Global Urban Symposium

Archive for September, 2009

When you think economy, big buildings and executive types in conference rooms are usually the pictures that come to mind. Surprisingly though, it is not the big businesses that fuel the economy. It is the small and medium sized industries that contribute the most to the economy. These small businesses are defined as firms with fewer than 500 employees. The main driving force behind this is that these kinds of businesses are able to provide jobs for much of the private workforce.

This is the reason why entrepreneurship is highly encouraged. This is because small businesses have the capacity to be creative and productive and they are present in virtually every neighborhood. It is also in entrepreneurship that people can engage in what they really love to do. For instance, included in these small scale businesses are the restaurants, hobby places, and bookstores. You can usually tell that the proprietors started their enterprises because it is something that they are really interested in and passionate about. These are definitely felt by the customers who go to their places.

People who own and manage their own businesses are also known to take pride in their work as it usually carries their name or their family’s. Hence they are sticklers for quality and efficiency in their work. In addition, they are more capable of providing personalized and customized, high-quality products and services, something that big companies are reluctant or incapable of doing. Think twice then before joining the rat race you may want to put up your own business instead.

Budgeting is synonymous to planning. This means that the budget is made up of different steps that have to be followed. If not, the plan will not work for you. Following a budget requires patience, conscientiousness, and consistency. Once you decide to stick to it, you will definitely reap the financial benefits and even have peace of mind because you know that you are managing your money well.

There are three simple steps to establishing a budget. The first step is to track your income and your expenses. This is the foremost information that you will base your plan on. Collect all your bank statements, credit card statements, receipts, and all your cash. The reason behind this is that you need to know how much money you are making and where it’s being spent. To make this easier, carry around a small notepad where you can list down the expenses as you make them.

Secondly, you have to group your income and expenses into categories. There are downloadable spreadsheets in the internet to help you with this. To give you an idea, the categories could be: groceries, personal supplies, clothing, entertainment, utilities, etc. Beside these, list your expenses per category in a given month. You can then compute for your average monthly income and your average monthly expense.

The third step is to make a budget which is within your income. Because of what you did in step 2, you can actually see if your expenses can be carried by your income. If it is not, then it means you have to cut some corners and make it fit.