“Access to timely and relevant information has always been the purpose of business management software, but traditional systems have often left small- and medium-sized businesses with an expensive infrastructure and outdated reports,” says Michael Emaus, President and CEO of eEnterprise (www.eEnterprise.com), a global integrator of NetSuite, the world’s leading on-demand business management software. “In contrast, Web-based solutions level the playing field.”

Owners of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often underestimate the necessary expertise or the budget to implement and support a traditional on-site Information Technology business management solution. “In essence, business owners can think of on-demand, Web-based applications as a revenue stream, while the traditional Information Technology department requires both an initial investment and abundant expenses to support it. Managers need real-time, actionable information in order to grow and gain profitability, but instead become distracted with untimely and distorted reports,” says Emaus.

In contrast, on-demand, Web-based applications such as NetSuite allow business owners and department managers to focus on the “Information” necessary to grow the business while the traditional requirements of “Technology” – updates, security, hosting, and support – are intuitive. “NetSuite on-demand removes traditional IT requirements, and the expenses required to support that infrastructure,” says Emaus. “In that sense, on-demand is the great equalizer, allowing small- and medium-sized businesses to have the sophisticated tools that are available to their big business counterparts.”

For example, NetSuite integrates four major components – sales (CRM), back office (ERP), support, and eCommerce – and makes them accessible in a single system via the Internet. As a result, when an employee, a partner, a vendor, or a customer enters information, it is available to the enterprise in real time, regardless of location. Previously reserved for the Fortune 500, this integrated solution is particularly crucial for businesses with growing market pressures to offer support for real-time partner, vendor, and multi-location relationships.

As a result, managers and owners can spot data trends as they occur and drill down to determine the factors involved. “Small- and medium-sized businesses can focus their attention on the information, not the technology, and quickly make informed decisions based on actionable data,” says Emaus.

For the growing small-and medium-sized business, traditional software continues to require a significant investment with the goal to have many disparate systems talking with one another. Generally, in today’s SMB environment, accounting is not integrated with sales, sales are not shared with support and eCommerce is a report that is fed back to sales and accounting. For the NetSuite workplace, each employee, vendor, partner location, and global resource shares a common communication network. “In today’s world of virtual offices and multiple locations, the inherent drawbacks of traditional software are taking their toll on small business,” says Emaus. Not only are businesses faced with a variety of computers and operating systems that may not readily “speak” to one another, but redundant resources are hired in each location to support the enterprise. “With an on-demand solution, timely access provides better managerial control of the business.” says Emaus.

Today, it is fairly common to have people changing careers more than once. In fact, there are people who choose careers that are entirely different from those that they have previously held before. There will come a point when you will have to consider a career change, so it is a good idea to know about career development beforehand. Of course, you don’t have to change jobs just to have career advancement. You can make it your goal to climb the ranks in the same company.

Working on Your Career Development

Career development is actually a path that helps you choose the career that you would like to pursue. It includes all the various steps that you would have to undertake in order to advance in your chosen career.

The concept of career development basically includes testing your stress management capabilities and your inherent skills. If you want to have a better shot at some career that you would particularly like to pursue, you need to make sure that you do well at the present position you hold. You should take the opportunity to enrich your knowledge and develop your capabilities. These things will influence the success of your career development. You can’t afford to resent your present job because this will not help you advance in your career. Learn to love your job and embrace the responsibilities attached to it. You would have better chances of succeeding.

Educate Yourself and Strengthen Your Chances

Once you have determined the career development path that you would like to pursue, you can then direct your attention to preparing for it. You need to educate yourself. You will strengthen your chances of succeeding if you take up classes, join seminars or undergo training sessions.

There are many colleges, institutes, schools and universities that are offering career development courses. In fact, there are courses for practically every career that is out there. You will even find these courses online. This is perfect if you can’t afford to go to regular classes.

To advance in your chosen career, you need to show to people that you are dependable. You need to show that you are a trustworthy employee who is capable of producing quality work. To do this, you need to strengthen your knowledge, skills and capabilities. Career development is a continual process of learning and working. Therefore, it is very important that you know what you are getting yourself into. You need to be committed to it. It will help if you choose a job that you would enjoy. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have a shot at succeeding.

Creating a Career Development Plan

You need to plan your career growth if you want to keep track of your progress. This will also help you analyze your aspirations and motivations. Successful individuals do not just develop a plan for promotions or salary raises. They look beyond these things and create an entire plan for career development or advancement.

A career development plan is something that should be done continuously. You cannot just focus on specific goals. You need to be continually reviewing and revising your plan if needed. This way, you can easily keep track of changes or improvements. You won’t be confined to anything. You will keep your options open and you will have more shot at succeeding.

To start off, you need to make sure that you have practicalities covered. You need to have an updated resume at all times. This is just the practical aspect of your plan. What is important is your vision for yourself. Regardless of whether you are pursuing a career goal in the same company or you are looking for change of career, you need to make sure that you know what you want.

There are a lot of things that you need to take into consideration, so make sure that you have considered everything before you start making your “things to do” list. You should have considered the things that could hinder your progress. You should have determined the driving force behind your career choice. You should also know what can motivate you to succeed.

If you want to succeed in your choice of career, you should prepare for it. You should equip yourself with the knowledge and skills required for it. You should also create a career development plan to guide you to succeed.

A business plan is a summary and appraisal of your business concept. It is the written result of the planning process.

A business plan shows the likelihood of success of the business and your ability to make it work. It affords the means to work through all aspects of a business and to scrutinise the consequences of a variety of strategies relative to marketing, management, finance and human resources.

It is a management instrument to provide direction to you as the business owner. If you are starting a business, the process of preparing and writing a business plan provides a great opportunity to test your motivation and commitment.

Why complete a business plan?

A business plan enables you to take an objective look at your business, identifying areas of strength and weakness and indicates requirements and problems that might otherwise be unnoticed. If your business enterprise is at best, marginal, the business plan will demonstrate to you why.

Having a business plan that is well prepared also provides a foundation for monitoring the progress of the business.

Lastly, if you require external financing, your business plan will provide the information needed to evaluate your business enterprise. A carefully prepared business plan routinely becomes a complete financial proposal that will in most cases meet the requirements of most investors and lenders.

Understand the business you are in.

Most business owners spend a considerable amount of time pondering the future of their business, but not all actually complete any formal business planning. What the planning provides is a measure of structure and a focal point, allows one to analyse alternative strategies that may have been missing on first thought.

There are a number of ways and formats including software packages that assist in preparation of a business plan. The following list is just a guide to a standard business plan layout; we hope it is useful to you.

1. Front cover

2. Statement of purpose

3. Summary

4. Table of contents

5. The business



* Business objectives

* Name, address, contact details and ABN

* Business activity, commencement date, commencement capital and business structure

* Competitive advantage

* Owners’ profiles

* Major clients

* Licences and registrations

* Business advisors

* Current performance

6. Industry analysis

* ANZSIC category, political/economic, social, technological, industry and competition

* Key success factors

7. Product and services

* Product range analysis

* Competitor analysis

* SWOT analysis

8. Marketing plan

* Target market

* Marketing objectives

* Marketing strategy – product, price, promotion and place

9. Operational strategy

* Location and premises

* Plant and equipment

* Inventory

* Human resources

* Environmental strategy

10. Financial strategy

* Financial objectives

* Capital structure

* Statements of financial performance and financial position (Income statement and balance sheet)

* Cashflow forecasts

* Sales and collections from debtors forecasts

* Purchases and payments to creditors forecasts

* Breakeven analysis

11. Appendices

* Financial statements

* Legal documents, leases, contacts, letters of intent

* Research documents, patents, trademarks

For further information on Business Planning, please visit the Business section of Income Resource Club.