Small business owners often fail to understand the consequences of inadequate cash flow management until the harsh realities of business life kick in.

Typically one significant occasion is when insufficient funds are available within the business to meet the business liabilities.

It may be that business plans have been developed, income statements prepared and cash flows projected. The business owner may have been actively involved in this work or may have delegated the task to a third party and treated the business planning process as a desk top exercise.

Following the completion of the plans and reports, what follow up action was taken?

Were those same plans filed, not subsequently reviewed and no corrective actions taken to bring any actual results that were worse than forecast back to plan?

If this scenario is familiar a contributory factor may be a lack of understanding of what the terminology used actually means that may scare the business owner from taking action.

To help enhance the knowledge of the small business owner some of the common terms associated with cash management are explained below.

Cash Balance
The amount of money belonging to the business and available to legitimately expend, or the amount of money the business owes to a financial institution usually by way of a bank overdraft facility.

Cash Flow
Simply cashflow is the difference between monies coming into the business and monies going out of the business, and measured across a period of time. The measurement may be a day, a month, year or such period the business owner may determine.

Actual Cash Flow Statement
This is an analysis of all cash flow movements during the given period of time. It will summarize all monies received and monies expended.

There are three elements to consider and report on. These are:
- the operating activities
o cash flow from selling goods
o cash flow from paying expenses
- the changes in fixed assets
o cash flow from sale or purchase of assets
- the changes in forms of finance.
o Cash flow from borrowing or repaying loans
o Cashflow movements in contributions by and
distributions to owners

Cash Flow From Operations
This is the part of the cash flow that is directly attributable to the performance (profitable or otherwise) of the business. Excluded from these numbers would be cash movements related to items such as extraordinary events and sale or purchase of assets.

Cash flow from operations is the sum of the profit for the period in question plus the value of the non-cash items, such as depreciation, that have been charged against profits. To this figure is added or subtracted the movement in working capital during the period to give the Cash Flow from Operations.

Cash Flow from Non-Operational Activities
Included under this head will be included all cash movements arising within the business not directly associated with normal trading activities.

This will include but not limited to the sale or purchase of fixed assets, for example plant and machinery and furniture and fittings; together with an increase in or repayment of business loans.

Source and Application of Funds
This term is used to differentiate between the monies coming into a business and the monies going out.

Monies coming into a business will be the source and will include sales cash received, proceeds from the sale of a fixed asset and the increase in loans borrowed.

The application of funds relates to cash that is expended by the business, and would include the payment of goods or services, the purchase of fixed assets or the repayment of business loans.

Forecast Cash Flow Statement
A similar convention to the Actual Cash Flow Statement, however, this will project the anticipated cash flow movements for some future period of time.

Cash Accounting
A method of accounting that records in the books of account cash receipts as a sale on the day the cash is received and treats cash payments as expenses on the day of payment.

Profit v. Cash
The profit of a business should not be confused with the cash position of the business. A satisfactory cash flow position will almost certainly be dependent upon profits being generated. However, remember that high non-operational cash outgoings may significantly reduce the operational cash generated resulting in a cash balance much lower than the reported profit.

David Willetts is a qualified accountant and an Associate of the Institute of Business Advisers. More details on David’s background and experience can be found at http://www.dawconsulting.co.uk and visit http://www.sme-business-solutions.com for solutions to your business problems.

All of us yearn for just and fair treatment. Unfortunately fair is not always the case on the internet business. This is very true to linking. How many websites do you know that don’t play the internet game fairly? When you have agreed to exchange links, they trick you into believing they have linked to your website when in fact, they haven’t.

Identify Link Theft

This trick is what webmasters call the link theft. But not all lost links should be thrown out to link theft. There are cases when your website’s link is lost in a particular page because of online accidents. It is a fact, however, that most cases of lost links or not beneficial links are due to link theft. So in all ways, learn how to avoid link theft. Here are some tips to identify whether or not a particular website is a link thief and what to do to avoid it:

Request For Your Link’s URL Location

Before you link to a particular site requesting link from your website, ask them first about your link’s URL location. You have to do this because some websites forget (or intentionally forget) to give your website a link back if you have already given them a link to their website.

• Link Robbers Can Deceive

Check whether your link on a particular web page is spiderable or not. This is because some websites trick you into believing your link is already live but in fact it’s not working right. You can do this by clicking on “View Source Code” of the page that carries your website’s link. Check whether your link follows the standard text link. The standard text link is created using this format:

a href=”http://www.yourdomainname.com/” target=”_blank>Anchor Text

Some format like the one below is not spiderable by the search engines.

onclick=”javascript:newWindow(’http://www.yourdomain.com.’)”>Anchor Text

• Check If The Link Will Redirect

How can you check whether your link will just redirect to the same website when clicked? Try pointing your mouse’s cursor on your link and check the text that appears on the status bar of your web browser. What should appear on the status bar is the url of your website on this format:

http://www.yoursite.com

Format like the one below means the link will redirect to the same website:

http://www.sitedomain.com/page.html”

• Dynamically Generated Link Pages

Avoid linking on a dynamically generated link page. How will you identify a dynamically generated link page? If it looks like this, then it’s a dynamically generated link page. The search engines wont be able to read pages like this.

http://www.domainname.com/links/index.php?&brbf=aw

There are a number of thieves online. Don’t be one of them and don’t be a victim of any of them. Guard the benefits of your links by following these tips and ensure a fair internet linking game!

This article is written by nPresence, an online web marketing agency that specializes in search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, content management systems, web design, tracking and analysis. For all your web marketing needs, please visit Web Marketing Dublin.

“Your wealth is in the wealth of your knowledge. Transform your uncommon wisdom into uncommon wealth because nobody has your unique experience. Turn your thinking process into your word processor. Then take your packaged information to the marketplace where your good ideas make the cash register ring.” –Uzo Onukwugha

Information product is hot and people don’t seem to have enough of it. Yet most information out there is recycled. You must not come up with ‘me too’ product but a unique and innovative idea or concept that is useful to people. If content is king, better make it useful to your prospects. Having an innovative idea does not mean that it must originate from you. A revolutionary idea could be the discovery of an easier and better way of doing an old thing. Always think about what the market ( the people) wants, and not what excites you.

The concept astute marketers use is reverse mind engineering. It’s like using one of the seven habits of highly effective people: Always start with the end in mind. What’s the end? You want the product in the prospects mind. You’re selling a solution to a problem or what appeals to your prospects dreams, wishes, or aspirations. So start from the market or the end user. Listen to the market first before you even think of designing a product. Reverse your marketing mix.

To refresh your memory, basic marketing mix comprise of four cardinal points or P’S:

• Product
• Price
• Promotion
• Place

The mistake most people make is that they design a product, fix the price and then go to the market (place) to promote the product. The reverse method takes the opposite route. It reverses the order of the marketing mix above. Start from the marketplace first and then come back to design or modify your product ideas. Ask yourself questions: Who are your target audience, what need or problems will your product solve? How do you find out? The Principle is Test–part of research or surveys; Track–trace who is buying and why; and Tweak–make adjustments and re-present your offers. Sale is simple if you give prospects what they already seeking for. Human behavior has not changed since the Garden of Eden regardless of technology or information explosion. Humans are need-driven. Period!

How do you find out what the market needs? You can do it in several ways—online and offline. Caution: don’t only focus on the tiny pond of the internet and ignore the ocean of the offline world. However, internet research is quicker and cheaper. Your greatest research tool is personal observation. You must be able to think on your feet. Business is thinking. The greatest money is ideas. In the marketplace, packaged ideas turn into cash.

For instance, I was going through articles the other day and decided to type-in the list of top authors and what people were downloading. To my surprise, my eyes caught a guy that wrote only 3 articles and yet was one of the top authors. The combined downloads was about 35,000. The same thing applies to another author who wrote only 9 articles and was one of the top guns. I ask myself, “Why?” It was then that I found out that both of them has something to do with graphic design—either how to design and e-book cover, web-graphics or product packaging—which is part of presentation. This is just an uncommon approach sparked by sense of observation—the greatest marketing teacher.

Now, the following are more common approaches:

Search engine keyword—Use Google keyword suggest or Pixelfast/Overture and see what comes up. Some people use software like KeyWordTracker. On the whole, an average of 20,000 searches per month is good. Stay away from saturated areas like Internet Marketing or untested waters that nobody is searching for—unless you want your products to end up in your garage.

Visit forums and see the common question that pop-up consistently. In all you do, don’t ignore the internet marketing community. Their views are important; it gauges the pulse of the internet marketplace.

Conduct surveys through e-mails. You can even use some third parties for a fee if you don’t have your own opt-in list. You can still do that if your list is not big enough or you can do both.

Some people use a test product and preliminary website with Google Adwords by doing a split test to check how the market responds. This method may be more expensive at the beginning but reward you at the end.

Others start with an appetizer e-book or report on the keyword title and watch how it is downloaded. If people don’t want it for free (viral marketing), they will not buy the advanced product either.

In your keyword search, don’t forget to use Amazon, eBay and Alexa.com just to have a feel of the marketplace.

Don’t forget offline surveys and questionnaires. People sell at least ten times more in the offline world than online. Contrary to the hype, everybody is not on the internet.

Overall, your greatest research tool is your brain. Thinking is the key. Ask questions, seek, be a perpetual learner and creative thinker. That is what makes all the difference. Don’t follow the crowd; put your personality in your product design. Brainstorm especially your product title. Product design is a process—it is never ending as long as human wants are insearchable. After following these basic rules, you can even break it by creating your own market. This is how you carve out your own groove. That how people gain brand name recognition.

You must realize that your products must sell for you to be successful. Robert Kioysaki said that you don’t have best-writing authors; what you have is best selling authors. Therefore, if you’re not making sells, you’re not making anything. And you cannot make money selling the same thing everybody is selling. You must come up with your own unique selling proposition. If not you will not be successful. That’s why only 3% of affiliates make real money online because they selling the same recycled products that flood the internet.

I have come up with my own branding formula of four P’S: Pass time (your passion), Presentation (of product), prospect (future customers) and Profits (your end result, when prospects buy). Note that you don’t start with your end goal (money making). You start with your experience or wealth of knowledge or skill which is your passion in your niche market. (By the way your riches are in your niches). A good idea that offers solution to problems or aspirations attracts a target audience in that niche who is ready to pay to solve their problems. When they buy, you make profit (monetization). It’s a win-win situation. Thinking win-win is one of the seven habits of highly effective people. You win and your customer wins also.

No matter what you do, sell ideas or concepts that seem to be the problem of majority of people. People want wealth, health, long life and lasting relationships. Every other need falls under the aforementioned points. Another way of saying it is that people want information or concepts to make more money, save money (or come out of debt/tax shelter), avoid effort, save time, live healthy and longer. These decisions are backed by the pleasure-pain principle. Keep these reasons in mind when you brainstorm your niche products.

Uzo Onukwugha’s website is geared towards teaching info-preneurs the inner game of marketing. He is a teacher of motivation and merchant of ideas. Ideas are what turn into cash in the marketplace. If you’re not making sells, you’re not making anything. For more information, visit his site at http://www.weblinkbusiness.com; Subscribe to his e-course and reach him at: uzonukwugha@yahoo.com.