if the building had been occupied. This could be an expensive lesson from a dishonest landlord. If you are opening a new location, try to talk with other car wash operators in a non-competitive area to get a estimate
  • Add pictures to the appendix
  • Add a floor plan to the appendix
  • Purchase price or monthly rent/lease
  • Include sales/rent/lease agreement in appendix
  • If building or renovating be sure to include quotes as this is an area frequently underestimated in costs.Financial Projections
    Financial projections are placed at the end of your business plan, before the appendix but it a very critical piece to the plan. The three must-have financial statements are a cash flow statement, a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet. The information already provided in the narrative portion of the business plan must match the financial projections. Most financial projections are three years in length. It is a good idea to include a Notes & Assumptions to Financial Projections page to both help make sure all of your numbers come through and provide an itemized list to provide clarity for the reader.

    Notes & Assumptions to Financial Projections
    Loans

  • Break out each loan (building, equipment, inventory)
  • Amount
  • Interest rate
  • Length
    And any monthly costs not discussed in business plan narrative
  • Cost of goods/inventory
  • Advertising
  • Employee wages
  • Insurance
  • License & fees
  • Miscellaneous
  • Professional fees
  • Rent/property taxes
  • Repairs & maintenance
  • Supplies
  • Telephone
  • Utilities
  • Vehicle expense
  • Etc.
  • Anything else that needs to be explained in the financials that is not in the narrativeFinancial Projection SectionsStartup Expenses – These are all expenses you will incur prior to opening your car wash. It is recommended to have quotes available or in the appendix for the larger items. It is also recommended that you pad your numbers some as there will always be unexpected expenses that were not accounted for.

    Sources and Uses of Funds – This section details how the loan money will be used (inventory, car wash equipment, repairs and improvements, working capital, etc) and who is providing it (bank, investor or owner). You will likely need to be injecting 20% of your own money and maybe more depending on the risk assessment of the business and your personal finances.

    Cash Flows – The cash-flow statement is one of the most important pieces of your business plan. It shows a schedule of the money coming into the business and expenses that need to be paid and whether you have enough cash to sustain the business gained during the warm month to cover the costs during the winter months. Every part of your business plan is important, but none of it means a thing if you run out of cash. Should this number be negative, you either need to raise sales, reduce expenses or have more cash. Your cash flow statement will typically be three years in length with the first year analyzing the monthly figures and later years by quarter. Don’t be intimidated with the cash flow statement as it is merely a future look into your checking account.

    Profit & Loss – This statement, while similar to the cash flow statement but illustrated annually looks at the effects of non-cash charges such as depreciation and amortization to get an accounting overview of the operations of your business.

    Balance Sheet – The balance sheet is a summary of the value of all assets, liabilities and equity for an organization at the end of each year. A balance sheet is often described as a “snapshot” of a company’s financial condition and will show the value of the business over time.

    Personal Financial Statement – If you are looking at bank financing every person who will have a 20% or more ownership position will need to provide a personal financial statement to show how effective they are at managing your money. This statement will show your assets (checking & savings accounts, cd’s ira, 401K, valuables, home, vehicle, etc) as well as assets (mortgages, credit card bills, installment accounts, etc)

    Appendices
    Appendix items are various pieces of information that help make your case. Include details and studies used in your business plan; for example:

  • Quotes for items over $500
  • Resumes of the management team
  • Industry research
  • Demographic data and trends
  • Maps/floorplans/blueprints of location
  • Leases and contracts
  • Letters of supportThere is a lot to creating your business plan but will definitely make your business stronger. While it may seem easier to have someone else write your plan, there is no substitute to writing it yourself. This is your business and by writing it yourself you will have a better understanding of your business and strategies for success. There are also many free business plan templates and workbooks available on the web to help you get started. You can use these to help get started creating your business plan and then modify it for your car wash business.For more free articles and resources for starting a car wash are available at www.StartingACarWash.com.

    Additionally, business plan help can be found at www.TheBusinessPlanFactory.com