How a Business Plan Can Save Your Company Money
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Many entrepreneurs are not aware of the importance of business planning. Some believe that a Business Plan is something that is hurriedly put together when the company needs a bank loan or is seeking outside equity capital. Actually, planning is one of the most critical business functions; success is very difficult to achieve without proper planning. Planning is also an ongoing function. Because the business environment changes so rapidly, you can’t simply do an annual budget, tuck it away in a drawer and say you are all done with planning until next year. You need to update your forecast and strategies periodically during the year, quarterly at the very least.
The Business Plan document you create can actually save your business money, in a number of ways. First, it can help you reduce expenses. You might start your budgeting process by building a spreadsheet showing how much you spent in each major category last year, and then have a column next to that for your forecast expenditures for the upcoming year. There are bound to be categories where you can cut costs if you think creatively. Changing vendors is one example of how costs can be cut. We all get in a rut of just paying bills as they come in, without considering whether we are paying more than we need to. Categories such as shipping costs, insurance, travel and entertainment, and bank service charges are all areas where researching alternative vendors can lead to substantial savings. But you have to make the effort to seek out these savings.
A rigorous planning process can also help you uncover exciting new revenue opportunities for the coming year. Have a planning meeting with your management team where you brainstorm ideas for new products or services you could offer. Many times we overlook or underestimate a significant asset our company possesses: the skill sets and experience of our managers and employees. And the great thing is, these assets are already there, ready to be deployed. Better utilizing them will not cost any additional money. Small companies are not as burdened with the rigid hierarchy that large, unwieldy enterprises labor under. Encourage your employees-all of them from the janitor on up-to contribute ideas that might save the company money or increase revenues, and be sure to reward the employees whose suggestions you use.
The planning process also forces you to take a critical look at how your company shapes up versus its competition, and how the competitive landscape is changing. Do you know how your products or services are priced versus your major competitors? You should. Do you know how your products and services are perceived by customers, versus your competitors’ products or services? You won’t know unless you take the time to ask them.
The planning process also forces you to critically examine your business strategies, and determine what worked, what didn’t work and what can be improved in the coming year. This can be an eye opening, even sobering experience. Continued business success requires an attitude of constantly striving to do everything more efficiently, to improve every aspect of your product or service offering to keep ahead of your competitors. Companies that are content to do things the way they’ve always done them usually end up suffering a decline in market share and profitability. Unfortunately, some the mightiest corporations in America have had to learn this lesson the hard way.
Brian Hill
http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/how-a-business-plan-can-save-your-company-money-742722.html
What’s your plan to save the US economy right now?
Here’s my plan:
1. No more free bailout money for anyone. Instead, US government gives banks vouchers to loan money to private businesses. The banks must loan the taxpayers’ money within 120 days to a credit worthy (independent rating) business or they lose the voucher. The bank must have a stake in the creditworthiness and debt repayment of the commercial borrower (perhaps by withholding percentage of earned commission over time). Essentially, the banks become accountable, commission-based middlemen for government loans.
2. Government demolishes vacant homes in ‘designated’ housing crisis cities such as Stockton, Tampa, Phoenix, and Las Vegas. The HUD secretary should convene a meeting of city mayors to come up with a plan to condemn vacant homes and blighted properties, and to ratchet up building code enforcement to remove questionable vacant homes from the market.
3. Cut capital gains tax to zero until December 31, 2010. That’s right. No one pays one cent of capital gains tax on any capital gains earned from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2010. However, short swing transactions still pay ordinary income tax rate to discourage short selling and speculation. Thereafter, phase back tax increases until they return to current capital gains tax rate of fifteen percent.
In addition, after 2010, no capital gains tax break for foreign companies and foreign entities. If you want to gamble in the U.S stock market, you have to pay the vig to Uncle Sam starting in 2011.
4. Extend unemployment insurance benefits for six months.
5. Methodical and rational troop draw down in Iraq to save US taxpayers up to $10 billion dollars per month. Apply some of the saved money towards giant infrastructure and public works programs here in U.S.
6. Repeal the Bankruptcy Reform Act’s means test provisions. Allow Chapter 7 petitioners to discharge all debts owed to creditors, and not be forced into Chapter 13 reorganization plans.
7. Prohibit all foreign companies from bidding on government contracts until 2012.
Take most of the nation`s wealth away from the two per cent who now own it.
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http://faculty.fairfield.edu/faculty/hodgson/Courses/so11/stratification/income&wealth.htm http://mindfully.org/WTO/2006/Household-Wealth-Gap5dec06.htm
ask michelle obama….my baby mama
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Provide all this ‘bailout" money to the people. This could add up to over 400k a tax-paying family. At that, people could pay off mortgages, cars, and buy – buy – buy. Will this not stimulate the economy?
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I’m closing my business. I’m just going to let Obama take care of me.
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I’m not a big fan of five or six but the rest doesn’t look too bad..
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Just one:
An amendment to the Constitution of the United States
"Congress shall make no law abridging nor respecting the establishment of commerce and trade"
There should be a wall of separation between Business and State, for the exact same reasons that we have a wall of separation between Church and State.
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1) Put more money into schools. Schools loosing funding is a big issue, especially in urban communities. If schools don’t have the proper funding they can’t teach properly, and students won’t learn, they won’t relate to what’s begin taught, and won’t see much importance in school. Next, colleges are constantly raising tuition because they’re losing funding. If tuition costs go up, that means that students will have less money to spend on books, housing, and other expenses. Common sense says that if students are failing in school, that there is something the school is lacking that keeps it from being able to teach effectively. That should be the school you put money into… not the school that already has everything it needs to properly educate its students. Want to fix the drop out rate? Invest more money into schools.
2) Universal Health Care. Everyone needs and has a right as a human being to health care. I should not have to decide between helping my doctor buy a new car and saving my life or a loved one’s life. Pharmaceutical companies today are concerned more with finding temporary remedies to illnesses than finding actual cures today. Instead of making it a goal to keep people healthy, they depend on the sick for them to make a profit. That’s why even though drugs like marijuana, which DOES have medicinal value, stay illegal – they are actual solutions to problems. Fixing a problem = loosing a market and potential customers. This would also save money for the average person because they don’t have much expense to pay. That is money they could put towards other things like school, food, bills, etc. In reality, health comes before money.
3) Graduated income tax. The rich are rich because they make a profit off of the work done by the middle and lower classes. Since taking the money away from the rich directly is unconstitutional, giving back to those who put in the most work (the middle and lower classes) should be done through taxes and social services.
4) Focus drug policies on upper level suppliers instead of harassing low level dealers/Stop CIA and other federal agencies from playing their hand in the drug trade. The lower level dealers only exist because the drugs come from somewhere… if you want to get drugs off the streets, you don’t crate environmental cycles (like broken homes and other environments that come from a population with high incarceration rates) by only attacking the AFFECT of a cause. Deal with the cause – government corruption and upper level suppliers.
This is just the start, but those would be big steps forward.
Also… one thing to note is that all of the 4 topics I addressed are all related. By investing more in the lower and middle classes, you can reduce crime and increase the number of people contributing to the economy in constructive ways.
Peace
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Struggling college student
Socialist
Socio-economics
I don’t have plans since no one has asked me for them. Gov’t people I mean. But your plans are not new. Most of them are Obama’s. And he is seeing they won’t work so he’s revising them.
On number 5 for instance, what is methodical and rational troop draw down? That is pretty vague. We must not let Iraq and Iran to call our bluff on this. This is what they’re waiting for. We must give them a deadline and stick to it.
So I can’t go in to each and every one of these plans because they’re so flawed and it would take a major economics course to explain why.
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Same as always, get government out of the way of productive people. No bailouts, fewer regulations, lower taxes. Works every time. Problem for most is that it involves business cycles, which I guess people have been conditioned to believe can be smoothed away by bad government policy.
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Econ 101.
1. Begin an aggressive program of deporting the apx 20 million illegals in this country. If we have to do it one bus load at a time, then so be it. Kids born here to the parents of illegals get shipped back with them. They will be able to apply for a permanent visa when they turn 18.
2. Adopt the Fair Tax plan and get rid of about 95% of the IRS.
Your #5 idea will cost us much more if you do that. It’s the old "pay me now or pay me later". The war is nothing more than a sideshow to this whole mess.
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A rapid turn around in the U.S. economy depends on finding a replacement for the internal combustion engine.
This would shake all of the well heeled oil wealth out of the trees and redistribute the wealth of the nation through new entrepreneurial ventures, create new jobs and lower the cost of transportation for individuals and products going to market.
Its a no-brainer.
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Require every bail out dollar to the lending institutions ( creditors, banks, etc. ) be required to lend to consumers and businesses under normal qualifying parameters. and nolonger will be used to buy other bank’s debts. — which is what they’re doing with the bail out money they’ve already received.
Federally impose fines on any creditor raising interest rates or lowering open to purchase limits to any consumer who has not defaulted on any payments.
Do not bail out any further industries. If they fail…….they fail. LET ONLY The strong, the honest and the business smart survive. All others – bye-bye.
IMMIDEATELY RE-NOGOTIATE TRADE AGREEMENTS. CURRENTLY A $ 10 TO 1 DEFICIT SHOULD BE FLUSHED. EQUAL TRADE OR SEE YOU!!!! U.S. JOBS WOULD SKY ROCKET BY U.S. COMPANIES MAKING U.S. PRODUCTS PAYING DECENT BUT NOT CRIMINALLY INSANE WAGES. THIS KEEPS THE COST TO MANUFACTURER DOWN, RETAILS COSTS WITHIN REASON, GOOD WAGES PAID, FEDERAL TAX REVENUE GOES THROUGHT THE ROOF and people are happy again.
Except the lazy who will still hold out a hand for a free perk. To those people……A one way trip to a 3rd world country for a 5 year example of what life is really like when you have real problems. Cheaper burden by far to the people , less drain on the economy and we actually get rid from a 0 tolerence of society – the lazy amoung us. They’ll return after 5 years either dead from being lazy over there….or full of p!ss and vinager with some damn ambition.
This alone will immediately turn the economy.
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I’m sure you are well aware by now that Congress does not care what we think about anything.
I don’t have a plan to save the US economy, and I’m not hanging on any hope that the government will.
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i can’t wait until obama get in the office, he said he will give me money for gas,groceries,my dream house and a nice vacation and i don’t even have to work for it !
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1. Cut taxes by up to 6% for people making under 250,000 and raise taxes for the rich up to 5%. This way the middle class will have some money to spend and the companies can make some profit. The rich will still have their ability to spend because they can afford a tiny raise in their taxes instead of being greedy.
2. Raise minimum wage by a dollar or so. So that they poor can spend a little to and the poverty rate will decrease.
3. Gradually by the end of April next year pull out of Iraq cutting expenses for unneccesary military action in a non threatening country. This way the tax cuts can happen without hurting the governments funds.
4. Tax companies who ship jobs overseas so that they will want to keep them here in the U.S. because of fear of losing to much money.
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