Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Point of Sale Goes Mobile


Here’s some exciting news for retailers looking to grow! QuickBooks Point of Sale software now integrates beautifully with GoPayment, ensuring that you never miss a sale — whether you’re in or out of your brick and mortar location.
QuickBooks Point of Sale gives you the powerful tools needed to manage your store and make better business decisions. It enables you to track inventory, set automatic re-order points, manage customer contact information, send personalized customer communications and access detailed business reporting.  And now you can keep inventory and sales in sync no matter where you get paid, thanks to GoPayment.
So whether you’re at a tradeshow, having a sidewalk sale, or simply want to step out from behind the counter to get that line moving, your inventory and sales data will match up, which means no more manual data entry when you need to be on the go.
QuickBooks Point of Sale can manage data for up to 20 locations. In addition to the features mentioned above, it also helps you track employee hours and commissions.
Check out pointofsale.intuit.com to learn how you can get set up to get on the go.

Checklist New Businesses

Overview of major steps critical to planning and starting a business People start and operate businesses for many reasons. Regardless of why you are interested in starting and operating your own business, you want to be successful. The act of forming a business is not particularly difficult. However, planning for and developing a profitable, growing business is a complex, ongoing process. Adequate planning, attention to details, and realistic expectations are critical to your success, especially if the business grows rapidly.

step 1:

Examine your motivation for business ownership 
Although hundreds of businesses are started each day, owning and operating a 
business is not for everyone. Many businesses are started without a realistic evaluation 
of personal objectives, individual talents, and personality traits. If you open a business 
without an honest evaluation of your motives, you may find yourself unhappy and 
disillusioned. 

step 2:

Choose a business suitable for you 
A question often asked is "What kind of business should I start?" No one can answer 
this question for you. Your choice is a highly personal matter. Businesses of all types 
are both successful and unsuccessful. A particular business generally succeeds or fails 
based on the customer market, the skills of the owner(s) and workers, and the quality of 
the products; not because of the type of business. Personal Areas To Consider When 
Choosing Your Business: your experience, your talents and your interests. 

step 3:

Evaluate the feasibility of your chosen business 
At this point, you have examined your personal motivation for business ownership and 
chosen an interesting possibility. Most likely, you are anxious to run to the bank, get a 
loan, and open your business. STOP! 
A common mistake made by many individuals is to blindly pursue business ownership 
without adequately evaluating whether their idea is actually feasible. Before you go any 
further, you need to examine your idea for feasibility. A good feasibility evaluation 
involves a detailed examination of financial, personal, and market realities 

step 4:

Consider start-up requirements and common pitfalls 
Become aware of the legal forms of organization you may choose. Learn which permits, 
licenses, rules and regulations are applicable to your proposed business. Determine the 
types of records you will have to keep for local, state, and federal tax purposes. 
Determine the types of record keeping and control systems you will need for internal 
management purposes. Determine the steps you must take to establish a legal Checklist for Starting a 
business entity. Consider your professional needs, such as marketing and advertising, legal, 
accounting and tax, insurance, and banking. 

step 5:

Develop your business plan 
Many people talk about a business plan when they really mean a financing request. If 
you are seeking significant private investment, the two documents will require much of 
the same information. However, if you are going to seek traditional commercial 
financing, which is much more likely, the financing request will usually be less 
comprehensive. 
 • A Business Plan Is: The strategic plan for the development and operation of your 
business for your internal management use. 
 • A Financing Request Is: A document you prepare for raising capital based on 
information in your business plan. 
 • A Business Plan Is a Management Tool You Should: Use to help you think 
through the development of your business and ensure that you have considered 
options and anticipated potential difficulties; Use to evaluate your progress 
against your planned business goals; Update and modify for operational and 
strategic planning purposes as the business environment changes; Use in the 
development of financing proposals. 

step 6:

Develop your financing request and obtain initial capital 
In reaching this step, you have determined you have enough personal money to cover a 
"down payment" or the "full cost" of starting your business. If should do an honest 
analysis of your financial position, without doing so you could invest a lot of your 
personal time only to learn that you are not going to be able to borrow the money 
necessary to start your business. 
Facts you should know about borrowing money to finance your business: 
 • Most businesses are started with money from personal savings, family, or 
friends. 
 • Only approximately 20% of new business owners start their business with money 
borrowed from commercial lenders. 
 • No conventional lending source, private or governmental, will make a commercial 
loan for 100% of the funds you need to start your business. 
 • As a rule of thumb, your personal investment will need to approximately 25% the 
total start-up costs of your business. If you have less than this, your chances of 
obtaining outside financing are not as good. 
 • Your "sweat equity" will not be considered relevant by the lender. As a general 
rule of thumb, you will need $1.50 in quality collateral for every $1 you want to 
borrow. Checklist for Starting a Business   
Although you may think your collateral's true worth is its appraised value or its original 
cost, its worth to the lender will be far less than either of these values. Your financial 
projections must show that any loan proceeds plus interest and other business 
expenses can be repaid from business revenues. The assumptions that you base your 
financial projections on will be examined carefully for reasonability. Simply having 
adequate collateral will not override the business's inability to generate positive cash 
flow when the lending decision is being made. 
Acquiring a loan will be more involved and time-consuming than you think. In the best of 
circumstances, it will normally take 60-90 days to close a loan. If you have a complex 
situation or if the lender needs additional information for any reason, the time span may 
be significantly longer. 
Caution:
Do not assume your loan request will be approved. Be realistic. Lenders are in 
the business of making money, not buying ideas. 

step 7:

Finalize all start-up requirements. You have completed your planning and have acquired the funding 
needed to start your business. Now is the time to sign contracts and lease agreements, pay various 
licenses, permits, and fees, obtain utility services and complete all other requirements.

Search