How to Cut Down on Your Startup Costs

A snazzy office, the latest equipment, smart employees and the option to complete a project on your time, and perhaps at the beach - many new entrepreneurs dream big when they plan their first venture. The only problem is that a new business is much more about hard work, sincere efforts and reduction of costs than the way they picture it.

It is important that you pay attention to how much you spend when you begin a new business. Spend just a little above your means and your dreams could fizzle. You need to keep track of all expenses and cut down wherever and whenever possible.

You may not be able to cut down on certain expenses such as trade licenses, business permits or any other aspect that directly affects your business. But there are ways that you can reduce costs and still attain your dream.

Start From Home

A well-equipped office space may feature high on your wish list, but it is best to hold off for now. Buying, or even renting, an office requires a considerable investment, which you had better avoid until your business starts to make money.

Start your business from home. This saves overhead charges, which makes it easier for your venture to break even in the early years. Designate a space for this and treat it the way you would treat a corporate office. If the space is appropriate, you may meet your clients there. Or you may book an office space such as a conference room for particular days or weeks.

Don’t Recruit Immediately

Starting a new business requires donning a number of hats and you have to handle different aspects of it at times. If you have a partner, he/she can lend a helping hand with the tasks.

While it is much easier to manage different tasks when you have a team of professionals, it also increases the costs. Wages can add to the startup costs quickly. If you are not comfortable doing something on your own, the smart thing to do is to outsource it to a professional. This way, you only pay for the work you cannot do on your own.

Rent Instead of Buy

If a moving business needs a heavy piece of machinery, but only for specific tasks that require its use for a few days in a month, a decision to buy it would be worthless. In such a situation, renting makes more sense.

The same applies to all new ventures. You can always keep off the purchase of big desks and ergonomic chairs for the present. Instead, you can rent furniture, fixtures and accessories for your home office and invest the money in something more fruitful. Moreover, this can also reduce your tax burden as leasing is deductible.

Get Free Advice

Knowledge and awareness of your industry is essential for any new entrepreneur. Connect and communicate with key people from your industry to keep yourself updated.

You can attend conferences, seminars and events. Get a mentor and use your social media network. Join online forums and keep track of what’s happening in the industry. You can often get the best advice for free when you connect with the right people.

Ensure Best Value for Money

The cheapest option often doesn’t guarantee the best value for your money. Don’t opt for the cheapest supplies or outsourcing services. Pay equal attention to the quality and the cost to get the best value for your money.

Here’s an example. You can get fancy stationery for your new business at a high price. Or you can get plain stationery for the lowest price. In the first case, your money is wasted. In the second, your business image becomes poor. The right thing to do is to get simple but good quality stationery at a reasonable price.

Use Existent Resources

You need not set up a separate infrastructure to begin a new business nowadays. You can tap into the resources that already exist. This can save a considerable amount of money.

If you plan to sell something online, you need not create a website with the option of online transactions as soon as you begin, though it is often a good idea to do so. You can choose to use existing platforms for online transactions temporarily. You may have to pay for it, but it is money well spend.

Don’t waste your money on superfluous things that have little to no impact on your core business when first starting out. Instead, invest it in avenues that will benefit your endeavor in the long run.

Cut Startup Costs Down Photo via Shutterstock

iPad Losing to More Affordable Tablets

The iPhone has exceeded sales expectations this quarter. The iPad, not so much. If you’re in the market for a tablet for business there are many other options to consider these days and some a bit easier on the budget.

iPhone Sales Strong but Tablet Sales Slipping

Apple shipped 31 million iPhones for the second quarter, reports All Thing D. That’s less than the 37.4 million the company says it shipped in the first quarter of 2013 but more Read More

The post iPad Losing to More Affordable Tablets appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Flexible Working: Win-Win For Employers and Employees

Your Better Business has created the following flexible working infographic which takes a look at a new flexible model of working. Many are calling this a “win-win situation” for both employers and employees. Within the infographic you’ll discover an easily consumable summary of key statistics on the flexible working debate between employers and employees as well as a general point of view. Additionally it looks at important issues such as productivity, employee satisfaction and cost reduction.

What are your thoughts? Read More

The post Flexible Working: Win-Win For Employers and Employees appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Starbucks Sees 10 Percent Increase in U.S. Mobile Sales

If you’re thinking about enabling mobile payments for your business, Starbucks is leading the way. The coffee seller and cafe chain says 10 percent of sales at U.S. locations were made from a mobile device last quarter, TechCrunch reports.

The jump in mobile sales not only shows a changing preference among Starbucks’ customers. It also helped spur one of the coffee giant’s most successful quarters and the best third quarter in Starbucks’ 42 year history, the company said.

Ahead Read More

The post Starbucks Sees 10 Percent Increase in U.S. Mobile Sales appeared first on Small Business Trends.

8 Steps To Ensuring Your Customer Credit Card Transactions Are Secure and Compliant

Brought to you by AVG Technologies, the provider of Internet and mobile security, privacy and optimization to 150 million active users. There’s nothing small about small business in our eyes. Get more information how AVG can help your small business stay protected - go to http://www.avg.com/us-en/internet-security-business .

Good businesses have good reputations. To ensure that you remain at the helm of a good business, you have to make sure that yours has the sterling reputation that keeps customers throwing cash at you. But what if they’re not throwing cash? What if they’re using plastic?

Credit card payments are a bit of a delicate matter, since not only is digital money being transferred, but there’s also customer data that’s going through those same wires. How can they be sure they trust you? As soon as a customer walks into the door, you’re expected to provide services without nasty surprises. Because of the fact that so many businesses “do it right,” they don’t bat an eyelash when they give you a debit or credit card. In reality, your customers probably don’t even realize how much trust they really are putting into you by tossing a seemingly innocuous piece of plastic over the counter. So now it’s up to you to keep their credit card transactions, and ultimately their personal information, secure.

In this day and age, you don’t need to convince someone that a debit/credit card transaction is safe. This means that the only thing left to do is prevent giving customers any reason to believe their lives will be ruined. In fact, there are regulations in place that make sure you’re doing  just that. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is such a regulation.

Here are a few ways you can ensure you remain compliant to financial transaction regulations:

• Minimize any handling and storing of customer data. Collect as little as possible and only what’s necessary.
• Bank card information shouldn’t be stored in your premises in the first place. Find a third-party payment processor and make sure that it is PCI DSS compliant. If it’s not compliant, you cannot trust it to handle data correctly.
• When transferring customer information from your premises to an external server, use an encrypted connection. The encryption must run end-to-end. TLS or SSL (both used in “https://” addresses) will work fine.
• Keep all computers free of viruses and other malware. Get an anti-virus and keep it up to date. Run it at least once a day, ideally about half an hour before opening.

• Every application you use to process customer data must use encryption when storing it.
• Have a talk with your employees about the meaning of “need to know.” They must understand that all customer data is to be accessed and used only if there’s no other way to complete a sale. All information is on a need-to-know basis, meaning that employees can only have access to relevant customer information if they must have it to complete their duties.
• Go to the PCI Security Standards Council’s website and download fact sheets and quick reference material related to PCI DSS and PA-DSS. These are generally helpful and give you an idea of how you should maintain a pristine transaction infrastructure.

Would you bet your entire business’ precious reputation that data thieves will not target it? I sincerely doubt that. If you don’t feel confident about gambling, the above advice will lead you in the right direction to keeping your credit card transactions impeccably safe!

8 Steps To Ensuring Your Customer Credit Card Transactions Are Secure and Compliant

Brought to you by AVG Technologies, the provider of Internet and mobile security, privacy and optimization to 150 million active users. There’s nothing small about small business in our eyes. Get more information how AVG can help your small business stay protected - go to http://www.avg.com/us-en/internet-security-business .

Good businesses have good reputations. To ensure that you remain at the helm of a good business, you have to make sure that yours has the sterling reputation that keeps customers throwing cash at you. But what if they’re not throwing cash? What if they’re using plastic?

Credit card payments are a bit of a delicate matter, since not only is digital money being transferred, but there’s also customer data that’s going through those same wires. How can they be sure they trust you? As soon as a customer walks into the door, you’re expected to provide services without nasty surprises. Because of the fact that so many businesses “do it right,” they don’t bat an eyelash when they give you a debit or credit card. In reality, your customers probably don’t even realize how much trust they really are putting into you by tossing a seemingly innocuous piece of plastic over the counter. So now it’s up to you to keep their credit card transactions, and ultimately their personal information, secure.

In this day and age, you don’t need to convince someone that a debit/credit card transaction is safe. This means that the only thing left to do is prevent giving customers any reason to believe their lives will be ruined. In fact, there are regulations in place that make sure you’re doing  just that. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is such a regulation.

Here are a few ways you can ensure you remain compliant to financial transaction regulations:

• Minimize any handling and storing of customer data. Collect as little as possible and only what’s necessary.
• Bank card information shouldn’t be stored in your premises in the first place. Find a third-party payment processor and make sure that it is PCI DSS compliant. If it’s not compliant, you cannot trust it to handle data correctly.
• When transferring customer information from your premises to an external server, use an encrypted connection. The encryption must run end-to-end. TLS or SSL (both used in “https://” addresses) will work fine.
• Keep all computers free of viruses and other malware. Get an anti-virus and keep it up to date. Run it at least once a day, ideally about half an hour before opening.

• Every application you use to process customer data must use encryption when storing it.
• Have a talk with your employees about the meaning of “need to know.” They must understand that all customer data is to be accessed and used only if there’s no other way to complete a sale. All information is on a need-to-know basis, meaning that employees can only have access to relevant customer information if they must have it to complete their duties.
• Go to the PCI Security Standards Council’s website and download fact sheets and quick reference material related to PCI DSS and PA-DSS. These are generally helpful and give you an idea of how you should maintain a pristine transaction infrastructure.

Would you bet your entire business’ precious reputation that data thieves will not target it? I sincerely doubt that. If you don’t feel confident about gambling, the above advice will lead you in the right direction to keeping your credit card transactions impeccably safe!

The Island Approach: Which Are the Best Credit Cards for Small Business?

Major credit card issuers took small steps to improve their business credit card policies during 2013, ramping up their transparency and extending minor CARD Act protections to business-branded products. But Bank of America is still the only one that has forsworn arbitrary interest rate increases on existing balances. That means the 37% of small business owners who use credit cards for financing purposes each year will need to get a bit creative if they want to attain debt stability as well as the best combination of product terms possible.

You basically have two options. First of all, you could use a card like the Bank of America Cash Rewards for Business MasterCard, which offers 0% interest for 9 months in addition to 3% cash back on purchases made at office supply stores and gas stations, 2% cash back at restaurants and 1% on everything else. Alternatively, you could implement the Island Approach.

The Island Approach to credit card use is a strategy that entails using separate accounts for different types of transactions and needs. In general, this might involve a small business owner using a base rewards card for everyday spending, a 0% general-consumer credit card for financing stability, and perhaps a card offering an attractive initial bonus in order to cushion your coffers.

More specifically and with currently available offers in mind, the Island Approach could look something like this:

Financing Big-Ticket Purchases

Citi Diamond Rewards Card: This card offers 0% on purchases as well as balance transfers for 18 months and does not charge an annual fee. It does, however, have a 3% balance transfer fee, so it’s best used to finance upcoming big-ticket purchases.

Lowering the Cost of Existing Debt

Slate Card from Chase: A free balance transfer credit card, Slate offers 0% interest on transferred debt for the first 15 months and does not charge either an annual fee or a balance transfer fee. For the average consumer with about $6,500 in credit card debt, transferring that balance to the Slate Card from a card with a 17% interest rate and paying it down within 24 months would be worth more than $1,000 in avoided finance charges.

Earning Everyday Rewards

Capital One Spark Cash for Business: This card offers a full 2% cash back on all purchases, with no rotating spending categories, earnings limits, or other caveats. You also stand to get a $100 initial rewards bonus for spending at least $1,000 during the first three months and another $50 for signing up an employee as an authorized user. There is no annual fee during the first year ($59 beginning in year two).

Supplemental Rewards Bonuses

Ink Plus Business Card: The 50,000 bonus points you’ll get from Chase for spending at least $5,000 during the first three months are redeemable for a $500 statement credit or $625 in travel booked through the Ultimate Rewards program. The Ink Plus Card also offers 5 points per dollar on up to $50,000 in annual office supply and telecom purchases as well as 2 points per dollar on $50,000 in annual gas and hotel expenses. There is no annual fee during the first year ($95 thereafter).

Club Carlson Business Rewards Card: This card offers up to 85,000 bonus points - 50,000 after your first purchase and 35,000 for charging $2,500 during the first 90 days. Those points are redeemable for up to 18 free nights at hotel chains like Radisson and Country Inn & Suites.

While any small business would benefit from 0% rates and hundreds of dollars in rewards bounties, the best offers are only available to people with above-average personal credit standing. Creditors consider small businesses to be extensions of their owners and evaluate the personal finances of small business credit card applicants as a result.

Should you therefore need to do a bit of credit building prior to revamping your suite of small business spending tools, get a credit card with no annual fee. It will report information to the major credit bureaus on a monthly basis and won’t cause you to waste money on service charges as you climb back to good credit.

Like paying down debt or laying out a budget, credit building is one of those things that isn’t terribly easy or exciting. But it’s important, and if you take care of it now, you, your wallet and your company will all be happy later.

Credit Card Photo via Shutterstock

Too many businesses do not act on reality of threats or work with inadequate technology

Analysis of networks has revealed that around half have a malware infection, and in half of that sample the malware is regularly communicating with a command and control centre.

Speaking to SC Magazine, Stuart Okin, director of US and EMEA at Cipher, said that of the consultancy work his company had done, he found that 20 per cent of businesses had a data problem, and around eight per cent of those 20 would have malware on their endpoints and of that number, one to two per cent would have ‘active' malware.

Okin said: “What I find interesting is that security departments are not ready for the truth about this. When we tell them what the problem is, there is no way of understanding what we are talking about or dealing with reports. Also, they have bought the best of breed technology and once they find problems, they don't know how to deal with it.

“Once we tell them to lock endpoints down, they do not act on it as they do not have the people to do it.”

Okin said that a financial services company said that they wished they had never been told about these problems, but would fix them and deal with the risk over the next 12 months of being re-infected and losing data.

“A good chunk [of clients] fall into this category where they know and accept risk,” he said.

Okin said that another client in the hospitality sector said that when they were presented with the data, they asked Cipher how to get budget to deal with the problem.

Asked if it was the case that the size of security teams scaled to the sector or size of the company, Okin said that in the City, he would find that if a company was 1,000 people, there would only be one security person. “This is virtually no security department,” he said.

“All clients had signature-based technology and the C-suite, including the CIO, have no idea that it is not good enough. They have no clue about the firewall; intrusion prevention system and anti-virus are almost useless, as they are clueless about it.

“You do not need to sell on FUD; you need to know about risk and show that eight per cent are infected and it is talking to the command and control centre. No matter what vendor technology you use, there are 250,000 variants out there; it has got to change, it is not about evolution but revolution now.”

Adrian Culley, EMEA technical consultant at Damballa, said that the problem is that there is always more data tomorrow and the greater the system, the greater the challenge to find vulnerabilities. “There is always more data, users need automated responses to help them,” he said.

Home Affairs Committee calls for better cyber crime reporting and awareness

Greater awareness and better sources of reporting online crime are required for the general public.

According to the UK Home Affairs Committee report on e-crime for 2013-2014, a dedicated and state-of-the-art espionage response team should be established so that British companies, media and institutions can immediately contact it to report an attack so that effective action can be taken.

Its report called for greater awareness, saying that it was of "great concern that the majority of cyber crime could be prevented" by better user awareness. The committee called for "all organisations, businesses and schools must provide users with appropriate information and risk management training". This was especially the case for the government and the private sector, which it said "have a strong incentive to educate users and maintain awareness of cyber crime".

Further on in the report the committee called on better education of children about staying safe online, and said that this was as important as learning about crossing the road safely. “We welcome teaching about online safety and security taking place in schools and initiatives such as ‘safer internet week',” it said.

Adrian Culley, EMEA technical consultant at Damballa and former e-crime lead at Scotland Yard, said that what is needed for children is a form of the cycling proficiency test but for the internet. He told SC Magazine that this could be adapted for primary and secondary school children, but also for all ages.

He said: “It doesn't have to be expensive or complex, but it could give the public some skills and how to know when you are safe, as this will strengthen the economy.

“I'd like this to be run by government agencies, including the department for education, Home Office, Foreign Office for GCHQ and while it is not connected, MI5 should be involved.”

To help the public report e-crime, the committee recommended the establishment of a dedicated espionage response team that British companies, media and institutions can immediately contact to report an attack, and who can also provide training in order to counter attacks.

It also called for an improvement in the way in which e-crime is reported and recorded, as it was important that there was an up-to-date and accurate estimate of the threats from e-crime. It also said that the government should "publicly distance itself from the £27 billion estimate of the annual cost of e-crime to the UK economy".

To help analysis and reporting of e-crime the committee called on the government to commission a working group of experts, to include representatives from the cyber security industry and independent experts, to produce annual figures that show the incidence of e-crime and any observable trends.

However, it questioned why the government continues to use "highly controversial figures" in its basis for policy-making, but welcomed efforts to form a single National Cyber Crime Unit.

Klaus Gheri, vice president of product management for Europe at Barracuda Networks, said: “The growing threat of internet crime is not specific to the UK. It is the same everywhere. Law agencies are ill equipped to protect against cyber warfare.

“The government has the biggest responsibility here. It needs to pass legislation for all businesses to have a prescribed minimal amount of cyber security. There should also be an obligation for businesses to report any hacks and data loss.”

Darren Anstee, solutions architect global team lead for Arbor Networks, said: “Any organisation operating online in the UK is a potential target, and it was recently reported by the GCHQ that the UK faces at least 70 sophisticated cyber attacks a month. To stay on top of this authorities in the UK must look to develop a cohesive strategy for dealing with cyber crime.”

Twitter and Chase Team Up To Help Boost Small Business

Twitter has teamed up with Chase bank to offer one million free ad credits to small businesses in a bid to kick-start a new wave of small businesses utilizing social media and technology.

The partnership will see the four million small business customers of Chase in the US have a chance to access unique workshops that will show them how to better understand using Twitter to grow.

“About a year and a half ago, we launched @ChaseNews and @ChaseSupport, two handles that help us connect with customers and the public. We found that small business owners are very interested in information they can use to grow,” explains Donna Vieira, Senior Vice President, Head of Marketing and Product for Chase Business Banking. “We started talking to the Twitter folks and realized we share a priority in supporting small business.”

Meanwhile, the special advertising credits for Chase small business customers will be available in early Fall according to Twitter. “We’re still fine tuning the program and will announce details via @ChaseSmallBiz as soon as they’re ready. So following us is the best way to find out,” Donna says.

The advertising initiative is scheduled to be dealt in $100 at a time to each company, if they are to avail of the service.

The partners have held two workshops thus far for small businesses at Chase’s headquarters in New York and California. “Attendees said they appreciated the informal interaction with Twitter and Chase leaders,” says Donna, as well as some entrepreneurs who shared real life stories about embracing social media as a key growth strategy. “Business owners come away with very actionable tips. We hope the ad credits will be an effective sweetener to help businesses.”

Chase has also launched the @ChaseSmallBiz account to offer companies an online portal to the latest information and engage with others, which has been well received.

“We’ve received great feedback, sometimes in the form of tweets and retweets and also from conversations with customers and prospects.  They like having many ways of interacting with Chase - in branches, with their relationship managers, on Chase Mobile and Chase.com,” Donna adds finally.

“Our goal is to help small businesses build better customer engagement,” explained Russ Laraway, Head of Small Business at Twitter, in a blog. “We’ll be posting videos, infographics, white papers and a how-to guide developed by Chase and Twitter to help small businesses learn more about the value of Twitter.”

Twitter has launched many initiatives before to gather more small businesses together in using their social media power for marketing. In 2012, they opened up Twitter Ads for Small Business, which gave out $1 million in free ad credits to thousands of new companies.

Twitter and Chase Team Up To Help Boost Small Business

Twitter has teamed up with Chase bank to offer one million free ad credits to small businesses in a bid to kick-start a new wave of small businesses utilizing social media and technology.

The partnership will see the four million small business customers of Chase in the US have a chance to access unique workshops that will show them how to better understand using Twitter to grow.

“About a year and a half ago, we launched @ChaseNews and @ChaseSupport, two handles that help us connect with customers and the public. We found that small business owners are very interested in information they can use to grow,” explains Donna Vieira, Senior Vice President, Head of Marketing and Product for Chase Business Banking. “We started talking to the Twitter folks and realized we share a priority in supporting small business.”

Meanwhile, the special advertising credits for Chase small business customers will be available in early Fall according to Twitter. “We’re still fine tuning the program and will announce details via @ChaseSmallBiz as soon as they’re ready. So following us is the best way to find out,” Donna says.

The advertising initiative is scheduled to be dealt in $100 at a time to each company, if they are to avail of the service.

The partners have held two workshops thus far for small businesses at Chase’s headquarters in New York and California. “Attendees said they appreciated the informal interaction with Twitter and Chase leaders,” says Donna, as well as some entrepreneurs who shared real life stories about embracing social media as a key growth strategy. “Business owners come away with very actionable tips. We hope the ad credits will be an effective sweetener to help businesses.”

Chase has also launched the @ChaseSmallBiz account to offer companies an online portal to the latest information and engage with others, which has been well received.

“We’ve received great feedback, sometimes in the form of tweets and retweets and also from conversations with customers and prospects.  They like having many ways of interacting with Chase - in branches, with their relationship managers, on Chase Mobile and Chase.com,” Donna adds finally.

“Our goal is to help small businesses build better customer engagement,” explained Russ Laraway, Head of Small Business at Twitter, in a blog. “We’ll be posting videos, infographics, white papers and a how-to guide developed by Chase and Twitter to help small businesses learn more about the value of Twitter.”

Twitter has launched many initiatives before to gather more small businesses together in using their social media power for marketing. In 2012, they opened up Twitter Ads for Small Business, which gave out $1 million in free ad credits to thousands of new companies.

Big Questions Every Business Plan Should Answer

Every small business needs a business plan. It’s an essential document that’s not just for start-ups and expansions - because a great business plan can serve as a road map for your company and help you make the right adjustments when things go wrong. Your business plan should be a living, breathing portfolio that evolves along with your company.

With that said, a business plan is still one of the most vital tools for a start-up or expansion, because this is when your document will convey the viability and potential of your idea (or existing business) to other people - usually people you’re trying to convince to invest their hard-earned cash in your company.

How can you do that?

By making sure your business plan answers the right questions. Below are six crucial points that you should address with your business plan.

Is Your Product or Service Innovative?

This does not mean the core offerings of your company have to be completely different from anything that’s out there on the market now. In fact, having what amounts to an alien concept can be detrimental to a business pitch, because you’ll have no foundation to compare your company with.

Instead, your business plan should highlight what is different, exciting, or inspiring about your product or service. An element of innovation will underline the viability of your concept, and help to persuade investors that you can succeed.

Will People Pay for What You’ve Got?

As a business owner, you can’t just put in your 40 hours and cash a paycheck at the end of the week. Your product or service needs the ability to earn its keep, so that eventually it’s turning enough of a profit to cover the overhead costs of your business, the salaries of any employees you have or plan to hire, and your own cost of living.

Your business plan should outline the potential revenue for your company by showing how much you plan to charge for your products or services, and why people will pay that amount for what you’re offering. This piece of information shows investors that you know the real worth of your company, and you’re prepared to avoid collapse and bankruptcy with realistic projections.

Is Your Target Industry Growing?

Pitching a business that’s going to “revitalize” an industry is a tough sell - mostly because it takes more than one company to save a sinking ship.

Investors like to see new or expanding businesses in industries that are either stable or growing because it presents them with a better chance that their investment will pay off.

What Have You Got That Your Competitors Don’t?

The competitive edge is more than just a corporate buzzword. A great business plan articulates the differences between your products or services and similar offerings from your competitors. You should be able to describe why people will choose your widget over the next one in line, and therefore why your business will be profitable once you’re established.

By taking the time to describe your competitive advantage, you’re also giving yourself a foundation for a solid marketing plan.

What Are Your Staffing Plans?

Few companies can remain viable forever as sole entrepreneur operations. Eventually, you’ll need to hire people as your company grows. Investors want to know that you have smart, realistic staffing plans in place for your start-up or expansion.

You might start with assigning multiple roles to yourself and/or your existing staff, and then outline the milestones that will necessitate hiring new people, and offloading roles to them.

It’s important to have your business plan show that you understand the need for management and collaboration - and that you have good timing.

Are Your Goals Rooted in Reality?

You may be completely confident that your business is going to make a million dollars by the end of the first year, but that’s not something you’ll want to say to investors. Your business plan is a place for reasonable goals, with carefully considered, even conservative projections.

One of the best rules for customer service is to under-promise and over-deliver, and your business plan should follow that rule. Use it to outline a business forecast that you can reasonably expect to meet, and then wow your investors when your (private) wild speculations come to pass.

If they don’t, you’ll at least have kept up with the promises your business plan initially made.

Business Plan Photo via Shutterstock

Big Questions Every Business Plan Should Answer

Every small business needs a business plan. It’s an essential document that’s not just for start-ups and expansions - because a great business plan can serve as a road map for your company and help you make the right adjustments when things go wrong. Your business plan should be a living, breathing portfolio that evolves along with your company.

With that said, a business plan is still one of the most vital tools for a start-up or expansion, because this is when your document will convey the viability and potential of your idea (or existing business) to other people - usually people you’re trying to convince to invest their hard-earned cash in your company.

How can you do that?

By making sure your business plan answers the right questions. Below are six crucial points that you should address with your business plan.

Is Your Product or Service Innovative?

This does not mean the core offerings of your company have to be completely different from anything that’s out there on the market now. In fact, having what amounts to an alien concept can be detrimental to a business pitch, because you’ll have no foundation to compare your company with.

Instead, your business plan should highlight what is different, exciting, or inspiring about your product or service. An element of innovation will underline the viability of your concept, and help to persuade investors that you can succeed.

Will People Pay for What You’ve Got?

As a business owner, you can’t just put in your 40 hours and cash a paycheck at the end of the week. Your product or service needs the ability to earn its keep, so that eventually it’s turning enough of a profit to cover the overhead costs of your business, the salaries of any employees you have or plan to hire, and your own cost of living.

Your business plan should outline the potential revenue for your company by showing how much you plan to charge for your products or services, and why people will pay that amount for what you’re offering. This piece of information shows investors that you know the real worth of your company, and you’re prepared to avoid collapse and bankruptcy with realistic projections.

Is Your Target Industry Growing?

Pitching a business that’s going to “revitalize” an industry is a tough sell - mostly because it takes more than one company to save a sinking ship.

Investors like to see new or expanding businesses in industries that are either stable or growing because it presents them with a better chance that their investment will pay off.

What Have You Got That Your Competitors Don’t?

The competitive edge is more than just a corporate buzzword. A great business plan articulates the differences between your products or services and similar offerings from your competitors. You should be able to describe why people will choose your widget over the next one in line, and therefore why your business will be profitable once you’re established.

By taking the time to describe your competitive advantage, you’re also giving yourself a foundation for a solid marketing plan.

What Are Your Staffing Plans?

Few companies can remain viable forever as sole entrepreneur operations. Eventually, you’ll need to hire people as your company grows. Investors want to know that you have smart, realistic staffing plans in place for your start-up or expansion.

You might start with assigning multiple roles to yourself and/or your existing staff, and then outline the milestones that will necessitate hiring new people, and offloading roles to them.

It’s important to have your business plan show that you understand the need for management and collaboration - and that you have good timing.

Are Your Goals Rooted in Reality?

You may be completely confident that your business is going to make a million dollars by the end of the first year, but that’s not something you’ll want to say to investors. Your business plan is a place for reasonable goals, with carefully considered, even conservative projections.

One of the best rules for customer service is to under-promise and over-deliver, and your business plan should follow that rule. Use it to outline a business forecast that you can reasonably expect to meet, and then wow your investors when your (private) wild speculations come to pass.

If they don’t, you’ll at least have kept up with the promises your business plan initially made.

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Executable file analysis tool launched by Bit9

Bit9 has launched a tool to assess the security risk of every executable file (dll, installer, script and other programs) on a PC running Windows XP or later versions.

Named the Bit9 Trust Assessment Tool (TAT), the company said that it scans files with potentially executable code and sends the inventory of files to its Bit9 cloud for analysis.

The files are then evaluated for age, prevalence, publisher, source, anti-virus scan results and other key indicators, and a trust rating is given. Bit9 then anonymously aggregates the results and provides the user with a report of the trust rating of their PC and areas of risk.

It generates reports on trust levels from the various file categories to provide an overall trust assessment rating, as well as if any files have known vulnerabilities or are recognised as malware.

Also, files that have not yet been seen across the Bit9 Trusted Community are accounted for, as well as files that have been blocked by a number of enterprise Bit9 administrators throughout the Bit9 Trusted Community.

Brian Hazzard, vice president of product management for Bit9, said: “The first step in securing an enterprise endpoint is knowing what's running on it. We developed this powerful Threat Assessment Tool so users can see if their machine contains untrustworthy software that exposes them to potentially devastating cyber threats.

“Unlike typical virus scans that only look for known malware and miss many of today's advanced threats, the Bit9 TAT performs a comprehensive analysis of all software on a PC and provides an overall trust rating.”

Security professionals report a \'significant\' increase in external attacks and internal breaches

UK IT and security professionals believe that external attacks have increased significantly in the past 12 months, while more than half have reported an increased risk of internal data breaches.

According to a survey of 560 UK staff by Check Point, 64 per cent of respondents said that external attacks had increased significantly in the past 12 months, while 57 per cent reported an increased risk of internal data breaches, particularly from the growing use of web and social media applications.

Tom Davison, UK technical director for Check Point, said:  “Even though organisations are concerned about securing their networks, and are deploying more products to deal with a growing range of threats, external attacks and internal incidents continue to increase; the complexity of networks, applications and security products is making it harder for IT teams to manage their security estates. This is leading to vulnerabilities not being addressed, and employees inadvertently causing breaches.

“When the security solutions themselves are creating a risk, it's vital that organisations rethink their approach to protecting their networks and data.  They need to simplify and consolidate security management, and make it easier to establish security policies and practices that employees can easily follow, to curb the risk of attacks and breaches.”

Check Point's survey found that the most popular measures aimed at reducing the risk of internal breaches were: setting up employee awareness programmes (53 per cent of respondents); use of data encryption on sensitive documents (47 per cent); locking down USB ports on PCs (39 per cent); restricting employees' use of social media and instant messaging (31 per cent); and deploying data leak prevention solutions (24 per cent).

Fifty-eight per cent of respondents said that they had clearly-defined security policies for staff concerning data handling. 

Security professionals report a \'significant\' increase in external attacks and internal breaches

UK IT and security professionals believe that external attacks have increased significantly in the past 12 months, while more than half have reported an increased risk of internal data breaches.

According to a survey of 560 UK staff by Check Point, 64 per cent of respondents said that external attacks had increased significantly in the past 12 months, while 57 per cent reported an increased risk of internal data breaches, particularly from the growing use of web and social media applications.

Tom Davison, UK technical director for Check Point, said:  “Even though organisations are concerned about securing their networks, and are deploying more products to deal with a growing range of threats, external attacks and internal incidents continue to increase; the complexity of networks, applications and security products is making it harder for IT teams to manage their security estates. This is leading to vulnerabilities not being addressed, and employees inadvertently causing breaches.

“When the security solutions themselves are creating a risk, it's vital that organisations rethink their approach to protecting their networks and data.  They need to simplify and consolidate security management, and make it easier to establish security policies and practices that employees can easily follow, to curb the risk of attacks and breaches.”

Check Point's survey found that the most popular measures aimed at reducing the risk of internal breaches were: setting up employee awareness programmes (53 per cent of respondents); use of data encryption on sensitive documents (47 per cent); locking down USB ports on PCs (39 per cent); restricting employees' use of social media and instant messaging (31 per cent); and deploying data leak prevention solutions (24 per cent).

Fifty-eight per cent of respondents said that they had clearly-defined security policies for staff concerning data handling. 

Executable file analysis tool launched by Bit9

Bit9 has launched a tool to assess the security risk of every executable file (dll, installer, script and other programs) on a PC running Windows XP or later versions.

Named the Bit9 Trust Assessment Tool (TAT), the company said that it scans files with potentially executable code and sends the inventory of files to its Bit9 cloud for analysis.

The files are then evaluated for age, prevalence, publisher, source, anti-virus scan results and other key indicators, and a trust rating is given. Bit9 then anonymously aggregates the results and provides the user with a report of the trust rating of their PC and areas of risk.

It generates reports on trust levels from the various file categories to provide an overall trust assessment rating, as well as if any files have known vulnerabilities or are recognised as malware.

Also, files that have not yet been seen across the Bit9 Trusted Community are accounted for, as well as files that have been blocked by a number of enterprise Bit9 administrators throughout the Bit9 Trusted Community.

Brian Hazzard, vice president of product management for Bit9, said: “The first step in securing an enterprise endpoint is knowing what's running on it. We developed this powerful Threat Assessment Tool so users can see if their machine contains untrustworthy software that exposes them to potentially devastating cyber threats.

“Unlike typical virus scans that only look for known malware and miss many of today's advanced threats, the Bit9 TAT performs a comprehensive analysis of all software on a PC and provides an overall trust rating.”