They’re all happening right here at Nerd Enterprises, Inc.

Meeting Off The Cloud

These are the things that are happening at Nerd Enterprises, pretty much in that order. I am hitting the shower in about an hour to head off to Denny’s in Woodland Hills to meet with my Power Group at Edge Up Network.

I recently interviewed Bob Friedenthal about Bridging The Gap between online and offline marketing and the basic message is that both are very important.

Click here to view the embedded video.

QuickBooks For MAC

Tomorrow, this Friday Join me in the Accountants, Bookkeepers, and business Owners Hangout and our very own Bruce McFarland will be demonstrating QuickBooks For MAC. This is free, this is live, this is ONLINE! Get the details here.. The Accountants, Bookkeepers, and Business Owner’s Hangout

ProOnGo

This Monday Max Schmidt of ProOnGo will be on with me and I will be interviewing him about their product which will most definitely simplify your life around the area of expense and receipt tracking.

A note from my couch

I’m excited to go to my power group this morning. Much like online marketing this is a building process. What I am doing here which I’ve never really done in the past is I am meeting people one on one. I think this is critically important to keep the offline meeting going. Then we take it on line with our LinkedIN group and our facebook group to make sure that we are acting as a 24/7 sales force for one another.

Case Study – I met Joel Barnehama this week. I have seen the Aflac commercials 1,000,000 times, but never really stopped to think about what this does for people. Now that I have met Joel and actually taken the time to learn about how Aflac works, I am certain that any business would be foolish not to offer this to their employees. It costs the business nothing. The benefit to the employee is a pre-tax premium which for most people, on average will be about $25/month – cut back on the Starbucks and this is paid for, but here’s what really got me. Let’s say you get injured on the job? Your primary insurance will cover this. Maybe you have a co-pay? Aflac will still send you (eg) $120 which is much more than your co-pay and you can use that money on anything you want/need. Bubble Gum!! Oh and another benefit to the business? This will probably cut down on workers comp claims. Why? Because why am I going to bother with all of that paper work when Aflac covers anything my primary insurance doesn’t and then some?

Give Joel a call if you want to learn more (818) 457-1061.

So what’s in it for me? First and foremost after meeting Joel in person twice and having lunch with him I can share with you that he is a great guy. Based on that alone I am happy to help him grow his business especially because after learning about it I really believe in the product. On the other side of things, Joel is going to let me use him as a model for how I am going to build an online training course for his agents to learn from. Everything from how to use QuickBooks to keep track of their business to using Evernote to manage the information they need.

Did you catch my interview with Melissa Galt? You have to see this:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Last week I posted a blog and video about product modeling with MS Excel. I kept it pretty simple just to give you an idea about how to start doing this.

Well this week I am expanding on the concept. We’re going to take the model we created last week and instead of showing sales in dollars based on an assumption about monthly growth, we are going to lay out a table in terms of sales volume (units) and then create a second table that figures the sales dollars based on specific monthly volume. You will see that this gives us much greater flexibility in terms of how we lay out our sales.

This is especially important for cyclical businesses. You can’t just assume a steady monthly increase. Some months will go down in sales. When you have it broken out in units, then you have complete freedom and flexibility to adjust your sales trends. As you will also see in the video you can of course use some simple formulas to accomplish certain trends as you need to, and then you can overwrite those formulas as needed as well.

Next week we’ll add another dynamic to this. Sales people. What if you want to figure in that based on “X” number of sales people, and “Y” number of sales generated by each sales person? We’ll take a look at how you can begin setting that up in Product Modeling part 3.

Please post your comments and questions below..

Want the Excel template from this video?

Would you like to hire us to develop your financial model for you? Check out our Financial Modeling Services page.

When you sell products for a living it is a good idea whether you are just starting a small business or already running your business full steam ahead to spend some time planning your product sales. This is often the beginning of your financial modeling process where you “model” your business. You decide, what you sell, how many you think you can sell and how much you will sell them for. Then you want to figure how much you can expect to increase your sales from one month to the next. This can be thought of as a “goal” or an expectation. If you are looking at this as a “goal” then you might be more aggressive about it. If you are looking at it as more of a “projection” then you want to be conservative. These things can get quite complex in that you can estimate average # of orders per month, average order size, and then even build price points into your model so if you assume a certain amount of sales over certain levels you can figure your revenue based on this. We’ll cover that in future videos/posts but for now I want to keep it simple. One price for all levels and one conservatively set expected monthly sales increase.

The key to developing a financial model for your business is to start simple and then expand. So first I just write formulas to accomplish what I want initially. Then I start extracting the variables and setting them up as “Assumptions” so that I can change certain key pieces of information to see the impact at a glance. So you will see in this video that when I am finished I have one place where I can change my monthly sales increase and the entire schedule updates. We can expand more and more from there, but this is where it starts.

In this video I show you how I set this up and even give you some insight into how I work with clients when I am developing something like this for them.

Watch and Play

Watch the video and then play around with a blank spreadsheet. Try creating what I’ve created here and see how you do. Then post your comments below and let me know if you have any questions or if you found this useful. How do you think you might use this in your own business?

Move on to Product Modeling Part 2 – Break Out Your Units

Want the Excel template from this video?

Would you like to hire us to develop your financial model for you? Check out our Financial Modeling Services page.

Oh and one last thing before I introduce these people, you are about to see a perfect example of how I use Evernote in these meetings. I take a snapshot of their business card.

These are in no particular order other than the order in which I happened to take a snapshot of their business cards in Evernote which I then promptly handed back to all of them.

Charles Lewis (Click for his business card)

Charles is the Co-founder of The Lewis Approach which is a personal advancement & Conflict resolution solution. It’s coaching with a twist in that they focus specifically on the use of language. Choosing the right words can make all the difference between getting the desired outcome and not, and when done right this usually means a positive outcome for everyone. I met Charles in person today and he is a great guy. They also have a book you can purchase which comes if you purchase a session with them. I plan on getting this myself. A single session is only $79, but check their website because they have many options.

Jeffrey D. Bowman (Click for his business card)

Jeffrey very generally can offer you help with anything you need help with in your business from QuickBooks (just like me) to computer issues and all while you can have your pet groomed with his mobile pet grooming business. Another super great guy

Trish Ostroski C. Ht. (Click for her business card)

Want to improve your health? Whether you want to reduce stress, quit smoking, or simply improve your performance on the job, this is something everyone really needs to consider. We always hear people talk about the power of suggestion? Well why not take it to the next level and actually do it? Another wonderful person who stayed with Bob and myself for an hour after the meeting and we just had the best conversation.

Judith Joy Nelson (Click for her business card)

“Joy” as she appears to be called is an IRA consultant and what makes her company Polycomp unique is that they charge a flat fee. So regardless of how big your IRA portfolio is you pay the same amount. This way as the fund grows you can actually keep it all in your portfolio. She is also a pleasure to talk to so give her a call as soon as you are ready to set up your IRA!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Download this file -Setting Your Goals then read on.. (and don’t forget to give me your reactions in the comments below)

I got an e-mail from Chris Brogan this morning and he got my ideas churning in my head. I was already set for this since I had my alarm set for 4am (yes on a Sunday) and I was planning on getting somethings done here on my couch! Then I received Chris’ e-mail and decided to shift gears and work on this blog post and an e-mail to go out right away. You can sign up for my newsletter on your right.

Tell me something. What is your annual sales goal? You can post it as a reply here on the blog if you don’t mind sharing or use the attachment to download and add in your numbers. Then upload it to me here {Goals Upload}.

Money doesn’t buy happiness it’s true but as I told Chris in my reply to his e-mail it does provide comfort. If I am earning a an income sufficient to pay my bills then I am working simply because I love doing what I am doing. More importantly I am able to enjoy my downtime with my family because I can truly be present. If I am spending time with my family while worried about how I am going to pay my bills I am living in the non-existent future. Still it’s hard to get out of that.

The trick is to set your goals. Don’t just think about them. Set them! This means actually having a number down somewhere. Want mine? I’ll tell you right up front. It’s $250,000. That’s my annual revenue goal right now. Then the goal will be be to turn that annual revenue # into a monthly one. Yes I do think big. I believe we all have to if we want to get there.

So what is YOUR goal? If you haven’t already do me a favor and download the template I’ve included at the top of this post. Take 5 minutes to think about your goals, fill that out and upload it to me. I would love to see what you have in mind and then please post your reactions to this exercise in your comments below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When you live the life of an entrepreneur, especially when you are running a small business then you are likely going to find you come to a point where you get involved in some sort of networking group. At the very least you join your local chamber of commerce.

The problem that I see with most people who do this is they pay, they join, and then they get shy. You run a business and as a small business owner you are the primary sales person for your business so there is no place for being shy. Moreover if you think that just by being a member of an organization people are going to go running to the membership list to find and call you then you’re making a very big mistake. You may as well throw your money away.

It’s your own fault if you don’t get business from these things because it takes more than money. It takes time. And who has the time right? I know I don’t and with what social media offers for a while there I didn’t see the point in being involved in these things. That is until recently when I got a call from Bob Friedenthal. Rest assured I gave Bob a really hard time about leaving my home office.

“Why should I go spend time with a group of 10, 20 or even 25 people when I can stay at my computer with access to millions of people?” I urged!

“Because you cannot rely on only one form of marketing.” He told me.

He’s right and what really sold me initially was that he promised to help me dramatically increase my connections on LinkedIN. Now he was talking my language. LinkedIN is online and as a small business entrepreneur that is where I love to live. Online. I also am aware the it is important to have that actual human contact, so I signed up to join EdgeUp Network.

I can tell you that EdgeUp Network has in fact dramatically increase my LinkedIN contacts in the past few months. I am not going to tell you their secret though. You’ll have to join if you want to know more.

EdgeUp Network is growing fast and adding cities all around the country so give Bob a call and let him know I sent you. Then come back tomorrow and check out my post on some of the people I met in our meeting today.

I met Some really interesting and phenomenal people and I can’t wait to tell you about them, but I don’t want to hold you hostage by writing a long post!

“You’re A Miracle,” said the voice from the couch!

QuickBooks handles inventory very well for most small business’s needs, however if your business is growing and your inventory with that, then you may very well reach a point where you outgrow QuickBooks for inventory tracking purposes. So what do you do?

Good news! There is a program out there that you can use which integrates very nice and seamlessly with QuickBooks. In fact the #1 selling inventory management program that works with QuickBooks is called Fishbowl Inventory. It lets you manage and track your inventory from every angle. It is a very robust program which means that is does a lot, but that also means you will have a learning curve on this.

So this video tutorial is really on unpacking Fishbowl Inventory and will serve as the first in a series I will be dong aimed at lowering the learning curve on this amazing product so that it is not so overwhelming.

Please post your comments and questions below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It takes action. Before there’s any action though you first need to.define what success means to you? Making a lot of money?  A lot of people make a lot of money and they’re miserable. So maybe it is simply to be happy? But what does that look like and more importantly beyond just being happy Why? Why do you want to do whatever you want to do? There has to be a purpose. For me it’s about what I can do with the money when I am making it. I can provide for my family – that’s about others, not me. When I have a good steady income coming in then I am free to help others, especially if I am not worried about getting the bills paid then I can really focus and stay in the moment.

I think if I had to pick one universal description that “could” apply to everyone then I would define success as having the freedom to spend your time or substantially all of your time doing what you want, with whom you want, when you want. Of course you still have to take that a step further and decide what that looks like in your life. What do you love to do? Whom do you love to do it with?

Does success mean having an amazing house that you can barely afford but which really impresses your friends? Living with the constant stress of having to keep up appearances? That doesn’t read like success at all to me, but watch any episode of any of the “housewives..” shows and that is exactly what success seems to mean in those people’s worlds. It’s pathetic if you ask me, but what do I know, I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve made that kind of money to begin with.
So what does success look like to you? Post your comments below..

You Are A Miracle, Says The Voice From The Couch

Customer Refunds seem pretty straightforward and normally they are. Once situation came up however in my QuickBooksAnswers.Info community which actually presented a challenge beyond the normal, simple process of issuing customer refunds in QuickBooks.

Normally when you issue a refund in QuickBooks the process is simple because you have an fully paid invoice and now the customer wants a refund, or a partial refund so you go in and simply create a credit memo for the amount to be refunded and then you refund that amount. Pretty simple, pretty straightforward.

This week my client had a little different situation in terms of the amount of the invoice and the refund. You see she issued an invoice totaling $2,500 and then received a deposit from her customer for $500. The customer decided not to go through with it and the deposit was refundable so now my client has a problem. She has to issue a credit memo for the full $2,500, but only $500 needs to be refunded.

Your assignment:

Open up a QuickBooks File (create a new company if need be so you can play) and re-create the scenario. See if you know what to do before watching the video or reading on.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The answer turns out to be pretty simple ONCE YOU SEE IT! Before actually seeing what it looks like it can be confusing, especially if you don’t have the accounting mind like I do to know how to think these things through.

Thinking It through

Break the transaction up in to it’s parts.

1. I need to credit the entire $2,500 back since none of the services have been provided and that’s what I billed the client. So for sure we need a credit memo for $2,500. In the video I told you to use the same item as what was invoiced because we are fully refunding the sale. This is not a “discount” so we want to deduct it directly from the income item – especially if there were taxable items involved. This will offset the sales taxes we would otherwise owe.
2. Now it’s a question of what to do with the credit. When we save the Credit Memo QuickBooks will prompt us and ask us what we would like to do with the credit.
3. We split it up. $2,000 of the credit gets applied to the invoice, and $500 is refunded.

If you haven’t already, watch the video to see what this looks like.

Did you try it on your own first? How did you do? Please post your comments and questions below.