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5 Tips and Techniques for Restoring a Healthy Cash Flow in Times of Hardship

November 7, 2013

Nearly every successful company has had to face difficult times with tight cash flow and burdening debts at one point or another. However, only the most dedicated and resourceful entrepreneurs and business managers are able to handle the pressure and make the necessary adjustments. Put yourself in the class with those who’ve struggled but come out on top using the following 5 tips to improve your cash flow to debt ratio:

1. Reduce Unnecessary Expenditures

First and foremost you’ll need to reduce your operating cost as much as possible without drastically affecting the quality or efficiency of your products or services. This could mean utilising energy-efficient equipment and becoming proficient at saving power, reducing supplier contract commitments, terminating some employees, and selling some equipment or inventory that is costing too much to maintain or store. Eliminating frivolous overhead is perhaps the most important step in freeing up cash for more important purposes like investments and debt repayments. (more…)

Insuring Your Success

November 6, 2013
By Rocco Fiorentino, President and CEO of Benetrends

We all learned how important the right insurance coverage can be, when hundreds of businesses suffered power outages lasting for weeks due to Hurricane Sandy. Business interruption coverage played a critical role in the survival of many businesses that were unable to open due to power outages, resulting in loss of revenue and loss of property.

For many business owners, it was the difference between re-opening their doors and going out of business. Let’s face it; no one wants to be under insured and no one wants to pay to be over insured! Proper coverage and limits should be reviewed by you and your agent on an annual basis.

Key Business Insurance Components

General Liability insurance is the core of a commercial insurance policy. The policy protects your business from claims of bodily injury, property damage, negligence claims and includes protection for litigation resulting from these claims, including defending lawsuits up to the policy’s coverage amount. (more…)

HOW TO: Five Free Ways to Get Your Business in the News

November 5, 2013

The truth is you don’t really need a public relations firm to publicize your business. I realize that as the owner of a boutique public relations firm that’s probably not my best sales pitch. And yet, it’s true.

A PR firm will have experience and connections. They’ll also spend significant funds on media databases, memberships to various organizations, and a ton of magazine subscriptions. But as an entrepreneur, you already have the skills and passion you need to handle your own press outreach. Whether you’ll want to or not, well, that’s a different story.

If you’re looking to cut costs and invest time, here are five completely free ways to get yourself and your business in the news.

Know the Players

Players? What players? The journalists. Create an email account just for alerts, e-newsletter subscriptions and blog feeds. Then go to: www.google.com/alerts and www.alerts.yahoo.comand set up alerts for terms related to your business, e.g. if you run a pizza shop, set up an alerts for your business name, pizza, Italian food, and alerts for your key competitors. Next, using your new email address, sign up for related content that can help your business grow, like relevant emails from business journals, marketing gurus, etc. At least once a week read through your inbox and compile names of writers who’ve written about a topic similar to yours – it’s best to do this in Excel, so you can create columns.  (more…)

Great Marketing That Makes Money

November 4, 2013

For most companies, there are ways to turn marketing efforts into profit centers. Of course, every situation and every company is different. Creative marketing solutions do not apply across the board.

But in all cases, it pays to think outside the box. I like racking my brain to think of ways to turn marketing efforts into profit centers. And I have found that it is usually possible.

Here are some examples from the days when I owned an industrial equipment manufacturing company, building specialty machinery for the polymer industry. I have since used the same type of thinking in financial services, publishing, and other companies I have owned or consulted with.

The Demonstration Lab

As a cost center: Customers came to our factories to use demonstration equipment to see if it could handle their processing and new product development requirements. The hope was that if they had a successful experience then they would buy our equipment. Every trial session required our staff to be available. As our company’s reputation grew, demand for our lab services grew exponentially. It was a money-spending sinkhole that occasionally led to equipment sales. (more…)

Industrial Iron Man: Ekso Aims To Power Superhuman Workers

October 28, 2013

Max Scheder-Bieschin, CFO of Ekso Bionics, just comes right out and says it: “We want to create Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit.”

Looking around his company’s warehouse in an industrial section of Richmond, California -– the same warehouse that 75 years ago produced many of the tanks and Jeeps used in the Pacific theater — it’s hard not to take him seriously.

The bionic suits, which look closer to those worn by Matt Damon in the upcoming movie Elysium, are overrunning the place. Over here, one hangs from an industrial-strength gurney while a technician welds circuitry into its knee joint. Over there, another marches in place without a human inside, indefinitely automated for stress tests (an eerie fixture for the last person in the office at night, staff admit.) At the far end of the room, suits painted with military fatigues sit half-assembled. And that’s to say nothing of what goes on in The Tent, a 20-by-20-foot pup assembled in the corner to conceal Ekso’s most confidential projects from anyone — employees included — not on a need-to-know.  (more…)