Bruce Wade, Author at EM Solutions

April is Strategy Month – Do you have one?

This time of year when the seasons change and the new financial year is finally in full swing we tend to look towards our budgets and forecasts with a little doubt and fear. Developing a solid business growth strategy has to be the best way to secure the future of your business. But what is s strategy? How does one go about developing a plan on paper that actually translates into implemented actions and improvements to the bottom lines?

Join us this month as we unpack the different models, frameworks and tools of a functional business strategy.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:08+02:00April 1st, 2016|Bruce on Business, Business Resources|0 Comments

As a business owner, do you know what these terms mean?

Business language Business has its own language, just like any other career field. Knowing this language is crucial for every entrepreneur because information in business is communicated using certain essential financial accounting terms. As a business owner, it is important to familiarize yourself with these terms, especially as someone new to the business industry. They might seem intimidating at first, but when you get used to them, you will understand why you needed to know them.

Balance Sheet – A quantitative summary of a company’s financial condition at a specific point in time, including assets, liabilities and net worth.

Assets – Rights or other access to future economic benefits controlled by an entity as a result of past transactions or events.

Expense – Any cost of doing business resulting from revenue-generating activities.

Revenue – The total amount of money received by the company for goods sold or services provided during a certain time period. It also includes all net sales, exchange of assets; interest and any other increase in owner’s equity and is calculated before any expenses are subtracted.

Coupon – Rate of interest payable on a loan.

Enterprise – a business activity or a commercial project.

Equity – A description applied to the ordinary share capital of an entity.

Gross – Before making deductions.

Net – After making deductions.

Liabilities – Obligations of an entity to transfer economic benefits as a result of past transactions or events.

Liquidity – The extent to which a business has access to cash or items which can readily be exchanged for cash.

Profit – Calculated as revenue minus expenses.

Turnover – The sales of a business or other form of revenue from operations of the business.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:08+02:00March 29th, 2016|Uncategorized|0 Comments

How to make your clients happy.

Happy customer It is crucial for every business owner to realize the importance of nurturing relationships with clients. Not only do these people provide the revenue coming into the business but there also is a great feeling that comes with contributing to the success and happiness of your clients.

Part of growing a successful business is caring for your customers. Realize that we are in times where an unhappy client can share their opinion with the masses through social media and that can negatively affect your business. That’s why it’s even more important than ever to create an excellent experience for your customers to help develop your company’s relationship with them into love.

So, how would you know whether your clients are happy or not? Well, you would not know unless they or someone lets you know, right? You need to interact with them and review their feedback very often.

Below are 3 tips on how to make your clients happy.

1. Always listen to your clients.

When you have a conversation with your clients, it’s important to truly listen and take into account what changes your business should make from the feedback you will be getting, and then follow through.

2. Respect your clients and their views.

It’s very important to be respectful of a customer’s mood when trying to resolve an issue they have with your company. Keeping your patience is key to giving your customer the time to air out their issue. Don’t come on too strong even if they are wrong.

3. Talk to your clients genuinely

Don’t act as a nameless or faceless business; genuinely talk with your clients as a person representing the business. Address your customers by name, and tell them your name at the very beginning of your interaction.

Remember that a happy client normally tells 4 to 6 people about your company and its customer service. So, making your clients happy is another way to significantly influence the word of mouth about your business.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:09+02:00March 23rd, 2016|Marketing|0 Comments

How much should you budget for marketing?

Marketing Budget22 Budget for marketing in businesses is not a one-size-fits-all. Hence many businesses find it difficult to allocate their budget and know just how much should go towards marketing. The thing is, not all businesses are the same. They all represent different industries and their turnovers are different. So is their marketing and audience.

There are factors that each business should look into when deciding on a budget for marketing. First, ask yourself these questions:

What industry are you in?
What do you want to achieve with your marketing?
What is your total revenue?

After answering the above questions, you can then decide how much you need to market your company. Bear in mind that companies that provide services spend a bit more than those selling products. And for small businesses, it’s a bit complicated than to just simply assign a percentage and sticking to it.

Business.com suggests that as a small business, the best way to decide how much of your budget should really go on marketing is to do your research. Take a look at your previous marketing efforts and continue doing what works while reducing your budget on campaigns that don’t bring enough money.

Also, remember that new and emerging brands are looking to capture new market share and develop brand recognition with an audience that has absolutely no idea who they are. So, the new the company is the more expensive marketing is gonna be. But, if you aren’t well funded, make sure your rands are spent wisely and tightly to specific deliverables. There is nothing worse than spending every penny you have to build something the wrong way only to have to start over again. So do it right the first time.

The well established companies / businesses – those that have been around for 5 year and more, don’t need a huge budget for marketing, because their brand is already well known and there is no need for awareness.

Marketing fees can range depending on the age and size of the company and local or global marketing goals.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:09+02:00March 15th, 2016|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Planning your Business with a Budget

Budgets are never a priority in a small business. But they do serve an important purpose in helping you and your business plan and stay in business for the next financial year.

Michelle gives us 3 good reasons to develop and plan a budget for your business.

If you have any questions about your budget, please do not hesitate to give us a call or click and we will be able to assist you.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:09+02:00March 14th, 2016|Bruce on Business, Business Resources|0 Comments

How to manage your time effectively as an entrepreneur.

Business Time. Management concept with clock

It’s a myth that entrepreneurs have a lot of time in their hands because they are their own bosses. Entrepreneurs never have enough time to do all that they need to do everyday, especially when they had just started their businesses. Juggling between raising funds and finding good employees can really be challenging, hence one needs to know how to effectively manage their time.

Time management is critical in everything in life, even in business. Your long-term success in entrepreneurship is determined by the way you manage your time. Business owners turn to have so many decisions to make and are expected to be innovative and stay in the game. All of that can really be overwhelming. Hence the need to learn the technique of managing your time.

Why is time management important? Firstly, it’s a determining factor for your overall productivity. The better you manage your time, the more productive you become. Secondly, it bears a massive impact on your psychological disposition. The worse you are at time management, the more stress you’ll experience, and the more easily exhausted you’ll be in your position.

So, business owner, here are 5 techniques you can use to better manage your time:

1. Draw the line.
Part of being an effective time manager is knowing what to do and when to do it. You must know when to “cool down” and have a firm “go home” time. This line will keep you refreshed, mitigating the risk of burnout, and will help you focus on the work that needs to be done. We know entrepreneurs are passionate about their work, so it’s tempting to take on as much work as possible. However, if you do this at the expense of your personal life, it could have dire consequences for your mental and physical health.

2. Take breaks.
A recent study suggests that working for 52 minutes and breaking for 17 is the optimal pattern for productivity. As ridiculous as it sounds, it is a fact that taking breaks will actually help you stay more productive.

3. Choose efficient modes of communication.

You don’t need to call an hour-long meeting every time you have an update. Emails are instant, written and permanent, and can be executed much faster than a phone call. Try and communicate as concise as possible, and you could save yourself hours a day.

4. Delegate.

There is nothing wrong with delegating. Most new entrepreneurs see their businesses as their baby, and they’re intimidated to let anyone else take control. As a result, they take on a lot of tasks they otherwise wouldn’t and end up overloaded. Save yourself a lot of time and be an effective ‘delegator’.

5. Focus on one thing at a time.

Multitasking is good, but can be distracting. Do not attempt to multitask, and let yourself get distracted by items that have newly arisen. Instead, focus on one item at a time, and don’t stray from it until it’s complete.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:09+02:00March 10th, 2016|Entrepreneurship|0 Comments

Awaken the Giant in You – S.A Teen Entrepreneur

SA Teen Entrepreneur, one of our clients hosted their annual breakfast session called “Awaken the Giant in You” this past weekend. The breakfast session, hosted at the Newlands Sun hotel on Saturday, 5 March 2016 was a huge success, that saw a great number of teenagers, parents and other business people in attendance. This awesome event left teenagers with a lot of courage to realize their full potential, which is the aim and purpose of Awaken the Giant in You.

One of the key speakers for the day, Riaan Fourie an artist developer, opened the event by sharing his entrepreneurial insights; with his talk titled “What I would have told myself half a lifetime ago.”

Another speaker, Kieno Kammies of Cape Talk 567’s weekday breakfast show, shared with us his entrepreneurial journey. He gave a thought-provoking presentation about the dreams of an entrepreneur and how to seize your future as a teenager.

The purpose of these breakfast sessions is to learn from Entrepreneurs who are successful and are keen to share their journeys and experience and to teach others the intricacies of Entrepreneurship.

Through these sessions, a message is sent to parents as well, to say, allow your kids to follow their passion and dreams, not yours.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:09+02:00March 9th, 2016|General|0 Comments

3 pillars of building your business online

When you go into business, you need to ensure you build a unique and profitable brand market. Market your brand effectively and have online presence. Online presence is important for a business to grow.

Here are the 4 pillars of growing your business online:

1. Website
Have a great website. A great website should be able to convert browsers into buyers. It must connect to your audience instantly and build a relationship with them.

2. Marketing
Marketing is about bringing and sharing your services with the right audience. Your product will remain unknown and useless if you don’t market it properly, so market it!

3. Communication plan

Have a clear and effective communication plan. Videos, blogs, newsletters and emails will bring a steady stream of traffic your way. Communicate what you offer in a way that will make your audience say “I got to have that now!” Every business online needs to get traffic to it’s site, but profitable traffic is the most important.

4. Social Networks

Another way of increasing your online presence is to go the the social media route. Run ads through YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or other ad networks. Many businesses have done very well on these social network platforms.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:09+02:00March 8th, 2016|Marketing, Social Media|0 Comments

BOB episode 18 – Financial Calendar

As you know, this month is finance month and we are speaking all things numbers.

One of the key tools to a successful business is to have a “Financial Calendar”. In case you are asking yourself what that is, a Financial Calendar is a 12-month accounting period for a company or organization. It is a list of all the key dates and deadlines that your company has to comply with.

There is a whole lot of key dates and deadlines that a lot of businesses forget or miss, and have cost them a lot of money in paying penalties and interests. So please know those key dates. Things like: VAT returns, Tax return, salary related issues – all those form part of a financial calendar.

It is best that you know all these dates to avoid paying penalties that you don’t even understand, or worse, to get your company de-registered. If you would like to know all about the important dates that your company should comply with, we will be talking about all of that in our finance workshop later on this week. To know more about the workshop please drop us an email on bruce@em-solutions.co.za or visit our website www.em-solutions.co.za

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:09+02:00March 7th, 2016|Uncategorized|0 Comments

How to handle your finances as a start-up entrepreneur

968886_498969703524410_1351264542_n In case you were not aware, March is termed the Financial Month, so we will be talking a lot on finances this month.

In this articles we would like to give you a few tips on how to handle your finances as a new entrepreneur. A good understanding and management of finances should be your priority when you start a business. Even if you decide to hire an accountant or bookkeeper to manage the books, you still need to familiarize yourself with basic bookkeeping and money management principles and activities.

Here are 4 tips on how to handle your finances if you have just started a business:

1. Open a bank account.
Once you have registered your business, you will need to open a commercial bank account. Start by selecting the bank you want to work with – a bank that will be small-business-friendly. It should be easy to open a bank account for your business, nothing complicated is required. The next step will be to deposit funds into your new account

2. Get a professional.
Accountants and financial advisers have always been trusted and respected helpers of small business owners everywhere. Their intimate knowledge of the profession as well as tax laws in their jurisdiction will save you money almost every time. The thought or temptation to do it yourself so you can save a buck or two will creep in sometimes, but it’s almost never more cost-efficient in the end. An accountant will almost always find more deductions and keep you penalty-free. Just make sure you have the cleanest records, and be more organized year-round. But when things get technical or taxes are due, save yourself the money, time and headaches and call in a trusted professional.

3. Accepting cash and online payment services.
In today’s competitive business world, you must provide customers with many ways to pay, including cash, debit card, credit card and electronic cash. There is a cost to provide these payment options – account fees, transaction fees, etc. So make sure to shop around for the best service with the best prices. Not all banks and payment processing services are the same, and fees vary widely, so do your research and compare prices.
Online payment services: PayPal is one of the most popular online payment services with more than 40 million members in 45 countries, offering personal and business account services.The advantages of online payment services are that they’re quick, easy and cheap to open and you can have the funds deposited directly into your account.

4. Establish payment terms and conditions.
Every small-business owner needs to establish a payment terms policy. You may want to standardize the way you get paid, at the same time you will also have to be flexible enough to meet clients’ needs on an individual basis. Setting payment terms covers deposits, progress payments and extending credit. It’s important to establish a clear, written payment terms with clients prior to providing services or delivering product. Your payment terms should be printed on your estimate forms, included in formal contracts and work orders, and printed on your final invoices and monthly account statements.

By Bruce Wade|2016-11-01T10:20:10+02:00March 3rd, 2016|Uncategorized|0 Comments

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