Starting up any business is tough. Starting up and being
profitable is even tougher. While you may have the best idea or
service imaginable – the "best thing since sliced bread" – so
many factors weigh into the success of a company, some of the
greatest inventions never take flight.
If you would like more information about starting a business
visit http://www.sba.gov There are startup tools, checklists,
downloadable loan documents, and other resources to help start a
business.
One of the main factors is managing the business itself.
Operational procedures are just as important as the product, and
uninformed business decisions can lead to disaster. The fact is,
many entrepreneurs are unaware of the total cost for running a
business – they don't know how to factor their company's
overhead.
Enter MyOverhead.com, a web-based program that allows companies
to instantly calculate their overhead costs (rent, utilities,
equipment, insurance and even employee salaries and health
benefits). To begin, a company enters all pertinent information
into the system, and the initial calculation gives the exact
overhead and burden costs, not an estimated guess. From this
point, the company knows their overhead, and can now make many
business decisions based on this number. When something changes,
such as new equipment or hiring an employee, a company can
quickly update those fields, and immediately calculate the new
overhead.
"This is an invaluable tool to figure out our financial status,"
said one Akron, Ohio, office manager. "In a nutshell, the
program tells you exactly how much money you need to bring in to
cover your costs."
When prices change, such as an increase in supplies or payroll,
a company can quickly update those fields, and immediately
calculate the new overhead cost. The program is created to adapt
to any situation or business type.
The system is created with a template listing pre-determined
items that are classified as overhead, such as: advertising,
insurance, office supplies and rent. There is also a separate
listing for items that fall under the burden category, such as
labor expenses and health benefits. If there is an expense
specific to a particular business that does not exist in the
program, users can create new entries.
Companies can also use the MyOverhead.com program as a consultant
to make well-informed business decisions. For instance, if you
want to hire an employee or buy new computer equipment, the cost
can be entered into the system to see how it will affect overhead
and/or burden.
"MyOverhead.com will benefit virtually any business," said Mark
Lallemand, spokesperson for MyOverhead Corporation. "No matter
what the industry, this program will establish the correct
selling price for a company's service or product, which will
include all their cost of doing business. The MyOverhead.com
service is easy-to-use and requires basic computer knowledge."
Lallemand said companies need to ask themselves some basic yet
crucial questions about their business's financial standing: Do
you know how to apply your company's overhead to make your
business successful and profitable? Do you know that your
company's overhead is constantly changing? Do you realize what
your "break-even" cost is for your business to stay afloat? "If
you are uncertain of the answers, you're not maximizing the
potential of your profits especially in start-up businesses,
which is why so many of them fail in the first year. When you
think you know your overhead, but aren't close to the correct
number, you have a false sense of profit," Lallemand added.
"Before using MyOverhead.com, we thought we knew how much it
costs to run our day-to-day operation, " said one Iowa-based
business owner. "It didn't take long to realize just how wrong we
were.
"An effective manager has to know where a company's finances
stand at all times. The MyOverhead.com system does just that,
even when individual business costs change," he said. "We not
only increased our bottom line as a result, but the confidence
it gave our company allowed us to bid and take-on larger
projects. Instead of bidding against other companies, we bid as
low as we can and still know we can make a profit," he added.
"This is important because it lets us know our bid numbers are
not just competitive, but profitable and practical."
In this case, once a "break-even" figure has been established
MyOverhead.com can be used to test potential outcomes of a
business decision such as a bid on an electrical job. Then the
company knows how differently the job will lay out with time
constraints and workload. Also, it will tell you if it's
beneficial for your business to compete with other companies'
numbers on a particular bid.
"Once we receive a job, we don't have to be worried about the
numbers, and every expense, because we have confidence in our
bid. Now our job managers can better supervise and complete the
job at hand," added the Iowa business owner. "Also, we're able
to maintain a high level of quality in our jobs, where we may
have otherwise taken shortcuts because we lacked confidence in
the bid. When jobs are done with quality, clients are happy,
and we keep getting work."
"For many companies, this will help bring their office up to
speed. The system is self-contained, and requires no outside
tools beyond a computer. Plus, the MyOverhead.com staff provides
a high level of customer service. Any time we have a question or
need help, the MyOverhead.com staff has been there for us," the
Iowa business owner said. "They have been friendly since the very
beginning, and it truly feels they've structured their business
to specifically help you be successful."
One company in Cincinnati, Ohio, has benefited so much by the
MyOverhead.com calculating system that they see it not as an
outside contracted service, but as a member of their team. "It
has made our company take a hard look at how we compile
information in regard to overhead," he said.
MyOverhead.com contains other helpful tools to aid companies on
various business decisions. For instance, there are reports that
not only summarize current overhead, but also history reports,
which are very useful for long-term comparison of the status of
your business. There is a burden calculator to help evaluate
payroll and employee status by creating reports concerning all
wages and benefits for active and inactive workers. The
MyOverhead.com calculating system can virtually create any
detailed overhead report summarizing items that are of major
concern or interest to your business.
In addition, there are a number of calculators: a separate
"break even" calculator to help project minimum work volume
requirements; a future projection calculator to explore every
aspect of overhead scenario, present and future; a profit
multiplier which gives the proper figure to multiply by for any
given percentage of mark up; and a project completion calculator
for the number of workers and days necessary to complete a
specific project.
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