Author: ASBDC
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Small Business Payments Toolkit – Top 5 Takeaways
By Mary Hughes
The Remittance Coalition has released the first volume of the Small Business Payments Toolkit, which is intended to encourage the adoption of electronic business-to-business payments and remittance information exchanges by small businesses. Many small businesses continue to over-rely on paper checks, which are labor-intensive, expensive and prone to fraud. The Remittance Coalition is a group of payments industry stakeholders (including Federal Reserve Banks) that works to increase the efficiency of business-to-business (B2B) payments made and reconciled by US businesses. The toolkit provides a host of useful information that can be leveraged by small businesses, SBDC consultants and trainers, financial institutions, vendors, and anyone interested in learning more about payments.
Here are the top five takeaways from the Small Business Payments Toolkit:
1. Adopting B2B electronic payments and remittance information exchanges may make life easier for small business owners
Although it may not currently be a top priority, small businesses that choose to enhance the efficiency of their payments processes can yield benefits in a number of ways: (more…)
Diversify Your Portfolio With A Franchise Business
In this week’s blog edition, we’re going to tackle the issue of using a franchise or small business to diversify your portfolio of investments. As you’ll see, there are several advantages for doing so, the least of which is the creation of a figurative safety net. This safety net is designed to do two things:
- To prevent the depletion of wealth in the event of a severe downturn in the economy—something we all became familiar with beginning in 2008.
- To provide a fall-back source of income should your current job or position be eliminated.
While signs of recovery continue to aggregate, arming yourself with additional information will be a helpful exercise in diversification.
As an investor, if you have a healthy portfolio, you are always looking for ways to diversify your holdings. Owning a small business or franchise opportunity can be a smart addition which gives you the option to stay engaged in the semi-absentee model of operations while keeping your day job, so to speak. As we have covered before, the semi-absentee model allows you to run the business from afar, typically with a smooth “manage the manager” philosophy. (more…)
Building A Community, While Building A Business
Success Story: Iowa
- Northwest Iowa SBDC
- SBDC Counselor: Kelly McCarty
- Client: The Bear Coffeehouse + Wine Bar – SBDC client since 2009
“Kelly lent tremendous expertise and provided resources and support as we were creating a business plan and searching for best practices.” – Leann and David Jacobsen, Owners of the The Bear Coffeehouse + Wine Bar
Impact of working with the Northwest Iowa SBDC: With an incredible amount of community support and some help from Kelly McCarty, director of the Northwest Iowa SBDC, Leann and David were able to create The Bear. Kelly assisted the experienced business owners by helping with market research, financial planning and loan applications.
Read the whole story, and learn more about the Iowa SBDC and The Bear Coffeehouse + Wine Bar.
Tech: Cause or Cure for Work/Life Harmony?
In the struggle to balance work and life, technology is often seen as a culprit for dissatisfaction. With our always-on, ever-connected lifestyles, it’s easy to see why tech gets a bad rap. Even when we’re at home trying to relax, it’s impossible to fully disconnect.
At the same time, there’s no doubt evolutions in technology have improved life for small businesses in the past few years. Here’s how tools you’re already using can help you achieve work/life harmony:
• Set clear expectations with your schedule – and leave work at work. Create a group calendar to share with your employees and family that reserves time for specific activities— work-related and personal. This approach will allow you to be present in whatever you’re doing at the time, whether it’s answering customer emails or reading a bedtime story to your kids. You can also use your out-of-office responder when you’re on vacation so you can actually enjoy your time away. (more…)