When you first launched your small business, almost all of your focus was on increasing the turnover of your current assets. You had a product and you wanted to sell it. Now, as your business has begun to grow, you find yourself making long-term investments in fixed assets. Making value determinations on these fixed assets can be much more complicated than valuing your current assets.
Topics: oates, Sage, fixed assets, sage fas, john shepperson, oates co, small business
Even though the goal of your business is expansion, big upsurge in your growth can land you in some situations that you’re not quite prepared to deal with right away, especially if the influx of growth catches you off guard.
The good news is these growing pains can be managed with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that will make your small business thrive – and be prepared to deal with more and more growth and you become more and more successful.
Topics: oates, automation, billing, software, inventory management, inventory, Sage 100, Sage 100 ERP, john shepperson, oates co, manufacturing, payments
As we like to say, our current economy certainly doesn’t make it easy for small businesses to survive out there. Despite the fact that you’re well aware of this, however, there might still be mistakes that you’re making in your business model that could eventually end up costing you “big time” down the road.
Are you making these mistakes?
Topics: oates, marketing, john shepperson, oates co, consumer, marketing campaign, economy, mistakes, mass merchandiser, customer loyalty
Business analysis is crucial to keeping your business growing and moving forward and therefore will certainly demand some of your time. That being said, if working on your business analytics is eating up more and more of your life, then it’s time to explore more effective methods.
Keeping a small business afloat in these troubled economic waters requires using all of your resources efficiently, including your time. It’s easy to get stuck in a business rut where you pour over all your data for weeks or months without coming up with any new insights to help you reduce costs or increase income.
Topics: oates, john shepperson, oates co, business analysis, small business, business data
The business of medicine is one that holds surprises around every corner. From insurance delays to clients who refuse to pay to the ever-shifting prices of medical supplies and equipment, being able to track profitability to ensure success can be an extremely challenging endeavor – one that has kept business professionals on their toes for years.
The issues are the aforementioned variables, plus others. The nature of a medical practice can make collecting payments extremely difficult, as self-pay patients may not be able to pay and insurance companies are notorious for refusing to pay full charges. Despite the difficulty of dealing with these issues, however, they are unavoidable.
Topics: oates, medical accounting, medical practice, john shepperson, oates co, insurance, affordable care act, hipaa
Is defining leadership possible? If you look up the word, there are more definitions than you can count.
Topics: oates, flexibility, john shepperson, oates co, leading, leader, authenticity, leadership, encouraging
You know that in running a business, there is always a mix of difficult times and easier times. You have probably found that figuring out how to be the best in the business is one of the more difficult times – in our fast moving world with short attention spans and an overabundance of marketing messages, how do you get yourself and your product/service on the map?
Our advice: COLOR
Topics: oates, advertising, marketing, john shepperson, oates co, attitude, appearance, trendy, color
As a business owner, you need to be able to answer the question: “How much time do I spend on business analysis?” Because you own a business, you may feel that spending a lot of time on business analysis is important, but there are some facts that may make you reconsider.
Just because you spend a lot of time on business analysis doesn't mean you're accomplishing a lot; while it is very important to keep up on these things, it shouldn’t to take up all of your time. Look at it this way: every minute you spend analyzing your business is a minute that's not spent growing your business. Do what you need to do, thoroughly and with attention to detail, but don’t overthink it.
Topics: oates, john shepperson, outsourcing, business analysis, business growth
There were no mobile phones with data plans just a few years ago. Now mobile phones have more computing power than the technology that sent the first rocket into space. Wi-Fi hotspots, unlimited data plans, and phone networks with increasingly large areas of coverage make data not only easy to access, but easy to use. Some of the old mobile phones allowed you to view certain online pages, like Yahoo! Sports, but there was no way to interact with the internet like we see now. Employees can receive and send emails. Salespeople can place orders. Warehouse workers can control inventory. Purchasers can track stock levels. Managers can track employees. Customers can track their packages.
Topics: ERP, oates, customer relationship management, technology, data, enterprise resource planning, software, cloud services, crm, john shepperson, customize, forecasting, dashboards
ERP systems have proven themselves to be useful in almost any industry. They are so useful, in fact, that they are beginning to be viewed as a cure-all. What you must remember, though, is that while ERP systems are definitely amazing tools, it is important to remember that they are just that – tools. Like all tools, there is a right way and a wrong way to use them, and you can’t use an ERP system correctly without getting some knowledge beforehand. Once you’ve decided to use an ERP system, you need to dig into what’s working and what’s not working within your current system setup. Otherwise, you will choose the wrong ERP software and fail to improve your business processes.
Topics: ERP, oates, business processes, enterprise resource planning, implementation, ERP vendor, john shepperson, business process manager, business process advisor
