Author: Ethan Theo

Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles, has worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries since 1982 and has spoken at many venues including the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.

Operations

How Manufacturers Get the Most Out of Their ERP Software

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date April 4, 2016

With the comprehensive organization and process efficiency that they bring, it shouldn’t be a shock to anyone that implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a big investment. As is the case with most costly expenditures, there are both huge opportunities and risks on the table.In a recent study of 192 companies with annual revenues ranging from $25 million to just above $2 billion, 66 percent reported that they failed to realize more than half of the expected benefits of their ERP investment. Aside from squandering potential revenue, these companies are also wasting an incredible amount of money. ERP systems are designed to manage the many moving pieces that are involved in the supply chain, from top to bottom – but they can’t fix your problems if you don’t know how to maximize the software.

Here are a couple tips from big manufacturers with successful ERP systems in place:

Choose Your ERP System Carefully

“It’s essential to link business objectives to your ERP strategy to ensure value is realized…” states Carol Hardcastle, Research Vice President at Gartner in their report, “Predicts 2014: The Rise of the Postmodern ERP and Enterprise.”

All the benefits that grow from successful ERP systems began with picking the right platform. Before you can see the fruits of that effort, it’s important that you consider your business goals and objectives when researching software brands.

Efficiency Goals: Will this software help identify and eliminate clerical errors and/or redundancies in order to speed up the pipeline?
Growth Goals: Can this ERP help double your business with the resources you currently have?
Market Goals: Which platform will help you bring your product to market faster?

ERP can help focus your workflow needs and other aspects of business that are unique to your company.

Customize the Platform to Fit Your Business Needs

The scope of ERP manufacturing software tends to be considered a one-size-fits-all solution, yet there are still many smaller components to help mold around your specific business model and/or supply chain. Using any ERP system strictly “out of the box” is considered a detriment to the objective of implementation, and is a signal that the organization is sacrificing user productivity and quality of data reporting. Only a reported 15 percent of companies do not customize their ERP software in any way, so don’t fall into the minority.

Assign Executive Ownership

There’s an old saying that goes, “when everyone is held accountable, no one is responsible.” Which is to say that there are about a million ways that a supply chain can be compromised or slowed down in some way. Tying an ERP’s performance to an executive’s compensation plan will go a long way in assuring that there’s proper management of the more intricate pieces of your pipeline.

Invest in Ongoing Training

Purchasing an ERP isn’t the end of the investment, and viewing it as such should be considered a huge mistake. Technology is growing at exponential rates, as evidenced by these fascinating photos highlighting the power of Moore’s Law. ERP software is just a small speck in the great scheme of technology, but a huge factor in the way business is conducted every day across globe.The investment of education in this software is immensely important and the future success of your company is reliant upon it.

The cost of implementing an ERP system is certainly not an insignificant investment, but neither are the benefits that it can bring to your organization. It’s wise to consider these points once you have implemented an ERP system in order to maximize its efficiency and output. Technology is dynamic and so are your business needs – make sure you have the edge required for success.

Entrepreneurs

4 Common Mistakes First Time Entrepreneurs Make

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date March 15, 2016
1 Comment on 4 Common Mistakes First Time Entrepreneurs Make

Only a bold, brave person chooses to become an entrepreneur. If you want to succeed in business, you’ll need to learn not only from the successes of others but also the mistakes, and the latter are often more instructive. Following are four common mistakes first-time entrepreneurs make.

Make Choices

Are you someone who struggles to decide what to have for dinner each night? If so, running a business likely isn’t for you. One of the crucial elements of entrepreneurship is the ability to make fast but informed decisions. Many people fear this kind of choice. Being wrong forces people into a stalemate called analysis paralysis — one of the most fatal errors for people in leadership positions.

If you’re unwilling to commit to one side of an argument, this confusion will filter down to your employees. They, too, will act indecisively. The inevitable outcome is that your business will suffer due to a lack of direction. People need leadership, and that will require you, the entrepreneur, to make hard choices.

Networking Matters

During the early days of your business, you must avail yourself of every potential business relationship. You might have heard that 90 percent of startups fail. One of the reasons is that companies fall victim to the burn rate of their cash flow. With a lack of ready clients, such failed enterprises spend all their money without any viable way of generating more.

How does an entrepreneur get more clients? They network. Through personal and professional connections, you can meet even more people, many of whom are potential customers, and you can begin to foster relationships with them. All of this seems rudimentary, yet a shocking number of new business owners fail to explore these avenues. The fear of rejection causes some people not to try. You must demonstrate more boldness than they exhibit and embrace the networking process.

Money Matters More

Unquestionably, the most difficult aspect of first-time entrepreneurship is learning how to handle cash flow. As noted above, you have a finite supply of money. You have to be careful to make it last long enough for you to earn more. Many startups struggle due to their lack of on-site accounting professionals. New business owners aren’t often skilled at bookkeeping, so they miscalculate their financial situations.

Fortunately, cloud accounting software can address these concerns. For example, Sage’s small business billing software makes transactions easy enough that you can know at a glance the status of your corporate bank account and other financial data. Such financial apps empower you with the ability to take complete control of your balance sheet, knowing precisely what your short- and long-term cash flow is. In short, products like Sage will make you a better entrepreneur.

Don’t Get Attached

Did you know that Pinterest was once a business app? It was a shopping program called Tote, and nobody cared. Then, founder Ben Silbermann accepted that the pinned board concept surpassed the original expectations for Tote as an app, so he pivoted.

Similarly, Android, now the dominating smartphone operating system, started with simpler goals. As originally intended, it was a cloud storage camera system complete with a revolutionary operating system. The catch was that its programmers built it to connect to computers, running much of its programming through them. Google recognized a better usage of the technology and purchased the company. The rest is smart device history.

What’s the point? Your original ideas for your company shouldn’t be finite. There’s an ebb and flow in business that is impossible to anticipate in advance. Plan your early strategies for the revenue you know your products can earn. As more opportunities become available, don’t ignore them in favor of your current revenue stream. Instead, explore their potential, keeping in mind that some of the most popular companies on the planet started out as entirely different enterprises.

When starting a new business, realize that plenty of cautionary tales exist. You should not be afraid of these mistakes but rather appreciate their value. Learn from the miscalculations above, and you’ll better position your business to succeed.

Planning & Management

Top Things to Consider for SMEs in 2016

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date February 2, 2016

It feels like Christmas was only a blink of an eye ago, but we’ve already reached the end of January. As such, we’re well into 2016. This means that, if you’re yet to start your New Year’s resolutions, now is the perfect time. If your resolutions, like thousands of others, were to grow your SME, then you’re in luck. We’ve put together this list of the top things to consider for SME owners in 2016. Follow them carefully and you’ll easily achieve your resolutions.

Marketing Tactics

Effective marketing is one way that you can organically grow your business. From hiring an SEO agency to boost your visibility in search engine results to effectively running and managing your social media accounts, marketing could be simpler than you think, and it could hugely grow the reach of your business, improving sales.

Be careful though. It’s very easy to spend incredibly high amounts of money on online marketing. As such, plan your spend very carefully. Set a limit and stick to it. Also carefully consider what platforms you’ll use. Be relentless in asking yourself “why” you’re using a certain type of marketing over another and justify every expenditure.

By doing this, you’ll stand the highest possible chance of your marketing tactics succeeding. Targeted marketing can be highly effective, just don’t let your expenditure run away with you. If necessary, hire an expert.

Communications

Secondly, if you’re looking to grow a business, you have to think about how it communicates and whether you can take down any barriers. Effective communication is a great way to grow a business and it can be relatively cost free.

Technological innovations mean that communication is now simpler than ever before. As such, simple 21^st century communications such as VoIP from companies like Gradwell are a no-brainer for SME owners. They’re cheaper than conventional phone lines and are far more reliable. Thus, you’re saving time and money as well as increasing your output.

Staff Retention

Finally, if you’re looking to grow your business, then you have to do so organically and naturally. As such, you have to think about staff retention. Without your existing staff members staying, you’re only ever replacing staff and not growing as a business. Plus, you’re actively setting yourself back as you’re losing knowledge.

To retain staff members, you have to ensure that morale remains high. Organise team bonding sessions (this could be something as simple as going to the pub on a Friday afternoon or as adventurous as a big paintballing day out). Also ensure training is in place so staff meet professional development goals. Happy staff members won’t want to leave, and they may even help recruit people they know if they’re in a positive working environment.

To conclude, we may have already reached the end of January but that’s certainly no reason why you shouldn’t be able to complete your SME based New Year’s resolutions. By following the above steps, you’ll maximise not only your chances of keeping your New Year’s resolutions, but you’ll also be able to grow your business. Here’s to the rest of 2016.

Home-Based Business

3 Questions to Ask When Setting up a Business from Home

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date January 21, 2016

With the growth of e-commerce and the advent of new technologies, like cloud computing, there’s a whole host of modern businesses that are no longer restricted to the boundaries of the office. There are now over 4.2 million people across the UK working from home, up by more than 800,000 since 2005. Given the fact that operating remotely allows you to cut your running costs dramatically, many entrepreneurs will be wondering how they can successfully set up their own business from home.

How Will You Motivate Yourself?

Working from home requires a certain kind of skillset that it doesn’t suit everyone. Many people experience a difficult transition period when making the switch from a traditional office-based environment. It requires you be able to create your own regular schedule and stick to it. Otherwise, you’ll never stay productive and be a success. If you’re the type of worker who looks to others to spur you on, this may not be the best option for you. However, if you’re the type of person who can learn how to ignore the distractions around you, this may be perfect.

How Will You Create a Legitimate Business?

One of the biggest obstacles for any small businesses is simply getting noticed. Even though there are now more people working from home than ever before, many customers and business owners alike will still consider you as simply a hobby-project. One of the ways you can deal with this is to work with a virtual office provider who can give you a business address in a prestigious location. You’ll be able to advertise this address on your website, as well as access a variety of business support services like mail redirection so that you can keep your personal address private.

How Will You Deal with Third-Parties?

Finally, you may think that working from home means that you’ll be entirely on your own, but this isn’t the case. You’ll be more dependent on third-parties to help you than ever before. The reality is that no-one can take a product to market all by themselves. Whether it’s the owner of the warehouse that stores your inventory or the courier service who’s responsible for your goods reaching your customers, it’s crucial that you can deal with third-parties effectively. Building strong relationships here could lead you to reduced rates or invaluable knowledge about the inner-workings of your industry.

Home-Based Business Starting Up

Building a Computer for Your Business Needs

Post author By Ethan Theo
Post date January 15, 2016

When it comes to building a computer on a module for your business, there are advantages as well as disadvantages for you to consider. Building will always make more sense than buying as long as the circumstances are correct. If not, it may just end up being a waste of time and resources.

Benefits

The biggest benefits you can derive when it comes to building a computer yourself are related to their price, customization, and component selection. Even though the overall price difference for basic PC’s isn’t as large as it was at one point thanks to the large number of mass produced, low cost machines available today, you can get much better performance if you purchase individual components worth the same price instead.

If you want something basic for a business that is just starting off, buy something off the shelf. It won’t be worth the time and effort you put in to building a computer. But, if you want more than just the basics and are interested in taking up this challenge then building a computer of your own can be wonderfully rewarding. It will let you upgrade components individually in your machine over time as well which will ensure you always have the latest components in your machine as opposed to those who have readymade computers.

Strategies

Now there are a couple of strategies which you could employ to try and exploit this situation. The first is building a top of the line, high performance computer to suit your every need. Alternately, you could go for a basic computer that is far ahead in terms of performance and quality.

Actually building a computer isn’t as hard as most people may think. You just need some basic screwdriver skills and need to be able to snap some parts into place. Apart from this, simply follow instructions and be careful. You shouldn’t believe anything else people tell you.

Part Selection

Now, let’s look at the most difficult part of this whole project. The actual selection of the components. This is going to depend largely on your priorities. For example, if you were a gamer, you would want a computer with a lot of processing power and terrific sound quality. If you were a photographer, you would want a computer with sufficient RAM and storage space. So you need to determine what you’re looking for in a computer from the get go based on your types of usage.

The Case

Choosing a case is important since it will need to be able to hold all the components that you plan on purchasing and installing. You may want to get an extra fan but does your case have enough space for it? Always plan ahead so you don’t run out of space halfway through the build. Try and get a case which is bigger than you need. This will make it easier for you to upgrade or expand your computer at a later date too.

This is one of the major advantages of building a computer over getting a readymade one. The readymade ones offer very little space for expansion. But if you can choose the case yourself, you will be able to upgrade your computer for years without the need for a new case.

There are no limits as far as the rest is concerned. All sorts of high end hardware are easily available on the Internet and the only thing really standing in your way is your own imagination.

Drawbacks

But before we go, let’s also take a look at a few of the disadvantages of this method. It may be quite a pain if you can’t keep everything in order and have trouble being organized. It is also quite common for an individual component to give trouble from the moment you get it. Troubleshooting this problem could be tricky and may take up a lot of your time. For example, you will know right away if the power supply is bad but what about if one of the RAM modules isn’t working? Remember, you will also have to buy an operating system for your computer and this is going to cost a lot.

Money Savings

Despite these drawbacks though, building a computer of your own can be simply rewarding especially considering you will be able to have a high end machine year after year for a fraction of the cost of a readymade one.