Tag: small business
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Holiday Customer Demand has Changed: How Small Businesses Can Meet People Where They Are
Smart business leaders are taking note as consumer behavior shifts to satisfy the market’s newest wants and needs — especially now that the holidays are here. Nearly 60% of consumers say they anticipate their holiday plans to change this year, and another 15% say they’re not yet sure what will happen, according to Progressive Grocer.…
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SMB Capital Lending: Key Options and What to Consider
Small-business owners (SMBs) can use debt to do one of two things: stay afloat during turbulent times or exploit opportunities to achieve exciting growth. If you’re doing one or the other, then you’re in good company. Business owners everywhere are borrowing for both reasons now more than ever. To decide whether (and how) to use…
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Inspiring Business Stories: 5 Companies that Survived Tough Financial Times
A pandemic is not the only crisis that can thwart a business’s financial success. Calamitous accidents, mismanagement, economic volatility, and other hazards can threaten your company’s trajectory. The good news is that you can learn from other business leaders who have weathered various storms. Here are five true, very inspiring business stories to help you…
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Why and How to Track Business Expenses Separately from Personal Spending
Most small business owners use their personal money to get their business off the ground. In fact, funding your business with personal cash is widely accepted and even encouraged in many industries. Why, then, is it so important not to fund your personal life from your business’s coffers? As a business owner, there are many…
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Blunders, Bottlenecks, and Bloat: 9 Surprising Ways Small Businesses Waste Money on Operating Costs
Businesses are like engines. To produce, your company consumes. And like a more efficient engine, your business can produce the same output while consuming — that is, spending — less. It’s true that you may cut costs on overhead and some capital investments, but the most opportunity to save lies in operating costs. That’s because…
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How to Do Bank Reconciliation in Real Time, Not a Month from Now
The 21st-century economy moves in real time. Why, then, do you still have to wait until the end of the month to see how your business’s finances are doing? The answer is, you don’t. Bank reconciliation is the act of matching and validating your bank’s transactions against those in your internal ledger. The only reason…
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Transaction Reconciliation Sucks. Now, You Can Automate it Instead.
There’s a difference between what you know about your business’s finances and what your bank knows. Balancing out the difference is a process called “transaction reconciliation.” Doing it manually sucks time, energy, and momentum out of your day-to-day. But with Neat, you can reclaim that precious time and energy by automating the task. The many…
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Ask the Expert: A CPA’s Top 5 Small Business Accounting Tips
More than three-quarters (78%) of small business owners haven’t completed any formal business training. But 83% of them consider themselves knowledgeable, very knowledgeable, or extremely knowledgeable when it comes to accounting and finance. Are leaders overestimating their savvy? Absolutely, says CPA Courtney Thayer. “Business owners often feel knowledgeable about their finances just because they get…
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Ask the Expert: An MBA’s Guide to Cash Flow Analysis
Research from Bank of America tells us that of all the businesses that conduct yearly cash flow analyses and forecasts, only 36% succeed. That number jumps to 80% for companies that perform this exercise monthly. That begs the question: If performing a monthly cash flow analysis more than doubles a company’s chance of survival, why…
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Small Business Bookkeeping Software is Too Complex. But it Doesn’t Have to Be
What’s the only thing worse than feeling overwhelmed by the task of bookkeeping? Feeling overwhelmed by the bookkeeping software that’s supposed to make that overwhelmed feeling go away. And to think software was supposed to be the simpler, more user-friendly alternative to spreadsheets. You first chose a program to eliminate confusion, not add more. Sadly…