photo credit: Art Comments

Running a boutique successfully is all about getting customers and keeping them loyal to your boutique. The following tips will help you do just that.

• Sell quality products: The products you sell should be cost effective. People should feel that the clothes you sell are worth their money.

• Sell at fair price: The price of your products should have an edge over your competitors.

• Offer Excellent Customer Service: This is very important than it appears. Customers prefer friendly shops. Select and train your staff in their business so that they increase customer satisfaction.

An effective marketing campaign is absolutely essential for successful running of a boutique. Plan your advertising to suit the requirements of the target market that your boutique caters to. Marketing means incurred expenses. Make sure they are cost effective.

Professional account maintenance would help you see the financial aspects concerning boutique running more clearly. You can know the ways money go. You would be able to identify revenue-generating measures. Proper account keeping would help you understand and hence avoid financial pitfalls.

An estimation of future expenses and getting ready for them is very important. A festival season may ask for more stock. You need money to purchase that merchandise. So planning your finance well in advance is a must for running your boutique without loss.

Even regular expenses like payrolls needs advance readiness in terms of cash. Expect such requirements and identify the resources. Always be ready with minimum cash both for the usual and unexpected expenses.

As a boutique owner you should know how to handle your daily cash flow. Daily sales record will help you know how well you perform. Running a boutique successfully needs an eye for detail and implementation of some policies. Here are they to help you running a boutique.

• Stock for the Season: Every season has its own market and demands. Identify them and stock your boutique accordingly. Festival season means more sales. Be prepared for that with extra stock

• Avoid Over Stocking: Excess stock means imminent loss. So avoid that. Estimate future sales from past records and buy your merchandise accordingly. Proper amount of stock is very essential for the smooth running of a boutique

Some simple aspects may bring greater success when running a boutique. Get to know them if you really wish to running your boutique profitably.

• Arrange for community events like fashion shows. Even sample sales would attract customers to your boutique

• Maintain customers’ mailing list and inform them regularly of the latest fashion trends, special discounts etc.

• Control even minor expenses like electricity

• Be alert to the latest fashion trends.

• Design and maintain an attractive interior. Make regular changes to the looks of your shop while maintaining the feel-good atmosphere.

Running a boutique successfully is as professional as any other business. It needs proper planning and being prepared for it well in advance. With a little knowledge and a little effort you can be running your boutique successfully.

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http://www.openboutiqueguide.com -learn how to open a clothing boutique. This step by step guide teaches how to start a successful boutique. Discover the secrets of successful shop owners. Start today.

photo credit: Photocapy

Knowing how to build an amortization table will give you a good handle on your monthly payment for a loan and how much you will pay in interest over the course of your loan.

I use amortization tables a lot in both business and in my personal life. For business, I usually use it to determine a monthly payment or determine the actual interest rate of a loan. Often, a loan will include a monthly processing fee or a service fee upfront – really just another form of interest, but if you are comparing two loans, you need to know what your true cost of capital is.

In personal use, I use an amortization table to determine what my mortgage interest is for the purposes of calculating my estimated taxes. I also use it for determining what the payment will be on a car loan based on different loan terms, for instance.

Information you need:

* Loan amount (example: $200,000)
* Interest rate (example: 6%)
* Loan term in months (for this example, we are saying 36 months)

1. Open Excel, in cell A-1, type ‘Interest.’
2. In cell B-1, type your annual interest rate.
3. In cell A-2, type ‘Term’, in B-2, type ‘Payment’, in C-2, type ‘Interest’, in D-2, type ‘Principal’, in E-2, type ‘Outstanding’.
4. In cell E-3, type your total loan amount.
5. In cell A-4, type ‘1′.
6. In cell A-5, type ‘=A4+1′.
7. Copy and paste into cells in the A column below A-5 until you get A-39 (or so that the number in the last cell equals the number of months of your loan).
8. In cell B-4, type a reasonable number for your payment, 1,000 for every $100,000 in borrowed money will work fine.
9. In cell C-4, type “=E3*$B$1/12″.
10. In cell D-4, type “=B4-C4″.
11. In cell E-4, type “=E3-D4″.
12. In cell B-5, type “=B4″.
13. Copy cells C-4 through E-4 into cells C-5 through E-5.
14. Copy cells B-5 through E-5, and paste them in every row from row 6 to the row 39.
15. Select cell E-39.
16. Select ‘Goal Seek…” from the Tools menu.
17. In ‘Set cell:’, it should say ‘E39′.
18. In ‘To value:’, type in ‘0′.
19. In ‘By changing cell:’, type ‘B4′.
20. Hit OK.

This will give you the exact payment and monthly interest and principal payments for your loan.

Remember if you change the term of your loan, the places where I have put ‘E39′ will have to be changed to the row where your last term month is.

Here is a sample amortization file. This is a very useful tool because it is simple, but not many people really know how to do this.

Ms. Worrall is the President of Worrall Consulting, LLC. Worrall Consulting is a finance and business strategy consultancy providing professional services to high growth, early stage companies. The company provides capital formation assistance, market research and business intelligence, and business planning strategy. More information about the company can be found at http://www.worrallconsulting.com – Additional financial and strategy advice can be found at http://www.cfoyourself.com

photo credit: Tammy Manet

Building an online apparel business is not as easy as you think. I know this because I started my online apparel wholesale business in 2002, after my “off-line” apparel business failed. I built my 1st web site with Microsoft FrontPage. There were 300 products on my web site. I did my own graphics, my own design, and my own marketing. I worked 24 x 7 for over 6 months straight. 5 years later, my web sites (I have 4 store fronts) bring in a steady stream of business. I no longer need to cold call to find customers, and frankly I don’t work that hard anymore to make a pretty good living.

The following elements on an apparel web site will make or break your business.

#1: The overall look and feel of the store front You can always tell between a professionally designed and executed web site from one that is done by amateurs. If you are selling originally designed clothing that is not branded, the look and feel is a very important factor. Does it look different from everyone else? Does it look creative? Does it look like quality? Check out your major competition’s web sites. Keep in mind people can not touch the fabric of your clothing. They need to feel comfortable enough to give your products a try.

#2: Product Images Most people starting their online apparel store either use someone else’s photos, or take the photos with their digital camera. Either way, your product pictures need to look professional and detailed. 1 way to achieve this is to rent professional lighting equipment for your photo shoot. They cost between $25 to $50 a day, but will make a huge impact in the quality of your photos. If you are serious about succeeding in your clothing business, you should invest that money. If you really can’t swing it, use a program such as Photoshop to retouch your photos to make them look more professional. Add a watermark on your pictures. So even if someone steals your picture, at least they will do some free advertising for you.

If you are selling items that have more complex designs, such as sequined dresses, or jackets with appliqués, make sure to take additional detail close-up photos of the garment from different angles. This will ensure the customer knows what the clothing item looks like, and greatly decrease your return rate.

#3: User Friendly Navigation Make sure the site’s simple. Avoid too many levels of navigation before the user gets to the final product page where they can push the “Buy” button. Up-sell the customer with related items. If the customer clicks on outdoor jackets, put gloves and boots on the same page of the jackets for possible up-sale. Remember, you want the customer to focus on the product itself, not getting confused by too much unnecessary information. You also want them to be able to go back to where they came from, or direct them to more choices for the same product category. So putting “see other choices” or “back to item category” buttons near the item they are viewing.

#4: Easy Check Out Use “breadcrumbs” to show where they are in the check out process to reassure them they are almost there. Reduce the number of forms to the minimum. Put everything on the same page. The last thing you want is to have the customer abandon their sale because of an ill-conceived check-out process.

#5: Optimize For Search Engine It does not matter how well done your web site is, or how good your products are, if people can not find your store! So the most important thing about marketing your site is to optimize your web site with search terms used by your potential customers. Find all possible keywords and search terms. Google’s AdWords has a tool that helps you identify search terms related to your product category. I use a professional service out of UK called WordTracker. Truth be told, you really should do this research BEFORE you start building your new web site as the way a web site is constructed impacts how well it gets ranked on major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. This is a complex issue but is one you need to spend time researching on if you want your web site to succeed. And make sure to read my article on the technical aspects of building a good web site. If you want to see my current web sites, here are the links:

Embroidery Hats and Promotional Baseball Caps Custom Embroidered Shirts and Custom Embroidery Apparel Corporate Apparel and Corporate Logo Shirts

Jackie Or is the owner of The Promotion Factory, Inc. Her company provides custom logoed corporate apparel and custom hats at wholesale price points. The Promotion Factory also provides overseas custom apparel and custom hats outsourced manufacturing services.

photo credit: David Locke

What is your business model? Amazingly many people who start a business can’t answer this question. In its most basic form, the business model is the diagram of how you will convert your product or service into money in your pocket.

Many entrepreneurs suffer from the Field of Dreams affliction. They are sure that their product or service is so fabulous that everyone will want it without taking into account how their potential customers buy things or even how they will finance the gap between the sale and the cash coming in the door.

To create your business model, you need to answer the following questions:

* to whom are you going to sell your product?
* what problems does your product or service solve for the customer?
* how you are going to reach your customers?
* how and when the customers will pay you?
* how your products will get from concept stage into your customers’ hands?
* who are your competitors and how are you different?

In business speak, the business model needs the following components:

Value Proposition – this term is highly overused by every MBA and VC associate out there, but the concept is important. The value proposition is a description of the value that you bring to your customer; ie, what problem are you solving? In short, is your product faster, better, or cheaper?

Market Segment – who are you going to sell your product or service to. This is the type of customer that you will target. You need to determine why they are the right group who are willing to pay money to you.

Value Chain – another good b-school term. You need to determine where you are in the value chain. If you are making a widget that improves a driver’s experience, but it can only be installed by the car manufacturer, then you have a place in the automotive value chain. You need to understand how you fit in this chain and what prices you can charge as a result of that place.

Revenue and Margin – How will you price the product and how will people pay you? License, fee upfront, payment over time. What are your costs? Will you be able to bring them down over time. If there is a big profit margin in your business, expect other company to try to enter the same business.

Competitive Strategy – who is your competition and how will you differentiate yourself from them. Are you better, faster or cheaper? Does your competition have the ability to improve in response to your entry into the market? Don’t forget that your customer choosing to do nothing can be competition.

Many entrepreneurs think that the business model is the same as the business plan. Your business plan is actually how you plan to execute on your business model. Build the model first, find your strengths and weaknesses and write the plan on how you will reach your goal.

Ms. Worrall is the President of Worrall Consulting, LLC. Worrall Consulting is a finance and business strategy consultancy providing professional services to high growth, early stage companies. The company provides capital formation assistance, market research and business intelligence, and business planning strategy. More information about the company can be found at http://www.worrallconsulting.com – Additional financial and strategy advice can be found at http://www.cfoyourself.com

photo credit: Harley Qinn

Having started with the income statement yesterday, I might as well continue on with the balance sheet. The balance sheet is divided into two sections, the assets and the liabilities and stockholders equity. This may sound like three sections (and it is), but the point of it being thought of as two sections is illustrated in the following equation:Assets = Liabilities + Stockholders EquityAssets being what you have, liabilities being what you owe, and stockholders equity being what you own.Assets

* Current assets: Assets that are expected to be turned into cash within the next year, including
o Cash (and cash equivalents)
o Accounts Receivable
o Prepaid Assets

* Other assets include
o Net property plant and equipment (the full cost of your PPE minus accumulated depreciation)
o Goodwill
o Other long-term assets, such as deposits, prepaid multi-year licenses, etc.

You total all of these numbers to get your asset total number.Liabilities Current liabilities: Liabilities that are expected to be paid within the next year, including

*
o Accounts payable
o Wages and related costs payable
o Current portion of long term debt (the part of your multi-year loan you expect to pay this year)

o Other current payables

* Long-term debt
* Deferred tax liabilities
* Other long-term obligations

This is your total liabilities.Stockholders EquityThe equity is the outstanding shares times the par value plus the paid-in capital. In general, this is sort of an anachronism, but when you issue shares you place a par value on them, often $0.01. If you issue 100,000 shares, your par value is $1,000. Let’s say you invested $30,000 in your company. Your common stock line would say $1,000 and your paid-in capital line would say $29,000.The next line is retained earnings. This is how much your company has retained from the earnings after paying out expenses and dividends.Add these items together to get your stockholders’ equity.Add the stockholders’ equity and the liabilities together and it should equal the total assets. If it does not, then there is an error. Never ever hand a venture capitalist or banker a balance sheet that doesn’t balance. That will peg you in a second as someone who has no clue about finances.

For an Excel example of the financial statements working together, view my article on Building A Cash Flow Statement

Ms. Worrall is the President of Worrall Consulting, LLC. Worrall Consulting is a finance and business strategy consultancy providing professional services to high growth, early stage companies. The company provides capital formation assistance, market research and business intelligence, and business planning strategy. More information about the company can be found at http://www.worrallconsulting.com Additional financial and strategy advice can be found at http://www.cfoyourself.com

photo credit: Alexander Somma

You have to convince the lender that you are a good deal, since the lender is the one that is at the highest risk, they are not ready to throw their money away, therefore it is your duty to convince them to give to a try, anything short of this, you would be denied the loan.

If you understand the process of loan application, it will be to your advantage as it will increase your chance of being approved for the loan and also getting the loan term that is best for your business. You must be sure of what you want to use the loan for before starting the application process

Purpose of loan: You have to clearly state what you want to do with the loan that you requested and it must be done by putting forward a loan proposal, as this will give the lender a clear vision of what you intend doing with the money if granted, anything short of this your chance of getting the loan will be reduced.

How much do you need: Make sure the amount of money that you require is stated, but remember the estimated loan you are requesting should not be too low or too high, as lender will not give you a loan if they think the amount of money you are asking for is too low and when you ask for what is unnecessarily high, since lenders are out to make profit, they have to be sure that they are also going get some nice returns from the money you are going to be given.

Type of loan: Be specific about the kind of loan you are asking for as this will have an impact on the interest, take note that loan could either be short term, intermediate or long term loan and the interest and term of conditions of these loans varies.

Also make sure that in your loan proposal the repayment methods should be included, just state the repayment term take you feel you would be best for you, is it balloon payment or fixed payment, find this out from the lenders and pick the one that favors you

Since lenders would be glad to hear that you have a collateral that can cover the loan you are asking for, therefore if you fail to repay the loan at the expiration of the term of contract, the lender know that they have something that they could use to recover their money back, but be careful not to use a vital asset, many lenders have been known to use their home as collateral and they ended up losing them, your collateral could be anything from equipments, bonds, and insurance policies.

Where to find lender: You can find many of them online, but make sure you check on many lenders as possible and look out for that which you feel would favor you, compare as many as possible and look for the one that the interest is lowest, start searching for them online now.

Visit http://www.myloanfinancing.blogspot.com