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Hub You - Business Problems? Is My Business in Trouble? How Can I Tell Before the Worst Happens?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for paralegals is very good, with an expected growth rate near 33 percent a year through 2010. The bureau notes that compared to other professions, the leap in the paralegal field is dramatic.The paralegal or legal assistant profession is expected to grow because of a couple of economic factors. One, more law firms are hiring paralegals to do some of the necessary legwork - research and paper work on their behalf. This frees up the attorney for court appearances and for developing client-attorney relationship
8. Do you have a good gross profit?
Suppliers:
1. Can you suppliers force you to take large deliveries?
2. Are suppliers difficult to find?
3. Is supply readily available?
4. Do you have the opportunity of obtaining supplies from several companies?
5. Can you obtain deliveries when you need to?
Customers:
1. Do you rely on just a few customers?
2. Can some of your customers insist on lower prices?
3. Do you have a lot of late payers?
4. Is the cost of obtaining new customers high?
5. Do your customers often repeat order?
6. Do you have a high percentage of customers who only order once from you?
Market:
1. Is competition very strong?
2. Do you hav
When the word "networking" is used, we tend to think of upwardly mobile college graduates with a bursting day timer in hand chatting up the competition at business meetings, conventions, or workshops. The average blue/pink/white collar worker disconnects, feeling that they could never be that pushy, don't know enough people to even start the attempt, and that the method only works in competitive business environments.Wrong!While networking can, and often does, follow such a scenario, the concept is much broader than that. The premise is that most people find a j
Sit down quietly in your office, with your records to hand and work your way through this business health check. You don’t need to do it all at once, but try and do it within a few days. You should review each question deeply in order to get a detailed view of your business.
Management:
1. Do you rely too much on one manager, including yourself?
2. What would happen if one or more managers left or were ill for some time?
3. Do you have enough managers with the right experience?
4. Do you have too many managers?
5. Are your managers trained or experienced to the optimum level?
Staff:
1. Do you have enough staff?
2. Do you have a high staff turnover?
3. Can you find staff with the right skills and experience?
4. Are your staff fully trained?
5. Are your staff in the right departments and geographic areas?
6. Do you have a strong sales and admin group?
Operations:
1. Your internal efficiency – does your company run efficiently from marketing to after sales?
2. Can you manufacture or fulfill your sales quickly and meet your customer’s expectations?
3. Do you have bottle necks in any of your business processes?
4. Do you receive frequent complaints about any part of your business?
5. Can you provide your goods and services during sales cyclical increases?
6. Do you have high stock levels that you regularly have to sell off at below normal prices?
7. Do you have a strong marketing and advertising strategy in place?
Sales:
1. Are your sales strong and gradually increasing?
2. Are your sales reliant on external factors that you have no control on? Think ice cream seller.
3. Do you have strong cyclical sales and can you cope with them?
4. Do you have alternative products and services available for periods when your standard stock is not selling so well. Think diary sellers.
5. Do you have a strong product range that has a naturally increasing set of price points?
6. Do you have up sells available to capitalize on each customer’s total sales value?
7. Do sell products that are complimentary to your major products?
8. Are you selling what your customers are asking for?
9. Are the sales of one particular product diminishing?
10. Do you often get asked for something you don’t have?
11. Are you sure that the prices you charge are set at the optimum level.
Financial:
1. Do you have a steady cash flow or are there periods of stagnant or negative cash flow?
2. Do you collect the majority of your invoices within 30 days?
3. Do you have a problem with obtaining loans?
4. Are your stock costs high?
5. For retail or manufacturing companies. Are your staffing costs a large proportion of your total costs?
6. For service companies. Are your charge out rates at least 200% of your staff rates.
7. For service companies. Are your consulting staff being charged out at least 75% of time?
8. Do you have a good gross profit?
Suppliers:
1. Can you suppliers force you to take large deliveries?
2. Are suppliers difficult to find?
3. Is supply readily available?
4. Do you have the opportunity of obtaining supplies from several companies?
5. Can you obtain deliveries when you need to?
Customers:
1. Do you rely on just a few customers?
2. Can some of your customers insist on lower prices?
3. Do you have a lot of late payers?
4. Is the cost of obtaining new customers high?
5. Do your customers often repeat order?
6. Do you have a high percentage of customers who only order once from you?
Market:
1. Is competition very strong?
2. Do you hav
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't hear another small business owners complaining about some of the customers they have to do business with. Some of them REALLY are legitimate complaints, but after listening to 100's of different complaints, I have found the root of most of them is a lack of understanding. Therefore, I hope this article gets you on the road of addressing complaints and customer problems in your home business.The first step is to get past the irritation. It's only human nature to get a little upset when a customer writes to complain about somet
Staff:
1. Do you have enough staff?
2. Do you have a high staff turnover?
3. Can you find staff with the right skills and experience?
4. Are your staff fully trained?
5. Are your staff in the right departments and geographic areas?
6. Do you have a strong sales and admin group?
Operations:
1. Your internal efficiency – does your company run efficiently from marketing to after sales?
2. Can you manufacture or fulfill your sales quickly and meet your customer’s expectations?
3. Do you have bottle necks in any of your business processes?
4. Do you receive frequent complaints about any part of your business?
5. Can you provide your goods and services during sales cyclical increases?
6. Do you have high stock levels that you regularly have to sell off at below normal prices?
7. Do you have a strong marketing and advertising strategy in place?
Sales:
1. Are your sales strong and gradually increasing?
2. Are your sales reliant on external factors that you have no control on? Think ice cream seller.
3. Do you have strong cyclical sales and can you cope with them?
4. Do you have alternative products and services available for periods when your standard stock is not selling so well. Think diary sellers.
5. Do you have a strong product range that has a naturally increasing set of price points?
6. Do you have up sells available to capitalize on each customer’s total sales value?
7. Do sell products that are complimentary to your major products?
8. Are you selling what your customers are asking for?
9. Are the sales of one particular product diminishing?
10. Do you often get asked for something you don’t have?
11. Are you sure that the prices you charge are set at the optimum level.
Financial:
1. Do you have a steady cash flow or are there periods of stagnant or negative cash flow?
2. Do you collect the majority of your invoices within 30 days?
3. Do you have a problem with obtaining loans?
4. Are your stock costs high?
5. For retail or manufacturing companies. Are your staffing costs a large proportion of your total costs?
6. For service companies. Are your charge out rates at least 200% of your staff rates.
7. For service companies. Are your consulting staff being charged out at least 75% of time?
8. Do you have a good gross profit?
Suppliers:
1. Can you suppliers force you to take large deliveries?
2. Are suppliers difficult to find?
3. Is supply readily available?
4. Do you have the opportunity of obtaining supplies from several companies?
5. Can you obtain deliveries when you need to?
Customers:
1. Do you rely on just a few customers?
2. Can some of your customers insist on lower prices?
3. Do you have a lot of late payers?
4. Is the cost of obtaining new customers high?
5. Do your customers often repeat order?
6. Do you have a high percentage of customers who only order once from you?
Market:
1. Is competition very strong?
2. Do you hav
You might have already done enough research that you're familiar with the term "medical billing". But often times, people have different understandings of what medical billing actually is and how it differs from other similar aspects of the medical profession. Most often, medical billing is mistaken for medical transcription or coding, which are very closely related but different enough that they should really be considered 3 separate specialties. It's true that there is some overlap in terms of the actually work done in each of the three areas, but they all carry enough u
7. Do you have a strong marketing and advertising strategy in place?
Sales:
1. Are your sales strong and gradually increasing?
2. Are your sales reliant on external factors that you have no control on? Think ice cream seller.
3. Do you have strong cyclical sales and can you cope with them?
4. Do you have alternative products and services available for periods when your standard stock is not selling so well. Think diary sellers.
5. Do you have a strong product range that has a naturally increasing set of price points?
6. Do you have up sells available to capitalize on each customer’s total sales value?
7. Do sell products that are complimentary to your major products?
8. Are you selling what your customers are asking for?
9. Are the sales of one particular product diminishing?
10. Do you often get asked for something you don’t have?
11. Are you sure that the prices you charge are set at the optimum level.
Financial:
1. Do you have a steady cash flow or are there periods of stagnant or negative cash flow?
2. Do you collect the majority of your invoices within 30 days?
3. Do you have a problem with obtaining loans?
4. Are your stock costs high?
5. For retail or manufacturing companies. Are your staffing costs a large proportion of your total costs?
6. For service companies. Are your charge out rates at least 200% of your staff rates.
7. For service companies. Are your consulting staff being charged out at least 75% of time?
8. Do you have a good gross profit?
Suppliers:
1. Can you suppliers force you to take large deliveries?
2. Are suppliers difficult to find?
3. Is supply readily available?
4. Do you have the opportunity of obtaining supplies from several companies?
5. Can you obtain deliveries when you need to?
Customers:
1. Do you rely on just a few customers?
2. Can some of your customers insist on lower prices?
3. Do you have a lot of late payers?
4. Is the cost of obtaining new customers high?
5. Do your customers often repeat order?
6. Do you have a high percentage of customers who only order once from you?
Market:
1. Is competition very strong?
2. Do you hav
Maximize Your Online Advertising Dollars (part 1)How much do you spend advertising your online business? How much money are you making from your online business? The two are directly related. The adage, "You have to spend money to make money..." is an undeniable truth. You can't very well sell products if people don't know about them, and the way to tell people about what you've got, is to advertise. ADVERTISING COSTS MONEY. Big corporations spend millions of dollars to advertise their product
8. Are you selling what your customers are asking for?
9. Are the sales of one particular product diminishing?
10. Do you often get asked for something you don’t have?
11. Are you sure that the prices you charge are set at the optimum level.
Financial:
1. Do you have a steady cash flow or are there periods of stagnant or negative cash flow?
2. Do you collect the majority of your invoices within 30 days?
3. Do you have a problem with obtaining loans?
4. Are your stock costs high?
5. For retail or manufacturing companies. Are your staffing costs a large proportion of your total costs?
6. For service companies. Are your charge out rates at least 200% of your staff rates.
7. For service companies. Are your consulting staff being charged out at least 75% of time?
8. Do you have a good gross profit?
Suppliers:
1. Can you suppliers force you to take large deliveries?
2. Are suppliers difficult to find?
3. Is supply readily available?
4. Do you have the opportunity of obtaining supplies from several companies?
5. Can you obtain deliveries when you need to?
Customers:
1. Do you rely on just a few customers?
2. Can some of your customers insist on lower prices?
3. Do you have a lot of late payers?
4. Is the cost of obtaining new customers high?
5. Do your customers often repeat order?
6. Do you have a high percentage of customers who only order once from you?
Market:
1. Is competition very strong?
2. Do you hav
I'm always seeking fun and creative ways to market my clients, and myself so I just couldn't overlook this opportunity. Chase’s Calendar of Events has chosen January 30 as this year’s day when Americans should stop and appreciate the uniqueness and versatility of Bubble Wrap®.Even more interesting is that Bubble Wrap® was invented as plastic wallpaper with a paper backing. After the plastic wallpaper failed to take off in the consumer market, the inventors realized that their invention could be used as a packaging material. Look where it is today, a mai
8. Do you have a good gross profit?
Suppliers:
1. Can you suppliers force you to take large deliveries?
2. Are suppliers difficult to find?
3. Is supply readily available?
4. Do you have the opportunity of obtaining supplies from several companies?
5. Can you obtain deliveries when you need to?
Customers:
1. Do you rely on just a few customers?
2. Can some of your customers insist on lower prices?
3. Do you have a lot of late payers?
4. Is the cost of obtaining new customers high?
5. Do your customers often repeat order?
6. Do you have a high percentage of customers who only order once from you?
Market:
1. Is competition very strong?
2. Do you have a near monopoly?
3. Do you have a strong and recognized brand in your market place?
4. Are you aware of future changes in your market place and changing your offerings to meet these?
5. Are you leaving some market niches unexplored or untouched?
6. Are there markets that you could exploit?
7. Are your marketing costs a high proportion of your costs?
These questions are planned to give you a good understanding of the weaknesses of your business. If you have too many negatives then you know you have some remedial work to do.
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