Can You Play the Drums?

Can You Play the Drums?

by: Erin Banister

When I was a child, all I wanted from life was to be able to play every instrument under the sun. Pretty lofty goal, right? I spent a couple decades learning numerous instruments, a couple I mastered; with many of the instruments I considered myself an average player, but that was ok � at least I could do it! Years went by, I kept learning new instruments, and I was very proud of myself. One day, I decided it was time to learn the drums. I started with the snare drum, and I was fair at playing that. Next, the tri-toms, the bass drum, symbols, and so on. Being the overachiever that I am, I decided one day to get a drum set. I worked on it, day in and out, striving to make some sense out of this set of drums. I banged on them endlessly, struggling to find my beat � to make them all work together while in my hands. My father, being a kind soul, walked in on me playing my drum set and said, �You know, you look like a maniac flailing around over there.� Skip forward several years later. I still have that drum set (in my shed), and I still play it occasionally. No set of lessons, books, or study seems to teach my feet and hands to move as they should with the drums. My beats end up half-witted, and I�ve resigned myself to the fact that 1) I can�t do it all myself and 2) If I need a drummer, I might as well hire a professional. The moral of my story is, I know what I can and can�t achieve. The drums are not my �cup of tea�, but I know of several individuals who are very good at the drums. This is true in my business as well; while I can keep my books and do my personal taxes, when I put all of the accounting/bookkeeping together, I end up flailing like a maniac once again. Many business owners seem to be under the assumption that they can do it all, that they can be the catch-all support that their business needs. In my experience, this is only not true, but can also make your business look very unprofessional. Your ability to say, �I�m not a web designer� or �I�m not an accountant� or �I don�t know my head from a hole in the ground in regards to [fill in the blank]� will set your business apart from the crowd. I can give you a great for instance: I know next to nothing about real estate. I know it has something to do with houses, mortgages, listings, and showings; but what good does that do me? However, I know a friend of mine has ample experience in real estate, and this is her niche market. Thus, every inquiry I get about real estate I send to my friend. We all forget at one time or another that we can�t do everything, and take on projects we are blatantly not qualified for. It is imperative that we not only find our niche market, but also figure out what we cannot accomplish successfully, and pass it on to someone who does. I cannot play the drums, but I am a master at the flute and trombone. I cannot do bookkeeping/accounting, but am a whiz at marketing and design. How about you? About the author: Erin Banister is the president of TrinityJacobs � Your Personal Virtual Assistant. Erin�s expertise includes marketing and desktop publishing, amongst other administrative specialties. For more information, visit http://www.TrinityJacobs.com Circulated by Article Emporium

Can You Play the Drums?

Can You Play the Drums?

by: Erin Banister

When I was a child, all I wanted from life was to be able to play every instrument under the sun. Pretty lofty goal, right? I spent a couple decades learning numerous instruments, a couple I mastered; with many of the instruments I considered myself an average player, but that was ok � at least I could do it! Years went by, I kept learning new instruments, and I was very proud of myself. One day, I decided it was time to learn the drums. I started with the snare drum, and I was fair at playing that. Next, the tri-toms, the bass drum, symbols, and so on. Being the overachiever that I am, I decided one day to get a drum set. I worked on it, day in and out, striving to make some sense out of this set of drums. I banged on them endlessly, struggling to find my beat � to make them all work together while in my hands. My father, being a kind soul, walked in on me playing my drum set and said, �You know, you look like a maniac flailing around over there.� Skip forward several years later. I still have that drum set (in my shed), and I still play it occasionally. No set of lessons, books, or study seems to teach my feet and hands to move as they should with the drums. My beats end up half-witted, and I�ve resigned myself to the fact that 1) I can�t do it all myself and 2) If I need a drummer, I might as well hire a professional. The moral of my story is, I know what I can and can�t achieve. The drums are not my �cup of tea�, but I know of several individuals who are very good at the drums. This is true in my business as well; while I can keep my books and do my personal taxes, when I put all of the accounting/bookkeeping together, I end up flailing like a maniac once again. Many business owners seem to be under the assumption that they can do it all, that they can be the catch-all support that their business needs. In my experience, this is only not true, but can also make your business look very unprofessional. Your ability to say, �I�m not a web designer� or �I�m not an accountant� or �I don�t know my head from a hole in the ground in regards to [fill in the blank]� will set your business apart from the crowd. I can give you a great for instance: I know next to nothing about real estate. I know it has something to do with houses, mortgages, listings, and showings; but what good does that do me? However, I know a friend of mine has ample experience in real estate, and this is her niche market. Thus, every inquiry I get about real estate I send to my friend. We all forget at one time or another that we can�t do everything, and take on projects we are blatantly not qualified for. It is imperative that we not only find our niche market, but also figure out what we cannot accomplish successfully, and pass it on to someone who does. I cannot play the drums, but I am a master at the flute and trombone. I cannot do bookkeeping/accounting, but am a whiz at marketing and design. How about you? About the author: Erin Banister is the president of TrinityJacobs � Your Personal Virtual Assistant. Erin�s expertise includes marketing and desktop publishing, amongst other administrative specialties. For more information, visit http://www.TrinityJacobs.com Circulated by Article Emporium

Business laws basics

Business laws basics

by: Mansi gupta

A professional degree in Juris Doctor relates to a higher grade of studies in law. With business houses expanding in size and the legal issues gaining higher importance for day to day working of large corporates, demand for Juris Doctor professionals has been increasing. As the business interacts more with the society and their other counterparts need to resolve legal matters emerge simultaneously. All this has given an impetus to students aiming for career in law field. But a purely law background without any corporate experience may not be well accepted by business industry. Top ranked services in companies also demand a graduate in business organization along with lawyer�s degree. As demand for combined degree in JD and business is being a preferred combination to build a rewarding career in law. Business and law schools at various places have joined hands to impart students with best career courses. At many places Law Schools providing degrees of Juris Doctor and business school providing Master in business administration present a cooperative program for the convenience of aspiring students. This opportunity to avail concurrent degrees in both fields is a stepping-stone for success of students. Students who cannot travel to different places at the same time have a best prospect of finding excellent professional training under one roof. Surviving in the law field gets tougher from the day one tries to enter the school of law. Getting admission requires fulfilling entire formalities along with earlier creditable basic high school record, clearing the admission test for the law school and even recommendations from people. The same is applicable for business studies a student is required to prove his quantitative skills and efficiency in microcomputers to get admitted. A dedicated and hard work during the courses ensures students with excellent results which in turn to provide better career opportunities. A law person has various prospects for different types of career that he would like to accept. Depending on his caliber and willingness to work hard a lawyer can decide upon practicing law in an exclusive law firm or he may choose to be an in house lawyer. An exclusive law firm requires an extensive knowledge of one particular area in law where as an in house lawyer is required to deal with entire aspects of legal issues that relate to the particular company in which he is involved. While undergoing training in one of the law schools a student would learn about different aspects of law like civil law, criminal procedures, constitutional law, contracts, property, professional responsibility, basic federal income taxation, legislative and administrative interpretation and many others. The syllabus is cautiously devised to ensure that students receive exhaustive training to deal with maximum situation in the professional front. Similarly Masters Degree in Business administration imparts education in business for global society, corporate finance, managerial accounting, information resource management, strategic management, master�s project and other similar relevant courses. Anyone pursuing both law and business studies simultaneously has an advantage of studying some courses that are counted towards both degrees and hence a considerable amount of work is reduced for these students. About the author: Mansi gupta writes about business laws Learn more at http://www.jdforbusiness.com Circulated by Article Emporium

Bottleneck-oriented Business Management

Bottleneck-oriented Business Management

by: Stephan Szugat

Simple and effective Business Management In every enterprise there are, at every time, one or more bottlenecks, which have influence to the commercial situation. Bottleneck-oriented business management has the purpose to early track the bottlenecks and to remove them, to allow an optimum of commercial development. To know at any time, what a business lacks of and to be able to add the missing things, is today a determining competition advantage. Bottlenecks can be, e.g.: low sales proceeds high due or overdue accounts receivables low liquidity (Cash on Hand, etc.) high amount of liabilities low number of customers too many new customers too high capacity utilization defective administration or management and a lot more. These example show that bottlenecks not only concern negative circumstances, but also can apply to positive commercial development. If an enterprise takes up many new customers, this results in new orders, which lead to other circumstances, like a possible excess in capacity utilization. In case the excess of capacity utilization stays for a longer time, this may result in a lower employee motivation, because of a slump in working atmosphere within the company, which then could lead to less qualtiy of the work performed. Due to a TIMELY reporting system many companies take care of reaching the desired commercial development. However, a regular analysis of expenses or the annual reports are not enough to control a business today. In the today's dynamic markets these evaluations are too statical, too much oriented on the past commercial development, which had been achieved. Also cost accounting only shows what has happened in the past. The actual direction in which a business is running could not be seen. Imagine a business to be a car. If you sat down in a car, do you like to receive information from the instruments from the last year or month? Probably not. You would like to have actual information about fuel tank content, coolant temperature and a lot more. Bottleneck-oriented business management should exactly bring the most important and actual information about a business to you, including so-called early warning signals (Screenshot abenetis ERS-Diagram). Data oriented to the past for early-warning-systems? A working early-warning-system needs data which are not oriented to the past, like from cost accounting or year-/month-end-closeings. It needs data from so-called early indicators, which has to be gathered from different areas of an enterprise. Of course, figures from the finance and accounting department belong into an early-warning-system, but they only have a subordinated role, because they are oriented to the past. Nowadays the reporting must show the present situation of a business. In many businesses the expenditure of time for the reporting rose considerably, due to the today's flood of information. Aggravatingly added to this, is the selection of the really relevant business ratios, which allow an appropriate overview of the actual business situation. Too often reports are prepared, which are not perceived by anybody, due to the lack of necessary statements about the business development. There are already proven business-ratio-systems, that enterprises only need to take over. Get back into the car again, imagine you have only one instrument in front of you, which shows the value "35". What does this signify? It is not recognizable how many fuel exists, how the Temperature of the coolant is or how fast the car is driving, etc. At this example you could recognize the little expressiveness of only one business ratio. It shows the importance to use the right business ratios, which must have a connection to each other and which have a different temporal origin. Nevertheless, many business ratio systems are mostly based on data which originate from the past. This turns often to the problem, that immediate information are not available, to indicate the actual situation of a business. However, there is still the alternative, to reduce the period of the past. How would it be with one week instead of analysing business data every 4 weeks? This would lead to the fact that you could act a few weeks earlier, if something should run a little bit inclinedly. Only very few data are needed to receive an informative evaluation. This again is comparably with a car. If you are driving with your car, you only receive a small, well-chosen number of information and nevertheless, have an actual picture of the situation. This is also possible for businesses, as well! As a motorist we receive only one fraction of the data which is acquired by the system of the car, and just these fraction of information is enough for us to reach the desired destination. When traveling usually we are well prepared, but the principle of the preparations is often neglected in business operation. As it is with traveling, the final goal has to be clearly stated by the business management. This could be done by having planing data available. Only by target/actual comparison divergences of the commercial development will be recognized. Unfortunately, many small businesses renounce to use plan data. Besides, it is not about, to cut plan data into the smallest pieces, but only to get a rough picture, what the business is going to achieve. It is absolutely possible to run a business on the basis of the figures from the previous year, however, to use these figures, the past commercial development should be taken into consideration. So the figures from the previous year should be improved to fit with the new goals. And finished are the planning data and the basis for an operational risk management are laid. Still if it is most important to know the actual bottlenecks in business operation. Recognize problems and act! One of the most important factors in business management is the early recognition of problems and potentials. There are bottlenecks in every business, which could have serious results. Pecuniary difficulties could lead to bankruptcy for example. Therefore symptoms must be recognized early, in order to turn a possible crisis away and to secure the future of your business. Also to use available potentials, regular analyses should be done. Nowadays products and services could not be sold forever, because product cycles become shorter and shorter due to market dynamism. The recognition and development of potentials is exceptionally important, to avoid losing the already achieved basis of a business. About the author: Stephan Szugat is founder of abenetis a web-based service about Business Management Solutions focusing on the core needs of business management. This includes operational and strategic analysis especially Early-Recognition-Systems, Knowledge-Management and other Services for small and mid-sized businesses. He has approx. 15 years experience in the Finance and Accounting Area from companies of different size and from various industries. http://www.abenetis.com Circulated by Article Emporium

Asset and liability basics

Asset and liability basics

by: Mansi gupta

Knowledge of accounts can make life much easy. If you are to invest in a new business or joining your forefather�s business, planning to take some loan, looking for job in any marketing company, desire to be the manager of a multinational company or have the onus to manage your own assets and liabilities, knowing some basics of accounts becomes mandatory. Broadly, accounting is bifurcated into two categories- Cash Bases Accounting Accrual Accounting The Cash Based accounting pertains to the management of an individual�s personal monetary transactions. In this case, he keeps a track of the money he withdrew, deposited, gave or received from someone etc. This accounting comes to life when actual cash transactions take place. The Accrual Accounting requires an accountant who notes the transactions even if no money has been actually exchanged. This method works on the principle of comparing or seeing the ratio of the expenses to expenditure. If the expenditure is more, you need to cut down your luxuries, if not then it�s always good to have some savings for future. This type of accounting tells you the amount that you owed; this might not match with the figure of your bank balance. In the language of accounting there are several key terms that one needs to be familiar with. Some of the crucial ones are discussed below- The Assets- the assets are generally those possessions of an individual that have a good market value or are quite valuable. Assets are mainly classified into three types- Current Asset- the cash is the most basic asset of any individual. The money that is being held in accounts like the checking and savings accounts is also included in the cash. Also inclusive are the marketable securities in the form of bonds, stocks, shares etc. The money lent or payments due from clients, even form a part of it. Fixed Asset- comprises of all the tangible valuable things like property, machines, equipments, land and the like that are not meant to be sold. Intangible Asset- incorporates all the untouchable things like copyrights, patents, trademarks etc. that have tremendous monetary significance. The law of opposites governs the nature; where there are assets, there will be liabilities. These are the debts that you have to pay back to your creditors. This can be done through giving cash or any other asset like jewelry, some other goods etc. Liabilities again are of two kinds- 1. The Current Liabilities- the liabilities that are to be paid back within a certain time limit and most often through your current assets. These include the accounts payable i.e. type of bill that you have to monthly, the Notes Payable-loans taken from banks meant to be repaid within 30 days and the Accrued Expenses- the compulsory expenses like taxes, wages, interests etc. where the bills are not received but the balances of each must be repaid. 2. Long Term Liabilities- those debts that can be repaid at ease for the tenure is more then a month. The Financial Capital- is the economic capital. It is any liquid medium or merchandise that stands for wealth or other styles or capital. There are four ways to manage and display the financial capital. First, this capital is needed when a contract is made with any sort of capital asset. The financial instruments work in the form of currency in case of sale, purchase or trade of goods i.e. the medium exchanges. Second, it works as a settled medium or mode like gold for the Standard of Deferred Payment. Third, The Unit of Account has a market value attached to it which in turn varies with the economy of the country. Fourth, The Source of Value is concerned with financial capital that needs to be saved and recovered. It is a collection of things like gold, real estate, collectibles etc. Petty Cash is an important factor in business. It is the smallest account within a business setting or the cash in bills and coinage required to pay little expenses. Types of Business- there are several kinds of business one should be aware of like Sole proprietorship- where a single individual who starts the business owns it too. Partnerships- the companies or businesses started by two or more persons where they conjointly own it. Corporations- involve lot many shareholders or investors who are responsible in taking decisions for the company. Limited Liability Companies- can be said to be sisters of corporations. Here the business members are not under a legal obligation to pay the debts if the business fails. Payrolls- the term payroll designates the manner in which you will be paying the employees of your company and even yourself. Many multinational companies cater to payroll service provider companies that do the work quite efficiently. These are some of the broad guidelines that will help you grasp the basics of accounting. It is essential to have some such wisdom for accounts as it is fruitful in all walks of life. About the author: Mansi gupta writes about asset and liability Learn more at http://www.assetsandliabilitiesbook.com Circulated by Article Emporium

An introduction to point of sale software

An introduction to point of sale software

by: Jakob Jelling

Point of sale software gives business owners a convenient way of checking out customers and of recording sales. It can keep a record of the store inventory, updating it when an order is processed. It can also print out receipts, carry out credit card processing, track customers, etc. Point of sale software eases the flow at checkout terminals, while recording all the information that can help you make better business decisions. Point of sale software allows users to input via keyboard or mouse, and some even have a touch screen interface. You can install the software on your checkout register. When checking out a customer you can either input the sales item yourself or use a bar code scanner. The point of sale software will look up the item in the inventory and bring up the price. It can also calculate tax on the item and change for the customer. POS software can print out receipts and reports. Point of sale software makes your business accounting a lot easier by creating reports on inventory, sales, customers, etc. Since it is already recording each sale, it can easily tell you the sales and revenue of the day. Point of sale software can also help with credit card processing. Credit cards are the preferred method of payment. People do not want to carry around cash for all their purchases. Credit card is a convenient method of payment and if you do not have credit card processing, your business can lose some of its competitiveness. Point of sale software receives input from the POS hardware, which is the scanning station for the credit card. The software will process the credit card payment for you. It can check that the card has not expired and is valid. You will need a merchant account for the point of sale software to do its job. POS software is generally easy to install and easy to use. You will need to know how to update inventory and record a price change for an item. Point of sale software usually provides an easy to use interface to do this. It can make the job of the cashier a lot easier by automating the routine tasks of the day. There is a wide variety of point of sale software available. You can choose one that fits your budget and meets the needs of your particular business. The software will have compatibility requirements with the point of sale hardware. It will also have operating system requirements such as it might need a Windows or Linux system. Point of sale software can more than pay for itself over time by making checkout faster and doing your accounting for you. Point of sale software may be the right solution for your business and can provide you with tons of benefits. About the author: Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.cashbazar.comVisit his website for the latest on personal finance, debt elimination, budgeting, credit cards and real estate. Circulated by Article Emporium

After the latest and accurate help in relation to accountancy.

When you are looking for high-class advice concerning accountancy, it will be hard sorting out the best information from foolish accountancy proposals and guidance so it's best to know ways of moderating the information offered to you. NetSuite: Small Business Accounting NetSuite offers an integrated online accounting application with ecommerce, sales, inventory, shipping and support. Free Trial. Now we would like to offer you some advice which we advise you to use when you are searching for information about accountancy. You need to realize the guidance we put forward is only pertinent to internet based information concerning accountancy. We don't really offer any direction or assistance when you are also conducting research in books or magazines. OpenPro: Web Based Accounting Offers Web-based, open source ERP accounting system with financials, supply chain, manufacturing, CRM and ecommerce features. An interesting tip to pursue when you're presented with information and suggestions on a accountancy website would be to determine who owns the site. Doing this could reveal the owners accountancy credibility The easiest way to reveal who owns the accountancy web site is to find the sites 'about' page. Any reputable site providing information concerning accountancy, will always have contact information which will record the site owner's contact details. The details should make known some key points concerning the owner's requisite knowledge. You can then arrive at a decision about the webmaster's depth of experience, to offer guidance about accountancy. About the author: Tom Brown is the webmaster for http://www.hession-acton.info Circulated by Article Emporium