Profit by Your Wholesaler’s Services

Wholesalers offer services that small retailers can use to strengthen their operations. In some instances, the "helping hand" concerns only sales. In others, it extends to advice and help on record keeping, financing, administrative practices, location, insurance, and personnel.

This article discusses such services, pointing out that the range of assistance varies according to the individual wholesaler and the line of merchandise. Some of the services are free, but others carry a fee.

If you haven't checked the management services that your wholesalers offer, you should. Because their business depends on you and the other retailers to whom they sell, they are common sources of assistance.

Depending on the types of assistance offered, your wholesaler may be able to help you "butter your bread." Some wholesalers offer services on sales promotion, buying, and new developments in products. Others try to "think retail" and also provide services that help to increase profits as well as sales. They offer assistance with financing and accounting.

The types of services and the extent to which they are available varies with wholesalers and lines of merchandise. Your wholesaler-distributor may or may not provide all of the services discussed in the article but reading about them should help you when you investigate such offerings.

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Keep Pointed Toward Profit

Why do some business owners or managers hit the profit target more often than others? They do it because they keep their operations pointed in that direction. They never lose sight of the goal--to finish the year with a profit.

This article gives suggestions that should help you to zero in on profit. It points out that you must keep informed, make timely decisions, and take effective action. In effect you must control the activities of your company rather than being controlled by them.

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What Is the Best Selling Price?

In setting prices, the goal should be to maximize profit. Although some owner-managers feel that an increased sales volume is needed for increased profits, volume alone does not mean more profit. The ingredients of profit are costs, selling price, and the unit sales volume. They must be in the proper proportions if the desired profit is to be obtained.

No one pricing formula will produce the greatest profit under all conditions. To price for maximum profit, the owner-manager must understand the different types of costs and how they behave. You need up-to-date knowledge of market conditions because the "right" selling price for a product under one set of market conditions may be the wrong price at another time.

Read the entire article ...

$250,000 Blown in 5 Minutes

On a trip to Texas, we were approached by a friend with a business plan that had cost $250,000 to be prepared. We were asked to look at it and give our opinion.

We looked at the basic assumptions, always a good starting point. We noticed that the projections switched from a monthly focus for the first year to an annual focus for subsequent years. This means that the projections were calculated and presented on a monthly basis for the first year. However, for subsequent years, the projections were simply lumped into annual figures.

This can signal a dangerous strategy presenting a subtle trap. In fact, the business plan writers fell into the trap.

The first year showed a startup situation with monthly increases in sales and no seasonality. The second year's total sales were a, supposedly, respectable increase of 10%. We asked why the company had no growth and, in fact, was losing sales in the second year? You see, had the company had NO gowth beyond the sales level of the last month in year one (a zero percent growth from that point on), the projected total sales for the second year would actually have been about twice the current projections.

Seeing this flaw in logic, our friend said the rest of the projections were obviously in error and the plan was essentially worthless. At best, a major review of the numbers was needed.

Business Plan Options

For the entrepreneur who wants to develop the best business plan they can, there are really just three options:

1. Do it yourself
2. Have someone else do it for you
3. Work with an expert to help you do it

In the past, I’ve told my prospective clients, “If you don’t have the time, you’d better have the money. If you don’t have the money, you’d better have the time.”

This assumes the client is looking at options #1 or #2.

Now, with Business Plan Tools, LLC, and with ReGL Corporation, option #3 becomes a valuable time and cost alternative.

Let me explain.

Option #1 - Do It Yourself:

With option #1, you will probably buy an off-the-shelf software product like BizPlanPro. While very inexpensive, these types of products have had little success in the venture capital market. They really don’t help you produce a good business plan because they don’t really help you in the most critical part of the business plan ... the financial projections. Also, this approach will often take many, many months ... if you complete it at all.

Option #2 - Have Someone Else Do It For You:

With option #2, you can pay me $15,000 to $25,000 and I will prepare the entire plan. I will gather the information, prepare the financial projections, analyze the financials, discuss strategic alternatives, etc. The entire process usually takes about 30 to 60 days, depending on how much information you already have and how quickly you respond to my requests for more information. Even if I just prepare the financials, the bill is usually $8,000 to $12,000.

Now you can, of course, get someone else to do the job. However, my clients have been over 87% successful in getting their capital. I know of no other company that can beat that.

Option #3 - Work With An Expert To Help You Do It:

I am one of the few who will take the time to work with you to help you write your own, top-quality, business plan. In fact, I am the only one I know of that provides a guarantee.

In addition, the cost is very affordable, and you can control it!

This is how this works:

1. Go to my website: http://www.businessplantools.com/

2. Read the first page in its entirety and see if what I say makes sense to you. Also explore the other pages. You may want to pay particular attention to:

Testimonials
Guarantee
About Us
SupportLIVE™
PlanLIST™

3. Purchase FinTACS™ 7 for only $289.00!

4. Go to the SupportLIVE™ page and download ReGL™. This free utility will allow us to work together as if we were in a face-to-face meeting. For best results, I would recommend you have a microphone with earphones attached to you computer. Using this tool, we can communicate by voice over the Internet for free (regardless of where you are in the world), look at each other’s work, discuss ideas and concepts on a whiteboard, etc.

5. While at the SupportLIVE™ page, you might want to download the application form with which you can fax me an order for support hours at only $45.00 per hour. This is for one-on-one consulting time using ReGL™. NOTE: I am running a special right now where the purchase of FinTACS™ comes bundled with 5 free hours of SupportLIVE™. That should give you a good start.

6. Explore FinTACS™ 7 and start entering your information. You can call me to set up ReGL™ sessions to get help anytime.

Regardless of whether or not you want to take advantage of this now, you can read my blog and subscribe to FinFORUM™. You can find the links on my website.

By the way, as you learn how to use ReGL and experience how I can support you with it, consider how you could use this wonderful utility to make sales, train and work with your vendors and customers, demonstrate your product in ReGL presentations, and more. One entrepreneur I know gives cooking classes over the Internet with ReGL.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Why Did He Go Bankrupt?

This Utah company once was a profitable business. Their auto towing operation accounted for about have their income and the rest of their income came from auto sales. Now, they were facing bankruptcy and the owner contacted us. He wanted to know what had gone wrong.

We analyzed the last two years of monthly financial statements. Our bankruptcy analysis was an obviously critical part of that analysis. We noticed that their Z-Score was showing steady positive growth until, within a single month, the score took a sudden dive into the dangerous zone. From that point forward, the score improved and eventually moved out of the danger zone. Then, as before, it took an even steeper dive into the danger zone. This time it never recovered.

When we asked the owner to recall what significant changes occurred at the points when the scores dropped, he quickly realized the drops coincided with major changes in his business strategy. The first drop coincided with the decision to drop the auto sales part of the business. The second coincided with the decision to move the operation. The move put them in a location that did not allow the fast response time needed for towing calls from the Highway Patrol.

Looking back on it, it was obvious that the decisions were the root causes of the problems. The owner realized that, at the time, the decisions were not obvious. He also realized that, had he been able to look at the possible results of the decisions as reflected in the bankruptcy analysis, among others, he could quite probably have saved his business.

Case of the Disappearing Profits

A California tire recycling company prepared a business plan that showed they could make a good profit from using their tire shredding equipment. Their projections were based on the manufacturer's specifications. Since the equipment was manufactured in Europe, their literature specified the output capacity of the machine in kilograms. This posed no problem. All this company had to do was convert kilograms into pounds.

When we reviewed their plan, we started by double checking the assumptions ... all of them. We found that the factor used to convert kilograms into pounds was incorrect. The company had overstated, by about 10%, the number of pounds per kilogram. Consequently, when they converted 3,000 kilograms per hour into pounds, they got 7,200 pounds per hour instead of the correct figure of about 6,600 pounds per hour. The difference was enough to change their profit into a loss.

Fortunately, they were able to improve their process in order to regain a profitable situation. Had the error not been found, however, the company would have run into real trouble very quickly and the owners would not have known why until it was too late.

So, when you prepare your projections, make sure you double check ALL assumptions.

5 Free Support Hours Offer

We are announcing a limited time offer of five FREE hours of support with the purchase of FinTACS 7. This offer is worth $225. This support uses the ReGL Viewer, a free downloadable product that allows us to work with our clients just like we were together in front of a white board. For more details, go to our website at www.businessplantools.com.

Superior Customer Service

We use a FREE package called ReGL to support our clients. This exceptional utility allows us to interact as if we were holding a face-to-face meeting. Also, since the communication is over the internet, all the voice communications can be free. All you need is a microphone (preferably with earphones) attached to your computer.

Go to our Business Plan Tools site and check out the Support page for more details.

Buy FinTACS 7

You can now purchase FinTACS 7 with a Visa or MasterCard.

Beliefs Page Updated - Explanations Added

We have updated or Beliefs page. Please take a look and see if these beliefs correspond with yours.

Quick Access to Our Website Pages

In order to save you time, I have listed the pages currently available and active on the Business Plan Tools website. I hope this helps.

General:

Home - The starting point for your Business Plan Tools experience.
Contact Us - Get in touch directly with us.
About Us - Tells you about me, the one you will be personally working with to help you meet your business planning needs.

Free Downloads:

Data Gathering Forms - These are forms you can use to gather data to complete the spreadsheets.
Sample Plans - You can get sample funding (business) plans and project evaluation documents.
Widget Manufacturing Demo - Files presenting an example of using FinTACS and the BusinessMRI.

Products:

BusinessMRI - This is one of the most helpful tools a business owner or manager can have. It effectively compares results against projections. This will be available soon.
Consulting - We have many years of experience in numerous industries, so we can help you with your project.
FinTACS - This is a five-year set of spreadsheets (workbooks) and document files linked together to form a comprehensive financial projection, analysis, and documentation system for your company.
PlanCERTIFY - This is a prerequisite for posting your plan on PlanLIST.
PlanREVIEW - Get a confidential and critical review of your business plan.
PlanWriting - If you need us to write your plan, we can do that.

Memberships:

FinFORUM - Post questions and get responses to help you in your project, FREE.
PlanLIST - You will soon be able to post your plans for our investors' review.
InvestorLIVE - We will soon hold regular ReGL sessions where you can talk directly to investors, LIVE!
SupportLIVE - Get the help you need, whether it is dealing with the tools or questions of strategy.
Support Schedules - Quickly check out when we are available to give you LIVE support.

Resources:

Articles - Check out recent articles with business helps and information.
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions.
How-To Tips - Get helps with your planning and document needs.
Plan Outline - See a basic outline of a business (funding) plan.
Rules - We describe the rules of business plans, rules of forecasting, and rules of analysis.
Stages of Financing - Find out what investment stage your company is in.

Links of Interest:

Beliefs - This page gives you some of our basic beliefs about our clients, investors, business plans, etc.
Clients - These are some of the industries we have served.
Commitment - We are committed to your success. Find out how we can interact with you directly to help you succeed.
Guarantee - Check out our unique guarantee.
Success Rate - We describe how we derived our success rate.
Testimonials - Find out what others are saying about us and our tools.

Especially For:

Affiliates - We are planning to provide a lucrative opportunity for affiliates. We hope to implement such a program very soon.
Consultants - If you are a consultant, find out how we can help you help your clients.

Hello and Welcome to the Business Plan Tools Blog

Welcome to our blog. The site, www.businessplantools.com, has just been made available. We will be regularly updating the site and this blog, so check back often.

Best wishes for your success,
Len Stillman
Business Plan Tools, LLC