Author: WaelBadawy
Grant Money For Small Business
If you’re frustrated by the conflicting and inaccurate information you’ve found regarding grant money for a small business, then don’t worry. This article is your best source for the most accurate and up to date data. Read on and find out why!
Many people today searching for small business grant money to start their own for profit business assume that grants are nothing more than ìfree money.î Well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but small business grant money is hardly ìfree moneyî at all. In fact, these grants are more like contracts with their own set of obligations and restrictions that you must comply with or risk suffering sanctions imposed by your funding resource.
In the case of government grants, the rules are even stricter. One of the first places that people often turn to is the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, which is where all listings of government grants approved by Congress are announced. The problem with this resource is that there are very few programs available for small businesses.
These grants are usually awarded to deserving individuals or nonprofit organizations having some community-based project in mind. Rarely will you find a government grant awarded to help set up a for profit business. That is why when searching for a small business grant you should not turn only to the government for funding resources.
A good source of grant money is the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). The AFP is considered the chief professional association for fundraisers. The association was formerly known as the National Society of Fund Raising Executives (NSFRE). Their website at AFPnet.org offers sections on ethics, public policy, publications (including AFP’s online bookstore), professional advancement, local chapters, jobs, and youth in philanthropy (along with a member gateway/dashboard).
Besides that, the AFP also provides a list of organizations (including their websites) that are among the top basic resources of grant money. Foremost on their list is the Foundation Center at FDNCenter.org, which publishes the revered Foundation Directory.
Consider contracts. Government money can sometimes come in the form of contracts. ìIf you can demonstrate that your company can execute a budget line item, if you can shape part of your idea to what the government wants done for a particular project ñ say something educational or construction-oriented ñ if you can fill a need, you can compete,î says Francie Ward, CEO of the Business Owner’s Idea CafÈ at BusinessOwnersIdeaCafe.com.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope that it has helped you and that you were able to find, through our research, the answers you were seeking.
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Originally posted 2018-05-16 03:57:00.
RAPID PROTOTYPING OF DIGITAL SYSTEMS: A TUTORIAL APPROACH
By James O. Hamblen and Michael D. Furman, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000.
This book provides an exciting and chal- lenging laboratory component for an un- dergraduate student as well as design engineers working in industry. It intro- duces the field programmable logic device (FPLD) technology and logic synthesis us- ing CAD tools. The book is organized in 13 chapters as follows. Chapter 1 provides a tutorial for CAD tools that covers the de- sign entry, simulation, and hardware im- plementation using an FPLD. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the UP1 FPLD de- velopment board, where the features of the board are briefly described. Chapter 3 introduces the programmable logic tech- nology where the most common complex programmable logic device (CPLD) and field programmable gate array (FPGA) are presented. Chapter 4 is a tutorial to use both a hierarchical and sequential design with different examples. Chapter 5 de- scribes the UP1core library I/O functions. Chapter 6 introduces the use of VHDL for the synthesis of digital hardware. Chapter 7 describes a state machine that controls a virtual electric train system simulation with video output generated directly by the CPLD. Chapter 8 develops a VHDL model of a simple computer where a fetch, decode, and execute cycle is simulated.
CIRCUITS & DEVICES s NOVEMBER 2001
39 s
Chapter 9 describes how to design an FPLD-based digital system to output VGA video. Chapter 10 describes the PS/2 key- board operation and presents interface ex- amples for integration in designs on the UP1 board. Chapter 11 describes the PS/2 mouse operation and presents interface examples for integration in designs on the UP1 board. Chapter 12 develops a design for an adaptable mobile robot using the UP1 board. Chapter 13 describes a single clock cycle model of the MIPS RISC pro- cessor. The book also includes a large number of laboratory problems and a vari- ety of design projects at the end of each chapter.
The book comes with the new student version of Altera’s MAX+PLUS II CAD tool and the UP1 board is available from Altera at special student pricing.
This is an ideal book for undergraduate digital logic and computer design courses with more than 40 fully developed and simulated examples that can be used on the UP1 board.
Originally posted 2018-05-15 23:01:00.
Your Small Business May Be At Risk Unless You Have A Security and Recovery Plan
Taking the time now to at least put together an informal security and business recovery plan will go a long way in the event of a real disaster or other loss. Learn what your small business should think about before the unexpected happens.
Donít think your small business is at risk? Think again. Whether you realize it or not, your business has valuable information and assets that probably are not protected right now. Your business likely has confidential client information, proprietary business knowledge or just internal knowledge that you wouldnít want to be exposed to criminals or competitors. The loss of this information could have a devastating impact to your business. While business insurance is an important part of your protection, it cannot protect clients from identity theft or your business from unscrupulous employees or competitors.
No matter how big or small, your business needs to have a security and recovery plan in place that determines what risks you have, helps protect against those risks and sets plans in place to handle the most likely types of losses you may experience. Your plan should also look at the both the ëphysicalí and the ëvirtualí aspects of your business.
Start by considering the types of risks to which your business may be vulnerable. What if your business information was lost or stolen? Do you have customer files or records, tax receipts, bank statements, business plans, customer work products?
Next, consider the physical aspects of your business that may be vulnerable. Do you have unique office equipment, inventory, computers or trade specific tools?
Finally, look at how you do business. Do you rely on technology, the internet or employees with unique skills? Does your business model depend on repeatable processes that are unique to your business?
Now, consider what would happen to your business if these parts of your business were lost, destroyed or stolen. Could you continue operating if you lost your client files? Could you be sued by customers if their personal information was exposed? Could you be the target of negative publicity? Could your competitors benefit if they gained access to the information? What if you lost email access for a day? What if that key employee suddenly left for another job? What if your office space caught fire or was flooded?
Your security and recovery plan should put in place the safeguards and policies and procedures to prevent some of these risks and the potential to negatively impact your business. Physical access to buildings is relatively easy to control although most small business have little more than a lock on the front door. Should you consider locking file drawers? Is inventory controlled? Does every employee have access, even to things that are not part of his or her job? Could a disgruntled or fired employee return to the workspace after hours with an extra key copy?
Your plan should consider how to protect the ëvirtualí parts of your business also. Do you have backups of any important files? Do you have passwords, account numbers and other ëkeysí securely guarded? Do your computers have virus and firewall protection and is it up-to-date? Do you have internet and email usage policies in place to protect your employees form harassment charges?
What about remote employees or workers who ëtake work home?í In todayís highly mobile environment vital business information can now be easily accessed outside of your physical controls? Do your employees know how to safeguard laptops, cell phones, flash drives or even print outs of business information once they leave your workspace? What if a laptop is stolen from a workerís car or home or hotel room? Do you have a backup of the data that was on the laptop? What if your employees are accessing your information from a coffee shop Wi-Fi? How do you know if your clients and business are protected?
Lastly, your security and recovery plan should consider how you would handle the most likely losses. For instance, if the computer that holds all your sales information crashes, you should probably have a plan to immediately restore that information from a backup. Where is the backup tape or disk kept? Who has access to it and most importantly, who knows how to restore a backup? If you office is flooded, how quickly can you relocate? Can some employees work from home or other remote locations temporarily? If client information is stolen, do you have a way to contact them?
Most small business owners likely have taken first steps like purchasing insurance and putting locks on the front door. Unfortunately, few have taken the time to really understand the potential risks to their business.
Taking the time now to at least put together an informal plan will go a long way in the event of a real disaster or other loss. Even the best planning obviously wonít protect against all disasters but it can certainly lessen the impact to your business once one occurs.
Aubrey Jones is President and founder of Riverbank Consulting, Inc. Since 1996 he has worked to protect internet banking clients for one of the top US financial institutions including serving as a Risk Manager.
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Originally posted 2018-05-15 10:41:00.
Action Priority Matrix
An Action Priority Matrix (or Time Management Matrix) is a tool for prioritizing daily activities. There are 4 quadrants to the matrix as shown below:
1 – Important and Urgent
These are the tasks that must be done now. These tasks should be cleared away as soon as possible, as they are often not relevant to the actual work that is most important to us.
- Pressing issues that arise
- Emergencies and crises
- Deadlines
- Scheduled appointments and meetings
2 – Important but not urgent
These are the most important tasks of all. They are the activities that allow us to reach our goals and objectives. They should be scheduled and worked on every day.
- Working on specific projects or goal tasks
- Planning and scheduling
- Personal development
- Crises prevention
3 – Urgent but not important
These activities can take up a large proportion of our time if we let them. They are often avoidable by delegating the job to others, or by ignoring them altogether.
- Daily unscheduled tasks
- Interruptions
- Maintenance work
- General fill-in jobs
- Regular correspondence
4 – Not urgent and not important
These are the activities that we let creep into our day. They are often tasks we shouldn’t be doing at all, but we often use them as an excuse to escape the drudgery of other tasks.
- Time wasting – idle chatting, long breaks
- Irrelevant distractions – internet surfing, socializing online, texting friends, personal phone calls
- Trivial work – busy work, , pushing paper, other procrastination tasks
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Originally posted 2018-05-15 05:51:00.
Your Small Business Web Site
A web site is a crucial ingredient of your marketing strategy because it can widen your target market to include anyone who has access to a computer and the internet. Almost 60% of Canadians had access to the internet at home in 2003, and around 8 million had regular access to the internet from somewhere, either at home, at work or at school.
And thatís just in Canada. Ecommerce sales from Canada were $7.2 billion, and we only captured 4% of the global ecommerce market! So, how can you reach some of those internet surfers, and how can you capture some of that $7.2 billion spent in ecommerce?
First, you build it
The first step is designing your website. If your company already has business cards and letterhead, itís best to design your website around them. A matching corporate identity and website helps with branding.
I like uncomplicated websites, with a simple layout and easy navigation. A nice, simple layout, with good graphics, balanced look and good color combinations is my #1 goal when designing a small business web site. Remember to use graphics sparingly and to optimize them for your website because internet surfers are impatient. If your page loads too slowly, theyíll leave.
Navigation should be easy to find and to use, and it should be consistent from page to page. Iíve left more than one site frustrated because I couldnít easily find their navigation.
Small business web sites arenít static. They evolve. You need to start somewhere, and starting with an introductory web site is probably easiest. All you really need to start is five pages. You can always add pages later. The important thing is to just do itótake the plunge and get it out there.
Your five pages could include an index, or home page, about us, services, contact and a sitemap. The index page is your landing page. Typically its design is a little more detailed than the others, but it doesnít have to be that way.
I like to use CSS (cascading style sheets) for designing because itís simply easier to build a web site and to edit its layout with CSS rather than just HTML (hypertext markup language) alone. A change on a CSS sheet changes all the pages on your site at once.
Content is king
Once your site is designed, youíll want to start thinking about content. Design is very important, but it does little good to have a beautiful site without high-quality content.
Your small business home page introduces you and your companyówho you are and what you do. The about us page is usually used to give more detail than the home page about who you are, and your services page gives more detail about what you do. You might wonder why youíd ìwasteî a page on a sitemap since you only have 5 pages, but sitemaps help search engines find all the pages in your site.
As far as content goes, more is better, up to a point. Your pages should be content rich and informative, but they also need to be relevant to your small business. If your visitor canít figure out what your web site is about in just a few seconds, they may leave.
The internet was at first strictly informational, and thatís how it remains today. Several times people have tried experiments using copywriting similar to direct mail sales letters, but theyíve all failed. It seems as if people surf the internet more for information than anything else. Knowing this will help you write pages people will want to read.
Attracting visitors
You could follow your instinct and just start writing, but wait. Thereís research you must do first, or your web site simply wonít be high enough in searches to be found. Search engine optimization is far too big a subject to cover in this short article, but among other things, search engines find your pages based on keywords.
So, pretend for a moment that youíre on the other side of the desk. If you were a customer of your own business, what words or phrases would you use to search for your product or service? Ask friends and neighbors how theyíd search for your product or services.
When youíve come up with a few, check them out on a keyword suggestions tool. You can also use that tool to suggest similar words and phrases. Then find out how many results there would be if you searched for that term. What you want to do next is narrow down your choices to the words or phrases that are searched for the most, but have the fewest results.
Remember that people generally donít look beyond the first three pages for any search term, so if youíre not in the top three pages, your business is not likely to be found at all. If there are millions of results for your phrase, you might simply need to make it more specific.
For example, letís say you have a small business consulting company that specializes in communication for small business. Using ìcommunicationî as a search term is nearly pointless because there are almost 2 billion results for that word. But, there are only 974 results for ìsmall business communicationî.
Much better, but how often is that searched for? According to WordTracker, itís searched for 10 times a day. Not bad, but I think we can do better. How about ìsmall business consultingî? Thatís searched for 261 times a day, and there are 373,000 results. That could be the best primary phrase for a small business communication consulting company.
What you want to do, is write your content around those words and phrases. You donít want or need very manyóthree or four are plenty.
Getting them to come back again and again
Getting visitors to come back to your site again and again is relatively simple. Keep your content fresh and lively, make sure itís informative, and add to it often.
I hope you decide your small business needs a web site. Itís the best way I know how to reach a wider target audience with a relatively small investment.
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Originally posted 2018-05-15 04:17:00.
Forms Of Organizations
When writing a business plan, you need to decide what type of organization you are going to have. There are many types. Marquez discusses what they are.
There are many types of organizations. We can separate them into two major divisions: organizations existing to create profits (profit organizations. Includes business entities) and organizations that exist primarily for another purpose (non-profit organizations. E.g: charity organizations).
3 Types of Business Entities and their common characteristics:
1. Sole Proprietorships.
Sole proprietorships are business that are owned and operated by one person: the sole proprietor. The owner and the business, is then the same. For tax purposes, a sole proprietorship is not a taxable entity, and any profits earned by the business are taxed on the return of the individual. The proprietor must develop an accounting system that distinguishes between his/her personal affairs and that of the business.
2. Partnerships.
Partnerships are businesses that are owned by two or more individuals. For small partnerships, the agreement is often an oral agreement between the partners but it is highly recommended that the agreement be formalized as is done in bigger partnerships like public accounting firms and most law firms. In partnering up with individuals in the past, I felt it was important to outline the division of profits and expenses, as well as the expected responsibilities of the partners in a written agreement.
3. Corporations.
A corporation is an entity organized under the laws of a particular state. That means that it can get into contractual agreements into its own name. They are identifiable by the existence of shares.
There are advantages and disadvantages of each of the above types of business entities. And each is suited to the same business under different stages of its growth. For most, arts and entertainment independent contractors, it is probably Sole Proprietorships and Partnerships that are most common for their use.
Non-Business Entities
Most non-business entities are organized to serve the needs of various segments of society. Examples of these non-business entities are public hospitals, public schools, the police and the army. All of these entities are distinguished by the lack of an identifiable owner. Because of this and the non-profit motive to these organizations, their accounting systems are modified to fit their activities. The type of accounting they use are referred to as fund accounting.
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This article was written for OrangesAndLime.com, to help creative individuals ó artists, musicians, designers, illustrators and entertainers ó build their own freelance businesses. Please note that this article serves as a guideline only. You should still seek professional advice regarding the matter because laws and practices change over time and they differ from country to country.
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Originally posted 2018-05-14 20:48:00.
You Can Have A Successful Small Business
Owning and maintaining a very successful small business can have its challenges but if you know what you are doing, everything can really work out great for you. There are many helpful tips that you should learn, if you are the owner of a small business and then by learning about these tips you should have the ability to have a very secure and profitable future. Knowing how to operate a small business properly will give you and your employees much relief in knowing that their positions are stable and secured. Your employees will be much happier, as will you, if you do all of the right things and play your cards right. In this article I am hoping to teach you a little bit more about managing a small business so that you will be a success. Having a small business definitely has its own advantages and some of those will be included throughout this article.
It is very important for you to learn more about what it takes to run a small business successfully so that if you or someone you know becomes interested in opening your own small business, you will be much more knowledgeable about all aspects of it. Another great thing about owning your own small business is that usually this means you will for sure have many more awesome customers that will tell others about it and continue coming back themselves. You will have a reputation for owning and managing a very reputable, friendly and affordable, yet small business. A small business would typically go over very well because there will be enough customers to continue keeping you with plenty of customers and when people are on vacation in your area, they too have probably already heard about your small business and many of them will choose to come into your small business and will be quite pleased by the friendly employees and the great prices. Check out the other small businesses in your area to see what it is they are doing to draw in more new customers, do not copy them but definitely kind of take a few little suggestions and ideas from watching others with more experience.
Advertising is something that most businesses do, which you as a small business owner will as well at some point in time, however, even without the professional advertising, your small business will still be successful due to all of your loyal customers that absolutely adore coming into your wonderful store. All it takes to have a very successful small business is friendliness, determination, customers that count on you and a good knowledge about business management will always make for a better chance at success. A small business could typically go over very successfully, as long as you first do some homework over managing your own business, as well as talking with other small business owners because the more experienced people could really provide you with a great deal of helpful information and some tips that can almost guarantee your small businesses success and longevity.
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Originally posted 2018-05-14 13:13:00.
Build a Hardware Accelerator
Amir Darvishi, Wael Badawy “Build a Hardware Accelerator“Circuit Cellar August 2005, pp.24 – 29
Originally posted 2018-05-14 12:04:00.
You May Have A Successful Small Business Idea
You surely know that a small idea can lead to a great business success. The first movement is to think of an idea that would be suitable for the business market. After coming up with the idea, the next step is to put that idea into action. Of course, this is a very difficult step and having the idea is only the start of the journey. After that you will have to face many obstacles before being able to carry on with your business project. This is just the beginning of this process and there is a lot of questions you will have to answer before even start.
Some of the main aspects you have to concentrate on when you have business ideas are the abilities and gifts you can pour into the business. It is very important for you to be identified with your business project. Those ideas should be based on activities and actions you take pleasure in doing. For example, if we suppose that you dislike working in the open, landscaping business would not suit you. On the other hand, if you like working with children, setting up baby-sitting or tutoring business would be an excellent idea. In this case, without any doubt you business will be more successful because you will have put your mind, effort and also your heart on it.
Another vital step is to analyze the needs of a specific product or service in your region before setting up your business. Do people of your area need your product? Are there other business like the one you are planning to start? You should ask yourself whether or not you are the only one offering that service or product. If you are not, you will have to analyze the competence you will have to face. You have to think whether the service you are offering is one that customer would repeat, or if it is a one-time specialized service. Obviously, the former are more likely to succeed than the latter.
There are other aspects you have to take into account. These aspects are described below:
– One of them is that if the idea is unique, you will reign the market. But if there is much competition, it will be difficult to enter into the market.
– A second point would be if you can offer quality from the very beginning, otherwise, you won’t succeed.
– Finally, you have to think about your capital to start your own business. There are many business ideas that require little investment and bring great profit. Some demand research, such as daycare service, and others need a large amount of money to begin the business. So take this recommendation into account before investing all your money in a small business idea.
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Originally posted 2018-05-14 10:14:00.
How To Get Working Capital For Your Company
Do you own a business? If you are like most business owners, you probably have a lot of responsibilities. First and foremost, you have to meet payroll. Every time. You also need to pay rent and suppliers – on time. All this requires working capital.
However, if you are selling products or services to commercial clients or to the government, you are probably painfully aware that they can take as many as 60 days to pay their invoices. Why? Because if you want their business you have to conform to their terms. There is no other way around it.
But this also leads to an impossible situation. You have bills that need to be paid quickly but customers that want to pay slowly. Unless you have a lot of money in the bank, it’s not a sustainable situation. Sooner or later you’ll miss payroll, delay a supplier payment, or turn a large opportunity away.
The solution is simple. You just need working capital. One way to get working capital is to get a business loan. However, business loans are hard to get and can prove to be inflexible. A better solution is to factor your invoices.
Factoring, or invoice factoring as it is most commonly known, is a type of business financing that is ideal for owners who cannot wait up to 60 days to get their invoices paid. It provides you with the necessary working capital to pay rent, suppliers and meet payroll. And, as opposed to a business loan, factoring is easy to get.
Invoice factoring eliminates the usual 60 day wait to get paid by your customers. The factoring company provides you with an advance on your soon to be paid invoices. In effect, it accelerates your invoices. By accelerating your invoices, you get the working capital you need to run and grow your business. And, unlike a business loan, there are no arbitrary limits. The amount of financing you get is only limited by your sales. If your sales increase, so does your financing.
If you are running a business that is growing ñ and you can’t afford to wait up to 60 days to get your invoices paid, consider invoice factoring.
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Originally posted 2018-05-13 22:45:00.
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