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Blogging for Business
Business blogs are primarily used to improve a company's communication both internally and externally. Business blogs are a type of communication channel that could be used effectively in product launches, team interaction internally within the...
Creating Momentum For Your Home Business
Have you ever experienced momentum in your home business activities? If so, then you have really been working to make things happen for yourself. Great job. If not, you probably don*t even know that momentum exists. Everything will seem easier...
Home Business Tips
If your Online Business success was 100% guaranteed, wouldn't you jump at the chance to start your own money making online business? Of course you would! And now there is a guaranteed way you can start your very own money-making internet business...
Home Business, What's So Great About It?
Home Business allows you more time to do what you want. Home Business gives you more freedom i.e. no more 9-5 job. Because a Home Business is well.... at Home, you don't have to travel far to get there. Just come down stairs in your...
More Uses for Your Business Plan
You have invested a lot of time and energy on writing a business plan just to get a loan or to attract an investor. What do you do when you get the money or, worse, should you be turned down? Do you just file it away? That's like investing in...
PASSING THE FAMILY BUSINESS TO THE NEXT GENERATION - IS IT YOUR BEST CHOICE?
As Penn State professor William Rothwell ominously points out in the forward to Exit Right: A Guided Tour of Succession Planning for Families in Business Together, more than 40% of the people who run the closely held operations that comprise 80% of...
The 3 Elements You Need For Successful Home Business
Product, Leads, and Advertising - the 3 most important elements of any successful home based business. For this article we will focus on leads. Leads are people that are interested in making money from home. How do we know this? For...
Want To Expand Your Business? Try Walking Barefoot in the Grass!
I hear it all the time. "I want to expand my business, but I don’t know how." Many online small business owners have this challenge. In all actuality, it’s not a business problem... rather a creativity problem. For any given industry, there...
What's your Business Online Attitude?
This article was prompted by some customer support work I was involved in for a private members site. One of the paid subscription members wanted someone to look over his website and give an opinion of what we thought of its design. It was clear...
Why Radio Advertising Could Be The Best Thing You Ever Did For Your Business
In the marketing world, radio has earned the reputation of being the odd step-cousin. You know the one. No one knows quite what to do with him. Especially at family gatherings when everyone tries hard to avoid sitting with him. (After all, who...
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Budgeting Advice for New Craft Businesses
Budgeting Advice for New Craft Businesses
BY: Eileen Bergen
www.theartfulcrafter.com
Every crafter or, for that matter, every business person must learn
to control spending from the very onset of the venture. As a
matter of fact, you should not even be in business unless you
have drawn up at least a simple business plan and budget.
Your budget should be grounded in reality and subject to change as
circumstances require. In other words, if you income came in 20%
below your projections, expenses will have to be cut to make up
for the hopefully temporary shortfall.
One serious mistake a small business person makes in a situation
like this is to assume that s/he will make up the income
shortfall and continue the spending side of the budget without
any adjustments.
Most small businesses are undercapitalized to begin with, so it
really pays to be conservative. I have always tried to make sure
that a craft is making enough money to pay for itself before
stocking up on more supplies or new equipment. I try to get a substantial down payment if
an order would require that I
increase my raw material inventory. Everything that I do must be
self-supporting.
Do some research if you plan to add a new type of craft to sell.
Try to determine if there is a market and if it looks profitable.
Again be conservative in your assumptions and start out slowly.
Of course, not everything works as planned. On several
occasions, a craft I thought would sell well didn’t. But because
I didn’t go too far out on a limb buying inventory, the loss was
always minimal. If you’re lucky you can even recycle the materials
into some other project.
As time passes, you will learn what works
and what doesn’t. As you
gain this knowledge, you should be making adjustments to your
budget to reflect reality.
This is made much easier by careful record keeping. You can use a
simple spreadsheet or a small business software package. You can
even use paper and pencil if you can’t afford the software.
If you track the cost of your materials, the costs of marketing
your products and the actual income you receive, you will know if
your budget is on track, if you can afford the new tool you want or
if you should stock up on more inventory. You will also be able to
decide if you should branch out or change direction.
The bottom line is that you cannot afford to throw money at your
business. You must try to work around obstacles in a cost efficient
manner. While your budget may reflect a short period of losses at
the very beginning, losses cannot be allowed to go on unchecked.
Careful, consistent tracking and a dynamic budget, one that
reflects reality, should be major tools that you use constantly in
your decision making processes.
If you use them, you should be able to avoid the fate most small
businesses face today - failure.
For more articles on the business of crafting and how to get
started selling your crafts, please visit The Artful
Crafter - Your Craft Business Guide.
BY: Eileen Bergen
The Artful Crafter
www.theartfulcrafter.com
About the Author
Ms Bergen has had a varied career, first as
a special education teacher and then, after geting a MBA degree, as a vice president for a major insurance company. For the last eight years, she has been making and selling crafts.
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