According to Forrester Research, social technologies are growing at an alarming rate.  More than four in five US online adults participates in some form of social media.  Recently, Google and the SBA partnered to educate business owners on the importance of online community interaction and how to utilize the internet to make their business grow.



When someone uses the term, "social media" most people think of sites like Facebook and Twitter.  This is accurate, however social media is comprised of many different types of media.  If you look at the image above, you will see several different categories of social users.  Each type of user consumes different types of media and all types should be considered.  

Creators:
Creators are groups of users that publish websites and blogs.  If you have any customers who upload videos to places like Youtube, or write and post articles they fall in this category as well.  Creators made up about 24% of online US adults in 2009.

Critics:
Everyone has a critic and this is a group that can either help or hurt your business.  Critics post ratings and reviews in places like Yelp, and Google Places.  They also troll blogs and embellish their opinions on Creators' articles.  As you can see above the critics make up almost a third of the US online users.

Collectors:
The Collectors group are the users that subscribe to RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feeds and use online products like Google Reader.  You will also find these individuals voting for websites or tagging photos.

Joiners:
This is the group of Facebook and Twitter Users.  I think its safe to assume that this number has and will continue to grow over time.  Joiners are those who maintain social networking profiles and visit social networking sites.

Spectators:
The Spectators group makes up the largest percentage of all online users.  The impact of social media even reaches those who do not actively participate.  Spectators read blogs, listen to podcasts, watch videos, and read ratings and reviews.

Inactives:
The group of Inactives do none of the above.  By viewing the image above you can see that this group is slowly diminishing.  In between 2007 and 2009 the number of inactives decreased by 26%.

Understanding how users consume social media will help you understand the social demographic of your organization's constituents.

Using Invoice Factoring to solve cash flow problems.

Often it seems that the bigger the job the slower the payment. Imagine a catering company that secured a contract to service an event for a very large company. The large company pays out on the tenth of every month, but the catering company pays its employees on the first.

The catering company will need to pay their employees before they receive payment from the large company. This small business doesn’t have the cash flow to buy all of the necessary supplies for the event and pay their employees. What options does the catering company have? Delay paying their employees? Apply for short-term credit with their bank? It’s important to pay employees on time and seeking credit from a traditional financial institution could take longer than desired due to the rigorous approval process.

One solution to solve this catering company’s cash flow problem is to use account receivables factoring. This type of short-term financing would allow the catering company to purchase supplies, pay vendors and meet payroll.

It’s important to know that if your business is experiencing difficulty meeting payroll there are a number of solutions available to you. Being aware of these solutions is essential, especially when time becomes a factor. Applying for short-term credit from a bank takes time and the application process is stringent. Take the time to learn about the options available to your business now so that if you end up in a situation where you can’t meet payroll, you’ll know what to do. Have a solution before the problem arises.

The essential accounting equation utility

It’s important to have a basic understanding of accounting in order to interpret and understand the work your accountant does.  While it’s common to hire an in-house accounting professional to perform bookkeeping and payroll tasks, understanding the basic duties and responsibilities of your accountant will give you a strong grasp on the numbers side of your business.

The Basic Accounting Equation shows where your business financing is coming from.  Assets are anything owned by you or controlled by you that is understood to be of yield, positive economic value.  The Basic Accounting Equation determines how these assets are financed.  There are two ways one can finance assets - one is by borrowing money also referred to as liability.  Another is by using your own funds to finance your assets; this is referred to as ownership equity.

The Basic Accounting Equation:

            Assets = Liabilities + (Ownership Equity)

This equation is often expressed a little differently because Liabilities represent a deficit.  Another common way this equation is represented is:

(Ownership Equity) – Liabilities = Assets 

Example:

Bill wants to buy a new copier for his sales team for $8,000.  He has saved $5,000 and intends to borrow $3,000 from his business partner. 

In this example the equation looks like this:

• Bill’s Assets = $8,000
• Bill’s Liabilities = $3,000
• Bill’s Ownership Equity = $5,000.