Advantages of Sole Proprietorship

Ease in Business Commencement: The business can be very easily started if there is only one owner. The legal costs involved in such a type of business structure is very low. The paperwork and formalities are also very less. Due to this many businessmen start as sole proprietors initially and later change the business structure when their businesses grow.

Absolute Control: Decision making power lies with a single person. The proprietor has complete control over each and every aspect of the business. He has full legal and financial responsibility. Hence, there is no question of any kind of conflict arising due to difference of opinion related to business policies. This is one of the primary sole proprietorship business advantages.

Avoidance of Double Taxation: One of the main sole proprietorship benefits is that the taxes to be paid are lesser compared to other forms of business which have business partnerships involved or in case a firm is a corporation. The reason for this is the absence of double taxation in a sole proprietorship firm. Double taxation means that the company and his owner both have to pay tax on the income generated by the business. The company pays the corporate tax and the owner pays income tax. This is not the case in sole proprietary firms. In the eyes of the law, the proprietor and his business are considered to be a single entity in case of a sole proprietorship firm. So there is no corporate tax that has to be paid. The owner only has to pay the income tax.

No Income Sharing: Another sole proprietorship advantage is that the owner has 100% right over the income generated through the business. Thus, financial planning becomes hassle free as the income remains in the hands of a single owner and he may keep it with him or re-invest it according to his discretion. The owner may also use the business income for non business purposes or for personal use. The reason for this is that in sole proprietorship, there is no distinction between business income and personal income.

Reduced Income Tax: In case the owner has just started the business or if the business is going through a slump, the proprietor may face some business losses. In such a scenario, the owner can deduct his business losses from his total income, including the income generated from sources unrelated to his business like interest on shares and sale of property. The income tax a proprietor pays is then calculated on the basis of this reduced income.

Ease in Business Dissolution: The business can be dissolved very easily. The proprietor reserves the sole rights to sell his business to anybody. The proprietor can also transfer his business on anybody’s name. There is no headache of calculating percentages of the sale proceeds to be given to different parties or conflict related to on whose name the business should be transferred. Thus, financial management becomes easy. This is one of the main advantages of sole proprietorship.

These are a few sole proprietorship advantages. Although all businesses are different and what may be an advantage for one could prove disadvantageous to the other. In sole proprietorship, the owner has full control over the income and the decision making, but at the same time he also has unlimited liability. Unlimited liability means that in case of a business bankruptcy, the owner has to single-handedly bear all the business debts or lawsuits if any against the company. Thus, there are a few risks associated with sole proprietorship firms as well. So if you are planning on starting a business and still deciding on the best suited business structure for it, look at both disadvantages and advantages of sole proprietorship and then arrive at a conclusion.

At first this seems to be a strange way to make important business decisions, almost a risky strategy but successful people are successful for a reason. Their minds seem to automatically be able to spot a good deal and their hunches make them a lot of money.

Unfortunately most people can’t do business on a hunch and need to have some kind of guidance.
Spotting a good deal.

On the surface most propositions seem like a good deal, the person seeking the finance has made it his business to get the money he needs. It’s only when you scratch the surface and dig a little deeper that you begin to unearth what is going on.

When you are investing you are looking for a good return on your investment. You don’t want to be shelling out money to fund somebody’s dream, you want a good return on your investment. You need to assess the risk.

Minimizing risk

There will always be a certain amount of risk with any investment but you can do a few things to minimize the risk.

In order to assess the risks you need to get as much info as possible. You need information about the companies past performance. You need to know their profit and losses for the past three years. You need to know the companies staff turnover. You need to know everything about the directors; what type of person they are, do they have any other business interests, have they ever filed for bankruptcy. After all you are not just investing in bricks and mortar you are investing in the person who will be using your money, hopefully putting it to good use.

Valuing a business

Its very difficult to put an exact formula into action when valuing a business. Most people think that a business can be assessed by using a multiple of the profits. To a certain extent it can be but there a number of other things that will affect the value. Your experience will play a large part in assessing the worth of a business.

As well as profits and losses you will also need to assess things like the following:

Is it a turnkey investment or will you need to also invest some time and effort?
Does the business have a lot of assets?
What is the potential of the business?

Business is not exact science and sometimes you need to use your hunches to get a better deal and make more money from your investments.

 Autocratic Management
“I am your boss. You have to do what I ask you to do. Do not ask questions and expect explanations for the orders given. Remember, that the boss is always right!”

Is this the situation in your company? The organization that has the manager dictating his terms and conditions to his employees follows the autocratic management. The autocratic manager makes decision without consulting the staff and he likes to remain in control at all times.

This style of management was widely followed during the 1960s and 1970s. Most of the managers selected during this period had military background. It was considered that their sense of discipline and organization will help in standardizing the work process of the company. The companies following the autocratic style did not allow creativity and free hand to the employees in their areas of expertise. This led to the downfall of many large companies as they had ‘an inability to change’. This style of management gets work completed on time as the decision making process is quick and usually done by one person in authority. The employees in such organizations are less motivated and have low job satisfaction. The company faces a high employee turnover. This style can be applied to industries where targets have to be met in a short time and time cannot be spared in taking a consensus from the employees.

Democratic Management
“I believe in your ability. I trust your decisions. I give you a free hand in organizing your department. I expect you will get the work completed in time according to the company policies and achieve the highest results. All the best.”

Wow! What great feelings arise when your boss delegates you work combined with trust. It makes one determined to complete the task. This kind of management is called democratic management. In this style, the democratic manager empowers his employees with the responsibility of task completion. The employees can use their own methods to achieve the results on time. It involves all the staff members in decision making and chalking out the plan of action. This highly motivates each individual and creates a sense of belonging to the organization. This in turn helps in increasing the work quality and quantity. This is a popular style of management today. This kind of management is effective when the employees have strong job skills because they require minimal supervision. The decision making takes a long time as all the members of the staff involved in the particular work need to be consulted.

Laissez-faire Management
“Do whatever you like. Take any decision you want. If you need me, I’ll be in my office.”

This style of management is the Laissez-faire management. Also known as the free-rein management. The term Laissez-faire was derived from the French expression, “leave it alone.” In this style, the manager gives most of the authority to the employees. There is very little involvement of the manager. The manager does not sit idle. He watches over the employees and guides them as and when required. He sets goals and objectives for the business and leaves the employees to perform the work as they wish. This style of management can be applied in areas where the employees need to work independently, like outdoor salespeople, writers, engineers, scientists etc. The main drawback for this kind of style is that some employees pursue their own agendas rather than achieving the organization goals.

The right management style should be chosen after understanding your own personality. Understand the kind of boss you want to be. Then you should understand the ability of your staff and lastly, the work culture followed in your organization. If all the three factors point at choosing a particular style, make it the standard style for your organization. Remember, the success of an organization lies in the hands of a satisfied and well-motivated employees.

Bankruptcy as a Business Debt Relief Option
Though it may sometimes seem that there is no hope for your business and maybe bankruptcy is your best available option, this may not necessarily be true. Always evaluate all your business debt relief options before you file for bankruptcy, because this particular debt relief option is saddled with the following disadvantages.

• Bankruptcy often involves tedious paperwork. First the loss of your business, then all the red tape. Can you handle that?
• To top your already problematic liquidity crunch, bankruptcy comes with other additional expenses.
• The worst thing about a bankruptcy is that there is possibility that your individual wealth may be dragged into the business wealth controversy. In other words, you may have to file for individual bankruptcy rather than company bankruptcy.
• Court appointed trustees oversee the whole bankruptcy process and this means that you may find a fire breathing dragon, breathing down your neck all the time.
• Last but not the least, think of all the frequent court trips that you will have to make.

Now, are you really up for bankruptcy. If you are lukewarm, I have some more business debt relief options to bounce off you. Consider the following debt relief option advantages, before you consider any one as a solution to your business debt problems.

Why Business Debt Relief Options
First and foremost, with business debt relief options, you can avoid all the hassles of bankruptcy and still keep you business afloat. Business debt relief options lower the business debt levels and help the company get right back on track. Business debt relief companies offer their expertise, resources, personnel, legal advice and proper debt resolution plans to help your business get rid of debt fast. The best part about business debt relief options is that they make life easier for the business through effective debt management and also help it start again with a clean slate. If you are convinced that you want to have a look at the various business debt relief plans available in the market, you need to read the following paragraphs. Know more on debt management and credit counseling and debt management services.

Various Debt Relief Options Available in the Market
There are a multitude of business debt relief programs available in the market today. Since they are too many to include in one article, I have only mentioned a few of these business debt relief options here. Know more about some of the best debt management programs and debt relief companies.

Debt Relief by Business Debt Restructuring
Now here’s a business debt relief option that can help you avoid a financial crisis and can aid you in getting back on track after one. Business debt restructuring helps improve the company’s liquidity by constructing a scenario of fair and equitable creditor payments, at times of liquidity crisis. Business debt restructuring can help you satisfy your creditors with payments suiting your currently strained budgets, can reduce the creditor negotiation time and avoid unnecessary legal fees. As an added bonus, this business debt relief strategy can retain good vendor relations and aid in rebuilding your credit and credibility. Business restructuring requires the negotiation expertise of good debt reduction companies.

Asset Based Lending as Business Debt Solution
Business debt can arise due to the liquidity crunch caused by unpaid debtors. If unencumbered assets, such as accounts receivable, inventory, equipment and real estate are blocking your funds, you can deal with your business debt crisis with asset based lending. You can use this asset based lending (with these assets as collateral) to turnaround your business and propel it towards financial growth. This cash can be used for purchases, paying off creditors (debt settlement) and also to meet seasonal demand expenses.

Debt Consolidation for Business Debt Relief
Debt consolidation artificially increases the debt settlement period for the business in crisis. Business debt relief in the form of debt consolidation involved clubbing together all the individual debts, in order to make one single payment for all of them. Many a times, this single payment ends up being a lower amount than when all the payments were made without the consolidation. This debt reduction strategy effectively buys you some more time to think of other business debt relief options. For small business debt relief, this option is even more viable as it helps in the credit card debt settlement process, lowers payments and increases time duration. All in all, as a small business debt relief strategy, it improves the debt ratios and the debt to income ratios of a small business. Before I conclude, I urge you to check out the following links: 
By Sayali Bedekar Patil

It is a proven fact that technology can contribute a great deal to growth, irrespective of the size of the company involved, and even a single VoIP network can give a small business a competitive edge.

Not only can a small business VoIP solution dramatically reduce the size of a phone bill to the company concerned, it can also help to reduce the phone bills of their customers. A VoIP subscriber can select any area code it wants to use, so that if the majority of their customers operate from New York, the business can offer these customers calls at the local rate, even if that business is located in Los Angeles.

In fact this type of small business solution to communication costs can allow them to offer toll free numbers to their more important customers, a service hitherto only economically feasible to larger companies. How’s that for a competitive edge? In many businesses image is everything and this VoIP small business solution to competing with the big boys is a massive incentive to adopting this new technology.

This is not all that a VoIP small business solution offers, however. There is also the advantage that the provision of VoIP telephones to sales personnel allows them to communicate with head office, and every other company employee issued with a VoIP handset, free of charge irrespective of distance.

Because the VoIP small business solution to telecommunications, like all other VoIP applications, involves communication via the internet, such communication can be made using software and hardware suitable for IP use such as PC, laptop, palm computers, PDAs, Bluetooth and any other technology suitable for packetized internet transfer and reception. By use of VoIP small business solution technology, small businesses can at last compete with networked corporate companies in speed and flexibility of communication.

Conference calls integrating other web-based voice and video presentation technologies can be arranged at the click of a button, and customers can be impressed with corporate technology at small business prices.

A VoIP small business solution is available for any medium to small company structure, and simple networked systems can easily be incorporated due to the intrinsic internet and web-related technologies involved. This makes facilities available to small businesses which previously had been the domain only of the large corporations that could afford them.

With a customized VoIP small business solution, companies of any size can tick off communication as one more step towards not only competing with large corporations, but getting ahead of their peers with respect to communications efficiency, image and speed of response to requests and enquiries.

After all, if you can communicate with a colleague in Japan quicker and at lower cost than your competitor can with Boston, what chance does he have? A VoIP small business solution designed specifically for you can achieve this as standard – it is not an expensive option! By Peter Nisbet

But we would come to that later. First and foremost, we have to understand the rising significance of clear and distinct channels of communication for the proper functioning of any business establishment. There has to be a free flow of information; both within the organizational structure as well as outside. Colleagues within a particular corporate establishment should be able to communicate freely within their organization. Moreover, the organization as a whole should be able to have an uninterrupted channel of communication to connect with partners, suppliers or branch offices, which could be located almost anywhere in the globe. Moreover, a degree of cost efficiency is very much desirable in these channels. The latest corporate business solutions, powered by VoIP, can do all these and quite a bit more.

It can be said that these VoIP solutions have revolutionized the telecommunication domain and nothing is the same as before. High speed broadband connections have taken the place of traditional telephone systems. With special hardware and software of VoIP in place, the business users are able to make the most of these specialized business solutions. The support provided by broadband networks becomes important in this context. With the routing of voice and data over broadband internet connections, users are able to enjoy good call quality. In addition, the data congestion is also reduced to a significant extent.

As a matter of fact, there is more than one benefit of using corporate business solutions. Some of these benefits are mentioned below:

• Lowering of infrastructural costs: With business VoIP solutions, there is a significant reduction in the telephone costs. The provision of free calls to certain areas offered by many providers of such services make them all the more valuable to potential users.
• Availability of additional options: The solutions come with a number of highly innovative options that include features such as call waiting, call routing and voicemail. In this context, these solutions score a point over the traditional phone lines.
• Flexibility in operation: The voip solutions on offer come with some very amazing options that enable their easy adoption by different businesses from diverse backgrounds. In addition, easy updation of these solutions as well as seamless integration with existing networks makes these solutions very much popular among business users.

So, the fact that many organizations having global presence are reducing their communication related expenditure through these solutions should not come as any surprise. Other business establishments that are making the most of corporate business solutions are the ones having call center operations.

Government has designed various loan schemes to attract and encourage small businesses. Before approaching a financial institution for a loan, check your credit history. If your credit rating is poor, take measures to repair your credit. You can apply for a bad credit loan if you have inadequate credit ratings.

Small Business Loans – Requirements

The first place many people approach for a small business loan is the nearby bank. If the bank has to approve your loan application, you have to fulfill a few criteria. Here are a few things a bank would consider before issuing you a small business loan.

A bank would consider you a trustworthy customer only after checking your credit history, business experience and educational qualification.

Your business plan should be strong and have all the necessary details of the nature of the business. In short, your business plan should speak for you. The reason is a bank or financial institution would approve you a loan only after reviewing the business plan you have submitted. A bank will also take into account the loan repayment method proposed by you.

If you have required collateral, small business loan would be issued without any hassles. This type of loan is called as a secured loan. The bank would not only issue a secured loan but also advises you on various loan repayment solutions.

You have to establish and maintain a good business relation with the bank you apply for a small business loan. Apply for a short-term loan and ensure to repay it within a short duration. This will increase your business credit history.

Manage the savings account with your bank effectively by keeping ample funds and avoiding bouncing of checks. The banks also would feel confident to do business with you.

Small Business Grants

The US government grants small business loans at a very low rate of annual interest to encourage new entrepreneurs and also to finance any small business. Once you have decided on the type and the size of the business, you can check online for the various government small business grants. Choose the one that suits your business best.

Getting a small business loan at a favorable rate is easy if you have a good business/personal credit rating.

You can apply for a business grant if you are a tax payee and have the citizenship of the US. Applying for a government small business grant includes a lot of paper work. If you are not confident about filing a loan application form, get the help of a reputed accountant. By:Maya Pillai

Advantages of E-Business

Worldwide Presence: This is the biggest advantage of conducting business online. A firm engaging in e-business can have a nationwide or a worldwide presence. IBM was one of the first companies to use the term e-business to refer to servicing customers and collaborating with business partners from all over the world. Dell Inc. too had a flourishing business selling PCs throughout the US, only via telephone and the Internet till the year 2007. Amazon.com is another success story that helps people buy internationally from third parties. Hence, worldwide presence is ensured if companies rethink their business in terms of the Internet.

Cost Effective Marketing and Promotions: Using the web to market products guarantees worldwide reach at a nominal price. Advertising techniques like pay per click advertising ensure that the advertiser only pays for the advertisements that are actually viewed. Affiliate marketing, where customers are directed to a business portal because of the efforts of the affiliate who in turn receive a compensation for their efforts meeting with success, has emerged on account of e-business. Affiliate marketing has helped both the business and the affiliates. Firms engaging in e-business have managed to use cost effective online advertising strategies to their advantage.

Developing a Competitive Strategy: Firms need to have a competitive strategy in order to ensure a competitive advantage. Without an effective strategy, they will find it impossible to maintain the advantage and earn profits. The strategy, that the firms can pursue, can be a be a cost strategy or a differentiation strategy. For instance, till the year 2007, Dell Inc. was selling computers only via the Internet and the phone. It adopted a differentiation strategy by selling its computers online and customizing its laptops to suit the requirements of the clients. Thus, e-business resulted in Dell Inc. managing to capture a vast segment of the market using the differentiation strategy.

Better Customer Service: E-Business has resulted in improved customer service. Many a times, on visiting a website, the customer is greeted by a pop-up chat window. Readily available customer service may help in encouraging the customer to know more about the product or service. Moreover, payments can be made online, products can be shipped to the customer without the customer having to leave the house.

Disadvantages of E-Business

Sectoral Limitations: The main disadvantage of e-business is the lack of growth in some sectors on account of product or sector limitations. The food sector has not benefited in terms of growth of sales and consequent revenue generation because of a number of practical reasons like food products being perishable items. Consumers do not look for food products on the Internet since they prefer going to the supermarket to buy the necessary items as and when the need arises.

Costly E-Business Solutions for Optimization: Substantial resources are required for redefining product lines in order to sell online. Upgrading computer systems, training personnel, and updating websites requires substantial resources. Moreover, Electronic Data Management (EDM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) necessary for ensuring optimal internal business processes may be looked upon, by some firms, as one of the disadvantages of e-business.

It’s evident that the advantages clearly outweigh the disadvantages of e-business. Every business has to eventually change its modus operandi and adopt e-business practices in order to ensure survival and success.
By Aparna Iyer

If you are a commerce, business administration or MBA student, learning how to write an effective business report can be of great help in your professional career. Numerous business report writing topics mentioned in this article will help you practice this form of business writing more efficiently.

To make effective decisions in a business, concise reports are very important. Without information that is concise, clearly presented and is easy to interpret, it is not possible to arrive at good decisions. Senior level managers, CEOs, management executives and business managers don’t have time to read long and poorly structured business reports. Therefore, learning to write a business report adhering to all standards and norms, forms one of the vital aspects of business communication.

Business Report: An Overview

There can be many reasons why a business report is prepared but the most common one is to solve a business problem faced by an organization. In typical corporate culture, business reports are excellent mediums to present a problem before management members and employees by analyzing all facets associated to the problem. Business reports need to be very well formatted, concise and they must be written in a way so as to take minimum time to be analyzed by the policy makers. Strong analytical and research skills are required to prepare a business report. Besides that, excellent business writing skills and an eye for detail are important attributes to prepare an awesome report. Since graphs, diagrams and figures are some great ways to make a report more easier to interpret, knowledge of graphic software, power point and other technological tools helps a lot. Business reports are generally circulated amongst senior team members in print and that is why utmost care must be taken in their drafting and designing. Reading the Buzzle article, how to write a business report, will help you to get more detailed information about the same. In this article, we will know about some business report topics. If in your college or b-school, you have been asked to prepare a business report on your own, choosing an interesting topic must be on your mind. Here we will introduce to several business report topics.

Formal Business Report Topics

Business world is diversified into innumerable sectors. Be it accounts, finance, marketing, advertising, logistics, management, human resource, IT or operations – each of these departments have tremendous potential to grow. Business report topics can be concerned to problems or innovations pertaining to any segment of the business world. Have a look.

You are a business analyst of company that is a globally renowned steel manufacturing firm. As a part of its expansion plans, it is considering to invest in third world countries and provide employment to millions of people who are still out of the general economic structure of the world. Suggest business threats and benefits for your company and explain how globalization is impacting the inclusion of third world countries with the developed and developing countries.

• Your firm is a leading web based company in terms of website traffic. Discuss how can marketing and advertising on social media help to improve its customer base. Discuss the methods that will be most profitable in the long run.
• You are an investment banker in a leading US bank. The company plans to open its new branch in an Asian country. You as an Asian has been chosen to analyze how other banks have been performing in that country. You are also expected to give a detailed account of competition and opportunities in the same country.
• You are a newly recruited IT manager cum analyst in a bank. The bank has decided to go digital in all its business aspect. You have to design an adequate plan for the shift from manual to digital. You are expected to include all details in the report as to how it will be done. Internet security is the major concern of the firm.
• The world is going paranoid about the fact that PC will be obsolete within four to five years. Smartphones will rule the market in the coming years. As a strategist for a desktop manufacturing company, analyze market opportunities in the coming years. Suggest strategies to stay competitive in this domain of business. Separate facts from myths by stating as why the PCs are going to stay for long, even if smartphones are the latest trends.
• You are an MBA student majoring in information technology management from an elite B-School. As a competition in an international business seminar, you have been asked to prepare a business report regarding cloud computing.
• Almost all companies are willing to include employees at all levels in the decision making process of management teams. You are expected to analyze what can be some of the most suitable methods to do this. Based on your analysis, suggest the best method.
• A 15 year old FMCG company is planning to choose a new logo for its business. As a brand manager, suggest some best logos and analyze how it will represent the changed identity of the company in today’s world. Discuss all facets of the logo change, right from budgeting to how it may impact the growth of the company.
• The wellness industry is booming in the Asian countries. You, along with your 2 friends are willing to make an entry in the spa business. All three of you hold a management degree in hospitality management. Prepare a report to analyze all dimensions associated to the industry.
• You are an HR manager of a small business company, employing 50 to 60 people. While the business has been growing consistently, the issue of employee retention has been a cause of concern. Analyze some ways to retain employees and suggest some tips to the management for improving employee satisfaction.

Preparing a business report requires ample amount of time unless you are not in a situation to meet some deadline! Once the business report is complete, you must get it reviewed by your team members so that it is flawless. Practicing to write a business report is one of the best ways to test your writing, analytical and research skills. Make sure you practice preparing business reports as part of your assignments and get it checked by your professors. As future leaders, you will be doing the same in your professional career.

Customer service is a specialized department. The call center agents working for this desk are measured with various benchmarks of performance. These metrics determine the performance of the agents and also help to make customer service call centers more efficient. Just like these metrics define performance at the call centers, they also take the performance towards particular glass ceilings. After working for a while, you will find that your progress as a department has stalled. That is when the customer service call center planners have to think of ways to innovate. A hard look at the metrics will surely reveal some weak links and unproductive pockets. The ideal way forward would be to seal up these leaks is to hit upon the right metrics.

Customer service call center units make reports on the call lengths of every call that come in. There is a time limit on the length of the calls. Agents are marked as negative credit for calls that stretch longer than the yardstick. When customer service call centers have this metric, they must also look at the corresponding project. Some projects usually take longer than usual. Callers may not be able to understand and process requests promptly because they need to take down specific details. For example, if the inbound call center is dealing with a remote computer support project, they will need specific information like memory space, make of the motherboard, etc. In these cases, you cannot expect the agents to hurry up. Moreover, the solution provided by the agents may take a while to register. The agents may have to repeat instructions to make the caller understand what they have to do. This is a typical case where the call length metrics seems an impediment rather than a catalyst.

The same happens when the customer service call center has to tackle a definite number of calls on a daily basis. Some customer service call centers have this practice that agents receive incentives for the number of calls that they receive and process. In a bid to add to their usual pay packet, the call center agents rush through their calls. They disconnect the call quickly and often jump protocol. This may help the brand cover more calls daily, but it surely carves out bad dents in the reputation of the brand. Customers do not like to be pushed. They need their time and when the agents take them through too quickly, they feel pushed. That is not something that you would want the callers to feel, especially if you want to retain them. You can continue using this metric but you have to take care that you are not putting additional work pressure on the agents.

Metrics at the customer service call center help optimize performance. If the customer service call centers can bring the right performance barometers onboard, they can be a motivating factor for the agents. At the same time, if you expect them to overachieve all the time, you are deflating their urge to excel.