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News of the day - What's ahead? Over the past year, we know that we "ratcheted up" the Small Business Conversations program that we host each month. Held on a Thursday evening at 8pm eastern, we find an expert in small business management who will donate an hour of their time to visit with you and I to learn more of what they know that will help all of us in our businesses.
The January guest was Ken Banks - a member of the retail advertising hall of fame.
Our February guest will be Ron Freidman who will be helping us introduce the 47th calculator on the Profits Plus website. This calculator will show you how to increase your profits by being able to substitute a gift card for a discount.
March is the annual celebration of the Small Business Development Centers across the country and we anticipate having one of the state directors along with the national president of SBDC.
And April is scheduled to have Steve Drake. While Steve has owned a company that specializes in association management, we are going to talk about what associations, trade magazines, manufacturers and wholesalers need to be focusing on with regard to your business. (It is not telling you about their new products, programs and pricing.)
The program is free; we even pay for the phone call if you choose to call in for the live event. And our special guest expert is not selling anything during the program.
You can listen to the live program online and download it from the Profits Plus website or any of more than a dozen podcast services.
Article of the Month - Creating a cashflow chart This month's article is one of many I have written on the most important tool your business can have - a cashflow chart. While you need to have a monthly profit and loss statement and a balance sheet, both of these documents are historical. The cashflow chart is different as it is looking into the future; it is your profit and loss statement recreated as a projection with one awesome addition. While it does tell you about profit, it also tells you about "cash on hand".
You have likely learned that profit and cash on hand have little to do with each other. Not only does the cashflow chart tell you how little they are connected, it tells you how to plan for each.
While you may enjoy the article, we know you will love the idea of having this additional management tool at your disposal.
Book of the Month - Living it up The guest for the December Small Business Conversations was Pam Danziger who is an expert on affluent customers. During the visit, Pam mentioned the book, "Living It Up: Our Love Affair with Luxury". This book by James B. Twitchell, as well as the writings of Pam give guidance on how to market to these money spending customers.
Purchasing this book from your local retailer is a wise investment of your money as is the investment of your time in reading the book.
Internet Tool for Your Business - Determining your "acid ratio" It is easy to get lost in all that "tech speak" that bookkeepers, accountants, bankers and others can tell you. Not to make light of any of them, but acid ratio is one you would want to pay attention to. It looks at business over the next year and how strong your business will be regarding the ability to pay bills.
The link below will take you to the calculator on the Profits Plus website with additional information as well as the ability for you to perform the calculation on your business.
Staff Incentive for Your Business You have an employee who has achieved a goal you established for them; perhaps someone has done an outstanding job or something you want to recognize them for. At the same time, when recognition is given, it can help to inspire other employees if they see how the first employee is recognized. Let's give them something to talk about.
We suggest your using Lyft or Uber to pick them up and bring them to work. At the end of the day, use the same service to take them home. It is an effective and inexpensive way of saying, "thank you".
And your other employees are sure to notice and talk about it.
We want to recognize A Carrot A Day by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, whose book provides the basis for each month's incentive idea.
What's coming up that you can promote? - Give your existing and potential customers a reason to celebrate. We collect information from National Day Calendar and share certain events that we know you could include as a part of your promotional efforts.
We are adding this new feature to help you create events for several reasons. Your customers will enjoy a fun connection with your business. You can easily use social media to promote the event. You will get the benefit of your event getting a tie in to events that local and national media promote. Our favorite example is that of chocolate pie. Yes, there is a chocolate pie day. If you are a grocery store or restaurant, it is a natural to tell your customers of the event and invite them to do business with you. Other businesses could do a joint effort with the restaurant or grocery store.
Putting these together can be quick and easy, but should be planned in advance. As an example, as this is February 1 you should be looking at what you can do in April
Examples of April events include:
April 2 is national peanut butter and jelly sandwich day
April 7 is national beer day
April 11 is national pet day
April 20 is look alike day
April is lawn and garden month and jazz appreciation month
Boys and girls club week is the third week of the month as is coin week.
We want to thank National Day Calendar for this information. National Day Calendar - Where the world gathers to celebrate every day.
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FEBRUARY 2025
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With over 25 years of frontline experience Tom Shay is America's leading Small Business Management Expert. He's a "Must Have" for your next event.
Small Business
Hopefully there are few small businesses that are operating with handwritten documents. Whether you have a point of sale (POS) system; Curstomer relationship management (CRM) system; or anything digital that helps you better operate your business, there remains a question.
Are you using everything that you bought? That is the focus of the February Small Business Advisory.
Small Business
As small business ownerss we are sure to disagree on many aspects of business management and ownership. However there are two items that I will always insist on.
The first item for you as manager and owner of a business, you must inderstand financial information. You cannot leave it to an accountant. The second item is you have to invest in educating your staff regarding their responsibilities within your business.
Most every small business has inventory. It may be inventory used as a part of your services. It may be inventory for items used in your business. The article of the month shares ideas of how you should control the inventory. This is important because you do not want to run out of the necessary inventory, and you do not want too much of your money sitting in more inventory than you need.
You cannot beat your competition unless you know what they are doing. The February book of the month is, The Everything Store, written by Brad Stone and Jeff Bezos.
