10 Best Footwear Stores in Macon, GA

Your trucks pass hundreds, if not thousands, of customers and prospects every day. Truck graphics provide a wonderful opportunity to generate brand awareness. Your truck graphics can make consumers familiar with your logo, company name, services and contact information. Just adding this information to your trucks, isn't enough. Put yourself in consumers' shoes. Are they staring at your trucks, hanging on every word, the same way you do? Sadly, no. Some are engrossed in their radio programs; many are distracted by street signs, billboards, store signage; and a scary number are focused on their cell phone conversations. The point is, to get the most out of your "moveable billboards," you need to think carefully and creatively about your truck graphics. Who's Your Target?The first thing to consider is: who should your trucks "speak to?" I'm going to assume your primary target is residential. This means your truck designs should be warm and friendly. They should say "residential," without having to use the word. Once your target is clear, let's go shopping. Shopping for DesignsPay close attention to others' trucks, but don't limit yourself to home service providers. In fact, to view the widest range of design options, don't limit yourself to your market. Make a list of things you like and don't like. You don't have to love or dislike everything on each truck. It's OK if you like an image, but hate the colors. This list will help you and your designer understand what you're looking for and what to avoid. Your competitors have probably set the bar very low, so don't assume your trucks should look like theirs. Be clear at the outset of your design process that your truck design should be dramatically different and better than theirs. You can view a number of truck designs at www.signzoo.com, This company is one of Nexstar's strategic partners. Your GoalsNow that you have an idea what you like and dislike, and who your target is, let's think about your goals. This one's easy. You want your trucks to draw attention, be appealing and memorable. At the same time, your graphics should be relevant. Let's begin with this last goal. Relevancy: Take a good look at the key elements of your brand, like; your logo, theme line, and any colors you use consistently that aren't in your logo. Protect these elements—don't let a designer change them just for your trucks. I've seen situations where a company created a logo, which was later changed by a yellow pages designer, and then changed again by his truck designer. Before he knew it, he had three or more logos. This can confuse your customers, which is very easy to do. Here's a great example of how easy it is confuse people. A very large, successful Nexstar member developed a phone book magnet. It contained all their key brand elements, including their bright, distinctive color, with one exception: the name of the company appeared in a simple typeface, instead of their logo typeface. When the phone book arrived at one of the company's employees' homes, she took one look at the magnet and concluded that another company was trying to rip off her company's name and distinctive colors. If you can confuse your own employees this easily, imagine how easy it is to confuse people who often don't know or think about your company! Another element of relevancy is not to allow your graphics company to change the tone and feel of who your company is. If your website and other marketing materials are conservative and traditional, don't let your truck graphics agency create a three-ring circus design or something from the 60s, like a tie-dyed design. The best way to protect your brand is to share your logo, website and other marketing materials with your designer. Make sure he understands how you present your brand. He's not to change your brand and company personality, just for your trucks. IllustrationsIllustrations are a great way to draw attention, be appealing and memorable. Consumers love to see photographs of happy homeowners and families, especially cute children. You can add a home to the background, if you'd like, to help communicate that you serve consumers, and to give supporting graphics; depth, texture, and warmth. Photographs of technicians can also work hard. A good photograph can communicate how clean, intelligent, friendly, and professional your technicians are. If you shoot a real technician, though, make sure you select a photographer who'll pay attention to the details. Poor lighting and uptight body language won't communicate the excellence of your operation and the friendliness of your people. The expression "A picture is worth a thousand words" is correct, and a bad photograph can communicate the wrong words! A photograph of a technician waving to motorists on the back of the truck has become increasingly popular, and with good reason. It's a great way to attract attention, be appealing and be memorable. This kind of imagery will likely differentiate your company from your competitors. Some members wonder if they should add photographs of their kids to their trucks. This can be very appealing and memorable, but it can also be confusing if you don't showcase your children in other marketing materials. If you want to add your children to your vehicles, be prepared to add them to the website and ads. CopyWhile it's tempting to add lots of copy to your trucks, don't treat your trucks like a yellow pages ad or website. People will only give you a few seconds at most, so limit yourself to crucial information. Too much information may make your truck design crowded and difficult to read. In most cases your company logo, primary services (if they're not identified in your logo), phone number and web address are enough. You may also have room for your slogan, if you have one, depending how large your vehicles are and how short your slogan is. Remember that your trucks don't have to close sales; they just have to create enough awareness, likeability and be memorable enough to be the service provider who gets consumers' calls. Show It AroundOnce you've settled on a design, show it to a random sampling of customers to see if there are any major problems. Make sure they can easily find and read your company name, for example. A caution, though: don't react to every comment every person makes, because no matter what you do, there will always be some who disagree with your decisions. Share your design with your technicians, too. It's important they're comfortable with your direction. If they're unhappy with the design on the trucks they're driving, it could affect their motivation. ConclusionHow you handle some of your key truck graphics decisions depends on your current marketing materials, your company's personality, the size of your vehicles and more, so be sure to consider the big picture when creating the perfect picture for your trucks.Ed Cerier is the Marketing Strategist for Nexstar Network®, a world class business development and best practices organization that provides business training, systems and support to independent home service providers in the plumbing, electrical and HVAC trades. Nexstar members get rapid results, guided by experienced coaches, surefire systems and incredible peer connections. For more information, visit www.nexstarnetwork.com.

By ShuBee Customer Care

Financial Management 201

When I was a college student, I got an ‘A' in my Accounting 101 and 201 classes. Then I entered the "real" world and almost SUNK the family business because I had no idea what I was doing with the "real" accounting. You see, the examples in the college text book used financials that were correct. That means, the dollar amounts in the accounts could be trusted, and were assumed current and accurate. The "Real" World… Well, when I took a swing at entering my accounting data I made a big "Slinky knot" mess out of my Peachtree accounting file. Ooops. I didn't learn how to FIX my accounting in college. That would have been useful! I learned what I know from falling in holes and climbing out of them. As a business consultant, I see lots of financial reports. Most of them have a few "Slinky knots" in them…accounts that are just wrong. The data in those accounts are the result of mistakes in data entry. In my consulting work, I start by helping my clients get to KFP – a KNOWN Financial Position. Let's get the accounting correct. That's the first step. From there, we can see the impact of operational, marketing and sales behaviors. The good news is that you can always improve your financial situation once you know what it is. I am kind of like Super Nanny. I show up, we work together to clean up the accounting and we put simple systems, routines in place to help you stay at a KFP. Sometimes, we clean stuff up and then it gets messy again. Just like Super Nanny, I go away after my consulting visit. It is up to my clients to maintain the systems we put in place. I can always come back and I often help over the phone. However, the key to staying at KFP is your willingness to learn enough about the accounting systems to enter data properly and to fix things when they get balled up. If you are the owner of a very small shop, you might be the Financial Manager of your company (as well as the Service Manager and Marketing Manager and Salesperson, etc.) That's the way it goes. If you dream of being a bigger shop, take heart that every big company was once just your size. The way out…is through. Take responsibility and do a good job as the Financial Manager. Quit looking for a magical solution (accounting fairy?) who will handle the accounting for you. Learn how to do it yourself and document your basic procedures. This will help you hand off the accounting duties successfully. In larger shops, sometimes the accounting duties get handed to… The Financial Manager The Office Manager The owner's wife, mom, daughter (other relative) The Bookkeeper The Secretary The "Girl in the Office" Whatever YOUR title, if you are the one who is responsible for the financial information at your company, I am here to help you. The following are a few tips and tricks for finding and fixing the "Slinky knot" messes in your accounting program. Financial Fix Tips and Tricks… It's probably YOU.I often hear something along these lines, "That number wasn't there yesterday. It must be a QuickBooks problem." That weird dollar amount in your financial reports probably has a very simple explanation. Somebody, maybe you, entered that information. In every accounting software program, there are debits and credits. Sometimes the debits and credits are not visible from the data entry screen. You will have to do some digging. Follow the flow of information from the entry point to the Income Statement (aka Profit&Loss or P&L;) and/or Balance Sheet. (In my lengthy career, there have been only 2 cases where the accounting program was corrupt. Chances are…YOU are the problem.  Start trouble-shooting from that assumption.) Stay current with your financial reporting.I recommend a WEEKLY review of the Balance Sheet and Income Statement. Some contractors I know get daily reports. That's great! Once a year at tax time is just not going to cut it. Get to KFP and run the financial reports at least once a week. It is so much easier to find and fix a mistake that happened in the last few days than trying to track down something goofy from six months ago. Also, you can fix the mistake in the current month. That is better than having to re-open a previous month and adjust it. Once I "close" a month, I don't like to open it again. Go line by line down the Balance Sheet and Income Statementand look for "weird" things. If you are just getting started with this process, I can help. Or, your accountant may help you learn what's "weird" and what's right. What a great opportunity for him or her to add value to your relationship. KFP means that every account is RIGHT. It reflects what you have in Assets, what you owe in Liabilities and what you own in Equity. The Sales account should equal what you have sold for that period of time. The Expenses should reflect what you have expensed for that period of time. The financial reports should be current and true. Here's a list of "weird" things that may need some fixing… 1. A dollar amount that is positive when it was negative last time (or vice versa.)2. A negative Asset. (Unless it is Accumulated Depreciation or Amortization. Those numbers are "contra" accounts and serve to reduce the value of the associated assets.)3. A negative Liability. Pay particular attention to your Payroll liabilities. I recommend using a Payroll service like ADP or Paychex. The number one reason: The service handles the liability so you don't have to. The service will tell you what the cash requirements are to pay your team and Uncle Sam. They will do the tax payments for you. The Journal Entry to enter Payroll is much easier if you don't have to keep track of the appropriate liabilities and payments. I attached a sample JE for entering Payroll. Follow the flow of debits and credits. You could create a sample transaction for your Payroll procedure and reference it every time you enter Payroll.4. A negative Sales account (unless it is the Customer Refunds or Discounts…contra accounts.)5. A negative Expense account. Now, an account may look weird but be right. For instance, if you enter a rebate for your Insurance it will show up as a negative expense for that month. Drill down and make sure. 6. An account that is very different from last week or last month. If all of a sudden your Advertising expense went from about $2,500 per month to $300,000 this month, drill down. Something may have been miscoded.7. Have your accountant help you make the weird things right with an appropriate Journal Entry or reversing entry.8. Find out how it got weird, if you can, and update the data entry procedure. Written procedures are KEY to staying at KFP.9. If you don't know how it got weird, at least get it to right. If it is a small dollar amount, create an adjusting entry and watch to make sure it doesn't get weird again. If it does…look through the previous week's transactions for that account to find the entry. This is forensic accounting!10. If you do this once a week, YOU will get intimately familiar with the accounts and the dollar amounts. You will become an expert in what looks right and what looks "weird" and how to fix the weird stuff. Run a transaction register report and look for the debits and credits.Different accounting programs call this report by different names. Look for the detail trial balance or the General Ledger journal to find the "guts" of every transaction. Double entry accounting is based on the universal law of "what goes around comes around." If something goes up, something else goes up or goes down by that amount. Debits and credits are the mechanics in the accounting system that cause the dollar amounts to go up and down…and the Balance Sheet to stay in balance. There are debits and credits behind every data entry screen. You can also affect accounts directly by creating a Journal Entry. I attached a "cheat sheet" of Debit and Credit rules. I reference this several times a week. Look for before-and-after differences. If you are not sure of what is happening at a particular data entry point, try this: 1. Run the Balance Sheet and Income Statement. 2. Enter ONE transaction. Run the Balance Sheet and Income Statement again and see if you can see where the dollar amounts ended up. (Make sure no one else is in the accounting system while you do this.)3. This is a street smart way to discover the "set up" behind the data entry screen. To recode, delete or reverse a transaction?It depends on your accounting program. With a basic off-the-shelf program like QuickBooks, MYOB or Peachtree, you can drill down to the transaction that needs to be fixed and recode it. Or, you can delete the transaction entirely and try again. With a more sophisticated industry-specific program like Successware, Ergos, etc. you may have to enter a transaction that reverses your original transaction and then re-enter the transaction properly. Be careful with your initial company set up.That's where a lot of the behind the scenes accounting is created. If you are entering Service Sales and the dollar amount is showing up as Service Agreement Sales there may be an "item" or other set up instruction that is sending the information to the wrong sales account. Go to Company Set Up or the Items list and do some investigating. Figure out the default debits and credits and which accounts are affected. Update the "set up" and see if that fixes the problem. Get bossy with your software support team.Call for help as you need it. If you don't understand what they are telling you to do, ask again for a clearer explanation. If they want to fix something for you, sit in as they do the correction so you can "follow the flow" of the debits and credits and learn from the experience. The more you know about your particular accounting software the less intimidated you will be by the accounting processes. Be assertive with your CPA or tax preparer.At the end of each quarter, take the time to make sure that your financials agree with the financial information your CPA is sending to Uncle Sam. Work together to enter the year-end Journal Entries needed to bring your accounting system up to accurate. Learn to trust your intuition.As your understanding of double entry accounting increases, trust your gut feeling that a dollar amount is wrong or "weird." So often, I help someone fix a "Slinky knot" and they respond, "I thought that might be the problem!" If you have that thought, follow it and see what you uncover. If it is your responsibility to get the financial "Slinky knot" untangled, take a deep breath and know this: You can do it. You may need some help. Contact me if you feel overwhelmed and we'll set up a time to visit on the phone. This accounting stuff is just not that hard once you learn the lingo and accounting basics. One of the smartest Financial Managers I know is working with an 8th grade education. Once you get a handle on them, you can delegate the accounting tasks. It is a blessing to have done the accounting yourself because you will never be held hostage by your bookkeeper (or "girl in the office.") You can coach someone to be even better than you were at the basic accounting tasks. And you will understand the Balance Sheet and Income Statement so much better for the experience. Momma knows best… My son, Max, is taking a beginning accounting class this semester. Already, he is bogged down with fancy, once-in-a-blue moon, accounting test questions. It would be so much better if his professor took this time to teach his students how to set up a simple accounting program for a business they may actually run someday. It would be so cool if he showed them how to assemble and FIX the financial reports…addressing just the basic transactions: Entering Sales Applying Customer Payments Making the Deposit Entering Bills Paying Bills Entering Payroll Reconciling the bank accounts That covers about 90% of all the data entry. If those things were done properly, your financials would be pretty solid. I suggest you, dear Office Manager, work with your team to create written procedures for those transactions. You probably need an accountant to help you with the fancier transactions… Entering a new vehicle or other asset Recording the sale of a vehicle or other asset Regular Depreciation expense Beginning Balances for a new company Year End adjustments to reflect your Tax Return information So, why bother teaching how to do those kinds of transactions in beginning accounting classes? I suppose the accounting teacher is just showing off? What about teaching readily USEFUL accounting information? Sigh. And, it would be really cool if the teacher showed the kids how to READ the Balance Sheet and Income Statement. Taught them how to USE the information to create a winning Selling Price strategy. Taught them how to set Goals with a simple Budget. Showed them how to KNOW when you have become a millionaire. Accounting is the scorekeeping in the great game of business. Kids of all ages like games and like to keep score. Why not make it…FUN? I sent Max this article and a copy of my book, "Where Did the Money Go? – Easy Accounting Basics for the Business Owner Who Hates Numbers" Sometimes Momma knows best.

By ShuBee Customer Care

Change the Way You Calculate Labor

For too long, service and repair contractors have been "winging it" by charging for time and materials based on the going market rate. As a result, our industry has one of the lousiest profit margins of any in the business world – an average of about 3%. But the NAPHCC Service and Repair Calculator is designed to change this sad situation. This revolutionary workbook helps you earn high profits by forcing you to sit down and determine what it costs to run your business.Let's face it – it's a lost cause trying to determine your overhead costs by following the blind competition. You have to figure out your own overhead costs, and the Service and Repair Calculator is a tool that shows you how to find out your actual cost of doing business. Although this manual is set up to calculate flat rate or total menu pricing, the contractor who uses time and materials system will benefit too, because it eliminates guesswork. It is virtually impossible to lose money when the instructions in the calculator are followed. It is the consensus of many contractors that the calculator represents a roadmap for the shortcut to prosperity. Personally, I strongly favor total menu pricing, and I am being joined by a growing number of contractors from around the country. Among them are my colleagues on the NAPHCC Management Education Committee, who worked on this Service and Repair Calculator project. Serving on the committee with me were George Brazil, Rich Tretheway, Bob Kruetzer, Jack McCarthy, Paul D'Agostino, Sal Scalzo and Allen Inlow. We created the Service and Repair Calculator in response to a multitude of requests from NAPHCC membership. We spent hundreds of hours developing this manual, and it is a fine example of how a trade association can work together for its constituents. Labor calculators have been used by the new construction sector for decades, but we believe that this is the first calculator created specifically for the service and repair contractor. The First Step:The beauty of the Service and Repair Calculator is its simplicity. The easy-to-follow format helps you figure out the most important element of cost analysis – the breakeven or "static point" of each job. Determining your static point is the first step on the road to profitability. But before you can arrive at this juncture, you must identify your dollar-per-hour labor, dollar-per-hour overhead and net material costs. Dollar-per-hour direct labor cost must include all fringe benefits associated with direct labor. Dollar-per-hour overhead is determined by simply dividing total overhead dollar expenditure in a given period by the amount of hours sold during that period. For example, $200,000 overhead divided by 6,000 hours sold is $33.33 per hour overhead. All material costs should be identified at "net cost" – after all discounts have been deducted. Obtain this information from pricing sheets or by calling your supplier. The static point is the sum of dollar-per-hour direct labor cost, dollar-per-hour overhead and net cost of material. By knowing your static point, you can clearly see where you make or lose money. A job sold for less than your static point is money from your pocket, and anything over is money in your pocket. The selling price of a job is determined by dividing the static point by the difference between 100% (installed price) and your net profit goal. So if your net profit goal is 20% your static point is 80% of the installed price. Let's say your direct labor cost (wages plus benefits) is $30 an hour. Add this to a $33 an hour overhead cost and $37 material cost, and you've got a static point of $100, which is 80% of X, your installed price. Draw the equation so X equals $100 over .80. This represents the $100 being divided by .80, equaling $125 – the installed price. Then you take your installed price of $125 and multiply it by your net profit goal of 20%, which equals $25 net profit. If you multiply your installed price ($125) by your static point (.80), it produces your breakeven figure ($100). This example is displayed in the manual's instructions. All dollar amounts shown in the manual are for teaching purposes only and are not intended to suggest actual uniform costs or net profit goal. Pricing Grid:It won't take long for you to become proficient at your cost calculations, and the next step is to apply them to the book's pricing grid. The grid's purpose is to help you understand how overhead impacts your net profit goal. The manual is divided into 12 sections according to product type. For instance, the first section is for bathtubs and showers and has 24 pages. At the top of each grid is the product description, such as "Cast Iron Recess Bathtub." The grid consists of several columns. The far left column has three headings – Manufacturer, Model and Description. The next column is Regular and Premium pricing, followed by Code, Material Cost (MC) and Breakeven columns. Listed horizontally in the first column are product characteristics. For a bathtub, this would include dimension and color. The next column is for listing prices – regular is straight time, premium is overtime. The code lists a guide representing how many hours it takes to install or repair the product. This is an average derived from hundreds of installations. However, these numbers aren't cared in granite – they should be adapted to each contractor's experience. Sample pages at the front of the book feature two versions of the grid – one for the office, another for the field. The pages in the body of the book are for office use only because they include code, materials and breakeven columns. I recommend that the field version only contain the product and price columns, so your service technician shows the customer just the job price. You don't need to break down your costs for the customer, because the final price is all he wants to know anyway. Serious Offers Only:The Service and Repair Calculator encourages the contractor to shift from a pricing system that picks numbers out of thin air to one of precision and profitability. But in order to make this transition, the contractor must be committed to making fundamental changes in his approach to business. So don't bother ordering this book is you are going to continue doing business as "the world's best pipe wrench artist." Because if you don't sit down and start to do some serious numbers crunching, the book will be useless to you.

By ShuBee Customer Care

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