Navigate Toward A Financially Independent

Sustain a healthy profit margin!
Is there an outdoor extreme sport you've participated in? Stop and think for a moment about the very first time you tried it out.
I have found, without exception, that entrepreneurs are risk takers. And I suppose I'm one of them. I went on my first whitewater rafting trip in 2011. But I took a huge risk in making this trip and participating in this type of outdoor activity--you see--
* * * I don't swim. * * *
To minimize my risk, I asked to sit closest to the guide, Lee. In addition, just to double-ensure my safety, I asked my daughter to go on the trip with me, because she's a Girl Scout certified in these types of extreme outdoor sports. She was my additional safety net.
We were on the Nantahala River, a well-known Olympic training site in North Carolina. The entire run was two hours on the water, through many heart-pounding rapids, extreme moments of excitement and getting splashed and soaking wet, along with much laughter. I even sustained a hard hit from a hanging tree branch along the riverbank. Lee (our guide) tried to warn me with a "Watch out!" just two seconds before I saw it, but it was too late. Luckily I did not get knocked out of the raft.
The objectives of the trip were to navigate safely to our destination of the 9-foot Nantahala Falls, stay in the boat, enjoy the trip and have FUN!
There were many watercrafts on the river that day, some without a Lee to guide their raft, and many of those rafts got stuck on the riverbank or hopelessly stranded on the rocks sticking out of the water. I asked Lee why these boats didn't have a rafting guide like him.
"People want to save money and go down this river on their own. Unfortunately, only the experienced guides know the river well enough to maneuver and navigate toward the finish line successfully," answered Lee.
Did you know that 60% of business owners feel challenged to maintain a healthy profit margin? Yet according to my Business Value Drivers, or BVD Study, many businesses receive their company financial statement an entire three months after the fact. How can you know you're consistently maintaining a healthy profit margin without having that information at anytime?
An Asian immigrant builds a successful company by focusing on quality, customer service and satisfied employees.
Many immigrants coming to this country have entered the restaurant business, for many different reasons, such as a lack of communication skills in English, a love for their own cultural foods, or they know or have friends who are in the business and make a decent living. As a result, people here are eating more Chinese food than fast food from McDonald's. The food industry is very competitive and the majority of businesses in this industry are not scalable. However, many immigrants find it gives them a satisfactory lifestyle.
Of course the Asian restaurant trend changed, many years ago, from an offering of traditional Chinese to either a buffet or Sushi bar presentation. And as a result, my friend and client Philip Maung decided to do something entirely different, about 13 years ago. He entered the wholesale market platform of the "Sushi box" business. For many Asians, this reminds us of home--the lunch, or bento box style is a comfort food for us--yet considered very trendy here in the U.S.
Philip started this business with his wife Kristina at their kitchen table. Today, Philip employees over 400 employees and contractors across the U.S. Philip sells his sushi boxes to upscale grocery chains such as Whole Foods, to corporate, university, and hospital cafés such as Carolinas Medical Center and to airports including Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. Philip's business, Hissho Sushi is one of the very few businesses in the U.S. named for three consecutive years by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing private businesses.
Over the years of working with business owners, I've come to the conclusion there are three categories of entrepreneurs: Technician, Manager and Business Architect:
Technician--If you are a technician, your business provides you a salary of less than $100,000 a year. (Please make a note here; I said "salary" not "revenue.")
Manager--Typically, as a manager, you've managed to create a lifestyle in which the business provides you a salary of around $250,000 a year.
Business Architect--If you are a business architect, the business provides you an annual salary of greater than $250,000. There is usually also a minimum of three to five times of business value back to you as the owner.
Philip is the Business Architect that many privately owners aspire to become.
Navigating through today's turbulent business waters
Our study indicated that 67% of the business owners are in business because they want to make more money and become financially independent. So how do you begin to create equity value in your business to reward yourself for the risk you took in starting, building and maintaining your business?
Your business equity value changes due to varying factors and triggers. You must make sure all factors are working in your favor when considering a capital expansion or even cashing out.
Even if you cash out due to the need for capital to expand your business, you still must have the right guide. Why? As in my example of the whitewater rafting trip, with the right guide, I successfully reached my destination safely and claimed my reward for the day-- which in this case--was simply FUN.
Yes, think of the equity value in your business as your reward. Claim that reward and compensate yourself for the risk you took in creating and running your business. Don't wait too long or you could be faced with the triggers that might potentially decrease the equity value of your business.
In my BVD study, there are specific value creation methods that help owners gain insights on how to avoid unfavorable triggers. It helps owners proactively and intentionally build their business in equity value. It means knowing what investors and buyers are looking for. Then, you can build your business in value to create a win-win situation for you and all concerned parties.
Do yourself a favor--set a goal to be able to claim your reward anytime! Profitably! Make it a win-win for you, your families and your investors or buyers. Get the right guide on your team to navigate through today's turbulent business waters.

Marketing Your Business on a Tight Budget

If no one knows who you are, how will they know to buy your products or services? There are ways to reduce the costs, but you cannot survive as a company without spending a little. Marketing budgets are the most important part of doing business.
Critical must haves for marketing: The age old saying about it takes money to make money. The saying refers to the cost of doing business to spread the word that you are in business - Marketing!
• Logo creation - do not cut corners. There is a huge difference in image types. Vector logos will not loose resolution as they are enlarged for large marketing pieces. Raster images will be blurry when enlarged. If the graphic artist or marketing company has no idea how to create a vector image, run like the wind. You can expect to pay around $50 to $200 for an individual artist vs. $800 to $3000 with a marketing firm. Here are few resources to find graphic artists and marketing companies: guru.com, freelancer.com, angieslist.com and Elance.com.
• Business cards - do not cut corners. This will be the first printed marketing material that is handed to a potential customer. You don't have to spend $50 to $100 on business cards. You can get 250 for free plus the cost of shipping which can be as low as $6. That means that each card cost you.02 cents! You can't print business cards at home for that cost. Vistaprint.com is an online resource for all printing material needed for business. Be careful of the extras you may not need right now.
• Websites - Do not over spend, but don't let your neighbor or high school student design your website for next to nothing. You can't expect to get a professional website for around $200. You don't have to spend $30 for a domain name each year. Godaddy.com offers names of all kinds for as little as $12. It is even cheaper if you buy hosting from them as well. Hosting is as low as $5 a month. Vistaprint.com offers a similar package on hosting. Dreamhost.com offers unlimited everything for about $9 a month.
• SEO - Do not over spend, but do set up a fixed amount to spend each month. You have a choice, time or money. There are some really great SEO marketing companies out there that will get your company and site noticed. They don't come cheap! You can expect to pay upwards of $1,000 a month for services. Software is out there that can do some of it for you and its worth the money spent if the software will submit your site to search engines; otherwise don't bother with it. Axandra.com offers iBusiness Promoter software. It caters to Google's search algorithms in order to help you get your site ranked in a good position which is the first page. If you follow the rules and make the changes, your site will rank high. Pay per click (PPC) campaigns are worth it if you know the right keywords so you aren't spending too much on a keyword and not really getting the right kind of traffic. For example: Your business deals in vacuums. One of your keywords is vacuums. You will pay more for that one word and get all kinds of traffic that may not be in your area. If you are located in New York, you want to market to people who are local and will visit your store. The key words New York vacuums will cost you less as now you are competing with only people in New York that own vacuum stores.

Entrepreneurs Maximize Income by Investing in Knowledge

When you start a business, your chances of succeeding in that business depend heavily on your sincere commitment to continuous learning and innovation. Many smart entrepreneurs know this. They also know that we all live and work in a world that is rapidly changing. Because many economies are becoming increasingly information-based, knowledge has become king. Market competition is now outrageously fierce. It is only those who have the knowledge and are well-informed that survive in the market place these days. They are able to survive because they habitually invest in the acquisition of relevant knowledge to their businesses. They as a result are able to maximize their earnings. These are the smart entrepreneurs now making waves all over the world.
The core knowledge about any business is extremely valuable to that business. In some cases it is this knowledge that gives any business its major competitive advantage over its rivals. Entrepreneurs who know how to learn and to use what they learn to improve on their products or services stand at an advantage over others. If they are able to deploy that knowledge to create highly marketable products or services, they get the largest chunk of the market share. They tend to make most of the money as a result. Those who are unable to learn and use what they learn to improve their businesses quickly find themselves broke and many soon go out of business. That is how important knowledge is in the day-to-day running of any business.
There are always many areas in a business an entrepreneur may choose to continually invest in. The best of these areas is always on the entrepreneur herself. That investment is in the form of knowledge and continuous learning. Any investment on the entrepreneur apart from being the best investment is usually the most valuable. In today's fast-paced business world, it is investment in knowledge that is about the only investment which is capable of making returns in perpetuity. It is the only investment you can never lose. A business is what the owners know and are able to use to meet customer satisfaction. Entrepreneurs who succeed to make money never stop acquiring specialized knowledge related to their businesses. They always strive to keep up with the trends in their chosen businesses. That is how they get to acquire a larger market share and as a consequence make more money.
Smart entrepreneurs know the importance of knowledge and continuous learning to their businesses. That is the main reason why many spend some good chunk of their annual investment budgets training themselves and their employees. When you examine the books of such businesses at the end of each accounting year, what you normally find is that the money spent for additional training pales into insignificance when compared to the volume of additional business the entrepreneur is able to accomplish within the same period. Some entrepreneurs are at times wiped-out completely within the year when they fail to learn from trends. Some may barely break-even. While some others who studied and went with the trends may end up making all the money. It is for this reason that investment in knowledge is an extremely wise, desirable and economical thing to do in the course of any business. It is through the continuous investment in and acquisition of relevant knowledge that smart entrepreneurs manage to maximize their incomes continually.

Sule Yesufu, a Certified Speaking Professional, is a Strategic Partner in S D Y Management Consult, a firm of Investment, Small Business and Entrepreneurial Consultants. An expert in Small Business and Personal Development, he focuses on communicating his ideas and thoughts mostly through his Training Seminars and popular free blog. He offers useful tips on Self-Improvement, Personal Finance, Entrepreneurship, Current News, Politics and Business in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa.