Small Business Financial Advice: New Online Tool Demonstrates Opportunities for Saving Money

February 28, 2008; 02:12 AM

Columbus, OH (PRWEB) February 28, 2008 -- As a small business owner whose product is designed to help other small businesses, Anthony Codispoti knows a thing or two about helping businesses thrive.

"I work with small businesses every day," Codispoti said. "As a business owner, I understand their challenges. My company, GetMyTime, offers products that are designed to help them be more successful."

Codispoti explained that GetMyTime offers web-based time tracking and expense tracking application, to help businesses save time and money when managing employee time.

As we prepare last year's tax returns, many small business owners are looking to increase revenue while decreasing small business headaches. Here are some tips to help your small business thrive.    

1. Choose clients who are actually good for your business.
We've all done it as small business owners - taken any and all business that comes your way. But in order to grow, you'll need to start being selective when choosing clients, only say, "yes" to the ones that are profitable. Also think about dissolving relationships- are there any current clients who you should "fire"? Probably! This formula will help you to rank your current clients in terms of profitability.

Determine the value of each metric below for the last quarter:

(+) Total revenue from the client
(-) Employee Payroll Expenses
(-) Travel, training, equipment and other employee costs
(-) Entertainment and meals with the client
(-) Additional resources needed to service client
(-) Hard costs of software or other goods provided to the client
= Client profitability

And don't to forget the figure in the "pain in the neck tax." Some clients probably create a lot of stress and turmoil for your firm and employees. Assign a value to the stress they cause and weigh that into your tracking equation.

Once you've determined your most profitable clients, look for organizations with similar characteristics to take on. As for those clients that rank toward the bottom of your list - consider terminating these contracts. After all, you will need to free up resources for all the new business you'll win from the going after the right kind of accounts.

2. Start tracking employees' time in a formal program instead of on an Excel spreadsheet, QuickBooks, or worse yet- email.
Again, we've all done it. Hired contractors for multiple projects and manage their time with documents or over email. In the end, this disorganized method ends up creating more work. You need to see the big expense picture. Since payroll is one of your biggest expenses, it needs to be managed effectively and efficiently. There are great tools available that will helps you spend less time managing time tracking and more time growing your business into a profitable enterprise. GetMyTime is a leading web-based time tracking and expense tracking application. The GetMyTime website even offers a free calculator tool to help you compare the cost savings of using this application to using your scratchpad or QuickBooks accounting methods.

3. Build your business plan outside of a cocktail napkin.
I know, it's all in your head, right? You know exactly what direction you are heading and who you are going after to grow your business. Sure. But writing it down in a formal business plan can help you think through all of the pieces, expand on ideas and generate new ones.

4. Hang your hat up - I mean all of your hats.
This is probably one of the hardest decisions to make for a small business owner. Face it, you cannot manage every single piece of the business. Fix the printer? Ship your products? Manage payroll? Forget it! Don't be afraid to staff up for these roles and allow yourself the time to grow your business, after all, that is your top priority.    

About GetMyTime
GetMyTime is the leading alternative to QuickBooks applications. Many small business owners rely on GetMyTime's web-based time tracking and expense tracking applications. GetMyTime's system is user-friendly. Free 30-day trials are available at GetMyTime.com and GetMyExpense.com.