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Collections Checklist: How to Collect Past-Due Accounts
While having a small accounts-receivable balance indicates good financial management, (around 1.5% to 2.5% of your gross income), collecting past-due balances is a displeasing aspects of business. Studies show that 75% of receivables that are 3 months delinquent are paid. However, this number drops to 56% after 6 months. Therefore your delay in collecting past-due accounts will reduce your chance of receiving payment. This checklist should help you reduce the stress of collecting past-due accounts:Encourage customers to pay sooner by off

stand how Netscape leveraged their customer capital in a most ingenious way. Consider how much it would have cost them to bring a paid version of their product to market and drive customer acquisition that way. Now consider the cost to Netscape if another company had offered it for less (or for free!) or if they had not achieved market dominance at all. In the end Netscape’s customer capital was so valuable that even after losing the browser wars to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer they were still able to sell the company to AOL for $4 billion.

Flip the script

As you’re building your business, consider every alternative to raising investment capital. If you’re worried that a cust

Job Market Promising
As more students graduate from college than ever before, America’s job market has grown to accommodate these eager job-hunters. Employers are expected to hire about 17.4% more college graduates from the Class of 2007 than last year’s college alumni. An increasing number of re-entry students or those over the age of 25 are also trying their luck in the university system.It is not uncommon for 2007’s graduating classes to be characterized by diversity in age and walks of life. A grandmother who simply wants to learn about art history may sit next to a 20-year-old who drea

If you’re still dreaming about raising outside capital for your business before you have any paying customers, I’ve got a nice big bucket of ice water to throw on you. Wake up! The cold reality is that investors aren’t interested in your business idea unless you can demonstrate that you’ve got customers who are actually willing to buy. Before you try raising outside capital, you should focus on building your Customer Capital.

Customer capital is the value you create for your company and your idea by getting real customers to buy your product or service. Let’s take a look at why customer capital is so important in the early stages of a business.

Paying customers validate business models

Even the most cynical investor will agree that a paying customer is the most powerful way to validate a business model. Anyone can debate whether or not your business will make money when it’s still a bunch of wild ideas on a piece of paper, but few people can contest a steady stream of paying customers. Finding a handful of paying customers early on will provide a firm foundation for the future value of your company.

In some cases it may be difficult to find a paying customer before a product or service is fully mature. In this case getting a formal commitment (a Letter of Intent) or a contingent purchase order based upon meeting a customer’s conditions is a powerful first step. Either way, demonstrating that a customer is willing to say “yes” and write a check goes a long way toward validating your business idea.

The value of a dollar earned

A dollar earned from a customer is worth twenty raised from an investor. When raising capital you are really putting all that money to work so that in the end, the customer will pay for your product. A paying customer alleviates that risk and capital and gets straight to the foundation for why you are running a business to begin with – to make money. Not only does this offer a more direct impact on the value of your business, it also keeps you from diluting your equity position in your company.

Netscape’s $4 billion “blunder”

Netscape Communications found an effective way to use customer capital in their heyday. In a time when software companies were judged on the strength of their sales, Netscape did the unthinkable – they actually gave away their software for free. While industry pundits laughed at their strategy Netscape ultimately had the last laugh. They quickly developed a market share in the Web browser market of over 90%, launched one of the most successful IPO’s in history, and sold to AOL for nearly $4 billion, all based on the massive amounts of customer capital they raised.

While I’m not advocating giving your product away for free, it’s important to understand how Netscape leveraged their customer capital in a most ingenious way. Consider how much it would have cost them to bring a paid version of their product to market and drive customer acquisition that way. Now consider the cost to Netscape if another company had offered it for less (or for free!) or if they had not achieved market dominance at all. In the end Netscape’s customer capital was so valuable that even after losing the browser wars to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer they were still able to sell the company to AOL for $4 billion.

Flip the script

As you’re building your business, consider every alternative to raising investment capital. If you’re worried that a custo

Beyond CV Writing
When updating your CV you need to ask yourself the following questions: · Who it is aimed at? · Is it concise? · Does it focus on my strengths? · Is it achievement/ benefits orientated? · Does it contain all the essential information?Who will be reading my CV? You need to know whom you are aiming to impress in order to give you an interview. Break it down into the type of industry, the organisation and size of company. You need to think of the reader, will it be a MD of a small company who is looking for someone with management skills

ss models

The value of a dollar earned

Netscape’s $4 billion “blunder”

Flip the script

As you’re building your business, consider every alternative to raising investment capital. If you’re worried that a cust

Serving With Positive Intent, Customer Service The Easy Way
It is easier to walk through life with the attitude of Positive Intent.Positive Intent means you approach everything with the thought process in place that no matter what, there will be a positive ending to whatever you are doing.This is akin to stepping up to the plate with the thought process of “I am here to put the ball in play”.You are assuming that putting the ball in play will start a positive chain of events. If the ball is hit on the ground, perhaps it will scoot between two fielders and roll into the outfield for a hit. If the ball is hit in the

first step. Either way, demonstrating that a customer is willing to say “yes” and write a check goes a long way toward validating your business idea.

The value of a dollar earned

Netscape’s $4 billion “blunder”

Flip the script

As you’re building your business, consider every alternative to raising investment capital. If you’re worried that a cust

How to Prepare For Interview Questions
The most stressful part of getting a new job, or getting into a new school, is the interview. No one wants to give a bad impression by stumbling over difficult interview questions. The best way to look like a prepared professional is to actually make the effort to be prepared. If you are well-spoken and honest when you give your answers, you should do fine. Avoid saying anything that could reflect badly upon you but don't lie because employers and educators will usually do a background check before they accept you. This is especially true in these hard times.Some interv

Netscape’s $4 billion “blunder”

Flip the script

As you’re building your business, consider every alternative to raising investment capital. If you’re worried that a cust

Data Entry Jobs: Scam or Real Money Making Opportunity
'Get paid to type data online! This is a perfect opportunity for stay at home moms, students or anyone that is in need of some extra cash. Available worldwide.''Earn money entering data from the comfort of your home! Follow the simple step by step system. No experience needed.'Any of these ads look familiar? They should, you can find them plastered all over the Internet and in most classified newspaper ads. Data Entry Jobs are currently the latest rage. It seems everyone wants to do them. In fact, I did a check to see how many times people typed in the phrase

Flip the script

As you’re building your business, consider every alternative to raising investment capital. If you’re worried that a customer won’t buy your product for reasons that more money or a larger customer base would cure, consider offering them a discount or other incentive to do business with you. The relative cost to acquire early customers might be nothing compared to the amount of time and equity it could cost you to raise outside capital. Remember that, unlike customers, your outside investors will demand equity for their investment, and they don’t plan on giving it back!

Send in the Investors

If you’ve truly exhausted all possibilities to leverage your customer capital, then maybe it’s time to call in the outside capital. Be certain, though, that if there’s any angle you’ve overlooked to drive the company without needing capital, your investors will be quick to point it out and question your resourcefulness in the process.

Forcing your attention toward acquiring customers will not only uncover ways to increase the value of your business in the short term, it can also generate the cash flow you need to alleviate your investment capital needs. Learn to leverage your customer capital and you can leave conversations with bankers and investors for your IPO!

- Wil

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Being a trustworthy professional in business today might seem obvious, but not always followed. This represents 95% of your business success.

In a mobile detail or mobile car wash business you are on a first name basis with your customers. You sink or swim with your ability to please your customer and rely on them to build your business by referring their friends, associates and neighbors. One excellent way to insure referrals is to set up a “Customer of the Week Program.”

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