Planning plays a crucial part in creating a business plan and strategic plan in that it reinforces a company’s mission, visions, and goals that are used to develop and implement strategy, competitive advantage, and achieve effectiveness and efficiency in how a business operates.
When deciding whether a product is worth it or not people typically think that if the benefit of the item is greater than the cost, they should go ahead with the purchase. However, there are more factors at play here that should play a role in buying decisions, tread carefully!
Health Insurance is usually the most complicated and expensive insurance you need. Unfortunately, it is also usually the most important, making it very difficult to avoid the cost. With very few exceptions, health insurance is mandatory for all citizens in the United States.
Personal selling is when businesses use people to “sell” the product to a customer face-to-face. These sales people promote the product with every aspect of themselves. The salesman has tools provided by their marketing team, but actually closing the deal is based mostly on personal interaction.
Use this tool to search for jobs and internships, either near you or around the world. A great way to get introduced to the job market, and identify what qualifications you need to build to land your dream job!
The Human Resources (HR) department at a business is in charge of everything from hiring and firing employees, organizing and implementing training programs, resolving internal conflicts, determining the pay scales, and everything in between. Managers work with their HR departments to fill vacancies and resolve conflicts – both of which can require careful planning
“Business Ethics” defines what is right and wrong in a business – not necessarily what is or is not illegal. It is the responsibility of everyone in any organization to maintain high levels of business ethics, as businesses who fail to do so lose the public trust, and the ability to continue to do business, very quickly.
Experienced workers have a job search lasting about 43 days, and fresh graduates can expect a longer wait. Your search will be much harder if you make one of the following very common mistakes. Avoiding all 5 of the mistakes described in this article will not promise an interview, but hitting any might mean you are missing out.
Internships are an increasingly popular phenomenon, with a little over 1.5 million positions per year in the United States. But not all internships are created equally – students with paid internships typically get a lot better experience and better job prospects than those with unpaid positions!
Have an interview coming up? Looking to improve your interview skills? Show up on time. Be neat and clean. Know exactly what you’re there for, take notes, and ask questions!
How can you get your resume read, let alone rise to the top of the pile? Enter keywords – your new job search best friend. In big companies, your resume will have to get past a robot filter before human eyes ever see it, so pay attention to key words to get past the gatekeeper!
Life Insurance is an insurance policy designed to pay out if the insured person dies. They were created to make sure that if the main income holder of a household dies, the payout from the policy can be used to help continue to support his or her family.
Homeowner’s Insurance is a broad type of insurance coverage designed to cover a home and the property it sits on. This insurance is very broad, wrapping many different types of coverage into one package.
“Rental Insurance” is taken out on property you rent to insure against damage. Rental insurance works like a lighter version of Homeowner’s Insurance. This is usually much cheaper, just covering your “stuff” in case of break-ins, water damage, or other mishaps.
Car insurance is very important, but it can be hard to know which one to pick! Liability coverage is required everywhere, which just covers the cost if you do damage to someone else’s property or person. Collision covers your stuff too, but can have a big impact on cost!
An “Audit” is what happens when the IRS picks your return out from the pile for extra scrutiny. The auditing process is designed to catch errors in the tax returns, verify the correct amount of tax or return is being paid, and preventing fraudulent tax claims.
Most young people are perfectly capable filing their own taxes, such as filing the Form 1040. As personal finances grow and become more complex, knowing when to ask for help can get tricky.
Everyone loves getting tax breaks, but what can really ruin your finances in the long-run is forgetting about tax additions – extra taxes and fees that you need to add on to your tax bill. In the Gig Economy, these can add up fast, so make sure to include taxes in your budget!
The classification of products and services is a process that groups together certain products/services that carry similar characteristics in terms of price level, similarity between competing brands, and the way consumers approach them in the buying process. This helps marketers to build “Types” of marketing strategies for similar products
When you file your income taxes, you can “write off” certain expenses, and get extra tax credits based on your living situation. This can make a big impact on your bottom line, but only if you have proper documentation to back up your claims!
Effective pricing strategies are essential for the success of a product, and by extension a company in general. Supply and demand, elasticity, durability of the product, and price of the competition all come into play!
“Gains and Losses” – this comes from investment revenue from a business, instead of regular operations. If they sell a piece of land at a profit, for example, that would be a “Gain”.
Income tax is the tax you pay on your income, usually directly taken out of your paycheck. Additionally, if you earn rents from rental properties, investment income, interest on your savings account or bonds, or any other revenue stream, you will probably owe some income tax on it.
Since the accountancy profession is only as good as the quality of service provided by its members, regulations and ethical guidelines are essential to having effective accountants.
“Sales Tax” is a tax that is charged on goods sold to end customers, and is a set percentage of the price of the good. Different states and countries have different sales taxes – some have none at all!
The Product Life Cycle is the series of phases a product moves through in its lifetime, which include introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Each stage transforms the role of the product managers, salespeople, and other parts of a company – as well as the products themselves.
When holding a job, there are usually certain people that have specific “titles” that describe the work that they do. With those titles, comes the chain of command, which can be looked at as a flow chart: The CEO –> who oversees Management –> who oversees Associates. While the chain of command is fairly straightforward, the middle part, or Management, has many different ways of functioning.
Liabilities are the expenses a company must pay in the future – and are subtracted from a company’s assets to find “Shareholder Equity”. Liabilities can be accounts payable (bills they have but haven’t paid yet), outstanding contacts (services they agreed to provide but have not yet completed), pension obligations, or any outstanding debt.
Marketing is a cornerstone in the success of any organization. To ensure marketing is successful for an organization, companies need to compose long-term marketing strategies promoting their goals with specific actions. A short term marketing plan is also necessary, with short-term goals building towards long-term objectives.
“Short Term” financing means taking out a loan to make a purchase, usually with the loan term at less than a year. Short-term financing usually has a higher interest rate than long-term loans – and can even include credit card debt.
“Assets” are things a company owns that have value. This can be equipment, patents, cash in the bank, accounts receivables, property, or anything else of value that could be theoretically sold, if the company went bankrupt.
Payroll is run weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or even semi-monthly, so for each pay cycle, taxes need to be calculated and reported. All tax payments need to be calculated for each pay cycle, then filed once per quarter. Therefore, Payroll Accounting is an involved process that properly accounts for all taxe
Swipe a credit card, take out a loan, or issue bonds? Different types of debt mean very different things for a business – and the choice of how to finance big purchases makes a huge impact on cash flow
A company’s accounting department must meet several criteria that are used to recognize revenue when a sale transaction occurs, and when expenses are recorded. This recognition is essential for meeting the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
“Slow and Steady” does not always win the race. The business world is very fast paced, competitive, and often ruthless world where the one who stays ahead of the game is more likely to emerge victorious. “Competitive Advantage” is what businesses have that puts them ahead of the competition.
GAAP – the Generally Accepted Accounting Practices. These are a set of a standard means of doing financial reporting and bookkeeping. This helps analysts and auditors can compare apples-to-apples financial data from one year to another, and even between organizations.
Auditing, Wealth Management, Forensic Accounting, Payroll, and more! There has never been a bigger demand for accountants in EVERY type of business. What certifications will you need to launch your career?
Sole Proprietorships are just owned by one person. Partnerships have at least two, sometimes more, but usually all the owners are actively involved in running the business. Bigger companies want “Limited Liability” – where someone can be an investor, but not personally on the hook for debts if the business goes bankrupt. This is where corporations come into play!
When a company starts to grow, one of the biggest questions they face is how to organize their management. The two main branches of management roles are centralized and decentralized authority – which often translates to how many levels of management need to sign off before a change can be made
Equity (stockholders’ equity, owners’ equity, etc.) is the claim shareholders of a company have on assets once the liabilities have been satisfied. This is basically the “net worth” of the company – with each shareholder owning a fraction of the total.
Credit cards is a form of unsecured credit (meaning a loan without collateral) that you can use to make everyday purchases. All credit card purchases are made using a loan – you borrow money from your credit card issuer, and later pay it back with interest. Read this article for information about the differences between credit and debit cards, the types of credit balance, how finance charges and interest rates work with credit cards and gives details about the CARD Act of 2009.
Before debit cards became popularized, people had to carry cash and cheques or use credit cards or short-term financing for everyday payments. Debit cards became the most popular method since they are easier and are associated with less fees that credit cards!
Just like we all care about our personal health, managers and investors care about the health of their company. How can they perform a “check-up” on their business in order to determine its progress and financial health? Instead of weight or blood pressure, analysts use financial ratios.
Not all debt it bad debt: in fact, having a healthy amount of debt is almost an essential part of growth, but taking on lots of small debts frequently can also be very dangerous to your bottom line.
Automatic Payments can be a huge time saver, but can also be problematic for your planning processes and account reconciliations. What cases are they appropriate? Can you think of a case where automatic payments would be a bad idea?
There’s a difference between a “Project Budget” and a “Living Budget”! You’ll need a different attitude when you’re thinking about how to plan your monthly income, expenses, and savings goals compared to just how to accomplish something specific over a short time.
Reconciliation is the process of reconciling your checkbook by comparing your own written records with your bank statements. Although this process has changed drastically in the 21st century, it is still an important for your personal finances.
If you save receipts for every purchase you make the paper will pile up quickly. Think about what types of receipts you DEFINITELY need to save, and which ones you can throw out!
To be “In Debt” means to owe money to someone else, usually making fixed payments to pay back the amount over time, plus interest. Properly managing debt helps minimize how much total interest you pay, and has a solid strategy on how to become debt-free
It is pretty obvious that you will be compensated by your employer when you have a job, in some way or another. However, the form that the compensation comes in can be drastically different across companies and employers. This article contains the basics on the different kinds of compensation you can get!