How to manage cash flow

As an entrepreneur, in startup, as you scale your business you will be wearing many hats, marketer, dev manager, programmer perhaps and possibly the one many seem to struggle with ... finance manager. As daunting as this sounds it is essential to have a good grasp of the finance function of your business. Understanding how you are going to get your "billion dollar" idea off the ground and actually generate some profit requires a good understanding of managing cashflows. 

Balancing your business cash flow via accounts payable vs. accounts receivable to generate optimum cashflow is a constant struggle. With these tips you you will find ways to balance you accounts and hopefully scale your startup to greater heights. 

Inside An Entrepreneur’s Brain

This is a great infographic presenting fascinating insights into what it actually takes to be an entrepreneur. In my experience, introspection and reflection are vital in developing the mental stamina for the startup journey (along with all the other traits mentioned here).



Source: TopManagementDegrees.com

Entrepreneurship - The Start UP Series

As part of my new Entrepreneurship series - The Start Up, a quick and informative infographic from Guy Kawaski's Enchantment book series. I highly recommend reading Guy's  The Art of the Start, as a budding entrepreneur you cant go wrong with this book. I will be featuring much more of Guy's teachings during this series along with other inspirational entrepreneurs, VC's and gurus in the tech and business world....

NFC – What is it and how will it help you?

NFC or Near Field Communication sprang from the idea that Sony and NXP dreamt up, which allows two devices (with an embedded chip) to transmit data between each other, when they are in close proximity.  Sounds very much like RFID or Bluetooth, you’re saying? NFC is based on the same technology as RFID, using a similar type of chip but takes it to another level using some computing power. Typically a mobile phone or some sort of hardware and software. 

The possible uses of NFC technology are endless, payments being one example. Imagine replacing all your cards in your wallet, your ID document, driver’s license, gym card, loyalty cards, well even your wallet. Sharing files, unlocking your hotel room door, store coupons, gift cards, airtime … Sounds exciting when you think about the possibilities.

Although NFC tech has been around for a few years the uptake has been slow, due to many factors but expect to see an expansion in the near future when more mobile manufactures start to include NFC chips in their devices.There is a rumor that the IPhone 6 will have NFC capabilities.There are a few questions of course, like with any new technology – security for one and hardware and software malfunction being two of the major concerns, however as the technology evolves these issues will surely be resolved. Personally I'm looking forward to the day I can go to cinema, buy my ticket, pay for popcorn,coke and parking all with the swipe of my phone.

The State of the Internet 2011

Created by: Online Schools

The internet has evolved over the last few years, to become virtually irreplaceable in our lives. Can you even contemplate not being able to Google search, tweet or Facebook for a day? With mobile communication the internet goes with us wherever we choose to go, be it on top of a mountain, at work or just laying in bed. We are connected.

Estimates place the age of the internet around 25 years and 11 months. In that short span of time the internet has changed our lives, I believe for the good.  There are some amazing facts and numbers to ponder:

• 35 hours of videos uploaded to YouTube every minute
• Twitter  - 119 million tweets per day
• Time spent on YouTube 5 hours and 50 minutes per month
• Only 20% of Individuals in the developing world are online

 

Play around with this interactive infographic, provided by Online Schools and be amazed at just how the internet has changed our lives and will continue to.

What to expect in iOS 5

Coming up next soon will be the latest iOS update from Apple, and there are over 200!! new features scheduled to be included. This certainly feels like the most dramatic of all the software updates. Here’s a look at some of the more interesting ones:

Notification Centre 

Finally!! I think many  iPhone users found the notifications quite dated compared to Android’s, even my old Sony Erikson’s had a more intuitive and informative UI when it came to notifications and the use of the home screen . Well the wait is over; iOS 5 notification centre aggregates all of your notifications, new email, texts, and friend requests and displays them in the notification centre. The lock screen now also displays notifications and with a swipe you can respond to them or check your voice mail, all from the comfort of the lock screen (awesome)

WI-FI Sync

The ability to sync your IOS device via Wi-Fi and finally lose the ITunes sync (via USB cable) has been a long time coming. I found it really annoying that every time I wanted to add something to my device, I got out the cable, connect and then wait for the backup to run and then eventually I could sync.  All that is required is once off initial setup using the USB cable and you good to go.  In the beta tests it’s worked just as fast as syncing with the USB cable (maybe a bit slower, but negligible)

Cutting the Cord

One of the pet gripes of many Apple haters has been “you need a Mac or PC to use your phone???”. I have to admit, this is one argument that you will find hard to win. Why should you need to setup your phone or tablet by connecting to another device? Well with iOS 5 Apple promises independence for all iOS devices, you can now set up your device wirelessly. You can now update your software and backup and restore your device automatically using iCloud. You get 5GB for free (shared between your I-devices)

iMessage

Goodbye BBM, hello iMessage (well not exactly!) With apps like What’s app and a thousand more, messaging on the Idevices has been around for a while, however with iMessage you can send messages to other idevices over Wi-Fi or 3G. With read and delivery receipts and the very cool feature of being able to pick up your conversation where you left off on different idevices it does seem attractive, especially if you own an iPhone, iPad and IPod.

These are just some of the new features that you can look forward to, if you want a more comprehensive list of features vist TechZoom .