Cashflow Blog

There may be any number of costs lurking in your everyday activities and procedures that just don’t get noticed simply because they aren’t big ticket items. But that doesn’t mean they can’t add up to a
significant spend nonetheless. Look around and see if these tips can help drive down costs before making any drastic decisions that may come back to haunt you later.

• Organise your errands so you can take care of several on the one trip
• Arrange delivery schedules, sales calls or installations according to the shortest route between them rather than zigzagging across neighbourhoods
• If delivery is a courtesy rather than an integral part of your sales process, then consider cutting it out, offering it to only your best customers, scheduling it in late morning or early afternoon
   when traffic is lightest, or introducing a fee for it

Utilities

• Turn off equipment that’s not in use - computers, photocopiers, lights, air conditioning
• Switch to energy efficient light bulbs
• Use high efficiency rated appliances
• Install automatic light switches and put the aircon on a time switch
• Make use of natural lighting where possible

Office supplies

• Put a moratorium on buying all but essential supplies
• Reduce printing to essential documents and use the reverse side of paper for copying draughts and internal documents
• Use recycled paper
• Buy from office warehouse companies or discount stores
• Purchase locally – shipping costs from distant distributors can more than double costs

Office equipment

• Before buying new furniture check out second hand office supply dealers

Communications

• Cut back on unnecessary phone service add-on features  like music on hold

• Price compare phone service providers
• Consider a VoIP solution
• Take away mobile phones from employees who don’t rely on them to do their job
• Price compare website hosting service providers
• Consider next afternoon or two- or three-day service instead of express shipments
• Use email instead of postage mail whenever possible

   

Make cost cutting a continuous improvement programme

More here:
Small Ticket Cost Cuts Add Up

The Small-Mart Revolution Talking Points
- Michael Shuman

• The Small-Mart Revolution represents a major new trend that thus far has largely escaped public notice. Local businesses in the United States suffered setbacks during the era of globalization but still make up more than half the economy—and they are now on the verge of a huge comeback.

• More than a half dozen trends are increasing the competitiveness of small business. The rising price of oil, for example, makes local production and distribution more competitive against Wal-Mart production in China. Local businesses are enjoying advantages in mastering local markets, delivering the best services, and bypassing inefficient global distribution systems. The imminent decline of the U.S. dollar also will benefit local business.

• This is good news for communities that have been told by their economic development departments that “there is no alternative” (TINA) to attracting or retaining global businesses by paying millions in incentives and reducing labor and environmental standards – policies which studies and experience are
• showing to be dead-ends.

• A growing body of evidence shows that local businesses are the best promoters of good jobs, high environmental standards, economic stability, smart growth, the “creative economy,” social equality, and political participation.

• Local businesses actually have improved their competitiveness in recent years, but these improvements haven’t registered yet, because public policy has foolishly favored of global business. Global businesses get more than $113 billion in subsidies each year, while local businesses get almost nothing. And a variety of other laws – such as banking, trade, tax, securities, and antitrust – increasingly disfavor local business.

• These policy biases mean that for the Small-Mart Revolution to take hold, waiting for the “invisible hand” of the free market is not enough. Instead, concerted actions by consumers, investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and organizers are necessary.

• Consumers should buy local wherever possible. By shopping smart, they can localize most of their expenditures at no increased cost and even realize significant savings. Replacing the use of nonlocal oil with local energy efficiency measures can save a U.S. household several thousand dollars per year. Around the country are directories, labels, campaigns, and local money systems that help consumers to buy local effectively.

• Even though most of the competitive economy is made of local small business, it receives very little equity investment. Even Americans who are committed to buying local have no way to localize their pension funds. One reason is that securities laws have effectively kept small businesspeople separated from small investors. A new generation of securities laws are needed that promote local stock markets, local hedge and venture funds, and local mutual funds.

• Local businesspeople are pioneering a number of strategies to beat global competitors. They are tapping consumers’ growing interest in local goods and services. They are working together through small-business associations, small-business emporiums, producer cooperatives, and flexible manufacturing networks. They are launching successful local businesses that promote local purchasing, local investing, and local entrepreneurship.

• Public policymakers are beginning to realize that smart reforms of their economic development can save millions by ending incentives, bribes, and payoffs to nonlocal business. Some of that money can wisely be spent instead to support municipal programs to buy, invest, hire, or train local. Also urgent is to press national policymakers to remove the vast number of imbalances facing local business.

• Around the country communities are organizing residents to develop comprehensive strategies for localization. Local First campaigns can be found in three-dozen cities, from Bellingham (WA) to Philadelphia (PA). In upstate New York and Maine, organizers put together hundreds of community members to envision a local economic future, to assess unnecessary imports and dollar “leakages,” and to create new local businesses that could replace those imports and plug the leaks.

• The Small-Mart Revolution is not just for the United States – it’s actually happening throughout the world. It has a new vision of globalization—to protect the local, globally. Communities are giving away technology, policy ideas, and technical assistance to increase the self-reliance of their partner communities. Global networks of communities are forming to promote fair trade, corporate responsibility, global small-business networks, global funds of local funds, and global exchanges for local currencies and barter.

• The Small-Mart Revolution offers communities worldwide a fundamentally new approach to reducing poverty, solving global environmental problems, preventing conflicts, and reducing uncontrolled immigration.

• The politics of the Small-Mart Revolution are inherently multi-partisan. Conservatives like the focus on small business, free markets, and local government, while progressives like the emphasis on community empowerment.

The Small-Mart Revolution Talking Points

By Andrina James

If you wish to keep a steady flow of cash and fulfill the daily financial needs of your business, then opt for a business cash advance. This is a new way of funding short-term monetary needs. Forget the traditional business loans. They are risky and difficult to get. Greet the new borrower-friendly cash advance of America!

Many people are not yet clear about the difference between business cash advance and business loan. They hesitate in trying this new financial tool out, for the fear of falling into the trap of swindlers. Some think of it as just another promotional gimmick of the old loan sharks. This is not so.

For a better understanding, let us take a look at both these financial services, separately.

Business Loan

 To get this loan, you need to pass through a cumbersome documentation process and require collateral.
 You have to repay the amount within a fixed time period or else you default or pull your credit rating down.
 The biggest disadvantage is that you, as a borrower, are personally liable for loan repayment. In case you fail to do so, you lose your valuables or property that you place as collateral.

Business Cash Advance

It is easier to acquire. There is minimal paperwork and the approval is comparatively speedier.
 There is no need of collateral.
 It is easy to pay the cash advance back. You can use Master Card or Visa.
 The biggest advantage is that you, as a borrower, are not personally liable for repayment.

This is because the advance is paid through the sales receipt of credit cards and so your personal property and valuables are safe.

Perhaps, this is the reason why business cash advance has gathered immense popularity, especially among the small-scale businesses. An increasing number of entrepreneurs are turning towards this financial aid. Looking at the hardcore promotion and remarkable features of this service, it is not wrong to say that this financial convenience is going to remain in the limelight for a long period of time.

If you are an aspiring businessperson or you already have a running trade, try business cash advance. Now that the difference between the regular loan and this new monetary advance service is clear, you hardly have an excuse for not using it. Moreover, your work deserves something better. [http://www.online-cashadvance-paydayloan.com/onlinecashadvance.html]Business cash advance is apt in meeting your everyday business cash needs. This is a new cash advance facility that has already made a mark in being different from other business loans. As [http://www.online-cashadvance-paydayloan.com/payday-loan.html]cash advance of America, this facility is available to the citizens of America only.

Credit:
Business Cash Advance Is Different From The Regular Business Loan

The New York Times has an article that tells the story of Diane McLeod and her insurmountable debt. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/business/20debt

Even though she’s going through foreclosure on her home, she’s still getting credit card offers from “Urban Bank!”

With the aftermath of the sub-prime crash still wreaking havoc, Americans are finding themselves in very uncomfortable debt positions. The blog post on the Consumerist asks, ‘What happened to our values?’

I don’t think it’s a question of values, I think it’s a question of education. Students graduate high school without the slightest idea of what awaits them in terms of credit and debt. Most of them don’t even know what an income statement or balance sheet is. Why do we have such a financially illiterate populace here in the U.S. and what can be done about it?

Original post:
Why Are Americans So Willing To Dig Themselves Deep Into Debt?

By David John Marotta

As Americans try to spend less and go on a budget, this provides an opportunity to teach the next generation financial principles they may never have seen in the prosperous years they have been alive. Here are ten principles for teaching children about money:

Talk about money. Every time money is involved, parents have a chance to teach their children the values and analysis behind their actions. Money should never be the primarily topic of discussion, but it is one of the most important topics through which we communicate our wisdom and values to our children. Every purchase, investment, or donation can be a time to teach your children something about your values.

Talk openly about money. Parent makes a mistake when they keep information from their children. The only way children learn what is a good deal and what is too expensive is by the experience of what their family earns and what items cost. Hiding this information robs children of the financial education they need.

Talk factually about money.  Many parents have strong emotions about money based on their childhood experiences. These emotions are always transmitted to children. Instead of helping children, they can cripple children from growing to make sound financial decisions

Require chores; pay for optional work. Everyone in the family has to help complete the work that needs to be done. If you want to pay your children, only pay them for optional work they can choose to do or not to do.

Provide children an allowance they can make real choices with. Talk about money is important, but children need real-world lab experience to understand the consequences of their decisions. Consider giving them an allowance large enough so that they can purchase some of their own needs. Then continue to give them honest advice, and help them ask the right questions to make wise decisions based on their values.

Help children prioritize purchases. Ask them if this purchase is better than other purchases they are considering making.

Help children comparison shop. Help them consider issues such as cost, quality, and convenience.

Require children wait before making large purchases.  Adults should wait at least a month whenever they are making a large purchase. Children shouldn’t be expected to wait that long. Here is a good rule of thumb: Children should be required to wait as many days as they are old in years before being allowed to make a large purchase (over a week’s allowance). There is always tomorrow and over half the time they won’t remember what attracted them to it in the first place. Developing this habit will help make them resistant to impulse buying.

Don’t use money as a punishment. Your priority should be helping to give your values to your children, not buy their outward behavior.

Don’t loan your children money. If their desired purchase is something they should be saving for, let them save for it. If you want to buy it for them for the value of the experience, buy it for them. The principles are “If they want it, they have to save for it. If you want them to have it, you will buy it for them.” Loaning your children money for items they want teaches them they aren’t responsible and they don’t have to prioritize.

David John Marotta works at Marotta Asset Management, Inc. of Charlottesville which provides fee-only financial planning and asset management.

Read more:
10 Principles of Teaching Children about Money