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Thursday, August 13, 2015

The Advantages and disadvantages of working with a consultant



Majority of the people thought that running a small business is easy. But the truth is not; in fact it is far more difficult than running an established company because you are the only one who will be doing all the operations. That is also one of the main reasons why there are many startup businesses failing every year. Fortunately, there are now many smallbusiness consultants available in the web which you can hire to aid you on running your business. This will help you minimize your work loads and at the same time become more productive and efficient on running your business. However, just like any other things working with a small business consultant has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages


Get additional expertise: 


One of the reasons why you are hiring professional business consultants is to acquire additional expertise that you don’t have. This way you can focus working on the tasks that you specialized and let the consultant work on the tasks that is out of your expertise. This in return make you more productive and at the same time save time and effort.

Getting intelligent and professional advice: 


If getting additional expertise is one of the reasons to hire a consultant, getting intelligent and professional advice is the main reason why small business owners hire consultants. From the name itself “consultant” means you will consult them to whatever issue you have and ask for advice on how to solve them.

Consultants Perspective: 

You might think that you are running your business perfectly but a consultant may not. Since they are the experts, they know what your business is lacking for and what are the things or solutions you need. With the help of consultant you will determine whether your business is in good shape or not.

Disadvantages

Expensive: Hiring a consultant could be expensive especially if you hire them for long term. However, you can still save money on the cost by way of determining what you really need whether just an advice or a long term service. If you might not know, consultants are the experts of giving advices, ideas, and solutions so why hire them for long term?

Quality Control: 

Yes, it is given that before hiring a consultantfor small business you need to check if they are reliable and trustworthy. However, there are many consultants who provide nice and impressive profile to attract client even if they are not professionals. In addition, majority of consultants work on their own way and time. You may be getting hard time handling and monitoring their work and quality.

These are just some of the advantages and disadvantages of hiring a small business consultant. As long as you’ll be wise and cautious on choosing a consultant to work with then there should be no problem at all.


For small business consultation service Socratic SBC is the perfect company. Contact us at.
Socratic SBC / Small Business Consulting
2 Wisconsin Circle Suite 700 Chevy Chase,
MD 20815
Office: (410) 344-7874             
Fax: (202) 318-0689



Tuesday, August 11, 2015

How to Create an Executive Summary of Business Plan




We all know that business planning is the major requirement to run a business. Every entrepreneur knows that a business plan for small business is necessary. However, not everyone knows how to properly create and place an executive summary of their small businessplan. Now, in this article you will know the elements needed to create your business plan’s executive summary.

When creating a summary for your business plan you need to make sure that it is no longer than one page. No one wants to read a summary that is five or more pages long for sure. The shorter your summary is the better. However, you also need to make sure that you can provide all the important details in your summary. To help you get started here are the key elements that you should include in your summary.

Business Concept

The very first element that you should provide in your summary is the business concept. This is where you describe your business, product or service, as well as your target market. It should be able to explain your product, to whom will you will sell it, and its sustainability.

Financial Statements and Requirements


This is probably the longest part of your summary. You should be able to provide all the important financial statement of your business. This includes the cash flows, return of investment, sales, and profits. On the other hand, the financialrequirements should also be provided clearly. You need to clearly state how much capital is needed to start the business and for future expansion. In addition, you should be able to provide a detailed statement to where and how will you use the capital.

Business Position

This element should also be provided in your summary. This is where you provide all the relevant information about your business. This is also where your legal form of operation is stated as well as the owner and personnel.

Achievements

Of course, in order to impress investors you need to provide the details of your major achievements. It should contain any developments within your business that are essential for business success. This may include good results from your marketing efforts, franchises, contracts, etc.

These are the elements needed to create an executive summary of your business plan. As stated above, don’t make a summary that is five or more pages long because nobody would want to read that kind of summary. In addition, a summary that long only shows that you don’t really know what you want to state or your purpose. Make sure that your summary is easy to read and clearly shows your purpose. An investor that can easily realize or understand your needs and capabilities by just reading your business plan’s summary is more likely to invest.


Socratic SBC / Small Business Consulting
2 Wisconsin Circle Suite 700 Chevy Chase,
MD 20815
Office: (410) 344-7874             
Fax: (202) 318-0689



Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Starting a Business? Then Get Ready for the Big Responsibility




It is easy to start a business especially if you have money in hand. However, taking care of a business could be hard to handle. If you are running a business then there is no other person in charge to take care of all the tasks needed than you. You are the one responsible for the growth of your business. Think of your business as your baby. For sure you don’t want your baby to be taking care of by other people right? And for sure you want to be fully hands on as much as possible for your baby. So, if you want your baby to grow healthy and become successful in the future then you need to have a plan on how to help your baby grown in the right way. It works completely the same in business. If you want to grow your business successfully then you need to take care of it rightfully.

So, how can you grow your business successfully?


 Well the answer is simple, “Business Planning”. In order to obtain a sustainable business you need to start small. It is unlikely to start big in business because it contains a lot of risk and responsibilities that you might not be able to handle. So, it is best to start a small business because this will minimize the risk and responsibilities in hand. On the other hand, what you need to do to get started is to create a small business plan. Your business plan will serve as your roadmap to your business venture.

Creating a business plan for small business contains a lot of work, from legal documents to marketing plan and financial statements. These tasks could spin your head especially if you don’t have much experience and knowledge on creating a business plan. But since it is your responsibility to create one for the benefit of your business then it leaves you no choice but to do so. Better yet, get help from the experts to deal with the factors that are out of your expertise. This way you can minimize your work loads and in return save time and effort.

However, you cannot just hire someone to deal on these tasks without conducting research about their background as well as reputation. It is important to search for the most reliable, reputable and trustworthy business plan consultant to do business with because if you hire the wrong person then it could only lead into problems rather than solutions.

These are just some of the responsibilities that you will be facing for starting business. So, if you think that you cannot handle these responsibilities then maybe running a business is not suitable for you. But still if you are eager to start a business even with the lack of skills and capability to handle all those tasks then we are here to help. We at Socratic SBC are very much willing to help those people who dreamed of having their own business even if they are lacking with the essential factors.
For more information contact us at.


Socratic SBC / Small Business Consulting
2 Wisconsin Circle Suite 700 Chevy Chase,
MD 20815
Office: (410) 344-7874             
Fax: (202) 318-0689
http://www.socraticsbc.com