Business Budgeting Tips

Developing an effective business budget is critical for any company’s success, yet it can be challenging. Fortunately, some experienced entrepreneurs have gone through the process and learned what works and what doesn’t. Among them is Raphael Avraham Sternberg, who has built a successful career helping others save money and increase revenue. We will discuss the proper business budgeting tips according to Avraham Sternberg.

What is a business budget?

Entrepreneurs should be aware of a few different types of business budgets. The first is the operating budget, which covers the costs of day-to-day operations. This includes rent, utilities, salary expenses, and other operational costs. The second type of budget is the capital budget, which covers the costs associated with long-term investments or projects. This could include new equipment, expansion projects, or marketing campaigns. Below are some business budgeting tips:

Don’t try to budget to the last penny.

Having a budget is important, but take time with every penny. Try to estimate the costs as accurately as possible, but take the time with the details. A general idea of where the money is going is more important than knowing exactly how much could have been spent on paperclips last month.

Make tradeoffs when necessary.

In any business, budgeting is essential to ensuring that the finances are in order and making sound decisions about where to allocate the resources. However, there will be times when one needs to make tradeoffs to stay within the budget. One may choose between investing in new equipment or hiring additional staff.

In these situations, weighing each option’s pros and cons is important as deciding which is most likely to help achieve the long-term goals. Remember that sometimes the best decision is not necessarily the one that saves money in the short term.

Set both profit and cash flow targets.

As an entrepreneur, it is essential to understand the business finances clearly. This includes setting targets for both profit and cash flow.

Profit is the money left over after all expenses have been paid. It is important to set a profit target to know how much money is needed to cover the costs and still have some left over.

Cash flow is the money coming in and going out of the business. It is important to track the cash flow to ensure one has enough money to cover the expenses.

When setting targets for profit and cash flow, it is important to be realistic. These targets should challenge the business owner, but they should also be achievable. Once the target is set, monitoring them regularly and adjusting as necessary is important.

ConclusionManaging and budgeting the business finances is critical to maintaining a successful enterprise. Entrepreneur Raphael Avraham Sternberg offers excellent budgeting tips, including setting profit and cash flow targets, making tradeoffs when necessary, tracking income and expenses, and not trying to budget to the last penny. Following these simple yet effective steps outlined by Mr. Sternberg will improve the business’s financial health and overall success.

The post Proper Business Budgeting appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

The article will talk about how you can travel on a budget. It will provide tips to help a person budget for travel and some ways of traveling on a budget, like staying in hostels, living off of the local currency, and using last-minute flights.

Many people have a desire to travel the world but have limited resources with which to do so. Some ways you can save money while traveling include staying in hostels instead of hotels and eating food from various street vendors when dining out instead of restaurants (specifically where alcohol is served).

How to Travel on a Budget

According to Jordan Sudberg, traveling on a budget is not just about saving money. It’s about making hard decisions and finding the best ways to travel and stay in a place as inexpensively as possible. In this article, you’ll learn all the basics of traveling on a budget, including some tips & tricks to help get you started!

There are two types of budget travelers: those who prefer to do a lot of research before they leave and those who like to wing it—finding things out as they go along. The first type spends months researching all the options for everyday life—housing, meals, entertainment, transportation. The second type goes to a hostel, buys a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, and hits the beach.

Many assume that only the folks on the second type of trip are traveling on a budget. That may be true, but it’s just as much an art to choose the right hostel and ensure you’re eating where the locals eat as it is to figure out what transportation to take from point A to point B. For example, if you’re going from Las Vegas to Sedona, Arizona, I’d recommend taking Flying J shuttles over Greyhound busses. They’ll drop you off at your hotel instead of downtown Las Vegas, saving you time and stress.

No matter what kind of budget traveler you are, being prepared is vital. Be ready for anything, and you’ll indeed have a good trip. Take a few things for your comfort & safety.

First, you should always carry identification (your passport or driver’s license will do). It’s essential to carry some form of identification when traveling in countries different from your countries, such as Europe or Asia. When traveling on a budget, it’s best not to flash too much money around—carrying plenty of cash is fine while on your turf, but in places where foreigners are rare, it can invite dangerous situations.

Next, take some extra clothing with you, especially if your trip will be extended. At least two sets of clothes, although I’d recommend three. Clothes can be a real luxury you don’t realize until they become an item you can no longer count on. And don’t forget your toiletries—this is the one item that might not survive your trip intact. Put aside enough cash so you won’t run out of everything in cold countries (like Sweden) and enough so that you won’t run out of everything in warm countries (like Greece).
Jordan Sudberg thinks that you should also take some small items for home with you—maybe a book or CD or movie to keep yourself occupied at night, etc.

The post How to Travel on a Budget appeared first on Social Media Explorer.

So how do you identify what parts of your marketing initiatives need an investment? Ask yourself the following:

Question 1 – Are you proud of your website?  

Frankly, if you’re not bragging about your website, then it probably sucks. You’re your own litmus test here. If you shudder every time you look at your website in a sales meeting, or constantly end networking conversations with, “For the love of god, please don’t visit our website!” then you need a new website. I understand this might cost a bit more than that extra $1,000 you have lying around. Guess what, I don’t care. Start saving that extra little bit every month and before you know it, you’ll have enough for a new website.

So why is a boast-worthy site so important?  Your website supports almost every single business initiative and department. A well designed website will lift every single marketing campaign your company runs – and newsflash – it’s not just marketing and sales that benefit from a great website. The next time you hear someone in HR complaining that they can’t attract top talent; take a look at the website.  How’s the employment opportunities section looking? If all you have is a couple paragraphs of copy and a few broken links, then it’s no wonder top talent is overlooking your company during their job search.

Keep in mind that there’s a difference between bragging about your website because it’s actually great and bragging about it because you finally got off of that old Weebly template. Do not start bragging about your website just because it was built by someone over the age of 18. Great websites give you actual reasons to boast about the site to your colleagues. These reasons will vary from company-to-company but could include: having an outstanding, responsive design, winning tons of awards, or having an industry leading conversion rate.

Question 2 – Are you split-testing your website?

If you aren’t split-testing (A/B testing) your website, you’re leaving money on the table.

So you have a website that you’re pretty proud of? That’s great! Now tell me what you’re doing to improve it. If you aren’t split-testing (A/B testing) your website, you’re leaving money on the table. Take that extra bit of cash you were going to throw at Generic Demographic Targeter Quarterly and invest it in the resources you need to begin split-testing.

Split-testing allows you to compare two near-identical versions of your site side-by-side to determine which version is better based on actual usage and not because you “just know” customers are going to like the orange button better than the green button. Start by identifying critical portions of your site that you’d like to improve. Is your homepage bounce rate to high? Does your conversion funnel have a high rate of abandonment? These are both problems that you can solve through split-tests.

Don’t feel that you have to split-test your entire site every month. Just start with one page at a time and compare a different element each month. This will help keep costs down and ensure your team isn’t too overwhelmed by all the changes. Remember your website supports everything else you do as a company. It can always be better.

Question 3: Are you closing the conversion loop?

Identify what level of conversion tracking you need and invest the necessary resources.

If you don’t know where your paying customers are coming from, you’ll never be able to make smart marketing decisions. Companies need to close the conversion loop as best they can. How else are you going to know whether or not that new ad in More Sales Monthly was actually worth the investment? Conversion tracking can be as simple as setting up a few goals in Google Analytics. It can also be as complex as implementing a multi-touchpoint, CRM system that will track twelve months or more of an individual’s site visits and purchasing history.  Identify what level of conversion tracking you need and invest the necessary resources. Your ROI on this investment will be every single dollar you save by discontinuing ineffective and inefficient marketing initiatives.

Question 4:  Are you maximizing the marketing channels you’re already using?

Before you go looking for something shiny and new to throw money at, double-check that you have fully exhausted your current marketing initiatives. Every marketing initiative reaches a point of diminishing returns. If you haven’t yet hit that point on any of your current profitable marketing initiative, than you’re walking away from revenue.

Case in point: I had a client that had a profitable, well-managed Google AdWords campaign. For every $1.00 he spent in AdWords he made $3.00 in revenue, more than enough to cover all costs and leave him with a healthy profit. When he asked me about new marketing channels, the first place I looked was at this Google AdWords campaign.   Sure enough, I found he was nowhere near reaching his performance peak. After pointing this out he invested his extra $1,500 a month back into AdWords. Sure it wasn’t the sexy new channel he was originally looking for, but it was a guaranteed $4,500 a month in revenue.  Now he’s able to put even more funds towards testing new marketing channels.

Question 5: Are you remarketing?

Remarketing enhances almost every single marketing initiative you have.

Sure if you’re not already doing it, remarketing is technically a new opportunity. For those that aren’t aware of it, remarketing is a marketing tactic that allows you to retarget individuals that visit one of your digital marketing platforms (website, landing page, etc…). You can remarket across a variety of networks, from Google to Facebook and everything in between.

The reason I urge companies to consider remarketing over any other new initiatives is simple. Remarketing enhances almost every single marketing initiative you have. From sales meetings to social media postings, remarketing allows you to extend the impact of your brand at a fairly low cost.

So what does this mean for you?

Scenario 1 (no remarketing)

Background: Client came to your website after clicking on an awesome piece of marketing collateral
Individualized cost to produce that content: $4.00 (Content Cost/Impact )
Cost of initial site visit: $4
Total site visits: 1
Average cost of site visit: $4

Scenario 2 (remarketing)

Background: Client came to your website after clicking on the same awesome piece of marketing collateral as Scenario 1
Individualized cost to produce that content: $4.00 (Content Cost/Impact )
Cost of initial site visit: $4
Individualized cost of remarketing efforts: $3.50 (CPC/CPM Costs of Two Ad clicks)
Total site visits: 3
Average cost of site visit: $2.50

Chances are that a visitor isn’t going to convert the first time they come to your site. Depending on your product or service,  it could very easily take between 2 – 10 visits (if not more) before an individual converts. With remarketing, you not only remind customers about your company, you also provide them with a low cost way to come back to your site. The lower your average costs per site visit is, the more visitors you are able to drive to your site with the same budget.

Question 6 – So, am I ready to identify new opportunities? 

Well let’s go through the checklist:

• Are you proud of your website?
• Are you split-testing your website?
• Are you closing your conversion loop?
• Are you maximizing your current marketing initiatives?
• Are you using remarketing techniques?

If the answer to all of those questions is, “Yes!” then congratulations, time for you to test out a couple of new initiatives. Need a place to start? Create a list of all your owned, earned and paid initiatives. If one of those lists are considerably lighter than the other (say you’re investing a ton in paid media, but nothing in blog content creation), then consider filling that hole your first priority.

At the end of the day, what you choose to do with that newly budgeted cash is up to you. My advice, go after the guaranteed returns (use this list as a guide). It won’t take long to turn that extra $1k a month into an extra $5k a month. Then you can afford to buy all the magic bullets you want.

The post Where to Put That Extra Dough in Your Marketing Budget appeared first on Social Media Explorer.