July 14, 2016 / como / 0 Comments
Many small business owners take shortcuts when it comes to security. They may not think they have the money to invest in a security system, or they may think that theyre not a target. However, this negligence is precisely the reason many burglars and other criminals go after small businesses. Here are 7 steps every small business owner should take to keep their clients and employees safe.
Stay Alert
Not all criminals strike at night when the building is deserted. In fact, many prefer to slip in unnoticed through a side door during the day. Teach your employees to pay attention to your property and report any strangers who are lingering nearby. CCTV in Calaveras, CA, is a good way of monitoring your property at all times, and you can usually access it from work or home.
Maintain Your Building
Criminals will assume that your building is an easy target if you dont put an effort into keeping it well maintained. Long grass, weeds, graffiti, and other signs of neglect are signs that you cut corners when it comes to expenses and probably dont have a security system installed. Overgrown trees and bushes also provide good hiding places for criminals to conduct surveillance on your building while theyre planning a way to get in. Keep the exterior of your building clean and well lit to encourage burglars to try a different target.
Keep Emergency Plans Handy
Your building should have a written set of instructions for emergency situations posted in an area where all employees can access it. This should include steps for dealing with natural disasters and phone numbers of the local police and fire department. Review these plans with your employees regularly, and discuss what they should do in the event of a burglary or another crime.
Keep Track of Your Keys
The fewer keys to your building, the better. Make copies only for those who absolutely need them, and make sure you have a list of everyone who has a key. Tell your employees to be careful with the keys, especially in public places like the gym or Laundromat. If you lose track of a key, have the locks changed just to be on the safe side.
Dont Advertise Your Cash
Never let on to your customers how much money you have in the store. Your employees dont need to see you counting cash at the end of the day. Make regular deposits at the bank, and never leave large amounts of cash in your store overnight, even in a safe.
Protect Your Computers
Your computers contain sensitive information about your business and your clients, and its important to take steps to keep them safe. Use firewalls to prevent communication with other networks and block people from hacking into your system. Limit computers in your building to official use only–your employees shouldnt be using them to check their personal emails or surf the Internet. They may accidentally stumble onto something that could compromise the safety of your computers. Give every employee their own individual login so that you can keep them accountable for anything that happens while theyre logged on.
Invest in a Security System
A security system is usually the best defense against burglars, and it can also help keep your building safer from natural disasters like fire. Most burglars look for easy targets where they wont be caught, and will avoid your store if they know that its protected by a security company. This is especially true if they think theyll be recorded by CCTV in Calaveras, CA. If someone does break in, your security company can alert you and the police instantly, giving the police the best chance of apprehending the trespasser.
July 4, 2016 / como / 0 Comments
Predicting possible sales for your Fish Farm business is a very chief process; before you launch your business you must feel positive in future sales otherwise there is no point in setting up in the first place. It’s suspect you will be right on the money but if you don’t make a realistic attempt your Fish Farm business will likely not make the grade; forecasting is an important element to your business stratgey.
Your sales forecast is the fiscal projection of the quantity of turnover your Fish Farm business will make from the sales of its products or services. Your sales forecast can stand alone, but it will be closely connected to your Fish Farm business plan. It is an essential and fundamental element of the planning method and it will be a chief part of your profit and loss account and cash flow forecast.
Why bother with a sales forecast?
It is needed so you can
1. Predict your cash flow – your forecast might predict slow times of business where you may need a cash injection to pay for products or just to pay the staff for example.
2. Manage Cash flow – innermost to the success of your business, it is essential that you understand how sales forecasting contributes to the computation of the cash flow forecast.
3. Plan future resource requirements – for example, the quantity of staff considered necessary to manage your orders and provide a certain level of service.
4. Plan marketing activities – this will noticeably have a knock on effect to the sum of sales you make as well.
Quite clearly constructing a sales forecast for your Fish Farm business is crucial to your business success – you should continually re-evaluate your sales forecasts – by looking at concrete sales to your forecasted sales firstly you can measure if you have done well or not.
So what do you need to consider?
Your sales forecast should show sales by month for at least the next 12 months, and then by year for the following two years. Three years, in total, is generally enough for most business plans.
You need to consider
1. Are there any comparable products or services already being provided in the neighborhood?
2. What is the extent of the market?
3. Is the market growing or declining, and if so,by what % each year?
4. What are the major considerations for this market?
5. What might affect it in future?
6. How do cyclic factors affect purchases of your product or service?
7. Are there fashions in your business?
Who are your customers going to be?
1. What percentage will purchase?
2. Why will they cease trading from someone else to trade from you?
3. How much will you charge?
4. Can you in reality supply the products and services that you are predicting?
5. How many competitors do you have?
6. It is unlikely your business is the only one of its kind – what happens to your customers when new businesses enter the market?
The whole globe is your marketplace with the creation of the internet – but what products/services can you make available Virtually all business has a quantity of competitor(s) – how can you hoover up your competitors customers? How can you put a stop to your competitors taking your customers? Can you tweak your product prices up or down to match new customers – can you simply add or transform the services you offer to new and existing customers to mushroom your turnover and profits?
Preparing your Fish Farm business forecast
All Fish Farm businesses need to base their forecasts on certain assumptions regarding potential changes that may take place in the future. These can be quantified and could include:
1. Sector growth/decline by a certain percentage e.g. 5%.
2. Planned expansion in the number of personnel to generate an expected 20% increase in production.
3. A move to a better location that ought to produce a 40% increase in sales.
Preparing your forecast
If you sell more than one product or service, you should prepare a separate forecast for each item in your range,and forecast:
1. By volume
2. By value
3. By a combination of both value and volume.
So what are the pitfalls when forecasting sales?
1. Make sure your forecast is based on realistic, verifiable and unbiased info.
2. Do not be tempted to ignore your investigation if it showed negative results.
3. Do not make predictions only on the basis of historical performance. Keep examining at what else might change your sales in the future and alter your forecast in view of that.
4. Make sure you understand your capacity limits. Can you produce the amount of sales being forecast with the personnel, equipment and financial resources available to you?
5. Does the pricing policy you have used in calculating your sales forecast convey to what is really achievable?, or conversely, have the prices been set too low down or too high so that either way your forecast is potentially unrealistic?
6. Is your business brand new?, your business may take longer than you imagine to get recognized, and have you set accordingly realistic sales goals?
7. Have you permitted for the possibility that high sales based on an initial promotional rush may drop off, leading to a need for more intensive marketing and higher ongoing costs once initial interest has peaked?
8. When you give reasons for your sales forecasts to prospective backers – are they believable?