“Don’t mix business and personal finances,” is one of the most common pieces of advice given to business owners. And for good reason. Many business expenses can be deducted from your taxes but most personal ones cannot be. So when personal expenses get recorded in your business’s financial records, you’re setting yourself up for trouble later on.
Pricing your products or services in a way that keeps you competitive while turning a profit can be an ongoing challenge for the small business owner. While your underlying costs always have to be taken into account, strategic pricing practices go well beyond the numbers to include proven buying behaviors.
The psychology behind successful pricing is full of weird and wonderful surprises. As you continue to hone your pricing skills, and measure your profitability through trial and error, consider these six fascinating insights to gain inspiration for setting the most appealing price points for your product or service.
From ATMs to mobile apps, sophisticated digital technologies and internet services allow us to live virtually paper-free! Happily, it’s possible to introduce that same level of paperless convenience into your own business platform. Manual transactions and documentation are inefficient and costly. But cloud computing, digital document management, and other forms of office automation are making it relatively easy for companies to benefit from a paperless workplace.
While it would be rare to eliminate all paper from the typical office environment, the more of your workflow you can automate, the better off both the environment and your bottom line will be.
Small business owners don’t always recognize that running a business of any type involves a certain amount of risk – even if the service you offer involves little more than a desk and a laptop. If you haven’t done so already, you should consider taking steps to protect both yourself and the enterprise you’ve worked so hard to create by investing in some form of small business insurance.
Business insurance is mostly about protecting yourself financially. Whether you suffer a loss of property due to fire or theft, or your company is sued for negligence, money is inevitably going to be involved.