Every year my father required me to develop an advertising plan which was to be used in our business. It was not "written in stone" but did provide a strong guideline which helped to stay within budget and purchasing the media we needed. This as compared to what we see with many small businesses that are instead sold advertising by a sales person from the media.

This tool is now in an Excel template which can be downloaded for free from the Profits Plus website by following this link. We call this tool the AMP calculator which stands for advertising, marketing and promoting. This link will take you to the page where you can download the Excel template. It is the first link on the page.

When it comes to developing great marketing ideas, 1,000 ideas are better than one. With a lot more than 1,000 people reading this newsletter we are counting on our readers giving us their best ideas.

We are very involved with a non-profit organization here in St. Petersburg. Faith House Florida is a structured living facility for individuals working to recover from alcoholism, drug abuse, incarceration and homelessness.

This organization recently hired a phenomenal director who has a wonderful reputation within the community of help organizations. Unfortunately, Faith House Florida has gone through a decade in which it earned a reputation of being little more than a "flophouse".

We are confident with this new director and our finding some new volunteers, Faith House Florida can become a very helpful organization. With a residential capacity just over 50, this organization can help individuals who want to return to being productive members of society.

Other than this director, a chef, and the part time resident care coordinators, Faith House Florida does not have any employees. Any help we find is going to come from the efforts of this very small group.

We need your suggestions of how we can do several things; we need to polish a tarnished reputation; we need volunteers; we need to raise the awareness of Faith House Florida within our community - both to donors and agencies that can refer potential residents.

What would you suggest we do?

If you are a retailer, you know the value of keeping your store looking fresh. This month's article shares some of the techniques we used. We found that it is a year round task of making sure we have not lost track of any specific sku's as well as reviewing what our vendors offered in every category of merchandise. Take a look to see if our experiences can help you with your store.

In addition to having an annual plan for your marketing, this is a great time to engage in some serious reading. Our book suggestion for this month, written by Lin Grensing-Pophal is a book that you will want to take your time in reading. Then again, since we are talking about the long term plan of your business, this is not going to be a project you are going to finish in a couple of evenings.

If your business has accounts receivable, you will want to pay close attention to this month's Internet tool. For many businesses, the accounts receivable is simply money that is owed to you for products and services you have previously sold. The longer it takes you to collect this money, the more it resembles an interest free loan to your customers. Can you afford that?

"Days Sales Outstanding" is the calculation to determine how long it is taking you to get this money from your customer so that you can pay the operating expenses for your business. Get your business on the right track for 2016 by making sure you are collecting the money due to your business

It is the little things that count.

I remember having a meal with a friend and being introduced to one of their friends who worked at Lowes. Asking what it was like to work at Lowe's, during their comments, this Lowe's employee opened their wallet and showed a $10 Lowe's gift card.

This person had held onto the gift card for over two years. They had received the gift card from their manager because of a job well done. The individual said they had held onto the gift card because it reminded him that he was appreciated.

The point? It doesn't take a lot to make an impression on an employee. What are you doing to let your employees know they are appreciated?