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Tag: Entrepreneurs

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Manage Your Business’s Cash Flow in 4 Simple Steps

Keeping the cash flow steady at your business can be a long and frustrating process, even when sales are good. This is because there are several factors that go into your finances, and some get overlooked in the course of daily operations, such as the state of your inventory management. By making some small changes to the way your business handles certain tasks, you could make meaningful progress when it comes to your cash flow. Here are a few tips from UNOVA Coworking to help you get started.

Photo via Pexels

Incorporate

If you haven’t already incorporated your business, consider doing so for the many advantages your business will see. There are several different corporation types and they all have various advantages. For instance, forming an S corporation allows you to take taxes out of your paycheck rather than paying them in one lump sum at the end of the year, and it also allows for a deduction for your payroll, which means your tax responsibilities will be lowered. There is also a C corporation option, which allows for a much stronger form of protection for your company and its shareholders. Read up on the benefits of incorporating to figure out which option is best for your business, and get some help with filing the corporation paperwork.

Invest in Helpful Software

Whether you choose to incorporate or not, you’ll need the best and most updated software in order to make sure your payroll and accounting records are on track. These days there are several options available according to your business’s specific needs, and while it’s still a good idea to utilize the services of a professional accountant at tax time, there are programs that can help you keep track of your expenses and income throughout the year so you won’t face any nasty surprises. You can choose between software that incorporates both accounting and invoicing tools or look for specific programs that focus on one or the other.

Create a Loyalty Program

While keeping track of your cash flow is essential, it’s also crucial to look for ways to bring more money in. You might partner with a local business so both of you can benefit from the exposure, or create a loyalty program to encourage repeat customers. Businesses make much more profit from loyal customers than they do from new ones, so this is a great way to boost your income without spending a lot of money in the process.

Working with other small businesses can get your brand more exposure, so make sure that you have a simple, but high quality, logo that captures your company’s product and spirit. If you don’t yet have a logo, look for programs online. There are even some free options that allow you to customize templates or create your own from scratch. It’s logo design made easy, and your business will reap the benefits.

Make It Easier for Customers to Pay

Once you can keep your customers coming back, it’s a good idea to make paying invoices as easy as possible for them so you don’t have to waste valuable time and money tracking down payments. Consider digitizing invoices, offering a small discount for early payments, creating multiple pay options, discounting subscriptions, and/or offering email or text reminders to ensure they know when billing dates are. The easier it is for your customers to keep track of their bills and due dates, the faster you’ll get your money, allowing your business to keep cash flowing freely.

Maintaining a healthy cash flow for your company will ensure that you aren’t scrambling to find resources during slower times of the year, and it will help to reduce the stress that comes with running a business. By getting organized and utilizing a few different tools, you can keep communication open with vendors and customers to make sure your finances are in great shape.

Having a dedicated office space is nice, but it can be expensive. A more budget-friendly option is a coworking space, like UNOVA Coworking. Not only do we offer a quality workspace with many office essentials included, but you will also get the benefit of networking from your office. Visit us online to learn more about how you can save money by using our coworking space for your business!


Questions or comments? Have any additional tips or resources to share? Reply below or reach out to Julie Morris.

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Easy Expansion: Hiring and Managing Remote Workers

When it comes to business, there’s always strength in numbers. If you want to take your company to the next level, you’ll need to put together a cohesive team and learn to manage them in the era of remote working – here’s how you can get started.

Hiring Smart

Before you begin the hiring process, it’s important to outline exactly who and what the company requires to succeed. Many new ventures begin with just a CEO and an accountant but, as you begin to expand or take on new investment, you may need to accommodate your growth with a few key additions. At this crucial stage, your new personnel need to represent immediate value – for example, marketing generalists or sales representatives can help increase revenue or spread brand awareness, or a product manager could help to develop your product range and supply chains.

When it comes to actually hiring, the process can be as simple or complex as you need it to be. Generally speaking, however, it’s worth taking time to plan and structure – write out the desired skills, available budget, and experience required. There are hundreds of forums and platforms to help you discover talent. If you find that you’re time-poor, it could be worth hiring a recruiter to help filter out the best candidates and remove the burden of scrolling through resumés. If you’re a microbusiness, try to avoid larger recruitment agencies as you’ll find more affordable fees attached to smaller companies.

Planning Ahead

It’s crucial that new hires understand exactly where you intend to take your company and what their role is in its development. Maybe your priority is to generate high-quality leads and establish your brand within a particular demographic, or to dominate an emerging market, spreading the word as quickly and indiscriminately as possible – whatever your aim, it needs to be communicated clearly, as confusion can quickly lead to lapses in productivity. Create a process map to help to alleviate this issue and enable you and your team to analyze your shared processes and outcomes, helping everyone to stay organized.

To make life easier for everyone, it’s also important to do some work independently. This means taking everything you already understand about your business and your industry and writing the information down in the form of a mission statement. Until now, much of your company’s brand values, work practices, and long-term objectives have lived inside your head – if you want to successfully transition into a team-based business, you’ll need to be generous with knowledge and prioritize patience and clarity.

Managing Remotely

Even with all the right preparation, you’ll never know exactly what you’re undertaking until the team is formed and the work is underway. There are believed to be three primary management styles and up to ten sub-styles – it’s up to you to recognize your own strengths and apply these accordingly. It’s also important to remember that the world of work is changing rapidly and, in this day and age, talent often recognizes its own value. Familiarize yourself with the latest trends in company perks, mental health awareness, and paid leave/vacation allowance.

Remote working can make management tricky at times but you’re likely to turn off good workers if you insist too strictly on in-person attendance. A good strategy is to divide the week up with some days given for remote working and others for office work. With the right communication tools, there’s no reason why virtual management can’t work, just be certain to check in regularly and make use of collaborative software.

It’s always a nervy moment for a company when it comes time to expand, but if you can provide clarity of vision, keep an open mind, and collaborate with your new hires, there’s no reason why your business shouldn’t thrive.

UNOVA is a coworking space established in 2018, offering a range of facilities for emerging businesses. Learn more at www.unovacoworking.com

Questions or comments? Have any additional tips or resources to share? Reply below or reach out to Marissa Perez.

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6 Invoicing Practices for Faster Payments

An efficient invoicing system gets you paid faster and keeps you on customers’ good side (and vice versa).  Bad billing practices, on the other hand, cause revenue leakage, slow cash flow, and hurt customer satisfaction.

Image via Pexels

What sets good billing systems apart from the bad?  Use these tips from UNOVA Coworking to set up an accounts receivable system that’s built for growth.

1. Start with a professional invoice

A standardized invoice template is an essential component of any billing system.  Include your business logo, name, and address, and clearly state payment terms and due dates to eliminate confusion.  Always itemize services and products provided and note the types of payment accepted.

2. Choose an invoicing platform

If you’re still using spreadsheets, upgrade to cloud-based invoicing software.  Cloud-based apps are a boon for all types of business processes but especially finances.  Many of the leading platforms like Xero, Zoho Books, FreshBooks, and Quickbooks Online start at $20 a month or less.

Instead of manually inputting data, cloud-based tools automatically populate invoices to streamline invoicing and reduce errors.  Most include automated reminders so you can remind late-paying customers without any of the awkwardness.  You’ll get paid faster and set a high standard with customers.

3. Establish your payment terms

Clear expectations eliminate payment confusion.  Plainly state payment terms in contracts and invoices and include specific due dates.

How soon should customers pay?  It depends.  Net 30 used to be standard but shorter terms of Net 15 are becoming more common especially for new accounts.  A frequent late-payer might call for cash-on-delivery, while reliable customers might receive more generous terms.  Factor customer history and your cash flow needs when setting terms and consider late payment penalties and incentives to motivate on-time payments.

4. Enable recurring payments

Customers are more likely to pay on time when you make it easy.  Online payments and ACH transfers eliminate the delays and hassle associated with mailing a check payment.

Recurring payments are the gold standard for efficiency because they ensure you get paid.  Overdrafts are the biggest danger when subscription billing — no one appreciates a surprise fee! — but you can avoid overdrafts by verifying account balances using Plaid’s Balance API before initiating a transfer.

5. Monitor accounts receivable

Software takes a lot of the hassle out of invoicing, but it’s not totally hands-off.  Keep an eye on accounts receivable and don’t be afraid to pick up the phone when a client isn’t responding to friendly reminders.  Late payments can cause you to miss your own payment deadlines so it’s important to follow up.

Monitoring accounts receivable also draws attention to strengths and weaknesses in your billing system.  Do you have a lot of risky customers or a high turnover ratio?  You may need to tighten up collection policies to improve cash flow.  Are your best customers regularly maxing out their credit limits?  Raising the limit could encourage reliable customers to spend more.

6. Make sure it’s secure

Putting a customer’s financial data at risk can ruin a business relationship fast.  Security remains a top priority any time you’re handling customer payment data.  Verify that your payment service provider uses the latest security standards to prevent data breaches and protect customer data in the event it’s compromised.  Use strong passwords throughout all business systems and follow cybersecurity best practices to secure devices and networks.

Getting paid on time is easier said than done.  If you’re still relying on slow, manual processes to bill customers and accept payments, you’ll spend more time chasing payments than making money.  Optimize your accounts receivable with tools and tactics designed for the 21stcentury and start getting paid faster.

Questions or comments? Have any additional tips or resources to share? Reply below or reach out to Marcus Lansky.

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From Great Idea to Detailed Plan:  Your Business Destiny Awaits

When an awesome idea hits, entrepreneurs are often ready to pounce, particularly when it is a unique business idea with a lot of potential.  Sometimes the small details of management planning are lost along the way, but those tasks are important parts of the daily management of business.  Fortunately, there are many tools and tricks to help business owners manage the minutiae of administrative tasks.  Read on for UNOVA Coworking‘s tips to make your business destiny come true.

Courtesy of Pixabay

Getting Goods and Supplies

Placing orders for supplies and managing your inventory is a crucial aspect of running your business.  If you are making drastic changes to the business and its goods or services, it may be necessary to identify alternative vendors specific to what you have in mind.  Often specialty vendors can be found through trade magazines.  Shop around to make sure you are accessing good prices and watch out for shipping costs, which can drastically impact your profit margins.

Inventory Assists

Maintaining inventory once your business is established can be a less-than-exciting task.  Fortunately, business owners can use inventory programs to stay ahead of their supply needs.  The best part of an inventory system is the automation that saves a ton of time and misery.  There are many programs available at a range of prices, depending on the size of your business and how much automation you require.

Business owners may be able to delegate some tasks to trusted employees if there is a question about whether there are adequate funds for an inventory program.  Inventory may be a good task to delegate initially.  As business increases and you get your sea legs under you, it may feel like a better time to invest in a program for inventory.  Sometimes there are tasks that business owners take on independently to save capital, and others are more vital to the functioning of the business, such as payroll.  When it comes to payroll, using an established, automated system can spare you hours at a computer and a lot of frustration.

Payroll Simplicity

Most business owners do not relish endless hours crunching numbers for payroll.  To avoid errors in manual calculations, automated platforms can be an ideal solution.  When you use a timesheet calculator, it creates a more accurate account of your worker’s time, including breaks and overtime usage.  Automated systems are also great for keeping track of the varying classifications of workers, which reduces the likelihood of human error.

Another factor to keep in mind regarding payroll is that if you have employees in other countries, you’ll need to find reliable methods for paying them.  One option is to use a money transfer service like Remitly, which allows you to streamline safe and secure payments to people at guaranteed delivery dates in many countries, including Mexico and India.

Technology has offered business owners a wide range of time-saving tools that can change operations for the better.  You can decide which ones meet your needs and whether they are worth the investment.  As your business continues to grow, you may find that automated systems are a time and energy saving way to operate.  Regardless of the systems you choose, consider ways to make your business sustainable and reduce your stress as an entrepreneur.

Questions or comments? Have any additional tips or resources to share? Reply below or reach out to Courtney Rosenfeld.

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11 Essential Apps for Business Owners to Have More Free Time

Business Apps
Image via Unsplash

If you’re a small business owner, entrepreneur, or coach who’s working hard to get your passion project out into the world, but you also want more free time in your day-to-day life, then these apps are perfect for you. They’ll help you get organized and work efficiently so that all of your essential tasks don’t fall through the cracks. UNOVA Coworking offers a list of the top 11 apps that will help increase your productivity and give you back some precious free time!

1) Google Drive. It’s the perfect app for collaboration with colleagues, sharing documents, and storing company information. You can also create a document in seconds that will allow several people to work on it together in real-time.

2) Slack. This collaborative workspace allows individuals to work together with their business teams from wherever they are while retaining complete control over who has access to your conversations. It also offers integrations with other apps such as Dropbox so users can sync files across platforms without switching back and forth between different screens or programs.

3) Trello. Trello is a great way to manage projects. With its clean and straightforward interface, you can create boards for different tasks with cards representing the steps needed to complete those tasks.

4) Adobe Spark. When it comes to creating professional level designs for your social media or website, this app makes it easy to tap into your creativity. For example, you can use their banner generator to quickly craft a compelling design with fun graphics and fonts that give the impression it was made by a graphic designer.

4) Dropbox. This app allows users to store files in the cloud and access or share them from any device, anywhere. It offers integration with many other apps and desktop or laptop computers, making it a handy cloud app to have.

5) Zoom. This app is now a classic video conference and screen-sharing service that offers many of the same features as Skype or Facetime but has some great extras like recording meetings.

6) QuickBooks Enterprise. QuickBooks is distribution software for wholesale businesses that helps you keep track of inventory and optimize your wholesale distribution. It can automatically tally up purchases, record stock updates to ensure you have the correct information to fulfill our orders, avoid out of stock, and provide analytics on sales data for an easy view of how your company is doing financially. Integrations to leading e-commerce platforms are also a welcome feature.

7) QuickBooks. A flexible accounting app, QuickBooks allows you to manage expenses and invoices, track payments, and stay on top of all of your essential financial metrics and help curb your spending, among other things. It offers multiple integrations, as well as the ability to send reminders for overdue payments.

8) Scanner app. This app turns your phone into a document scanner, letting you quickly digitize paper documents. The ability to scan anywhere will make it easier to have your office on the go without needing to carry around endless bits of paper and post-its that inevitably end up getting lost.

9) Asana. This cloud-based work management app is excellent for people with many individual tasks or different projects to complete. It helps you keep track by providing reminders, and it also lets users share lists so that they can collaborate on projects together.

10) Evernote. Dividing up tasks among team members can save time for everyone. This app lets users share notes, lists, and files across devices to work together on projects efficiently.

Do you already use some of these, or do any of them sound like they could benefit your company? If so, give it a try to see if you can get a little help to free up your time.

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GRAND OPENING!

Join us on Saturday, April 6th, 2019 for the official Grand Opening of UNOVA Coworking! 

Explore our space! Be sure to check out our private offices, brand new kitchen, and breakout lounge.

Talk to current members! Don’t just take it from us — listen to real testimonials and see what our space can offer you.

Bring your friends and family! Come for the free giveaways, appetizers, & refreshments, and stay for the all ages trivia, games, and good company.

Stop by anytime to celebrate our official GRAND OPENING with us!

RSVP HERE

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UNOVA Coworking’s Open House!

UNOVA Coworking Open House Flyer Front

I know what you’re thinking — we at UNOVA Coworking have been very quiet on the communication front.  Well, get ready, because that’s about to change.  You see, we’ve been hard at work renovating the space for valuable community members like you to come in and start getting work done.

It all begins on Small Business Saturday, November 24th!  Join Joe & Ashley and other potential members as we mark the official opening of UNOVA Coworking!  Be the first to tour the space, enjoy some snacks, and learn more about what our space can offer you.  Bring your friends and family, stay as long as you’d like, and be sure to ask for a free trial membership!

In the meantime, check back on our website and sign up as an online community member on our JOIN page — it’s easy to do and completely FREE!  Just enter your email and pick a password, that’s it!  From there you can create your profile and start connecting with others.

Here’s the pretty flyer we made for the Open House.  Please help us spread the word and share with your friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, mailman, accountant, favorite store cashier — really anyone who enjoys free stuff and good people.

  • UNOVA Coworking Open House Flyer Front
  • UNOVA Coworking Open House Flyer Back

We thank you for your patience, and hope to see you on November 24th!!! 

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Happy International Coworking Day!

Coworking as a movement, a business solution, and a supportive global community turns 13 years old today!

It was on August 9th, 2005 that Brad Neuberg opened the first collaborative workspace in San Francisco and dubbed it “coworking.”  What started as a tiny community office space in a converted Victorian in San Francisco has grown 
More people currently cowork than there are people living in all of Costa Ricato 1.74 million coworkers in 2017, with an expected 5.1 million members by 2022.  To put that number in perspective, more people currently cowork than there are people living in all of Costa Rica!  That not only means that memberships across the globe are making a statement in and of themselves, but that coworking will most definitely impact the future of work as we know it.

What Brad, a software developer at the time, wanted was “the freedom and independence of working for myself along with the structure and community of working with others.”  Coworking allows members to experience the energy of being surrounded by like-minded individuals from different businesses, industries, and trades which benefits the professional worker in a way that a traditional office simply cannot.

Naturally then, on this day every year, coworkers and coworking spaces across the globe take a moment to celebrate their independence as well as their discovery of all the dreams that can come true when you’ve got a solid community in which to create and collaborate.  Check out some of the Coworking Day events here!

Brad Neuberg, coworking founder
Photo courtesy of coworking.com

Brad created this model by which people from all walks of life could work together.  But this is not a one-size-fits-all model, of course.  Brad invited those who liked the coworking concept to share and remix it, to make it their own.  What differentiates coworking spaces from any other office space is a commitment to the five values of coworking:  Collaboration, Community, Openness, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability.  With these core principles as a foundation, coworking aims to create a happy, helpful community of workers whose success and knowledge rubs off on those around them.

Happy #InternationalCoworkingDay!!!

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Coworking in the news

Coffee and UNOVA Coworking Website

Last week’s blog post discussed UNOVA’s definition of coworking and why we decided to open a coworking space in the Buffalo Southtowns.  The coworking concept especially appeals to us because it provides independent professionals the flexibility and freedom of a “have it when you want it” workspace, plus a supportive business community, all in a polished work environment.

But don’t just take our word for it – check out any one of these news sources to learn more about coworking and its positive effects on the worker, the company, and the community:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’d love to hear from you – what’s your favorite part of coworking?

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So what is “coworking” anyway?

Coworking Adjectives Infographic DeskMag

The term, simply put, refers to people working together. Traditionally, a “coworker” would refer to another person who works in the same office in the same profession. But with the changing labor market, more and more individuals find themselves working from home, making a living as self-employed freelancers, or entering the market as an entrepreneur or small business owner.

A coworking space, then, provides a common workspace for all individuals – regardless of their industry, age, and experience – to come together and get their work done. Equipped with all of the necessities of a traditional office (think desks, copy machine, WiFi, coffee…) a coworking space is intended to give you everything you need to have a productive work day, without the distractions of home or a coffee shop, and without cost of renting your own office.

Sound good? I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet!

If you have ever worked from home, the reality often is far less cool than imagined. In my experience, I start by allowing myself to press the snooze a few too many times, cutting into my productivity right off the bat. Then I decide to ‘save the time’ and just stay dressed in my pajamas, subconsciously leaving me unmotivated (not to mention in socially unacceptable attire – I am officially NOT leaving the house!) Last, I continually step away from my real work to, say, wash the dirty dishes I see out of the corner of my eye, or do that load of laundry I’ve been meaning to get to. Not to mention I’ve got up to four cats crawling on my keyboard! At the end of the day – which is way past my usual bedtime and didn’t include a healthy meal – I may have checked off some items on my work to-do list, but I spent the majority of my day bouncing from task to task with little progress to show for it.

In a traditional office environment, sure there are distractions – loud conversations at the water cooler or chess games going on in the breakroom – but those same people have similar deadlines to meet and a boss breathing down their necks to ensure they stay on task. A coworking space provides that much-needed social interaction to keep you productive and stimulated throughout your ‘work day’ (whatever hours you choose), but without the disruptions or diversions of home or a coffeehouse.

So for me, the best part of a coworking space is the social network you can develop. By immersing yourself in a coworking environment, you now have any number of people to ask for advice on your latest assignment or have them proofread a carefully worded email to an important client. You’ll not only have a crowd to celebrate your big wins with over a beer (or wine, or cider, even at 4pm – who’s stopping you?), but you’ll also have a shoulder to cry on if the project you’ve been working on goes belly up. When you rent a desk or an office, you gain self-motivated coworkers who will support you professionally in a way that you simply can’t find when you work from home or in a corporate office.

Coworking is not only sharing equipment, ideas, and knowledge, but about belonging to a community of like-minded professionals who understand that when others succeed, we all succeed.

 

Coworking infographic courtesy of DeskMag.com

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