Archive for the ‘Business’ category

The Value of Hiring Good Employees

May 12th, 2012

The Value of Hiring Good Employees ImageIn order to help implement this trait with your food business, hiring good employees is extremely important. But having good customer service isn’t the only reason to hire good employees. Other traits of good employees are trustworthiness, good work ethic, and ability to learn. These traits are all extremely important and an employee without one or more of these traits is simply not the full package. In order for your mobile food concession business to run smoothly and successfully, finding employees with the whole package is crucial.

Customer service is so important in being able to keep your customers happy. While you alone know how important it is to your business to create good relationships with your customers, since you probably won’t run the business completely by yourself, you must also convey this message to your employees. Good employees will care that you want to be kind to your customers. Employees that aren’t worth much might treat customers well in your presence but then treat them without care when you aren’t around. You must always leave a way for customers to leave feedback so that you can be sure your customers are getting treated in a way that will be good for your business’s reputation.

Knowing you can trust an employee to treat your customers well even when you aren’t there is part of the trait of being trustworthy. This is one of the most important traits you can find in any employee. An employee that you can’t trust does not need to be part of your team. An employee that isn’t trustworthy will not have any problem stealing goods, money, or supplies from you. This can be an unbelievably high cost to lose. Employee theft is one of the biggest expenses of businesses these days. A trustworthy employee is worth his or her weight in gold.

Another important trait of an employee with the whole package is good work ethic. This also goes along with trust. You have to be able to trust your employee to really work when your back is turned. An employee with good work ethic will do that for you. This is a priceless trait when you need to get as much work for the money you are paying employees as you can. Employees that just sit down when you leave are robbing you of your hard earned money. Getting something for nothing should be considered theft and if you have employees like this, either tell them to change their ways or they are out.

Finally, ability to learn is certainly near the top of the list of important traits for good employees. You have to have employees that pick up on procedures very quickly if you run a concession business. This will make your job much easier when it comes to being able to leave them alone and having work get done. If you have employees that aren’t good at learning on the go, you will not have as efficient of a business as you could. All of these traits are important employee traits for any business. Finding employees with the total package can help you have a successful experience in business.

Purchase Order Financing Overview

May 10th, 2012

Purchase Order Financing Overview ImageKnowing the ins and outs of purchase order financing is an asset to almost any small or medium sized business owner. In the sections below you will learn just exactly what purchase order financing is, the benefits, drawbacks, who can benefit the most from it, and would be likely to qualify for it.

What is purchase order financing?

purchase order financing is another way to get a loan for the capital you need to finance the supplies, production, and shipping of a product after you have received a purchase order from a buyer. Once you produce the finished goods and are paid, you can then pay off your invoice to the company who provided you with funding.

This is a perfect solution for small start-up businesses who have orders coming in but don’t have the finances required to order supplies, pay their workers, and ship the finished goods. This would also be a great opportunity for a small to medium sized businesses who have found themselves with a sudden large customer jump or are graced with a very large order.

Who can benefit from purchase order financing?

- Purchase order financing is great for small to medium sized businesses who usually do not have the funds for large orders that could sky rocket their sales and turn their product into a household name. Image pitching your product to a major retailer, receiving an order from them, and then not being able to produce the goods needed because you are short on funds. purchase order financing could save you from this heart-breaking, and business-breaking, blow.

- A company who has received an order so large that they would need a six-digit loan. A purchase order financing company is not there to finance every single order so that a business does not have to spend any money up-front, it is merely a means for businesses to get the funds they need for an order that would otherwise be out of their reach financially.

- Only those who are reselling an already made product that they have to purchase in order to send to the buyer, such as drop shippers, or are producing a product to sell may be eligible to receive purchase order financing. For example, if you are selling a service, you would not qualify to receive purchase order financing. Although it may take capital you do not have to hire employees to perform the service, it would still not qualify under most company guidelines.

What are the drawbacks of purchase order financing?

There are few drawbacks to receiving purchase order financing, however, there is one major qualification that could potentially stand in your way. When a company grants you funding, they assume they will be paid after your customer receives the finished product and pays you. Because of this, many funding companies will check the credit of your buyer(s) to be sure that you will not get ripped off and be left without the money to pay your invoice. Purchase order financing companies are not only taking a chance on you, they are taking a chance on your customers as well. They are the ones with the real risk if the deal goes sour. Knowing that your customer is credit worthy gives the company the peace of mind to lend to you.

What to look for in a purchase order financing company

You should find a company that is right for you. These guidelines may help you better understand what type of company you should apply with:

- Find out what their minimum and maximum funding guidelines are to ensure that they meet your financial need. If a company only funds loans that are in excess of what you are looking for or has restrictions that are less than what you need then you are best moving on to another company.

- Find out what other eligibility requirements they have to ensure that you do qualify under their guidelines before you waste any time applying for their loan.

- Find out what length of time you have to repay the loan and check to see if it meets with you production and billing schedules to ensure that you will have the funds in time.

- Once you have found a company that works for you, make sure that they have a fee or interest rate that your company can both afford and be comfortable with.