Creating an initial business plan is the first step to opening your own business. However; in order to have a successful business it is essential to reevaluate strategies, growth, operations, etc. Here are several other business plan types that aspiring and current business owners should be aware of.
1. Start-Up Plan: Outlines your ideas and strategies for launching, managing, and eventually exiting your new venture.
2. Internal Plan: Provides information about project marketing, hiring and tech costs.
3. Strategic Plan: Pairs the objectives of a company with the needs of the market place.
4. Feasibility Plan: a study conducted prior to initiating a business plan.
5. Operations Plan: Outlines the details of your daily operations for over one year.6. Growth Plan: A thorough framework for company growth that includes objectives, strategies and plans for achieving business growth goals.
Although it is a growing industry, there are a lot of people who still wonder what do Virtual Assistants do or how they can play a vital role in supporting small business owners. A Virtual Assistant is:
1. An independent contractor not an employee, which is more cost effective.
2. A skilled professional who is amazingly diverse.
3. A valued team member who will make you wonder how you ever managed without.
There are many business apps that entrepreneurs can use that will make their life easier. Below is a brief list of top apps for business owners and how they are used.
1. Canva: Graphic design platform, used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content.
2. Inshot: Powerful all-in-one video editor and video maker with professional features. Add music, transition effects, text, emoji, keyframe, slow motion, make video collage, blur background and etc.
3. Shiprocket: Automated shipping solution for eCommerce. It lets you choose from 17+ courier partners, print shipping labels, track orders from a single panel and also process returns from an integrated dashboard.
4. Mailchimp: Marketing automation platform and email marketing service, used by businesses to manage their mailing lists and create email marketing campaigns and automations to send to customers.
5. Feed Preview: Organize and build your Instagram feed. Add and plan your future posts. Easily plan your posts, Reels, IGTVs, and Instagram Stories. Find the best hashtags, caption ideas, presets, and analytics.
If you are interested in learning more about how these apps can be useful or if you need someone to assist you with set up or maintenance of the apps we are here to help.
There are a few things you need to be aware of before starting a business. Here are a few topics you should be familiar with prior to becoming a business owner.
1. Hobby vs Business: What to do with an idea. How to transform your hobby into a side hustle and your side hustle into a real deal business.
2. Money vs Profit: The difference between making money and making profit. It's possible to make sales and never profit a penny.
3. Workflows: How to create a workflow that works for your life. Your business should be just one brick when building a life you love.
4. Free vs Paid: How to use free marketing to grow your business and how to know when it's time to invest in marketing.
5. Your website: Why you need to take ownership of your business. Your website is your hub.
6. Systems: How to build out systems that grow your business from first client contact to after purchase systems.
Search engine optimization is pivotal to growing your business. Here are 10 free SEO tools that are essential to your business growth.
1. Google Search Console: all in one SEO tool
2. Google Analytics: great for traffic stats
3. SEO Quake: for domain metrics
4. Keyword Everywhere:find keywords for free
5. MOZbar: website analytics
6. Ahrefs Backlink Checker: for backlink data
7. Google trends: find trending topics
8. Ubersuggest: Free keyword analysis
9. Lontail Pro: find longtail keywords
10. SEMrush: for competitive analysis
Your brand is your business and not knowing branding basics is a recipe for disaster. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself when creating a brand for your business.
1. Messaging: What does if feel like?
2. Visual Identity: What does it look like?
3. Positioning: How do you describe it?
4. Target Audience: Who is it for?
5. The Unique Point of View: What makes you unique?
6. Value Propositions: What do you offer?
7. Why: Why are you in business?
Being organized and keeping a list of scheduled tasks is essential to running your business smoothly and effectively. Here is a social media checklist for your business to complete throughout the month that will help you stay on top of your social media presence.
Daily:
Reply to everyone
Check your mentions
Monitor for keywords/hashtags
Schedule your updates
Curate content to share
Engage through hashtags
Follow new accounts
Weekly:
Check your stats and analytics
Engage with brands
Engage with partners
Weekly goals check-in
One strategy session
Revisit and update ads
Monthly:
Perform social media audit
Revisit strategy
Revisit goals and set new goals
Content creation and planning for next month
Experiment and new campaigns
Understanding business finances is essential to running a successful and profitable business. Here are a few key terms that all business owners should be familiar with.
1. Gross Income: Your income before expenses or taxes. Also known as Revenue.
2. Net Income: What your business earned after your expenses. Also known as Profit.
3. Expense: Anything you pay for that is necessary for your business to operate. Also known as Deduction or Write-Off.
4. Owner’s Draw: What you take out of your business for personal use. Also known as Member Distributions or Shareholder Distributions.
5. Liability: Debt that you owe which can be short-term or long term. Also known as Debt or Payable.
Being organized and keeping a list of scheduled tasks is essential to running your business smoothly and effectively. Here is a list of bookkeeping tasks to complete throughout the month that will help you stay on top of your bookkeeping.
Daily:
Check your bank account
Clear, scan, and file receipts
Prepare and send customer invoices
Record your time worked
Record mileage
Weekly:
Deposit cash/checks
Process and pay vendor invoices
Send customer invoice reminders
Track your business expenses
Update petty cash
Monthly:
Reconcile all accounts
Produce profit and loss statement and compare it the previous month and budget Produce profit and loss statement year to date and compare to budget
Calculate and save money for taxes, Pay sales tax if applicable
Check cashflow
Pay yourself
Inventory count
Quarterly:
Produce and review profit and loss statement for the quarter
Process business tax payments
Check cashflow
Yearly:
Produce profit and loss statement for the year and compare to budget
Prepare tax return
Check cashflow
Close your bookkeeping
Prepare annual self-assessment tax return/annual accounts
If your business is struggling to optimize your blog traffic here are a few SEO blog tips.
1. Do not use long, complex sentences
2. Optimize your headings
3. Do not put too much text in one section (more than 300 words)
4. Use internal links
5. Write meta descriptions for your post (include keywords)
6. Include your keywords throughout your post
7. Name your images before uploading them
8. Include your keyword in at least 30% of the image titles of the images in the post
9. Categorize your posts
10. Make sure your site loads quickly
1. Day to day management of accounts: A bookkeeper can stay on top of your business accounts daily for all transactions. By keeping track of every sale or purchase and using software to do it all its much easier for them to keep an eye on your cash flow.
2. Maintain up to date and accurate records: A bookkeeper will make sure that all your business records are up to date. Plus, it’ll be their job to flag any inconsistencies between the books and your business accounts making sure you resolve problems quickly.
3. Keep business aligned with laws: Taxes can be a sensitive area. One mistake and a dreaded letter from the IRS can soon be on your way. That’s where bookkeepers come in, as they can help make sure your business stays aligned with the relevant laws.
4. Keep you prepared for taxes: Like the laws and regulations, tax deadlines are quite strict as well. Doing the books is usually never the priority for many small businesses so deadlines can slip under the radar. To keep the taxman happy and stop you from paying any additional fines a bookkeeper will make sure your records are accurate, so you are always prepared for tax time.
5. Manage bank feeds: At a basic level, bookkeepers manage transactions brought in through software like an app or bank feed that link the software with your business bank account allowing you to see each transaction in real time.
6. Handle accounts payable: It’s usually bookkeepers who make payments on behalf of your small business. This can include anything from payment of supplier invoices to petty cash and expenses.
7. Prepare financial statements: Bookkeepers will also be responsible for preparing some significant financial statements for small businesses. These can include a profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.
Flos Management & Executive Assistant Services
Po Box 132 Mount Pleasant, SC 29465
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