Welcome to DiVITA Speaks!!

Black Friday...Cyber Monday-What Next?

By Benecia Beyer

"Cyber Monday," the term coined for the Monday after Thanksgiving, comes on the heels of the busy "Black Friday" shopping day when many brick-and-mortar retailers begin turning a profit. The good news for online shoppers this year, is that "Cyber Monday" is becoming the Web shopping equivalent to "Black Friday" when retailers launch major sales and discounts to drive traffic, analysts said.

According to comScore Networks, a leader in measuring the digital age, during the first 24 days of November this year, total online retail spending reached $8.31 billion, marking a 23 percent increase versus the corresponding days in 2005. "Black Friday" saw particularly high online sales with $434 million spent, up 42 percent versus last year.

Heavy traffic to leading retailers' Web sites - which in the case of Walmart.com resulted in an outage at the site - comScore found high levels of online retail spending on Black Friday (there is a special website devoted to what's available on Black Friday) this year. "With 42 percent growth versus the same day last year, it's clear that many consumers opted for the convenience and sanity of shopping from home in order to avoid mayhem at the malls and to take advantage of the extremely attractive deals being offered online."

Personally -- I participated in neither. I'm waiting for the next new coined phrase -- "Tax Tuesday" or maybe "W-2 Wednesday" !

Improving Your Cash Flow

By Benecia Beyer

Cash shortages can prevent you from meeting your financial obligations, and they can make it difficult to plan for the future and expand your company. That's why you should try to improve your cash flow by making some minor adjustments in your business practices. These seven ideas can provide relief and ultimately change your cash flow:

• Tighten Inventory. Keeping too much product on hand can tie up a great deal of cash. Make sure your inventory turns over at a regular pace.
• Bill early and often. Bill a project when it's complete, and invoice products soon as they ship. Keep a detailed receivables report and act immediately on overdue accounts.
• Don't expand until you have the cash to support growth. Figure out what your projected expansion will cost and make sure you have the cash to cover it.
• Have a cushion to cover a cash flow crunch. Chances are, a cash crunch will come sooner or later - perhaps due to a temporary slump in the economy or your industry. If you're prepared for rough times, you can ride them out.
• Stretch out payables. Don't pay every bill as soon as it arrives - wait 30 or 60 days and keep the cash on hand. If suppliers want their money more quickly, ask about discounts for early payments.
• Consider raising your prices. Check out what the competition's doing and make sure your prices or rate's aren't too low.
• Comparison shop. The Internet makes it much easier to compare prices for everything from airplane tickets to office supplies to computers. Start using the web to get the best deals.

A Little Insight...

By Chloe DiVita

Last week I was interviewed on Yvonne DiVita’s blog, Lipsticking. Yes, we are related. She is my Mother, and much of my ambition is due to her. She has a few different blogs she writes, all of which I visit and enjoy – AND, would read even if she weren’t my Mother. There is one sponsored by Purina, but written with free will by my Mother, Scratching & Sniffings, and is great for all of us pet loving people. One for her business Windsor Media Enterprises, which helps people self publishes books, and the most important one at the moment, Lipsticking. I encourage anyone who would like to know a little bit more about me and my company to read this post.

(To make it a bit easier, the interview can be found here.)

In the future, I hope to bring some interview type information about my clients and associates. It’s a great way to learn something new about a person or company that you might not learn in the day to day business world.

Enjoy!

Small Business Owners - Lighter on Bonuses

By Benecia Beyer

Fewer small business owners will reward their staff this holiday season with bonuses, but more will give time off, according to The Open from American Express Small Business Monitor, a semi-annual survey of small business owners. And, in the spirit of the season, there is a notable increase in the number of small business owners who will ask their employees to volunteer as a group.

This holiday season, only 47% of small business owners say they will hand out bonuses compared to 54% in 2005. By contrast, 55% of owners surveyed plan to give the gift of time off, up 8% from last year. Interestingly, one third of business owners (36%) find they are frustrated in general with not having enough time themselves, up significantly from the spring (23%).

"Despite a strong economy, the survey shows that small business owners have felt a financial pinch from higher gas and energy costs," said Alice Bredin, OPEN from American Express small business advisor. "Cautious about the future, they are keeping a watchful eye on their money, investing where it matters to grow the business -- customer service, technology, and in particular health benefits from employees (71% versus 54% from last year). Perhaps this explains why fewer appear to have dollars for raises and bonuses this year."

Thirty-one percent of small business owners attribute their success to their ability to create good relationships and a sense of community through their business. This may help explain why 26% will ask their staff to take part in a volunteer activity as a group this holiday -- up considerably from last year (16%).

Year End - Do You Know Where Your Risks Are?

By Benecia Beyer

We are coming up on year end and it's only natural to start thinking about conducting a review of your business to get ready for the new year ahead. Most people automatically think of reviewing taxes - and that's it. That's good - but that's only a small piece of the liability picture. You need to look at more.

As a small business owner, your personal assets may be at risk in the event of legal liability or even a downturn in your business. Some of the risks you should be evaluating are:

• Economic and business environment risk - Look at external market conditions. Has anything changed or is it likely to change, in such a way to impact your cash flow, receivables, profit margins or customer orders? Has there been any major change in your suppliers or the competition? If you need to tighten your belt, it is always better to know sooner rather than later. You want as much time to plan and react as possible.
• Human resource policies - Are your polices up to date with current legal requirements? Are they in line with the marketplace? The employer/employee relationship is constantly evolving. If you haven't looked at your HR policies for the past several years, something is bound to be inaccurate when compared with the way you actually run your business today.
• Employee benefits - Evaluate your employee benefits plans for competiveness and also for costs of coverage. Employee benefits are a fluid and ever-changing area. It is rare for everything to remain the same from year to year.
• Environmental liabilities - Are you aware of the complex environmental laws and regulations that may affect  your business? Are your internal procedures in compliance? When was the last time you checked?
• Liability and property insurance - Are insurance coverages sufficient? Have they kept up with changes in your business? Be sure to look at both types of coverage and the amounts. New exclustions from coverage and your prior year claims experience may require adjustments.

Here is a good read regarding business guide to risk management.  It's even in a pdf format so you can print and take with you to read while you're waiting somewhere with nothing to do !

Is it Time to Upgrade your QuickBooks Software?

By Chloe DiVita   

After attending a recent QuickBooks 2007 Accountant Update Seminar, I am recommending all my clients upgrade to QuickBooks 2007. There are some great updates to operating the software, and more capabilities to modifying the type of access you may want people to have.

One of the new additions to QuickBooks Pro editions and higher, is a NEW Google marketing tool. Whether you have a website or not, although in this day and age you should, you can link your business with Google so it can be found when people are searching for your type of business. It will even list your business in the Google Maps feature for free! There are other opportunities with this new integrated Google feature, such as creating an AdWords account to increase traffic to your website, and putting specific products you sell into the searchable key words. If you are interested in more information on these items, I suggest contacting your accountant, or a local QuickBooks Advisor.

If you are a user of one of the Premier Editions you will find some neat new tools as well. In the Premier Manufacturing & Wholesale Edition there is not the ability to convert different units of measurement. This is huge if buy something in one unit and sell it another. For instance, if you buy material in yards, but sell it in inches. The Contractor Edition has the ability to track expiration dates of liability and worker’s compensation insurance within each subcontractor. Even the Nonprofit Edition has improved with a new donor contribution summary report!

There are enough updates to make an upgrade worth it, no matter which version of QuickBooks you are currently using. Not to mention that you won’t run into problems with the new Internet Explorer 7 if you are using any QuickBooks version 2007!

Be on the lookout for discounts and coupons. Now is the time to buy if you are planning on it, and if you are on the edge, go for it!

QuickBooks and Internet Explorer 7

By Chloe DiVita

Hopefully most of you know that if you use QuickBooks versions 2005 or earlier, they will not work with Internet Explorer 7. QuickBooks versions in 2006 are compatible IF you download the product update required to support IE7. This issue is a problem for all of you who have your computer set to automatically update all windows updates. You may get IE7 and then realize your QuickBooks file does NOT work!

Microsoft did put out a program that will block the download and update of IE7 for those of you who will need it. You can find it here.

If you do happen to upgrade your IE7, and you are using a previous version of QuickBooks, you will have to uninstall IE7 and reinstall IE6. If you need help determining what version of IE you have, and what to do about it, there are some guidelines here.

Take heart though, we have been assured that IE7 will work with all versions of QuickBooks in January of 2007. It will mean another update for your QuickBooks product, but that is actually not that far off!

Also, stay tuned for some of the advantages of upgrading to QuickBooks 2007. There are some benefits!

Instant Answers To Your Questions

By Benecia Beyer

When I was growing up, we had a set of encyclopedias to go to and find our answers to our questions. No computers, no online search engines. It was a favorite thing for me to do on a rainy or snowy afternoon -- to take one of the encyclopedias and just look thru the pages and see what I could find. A few years later, I used these for reference for homework assignments.

It seemed a lot easier to be able to find your specific answer to a question. Today - I often find myself frustrated by "googling" a topic and after clicking on numerous links - I've gotten so far from my original search that I wonder what I was searching for.

Recently, I ran across this wonderful little gem - our modern day's technological version of an encyclopedia: www.answers.com. It's a free reference search service. Instead of a search engine that serves up a long list of links that you must chase down, Answers.com displays quick, snapshot answers based upon content from more than 100 authoritative encyclopedias, dictionaries, glossaries and atlases.

Here is an example of of how Answers.com differs from normal search services. Suppose you want information on the Black Scholes Option Pricing Model. In Google, if you type in "Black Scholes", you get a long list of links (of which the second, third and fourth had "page not found" errors). There are links to books about the Black Scholes Model and links to Black Scholes calculators. All these sights might be helpful in learning about Black Scholes, but you have to try a number of the links before you find a simple outline of the formula.

The results from a search on Black Scholes in Answers.com is very different. You see a cleanly-formatted page that includes a definition from the Investopedia. Then there is a long article on Black Scholes, with the basic formula, the extended formula, and the derivation of the forumula from the Wikipedia encyclopedia.

Finally - a place to find real instant information instead of links of pages where you may or may not find the information. Try it - you might like it!

It's Newsletter Time Again!

By Chloe DiVita

As some of you know, our company puts out a free quarterly newsletter about things related to small businesses and small business owners. Our next distribution is set for Friday, November 17, 2006. Since the end of the year is approaching quickly, it will be the focus of this newsletter. If you are interested in receiving it please send a request with your mailing address to info@divitainc.com.

Here is a sneak peek at what is included:

• The IRS is giving telephone excise credits on 2006 tax returns for individuals - find out the details!
• Tips for being prepared for year end reporting to your State and the IRS.
• Why it might be imperative to upgrade your QuickBooks software.
• Why it is important to have a companywide procedure for if/when disaster strikes.
• And much, much more!

Being a small business, we know how hard it is to keep up on everything in the small business world. We hope our newsletter offers some advice, guidance, and knowledge to small business owners who may never know these things because there is simply not enough time in the day.

Can Your System Handle Windows Vista?

By Benecia Beyer

Thinking of upgrading to Microsoft's Windows Vista early next year?

If so, you may be (or should be) getting ready to budget for this upgrade. But before you do, you should check out the newly posted and rather extensive Windows Vista Upgrade planning information and tools posted on the Windows Vista site.

First - let's review optimal and minimum requirements. And then we'll look at how to test your system.

Windows Vista is the first Windows operating system that adapts to take advantage of the capabilities of the hardware on which it is installed. So the Windows Vista experience will vary on different PC's based upon this. If you have the minimum requirements, you will be able to run at least the core experiences of Windows Vista. But if you have the maximum requirements, you will have the ultimate Windows Vista experience.

Minimum Requirements:
Processor - 800 MHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64)
System Memory: 512 MB
GPU: SVGA (800x600)
HDD: 20 GB
HDD Free Space: 15 G
Optical Drive CD-ROM

Maximum Requirements:
Processor - 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64)
System Memory: 1 GB
GPU: A graphics processor that runs Windows Aero. You will also need anywhere from 64MB to 256 MB of graphic memory to support your particular monitor based on its resolution.
Graphics Memory: 128 MB
HDD: 40 GB
HDD Free Space: 15 G
DVD-ROM Drive - external - not internal.

Are you ready to test your system? You can test your system with the Windows Vista Upgrade beta. This isn't a Windows Vista install, but a program that will test your PC to determine whether or not it can handle such an upgrade. Here's the link: