How’s your Business Health?

As we discussed in a previous blog post, a positive cash flow is good for business health. Late Payments are still a major issue for SME’s, with the recent Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association credit watch survey revealing an average credit period of 71 days! This has a huge impact on your forecasting and budgeting capabilities. While ISME fights for mandatory 30 day payment terms at state and EU level, what can you do to improve your cashflow situation?

Is your Cheque Dependence Slowing down your SME?

Research on cheque usage published by the Central Bank of Ireland last week may shine a light on one aspect of the problem. Ireland is one of only a few European Union member states that still use cheques for regular payments. 20 of the 27 EU member states have effectively eliminated cheques.

Ireland ranks behind France as the second most intensive cheque user in the EU. And the research found that SME’s are particularly dependent on cheques, they are responsible for 90% of business cheques issued in Ireland and nearly 56% of cheques are payable to SME’s. All if this means delays and leads to cash flow problems.

Cheques Cost Time and Money 

There is a strong case for businesses, particularly small businesses to review how they make and receive payments. How often have you contacted a customer and heard the following excuse;

‘…your cheque is in the post…’

Cheque payments cost you time. Most cheques are sent in the post, which adds more time to the process. A cheque must be processed by your administrative staff, and cheque payments take days to clear in your bank account.

Cheques also have a significant financial cost. A study from the European Central Bank estimated that a single cheque costs around €3.55. This cost takes into account:

·      Cheque Stamp Duty - currently 50c in Ireland

·      Bank Charges

·      Postal Charges

·      Staff Costs

Taken together, that’s a hefty price to pay!

Small and medium businesses dependence on cheque payments is a significant contributor to Ireland’s late payment culture. Becoming less reliant on cheques could have a positive impact on your average credit period and on your cash flow.

So what is the solution?

There’s no easy fix but there is one key thing your business can do to improve your average credit period and your cash flow.

Move from a cheque laggard to an EFT adopter

Irish businesses need to end their dependence on cheque payments and adopt an automated system like electronic fund transfers (EFT). EFT payments will save time and money lost using cheques and, most importantly, you won’t continue to hear about cheques in the post!

Assess your cash flow

It’s also a good idea to keep a close eye on your cash flow. Accounting software like Yendo allows you to quickly and easily assess your cash flow using the Budgeting function. If your cash flow is negative, you can take proactive steps to address this.

Sign up to Yendo now to access a 30 day free trial.  Subscriptions start at just $9 a month.

Business is Mobile with Yendo apps available in theGoogle Apps Store and now theStaples App Store.

Yendo has agreed a distribution partnership with Staples to resell the Yendo software on the newly launched Staples App Center.

This partnership is an exciting opportunity for Yendo as Staples  is the world’s largest office products company and second largest internet retailer. The company provides products, services and expertise in office supplies, copy & print, technology, facilities and breakroom, and furniture. Staples invented the office superstore concept in 1986 and now has annual sales of $25 billion, ranking second in the world in eCommerce sales.

The Staples App Center provides robust marketplace features that allow customers to shop for leading business applications from providers such as Google, Symantec, McAfee, Box, Carbonite, Brother, Mozy, and of course Yendo. 

“Staples’ vision is to provide small businesses with all the products they need to succeed, including the best offerings from the evolving cloud computing market,” said Peter Scala, Senior Vice President Merchandising, Online Marketplace. “The App Center is the first of its kind in our industry, and uniquely meets the needs of our customers as they shift to cloud-based apps. Staples recognizes that small businesses would rather spend time growing their business than figuring out which applications they need to run it, so we did the research for them and selected the best cloud-based business solutions.”

Now that the summer is nearly over, it's time to start planning for the selling season ahead. You've just printed another 1,000 business cards and you've booked yourself into a host of networking events. But how to you turn this into new business?

Identify What You Have To Offer

Many people when they start networking are motivated only by their own needs.

They will say 'I want to find a new job' or 'I want to make some new sales'. While it's good to know what you want out of networking it's equally important to identify what you are bringing to the people you are networking with.

Have Fun

If you approach networking as a stressful activity you will quickly become tired of it. Try to relax and perhaps see it as a game or a challenge where you have to meet as many people as you can. Don't be afraid of it, remember they're there to meet people too.

Follow Up with People You've Met

If you've met someone interesting that you would like to keep in touch with, send them an email the next day. It doesn't need to be anything significant perhaps just a thank you for taking the time to talk.

A small gesture like this will keep you in their mind and when you do want to contact them again they will remember you.

Be a Good Listener

People love to talk about themselves, it makes them feel that you're interested in them or their business and consequently they will start thinking of you as interesting in turn. Don't focus on telling everyone you meet you life story, ask a few questions.

Make Time for Networking Every Day

Networking isn't something you can do at the last minute just because sales are down. It's a long road to building new relationships and it needs to start early.

Remind yourself to do at least one small piece of networking every day. It can be something small like an email or a comment on LinkedIn but the trick is to remember to do something.

If you're struggling with this then try creating a spreadsheet of your activity for the coming month. Plan out some activity for each week. Think of an overall theme and then plan out individual postings for your blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. You can then directly forward links to this content to selected people in your contacts list. This will help you stay in touch.

Get Organised

It's often forgotten but one of the most important tasks you should do is to get organised. This means getting and configuring a good quality sales CRM system such as Yendo CRM. Good software like this will allow you to save the details of everybody you meet. This helps with a couple of things, firstly it will help you identify them if you ever meet them again and secondly it lets you track any potential sales opportunities with them.

It's also worth taking the time to find their LinkedIn profile and saving a link to this into your CRM software. This will help you keep their details updated but also has the added benefit of including their photo.

Morgan Lynch and Liam O'Neill at the launch of Yendo Accounting for the GAA in Croke Park, Dublin

Yendo has always been popular with non-profit organisations and particularly sports clubs. We're pleased to announce that Yendo, has been appointed as official accounting software provider to the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in Ireland.  It is Ireland's largest sporting organisation and is celebrated as one of the great amateur sporting associations in the world today. The software is currently being rolled-out to 2,300+ GAA clubs and will be worth up to €600,000 over three years.

As part of the agreement, Yendo has customised its accounting software to meet the specific needs of GAA clubs. The customisation process includes GAA branded invoice templates, GAA specific reporting and the ability to manage multiple business activities such as shops or bars.

Morgan Lynch, Managing Director of Yendo, commented: “Yendo is growing fast offering a competitive and Irish developed accounting software solution. This is an exciting opportunity for us to expand in the Irish non-profit sector. We look forward to working with the GAA to bring our software to clubs nationwide”.

Uachtarán Chumann Lúthchleas Gael, Liam Ó Néill commented: “We are delighted to announce Yendo as our official accounting software partner and we are confident that Yendo will provide a solid platform for clubs to manage their finances.”

Yendo will run on almost any Internet enabled device including iPhone and iPad together with Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone. The business is fully Irish owned and the software itself developed in Ireland.

Yendo Accounts has received TRUSTed Apps Data Privacy Certification.

TRUSTe certification demonstrates that Yendo Accounts follows TRUSTe’s privacy standards in regards to the collection, storing, use and sharing of its users’ data and adheres to standardized best practices.

The TRUSTe certification makes it easy for businesses to quickly assess an applications data collection practices, improving and simplifying the evaluation and purchase process. With TRUSTed Apps certification, organizations can be confident that Yendo Accounts meets TRUSTe’s privacy program standards – an important consideration when purchasing an app.

Yendo Accounts has achieved certification for its website systems together with its application integration with Google Apps.

“Having Yendo Accounts TRUSTed Apps certified gives buyers more confidence to download our app, resulting in a higher number of installations,” said Morgan Lynch, Yendo. “The TRUSTe seal enhances our credibility by immediately showing that we clearly communicate our data handling and privacy practices that are in alignment with recognized national and international privacy policy standards and frameworks.”

“TRUSTe’s customized certification program for Google Apps Marketplace makes privacy policies for web-based apps more transparent so that organizations can better determine whether an app is appropriate for their particular usage or not,” said Chris Babel, CEO, TRUSTe. “Becoming certified allows Yendo to differentiate its apps from others increasing the number of downloads from the Google Apps Marketplace.”

Managing Cash Flow correctly and keeping the balance positive is essential to keep a business in good  health. So being able to forecast ahead and budget accordingly is critical.  Yendo's Budgeting function makes this easy.

To create your own Budget with Yendo, go to the 'Tasks' tab in the main navigation and then scroll down to "Budget' and then click on 'Manage Budgets' which will take you to the budgeting screen. From here you can just click on the 'plus' icon and you will be able to create your own budget within a specific timeframe.

You can then start to input the numerical information. A list of common business items is provided to make this easy. Yendo's accounting software will then automatically help you calculate the anticipated cash positive or negative within the stated period. Should you find yourself with a negative cash flow, you can then take proactive steps in advance and look at negotiating better terms with suppliers or issue phased payment invoices to customers so that you are not waiting for one large payment to keep things running smoothly.

Yendo is trusted and approved for use in 17 countries and is also available through the Google Apps Store.
Use Yendo for free if you are only issuing 5 invoices per month. Paid subscriptions start at just $9 a month

Get Your Idea Straight

You need to be able to quickly explain your idea to anyone who asks. If they're interested you need to have a one page document that explains it in more detail.

What will the business sell? How will it sell it? Who is the competition and why are you better? What costs are involved and will it make money?

These things need to be well thought out before you even think about talking to anyone about your business. The key element is to be able to explain it in very few words. If it takes longer than a minute then you need to think again.

Create a Financial Projection

Banks and potential investors will always ask for a financial projection. Create a detailed projection for the first two years and then do your best to speculate on year three.  Always start with sales and take a conservative view. Then after the sales, think about what will you need to spend and who you will need to hire to deliver on them.

It's normal for the business to make a loss in the first year and acceptable to have a minor loss in the second year. By year three you need to at least be able to break even.

We've created a financial projection templateon Google Docs that will help you get started. This template will help you create a three year projection for your business and it also charts your cashflow.

The aggregate loss over the first couple of years is the minimum amount of money you will need to raise and it's always best to secure a little bit more. The funding options are many and varied and it's always best to shop around. Be careful who you take money from because all money isn't equal. Ask yourself;

• If things don't go as well as planned how will this investor react?
• If things go really well has this investor access to more funds to help with expansion?
• Can I work with this investor on a personal level? Is there trust?
• Has this investor a track record of supporting similar businesses? (Speak to one of them)

Create a Hiring Plan

Hiring staff is one of the most difficult things a new business needs to cope with. You will need to think very carefully about who you want to hire, what skills and qualifications they should have and where you will find them. It's also about knowing what company you want to be, do you want to be reliable and procedural or creative and dynamic? Think about the culture of the business you are trying to create and then recruit people to fit into this.

Recruitment consultants can be very expensive so be willing to get creative about where you can find people. But most importantly don't make compromise decisions. It's always better to take a pass than to hire someone who isn't quite right.

Get a Shareholders Agreement

If you are working with someone else to set up the new business then you should get some form of agreement in place between you. This should cover what will happen is one of you leaves or wants to sell your shares or what will happen if someone wants to buy the business from you. It might seem like a hassle to do this at the start - you're all good friends after all. But over the years things change and you might regret not putting things in writing. Online services such as LegalZoomcan help you with this at a very reasonable price.

Start Your Business

If you have your plans and your funding in place then the next step is to incorporate the business. It's easiest and cheapest to do it online. Don't pay an advisor to do this for you, it should be something you can do yourself.

You'll also need a bank account and probably a business credit card so get this set up immediately.

Sell Before you Buy

An easy trap that a lot of startups fall into is to start spending all of their funding in anticipation of the planned sales.

The best approach here is to avoid any major spending commitments until the sales have started to materialize and stabilize.  Don't take a long lease on a big premises and don't buy new expensive equipment.  Go with a short term lease and rented or second hand equipment just until you get the business up and running. After a year if things are going well then you can start making longer term decisions.

Keep Appropriate Records

It's important to record all financial transactions that the company makes. Don't wait until the end of the year to do it. A couple of hours every week is all you need to keep your records up to date. This is where Yendo Accountingcan help. If you enter in each sale as it is made and record all of your expenses then the business accounts will almost generate themselves!

A little bit of time spent on your accounts will make it a lot easier for you to run the business. You will know where you are at in a timely manner and you will be able to make quicker decisions.

Business always gets a little slower in the hot sommer months. Customers are on vacation and nobody likes to make decisions. There are our top 5 tips for beating the summer sales slump.

1. Set a sales target.

It may sound obvious but if you don't have something to aim for then you won't know when you have succeeded. You shouldn't have just a monthly sales target, if times are tight then this should be weekly. Write it on a board so the whole company can see it and make everyone understand what it is and why it is there.

2. Build a prospect list.

Build a prospect list  and work through this list every day. If you get turned down ask 'do you know anyone else who might be interested?' Everything you do should start with this list. How can I get more prospects on it? How can I convert more prospects to sales? Don't rely on your memory to keep track of this list. At the very least keep a good spreadsheet and ideally spend time setting up a CRM system.

3. Make 5 sales call a day.

A very easy mistake to make is to spend all of your time organising, planning and managing.  You will end up with a well managed failure. Set a goal to contact 5 sales prospects a day. Even if they don't directly lead to a sale, it's good to talk and sometimes further opportunities will follow.

4. Ask for feedback.

Find out what you need to change about your business. Provide a feedback form on your website, conduct a survey with Surveymonkey or email all of your existing customers. Get them talking! You can't change the state of the ecomomy but you can change your own business. If you don't actively solicit feedback then you will never know what to change.

5. Give customers what they want

There is no point in trying to sell something that nobody wants. If after all of your sales calls and collecting feedback you realize that your offering is wrong, then change it, and quickly!

1. Use VOIP for your phone calls

For many businesses the phone bill can be one of the biggest monthly expenses. There are many options out there that can save you money but the best and cheapest option is to switch to an online (VOIP) service.

The leaders in this market are Skype and Google Voice. With both of these services, calls are free to other users of the same service and then you pay to call landlines. Using one of these services will have an immediate effect on your bills.

2. Use Google Apps instead of MS Office

It can be very expensive to keep your business productivity software up to date. With Microsoft Office, every couple of years you will need to upgrade at a cost of a couple of hundred dollars per user.

It's important to maximise user productivity and in general is's a good idea to keep all of your software up to date. With Google Appsyou never need to upgrade. The software is continuously updated and you will always have the latest and best available functionality.

Best of all Google Apps is free for small businesses (up to 10 users).

3. Use online meetings instead of travelling.

Travelling to your customers office for a meeting takes both time and money. For your business to run at maximum efficiency it's better to limit the amount of travel that you do.

Having meeting online with a service such as WebEx or Google Hangouts (Which is part of Google+)

5. Do your invoicing online with Yendo Accounting

Our final tip is of course to use Yendo itself. If you use Yendo Accounting it will save you a lot of time. Yendo will generate all of your invoices and will email them directly to your customers. You won't need to waste time and money posting your invoices each month.

The added benefit of using yendo for your invoicing is that all of your information is online and available whenever and wherever you want it.

Yendo is pleased to announce that we have just released support for compound tax codes.

If you need to apply a combined city, state or national tax rate, then Yendo's new feature will allow you to create a 'compound' tax code using more than than one tax rate. Now calculating compound tax couldn't be easier.

To start using this feature, simply choose the 'Settings' tab, and then select 'Tax Codes', from here you should be able to edit the tax rates you need to use. This feature gives you the freedom to specify two different rates that will make up the compound rate. When the compound tax code is chosen on  an invoice, the first rate will be applied and then the second rate will be applied to the new total.

Yendo is trusted and approved for use in 17 countries and is also available through the Google Apps Store. Get started now with our free 30 day trial.