Author: Suzette Ferretti

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Obtaining a Company’s Financial Statements in Singapore

Obtaining a Company’s Financial Statements in Singapore

Why are financial statements vital information for investors?

A company’s financial statements give a good picture of a business’s economic accomplishments and a scope of what to expect in the future of their standing within their industry. 

“A company’s financial conditions are of major concern to investors and creditors. As sources of finance for your company operations, investors and creditors rely on financial reports to gauge conditions for both the safety and profitability of their investments,” says Way, investment writer for chron.com. 

Financial statements provide critical indicators of success for investors or creditors considering entering into a partnership with the companies in question. 

What information should investors focus on?

A business’ financial statement is akin to a school report card. It lists pertinent information on how well or poorly a company is doing. But when scrutinizing a financial statement, it’s essential to pay special attention to the following details:

Sales

All earnings made by the company you’re investigating will be the most crucial piece of information you consider. Sales data lets your know whether a company is in growth or decline, making it essential to determine its worth as an investor.  

To determine if the business in question sees an upward trend, “—you need to add up the data in each of the past four quarters, as well as the same quarter in the previous period, to calculate the change,” says Matt Krantz of USA Today. 

Debt load

A company’s ability to cover expenses and meet payroll during slow periods is just one reason investors should look at a company’s debt load. But most importantly, if a business were to go out of business, equity holders will be left behind as debt holders get preference for getting their money back on leftover balances. 

Examine said company’s income statement and balance sheet to determine if there’s ample cash flow to cover a company’s debt payments and to identify any other potential problems a company may face in the future. 

Trends in Cash flow

For an investor, seeing leftover cash in the bank on a financial statement is encouraging. It is a good sign that, should unexpected obstacles arise, the business is covered on the financial end. It’s also reassuring to see that if a fresh new earning opportunity were to come up, this business has ample funds to jump right in and boost its cash flow tenfold. 

“Cash is money in hand, not the result of accounting measurements and judgment calls, as is the case with earnings and net income. When a company’s net income is much higher than cash flow, investors want to be aware and find out why,” adds Krantz. 

Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer acquisition cost describes how much money it takes to onboard a brand new customer. This number can vary greatly depending on whether the business you’re inquiring about is a newcomer to the scene versus a seasoned player. New companies tend to have more new customers, while established companies tend to balance new and repeat customers more. 

A method for figuring out customer acquisition cost is to divide the amount spent on marketing by their number of new customers. This is a critical component of a promising investment venture, as a company whose product may seem profitable in production may be a hard sell out in the market. 

Dennis Najjar of The Balance Small Business mentions, “This problem can occur with super-niche areas where it’s hard to spread the word about your product or in hyper-competitive areas where advertising competition is fierce.” 

How do you obtain statements in Singapore?

Under the Companies Act, all businesses and branches of foreign companies based in Singapore must report their financial statements prepared according to Singapore Financial Reporting Standards. 

Each financial statement includes the following information:

  • Report of Directors and Statement by Directors
  • Independent Auditor’s Report (if applicable)
  • Statement of Comprehensive Income (Profit and Loss statement)
  • Statement of Financial Position (Balance sheet)
  • Cash Flow Statement
  • Statement of Shareholder’s Equity
  • Corresponding Notes to Financial Statements

These statements can be found on the Accounting and Regulatory Authority (ACRA) website at www.acra.gov.sg. 

Suzette Ferretti

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Start Your E-Commerce Business In Singapore The Right Way

I think many people can agree that Singapore embodies the phrase “small but mighty,” and when it comes to e-commerce, there is no exception. Singapore boasts a young, tech-savvy population and some of the fastest internet in the world, being almost three times the speed of the global average, according to JP Morgan.

This powerful combination bodes well for the future of e-commerce in Singapore and Southeast Asia. With the Singaporean government making efforts to make shopping online a more effortless endeavor by providing 24/7 access to public parcel lockers, there’s no doubt e-commerce will continue to dominate for years to come.

Clearly, the time is now to dive into this rapidly growing market, so stick around to find out how you can open an e-commerce business of your own.

Perform Market Research in Your Niche

If you have a product idea in mind already, that’s great! If you’re still trying to figure out how you can break into e-commerce with a fresh product and moderate competition, doing a little research into your preferred niche will likely give you the confidence you need to launch a profitable online store.

The best way to do this is to start with knowing your niche inside and out. X-cart suggests you scrutinize groups of forums in your niche to get your information straight from the horse’s mouth, your potential future customers.

You can also look at trending products on popular shipping platforms such as Amazon or opt for third-party product research tools to get the metrics on trending products in your market.

Choose Your Business Model

Once you feel comfortable in your niche, you have to begin defining who your ideal customers are. A significant part of this is simply choosing one of the many options for conducting sales in use today.

Business to Business, or B2B

This refers to a company that sells to other companies, such as wholesalers to retailers.

Consumer to Consumer, or C2C

With this model, consumers might re-sell products they’ve purchased from other retailers they’ve never used, previously used, or even modified.

Business to Consumer, or B2C

One of the more widely used business models in e-commerce, B2C companies sell their products or services directly to their customers without any 3rd party involvement.

Consumer to Business, or C2B

This model has gained significant popularity in recent years with the rise of influencer marketing, which involves internet personalities selling advertising space to companies.

Find the E-commerce Platform That Suits You Best

E-commerce platforms are arguably the most straightforward way of setting up your online store, and Singapore is home to some of the leading websites dominating e-commerce today. Platforms are attractive mainly in part due to their convenient integrated customer retention features.

Qoo10

  • Free to register your store
  • Live chat feature for customers to communicate directly with sellers
  • Sales Manager feature tracks all orders, product listings, and shipping

Lazada

  • High user traffic in Southeast Asia
  • In-house shipping assistance with any of their warehouses in Hong Kong, China, or Singapore
  • Comprehensive courses on effective marketing with Lazada Academy

Shopify

  • Mobile-ready
  • Fully customizable store-front
  • Powerful SEO features to get your store noticed

Carousell

  • Can sell used items
  • Cash-on-delivery payment option
  • Two-way reviews and rating system

Develop Your Reliable Marketing Plan

Now that you’ve set up shop, you have to think about how you’re going to get the word out that you’re open for business.

There is an array of options for driving traffic to your store that converts into sales, and choosing the right ones depends on your brand voice and your sales goals. These can include pay-per-click ads, social media, or sponsored content.

But the very first step, according to internet marketing expert Darren DeMatas on ecommerceCEO, is to create an email list through the use of an opt-in freebie on your website. He says, “Running a giveaway is my go-to marketing tactic to get traffic and subscribers quickly. Giveaways have the added benefit of increasing your brand presence and product visibility. Building an email list gives you a group of warm leads to work with, making the sales process much easier”.

No matter which marketing route you choose to take, finding the funding necessary to run these campaigns is the next vital step to launching your online business. With Jenfi, you can find out if you qualify for a loan in as little as 24 hours! Visit Jenfi, and fill out our fast and secure online application to get up to $200,000 to start marketing your business the right way.

Suzette Ferretti

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4 Powerful Email Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

4 Powerful Email Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

What is email marketing?

Email marketing is an incredibly compelling digital marketing strategy that involves sending emails to your prospective or existing customers to gain a steady flow of new acquisitions or solidify relationships you already have. 

It’s an excellent way to boost sales and remains one of the best ways to nurture leads and customer loyalty. 

What are the benefits?

Email marketing for small and big businesses alike comes with many benefits that may turn you toward incorporating it into your strategy if you haven’t already. 

Firstly, email marketing is decidedly cost-effective, providing up to $40 on ROI for every $1 spent. And according to Smart Insights, that’s over two times more than other marketing channels making it the top choice for customer outreach. 

Emails provide consistent engagement with your customers, reaching them at their inbox; one of the virtual locations your loyal fans may be frequenting the most daily. It’s also an excellent way to collect important demographic and behavioral data for further personalization in your email outreach, product recommendations, and user experience updates to your websites and social media channels. 

Overall, email marketing strategies allow you to grow your brand by making you identifiable and giving you an edge over your competitors. 

4 Email marketing strategies

1. Segment your market

Not all audiences are the same, and it’s crucial to observe your customer base as multiple segments within the same pool instead of just one unified group. Now, you don’t have to narrow things down to the basics such as age, education level, or genders though they can certainly help. 

Maria Mora, vice president of creative and content strategy at Big Sea says, “Break lists up depending on where your contacts are in the buyer’s journey, and segment based on what you know about them.” This makes it exponentially easier to deliver and track metrics on targeted trigger emails. 

Here’s a handy list for your reference:

  • Purchase history (frequency of making purchases, product preferences, purchases made during sales)
  • Demographics (age, gender, location)
  • Email engagement (click vs. no click open)

2. Decide on what kind of email you’re going to send

Just as your customers aren’t all the same, there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to emails either. There’s a wide variety of options for email marketing, and knowing what they are and how they function is integral to designing your perfect email campaign. 

  • Newsletters: Contain a report of recent news or activity within your business and is a popular way to keep your customers in the loop
  • Promotional: Are composed of special discounts or exclusive offers meant to persuade purchases
  • Seasonal: Seasonal emails are great for providing updates for sales or other news coinciding with upcoming holidays or seasons
  • Transactional: Focus solely on providing information concerning a transaction that occurred on your site but can be a great branding tool
  • Loyalty: Remind customers of their rewards, or notify them of VIP discounts to thank them for sticking around 
  • Drip: Automated emails sent after a specific action, whether its a cart reminder, an email confirmation, or a product suggestion email

3. Personalize as much as possible

A well-personalized email can mean the difference between a customer opening an email versus instantly sending it to their trash bin. Based on whatever data you collected from your market segmentation, the more personal you make your emails, the more likely customers are to open and engage with them.

“One thing we saw an instant bump in open rates from was when we put the email coming from the owner’s name instead of the company name,” said Jeff Moriarty of marketing and web development at Moriarty’s Gem Art. 

And if you can manage to tack on your recipients’ names to each email, then you’re pretty much winning the game. You can do this automatically with the use of CRM software, which you can easily fund with us at Jenfi along with other necessary marketing expenses to guarantee long-term business growth. Visit us today to see if you qualify!

4. Track Your Metrics

Now that you’ve gone through the trouble of doing market research and segmentation, as well as email writing and designing, you can start track to track your results as soon as you hit send. 

This is the only way you can rule out what works and what doesn’t, so you can further streamline your marketing strategies and save time the next time you send out a campaign. 

Take note of: 

  • Email opening rates
  • Unsubscribes
  • Links they clicked on

Now that you know what every successful marketing campaign entails pair these email marketing strategies with any future email campaigns you put out to watch your sales soar in 2021 and beyond. 

Suzette Ferretti

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