Cash flow is one of the trickiest things for a business owner to master. Novice business owners often think that all that ultimately matters is sales. Unfortunately, selling something doesn’t always mean that your business has cash in its proverbial pocket. All the money you make from sales has to go to pay suppliers, pay employees, and pay for your office space.

Only once you’ve paid for all the necessary expenses do you stand to make a cash profit. And if you don’t have enough cash to pay the bills at specific times of the month, you’ll find yourself in a pretty bad situation. Or if you’ve spent too much on inventory that isn’t selling, you may have some difficulty making any sort of profit at all. In order to maximize the amount of cash flowing into your business and the profit you make as a business owner, you have to control your cash flow properly. Luckily, doing so is a science you can master with some effort. Here are a few important cash flow control tips that you may find to be advantageous for your company:

Ask your suppliers for some wiggle room

Try not to pay for anything until you receive it and are able to inspect it. Damaged goods equal lost time and lost money for your company. Ideally, you should negotiate with suppliers to pay during the certain time of the month or cycle that’s most convenient—preferably after you’ve made enough money from selling the inventory you received from your suppliers. Payment agreements don’t always work out in your favor because of the individual needs of your suppliers. However, if you can negotiate some flexibility when it comes to paying them, you won’t have to worry about having to scramble to pay them at an inconvenient time.

Get rid of what isn’t selling

A big chunk of your company’s cash is tied up in your warehouse and/or stockroom in the form of inventory. Your goal, of course, is to free up that cash by selling the inventory. However, slow moving products can dramatically slow down the process of making the kind of profit you need. So, take a look at your inventory data and identify products that simply aren’t selling and that aren’t selling fast enough. Once you identify the problem products, find a way to sell them (by discounting them dramatically, for instance). The point is to get the products off your hands and make a small profit off of them. When they’re off your hands, you can focus on ordering more of what does sell well.

These are just two important strategies that will help you control your cash flow in your favor. Just remember that you can’t take money home until you’ve paid all your bills. So, be strategic about how you do business with customers and suppliers and how you handle your inventory.

Author’s Bio: Carolyn is a guest blogger who writes about small business success strategies, e-commerce, and order management for Shopify, BigCommerce, and 3dcart subscribers.

Featured in this month’s issue of Wired Magazine, Klout is a three-year-old business working to transform how we measure influence. Its algorithms comb through social media data to create a Klout score for anyone with an online presence. If you have a public account with Twitter, you have a Klout score, whether you know it or not. And you can opt to connect Klout to your Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn accounts to create an even higher score. The scores – ranking from 1 to 100 – are calculated using variables including: number of followers, frequency of updates, number of likes, retweets and shares. High-scoring Klout users can qualify for “Klout Perks” in the form of free goods, gifts, and trips from companies hoping to leverage the reach and influence of these social media mavens. 

Is Pinterest the Twitter of 2012? Perhaps, perhaps not, but regardless an it poses an excellent business opportunity!

Have you heard about Pinterest? Chances are you have. What you may not have thought of is how this new form of social media can help you build your business and increase the visibility of your brand.

 In its own words, Pinterest is an online pinboard that enables you to organize and share things you love. Users “pin” images or videos to themed online bulletin boards. These photos or clips can then be “re-pinned,” “liked” (similar to Facebook) or commented upon by other Pinterest users.

According to data compiled by comScore and shared by ad agency DraftFCB, the following groups make up the majority of Pinterest’s users:

• 68% are women
• 27% are 25-34 years of age, 22% are 35-44, and 17% are 18-24
• 28% have a household income of $100K+
• 50% have children

If your business targets any of these user groups, you might consider leveraging this new “it” form of social media. For instance, are you a freelance wedding photographer? As you’ll see below, Pinterest is the leading social referer from MarthaStewartWeddings.com. If this is where your potential clients are, this is where you should be too.

Three additional reasons you should consider Pinterest to promote your brand:

1. Pinterest is becoming a significant source of referral traffic for retailers.

• According to Monetate (February 2012), Pinterest has become one of the top five referrers for several apparel retailers and small clothing boutiques, driving more traffic than Google+ and in some cases Twitter. Monetate also reports that referral traffic from Pinterest to five undisclosed retailers rose 389% from July to December 2011.
• According to Mashable (February 2012), Pinterest is now the top social referer for marthastewartweddings.com and marthastewart.com, sending more traffic to both properties than Facebook and Twitter combined. Pinterest already drives three times the amount of traffic to Cooking Light compared to Facebook, is the fourth largest source of traffic for Country Living, the ninth largest source for both Elle Décor and House Beautiful, and was among the top 10 referral sites for Self.

2. Pinterest allows for seamless social sharing on Twitter and Facebook, which creates the potential for more people to see and  engage with your content across multiple channels.

3. Pinterest provides real-time feedback on consumer response. Each piece of content added to Pinterest has three clear engagement metrics: likes, repins, and comments. The more of these you get, the higher the consumer affinity for your brand or product. If it makes sense, you can add “Pin It” buttons to the product or content pages on your website to aid in organic sharing.

Social media continues to rapidly transform and, chances are, your business will have to transform its tactics along with it. Here at WorkingPoint, we make managing your small business easier, so that you can stay on the cutting edge.

-The WorkingPoint Team

Hearkening back to our post on successfully marketing yourself as a freelancer, today’s blog post highlights five small business competitions that can not only help build your reputation, but award you money to grow your business.

With deadlines in April, May and June, now is the time to check out these opportunities to win as much as $100,000:

• MassChallenge - Judges, many of whom are billionaire entrepreneurs, can select as many as 20 startups to split $1 million in cash.
• Turnstone – Five finalists will win complete office makeovers.
• NewSpace – This NASA-supported award will grant $100,000 for the best business plan.
• Cleantechopen - Awards grants to entrepreneurs addressing urgent energy, environmental and economic challenges.
• PraxisLabs - Twelve finalist will receive cash grants and in-kind support for their mission-driven projects.

Here at WorkingPoint, we make it easy to take care of the small stuff, so that you can focus on the big ideas that will help make your business a success. So get out there, and good luck!

-The WorkingPoint Team

As anyone who has tried it knows, entrepreneurship takes a lot of planning and a lot of faith. Taking that leap to start your own business, or deciding to work as a freelancer, is a critical moment in anyone’s life. It gives you the power to decide how you’re going to make yourself happy and successful. For many of us, the moment came when we’d had “enough.” Enough job searching, enough of crappy bosses, enough of commutes and HR handbooks.

Taking your career into your own hands is a landmark decision; a shift to the road less traveled.

The Huffington Post wants to know about that moment. They’re looking for first-hand accounts about how you made the decision to start your business. You can create a video using YouTube or Vimeo and send the link/URL of the video to themomentiknew@huffingtonpost.com. Each video should be 30-60 seconds long, and should feature only you, speaking right into the camera telling your story.

From everyone here WorkingPoint, to all you entrepreneurs out there: now’s your time to shine.

-The WorkingPoint Team

From copy-writers to graphic designers to photographers – making it in the freelance world depends on how well you sell your experience and abilities. You don’t have to be an expert in marketing, but a few tips and strategies can make it a lot easier to get noticed, and get paid.

To begin, it is essential to convey real confidence in the services you offer. Others perceive your value based on what you project, so don’t sell yourself short. Second, promoting yourself as a freelancer doesn’t mean only marketing yourself when you need work. Successful freelancers are dedicated and consistent self-marketers, even when jobs are still coming in.

OneExtraPixel does a great job of outlining how to successfully market yourself as a freelancer. Their tips (and some of our own) are highlighted below:

Sign up as a contractor on sites like Elance.com. Check out other people’s profiles, find one that you like or admire, and then use that as a template to help shape your own profile. Learning from other successful self-marketers is a smart way to start building your own personal strategy. If it works for someone else, it’s likely to work for you too, so don’t be shy about researching the tactics of other freelancers in your field.

Carve out your niche. What makes you unique? Whether it’s a great sense of humor, a unique approach, a positive work attitude or a specific talent, focus on what sets you apart from other freelancers.

Another way to demonstrate your expertise is through competitions. Winning awards is a great way to get to noticed and fortify your reputation as a leader in your field. Illustrators, animators, designers and photographers can find a list of competitions here:  www.graphiccompetitions.com

Get certified. Take classes that offer training in certain technologies or skills. This demonstrates initiative, helps broaden your skill-set, and bolsters your résumé.

Advertise your good work by sharing compliments from previous clients. Even if it’s just a few sentences, these give evidence of client satisfaction and help inspire confidence in future employers.

At the end of the day, WorkingPoint is here to help you quickly and easily manage your finances so that you have time to focus on what’s really important: being a successful freelancer.

Have tips for other freelancers? Let us know in the comments section!

-The WorkingPoint Team

To launch any new business, or expand your current business, you need start-up capital. However, before you apply for loans or credit cards, consider some not-so-traditional funding approaches; you may be surprised by what you find.

- The WorkingPoint Team

And now for our Word of The Day: Symbiosis, noun: a mutually beneficial relationship between two persons or groups.

More than ever, it’s essential that small businesses support one another. But what’s also important is how they can benefit from one another. By working together, small businesses and entrepreneurs can save time and money and more effectively compete with larger counterparts.

Today, online resources are making it incredibly easy to connect and collaborate. Take Verizon’s new WeCommerce marketplace on Facebook. After completing your free registration and profile information, you can find other businesses with which to team up, barter, trade services or sell to. As advertised, “WeCommerce makes it easier for you to grow your business without sacrificing your bottom line.”

Building these strategic relationships should be part of any smart business plan. Instead of looking at other businesses as competitors, find out what they can do for you. Chances are, you’re both more effective as partners than as adversaries.

Startupbusiness.com provides a great list of entrepreneur networks through which you can connect, share best practices and find resources from other businesses and like-minded individuals. If it’s not an exchange of services, cross-promotion can also be a cheap and effective way to spread the word about your work: 7 ideas for cross-promotion with other small businesses.

Good luck with your symbiotic relationships!

- The WorkingPoint Team

With tax season upon us, it’s important to understand the options, requirements and pitfalls of filing for your business. For most people, business taxes are much more complicated than family or personal taxes and for that reason, getting help is well advised. However, if you’re hoping to avoid meeting with a tax professional, here are some tips for tackling your taxes on your own.

To begin – and building upon our last blog post – the income tax form that you’ll need to file depends on the type of entity you established when you started your business. The IRS has unique forms for LLCs, Corporations, S Corps, Sole Proprietorships, and Partnerships, all of which can be found here.

Second, be careful with your deductions. Start-up costs and home office deductions can be easily written-off, but also easily mistaken. For example, If you use your home office for anything other than your business, you can’t take the deduction. So if you work from your coffee table, you don’t qualify. Your office must be a dedicated space, not the breakfast nook.

Take a detailed look at the IRS’ guidelines before you claim your deductions.

It’s also important to be careful with your deductions if you’re reporting a net operating loss for 2011. Even if it’s your first year in business, your deductions may be subject to increased scrutiny if you’re reporting negative income. This article: 7 Common Small Business Tax Misperceptions does an excellent job of highlighting potentially costly misconceptions about filing your business taxes.

In addition, remember that over-paying your taxes will attenuate your business’ profits. As you enter your next fiscal year, it’s a good idea to set up a system to keep track of your expenses from the start. Check out WorkingPoint’s tax reporting tools, which allow you to track receipts and deductions, produce estimated tax reports and more.

Here at WorkingPoint, we’re dedicated to helping you keep more of your hard-earned money where it belongs: with you. Let us know if you have any questions, and as always, feel free to post additional comments to help others within the WorkingPoint community navigate their business taxes this year.

Best of luck, and happy filing!

-The WorkingPoint Team

When considering entrepreneurship, it’s important to consider how your business will take shape. Recently, LLCs have gained popularity, as the structure allows for less personal responsibility and more protection. While an LLC provides a great deal of flexibility, its disadvantages include careful records-keeping, significant paperwork, and cost of implementation. And for all you West-Coasters, it should also be noted that the state of California levies a franchise tax on all LLCs and does not allow LLCs to offer licensed professional services – this includes architects, landscape architects, chiropractors, lawyers, accountants, etc. If you’re currently weighing your options or just looking to restructure, LegalZoom does a good job of outlining the advantages and disadvantages of an LLC compared to a sole-proprietorship.

As always please send us any questions or comments.

Thanks and good luck!!!

The WorkingPoint Team