Back From Break - Time to Get Ahead

I hope you all enjoyed a fun and restful Thanksgiving break.  My family and I have had a great weekend and I look forward to getting back to school on Monday.  With only two weeks before semester exams, many tend to ease up on things and take it slow before Winter Break.  During this time, the most successful people take advantage of the laziness of others and pull ahead while others lag behind.  By working hard these next two weeks, we will continue moving Pick-It Sweets & Treats to the top of the Virtual Network. 

This week, we are going to do things a little differently.  Due to our amazing success at the Trade Fair this year, amassing almost $100,000 MORE revenue than our anticipated sales goal of $84,000, we have been able to catch up on the lack of sales made during class in the weeks leading up to our trip. 

While we will still focus on pushing our sales forward (CEO and others have worked on brokering partnerships with other businesses), we should also focus on buying from other businesses.  In the real world, when you have discretionary income, you should purchase things that you want.  Given that any money you have left at the end of the year gets drained from your personal bank account anyway, once you’ve purchased everything you need, you should spend your remaining money on things that might interest you.  This drives the economy and the process of purchasing can help you make contacts with other businesses.

That said, each day this week, one of our objectives will be to make a purchase on the VE Network.  Below you will see from whom each purchase will be made each day:

Monday – A business you remember from the Trade Fair

Tuesday – Another business you remember from the Trade Fair

Wednesday – A firm outside of Tennessee

Thursday – A firm outside of the United States

Friday – Everyone in class decides upon a single firm from whom we will all make a purchase

Each day you make a purchase, you are to actually pay for your purchase immediately, using your own money and transferring funds by adding a payee from your bank account.  If you have any trouble figuring out this process, please consult with someone from Accounting/Finance, as that entire department has experience using this feature in the Portal.  After you have paid for your product/service, you then must email the firm directly, thanking them for providing you with something you wanted AND encouraging them to visit our website to find products/services of ours that might interest them.  You will request that they email you directly if they have any issues finalizing a purchase on our site.  This will ensure that we close the deal on the sale and receive payment.

In addition to purchasing goods on the network, we have a lot of other tasks to tend to.  The most daunting task that must get done this week is handling inventory records, purchases and sales journal entries, and handling payroll properly.  Next, we also have to improve upon our weekly newsletter.  Each week, there is progress on this project, but there is still a long way for us to go.  Another project that we need to start is an electronic catalog of our products/services.  This will be an ongoing project that should take approximately two weeks to complete, so the deadline for this will be 12/12/14.  Finally, we will need to make sure we are moving forward with the best looking website possible.  We need to make sure the site is easy to navigate, user-friendly for purchases, and has a well-functioning shopping cart that generates a follow-up email confirming details of the purchase.  This will help sales and finance stay on top of accounts receivable.

Below is a breakdown of tasks to be completed by department:

Accounting/Finance (plus M Lewis and E Kleinhans)

• Make sure purchases and cash payments journals are accurate for our previous purchase and payment for starting inventory
• Complete sales journal entries for each sale at Trade Fair
• Your receipts (see receipt book from Trade Fair) are your source documents for each transaction
• Accounts receivable – Central Bank will be your customer account since the Central Bank is who deposits the money into our account when they’ve seen that our deposits are accurate
• Purchase Inventory to cover amount of goods sold from the Trade Fair
• Complete Purchases Journal entries for all inventory purchased
• Accounts payable – Wholesale Marketplace is vendor
• Pay cash for inventory purchased – from firm bank account
• Complete Cash Payments Journal entry when cash has been paid out
• This should be a single cash payment entry covering all inventory purchased
• Pay employees – please make sure to take out appropriate taxes/insurance withholdings and allowances

IT/Web Design

• Add catering services to website (I’ve been told this has been added already, but have not yet found anything on our home page or website)
• Add new products and services to website – see above for new products/packages and consult with Finance/Sales for details
• Please make sure we have a functioning cart – If you are really at a loss for how to make it work, consult with another firm.  Unfortunately, this is not an area of expertise of mine.
• Work with Sales to complete “Item of the Week” flyer for week of 12/8-12/12
• This flyer will be distributed 12/5 to all on our mailing list

HR/Admin

• Weekly newsletter - Please include: 
• An article about OUR trade fair results, positive experiences from the Trade Fair, ideas for next year’s booth - this might end up being a 2-page article
• Employee spotlight - Conduct an interview and include highlights or full questions with answers
• An article about what’s going on in business today (please find at least two sources that discuss a business topic going on right now and cite evidence from each article that support your idea)
• Be sure to include more color and images as we had discussed previously
• Finalize company handbook (include rules/regulations, policies/procedures) – this should have been finished before the Trade Fair
• Begin working on product catalog – finished product due 12/12/14

In addition to this, we need real merchandise to sell at the concession stand on Tuesday.  I have the beverages covered (water, soda, Gatorade), but we need candy and chips to be donated for sale.  After this week, I will purchase more items for next week.  I also need two students to work the concession stand with me after school.  Please select two students on Monday and have all concession inventory to my classroom no later than Tuesday morning.

Let’s keep pushing while others are taking an early break.  Our effort these next few weeks can really catapult us ahead of the rest, so let’s make the most of our time.