Taking Care of YOur Business, HOW EASY?

Running a business is never easy, and it is even more difficult during an economic recession.
William Katz, University of Kansas Small Business Development Center regional director, talked to audience members at Thursday’s Basehor Chamber of Commerce meeting about how to run a successful small business. He provided some information that he said was vital to developing and maintaining a small business.
Katz said that small businesses were extremely important to the nation’s economy. Such businesses provide jobs, revenue and growth opportunity to cities.
“Mark my words, small businesses will be the ones that get us out of this recession,” Katz said.
Katz had three key pieces of advice for those trying to establish a business and keep it afloat: Practice cash flow management, never stop selling and understand change.
One of the mistakes that business owners make, Katz said, is mismanaging cash flow. He said that owners needed to keep in mind businesses can and do run out of money.
“Once you run out, you’re done,” Katz said. “If you can’t put out payroll, you’re done. It’s over.”
He recommended that small businesses spend money on things like technology, customer service, hiring and marketing. He advised against shelling out money for fancy furniture, rent and useless gadgets.
Part of keeping cash flow in check is also establishing a solid line of communication with the business’s credit facility, Katz said. He encouraged owners to initiate conversation with their bankers.
“Don’t wait for them to call you,” he said. “If you’re late on a payment, if you’re running behind, bankers can do a lot for you, but they’re less willing if they have to call you.”
An effective way to approach late payments, he said, is to create a set procedure for such payments and for accounts receivable. Katz said that scrounging for funds at the last minute was a terrible situation.
“Don’t fall into the trap of dialing for dollars when you need them,” Katz said. “You have to follow procedure to make sure you have your money when you need it.”
Managing inventory is another way that small business owners can control cash flow. Katz said that many businesses spend too much money on inventory. He suggested rearranging inventory schedules to make sure that no money was wasted on unnecessary inventory and that customers were still seeing new items.
Selling the product is essential for success. Katz said that one of a business owner’s highest priorities should always be the top line, revenue earned. He said owners needed to set goals, create milestones, and most of all, communicate within the company.
“Everyone in the business should know the revenue goals and if those are being met,” Katz said. “It’s such a mistake to not inform people. If you all of a sudden need to change things or lay people off, no one knows why, and they feel deceived.”
To ensure consistent revenue, Katz said the focus should be on the organization’s competitive advantage.
The secret to a sustainable competitive advantage, Katz said, is effective marketing. He said businesses needed to examine the efficiency of marketing before cutting back.
“Always ask people how they heard about you,” he said. “It’s so simple, but it tells you a lot. It tells you what’s working. Whatever’s working, do more of it. Whatever’s not working, throw it out. That’s how you save money and make money.”
Katz said that small business owners needed to remember that nothing stays the same. He said it was necessary to always move with change, not against it.
“Get on the leading edge of change,” he said. “Don’t just sit there and watch it happen, watch other people make money off of it. Change happens. Technology happens. Embrace it.”
Bottom line, Katz said, small business owners have to plan.
“No one plans to fail, but a lot of people fail to plan,” he said. “If companies do some effective planning, manage their cash flow, keep on selling and accept change, they will be well-positioned in the marketplace as we move into the future.”

THE PLACE OF CONFIDENCE IN BUSINESS

Being in business takes confidence and courage, especially in times like these. Buyers aren't buying. Lenders aren't lending. Everyone delays making decisions, because everything seems so uncertain.

How do you — how do I — as a business owner survive and thrive in uncertain times?

At times like these, it may help to recall the old saying, "I complained I had no shoes until I met someone who had no feet." As bad as it may be to be self-employed right now, it's probably far worse to have an uncertain job. There are lessons to be learned by remembering exactly why you're in business for yourself and, indeed, how much better off you have it than those people who are waiting for the corporate office to decide whether they'll still have a job next month.
Like virtually every other businessperson, I'm also facing uncertain times. I'm in an industry undergoing dramatic changes and unprecedented threats — book publishing. In case you haven't heard, there's something called the Internet where lots of people now go for information when they used to buy books. And my books are sold in bookstores — like the one down the street from you that's now closed.
Here's what I reminded myself of the other day: I can do something about it. No, I can't change the industry dynamics. But as a person who owns a business or who is self-employed, I can make decisions, take actions. I can help shape my economic destiny. Sure, I don't have complete control — I may have to make major changes in my business, my expenses, the nature of my work — but at least I can do something to help keep my business alive and my employees keep their jobs. (Because, believe me, laying someone off is not something any responsible business owner wants to do.)

I compare my reality to people who have lost their jobs or are waiting to hear whether they're going to lose their jobs. It's not that they have no control over their destiny, but they don't have nearly the day-to-day sense of empowerment that I do — or that you can, for that matter.

In fact, thinking about all the people I know in limbo — wondering whether they'll have a job or not — reminded me of when I first started my business. I lived in a three unit building (a charming Victorian in San Francisco!), and in each of the other two units were single men who worked in one of the nation's largest banks. When I decided to leave my secure job and open my own consulting practice, they were both very concerned: "It's so risky. It's so insecure. It's financially dangerous."

But every day for the next two years, I watched as the bank they worked for was first threatened by a takeover and then was sold. Every day, my neighbors shared their worries over whether they'd have a job, whether they'd have to move away. Meanwhile, every single day, I woke up and went to work creating my own future.
Within two years, they both lost their jobs, but all these years later, I'm still in business. Not the same business exactly — I've had to make changes, evolve. I've had major set-backs and financial scares. But every day, I could go to work and take some measure of control of my destiny.

I don't usually use my column for such long personal TRANCES. I do so now to remind YOU of what it means to be in business for yourself. It means that every single day, you can go to work to make something happen. You may have to work harder to make a sale. You may, like me, have to find new business models in a changing industry. Or, you may have to change the nature of your business altogether.

But I have survived downturns before. I know that many of the strongest businesses were founded during depressions or recessions. I know that I — and you — can survive, thrive.

Uncertain times require you to be certain about something — that you are fortunate to be able to take some measure of control of your destiny. That's what being in business for yourself is all about.

THE NATURE AND STRUCTURE OF JAPAN’S ECONOMY

INTRODUCTION

An economy can be seen as any specified collection of inter-related set of marked and unmarked productive activities (Upset 1983). Thus, the Japanese economy can be referred to as all such economic activities taking place in the geographical domain of Japan (domestic economy) or all such economic activities of Japanese residents anywhere they happen to perform such activities in the world Parkin, 1982).

The structure of an economy can be referred to as a complex organizational framework, interlaced network and an outline of logical connectivity through which the activities of an economy are coordinated. An economy’s structure may also refer to those aspects which are basic and long lasting and underpin more transitory aspects of economic life. Structural variables are therefore deep-seated and only change rather gradually.

HISTORY OF JAPANESE ECONOMY
Japan is a country located in the pacific, off the eastern coast of Asia with its capital in Tokyo. According to the 1989 population reports, Japan has 123 million people.

The Japanese economy experienced two periods of rapid development. First in the 19th century after a long interval of national seclusion and the second after the World War II in 1945.

Between 1603 and 1869, the Tokugawa era (a military dictatorship in a feudal setting who brought peace, law, order and isolation), Japan was faced with poverty, low technology and little natural resources endowment.

In 1868, the Meiji Restoration ended 250 years of self-isolation for Japan and introduced an era of rapid economic change. At this time, Japan had no modern machinery, postal systems, railroads or even newspapers. It had no business institutions such as banking and public corporations. Its main resource was a population that was highly literate for a pre industrial economy.

The Meiji reforms however rejuvenated the Japanese economy through certain policies which include:
- Allowing for foreign trade
- Equality of classes
- Division of agricultural estates among the peasants
- Institution of monetary taxes
- Support of private industries through loans and subsidies

They inaugurated a western-based education system for the young, sent thousands of students to the United States and Europe and hired more than 3,000 westerners to teach Maths, science, technology and other foreign languages in Japan.

In order to promote industrialization, the government provided and allocated resources to the private sector, they built factories and ship yards which were sold to entrepreneurs at a fraction of their value. These businesses grew to become large conglomerates.

The country’s takeoff was explosive. Between 1890 and 1938 Japan’s GDP grew at 3.3% each year far faster than the United States and the countries of Western Europe at that stage of development. Manufacturing grew rapidly from 8% GDP in 1888 to 32% by 1938.

The worldwide economic slump of the 1930’s led Japan to increasingly centralize and militarize its economy. The government gave itself control over imports, power to direct private bank was to priority industries and authority to promote heavy industries needed by the military such as petroleum, machine tools, aircraft, iron and steel and automobiles. Heavy industry rose from 35% of manufacturing in 1930 to 65% in 1940. The legacy of the period was a pattern of corporate organization and government business relations that remains influential today.

After this economic make overcame the World War II which pulled down the Japanese economic pillars. They were faced with the problem of reconstruction and economic recovery after the war. Their recovery was initially slow until the Korean War which increased demand for Japan’s exports and made the United States see Japan as an ally.

In the 1980’s, Japanese economic growth was discouraged by the United Sates recession. This left an indelible mark on the Japanese economy even after the United States recovered. Japan progressed but with an imbalance in trade which led to a decrease in export and rise in prices of real estate and stock in 1985. From the 1960’s to the 1980’s Japan had experienced retardation of economic growth with 10 percent average in the 1960’s, 58 averages in the 1970’s and a 4% average in the 1980’s.

Growth was slow in the 1990’s largely due to the Bank of Japan’s failure to cutout interest rates quickly enough to counter the after-effects of over-investment during the late 1980’s. This caused the Bank of Japan to shift to a more restrictive monetary stance in May 1989 thereby spear heading a fall in prices of real estate stock by 50% from 1989 to 1996.

THE NATURE OF THE JAPAN’S ECONOMY
The Japan’s economy is the world’s second largest economy after the United States. Its nominal GDP was put at about US $4.53 trillion compared to $12.42 trillion of the United States. It ranks third after the United States and China when adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). Its Central Bank has the second largest foreign exchange reserves after China.

Japan’s per capita GDP rose from 21% of the U.S. level in 1955 to 56% in 1970. It has a well educated work force. Majority of the workers are free from personal income taxes while value added rate is only 5%. A greater portion of taxes are paid by corporate bodies.

The Japan’s economy has been on the recovery lane growing at 2% per year in 2003 and 2004 and 2.8% in 2005 unlike previous recovery trends, domestic consumption has been the dominant factor in leading the Japan’s economic growth.

As predicted, the economic recovery continued in 2006 and 2007.



REFERENCES
1. Fukao, Kyoji (2007) (PDF), Real GDP in Pre-War East Asia: A 1934 – 1936 Benchmark Purchasing Power Parity Comparison with the US.

2. Liu, Ta – Chung (1946). China’s National Income 1931 – 1936, An Exploratory Study.

3. Maddison, Angus (2003) The World Economy: Historical Statistics.

4. Powell, Benjamin (2002) “Explaining Japan’s Recession”.

5. “Economic Survey of Japan 2008: Bringing an end to deflation under the new monetary policy framework.

Google Puts You on the Map

How to Build a Small-Business Web Site, Part 6: Marketing for Success

This is the sixth in an ongoing series on buiding a Web site for your small business. Part 1 looks at essential elements of a business Web site. Part 2 offers basic site design guidelines. Part 3 tackles some advanced design issues. Part 4 examines social media tools for building traffic. Part 5 compares outsourcing against doing maintenance work in-house.
Having a Web site opens up the doors to all sorts of low-cost marketing opportunities for small businesses. Sometimes fledgling Web marketers can be overwhelmed by the embarrassment of riches that are available for next to nothing. The key to effective online marketing -- whether it's to drive visitors to your site or convert them to customers when they get there -- is to keep it focused.
If you don't, you might find that you've wasted a lot of time and effort preaching your marketing message to the wrong people in the wrong places. Or worse yet, you simply don't know who you're talking to -- or why.
"A lot of folks simply don't understand the potential of what can be done outside of simply posting a Web site," John Gilbert, vice-president of the Digital Solutions Group for Bader Rutter & Associates, told TechNewsWorld. "Once you have done the basic block and tackle stuff, the next step is really leveraging the medium to stand out above crowd and get noticed. The beautiful thing is that just about everyone is a user of [the Web] -- and a lot of things you can do are zero cost, other than your time."
Following are some guidelines for learning how to get the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to marketing your site.
//-->
//-->
window.google_render_ad();
Understand Your Goals and Your Audience
Figuring out what you really want your Web site to do should be the number one question you ask yourself. "If you're not clear on their goals up front, that's unfortunate, because your [marketing] can get very fragmented and confusing," Dan Hobin, CEO of G5 Search Marketing, a Web development, advertising and measurement company, told TechNewsWorld.
A good marketing manager will also know how to get the right message in the right hands for the best return on investment.
"Find out where your audience lives on the Web and go there," Melanie Orndorff, social media account manager for the Cimarron Group, an entertainment marketing company in Los Angeles. "If you service model train enthusiasts, then find out the tools they are using to communicate with others."
"Position yourself in places where your prospective buyers are going," confirmed Linda Rigano, director of strategic alliances for ThomasNet, a New York-based marketplace for industrial suppliers. These can include association newsrooms and community forums, trade magazine sites, RSS feeds, industry-related blogs -- anything that speaks to your intended demographic.
Measure Up
It's important to have the right tools to measure the results of your marketing efforts. "If your goal for your Web site is to generate new business by phone, make sure you can measure that," Hobin said.
In addition to the usual suspects -- Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Analytics et al -- there are complementary tools that can help you keep tabs on the effectiveness of your marketing outreach. These include such things as dynamic phone number generation and dynamic couponing to help you track what ad sources provide you with the best leads.
Open the Lines of Communication
Web sites offer the opportunity for you to engage in conversations with your existing and potential customers, whether creating or contributing to blogs, visiting forums to add your two cents' worth, or posting your company's latest news on social networking or association sites.
"The Web is either the start of the conversation, or is the conversation," Hobin explained. "You need to ensure you have the tools on your site to have a fluid and meaningful conversation." He suggests that where appropriate, set up a portion of your site for blogs and customer feedback.
Keeping pace with the blogging community and social networking services can be extremely time consuming however, so it is important to be strategic in where and how often you want to do this type of thing.
In engaging customers, it is also important that you do it in a way that touches them personally, Orndorff said. For every type of business, that can mean a very different thing.
"If you're a massage therapist, you can post updates on blogs through an e-newsletter to give your audience a sense that you are a live person and show the human side of your business."
Listen and Learn
The fact that your Web site is a communications medium also means you have to pay close attention to the feedback and adapt to maximize its effectiveness. If your tracking tools tell you a particular market or ad campaign isn't passing muster, change it.
If customers are abandoning your site within seconds of arriving, look into what adjustments you can make to engage them. And if no one is talking about you, or posting negative feedback, don't ignore them. However, be careful in deciding where, when and how to engage in the right conversations.
Leverage the Tools That Work for You
There are many free and low-cost tools that can help you to drive traffic to your site and generate sales -- from sponsored links and search marketing services to setting up pages on social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn .
Services such as Google AdWords have become a powerful and effective marketing tool for small business owners, notes Deanna Yick, a spokesperson for Google. The key to getting the most out of services such as AdWords include taking the following steps:
Knowing the right audience for your products and services
Structuring each campaign based on a simple goal, such as a product category, product line or theme
Choosing powerful keywords that resonate with your target audience
Including a strong call to action to draw people to your site
Targeting individual campaigns according to a specific audience and/or geographic region
Continually reviewing your online advertising and making changes when needed
Keep It Simple
This mantra holds true for just about any marketing effort related to your Web site -- whether it's tracking leads or reaching out and touching your community with your blog. Experts say that the best advice they can give to any small business is to approach Web marketing in bite size pieces, keep measuring the results, and then build on your strategy from there. You could test the waters with the basic tried and true tools such as blogs, Twitter , Facebook and LinkedIn and build your strategy from there.
Also, don't be afraid to take advantage of multimedia opportunities to extend your marketing reach, Gilbert said. "The potential for reuse of content at almost no cost is very, very high. If you are presenting at a trade show for example, why not record your presentation and digitize it for redistribution? Podcasts can be very simple and effective marketing tools."
Deliver On Your Promise
"It's critical that your site meets your customers' needs when they come looking for you," said Janet Tarzia, executive director of marketing for ThomasNet.
Marketers should also never underestimate the importance of the usability and searchability of a site. These are integral to turning exploration exercises into bona fide sales. Just as important is a rapid response mechanism or strategy of some kind is critical, since potential or existing customers can be quickly turned off by a lengthy delay to their inquiries.
Speak to Experience
Anyone who has any doubts on the effectiveness of a low cost Web marketing campaign in drumming up business should ask Catherine Simms, the owner of Whiner & Diner in Stamford, Conn. -- a home-based, online provider of eco-friendly pet products.
Since starting her site in December 2006 in Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Office Live Small Business, she has spent virtually zero dollars on her marketing efforts.
What she has done is work diligently on visiting pet-related forums, posting blogs, and contributing articles to free sites such as Ezine Articles. She has also set up pages on Facebook and MySpace , and tracking customer feedback with the SiteMinder feature of Office Live.
Her efforts have led to a 100 percent increase in sales and interest from customers in Spain, Italy and Europe. "I may have no staff and no overhead, but I've received tons and tons of attention just by commenting on blogs and contributing to forums," she told TechNewsWorld. "Even with the economy, I did very well at Christmas. It takes time, but it works."