Small Business Matters

Furnishing Your New Office

Finding the Right Desk for the Job

Whether you have moved up to the corner office, need a new desk, or you were just put in charge of shopping for the office furniture, you need the right piece for the job. With so many choices on the market you will want to make a few decisions before heading out. Determine what you need. This may seem like an obvious part of the equation but it is more than just heading to the office supply store believing you simply need a desk.

Look at the space you have available. What will work best in the space? Who is the furniture for? Desks come in all shapes, sizes, and qualities. You can find desks that are true pieces of furniture that will last for years to come. The market is filled with do-it-yourself furniture that comes unassembled and you need to have the time and patience to put it together.

If you are shopping for a high quality piece of furniture, a good place to start is by checking with your local furniture store. Many furniture stores will carry executive desks in a variety of styles, sizes and most will be solid wood. Most of what you will find in the furniture store will be a higher quality.

Executive desks tend to be a very prominent piece of furniture in any space. Desks for executives tend to have a larger desk top surface and most don’t have a hutch.

If you are looking for a computer desk for home or office, you may want to look at L-shaped computer desks, if your space will allow. An L desk, will give you maximum work surface while staying neatly tucked into a corner or against a wall.

These desks are not all made to stand in the corner. The higher-end models fit beautifully into a setting with one side to the wall and the other side facing guests. You will want to look at the desk from all sides to be sure it will work where you need it to. Another consideration when looking at these desks is whether the two sides of the L are interchangeable, can the desk be used with either side facing a wall.

If you are looking for a reception desk you will want to consider what is going to happen in that area. Do you want the desk to be a work surface for the receptionist? Is this to be a place where guests are greeted and have a desk top to fill out paperwork? How much room do you have? There are a variety of styles to choose from that will make any reception area a welcoming spot for clients.

You have been asked to buy tables for the conference room. There are a few things to consider. How many people will you need to seat? What is the budget? What is the shape and size of the room?

There are conferences tables available in a variety of shapes, sizes, and in a wide price range. You many find that the space you have is better suited for long tables. If you need to utilize the room for small group sessions, take a look at round conference tables. These tables can be found in a variety of sizes and will bring a small group together for team exercises, intimate meetings, or anything else you may need to accomplish.

No matter what type of office furniture you are looking for having all the information before you shop will make the job easier, less stressful, and more efficient. 

Product Fulfillment

Starting an online store is an exciting venture. At first the number of orders which come in you  can faithfully package and ship out, no problem. But at some point you realize you are no longer keeping up with demand. It's time to check out product fulfillment centers.

Fulfillment warehouses store your products and inventory and ship them out to customers. They even get the orders direct from your website's store, cutting down on the time between your customer placed the order and it getting shipped out. Because they ship directly to the consumer, direct fulfillment centers ease a lot of the stresses you encounter in timely sending of products.

Which allows you to focus on the part of ecommerce operations you are good at, like inventory management and customer service.

Of course, outsourcing a major part of your business to a fulfillment center is not cheap. Shop around and see how much it costs at various fulfillment centers. If you're having trouble figuring out of the cost is worth it, take all of the costs associated with consumer direct fulfillment and divide by the expected number of sales you expect to ship out. The number you get will be the approximate cost per sale.

A high cost estimate per product isn't necessarily a deal-breaker if your products are naturally expensive to begin with. You can absorb a $15-per-sale charge on a $100 necklace much easier than a $15-per-sale charge on a paperback book that retails less than that. So crunch the numbers and see how feasible a fulfillment center actually is.

If the cost isn't prohibitive, be sure to consider a few more things before jumping right in. In an online market, the consumer judges you on several fronts: how quick was the shipping and did the right item arrive in expected condition? Slow shipping, shipping the wrong item, poor shipping packaging—these are all possible side effects of using a fulfillment center.

Also be sure to consider how returns will be handled—will the fulfillment center employees be able to tell if a product is damaged and able to be resold? Or will you just have to swallow all return costs?

Having your own fulfillment staff often costs less and gives you better control over your products. However, if you don't have space at your location for a ton of backstock, or if your volume of sales requires too large of a staff, product fulfillment is going to be your best bet.

Remember, the product fulfillment center will be your direct link to the online consumer. Just because a center is cheaper than another doesn't mean they will be providing a comparable service. Research each product fulfillment center you're considering.

Fun with Investment Fund Services

Running any kind of investment fund isn’t easy, and with the way the American tax code looks, trying to make it competitively profitable is an almost Herculean task. Fortunately, with the advent of computers you don’t need to rely entirely on your training in accounting and investing to manage the hard data and administration of your accounts. Instead, let the computer do the busy work, and you worry about picking winning stocks.

The first step in developing a winning strategy for portfolio management is implementing a portfolio management system. A systematic approach to how to manage the money in the fund – when you invest, when you liquidate; how much you invest and where; when and how you pay taxes – is essential if you’re going to have any kind of reliability, any kind of rhythm, to your work. Having to scramble from one problem to the next is no way to run a portfolio, after all.

For example, hedge fund administration is often handled through investment fund services. These include lawyers who can identify what finance laws apply to the particular stocks and other investments that make up the hedge fun, as well as accountants who can track the money in its many myriad movements. The truth is, investing has become a complex activity, with a massive industry that has itself spawned several smaller industries to help propel it along the path to obscene wealth.

There are all kinds of caveats you need to worry about when running a fund. For example, what are the FACTA reporting requirements? If the FACTA tax applies to your investments, you’ll want to make sure to pay it, lest the IRS come knocking and your business suddenly become unsustainably unprofitable.

Your investors won’t be very happy with you when all you needed was the services of an accountant who knew finance tax law like the back of their hand. That’s where investment fund services come in: it’s a whole team of accountants, or lawyers, or other fund managers who can put their heads together and help your fund out with their collective experience and wisdom. Your investors will thank you!

So take some of the weight of responsibility off your shoulders, and don’t be afraid to contract some of your work out to investment services. It’ll make your job simpler, more focused, and more satisfying. Not to mention the fact that you’ll also be more profitable, and that’s the business, after all.

Do You Want Shipping Insurance?

Maybe you don't think about it the first time it happens, and maybe not the second time, but eventually you'll realize that you are losing too much money on lost and damaged shipments. If you're looking for a cheaper or easier way to insure your shipments, it might be time to investigate buying shipping insurance.

While it's nice that most major shipping services offer automatic insurance up to a set limit, if you're routinely shipping items worth more than that limit—or you're just frustrated with the barebones insurance offered, it is time to purchase shipping insurance for your business.

Insurance is all about protection. Protecting you against lost packages, damaged packages, and  packages delivered to the wrong place. It is about ensuring you can get fiscal compensation when something goes wrong between you and the people receiving your packages.

If you're going to ship antiques or ship artifacts, often individual items with market-driven values, you'll need to decide how much the item is worth. In a case where you've just sold the item, you will use that. If it is a family piece which you're moving, you may need to have someone appraise the item so you know what to insure it for.

The post office shipping insurance is good if you're only infrequently shipping valuables. Keep in mind, though that, in the United States their insurance only covers up to $100. They do offer other services, however, to help you feel more secure in shipping your items through them. For example, you can get it sent registered mail, which is a safer, more secure method of shipping. If you're shipping documents of a legal nature you'll like want to use registered mail.

With the multiple options for shipping today, you can ship gold coins or cars or anything else you can think of. Even delicate operations like shipping clocks is possible.

There are movers and shipping companies who specialize in shipping these more costly and delicate items. There are whole companies dedicated to safe, effective shipping of antiques and fine art. Between insurance and smart utilization of available shipping companies, you can safely protect your investment.