Stage 2: Survival

• Often, businesses in the survival stage are struggling to pay their bills.

Businesses at the Survival Stage of Business Growth usually started off very fast, but without an established infrastructure.

As a result:

• No processes were established
• No policies and procedures were written
• The business owner is busy “putting out fires”

Guidestar Accounting and Business Solutions will come in and research ways your business can:

• work more efficiently
• establish processes
• establish policies and procedures
• all so that your business can be more productive and, consequently, generate more income.

We look at your Marketing Strategies:

• How do customers find your business?
• How effective is your website?
• Does your website need search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
• Does your website need a video? (very helpful for SEO)
• Does your website need a logo or better graphics?
• Do you need effective (perhaps more professional) business cards?

We look at your Accounting Status:

• What is your tax position?
• Are you headed for a big tax bill?
• What can be done for tax savings?
• We clean up your numbers:
• We determine the break-even numbers for your business
• We reconcile your bank accounts
• We look for unnecessary expense (such as non-sufficient funds fees [NSF fees])
• We look at the return on your expenses, such as advertising (simply cutting expenses on Yellow-page ads and shifting a portion of that expense to SEO can be MUCH more profitable and MUCH less expensive).
• We analyze profit/loss and examine your balance sheet.
• We create budgets for your changing business needs.
• We develop new cash flow projections.
• We rework your business plan so it continues to be a roadmap to successful financial goals.
• We keep you up-to-date on tax and payroll issues.