ANEKA PRODUK

Kami adalah perusahaan Product Development dan Eksportir berbagai macam produk: Kerajinan, Furniture, Art Design, Interior design, Home Accessories, Lukisan, Jewellery, dan produk-produk seni lainnya.

Contact Us:

Cheetah Art Design

Alamat:
Dk. Kaliurang Rt. 02 Argomulyo Sedayu Bantul
Yogyakarta-INDONESIA 55753
Phone: 0274-8254869 /081.568.05.286

cheetah.art.design@gmail.com
www.cheetah-artdesign.com

Cost of Goods Sold for an Arts or Crafts Merchandising Business

By Maire Loughran, About.com Guide

An arts or crafts merchandiser is a retail business like a craft boutique, craft supply store or art gallery. The arts and crafts merchandising business purchases goods from another artist or crafter and in turn sells the handcrafted items to the end user - a consumer like you or me. Another good example is a bead shop who purchases beads in bulk from a supplier and sells them to other artists and crafters or hobbyists.

If buying from other artists or crafters and reselling these items through your craft business is part of the way you operate, here's how you reflect these purchases on your income statement in your cost of goods sold.

Arts or Crafts Beginning Inventory

Figuring COGS for a merchandiser starts with beginning inventory, which are goods you have available for sale at the beginning of the month (in other words, the leftover inventory from the prior month). Many small artists and crafters don't take an inventory at the end of each month. Instead, they kind of eyeball their inventory and come up with a rough estimate. This is perfectly alright for interim financial statements. But when you are doing your financial statement at year-end, you should take an actual physical inventory so for an accurate count.

Arts or Crafts Cost of Purchases

Next, you have to figure the cost of purchases. To do so, you add together two items:

1. Any new merchandise you buys from other artists and crafters during the current month.
2. And any shipping expense your business incurs in order to get the merchandise purchases from the handcrafter to your location. For example, if purchases for the month of April are $125,000 and freight-in is $10,500, your cost of purchases is $135,500.

Arts or Crafts Net Purchases

Your next step is to figure net purchases, which means cost of purchases less contra purchases. Two contra purchase accounts exist:

1. Purchase discounts which are discount a you receive from the handcrafter because you pays a their invoice early.
2. And, purchase returns and allowances which consists of items a you might order from a handcrafter that you end up returning. This might happen if an order arrives too late to use, arrives damaged, or doesn't contain what you actually ordered.

Figure purchase discounts being $5,000 and purchase returns and allowances equaling $7,000. Your net purchases amount is $123,500.

Arts or Crafts Cost of Goods Available for Sale

Adding net purchases to beginning inventory gives you cost of goods available for sale. So if beginning inventory is $5,000, costs of goods available for sale is $128,500 ($123,500 plus $5,000).

Arts or Crafts Merchandising Business Cost of Goods Sold

Okay, just one more calculation! Subtract ending inventory, which is the merchandise you still have available for sale on the last day of the accounting period, from cost of goods available for sale. Then you have your cost of goods sold! Continuing our example, if ending inventory is $10,000, your cost of goods sold is $118,500 ($128,500 minus $10,000).

Tiga Pilar Teknologi Informasi Mendatang

Reference: www.kompas.com
Selasa, 3 Agustus 2010 | 19:57 WIB

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — Nanoteknologi, embedded system, dan mekatronika merupakan komponen yang bakal berperan penting dalam kehidupan manusia seiring berkembangnya teknologi informasi. Kehadiran tiga komponen tersebut meningkatkan kemampuan berbagai aspek produk sarat teknologi.

"Nanoteknologi adalah ilmu dan teknik menyusun dan mengendalikan atom demi atom atau molekul demi molekul untuk membuat new world," ucap Arko Djajadi, dosen Departemen Mekatronika Swiss German University, dalam Seminar Nasional Nanoteknologi, Selasa (3/8/2010) di Gedung Badan Penerapan dan Pengembangan Teknologi (BPPT), Jakarta.

Menurutnya, seperti dimuat di majalah Forbes, dengan tema "Get Ready For The Age of Nanotechnology", dikatakan bahwa nanoteknologi telah dan akan menjadi bagian utama dari elektronika, penyimpanan data, dan komputasi generasi baru. "Sekarang harddisk 20 GB sudah biasa. Dulu pakai surat, sekarang mana ada?" terangnya.

Sementara itu, embedded system adalah sistem pemroses informasi yang melekat, tetapi biasanya tidak tampak pada hampir setiap produk, di mana alasan utama pembelian produk bukan sistem informasinya, tetapi produk itu sendiri. "Yang menjadi kemampuan dari sebuah produk itu prosesornya, namun yang menjadi alasan kita beli itu adalah produknya itu sendiri, bukan prosesornya," jelasnya.

Diungkapkannya, embedded system disebut juga ambient intelligent, post-PC era, pervasive computing, ubiquotus computing. Namun, dalam hal tersebut embedded system merupakan tulang punggung (fundamental) dari kesemua hal tersebut. Sebagai contoh, mobil mewah mempunyai lebih dari 100 prosesor di dalamnya.

Dijelaskan juga, mekatronika adalah sinergi antara disiplin ilmu dan rekayasa bidang mekanika, elektronika, komputer, dan kontrol sebagai sebuah sistem. "Kesinergian tersebut untuk menyelesaikan berbagai problema yang menuntut penerapan bidang-bidang tersebut secara padu," tuturnya.

Menurutnya, mekatronika yang telah menyatu dengan embedded system akan memiliki wajah baru era revolusi nanoteknologi yang akan mewarnai kehidupan manusia hingga lima dekade mendatang.

Newbie Craft Show Exhibitor Advice

While this advice is relevant to established arts and crafts business owners, it's particularly useful for brand new startups. Part of the whole gig for many arts and crafts business owners is exhibiting at craft shows. Before you decide to whether to participate in a particular arts and crafts show, try to attend it as a shopper. Then you can eyeball the crowd and perhaps find a participating vendors who will share with you their impression of how worthwhile the show is to attend.

Of course, take all of this with a grain of salt. Some artists and crafters may not want to encourage any additional competition or they may just have a booth layout that doesn't encourage sales. While their experience may not be all that great, the show itself may be a winner for you.

One of my latest articles hi-lights taking the opportunity to add some holiday crafts to your product line for craft shows in 4th quarter. And here's some just posted info about the Holiday Arts and Crafts show at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, OH.

Letting Your Online Customers Know How You Do Business

Arts and Craft Ecommerce Business Policy Page
By Maire Loughran, About.com Guide

I do a lot of my shopping via the Web. Whenever I'm tempted to purchase from an unfamiliar online vendor, my first step is to check out their policies page. I like to know all the details of how they process orders and most importantly, the shop's return policy. While Ecommerce has been popular for about the last 15 years, I still run across vendors with an incomplete or non-existent policy page - a fact that I am sure is costing them sales.

Now, turning the table around and looking at it from the business savvy vendor's point of view: having a good policy page reduces unnecessary customer emails. Not being a grouch, but any email correspondence I can reduce by answering my potential customer's questions before they have to ask it is more time that I can use building my business. Additionally I want my customer to be happy and confident while placing an order with my business.

If you sell your arts and crafts online, here is a sample of the type of items you should be addressing in your arts and crafts policy page. Obviously, the type of product you sell will dictate if you need to state your policies on additional issues.

Payment Processing

Tailor these to whatever payment forms you accept. I personally find it too much work to accept checks. You have to hold onto the order for a certain number of days (I suggest 14 business after you've deposited the check) to make sure it clears. PayPal is so easy and stress-free to use, I can't see why anyone wanting to conduct an online transaction would want to use a paper payment.

Here's my payment processing policy:

Maire Loughran accepts the following forms of payment:

* MasterCard
* VISA
* American Express
* Discover
* PayPal

We do not accept payment by check, money order or send orders COD. All payments are processed through our shopping cart using state-of-the-art SSL encryption.

Returns

I have never handcrafted anything that couldn’t be returned for health and safety reasons or because it was customized, so I’ve always had a no questions asked return policy. If your shop policies differ, you have to make sure your customer is well aware of that fact.

Here’s my return policy:

MAIRE LOUGHRAN HAS A NO QUESTIONS ASKED RETURN POLICY IF WITHIN FOURTEEN DAYS OF RECEIPT, VERIFIED THROUGH UPS, FEDEX OR USPS TRACKING, YOU RETURN YOUR PURCHASE.

Our returns address:

Maire Loughran P.O. Box XXXX Chicago, IL 31839

We do recommend however that you ship it back via USPS with Delivery Confirmation. This is done at www.usps.com. As soon as we receive your order (in its originally shipped condition), you will receive a full refund less the amount Maire Loughran originally paid for shipping. Refunds will be processed in the same manner as the original payment.

After fourteen days and up to thirty days you may return your order for shop credit – also less Maire Loughran’s hard cost for shipping.

We do not accept returns after thirty days.

Shipping

Finally, I also like to let my customers know how I ship. Some customers prefer their purchase to be shipped by a certain carrier. If that's the case, then they can email me to make different arrangements. Remember, it's all about making the customer happy and confident so they'll press that "Place Order" button!

Here is my shipping policy:

To United States addresses:

Free shipping to United States addresses - All items are shipped UPS Ground, FEDEX Ground or USPS Priority Mail within four days of order at no additional charge to you. Please email me at maire@maireloughran.com for any special shipping arrangements.

Other than United States ship-to addresses and for expedited shipping: Email maire@maireloughran.com for more information on cost and availability.

Sales Tax
Ah - the contentenious sales tax issue. Right now, online vendors don't have to collect sales tax for any purchase shipped to a state in which they don't have a physical presence. (Although, please verify that with your state Department of Revenue to make sure they haven't changed the rules). If my business is located in Illinois, I collect and remit sales tax for any purchases shipped to Illinois addresses only. I build this tax into my sales price.

Here is my sales tax policy:

Maire Loughran is responsible for this tax and remits it to all affected states at the appropriate rate.

Privacy Policy
This is very important. Your customers want to know that their personal information is safe and that you won't be selling it to any other vendors.

Here is my privacy policy:

Contact information including email address, telephone number, address, etc. which is provided by the user is used solely for completing the order. This includes information pertaining to gift recipients.

We do not use this information to compile a mailing list nor do we sell the information. Once your order is shipped, your order information is securely filed for tax return purposes and shredded after three years.

Of course, these policies are just suggestions. Modify and add to them as you see fit for your arts and crafts business.

Seven Keys to Growing Your Business

From Entrepreneur.com's Grow Your Biz Center

This is the first part of a two-part series on growing your business. For more ways to increase your profits, click here.

Your ability to think, analyze and decide is the key determining factor of your profitability. To help you sharpen this ability, here are some key principles for business success that are relevant and important at every stage of your business life. If ever you aren't happy with the business results you're getting, revisit these key points.

1. The Product Must Satisfy an Immediate Need
The first principle to consider in selecting any new product or service is to determine if it fills a genuine, existing need that customers have right now. A new product or service must solve a problem of some kind for the customer or make the life or work of the customer better in a cost-effective way. You must be very clear, from the beginning, about exactly what your product or service does to improve the quality of the life or work of your customer.

2. Offer Good Quality at a Fair Price
The second principle for business success with any product or service is that it must be of good quality at a fair price. If it's in competition with other similar products or services, it must have what's called a Unique Selling Proposition—one or more features or benefits that make it unique, different and superior to any competitive product or service.

This area of uniqueness is central to success in business. No product or service can succeed unless it's somehow unique and superior to any other product or service that competes with it. There's seldom any opportunity to build a business around a "me too" product—a product or service that's just the same as all the others, where the only difference is that it's you who happens to be selling it.

The safest business strategy is to start off with an accepted product that already has a widespread market and then find a way to improve upon it in some way. Deliver it faster, make it better or of higher quality, or lower the price of the product or service in some way. Instead of trying to invent a new business or industry, start off with a product or service that people are already using and find some way to make it more desirable.

3. Be Careful With Your Money
The third principle for business success is tight financial controls and good budgeting. Successful companies use accurate bookkeeping and accounting systems. They put these systems in place at the very beginning and carefully record penny they spend.

Even the largest multi-national companies—those that do billions of dollars in sales each year—tend to be very careful with their expenditures. They're constantly looking for ways to cut costs while maintaining the same level of quality. They focus on frugality at all times.

4. Cash Flow Is Essential
Especially with a small business, you must hold onto your cash as a drowning man would hold on to a life preserver. Cash is the lifeblood of the business. Cash flow is a critical measure and determining factor of business success. All successful entrepreneurs install careful financial controls and monitor them every day. They carefully consider every expenditure. They take the time to analyze the use of every dollar. They work from detailed budgets and they review them every week and every month.

The basic rule for entrepreneurial success is this: only spend money to earn money. In business there are only two categories: revenue and expense. The basic rule for running your business is "If it's not revenue, it's expense!"

5. Guard Your Cash Carefully
One key to business survival, with regard to your operations, is "frugality, frugality, frugality." Once I worked for a man who had started with nothing and built an $800 million dollar business empire by the time he was 55. I was amazed to see that he ate lunch at a small diner across the street from the office, and drove a used car. He delighted in saving money.

Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, when he was worth more than $25 billion dollars, still drove his own pick-up truck to and from work. This attitude of frugality from the top permeated every aspect of Wal-Mart all the way down and throughout every department. The practice of frugality assured that the business was profitable, year after year.

6. Maximize Your Marketing
Perhaps one of the most important principles for business success is strong momentum in the sales department. This requires an emphasis on marketing that permeates the entire organization. Everybody must think about selling and satisfying customers all day long.

What's the purpose of a business? Some people say that it's to "make a profit." But this isn't correct. The true purpose of a business is to "create and keep a customer." Profits are the result of creating and keeping a sufficient number of customers in a cost-effective way. All emphasis has to be on creating and keeping customers.

7. Selling Is the Core Skill of a Successful Business
The keys to business success are simple. With regard to the product, the keys are to "Sell! Sell! Sell!" One of the most important single skills you must develop for succeeding in your own business is the ability to sell yourself and your product to your customers.

In fact, the ability to sell is one of the key skills for a successful life. With very few exceptions, all successful businesses begin with a single person who's excited about the product and who's very good at selling it to others. He likes the product so much that he can hardly wait to talk to other people about it. He's eager to make new customer contacts. But where there's no sales expertise, the finest product or service will fail.

Brian Tracy is the "Success Secrets" coach at Entrepreneur.com and one of America's leading authorities on entrepreneurial development. He's produced more than 300 audio and video learning programs that cover the entire spectrum of human and corporate performance through his company, Brian Tracy International. Copyright © 2006 Entrepreneur.com, Inc. All rights reserved.

Reference: http://www.score.org/keys_to_growing_business.html

5 Tips for Effective Business Planning

1.Clearly define your business idea and be able to succinctly articulate it. Know your mission.

2.Examine your motives. Make sure that you have a passion for owning a business and for this particular business.

3.Be willing to commit to the hours, discipline, continuous learning and the frustrations of owning your own business.

4.Conduct a competitive analysis in your market, including products, prices, promotions, advertising, distribution, quality, service, and be aware of the outside influences that affect your business.

5.Seek help from other small businesses, vendors, professionals, government agencies, employees, trade associations and trade shows. Be alert, ask questions, and visit your local SCORE office.

Reference: http://www.score.org/5_tips_bp_1.html