Filed under: Financial Planning , Economy, Financial, News
June 30, 2009 • 9:30 am 0
Update on our economy and suggested planning
One important thing regarding our economy is, saving money is always a critical thing. To have the money to take advantage of opportunities, emergencies, avoiding debt, is a very good thing! How to save is being very diversified and not putting your eggs in one basket. I had a client for the last 3 to 4 years, decide to not fund their retirement savings, IE 401k, IRA’s, Roth IRA’s so that they would have cash flow to just buy and sell real estate and be landlords as need be. As they found out, the real estate market went down, houses sold took a lot longer, and rental market changed as well. They have now decided that was not the best plan to go all in one investment, and are now going back to spreading out their risk. Good information for us all. The market can be a good place long term to make a reasonable profit for the risk taken. However, planning for retirement needs to be well thought out and positioning our assets 5-10 yrs out before retirement is very important to have those assets when we need them.
Filed under: Economy, Financial Planning
May 21, 2009 • 7:02 pm 0
What does it take to run a successful business? Accounting is one of the core foundations.
What does it take to run a successful business? It takes a platform supported by three tiers; Marketing and Sales, Operations and Management, and Finance and Accounting, for a business to be successful.
Having problems with “out-of-balance” books? Search for a service that specializes in the “clean-up” of accounting systems; if the “books” are out of balance or there is a backlog of work to be entered into a system, a good service will get you back on track. When systems are running efficiently, real financial information is accurate and readily available. During tax season, tax preparers really appreciate problem-free reports, which should translate into cost savings for you.
Some businesses already have a workable system in place and may need to fine-tune the accounting process to make it run more efficiently. Other businesses may have expanded or upgraded to new accounting systems, and need some major revisions to combine business practices.
If your organization is in the slower part of its cycle, now is the time to shore up your accounting process. If you are in a start-up phase, you should definitely consider bringing in an accounting specialist. Getting a system set up right from the start will provide huge payoffs when things get busy. It’s easer to start properly than to troubleshoot and correct hundreds of transactions later.
In this economy, everyone is looking for ways of doing business more efficiently. The trend is to have information readily available when making business decisions. This is where a team of accounting experts can really make a difference in providing systems that are in place when you need them.
Our wish: May your Debits always equal your Credits.
Sincerely,
J. R. Hudson, President
Account Services, Inc.
(Summarized from an article that appeared in Eastside Business, March, 2009)
Consider Account Services, Inc. for professional hands-on practical accounting support. They are located at Carillon Point in Kirkland and have been operating on the Eastside and Greater Seattle metropolitan area since 1994. Owner J.R. Hudson started the business after working for a CPA firm, a Fortune 500 company, and setting up accounting systems for several businesses. ASI’s current staff brings a wealth of expertise honed from their experiences as accountants and bookkeepers from many large area businesses including the Seafirst Division of Bank of America, the Pike Place Market, the Paramount Theater, plus regional and national accounting firms.
Filed under: Accounting , accountants, Accounting, accounting services, bookkeeping, business
March 22, 2009 • 1:34 am 0
FOCUS GROUPS: For the bootstrapping small business – how to conduct focus group research on the cheap to justify your marketing strategies!
This isn’t a sit down in your comfy chair and relax kind of article. It is one that will tempt you to action for the success of your small business bringing to light one way you can effectively gather information about your clients to understand better how to draw in new patrons for your business.
But first – I have a couple of questions for you and some insights. And, being that this is a blog – you can answer me and we can dialogue.
How do you know that your marketing is paying off? Some would say – “We advertise and it seems as though we get busier.” while others say “We tried advertising and nothing happened.”
So, what is one business doing right while the other isn’t? Stroke of luck, maybe? Or an innate intuition that landed them a great marketing idea with spot on messaging to their perspective clientele. Or, was it possibly that successful advertising begins with asking your client demographic ”What do you want and does my marketing speak to you?”
To a certain extent, marketing is a game of chance – you start the engine of one marketing vehicle to see if the drive is smooth and profitable. And if it is, you stay there and enjoy the ride. However, if the opposite is true – then you get off of the proverbial road concluding that you wasted time and regretting the attempt at spending money on marketing. The latter being the unfortunate stagnation or even demise of many small, bootstrapping businesses.
If you are in business, it makes sense to perform ongoing market efforts and measuring those efforts against the amount of time and money going in and the profit coming out. Wouldn’t it be great to have marketing efforts that you know have passed the test before you spend hundreds or thousands of dollars putting it out to the masses?
Committing to focus group research requires that you put aside your opinions of your marketing approach as your perception may not fit the need of your customers. If it does, that is great – but be open to change and understand that the feedback you get may go against the very instincts you have about your business and may challenge you to get outside of yourself and into your client’s heads to come up with creative solutions!
Now for the nitty-gritty of it all – the toolkit for your focus group research!
I think I’ve already won the argument of why it is important to understand your target market. Now I’ll show you how to conduct focus group research. This can be done easily for little to no money.
What you need in your Focus Group Toolkit:
WHO: A group of people that properly represent the type of clients you want, or the clients that you have – this is what is called your target market. It is good to understand your target market from a 1,000 ft. view – age range, education, likes, dislikes, generational views, culture or anything that is consistent within a group of people that you can notably measure. This group could be as few as 25 or as many as you like. The wider the notable metrics of your audience, the more people you need. That is to say – if you have an age range of multiple generations with various buying patterns – you need more people to get a good metric to measure by.
WHERE: You can conduct your focus group research through email a few different ways. Of which are either through an online survey request like www.surveymonkey.com or through your customer contact list and tabulate the results yourself when your customers respond. Lastly, you can go to where your customers are. If you have a very distinct target market and they gather at a particular place for entertainment, shopping, education or other – then go there and gather opinion.
WHAT: What questions you choose are based upon the information you are trying to gather. For example – let’s say it is a logo that you are creating for your business and you want to find out what demographics are drawn to which logo and let’s say you have 3 to choose from.
You choose the “where” you are going to conduct your research and you tabulate the votes into distinct demographic categories based on the metrics you want to calculate. You might find that certain age groups or education or generations are drawn to different logos. Then you base your decision on their input to do further refinements – or maybe you hit the nail on the head and there is a clear direction. You can do this for products, advertising campaigns or as stated, even a logo design which all have a direct consequence of the brand development of your company.
WHEN: Whenever you find your company trying on a new marketing campaign or marketing vehicle.
WHY: Well, there is a lot of the “why” already stated – but here are some more reasons.
Not only does focus group research give you valuable feedback – it allows another marketing touch to your customers and potential customers exposing a new product, a new service or a new way of doing business.
It involves your customers which for some is an important partnership. Doing focus group research allows you to take measure of the attitudes of your customers to make certain that you are on target with their needs. People have many choices today – make sure you are the right one!
HOW: How do you know that your marketing is working now that you have passed the test of focus group research? The answer is to track how your clients come to you by continually asking the question “how did you hear about us?”. And, make observations about the clients, understanding the demographic that found you. Then, lastly write it down, reflect upon it and start all over again. Marketing is not a destination; it is a journey.
In closing, the feedback and measurement of your marketing efforts will have tremendous impact on your product or service in how you position yourself in the marketplace. Now, go out there and use the same technique that big companies do and uplift your brand!
Amanda Predmore serves as the CEO and Creative Director at a Seattle based branding agency Emaugo Creative. To connect with her via this blog, please comment below or contact her directly through her website at www.emaugo.com.
Filed under: Marketing , branding, branding strategy, Emaugo Creative, focus group, focus group research, graphic design, http://www.emaugo.com, Marketing
March 21, 2009 • 1:11 am 0
Welcome!
Welcome to the Advisory Council Home Page and Blog where you can find expert advisors in various fields able to assist you both in business and life. Should you not find an advisor to assist you here, please feel free to ask and we will do everything we can to refer to the best business consultant for you.
Filed under: Uncategorized
