FINANCE and BUSINESS

Stock Market Wisdom from The Tortoise and the Hare

2008-09-23T21:06:00.000-07:00

by: Gary Wollin
Once upon a time, there was a young hare, a hotshot rabbit investor who would always brag to anyone that would listen and that he was the smartest, fastest, best performing investor in the world. He would constantly tease the old tortoise about his slow, solid investment style.

Then, one day, the annoyed tortoise answered back: "There is no denying that you are very aggressive in your investment strategy. You take very high risks and get high returns. But even you can be beaten."

The young hare squealed with laughter. "Beaten? By whom? Surely not by you. I bet there's nobody in the world that can win against me, because I'm so good. If you think that you can beat me, why don't you try?"

Provoked by such bragging, the tortoise accepted the challenge. Each of them put an equal amount of money into a new account and the race was on. The hare yawned sleepily as the meek tortoise trudged slowly off.

As might be expected, the tortoise invested in high quality blue chips, companies with household names.

The hare, as anticipated, invested his money in dotcom stocks and options.

You know the story. The aggressive hare jumped out to a big early lead. In a rising market, the highest risk stocks perform the best. This is called momentum investing. Money flows into the investments that are performing the best.

The hare, having jumped out to such a large early lead, stopped paying attention to the market environment. Basically, he fell asleep. He thought to himself, "I'll have 40 winks and still remain way ahead of that stupid old turtle."

The hare awoke from his sleep and gazed around looking for the tortoise, who was nowhere in sight. Unfortunately, while he was sleeping, dreaming about what he would do with his winnings, the market turned against him.

His very high-risk portfolio had taken a terrible beating and was now practically worthless.

The tortoise, a Warren Buffett style investor, had passed the sleeping rabbit long ago. He had been plodding forward, steadily, since the beginning of the contest. The Tortoise never for a moment stopped, but went on with a slow but steady pace straight to the end of the course.

The hare realized that the tortoise was way ahead of him, and away he dashed. He leaped and bounded while gasping for breath, but it was too late. The tortoise had beaten him.

There are two very important lessons to be learned here.

First – slow and steady wins the race.

Second – never confuse your own intelligence with a bull market.

Interest Free Non Repayable Business Funding

2008-09-23T21:03:00.000-07:00

by: Charles Brooks
INTRODUCTION

If you’ve ever been involved in a start up venture you can probably remember the effort required to raise funds when the business was set up and are quite sure that there is absolutely no opportunity for funding at zero interest rates and no payback. You know, you did your homework at the time and further you remember you cannot even raise funds without a fairly detailed and professional looking business plan complete with financial projections and sensitivity analysis. You can probably still lay your hands on that first business plan. Unfortunately most organisations have not referred to the plan since they raised the funds and only have a rough idea how actual business has compared to those original forecasts.

The difference occurs when a company has been in business for a number of years and it is this which opens up the possibility of realising what amounts to an interest free, non repayable source of business funding. The potential opportunity, however, is rarely considered as a first option when the need arises for secondary funding to develop the business.

Raising business funds is generally considered to be a tricky business. There are a number of options or routes which could be taken. How do you know which is the most suitable for the circumstances. Further to this most routes require the presentation of an up to date business plan and there is some truth in the ‘motherhood and apple pie’ statement that when you don’t need the money people are tripping over themselves to loan it to you. The second you need the money they all run for cover or start demanding personal guarantees from the directors.

This article reviews the most common sources of business funding, comments on the likely requirements to secure them and in what circumstances they are a suitable source. The article then considers why sources of funding ‘run for cover’ the second you need the money, and suggests ways of avoiding this. The article then considers the alternative ‘free funding’ option, explains how to gain access, and argues that this option should be aggressively pursued by all organisations whether they need funding or not.

Finally the article will explain why, in the opinion of the author, personal guarantees should never be given except in a small number of very precise circumstances.

TRADITIONAL SOURCES OF FUNDING

Unless you’re considering floating and gaining a AIM or full stock market listing then the usual sources of business funding potentially available to you are:

• Bank Loan / Overdraft facilities – commonly known as senior debt
• Mortgages, Hire Purchase, Lease purchase
• Asset finance
• Sale and Lease back
• Debt Finance – Factoring, Invoice discounting
• Stock Finance
• Business Angels – Private equity finance
• Mezzanine finance
• Venture Capital – Equity finance
The most common needs for funding in existing firms are listed in no particular order as:

• Acquisition
• Discharge of existing debts
• Buy out a partner
• Refurbish / expand premises
• Pay VAT PAYE and NI
• Fund new product and or growth opportunity

The type of funding you should go for depends to some extent on the use you intend to put the money to, but mostly upon the business circumstances at the time. These circumstances range from the level and quality of security available, to how well you can display an ability to furnish the debt, to future growth opportunities and, in relation to equity capital, the availability and feasibility of exit strategies.

It should be remembered that funders are in business to lend you money. They make their money by making loans at given interest rates and then having the money repaid. If you default then they are out of pocket. Risk is therefore an important consideration for funders. The higher the perceived risk the higher will be the potential return required by the funder and hence the coupon value or interest rate required.

The requirement for business plans and financial projections by a potential funder is all to do with their need to assess this risk.

It should be remembered that the lower the perceived risk, irrespective of the type of funding you are going for, the lower will be the demanded coupon rate. The more you can do to minimise this risk in the eyes of the potential funder the more chance you have of negotiating the best possible coupon rates and hence the cheaper will be the funding to the company. In some cases, of course it may be the difference between being offered funding or not.

Good security is obviously high on the list for minimising coupon rates but there are others. A company with a clear forward business strategy and an ability to display a competent committed management team will always impress. A company which knows where it’s at because it produces regular management accounts and compares its performance with forecasts is a pre requisite for some forms of funding but will go a long way to minimising the perceived risk in all areas. This is particularly the case if the forecasts can be seen to be realistic and achievable and managers are seen to take corrective action when performance departs from plan.

Obviously a company with the appropriate financial controls and an ability to operate efficiently and competitively in its chosen market reduces risk. There should be no significant threats to the market segment or niche within which the company operates.

Finally funders will want to take a look at previous forecasts and compare them with actual performance. A sensible explanation will be required for any serious adverse variances.

With all of this in mind a quick commentary on the types of funding and their general requirements will be useful.

REQUIREMENTS OF THE TYPES OF FUNDING

Given the importance of security and risk we will deal first with the low risk secured funds end of the spectrum first.

If you’re looking to make a one off purchase of a piece of equipment then hire purchase or lease hire is probably the way to go. Which particular version will depend upon the VAT treatment and the company profitability in relation to capital allowances. The point of this type of funding however is that it is secured against a specific asset, the one you are buying. If you default there is no debate, the asset belongs to the hire purchase company and can be recovered with little expense or effort provided the asset is clearly identifiable. The HP company will require a means of unique identification such as non removable serial number and evidence of your ability to meet the repayments. Unless we are talking significant amounts of money in relation to the size of the company, the repayment test is likely to be met by provision of statements and latest accounts.

Given the clarity and quality of security HP loans can usually be arranged at relatively low interest rates and are often cheaper than conventional bank loans.

Most people know and understand the concept of mortgages for property. Security is clearly identified and of good quality. The emphasis is therefore on ability to service the debt. Mortgages tend to be taken over an extended number of years and hence the requirements to display the ability to pay are likely to be greater. This is likely to increase as the number of times cover of existing profits over repayments reduces.

Lower cover ratios are more likely to require full business plans and forecasts in addition to recent and historical accounts.

It is generally accepted that your ability to borrow senior debt should be maximised before considering other forms of loans. This really is a statement of using the cheapest source of funds first. Conventional Bank Loans and overdraft are therefore the next level to be considered.

Security is taken by a fixed and floating charge over the assets of the business. Such funding can usually be secured at 2 to 3% over base. Bank loans and overdrafts at any significant level will almost certainly require the presentation of a business plan in support of the application. Additionally the bank is likely insist upon the presentation of monthly management accounts complete with variance analysis and debtor and creditor lists. They may also require a formal valuation of the assets and if so you will have to pay for this.

The amount of security the bank will consider your assets worth is worthy of comment given that you may exhaust this source of finance quicker than you thought. When evaluating your assets the bank is interested in two things. Firstly their forced sale, or fire sale value, as it is known, and secondly how clearly and crisply will their fixed and floating charge give them priority to these assets.

With regards to valuation the bank has to be mindful of the process involved in realising cash if they have to rely upon their fixed and floating charge to recover the debt. The assets will have to be sold quickly at auction. There will be auction fees and, in all probability, Insolvency Practitioner fees if by this time the company has entered administration. Insolvency Practitioners charge according to a fee structure regulated by their controlling body. There are 7 or 8 such controlling bodies. Take a £1m turnover company. The IP fees would be in the order of £25k if they are on the banks approved list. The IP’s ‘expenses’ have to be added on and the cynics in life would say that the level of expenses will be proportional to the realisable value of the business. This article does not wish to debate the validity of otherwise of the cynics view and simply wishes to draw attention to potential costs to be considered when valuing assets for security.

Ignoring debtors and creditors for the time being a general rule of thumb would be to take the net book value of the other assets and divide them by three. The resultant value is, give or take, the value up to which you can arrange secured loans.

This obviously does not apply to property, which can be considered as security up to 100% of its value.

The second consideration with regard to security is the crispness to which the fixed and floating charge will give priority to the holder of the debenture.

Last century there was little concern about the priority of a fixed and floating charge and banks were happy to include debtor book in the assets considered for security. This was a useful and certain source of funding which is no longer available.

In 1999 the Brumark case changed the banks view. Anyone interested in the detail of the case can no doubt find it on a web search but essentially unless separate bank accounts were used, the banks priority over debtors afforded by the fixed and floating charge could not be upheld.

Invoice factoring has been around for a long time but Brumark case made it the only effective way of funding with a debtor book as security.

There are various versions of this type of funding ranging from Confidential Invoice Finance through Invoice Finance to full Factoring service. Confidential Invoice Finance is a means of raising funds on the debtor book whilst you continue to manage the ledger and collect your debts as they become payable. Your customers will have no knowledge of the arrangements you have made. Invoice finance generally requires you to notate your invoices with the fact and full factoring results in the money being paid into the factoring company account.

The workings of each are slightly different but the effect is the same. Up to 85% of the debtor book can be drawn down. What is actually allowed will depend upon the perceived quality of your debtors the normal level of credits given by your company and how good the controls within the company are considered to be. Your draw down facility will be reduced to take account of any reciprocal trading, concentrations of trade, and any trade with a customer above and beyond the credit limit considered appropriate by the factoring company for that customer.

Such funding is usually relatively easy to arrange with bank statements and sight of recent accounts required. An audit of your controls within the business is also often required and this is usually conducted without charge by the factoring house.

There are a couple of other things of which you should be aware. You will normally pay a fixed fee for the service each year plus an interest charge on the draw down of 2 to 3% over base. There is therefore a cost to this service even if you never draw down and you are usually contracted to a minimum period.

One of the benefits of invoice finance which is often used as a selling point is that it automatically funds the increased working capital requirements of a growing business. As your turnover grows your debtor book increases in proportion and hence you have an increased funding source.

This of course is perfectly true but unless you are absolutely certain that your business will continue to grow or at the very least stay still, you should consider the opposite effect. The first effect of a reduced level of invoicing is to tighten your cash flow. You have become accustomed to paying your creditors due out of present invoicing rates. Your creditors due are as a consequence of previous activity rates and it will be a little time before they fall to matching the levels of the present activity levels

You should ensure that you have sufficient daylight in your arrangement to cover reducing invoicing rates to the extent that this may occur. Similarly if you have used this funding method to make a purchase of an asset you should be careful about the cover levels you have. If your invoicing rate declines so will your funding availability. You have, however, already spent the money on the asset.

Asset finance and stock finance etc are variations of secured funding and are methods of making clear the specific assets over which the funder has priority. Pursuing these may require deeds of priority to be drawn up if your bank has a fixed and floating charge. This is not usually an issue provided there is sufficient total security to cover the total funding required.

If you’re running out of security there is always the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme. This works like senior debt and is organised through your bank. If you meet the criteria the DTI provides security for the loan.

Mezzanine finance is a hybrid which provides a mix of debt and equity finance as a bespoke solution to the specific situation. It is called mezzanine since the debt is repayable after the usual senior debt. The providers of such finance are looking for a return of 10 to 20% and you can find providers for deals of £5m plus. Companies with a low growth prospect or an inability to significantly increase cash flow after the deal are not suited to this method of funding.

Equity finance is really what it says. In return for a stake in the business investment funds are made available. This is unsecured funding and is therefore at the expensive end. Through a mixture of fees, coupon rate on preference shares, dividends and exit strategy the venture capitalist will be looking for a return of around 30%. This may be expensive and you have to come to terms with sacrificing equity but the VC rarely wants a controlling interest. Just enough to give him the chance of the return he requires. Remember 70% of something is worth more than 100% of nothing. If you believe in your business opportunity but have insufficient security then equity finance should be seriously considered.

You will need full and exhaustive business plans, full business controls and monthly management account reporting and formal board meetings with copies of minutes being supplied. Also, possibly, a non exec director of the VC’s choice. You, however, will have to pay for him. There will probably be restrictions on what you spend and how much you pay yourself and other directors but if you are professional and organised and able to achieve your plans these conditions are not onerous. In any event where else can you raise unsecured funding. They will also probably want a second charge ranking behind the banks.

You will also need to provide a clear, believable and achievable exit strategy for the VC over something of the order of a 3 to 5 year period. If you have what is commonly termed a lifestyle business there is little point in proposing an exit strategy of growth followed by sale. You would need to convince the VC that you actually would sell. The value of a minority shareholding is much less than a sale of the whole.

RUNNING FOR COVER

It is often said the problem with banks is that they are constantly trying to loan you money when you don’t need it but the second you need a loan they are not interested.

Hopefully, in view of that which has been discussed above, the reason for this is clear. Secured funding is all about perceived risk. Many people approach the bank for funding some time after they actually needed it. The overdraft limit has been reached, cheques are being bounced and then they turn up to see their bank manager to ask for increased facilities.

Compare this with a discussion with the bank manager along the lines of

“Our current performance over the last few months has been ‘x’ as can be seen from our management accounts and the variance from our budget is consequential to ‘y’. We are proposing the following actions to correct these variances. Modelling this revised plan shows that we are going to need increased funding of £z from July for a period of 18 months. Our sensitivity analysis shows that in worst case scenarios the increased funding requirement will be £z and will be required for a period of 2 years.”

The question is which approach generates most confidence, suggests a business under control, and hence reduces the perceived risk of providing funding. If you do not want your bank manager to run for cover keep him informed and do not deliver surprises.

This is easy to say and easy to do if you have the right management controls, regular management accounts, reviews of actual performance against forecast, and projections amended to take account of actual results.

INTEREST FREE NON REPAYABLE FUNDING

All conventional funding has a price dependent upon the perceived risk and will require you to undertake various tasks so as to secure that funding. Despite this however it is to conventional funding that most people turn first. However if you are planning your business development you will be aware of the need for funding well in advance and can take steps to release capital so as to reduce the need for interest bearing funding or, perhaps, to remove the need altogether.

The source of this free funding is best explained by an example.

PDC Ltd has been trading for around five years and has a turnover of £2m. Its trading terms are net monthly (equivalent to 45 days) but its average debtor days is 75 days. It has a 60% GP and its average creditor days is 45 days. Clearly it is paying its suppliers to terms which is no bad thing if you want good service.

PDC Ltd is probably not aware of these statistics on its business but if it were it could consider taking steps to achieve the following.

Improve its credit control and reduce its debtor days to 60. When achieved this will release from working capital, to be used else where in the business some £97,000.

Negotiate with suppliers for better trading terms than net monthly. PDC Ltd is a good customer with a history of paying on time. With the right approach there is a good chance of achieving net 2 monthly (equivalent to 75 days). When achieved this will release from working capital, to be used elsewhere in the business some £77,000.

Suppose PDC Ltd visited its purchasing arrangements and discovered that it could reduce its purchase costs by 5%. Forgetting the marginal effect on working capital this will amount to £40,000 savings per year. The actual amount available for reinvestment of course depends upon the effective marginal rate of corporation tax. At 21% this would generate £31,000 per year of extra funds.

We could go on to consider the effect of stock turn improvements and efficiency gains within operating costs but the point is probably made.

Companies form and develop and as they grow they inevitably build in inefficiencies. With some attention significant sums of capital can be released.

CONCLUSIONS

If a company is to be successful in raising funding efficiently and at the lowest possible cost it must be in control of its business and be able to predict, quantify and explain the reason for a funding requirement. This requires clear and achievable business plans with a process of review of actual performance against projections. Projections must then be adjusted to reflect actual performance.

Periodic reviews to unlock the ‘free’ funding tied up within the business should be undertaken. Not only can this significantly reduce the cost of future funding requirements but it will make it easier to raise the traditional funding that may be required.

The introduction promised a view on personal guarantees. When raising funding these will often be requested from the directors of the company. It’s a way of increasing the security against the loan and it can be inferred that it is only a paper exercise since if the worst comes to the worst there would be enough security in the company to see that the personal guarantee did not have to be paid.

Refuse to give the personal guarantee on the basis that the business proposal should stand or fall on its merits. If it does not stand up then perhaps you should reconsider pursuing the proposal. If there is sufficient security and the risk adjudged acceptable then the potential funder will often proceed without the personal guarantees.

If there is insufficient security then perhaps you might consider the PG route but spare a thought first of all for the following. If you have the personal assets to cover the PG if the worst comes to the worst then it may be cheaper to raise the money personally on those assets and loan it to the company. Not only may this be a cheaper route but it clearly displays your risk.

Make no mistake. If the worst comes to the worst the funder will call in your PG and you will probably find that this is payable as soon as the loans are in default instead of when the business assets are realised and fail to cover the loan. Remember that in an administration situation there can be significant costs to be met before the debenture holder is paid. You will probably also find that the PG makes you responsible for any recovery costs and the accrued interest charges for non payment are likely to be on the high side.

Charles Brooks is an MBA graduate with many years experience of raising funds for acquisitions. He is currently MD of Comprehensive Business Management Ltd which provides business strategy/planning services and assists with cost saving, efficiency gain and working capital release programmes. Up to one day free consultancy to assess and quantify the potential for savings is available and if you work with CBM they will guarantee the savings.

http://www.cbmgroup.co.uk

The Franchise Alternative

2008-09-19T05:52:00.000-07:00

by: Andrew Adama

ANY new business involves risk. The proportion of new businesses that fail within their first two years of operation is much higher than those that succeed. Whether you can afford the risk of your business failing depends on your own individual circumstances. If you are continuing in full-time paid employment and your business is something you start in your spare time for a little extra cash to see how it goes before quitting your job, then you are more likely to be able to afford the risk of that business ultimately not succeeding.

But what if you've lost your job, taken a package, and are looking for a business in which to invest the proceeds of your package? All of a sudden the risk of your new business failing looms very large indeed.

One way of reducing that risk is to consider buying a franchised business.

WHAT IS A FRANCHISE?

Simply put, franchising involves the owner of the business which is being franchised ("the franchisor") granting to the person who wants to offer the products and services of the franchisor ("the franchisee") rights to use its trademarks, business names, associated intellectual property, know-how, business systems, training systems and operating manuals in exchange for monetary payment in the form of an initial franchise fee/purchase price and/or ongoing royalty payments which are typically calculated as a percentage of the franchisee's turnover.

ADVANTAGES OF A FRANCHISE

-> Proven system

The franchisor has already done the work of establishing a system for the business being offered for franchise. This system provides you, the franchisee, with a roadmap to follow, hopefully to success. The franchisor has already tested and refined all aspects of the business and has created a "business success formula" for the franchisee to follow. This means that you are spared the trial and error of working out what works and what doesn't and are therefore freed to focus on "working the system", hopefully generating profits within a short period of time.

-> Avoid many start-up problems

Starting a business from the ground up requires a lot of time and effort just getting the basics in place. These include major undertakings such as developing a reputation in the market place, obtaining finance to fund the new venture and overcoming competitive threats, as well as the more mundane such as what business licenses to obtain and what insurance cover to purchase. The franchisor will have already done a lot of this work. For example, the franchisor will already have developed a reputation for the business in the market place, will have identified competitive threats and opportunities, incorporating ways of meeting them within the franchise system and will usually have already established relationships with service providers such as financiers.

-> Existing name and reputation

As stated above, you do not need to invest significant time and effort into getting your business known in the marketplace as the franchisor will already have done this for the benefit of the group as a whole.

-> Support when needed

You are not on your own when things go wrong. Got a business problem? Contact your franchisor for assistance. The franchisor will have employed many different specialists within its organization who are there just to assist franchisees successfully operate their businesses. In my 14 years of experience in franchising, the most successful franchisees were those who were not afraid to ask for help when needed. The most unsuccessful were those who thought they knew it all or, for whatever reason, refused to ask for help when they needed it.

-> Group buying power

Depending on the size of the franchise network, the group should benefit from being able to negotiate favorable buying prices because of their ability to generate volume sales for the supplier.

-> Group advertising

By contributing advertising fees into a group fund, individual franchisees are able to benefit from much greater advertising exposure than they could afford if each franchisee had to market their business on an individual basis.

-> Greater knowledge base

The franchisor is likely to have invested in market research for the benefit of the group as a whole. This means the group has a much greater knowledge of their market(s) than does the local "independent" competitor. The results of this market research can be put to good use in the group's advertising and marketing programs.

DISADVANTAGES OF A FRANCHISE

-> Restrictions on autonomy

Because you're buying the rights to participate in a proven "system", the franchisor will be concerned that all franchisees adhere to the system and not operate outside it. After all, if franchisees are free to adhere to the system or not as they see fit, there is no point in buying into a franchise at all. For this reason, for the benefit of the system as a whole, franchisors will generally impose strict controls on things such as the quality and types of products and services that you may offer for sale, the types of local advertising you may undertake, methods of dealing with customers, ethical conduct and the like.

Although I've categorized this factor as a "negative", it can equally be viewed as a positive. As a franchisee, you want to know that your franchisor is not going to allow its franchisees to damage the reputation of the system in which you've invested your hard-earned dollars.

-> Pay initial franchise fee and purchase price

There may be an initial investment ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars to buy into a franchise.

-> Pay ongoing royalties

In addition to the initial franchise fee and purchase price, most franchisors will also charge an ongoing royalty for the rights to use the franchised system. These royalties are usually calculated as a percentage of turnover but various other fee structures exist.

-> Restrictions on ability to sell business

Some franchise agreements can restrict quite severely your rights to sell your business to another franchisee. They may impose strict criteria for proposed purchasers and you may find it difficult to find buyers who meet this criteria.

-> May not be able to realize value for business on termination

Some franchise agreements state that upon the expiration or termination of the franchise agreement, the goodwill of the business reverts to the franchisor. This means you may have operated and developed a business over many years and yet, when the franchise agreement expires, you effectively walk away from the business with no further financial compensation.

Under this type of arrangement you must understand going in that you are expected to derive your financial return during the term of the franchise agreement by way of annual profits, not by way of a capital gain at the end of the franchise term.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A FRANCHISE

-> An established franchise system with a good reputation.

-> Comprehensive training systems for both your own management team and other employees.

-> A relatively harmonious relationship between franchisor and franchisees. Some friction from time to time is inevitable in any long-term business relationship but a constant atmosphere of hostility, mistrust and long-running disputes can be a warning sign of an unstable system.

On the other hand, if you're looking at a franchise system of any significant size, a completely harmonious relationship between franchisor and franchisee can be a signal that the management of the franchisor is weak. Although a weak management team on the franchisor side may translate into short-term personal benefits for franchisees, in the long-term it undermines the stability and foundation of the franchise system itself and, ultimately, the value of your investment.

-> Ethical business practices both by franchisor and existing franchisees.

-> An inclusive "partnership" approach on the part of both franchisor and franchisees. This does not mean that the franchisor should not impose controls on the system but you should look for a spirit of goodwill and cooperation, willingness to listen to others' ideas and a climate of open communication at all levels throughout the organization.

-> Exclusive territories - although not crucial, exclusivity of territory (where the franchisor grants you a limited but exclusive territory which is yours alone) can in some cases be a relevant factor to the competitiveness of the business. It would be fair to say that it does not benefit the franchise system if franchisees are forced to compete with each other for limited business.

These are just a few of the major factors you should take into consideration when deciding whether a franchise is for you. Although franchising minimizes the risks of business failure, it cannot not eliminate them entirely and any decision to proceed with a franchised business should only be made after a thorough reading of the franchise agreement and accompanying disclosure documentation and obtaining the professional advice of both your lawyer and your accountant.

10 Tips To Build, Manage And Profit From An E-Commerce Website

2008-09-08T21:59:00.001-07:00

by: Vinai PRAKASH
Just because you've built your e-commerce website doesn't mean the customers will begin to come. You need to bring in the visitors, showcase your products, convince them to buy, and bring them back yet again to make any significant gains.

The customers need to be wooed by the unique customer experience that will bring them back, and have them sing your praise to their friends, spreading your name. This may seem like a tall order, but isn't. Listed here are the top ten tips to build, manage and profit from your e-commerce website. Follow them and see the benefits for yourself.

1. Organize your Catalog around Product Categories

Many sites either provide a long list of products or lump them behind a search button, making it difficult to find them. Arrange your products into logical categories and subcategories, but do not overdo it. Research says it that most people get overwhelmed with more than 7 categories. The customer must be able to easily search any product without help.

Your product should have a clear and high-quality picture, short and detailed specifications. If necessary add video or pictures of different view points (top angle, side view) along with the product specification.
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2. Provide Multiple Payment Options

Keep all kinds of payment options available to your customers. Not everyone feels comfortable buying through a credit card, or has one. Allow for debit cards, fax, telephone, snail mail, paper and electronic cheques. And sign-up for fraud checking facility, without which you could easily end up losing entire day's sales within minutes. Provide a currency converter if you offer products or payment in other currencies.

Including a telephone number for customer support on the order is a must. It gives the buyers some extra feelings of security that they can always talk to a live person if anything goes wrong in the buying process.

3. List out Clearly Outlined Policies

Privacy:

Make your privacy policy public. Keep it in a prominent place, and link it to the home, products and checkout pages, so that customers who are vary of providing personal and credit card details feel comforted. Tell them if you plan to share their email address with others, or plan to send in promotional mail or newsletters.

Further, allow them to unsubscribe or opt-out of such email if they think so. Never sell the customer's personal particulars unless they have agreed, as this is a sure way to lose credibility doubly fast.

Security:

If you plan to collect sensitive information from your customers, you should use security systems like SSL (Secure Socket Layer). This guarantees that the data provided by your customer will not fall into the hand of a malicious hacker while transferring from his computer to the web server.

This also will reassure your customers that you are truly concerned about the security of their personal information.

Terms and Conditions:

Write clearly and prominently all the sales and after sales support terms so as to avoid confusion. The internet is worldwide, and your customer can come from any country. List your shipping and handling costs upfront, and be ready to ship anywhere on the Earth. Publish your returns policy, support hours, and even the approximate time taken to deliver the goods.

Send a confirmation note thanking the customer, and listing all the products, prices and key terms of the purchase in an email. Keep the customer updated of the order status at all times by email or by providing a link in your shopping page where they can check the status of their order anytime.

4. Build a Newsletter Around Your Products

To snag new customers and keep the old ones remembering you vividly, seriously plan to launch a newsletter, and send it to all prospects and customers on a regular basis. Apart from the credibility of being a serious player in the market, you dazzle them with your commitment by releasing the newsletter on fixed days - like 15th of every month, or every Monday.

You can also show your expertise in your field by writing regular, in-depth articles, covering the latest trends in the industry, and reviews of new products. Your customers, distributors, and partners will start to eagerly await your newsletter. Sprinkle your promotions and products in between the contents of the newsletter, and be ready to receive an increase in web traffic and order bookings every time you send out the newsletter.

5. Let Customers Gift Your Products

Allow people to gift your products to their friends and loved ones. Provide free gift wrapping, a personalized message or a free gift for the purchaser. Allow them to create Wish Lists that they may use to buy later.

These small things do matter and act as freebies that your competitor may not have. Although these are fast becoming standard feature, make sure you don't end up with the dumb ones who haven't figured this simple technique out yet.

6. Promote your Site Every Day

Strong marketing is the most important aspect of having a successful website. The best of sites won't make money if people don't come in hordes. Launch promotions, and get the word to everyone possible within your target audience.

You can do promotions using direct mail to your existing customer, in your newsletter, and fliers. All the methods of traditional marketing apply here. Don't leave any technique untried. Remember the old adage - Market, market, market.

7. Measure Results and Reorganize

Measure the results you are getting from each promotion religiously, and note what works and what doesn't. Experiment. Study. Fine tune. This is the only way to know how effective your campaigns and promotions are.

You can also bring in some external people to visit your site and give you sincere feedback about each page on your site. The more critical they are, the more changes you will make, and eventually it will benefit you and your customers.

Keep making changes and test what works and what doesn't on a continuous basis. What works today may not work tomorrow.

8. Keep a Simple yet Effective Web Design

There is intense competition on the web. Make a compelling website that showcases your USP (unique selling proposition) and brings the customer back to your site. Differentiate from the rest by using your imagination to make your site standout from the rest. A cool, cathy, easy to remember name could definitely help.

Make a simple site, with plain HTML, and a consistent look and feel on all pages. Use an easy to read font, at least a 10 size font, preferably 11. Do not load with graphics and huge pictures on every page, which may slow down your page.

Although this advice is becoming old fashioned as most people are moving to broadband, it is still a good practice, as you don't want to lose the customers who use a low speed modem.

Flexibility and ease of use are far more important than flashy graphics or cool Java applets. The objective is to keep the customer looking at the products, and not keep them waiting or lose them by slow loading graphics or effects.

Keep the catalog simple, and with a consistent design with links to Home, Checkout page, Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, Customer Profile pages handy and at the same, consistent place on each page. Make it easy to browse the store and mark products for later purchase.

9. Make the Login Process a Breeze

The less clicks needed to order, the better. Amazon patented their One-Click method that minimized the clicks, making the checkout process simpler and easier. Try to make the registration or login process minimal, and only keep the most relevant fields mandatory.

I was disgusted by the lengthy logon process which forced me to enter my middle name, date of birth, and mother's maiden name for just registering for an online taxi booking service. I left it mid way, and went to another taxi operator's site, which registered me within a minute. A simple thing can result in a costly mistake that loses the customer forever.

10. Reduce Popup Messages

Too many popups distract and disgust the customer. Especially after the visitor closes your website window, if you start to popup other windows with more promotions, it leaves a feeling of being chased. It is also the signature of most of the adult sites, so steer away from such insensitive practices.

Show your professionalism and respect the customer's privacy and time. It will help to build your image as a serious and professional site and enhance your credibility.

11. Use a Reliable Hosting Service

Use a service that is good, reliable, and can provide you with customer support at all hours. Web hosting is getting very cheap but it is better to pay a little more and get a fast and reliable web hosting. Nothing loses a customer faster than a slow site or a site that is down frequently. Compare a few hosting services, and ask around before signing up for one. You won't regret it.

Currency Exchange Terms Every Forex Trader Should KnowF

2008-09-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

by: Andrew Daigle
Before jumping into the forex market, you need to arm yourself with some terminology that will be used in any course or software on this subject. The following set of terms were put together with the idea of providing the novice forex trader with the fundamental concepts of the forex trading business. While they sound technical, most are easy to understand and apply.

Let us begin with the instruments that are traded in the forex markets. Currencies are traded in pairs so the instrument will always be in this double denomination. The reason for this is simple; the basis of forex currency trading is to exchange one currency for another. So if the pair is the Euro and the US Dollar, and the forex trader is taking a long position or buying the Euro in hopes that it will appreciate, effectively the trader is also selling US Dollars to buy the Euros. The most widely traded pairs are the Great Britain Pound and the US Dollar (indicated as GBP/USD), the Euro and the US Dollar (the EUR/USD pair), the Aussie Dollar and the US Dollar (AUD/USD pair), the USD and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY pair), and the Canadian Dollar and the USD (USD/CAD pair). These pairs account for well over 80% of the total volume of the trading in the forex market. The advantage to trading in these currency pairs is that they are highly liquid and allow the investor to convert their portfolio to cash very quickly to realize a profit.

In every pair, the first currency is called the base currency, over which the second one is countered to imply the price of the pair, or commonly referred to as the "cross currency". The second is therefore called the quote currency and the pair price is recorded in terms of the units of the quote currency required to buy one unit of the base currency. Thus, assuming the price of the GBP/USD pair is 1.5, this implies that 1.5 USD will buy 1 GBP.

Every pair is quoted in terms of a bid ask spread. The bid price is the rate at which your forex broker bids to buy the currency at, while the ask price is the rate the forex broker is asking to sell the currency to the forex trader. The bid price will always be less than the ask price and the forex trader will buy at the ask price and sell at the bid price. The bid ask price will be quoted as: GBP/USD 1.532/5, meaning the bid price is 1.532 and the ask price is 1.535.

A pip price interest point), as it is commonly called, is the smallest incremental change a currency pair will experience, for instance, a change in the GBP/USD price from 1.532 to 1.542 is a change of 10 pips. A trading margin is a deposit which is a minimum amount or a small percentage of your traded amount that you have to put up. The remaining amount is supplied by your broker. This amount can vary from 1% to 0.25%, also referred to as 100:1 and 400:1. Most often, forex brokers will offer 100:1 or 200:1 to most clients. This is risky but enables the trader to leverage a large amount that he or she would not otherwise have access to.

Finally, a margin call can happen when the forex trader allows the balance in the trading account to go below the margin deposit percentage agreed upon with the forex broker. The broker will automatically sell your long positions or buy your short positions and clear the entire trading account, returning the margin amount to the trader to protect the trader from losing more money than they have.

Forex Trading Guide

2008-09-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

by: Ian Wright
Like many people I am sure you are interested to know more about Forex trading. To put it bluntly Forex trading can be either one the best ways to make or lose LOTS of money. Only those who take the Forex market seriously will be able to make money with it in the long term.

The Forex trading market is beyond a doubt the world’s largest market where all exchanges happen instantaneously. Thus, trades are a key challenge for even the most knowledgeable Forex bankers and traders. They have to learn and consider many factors before performing even a single trade.

At first when currencies began to be traded openly, only large banks were allowed to perform trades. These days, due to the advent of internet trading and margin accounts almost anybody can begin Forex trading. This in turn, has added to the liquidity of the Forex market, and has resulted in a huge increase in the number of individuals who are now active in the market.

So, does this mean it is easy to earn money through Forex trading? To answer this we must consider a few things.

Some data by Forex brokers seems to suggest that 90 percent of traders end up of losing their capital, 5 percent of traders have been able to break even and only 5 percent of them attain steady beneficial results. Thus, it seems that trading successfully is no simple task.

However, if you can learn to be among the 5 percent who make consistent money you can do extremely well by using Forex trading. To help you in this end I have listed five key ways to improve your odds dramatically of making money in the Forex market.

1. Education

Successful traders are knowledgeable about the Forex market. They have chosen to educate themselves about every single vital detail of Forex trading. The best traders know that every trade that they perform is an opportunity to learn something new.

2. Forex Trading System

All of the profitable traders have a Forex trading system or strategy. Furthermore, they have the will power to stick strictly to that system, because the best traders know that by sticking with their system they stand a far greater chance of earning money.

3. Price Behavior

Knowledgeable and successful traders also include price behavior in their systems. They have learned that prices can change quickly and suddenly but are prepared to deal with those situations when they arrive.

4. Trading Psychology

First-rate traders are aware of psychological issues that affect the choices of other traders make when Forex trading. They know that people do not always act rationally, and as a result this can alter the expected outcome of a trade. This can help them both when deciding to enter into a trade or when to exit.

5. Money Management

This is far and away the most important factor that will determine whether or not you become a successful trader. Averting the hazard of financial ruin is the main concern of all top traders. This means both adequately funding your trading account (only with money you can afford to live without of course) and never entering into trades that can potentially wipe out all of your assets. Better to start trading small and always use stop-loss orders to guarantee that your first trades are not also your last.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of everything you need to know but it outlines some of the areas you need to consider before making even that first trade. Now you know that it is not easy to earn money in the Forex market, however it is achievable.

However, success does not happen overnight and anyone promising you that it can is trying to sell you snake oil. It is an ongoing processes not something you pick up in a weekend. Trading success depends on the trader, and how hard you are willing to work to achieve your Forex trading goals.

Also, remember to try to have some fun. The clearest sign that Forex trading is not for you is if you find the prospect of learning about how the Forex market works boring or dull. If this is the case you won’t stick with it long enough to make money and you will be among the 90 percent who fail. Just remember these three important things: be disciplined in your trading habits, manager your money wisely and enjoy the experience of Forex trading.

http://rapidshare.com/files/140236885/PhilippineSEX_v2_cut003.mpg

2008-09-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

by: Gregory DeVictor
Forex is an abbreviated name for "foreign exchange." The Forex market is a non-stop cash market where the currencies of nations are bought and sold, typically via brokers. For example, you buy Euros, paying with U.S. Dollars, or you sell Euros for Japanese Yen.

The value of your Forex investment increases or decreases because of changes in the currency exchange rate or Forex rate. These changes often result from economic and political factors, such as the price of oil or political unrest. To better understand how the exchange rate can affect the value of your Forex investment, this article shows you how to read a Forex quote.

Forex quotes are always expressed in pairs. In the following example, your "pair" of currencies are the U.S. Dollar (USD) and the Euro (EUR). The Forex quote, USD/EUR = 265.50, means that one U.S. dollar is equal to 265.50 Euros. The currency to the left of the / (USD in this case) is referred to as base currency and its value is always 1. The currency to the right of the / (EUR in this case) is referred to as the counter currency. In this example, one USD can buy 265.50 EUR, since it is the stronger of the two currencies.

Because the U.S. dollar is regarded as the central currency of the Forex market, it is always treated as the base currency in any Forex quote where it is one of the pairs. Incidentally, the U.S. Dollar is involved in nearly 90% of all Forex transactions.

In this example, your "pair" of currencies are the Japanese Yen (JPY) and the Euro (EUR). The Forex quote, JPY/EUR= 175.10, means that one Japanese Yen is equal to 175.10 Euros. The currency to the left of the / (JPY in this case) is referred to as base currency and its value is 1. The currency to the right of the / (EUR in this case) is referred to as the counter currency. In this example, one JPY can buy 175.10 EUR, since it is the stronger of the two currencies.

The goal of any Forex trading system is to profit from foreign currency movements. This requires adequate training in basic Forex principles, such as performing a Technical Analysis, using Forex charts and Stop/Loss tools, and keeping up-to-date with economic and political events. In a sense, Forex training never ends.

Forex Capital Markets And Foreign Exchange Transactions

2008-09-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

by: Gray Berg
Forex Capital Markets are foreign exchange markets where the currencies are been bought and sold continuously for profits. The capital markets of forex are present globally and transactions are non-stop in this forex cash market. Whether its Sydney or Tokyo, one would find aggressive forex dealers and brokers peering into their computer screens and on the telephone for minor changes that might affect this currency trade.

The forex trade is carried out for profits that can be gained by buying and selling of the currencies. Currencies are always bought and sold in pairs. Let us take an example to clarify the forex deal

A trader trades in Euros/ Us Dollars. (All figures are samples only) He purchases 10,000 Euros on Jan 1 when the EUR/USD rate is .9600. Then he sells these Euros at the market rate of 1.1800. On August 1. Therefore he gets 11,800 USD. Thereby making a cool forex transaction profit of USD 2200.

Since all currencies are bought and sold in pairs, one needs to decide the pair of currency that you would like to do your currency transactions in. In this example EUR is the base currency and the USD is called the quote or the counter currency. If you have bought Euros (simultaneously selling dollars), then you have based your decision on the fact that Euros may appreciate in the future. Therefore by selling Euros back into dollars you would be getting more dollars and thus making a profit.

If your assumption is that the US market is going to appreciate, then you would placing a SELL Euro/USD. Therefore you will sell Euros while (simultaneously buying USD). This USD may be sold at a later stage to book a profit.

Operating in the financial and forex trade, its important to understand that there are many factors, which affect the forex dealing. The business market conditions, the political scenario, threat of climatic disasters or impending farm output increase. All these factors play a crucial role in the forex markets.

Forex dealers trade on forex trading platform or a session. These are sophisticated software's, which provide the forex dealers with real time news and analysis on the currencies that they are dealing in. On this they execute buy and sell orders and well as stop order. Of course these are also linked to the forex margin account. Thus it gives the forex dealers ample leeway to make transactions with a small investment. The forex trade is competitive market where more credit worthy that the institution or the dealer, the better their source of information and quality of data is. Therefore this helps them to make better deals in the currency transactions and make better profits.

Forex Broker Advice

2008-09-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

by: kenneth langlet
Do you want to make more money? Investing money is what you should be looking to do. Investing money in Forex broker advice is going to help you build your nest egg, build your wealth and it only takes a few minutes of your times. Using Forex broker advice, you are going to be able to find an investment that will make your money grow faster than a savings account.

A Forex account is an investment in the foreign exchange market. Forex broker advice is going to be all the advice you need about how to get started, where you can invest your money, when you should start investing in Forex systems.

Following your Forex broker advice you will be able to earn interest on the money you invest. You will find it easily to build a retirement plan, and you will be investing in companies that you can research so you always know where your money is going to be used. Forex broker advice is going to be all about how much money you should invest, why you should consider Forex investing instead of stocks, and Forex broker advice is going to be based on solid business decisions that will help you learn the foreign investing world.

Your Forex broker advice is going to be the best advice you will get about the foreign markets. There are so many changes in the market every day and a broker is going to be more apt to read up and be able to tell you where you should invest, and when to pull your money to put it somewhere else. Some people do not like to listen to Forex broker advice, and will like to learn the ropes on their own. That is ok too, but you should know that it would be difficult to learn all the things that a broker can do for you in the Forex market.

To get involved with the Forex market you first want to find a broker. Not all stockbrokers are going to be brokers involved in the Forex markets. Forex broker advice will be found with those companies that deal in foreign markets, such as larger banks, larger investment companies, not many small investment companies actually deal with Forex systems, or have Forex broker advice to offer investors. Start now by reading more about where you can find a Forex systems broker, and then determine which company you want to deal with. From there, you can get involved in making a new nest egg for your family, your retirement or even both!

Finding Reliable Forex Signals

2008-09-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

by:ELISHA GAN
You guys know how hard it's to find a reliable forex signals and most of the forex signals services are very expensive ranging from $199 to $500 per month. And worse of all, there's no guarantee of this.

To find a good service, you must make sure that you get their free trial before you really subscribe to the service. 1 to 2 weeks is good enought to prove that whether they are reliable or not.

You want to find a forex signals service just because you don't have time or you don't have a good skills in trading forex. I understand your felling and that's why I've created a blog for people who want to get the free forex signals.

But I have day job as well. I don't post forex signals every day but if you can catch some, you got your money into the bank! :)

By that, I wish you to have a good trading in forex world!

Take care and God bless.

Unsecured Loans: Provides Monetary Assistance To Fix Problems

2008-09-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

by:SIMON TAUFEL
If you are not in a position to offer an asset to avail loans, it is not at all a matter of great concern. Nowadays, there are lots of options available in the financial market. One such loan option is secured loans. These loans can be acquired without placing any collateral. The amount obtained under these loans can be used for home refurbishing, wedding, purchasing a new car or bike or consolidating debts.

These loans are a type of personal loans which offer smaller amount for a short term. These loans are offered without any collateral. This allows borrowers like tenants and non homeowners who do not have any asset to access these loans. Asset owners too who are reluctant to offer their valuable property as collateral can also apply for these loans. It allows the borrower to avail loans in a risk free environment.

Lenders before advancing the amount, takes certain things in to consideration. For instance, the borrower’s monthly income, employment proof, credit record, repayment capability etc are looked upon by the lenders. This is why documents like income proof, bank statements etc play a crucial role. The amount borrower can raise through these loans is in the range of £1000-£25000. These loans have a short repayment duration that falls in between 6 months- 10 years.

Without any involvement of collateral and a short repayment period implies, that the lenders have to undertake a huge risk factor. This is one chief reason why lenders offer these loans at competitive rates.

Borrowers who are having a history of bad credit problems such as CCJs, IVA, arrears, defaults etc can also apply for these loans. To do so, borrower has to convince the lender that he is capable of repaying the borrowed amount which can be done by showing his income and repayment capability.

Although, these loans can be sourced from traditional lenders, it is the online lender which is known to offer a large number of options. Because of the presence of large number of lenders and stiff competition, borrower can avail these loans at cheap rates.

With unsecured loans, borrower can avail finances without attaching any collateral to fulfill their various needs.

With Bad Credit Loans, Get Relief From Credit Problems

2008-09-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

by:IMON TAUFEL
Bad credit often poses a lot of problems for the borrowers who are in need of money. They too may have needs that require fulfillment. They may just want to take up money with the aim of improving their credit history. The borrowers for these purposes may take up bad credit loans easily.

The money that is available to the borrowers may be used for any purposes which are personal like educational expenses, wedding expenses, car purchase, debt consolidation, home improvement, business needs, travel expenses, medical procedures etc. Any needs of borrowers may be fulfilled without any issue through these loans.

The borrowers can get money for their needs easily through the secured or the unsecured form. Money may be borrowed in big or small amounts and this is the factor along with the possession of assets that decides as to which option the borrower wants to avail. The secured form of these loans is availed by the borrowers who are in need of money in big amounts and are required to pledge collateral for approval. Money is available in the range of £5000-£75000 for the borrower’s usage. The borrowed amount is required to be repaid in a term of 5-25 years.

The people requiring smaller amounts can take up money through these loans via the unsecured form. No collateral is required to be pledged with the lenders. The money is borrowed within the range of £1000-£25000. The borrower is required to repay the loan amount in a term of 6months to 10 years. Rate of interest for the secured loans is lower than the unsecured loan form.

The borrowers can take up online research so as to get lower rate deals. The money is available at lower rates owing to the stiff competition that exists online. Bad credit borrowers too have the opportunity to take up these loans easily.

With bad credit loans, the borrowers get a chance to borrow money for their needs easily. The low credit score of borrowers is not an obstacle anymore.

Income Protection Cover Could Provide A Replacement Income

2008-09-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

Those who have loan or credit card debts or a mortgage with repayments to make each month should give some thought as to how they would continue to make these payments if they were to lose their income. While you may turn to savings if an illness or accident prevented you from working for a short period of time, any savings you had would soon dwindle. If you were made redundant then it could take some time to find another job and struggling to meet your monthly commitments would only add pressure to already stressful circumstances. Income protection cover taken out with a specialist provider could give you a replacement income if you lost yours, along with peace of mind.

Payment protection insurance can be taken out for fixed monthly premiums, based on how old you are when applying for the cover and how much you need to cover each month. There is a limit to the amount of your income that you are able to cover and the provider will give details of this in the terms and conditions. By going with a specialist for the protection you can be sure that the policy will be a quality product. It will come with very few exclusions and cover is backdated to the first day you came out of work. Of course, the biggest advantage of getting a quote from an independent provider is the money you will save on the cost of cover. Standalone providers that only sell payment protection will not go for the huge profits that the high street lenders do.

There are exclusions to be found in income protection policies, as with all insurances, which could mean you would not be eligible to claim and so taking out the cover would be useless. While these exclusions can vary depending on the provider offering a policy, there are some that are standard in all policies. Those individuals who are retired, self-employed, suffer from an ongoing illness or do not work in a full-time position would have to give some very serious thought to the policy’s suitability before taking it out. For example, if you do suffer from a pre-existing illness but it has not bothered you during the past two years, protection cover might be suitable. And if you are self-employed and have to stop trading through no fault of your own then you might benefit from cover.

Income protection cover would generally begin to provide you with a tax-free replacement income after being unable to work for a specific amount of time. This is usually within a period of 30 to 90 days of being continually out of work, without having a break in between. Once the cover has started to provide you with security then it would continue to do so for the time stated in the policy’s small print – generally 12 to 24 months. This period usually gives plenty of time for recovery from illness or accident, or enough time to find another job and start earning an income again.

Do Not Be Tricked Into Taking Out High-Cost Payment Protection Cover

2008-09-08T11:39:00.000-07:00

Payment protection cover has seen many problems over the last few years which have all had a negative effect on the family of payment protection products. One of the many problems associated with policies has been that they are ‘pushed’ alongside a loan at the time of borrowing. A popular consumer watchdog announced that out of 41 lenders they contacted regarding taking out a loan, 24 of them included payment protection with the quote.

While taking out a payment protection policy in order to cover your loan or credit card payments can work well in the event of being unable to work, you must give a lot of thought to which policy you take out. This means sitting down and reading the key facts that come with the cover and understanding them.

It is important to be aware that there are exclusions included in the protection that can mean you would not be eligible to claim. This means that the 24 quotes that were given to the watchdog that included cover could possibly have been mis-sold – had the consumer taken it without being aware that the exclusions existed?

Those who only work on a part-time basis, are retired or self-employed, or who have an ongoing medical condition would not benefit from taking out payment protection insurance. These are just some of the exclusions that can be frequently found in a policy.

Those individuals who have loan or credit card payments to make each month who want the peace of mind a policy can bring should visit a specialist website. There are many benefits to going online with an independent provider. The information they provide enables the consumer to make an informed choice regarding suitability before they take on the cover. Getting an immediate quote based on your age and the amount you wish to cover each month is easy and along with this the quote will come with the key facts.

But one of the biggest reasons for going with a specialist is the money you can save on the premiums. Buying cover from an independent specialist can save you up to 80% in comparison to the quotes some high street lenders offer. A quality policy provides peace of mind that you would have a tax-free sum of money if you were to find yourself incapable of working. And there are many reasons why you may be unable to work – such as if you suffered from an illness, an accident or unemployment due to redundancy.

You do have to be out of work for a defined period of time before the policy kicks in. However, with the majority of ethical providers the cover is backdated to day one. Usually you begin to receive the benefit from between 30 and 90 days of continuously being out of action. Payment protection cover then continues for between 12 to 24 months, depending on the conditions set out by the provider. Having this income each month would allow you to relax and get well without suffering from the stress of having to find the money by some other means so that you could continue meeting your loan or credit card repayments each month.
by: simon burgess

Loan Cover Can Work If You Understand What You Are Buying

2008-09-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

Providing you take the time to read the terms and conditions that come with a policy then loan cover can be a valuable asset. It is only when the consumer is ignorant of the exclusions and buys cover that has not been explained fully that problems occur. This was seen in 2005 when the Office of Fair Trading received a super complaint from the Citizens’ Advice Bureau. Following this, the Financial Services Authority began investigating and subsequently handed out fines to several firms.

Guidelines were laid down when it came to improving sales techniques and while some firms took heed and have made changes to the way they sell cover, many more are still failing to meet expectations and mis-selling continues. The majority of mis-selling occurs when policies are sold alongside loans at the time of borrowing. High street lenders are thought to bring in around £4 billion in profits from adding cover to loans. Often when the protection is bought this way interest is added onto the loan after loan protection has been included, which means you are paying interest on the actual protection and loan combined and not just the borrowing itself.

For the cheapest quotes for payment protection insurance go to a specialist independent provider. As they are more ethical, the quote given for protection for your loan or credit card will be based on your age when applying and how much your monthly loan repayments are. By choosing to take out loan protection this way you can save as much as 80% when compared to high street lenders’ quotes.

Along with making huge savings on the cover a specialist will also ensure that the consumer has access to the information needed to ensure the suitability of the protection. Policy exclusions stop some people from being eligible to claim, and so checking your circumstances against the exclusions is imperative. Failing to properly explain exclusions is the number one cause of mis-selling.

Popular exclusions include working part time, being self-employed, suffering from an ongoing illness or being of retirement age. While these are listed as exclusions even those who have an illness could still be eligible to take out a policy. Providing the illness has not re-occurred within two years before applying for the cover a policy might be suitable. Those who are self-employed would be eligible to claim if they ceased trading entirely through no fault of their own. With these exclusions and exceptions in mind, you can see why it is essential to go over the terms and conditions with a fine toothcomb.

A specialist is the best way to save and get the information related to all aspects of payment protection, of which loan cover is just one type of product. However, in March consumers will have another tool they can use: comparison tables. Tables will show how much a policy would cost in total, and explain the exclusions that exist in all cover. When it comes to choosing which type of policy would be the most suitable then this will be made more transparent through a series of questions and answers.
by: SIMON BURGESS

Tips for Prescribing a Future for Your Business

2008-08-29T01:29:00.000-07:00

by:Addele Sommers

Are you wondering what the future holds for your business? Whether you want to predict your future or prescribe an outcome of your choosing, you'll have plenty of company!

Throughout history, we humans have tried many ways to predict the future, from reading palms to stargazing. Today, we refer to these as descriptive methods when we attempt to describe objectively what the future will be or could be.

On the other hand, prescriptive methods focus on determining what the future should be. These techniques can help us clarify our preferences and values so we can create a vision of what we would like to see in our lives, businesses, or communities.

Once we understand what we would like the future to represent, we're better able to take the actions required to implement it. Ideally, that future will align with our passions, gifts, and what we (or our companies) can really be the best at doing. This article suggests a two-stage process for achieving that goal.

First, Identify Your "Hedgehog Concept"

So, what can you be the best in the world (or at least in your community) at doing? This thought-provoking reflection is one of many from Jim Collins' "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't."

Collins' team examined 1,435 companies to see which ones made substantial gains in profitability and sustained those improvements over 15 years or more. Since the 1970s, only 11 companies had risen from mediocrity to greatness and stayed there -- topping many other prosperous firms that lacked the same staying power.

Of eight characteristics these companies shared, all held an unshakable adherence to becoming the best in the world at whatever they did. Each company committed to doing only those things and nothing else. That sometimes meant dropping their core businesses to pursue other things at which they could become the best in the world.

Collins and his team coined the term "hedgehog concept" to reflect a single-minded determination and focus that, similar to that of the hedgehog animal, attempts to do only one thing really well, such as curl up and roll. A hedgehog concept actually represents the intersection of three areas:

1) What you're most passionate about
2) An understanding of what you could be the best at doing, and
3) A metric that drives your economic engine and helps you measure results.

Keep in mind that according to Collins, this concept is not a goal, strategy, or plan, but an understanding of what you can and can't be the best at doing. Until you develop your hedgehog concept, you won't know your true vision, mission, or purpose.

Next, Define Your "Business Success Criteria"

Do you have a crystal clear idea of the types of business undertakings that align with your gifts, talents, passions, and strengths? In that same context, have you thought about whether your business can be the very best in the world at doing those things?

If the answers are "yes," you are in an excellent position to choose the ventures that can give you the greatest satisfaction and results.

If you're not yet totally clear about the answers to these questions, developing a set of "business success criteria" can enable you to select worthwhile endeavors with much deeper insight, and thus set the conditions for successfully pursuing them. A hedgehog concept thereby represents part of the formula you can devise to identify and choose among your very best options.

Why is this so important? It's not uncommon for people to wander into businesses, projects, and professions opportunistically, which means that they often select the next available and convenient thing that comes along. At times, this may be necessary for financial reasons. But unless we understand our underlying success criteria, we might not recognize the options that truly fuel and inspire us -- those that are best suited to our passions and strengths.

Some of your criteria could be practical considerations, and others more lofty ideals. But all of your criteria will be essential to achieving balance, fulfillment, prosperity, and higher contribution in your life.

In conclusion, a set of carefully crafted success criteria fueled by a potent hedgehog concept provides an unbeatable strategic advantage, and an excellent direction-finder for prescribing your future!

How I Generated More Revenues Without Having a Sale

2008-08-29T01:20:00.000-07:00

by:Jonathan Marino

You want more revenue and you want it fast. The marketing experts tell you to “create a compelling offer.” You immediately think “Sale.”

You wonder how big the sale should be. How much can I afford to give away before the sale starts costing me money? How will I word the sale materials so customers don’t take advantage of me? The worries start and you realize you have a huge task to pull off this sale and generate real revenue.

Unfortunately, in our crowded market place, a compelling offer has become synonymous with a “sale.” There are other, better alternatives to motivate customers to buy from you.

This article will show you six options that will accomplish your goal of getting more revenues. These options will build a stronger relationship with your customers that the sale will not accomplish.

The Limitations of the “Sale”

The fundamental problem with most sales is that they are good for the business but not necessarily good for the customer.

A sale usually starts with a business problem you want your customers to solve for you. You need more cash. You have excess inventory. You need to meet sales quotas. You want to get ready for new merchandise. Your sale is asking the customer to solve your business problem.

There will always be customers who don’t mind being used. Their agenda coincides with your agenda. Quid pro quo.

When you create your offering around something they really value, however, they look on your offering differently. It becomes more than just a customer transaction. It is the start or the continuation of a relationship that will result in sales now and in the future. The customer’s primary concern is always how the product or service benefits them and makes their life better.

Six Alternative Offerings

Convenience

Structure your offering around customer convenience and you have a motivation that does not require sales or discounts. At my daughter’s school recently, the uniform company came to the school to sell uniforms. The parent’s alternative was to drive 30 miles into the city to purchase the uniforms at the company’s store. Parents were lined up forty deep to purchase the uniforms at regular prices. This store made convenience a motivator for the parents to shop.

Enhance Your Expertise

If your customers are buying your expertise, by enhancing that know-how you give them additional motivation to buy your product or service. Suppose you were in the copywriting business. You announce to your customers that you had just completed a copywriting campaign that generated thousands of dollars for a particular business. Customers now see doing business with you as even more desirable. No discounts; no sales!

Self-Esteem and Praise from Others

Those who market golf equipment say the main motivation for customer purchases is praise from others. “Great shot, Bob. You’re really driving the ball well!” If your product or service involves these types of motivations, repackage your offering to foster self-esteem and praise from others. It has more power than a sale!

Tapping into Social Issues (Idealism)

I recently worked with an acupuncture clinic. This form of Chinese medicine can heal many ailments and injuries. We chose to focus their acupuncture marketing on the treatments on athletic injuries because of the current scandals involving the use of harmful drugs and steroids. We presented their offering as a safe and natural alternative to more harmful drugs. By presenting an ideal alternative to a current social issue, no sale or discount was required. You can appeal to your customer’s idealism.

Popularity

People want to be part of the “in-group.” They want acceptance. By repackaging your offering to emphasize the popularity of your product or service, you give people another motive for wanting to buy from your business.

Scarcity

Scarcity is another motive that drives customers. It can be expressed in limited product or service quantities; limited editions; selective lines of products; preferred customer programs; limited time; or taking advantage of opportunities. There is some greed in all of us. If we feel we are going to lose out, we get very motivated.

Conclusion

This article has shown you six alternatives to generate more revenue that don’t involve a sale. When you need a compelling offer, start with the motivations that drive your customers to buy from you and then emphasize these motivations. You will find these motives are just as effective as a sale. They will also help you build a better relationship with your customers because you’re doing it for them!

MLM Prospecting: Creating a Win-Win Outcome

2008-08-29T01:16:00.000-07:00

by:Liz Monte

In any business endeavor, a win-win outcome is always the most satisfying and productive. It certainly beats the alternatives - win-lose, lose-win, or (heaven forbid!) lose-lose - in which one or both parties walks away feeling an assortment of negative emotions, possibly including disappointment, anger, resentment, and a desire to throw crockery against the wall.

What do we mean by win-win when it comes to finding new partners for our network marketing business?

For the prospector (you), a win probably means acquiring a new business partner with the following attributes: easy to work with, motivated, determined to succeed, reliable and accountable, upbeat, honest, hardworking, and so on. Of course, you would probably also want your recruit to have some free time and enough money to get started.

For the prospect... well, we really don't know what a win would be for her, do we? We could make an assumption and guess. We could assume that she just wants to make a lot of money. But what if we guess wrong? What if her heart's desire is to help people and make a difference in the world.

The only way we can know for sure what's going through our prospect's head is to talk with her -- ask questions, listen closely to the answers, ask more questions, and do a lot more listening.

One word of caution, though: When interviewing a prospect, it's very tempting to listen just until she mentions some problem your product or opportunity might help solve. And then... (sound of bugles) YOU'RE OFF AND RUNNING! Bending her ear about how wonderful your company is and how much she's going to LOVE what the products will do for her.

But telling why YOU think your opportunity is the greatest thing since sliced bread is not the goal. The goal is to reach a win-win outcome, and there's more to it than just presenting your favorite features and benefits and assuming that's what your prospect wants, too.

If you're truly dedicated to win-win, your goal is to reach a deep understanding of what a win would be for her and then honestly assessing whether or not your opportunity would create that.

If it's not a good fit, let it go. Thank her for her time and move on.

On the other hand, if you believe your opportunity is a match for her, go ahead and explain to her why you think so. Be sure to connect the dots between her specific problems and how your opportunity can address them.

Then she signs up, right?

Not quite. Actually, there's yet another critical step you both must take before reaching a win-win outcome.

Recently, I started reading a book that really gets into the whole win-win strategy, "The New Conceptual Selling" by Stephen E. Heiman and Diane Sanchez. (Although it was written mainly for business-to-business salespeople, most of the principles the book lays out are applicable to network marketers, too.)

It describes three stages of decision-making in the sales process.

Stage 1: The decision-maker (your prospect) comes to a better understanding of the situation she's facing. (This is where your question-answer dialogue helps her.)

Stage 2: The decision-maker explores her possible options and solutions. (This is that other critical step I mentioned, and it's where many network marketers falter.)

Stage 3: The decision-maker puts it all together and picks the best option for herself.

Why do I say that many MLMers falter in the second stage? The answer is that we naturally want OUR option to be the only one the prospect considers. But the person sitting before us must be free to consider ALL her choices, or her final decision will never be satisfying to her. (By the way, this is a common problem with many salespeople, not just network marketers.)

Plus, people know when they're being pushed or manipulated. Throughout this whole conversation, you've been creating rapport and building trust. If you suddenly start pitching your solution as the only one, your prospect will close up again before your very eyes. She might start talking about how she needs to think a few things over - and maybe she'll get back to you in a couple of weeks. Maybe. In other words, you just lost her.

Or if you do succeed in manipulating her into agreeing to your solution without giving her a chance to think about her other choices, she's likely to feel buyer's remorse down the road and secretly resent you for it forever. That's certainly no way to begin a healthy business relationship, is it?

If you want to play a positive role in your prospect's decision-making process and achieve your win-win goal, you must make it totally clear to her, both in your words and in your actions, that you support her right to explore all her different options.

The good news is, if you truly understand her situation and genuinely believe that your opportunity is her best solution, and if you have effectively communicated why you think that way, chances are pretty good that your prospect will end up agreeing with you. And then you will get to enjoy the most treasured of all outcomes.

Your new business relationship will be launched in an atmosphere of mutual respect and commitment, with the positive expectation that it will continue indefinitely. You and your prospect will each get what you want, and you'll both feel terrific about your decisions.

Using Stop Loss Orders to Determine When to Enter a Trade

2008-08-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

by:Derek Frey

More from this Author at http://www.mytradesignals.com

Many people enter into trades with little more than a desire for profit. In Forex we normally use between 50 – 400 to 1 leverage. Because of the large amount of leverage we are able to use, simply hoping for a profit is not enough. Traders need a solid plan before the pull they trigger. When planning any battle, successful generals begin at the retreat and work their way backwards. Traders should do the same. The first and most important decision is when to admit defeat and retreat. Survival to fight another day is more important that going down with the ship. This article proposes that traders take a different approach to figuring out when and where to place their next trade. The approach is simple. Just like the generals, start by figuring out when to get out. This may sound strange, but if you apply this idea to whatever other methods you are using to determine your entry signals, your bottom line should improve. The overall idea is simple, rather than first looking for a good entry point, look for a point where you would want to be stopped out. At this point you are probably saying “who ever wants to get stopped out?”

The answer is, not the majority. But let’s look at several statistics for a moment to get some perspective. Depending on who you believe, anywhere between 75-95% of all retail Forex traders blow out their account within one year. So it seems that the 5-25% of traders who are winning are doing something different then the majority who are losing. One of those main differences is not being bothered by getting stopped out. Many new traders complain that they hate trading with stops because they have been stopped out of a trade that almost immediately turned around and would have been a huge winner had they not run the stop. They take that to mean that they should not trade with stops. Trading without some kind of risk management is like playing Russian roulette by yourself, it may not be the next pull of the trigger that kills you, but pull it enough times and sooner or later it’s a sure thing. Trading without risk management is much the same. You may get away with it for a while, but the lesson you are learning will sooner or later prove deadly.

There are many forms of risk management, from the extremely complex, like cross hedging with options, to the very simple, such as using stops. The use of stop loss orders is one of the simplest and often most effective way to manage the risks of any given trade. The reason many traders have had a bad experience with using stops is not the fault of the stop itself, but rather the placement of the stop. Most traders get into a trade and then decide where to run a stop, if at all. They often have a fixed dollar amount that they are willing to risk per trade and they then place the stop loss order accordingly. All of this on the surface sounds like a good plan, but in practice it often leads to the scenario mentioned before, where the trade gets stopped out and then the market turns on a dime and goes the way the trader had originally anticipated, leaving them to mistakenly blame the stop. The individual points that led to the stop being placed are not bad in and of themselves, but put together this way, they often lead to the frustration mentioned above.

So let us look at these issues from another angle. Rather than getting into a trade and then deciding where to get out, let’s determine the exit point and let that dictate where we get in. To do this you will need a chart. Choose the chart’s time-frame based on how long you intend to hold the trade. If you only hold your trades for a few hours then a 15 or 60 minute chart should be fine. If you are more of a swing trader, then daily or even weekly charts would be best. Currencies tend to trend more than most other markets. However, they do not trend all the time. In fact the opposite is true. Most markets only trend about 30% of the time. The remaining 70% of the time they are trading within a range or chopping. Therefore, learning how to trade the chop is paramount if you want to be a trader for years to come. What follows is a simple yet effective way to trade the chop.

Trading the Chop

First, start by looking at long term support and resistance zones. Markets tend to have certain zones that they “bounce” off of time and time again before penetrating them. These zones are what you want to look for. Start with weekly or even monthly charts, no matter what time-frame you trade in. This will tell you in an instant whether the market is trending or choppy. Once you determine the underlying market condition, look for significant areas of support and resistance. Finally, move to a daily chart and then to a 60 minute chart. After going through these different time-frames you should be able to find a number of these zones. The best are those that coincide through all the time-frames. That will only happen if the market is at or near relative new highs or lows. When it does happen, though, it is time to sit up and pay attention. However, you do not need to wait for perfect conditions to use this method. You only need a support or resistance zone in whatever time-frame you are comfortable trading. Once you have identified these areas on a chart, you need to look closely and determine where that level would be broken and place your stops accordingly. A move through this level would signify that the market is breaking out from the previously established range. Once you find what the highest high is in the case of a resistance level, or lowest low in the case of a support level, you need to go a certain distance beyond that so you are not stopped out by a move of only one or two pips beyond these levels.

There are many ways to determine how much extra distance to give each market. One way that I have used is to simply look for the next closest Fibonacci number. This method is not scientific, but one that has served me well over the years. The Fibonacci sequence is one that was discovered by a mathematician all the way back in 13th century. The sequence is as follows: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144… For the purposes of using them for stops I normally only use 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, and 89. So if the last two digits of the highest high in a resistance zone had been 25, then you would use either 34 or 55 depending on which particular market it is in. The more volatile, or greater the average true range (ATR), the wider you should go.

Once you identify the zone you can then come up with your exact stop point.

Look at the daily chart of the USD/JPY and you can see that we have had significant resistance between roughly 121.50 and 122.25. Each time the market has reached this zone it has failed to follow through. There have been three attempts to break out from this zone, each one being lower than the last, forming a descending trend line. This is what you want to look for. Once you identify the zone you can then come up with your exact stop point. Simply find the recent highest high, in this case 121.66, and then find the next closest Fibonacci number (89) and you have your stop (121.89).

Determining your entry point

Now that you know where you are going to run your stop you can use that to determine your entry point. This is the point where you want determine how much actual money you are willing to risk on the trade. Most money managers will tell you to never invest more than 1% of your account on one trade. That rule really only works for traders using 50k or more. Most traders start with less and therefore are forced to break that rule. Starting with a $5,000 account and only risking 1% would mean that you can only risk $50 per trade, which in some cases is less than the bid/ask spread once you enter the trade, so it is obviously not realistic. But try to keep the amount you risk on any one trade as low as you can. Trading is a long-term endeavor. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that your next trade is “the big one” and you are sure it will work, and therefore put half or even all of your account into it. That is not money management, it is gambling. But let’s say you are comfortable risking $400 on a trade, or 40 pips on a 100k contract. Looking at a Daily chart of the USD/JPY, you can see that the most recent high was 121.66. Using the Fibonacci stop idea you would run your stop at 121.89 because 89 is the next closest Fibonacci number above 66. Now you have your stop well above a significant point of resistance. To calculate your entry point, simply subtract the 40 pips you are willing to risk from your stop point to arrive at 121.59 (121.89 – 40 = 121.59). The next day the market traded up to 121.63 so a limit order at 121.59 should have been filled. Once the order is filled, you can trail your stop with the market or move it to coincide with other support and resistance zones within the range. Your target would be somewhere near the bottom of the range. In this example your target would be a move to 119.50 or below.

So let’s review this method. First determine if the current market is trending or chopping. Then look to identify areas of support and or resistance. Next find the highest high in a recent resistance level or the lowest low in a support level. Determine the next closest Fibonacci number and you have your stop point. Then take the amount you are willing to risk per trade and either subtract it from your stop if it is a short trade or add it to your stop if it is a long trade. You now have both your stop and entry points, and you are only risking whatever amount you determined you were comfortable with. Your stop is placed at a level that signifies a change in the recent trend, and therefore is mush less random than most other stops. This method is not to be used exclusively, but it is one that can compliment whatever other indicators or patterns you are using to determine you next trade. This method should help you avoid getting stopped out at insignificant points that have you selling near highs and buying near lows within the established trading range.

How To Write A Successful Business Plan

2008-08-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

by:Jason kay

Whether you are planning to start a brand-new business, expand an existing company, or get financing for a business venture, you will need to write a business plan. A business plan not only lends your business a sense of credibility, but also helps you to cover all your bases, increasing your chances of success.

Although writing a business plan can be a lengthy, intimidating project, it is not necessarily difficult. Here is an overview of how to write a successful business plan.

What to Include in Your Business Plan

Your business plan needs to demonstrate that you have thoroughly considered all aspects of running your business. To that end, the standard business plan has nine major sections, covering everything from your business’s mission statement to a detailed financial analysis.

Executive Summary

The first – and most important – section of your business plan is the executive summary. This section is so important that it should literally be the first thing the reader sees – even before the table of contents! However, it should also be written last, as you’ll have a better understanding of the overall message of your business plan after you’ve researched and written the other sections.

One of the most important parts of the executive summary is the mission statement. The mission statement is only three or four sentences long, but it should pack the most punch out of everything else in your business plan: Those four sentences are responsible for not only defining your business, but also capturing the interest of your reader.

The rest of your executive summary should fill in the important details that the mission statement glosses over. For instance, your executive summary should include a short history of the business, including founder profiles and start date; a current snapshot, listing locations, numbers of employees, and products or services offered; and a summary of future plans and goals.

This section is a candidate for a bulleted format, which allows you to list main points in a manner that is easy to scan. Avoid using too much detail – remember, this section is a summary. A page or two is usually sufficient for an executive summary.

Market Analysis

The next section of your business plan focuses on market analysis. In order to show that your business has a reasonable chance for success, you will need to thoroughly research the industry and the market you intend to sell to. No bank or investor is going to back a doomed venture, so this section is sure to fall under especially close scrutiny if you are looking for financing.

Your market analysis should describe your industry, including the size, growth rate, and trends that could affect the industry. This section should also describe your target market – that is, the type or group of customers that your company intends to serve. The description of your target market should include detail such as:

• Distinguishing characteristics
• The needs your company or product line will meet
• What media and/or marketing methods you’ll use to reach them
• What percentage of your target market you expect to be able to wrest away from your competitors

In addition, your market analysis should include the results of any market tests you have done, and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

Company Description

After your market analysis, your business plan will need to include a description of your company. This section should describe:

• The nature of your business
• The needs of the market
• How your business will meet these needs
• Your target market, including specific individuals and/or organizations
• The factors that set you apart from your competition and make you likely to succeed

Although some of these things overlap with the previous section, they are still necessary parts of your company description. Each section of your business plan should have the ability to stand on its own if need be. In other words, the company description should thoroughly describe your company, even if certain aspects are covered in other sections.

Organization and Management

Once you have described the nature and purpose of your company, you will need to explain your staff setup. This section should include:

• The division of labor – how company processes are divided among the staff
• The management hierarchy
• Profiles of the company’s owner(s), management personnel, and the Board of Directors
• Employee incentives, such as salary, benefits packages, and bonuses

This goal of this section is to demonstrate not only good organization within the company, but also the ability to create loyalty in your employees. Long-term employees minimize human resource costs and increase a business’s chances for success, so banks and investors will want to see that you have an effective system in place for maintaining your staff.

Marketing and Sales Management

The purpose of the marketing and sales section of your business plan is to outline your strategies for marketing your products or services. This section also plans for company growth by describing how the growth could take place.

The section should describe your company’s:

• Marketing methods
• Distributions methods
• Type of sales force
• Sales activities
• Growth strategies

Product or Services

Following the marketing section of your business plan, you will need a section focusing on the product or services your business offers. This is more than a simple description of your product or services, though. You will also need to include:

• The specific benefits your product or service offers customers
• The specific needs of the market, and how your product will meet them
• The advantages your product has over your competitors
• Any copyright, trade secret, or patent information pertaining to your product
• Where any new products or services are in the research and development process
• Current industry research that you could use in the development of products and services

Funding Request

Only once you have described your business from head to toe are you ready to detail your funding needs. This section should include everything a bank or investor needs in order to understand what type of funding you want:

• How much money you need now
• How much money you think you will need over the next five years
• How the money you borrow will be used
• How long you will need funding
• What type of funding you want (i.e. loans, investors, etc.)
• Any other terms you want the funding arrangement to include

Financials

The financials section in your business plan supports your request for outside funding. This section provides an analysis of your company’s prospective financial success. The section also details your company’s financial track record for the past three to five years, unless you are seeking financing for a startup business.

The financials section should include:

• Company income statements for prior years
• Balance sheets for prior years
• Cash flow statements for prior years
• Forecasted company income statements
• Forecasted balance sheets
• Forecasted cash flow statements
• Projections for the next five years – every month or quarter for the first year, with longer intervals for the remaining years
• Collateral you can use to secure a loan

The financials section is a great place to include visuals such as graphs, particularly if you predict a positive trend in your projected financials. A graph allows the reader to quickly take in this information, and may do a better job of encouraging a bank or investor to finance your business. However, be sure that the amount of financing you are requesting is in keeping with your projected financials – no matter how impressive your projections are, if you are asking for more money than is warranted, no bank or investor will give it to you.

Appendices

The appendix is the final section in your business plan. Essentially, this is where you put all of the information that doesn’t fit in the other eight sections, but that someone – particularly a bank or investor – might need to see.

For instance, the market analysis section of your business plan may list the results of market studies you have done as part of your market research. Rather than listing the details of the studies in that section, where they will appear cumbersome and detract from the flow of your business plan, you can provide this information in an appendix.

Other information that should be relegated to an appendix includes:

• Credit histories for both you and your business
• Letters of reference
• References that have bearing on your company and your product or service, such as magazines or books on the topic
• Company licenses and patents
• Copies of contracts, leases, and other legal documents
• Resumes of your top managers
• Names of business consultants, such as your accountant and attorney

Writing a Successful Business Plan

Despite the quantity of information contained in your business plan, it should be laid out in a format that is easy to read. Just like with any piece of business writing, it is important to craft your business plan with your intended audience in mind – and the bankers, investors, and other busy professionals who will read your business plan almost certainly won’t have time to read a tedious document with long-winded paragraphs and large blocks of text.

Business plans for startup companies and company expansions are typically between twenty to forty pages long, but formatting actually accounts for a lot of this length. A strong business plan uses bullet points throughout to break up long sections and highlight its main points. Visuals such as tables and charts are also used to quickly relay specific information, such as trends in sales and other financial information. These techniques ensure that the reader can skim the business plan quickly and efficiently.

Think of your audience as only having fifteen minutes to spend on each business plan that comes across their desks. In that fifteen minutes, you not only have to relay your most important points, but also convince the reader that your business venture merits a financial investment. Your best bet is a well-researched business plan, with an organized, easy-to-read format and clear, confident prose.

Superior Leader - Warren Buffet

2008-08-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

by: Michael J. Spindler

Superior business leader and American investor Warren Buffett is often called “Oracle of Omaha” or the “Sage of Omaha” and philanthropist. (Wikipedia, 2007) Buffett is the CEO, and the biggest shareholder of the Berkshire Hathaway Company. Buffett’s has an estimated current net worth of approximately $52 billion in US funds. Forbes Magazine ranks Buffett the third richest person in the world in September 2007 behind Carlos Slim and Bill Gates.

Warren Buffett is known for his economical and plain lifestyle. Buffett still lives in the same Omaha, Nebraska house that he purchased in 1958 for $31,500 with a current value of $700,000. In 1989, Buffett spent $9.7 million of the Berkshire’s funds on a corporate jet. He jokingly named it “The Indefensible” because of his past criticisms of such purchases by other CEOs. (Wikipedia, 2007)

Warren Buffett decided to make a commitment to give his fortune to charity back in June 2006. Buffett’s charity donation is approximately $30 billion, which is the largest donation in the history of the United States. The donation was enough to more than double the size of the foundation with 83% of it going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett believed that his family had enough money to get started in life so Buffett decided to give his fortune to charity. Buffett’s annual salary in 2006 was only $100,000. In 2007, Buffett was listed among Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. (Wikipedia, 2007)

What makes Warren Buffett a good business leader? This is what everyone wants to know because Warren buffet is so successful. It all starts with leadership. Warren buffet is a true leader where his leadership makes a difference in the world. Leadership is very much related to change and Warren Buffett has the capabilities of leadership change to fit the changing world. Warren Buffett has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to map read in the irregular waters of change. Is Warren Buffett born a leader? The authors of this paper believe not. Experience and research has shown little evidence that an individual who comes to power is a “born leader.” Warren Buffett took the falls that any other leader has to take. Warren Buffett learned from his mistakes and turned his mistakes into a positive thing. Warren Buffett shares his leadership at all organizational levels and Buffett is empowered to share leadership responsibilities. In the world of business, many titles related to leadership roles are actively used in business and Warren Buffett wears those titles to make him effective in multiple leadership positions in business. Distinction between good leadership and good management is made often. Managers are made to be organizational, controllers and budgeters. Warren Buffett has leadership in all three departments and one must have these traits to be a good business leader.

Another important trait in Today’s business leadership is communication. Warren Buffet is a skilled communicator in all aspects of life. Communication is the real key of leadership. Skilled communicators have an appreciation for positioning in the business world. Warren Buffet is experienced at positioning himself at the right place at the right time. Warren Buffet has the understanding of the people he is trying to reach and what he can and cannot hear from the people. Knowledge of audiences’ needs and wants gives the orator the ability to listen. Warren Buffett is an excellent listener with the ability to convey his understanding.

When Warren Buffett talks, people listen. Warren Buffett can send a message through an open door and does not have to push the message through a wall.

Leadership is crucial to any successful business and good leadership is what Warren Buffett is all about. This is what makes Warren buffet a good business leader.

Mr. Warren Buffett’s investment strategies and course of leadership are shining examples of characteristics shared by cognitive theorists. Cognitive theory is an approach of explaining behavior through perception, anticipation, and thinking. Mr. Buffett’s continual approach of analyzing both possible investment choices, market trends, and the ability to place management resources of the right caliber in the right position has consistently brought this investor to the forefront amongst peers and the marketplace. At the core of every sound investor is a creative innovator.

Innovation demands creativity. Creativity in turn draws on our cognitive faculties, across the full amplitude from emotion to reason. In the number-heavy world of global investing, innovative thinking is critical. Innovative investors decipher future trends, spot likely winners by combining science (financials) with art (acuity and perception) and continuously mitigate risk. They assess user needs, product features, the proper deployment of money, professional organizational structures and risk management. (Kore Kalibre, 2006)

Mr. Buffett’s instinct and ability to interpret market trends is also held by tight reigns. Despite over 50 years of growth, Mr. Buffett always adheres to one of the most basic business principles: “…only compete where you have a competitive advantage. Warren Buffett refers to staying within your circle of competence. Social psychologists tell us, though, that we are prone to overconfidence when it comes to assessing our abilities…” (Arthridge, 2006) A man of Warren Buffett’s position and track record could easily be derailed to a sense of over confidence. The principle of only competing within your range of competitive advantage is a principle that can be applied to many other areas in life, and Mr. Buffett’s ability to work and live by this idea has allowed him to continue forward with minimal bruising.

By establishing the previous examples, the authors can reinforce the principles of cognitive theory in that Mr. Buffett behavior patterns are clearly dictated by thought processes, which include interpretation, analysis, and foresight. “As experiences and events gain meaning and value, the process becomes increasingly top down as the mind in (a) attempt at an orderly process influences perception though beliefs, goals and external process” (Gardener, 2007)

Warren Buffett’s is a self empowered leader, because he is loyal, sets goals, plans a strategy for achievement, and stays committed until he accomplishes his purpose. Up to date, he is the greatest stockbroker of all-time. He is a very conservative investor that prefers to invest in companies that sell name brand products that he uses. For example, Coca-Cola, Gillette Razors, See’s Candy, Gulfstream Jet, and GEICO are the major companies he invested in. In the nineties his assets quadrupled in less than five years. He is a smart investor that usually does not take big investment risks. For example, he will not invest in internet stock, because the return is unpredictable. He likes to invest in companies that he is sure will be successful 20 years later. He buys the company with the intentions of keeping it forever. Usually, the management team of each company is the same staff that sold it Warren Buffett from the beginning. He stays loyal to his partners, and the team workstheir best to keep him happy.

After Warren Buffett’s wife died, he decided to donate 85% of his money to charity. However, “he wants his money to be used the same year he donates it”.(Harris, 2006) The requirement will accelerate the process to help the world. According to Fortune magazine, five-sixths of his money will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This foundation which focus on finding cures for diseases that are common in poor nations. The rest of the money will be split among four other charities, that are each run by his three children and one that is in his late wife’s name.

Warren Buffett is not a huge spender. In fact, he still lives in the same house he bought 40 years ago. Warren “told ABC News “Nightline” that being born into wealth did not entitle his children”(Harris, 2006). In addition, he told Fortune magazine that, “A very rich person would leave his kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing.”(Harris, 2006) In other words, he wants his children to work earn their money and value hard work and smart choices.

In the year 2006, Warren’s first annual donation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was $1.5 billion and the rest was divided among the four charities. He was the first person to make a donation better than Bill Gates, the richest man in the world. It seems as if Bill Gates and Warren Buffett set a good example and lead others to be more generous, because now the Barron Hilton has committed to donating half of his fortune to charity also. Barron Hilton is the founder of the Hilton Hotels and is worth $2.3 billion. Hopefully, a trend started among the fortunate to give to the less fortunate.

The personality of Warren Buffett ties to the Social Cognitive Level, because he tries to understand and make sense of other people. He observes the differences in social knowledge when dealing with people. Social cognition refers to making sense of ourselves, others, and how the information is used. In the sixties and seventies Albert Bandura and Walter Mischel were psychologists, studying personality development. They found that social learning and cognitive principles improve ones abilities to self-regulate and to follow goals. Warren investment choices were successful, because he conditioned his the way he processed information, choices, and expectations.

Understanding the Mortgage Meltdown; What happened and Who's to Blame

2008-08-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

by:Richard Gandon

People are losing their homes and many more will lose their jobs before the mortgage meltdown works its way through the system.

To paraphrase Alan Greenspan's remarks on March 17th, 2008, “The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the Second World War. The crisis will leave many casualties.”

How many casualties? Experts are predicting that in the next few years, between 15 and 20 million homeowners could have homes worth less than what they owe. Walking away from a bad situation may actually make sense for people who mortgages that are 'upside down' considering the fact that refinancing is out of the question and home equity is nonexistent.

It seems quite easy to point fingers at greedy Wall Street titans for causing the sub-prime mortgage crises. They after all, put together the deals that allowed banks to underwrite mortgages and then offload these liabilities to investors. What many fail to realize is that there is no shortage of blame to go around from homeowners buying more home than they could afford to real estate agents looking for more commission dollars. Mortgage brokers and bankers, the banks themselves, ratings agencies such as Moody's and Standard & Poor's, Wall Street, the Fed and last but certainly not least, the Federal Government.

Let's start with the homeowners--the people who are now in the process or soon to enter the process, of losing their homes. Some of these people had never before owned a home and as such, may not have been prepared for the costs associated with homeownership. Basic financial literacy is sorely lacking in this country despite there being no shortage of budgeting and tracking programs readily available such as Quicken and Microsoft Money. The lack of financial literacy does not absolve these buyers of their responsibility. Every borrower receives a truth in lending disclosure statement. Here is a portion of what the act covers:

The purpose of TILA (Truth In Lending Act) is to promote the informed use of consumer credit by requiring disclosures about its terms and cost. TILA also gives consumers the right to cancel certain credit transactions that involve a lien on a consumer's principal dwelling, regulates certain credit card practices, and provides a means for fair and timely resolution of credit billing disputes. With the exception of certain high-cost mortgage loans, TILA does not regulate the charges that may be imposed for consumer credit. Rather, it requires a maximum interest rate to be stated in variable-rate contracts secured by the consumer's dwelling. It also imposes limitations on home equity plans that are subject to the requirements of Sec. 226.5b and mortgages that are subject to the requirements of Sec. 226.32. The regulation prohibits certain acts or practices in connection with credit secured by a consumer's principal dwelling.

Much of the subprime mortgage crisis can be traced directly back to variable-rate mortgages. As is clearly stated above, “TILA does not regulate the charge that may be imposed for consumer credit. Rather, it requires a maximum interest rate to be stated in variable-rate contracts secured by the consumers dwelling.” It also clearly states that TILA also gives consumers the right to cancel certain credit transactions that involve a lien on a consumer's principal dwelling. One has to wonder whether or not these homeowners:

1. Bothered to read the truth in lending act disclosure at all.

2. Understood what the truth in lending act disclosure meant.

3. Chose to ignore the information printed clearly the truth in lending act disclosure.

A number of months ago, just as the subprime mortgage crisis was beginning to unfold, The New York Daily News ran an article about a family in New York City, who had bought a home and were now faced with the prospect of foreclosure. The article was sympathetic to this family, highlighting the fact that they're living the American dream and that this dream was about to come to an end. What I found to be distressing was the fact that clearly visible in the photo that accompanied this sympathetic article was a very expensive flat screen television hanging on the wall. Perhaps I'm naïve, but I can assure you that if I were faced with the prospect of losing my home and having my family put out on the street, there is absolutely no way that I would still have that expensive television hanging on my wall. It would have been one of the first things to be sold and some financial relief would be found by jettisoning what I'm sure was the expensive cable bill.

Clearly the public needs easy access to financial literacy courses. Too bad we don't see the need to make this a mandatory course of study in our educational system.

Mortgage bankers and brokers have in the last four or five years been raking in cash by the bucket load in the form of commissions paid when mortgages they've originated, close. Many of these people have not needed to do much in the way of prospecting. Instead, their phones have run off the hook as people have jumped on the homeownership and refinancing and take out extra cash bandwagon, despite their ability to pay for their home. No-document loans were readily available without the borrower having to produce documentation that backed up their income. Clearly this practice can and indeed has, lead to substandard loan underwriting processes. Were some of these mortgage bankers and brokers dishonest? Sure. Were all of them dishonest? I think not. To have a massive nationwide conspiracy, where thousands and thousands of people involved in the mortgage banking and mortgage brokering profession got together to create this situation is simply not feasible. Yes, some of the blame does belong with those in the mortgage industry, but they were simply a small cog in the huge machine that created this mess.

Let's discuss real estate agents. In 2007, we bought a home, and also sold a home. The agent we used to purchase our home was absolutely fantastic. In our opinion, she went above and beyond to make our deal happen. She answered every phone call, followed up on every concern and was the epitome of professionalism. We consider this individual to be a friend, and we have sent referrals her way that have resulted in her earning additional commissions. We will continue to recommend her to all who ask or mention that they'd like to buy or sell a home in our area.

The real estate agent, we used to sell our home, could not have been more different. We got our old home ready to sell prior to closing on our new home. We decided to list it as “For Sale by Owner.” In the event that we didn't sell this home on our own, it was our intention to list it with an agent as soon as we had closed on the purchase our new home. Literally, from the day we put the sign in front of our home and listed it on a “For Sale by Owner” website we were inundated with phone calls from real estate agents. We were told many lies and were constantly harassed; although we had already made it quite clear to every agent who called, and there were more to 60 who did; that we were willing to pay half the commission-the same as they would have received had they sold another agent's listing. We also told every agent that called that we had already lined up an agent to sell our home in the event that we chose to no longer sell it ourselves. Our deadline was the closing date of our new home purchase. We did have an interested buyer who shortly after our closing date decided to keep looking so we listed our home with a local agent so that we could concentrate on getting our new home ready for our moving date at the end of the school year. This agent showed our home a maximum of two times and got an offer which we accepted. We ended up getting $1,000 less than we had wanted in a declining Real Estate market. The agents who had called many times to harass us called our listing agent on a number of occasions and he lied telling them that the house was under contract when in fact it wasn't at that time-clearly a breach of our agent's fiduciary duty. Quite frankly an ethical agent would have continued to show our home until closing in the event that the deal fell through.

But wait, there's more. Our agent also acted as the buyer's mortgage broker. At the closing table, we learned that he had signed documents from the buyer stating that he (our agent) represented them and we had signed documents stating that he represented us. We also learned that the buyer had effectively put down approximately 2-3% of the purchase price when financed closing costs were factored into the equation. Their first mortgage had what we thought was a high fixed rate and their second mortgage came with a rate in excess of 8.5%. Because the closing happened in August, literally in the midst of the first wave of the meltdown, if they didn't close on the day they did (August 31st, 2007), Citibank wasn't going to extend their rate. When my wife & I have bought houses in the past, it had always been a very happy day. These people looked absolutely shell-shocked at the closing table. I'm not convinced that they knew just how much their monthly payment was going to be until closing day. We knew down to the penny well in advance having budgeted and planned everything on a spreadsheet. Were these people stupid or just inexperienced and mislead by a greedy combination of real estate agent & mortgage broker? I'm extremely confident that they are intelligent people but inexperienced and taken advantage of by an unscrupulous agent.

The banks are also culpable. Prior to bank deregulation, Savings and Loans provided mortgages to home buyers and kept these loans on their books. Non-performing loans had a negative effect on the S&L's profitability which of course caused tighter lending guidelines such as job stability and decent down payments in order for prospective home buyers to be approved for a mortgage. Way back then, a home buyer had to actually save up enough money for a down payment 10 or even 20% before a bank would ever consider underwriting a mortgage. The checks & balances kept banks solvent and borrowers responsible. Although this approach worked, some cried foul stating that the regulated system was racist and discriminatory-and there certainly was some truth to this. Skipping forward to the present, banks made a bundle on mortgages over the past five or six years. For the most part, they allowed their underwriting criteria to be stretched so far out of alignment that almost anyone could and indeed did, qualify for a mortgage despite their ability to pay. Some folks even applied for and received mortgages for more than the property was worth. Sometimes for as much as 25% more than their property was worth!

Under the prior system, 125% mortgages would not have been possible because of course these loans were held on the banks' books and could have led to losses that would have had to have been absorbed directly by the bank.

So what went wrong? Under the current system, these loans were sold to the big Wall Street investment firms who repackaged them as collateralized mortgage obligations (CMO's), Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS's) and other similar acronyms. These instruments were then sent to the ratings agencies for their blessing and more importantly a letter rating. Many of these structured finance deals receive AAA ratings-the highest ratings available meaning that in theory, these instruments were least likely to default. How does one create a 'triple A' or AAA rated financial instrument out of sub-prime mortgages? Herein lies the magic. These Asset Backed Securities (ABS) are made up of different tranches or slices, each carrying a different risk and reward level. The first dollar of principle and interest is applied to the securities with the highest rating, and the first dollar of loss is applied to the tranche with the lowest ratings. The lower slices are designed to provide a security blanket that in theory protects the higher-rated securities. The investment banks that package or 'structure' these securities in order to earn fat fees when they sell them to investors are the same entities that pay the ratings agencies to rate these instruments. Clearly the possibility for conflict of interest is present. If investors and not the investment banks that stand to rake in millions in fees were to pay for the rating, the potential for this conflict of interest would be negated. Furthermore, the investment banks have a vested interest in convincing the ratings agencies of the credit worthiness of these securities.

So we've already pointed fingers at homeowners, some greedy, many more I suspect, naïve or uninformed, real estate agents-one out of more than 60 in my experience was a gem, mortgage brokers & bankers, banks, Wall Street and ratings agencies so who's left? The Federal Reserve and the Government of course.

The Fed as its known is responsible of the country's monetary policy and for supervision and regulation of banks. This is the definition of the Fed's roles in their own words:

Monetary Policy

The Fed is best known for its role in making and carrying out the country's monetary policy-that is, for influencing money and credit conditions in the economy in order to promote the goals of high employment, sustainable growth, and stable prices.

The long-term goal of the Fed's monetary policy is to ensure that money and credit grow sufficiently to encourage non-inflationary economic expansion.

The Fed cannot guarantee that our economy will grow at a healthy pace, or that everyone will have a job. The attainment of these goals depends on the decisions of millions of people around the country. Decisions regarding how much to spend and how much to save, how much to invest in acquiring skills and education, how much to spend on new plant and equipment, or how many hours a week to work may be some of them.

What the Fed can do, is create an environment that is conducive to healthy economic growth. It does so by pursuing a goal of price stability-that is, by trying to prevent inflation from becoming a problem.

Inflation is defined as a sustained increase in prices over a period of time.

A stable level of prices is most conducive to maximum sustained output and employment. Also, stable prices encourage saving and, indirectly, capital formation because it prevents the erosion of asset values by unanticipated inflation.

Inflation causes many distortions in the market. Inflation:

· hurts people with fixed income-when prices rise consumers cannot buy as much as they could previously

· discourages savings

· reduces economic growth because the economy needs a certain level of savings to finance investments that boost economic growth

· makes it harder for businesses to plan-it is difficult to decide how much to produce, because businesses can't predict the demand for their product at the higher prices they will have to charge in order to cover their costs

Bank Regulation & Supervision

The Fed is one of the several Government agencies that share responsibility for ensuring the safety and soundness of our banking system. The Fed has primary responsibility for supervising bank holding companies, financial holding companies, state-chartered banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System, and the Edge Act and agreement corporations, through which U.S. banking organizations operate abroad.

The Fed and other agencies share the responsibility of overseeing the operation of foreign banking organizations in the United States. To insure that the banking system remains competitive and operates in the public interest, the Fed considers applications by banks for mergers or to open new branches.

The passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) Act in November 1999, was the culmination of a multi-decade effort to eliminate many of the restrictions on the activities of banking organizations.

Some of the main provisions of the GLB are:

· Repeals the existing limitations on the ability of banks to affiliate with securities and insurance firms

· Creates a new organizational form that allows banking organizations to carry new powers. This new entity called a "financial holding company," (FHC) and its non-banking subsidiaries are allowed to engage in financial activities such as insurance and securities underwriting

The Fed's enlarged role as an umbrella supervisor of FHCs is similar to its role in supervising bank holding companies. The Federal Reserve Banks will supervise and regulate the FHCs while each affiliate is still overseen by its traditional functional regulator.

The Fed has to delineate the financial relationship between a bank and other FHC affiliates. Its primary goal is to establish barriers protecting depository institutions from the problems of a failing affiliate. To do this efficiently the Fed has to ensure increased communication, cooperation, and coordination with the many supervisors of the more diversified FHCs.

The Fed has access to data on risks across the entire organization, as well as information on the firm's management of those risks. Regulators will be in a position to evaluate and presumably act on risks that threaten the safety and soundness of the insured banks.

It would appear that the Fed has failed to curb housing inflation which played a role in this entire debacle then made matters worse and in their efforts or lack there of, to properly supervise banking institutions.

Finally the government, a.k.a. Uncle Sam, the big Kahuna 10,000 pound elephant etc. Where do we begin? How about with: 'Where were they?'

It now appears that after millions of horses are out of the barn (some horses ran, others were foreclosed upon) the government wants to step in with a bailout to save the rest. While nobody wants to see people lose their homes, the question that must be raised is this: What about all those of us who were responsible? Those of us, who scrimped and saved up a decent down payment, bought less-house than we could afford and who live below our means? Many of us drive older cars and keep them longer. We don't run out and buy the latest and greatest at inflated prices, we watch, wait and budget.

When the World Trade Center was attacked, families who decided not to sue received government payouts and we certainly don't begrudge them as I'm sure that given the choice, they'd prefer to still have their loved-ones over the money. The problem, in typical government fashion is that those who were responsible and had insurance policies in place received less than those who were irresponsible and didn't plan ahead. I'm not talking about dishwashers at Windows on the World and blue collar workers; I'm talking about executives, traders and people who should have known better.

Now our government, the same government that sat by idly watching as this bubble got bigger and bigger despite many warnings, wants to step in and bailout people who are in danger of losing their homes. There has been no talk about educating people, let's not teach people to fish, rather, let's give them a fish and bail them out once again at the expense of those who are responsible.

Clearly, by keeping the majority of the population financially ignorant, there is a lot of money to be made by the poverty industry.

How to Successfully Navigate Your Business through an Economic Downturn

2008-08-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

by:Terry H Hill

An economic downturn is a phase of the business cycle in which the economy as a whole is in decline.This phase basically marks the end of the period of growth in the business cycle. Economic downturns are characterized by decreased levels of consumer purchases (especially of durable goods) and, subsequently, reduced levels of production by businesses.

While economic downturns are admittedly difficult, and are formidable obstacles to small businesses that are trying to survive and grow, an economic downturn can open up opportunities. A well-managed company can realize the opportunity to gain market share by taking customers away from their competitors. Resourceful entrepreneurs capture the available opportunities, from an economic downturn, by developing alternate methods of doing business that were never implemented during a prior growth period.

The challenge of successfully navigating your business through an economic downturn lies in the realignment of your business with current economic realities. Specifically, you, as the business owner, need to renew a focus on your core clients/customers, reduce your operating expenses, conserve cash, and manage more proactively, rather than reactively, is paramount.

Here are best practices that will help you to successfully navigate your business through an economic downturn:

Goals:

The primary goal of any business owner is to survive the current economic downturn and to develop a leaner, more cost-effective and more efficient operation. The secondary goal is to grow the business even during this current economic downturn.

Objectives:

• Conserve cash.

• Protect assets.

• Reduce costs.

• Improve efficiencies.

• Grow customer base.

Required Action:

• Do not panic… History shows that economic downturns do not last forever. Remain calm and act in a rational manner as you refocus your attention on resizing your company to the current economic conditions.

• Focus on what YOU can control… Don’t let the media's rhetoric concerning recessions and economic slowdown deter you from achieving business success. It´s a trap! Why? Because the condition of the economy is beyond your control. Surviving economic downturns requires a focus on what you can control, i.e. your relevant business activities.

• Communicate, communicate, and communicate! Beware of the pitfall of trying to do too much on your own. It is a difficult task indeed to survive and to grow your business solely with your own efforts. Solicit ideas and seek the help of other people (your employees, suppliers, lenders, customers, and advisors). Communicate honestly and consistently. Effective two-way communication is the key.

• Negotiate, negotiate, and negotiate! The value of a strong negotiation skill set cannot be overstated. Negotiating better deals and contracts is an absolute must for realigning and resizing your company to the current economic conditions. The key to success is not only knowing how to develop a win-win approach in negotiations with all parties, but also keeping in mind the fact that you want a favorable outcome for yourself too.

Recommended Best Practice Activities:

The Nuts and Bolts… The following list of recommended best practice activities is critical for your business' survival and for its growth during an economic downturn. The actual financial health of your particular business, at the outset of the economic downturn, will dictate the priority and urgency of the implementation of the following best practice activities.

1. Diligently monitor your cash flow: Forecast your cash flow monthly to ensure that expenses and planned expenditures are in line with accounts receivable. Include cash flow statements into your monthly financial reporting. Project cash requirements three-to- six months in advance. The key is to know how to monitor, protect, control, and put cash to work.

2. Carefully convert your inventories: Convert excess, obsolete, and slow-moving inventory items into cash. Consider returning excess and slow-moving items back to the suppliers. Close-out or inventory reduction sales work well to resize your inventory. Also, consider narrowing your product offerings. Well-timed order placement helps to reduce excess inventory levels and occasional material shortages. The key is to reduce the amount of your inventory without losing sales.

3. Timely collection of your accounts receivable: This asset should be converted to cash as quickly as possible. Offer prompt payment discounts to encourage timely payments. Make changes in the terms of sale for slow paying customers (i.e. changing net 30 day terms to COD). Invoicing is an important part of your cash flow management. The first rule of invoicing is to do it as soon as possible after products are shipped and/or after services are delivered. Place an emphasis on reducing billing errors. Most customers delay payments because an invoice had errors, and therefore, will not pay until they receive a corrected copy. Email or fax your invoices to save on mailing time. Post the payments that you have received and make deposits more frequently. The key is to develop an efficient collection system that generates timely payments and one that gives you advance warning of problems.

4. Re-focus your attention on your existing clients/customers: Make customer satisfaction your priority. A regular review of your customers' buying history and frequency of purchases can reveal some interesting facts about your customers' buying habits. Consider signing long-term contracts with your core clients/customers which will add to your security. Offer a discount for upfront cash payments. The key is to do what it takes to keep your current customers loyal.

5. Re-negotiate with your suppliers, lenders, and landlord:

i) Suppliers: Always keep your negotiations on the level of need, saying that your company has reviewed its cost structure and has determined that it needs to lower supplier costs. . Tell the supplier that you value the relationship you have developed, but that you need to receive a cost reduction immediately. Ask your supplier for a lower material price, a longer payment cycle, and the elimination of finance charges. Also, see if you can buy material from them on a consignment basis. In return for their price concessions, be willing to agree to a long-term contract. Explore the idea of bartering as a form of payment.

ii) Lenders: Everything in business finance is negotiable and your relationship with a bank is no exception. The first step to successful renegotiations is to convince your lenders that you can ultimately pay off the renegotiated loan. You must point out to your lenders why it would be in their best interest to agree to a new arrangement. Showing them your business plan and your action plan that includes your cost-savings initiatives, along with "the how" and "the when" of the implementation of your plan is the best way to achieve this goal. Explain to them that you will need their cooperation to insure that you can survive, as well as, grow your business during the economic downturn. Negotiated items include: the rate of interest, the required security to cover the loan, and the beginning date for repayment. A beginning date for repayment could be immediate, within several months or as long as a year. The key is to realize that your lender will work with you, but that frequent and continual communications with them is critical.

iii) Landlord: Meet with your landlord. Explain your need to have them extend the term of your lease at a reduced cost. Make sure you have a clause in the lease agreement that entitles you to have the right to sublet any or all of the leased space.

6. Re-evaluate your staffing requirements: This is a very critical area. Salaries/wages are a major expense of doing business. Therefore, any reduction in the hours worked through work schedule changes, short-term layoffs or permanent layoffs has an immediate cost saving benefit. Most companies ramped up hiring new employees in the good times, only to find that they are currently overstaffed due to slow sales during the economic downturn. In terms of down-sizing your staff, be very careful not to reduce your staff to a level that forces you to skimp on customer service and quality. Consider the use of part-timers or the current trend of outsourcing certain functions to independent contractors.

7. Shop for better insurances rates: Get quotations from other insurance agents for comparable coverage to determine whether or not your present insurance carrier is competitive. Also, consider revising your coverage to reduce premium costs. The key is to have the right balance-to be adequately insured, but not under or over insured.

8. Re-evaluate your advertising: Contrary to the other cost-cutting initiatives, evaluate the possibility of increasing your advertising expenditures. This tactic realizes the advantage of the reduced "noise" and congestion (fewer advertisers) in the marketplace. The downturn period a great opportunity to increase brand awareness and create additional demand for your product/service offerings.

9. Seek the help of outside advisors: The use of an advisory board comprised of your CPA, attorney, and business consultant offers you objectivity and provides you with professional advice and guidance. Their collective experience in working with similar situations in past economic downturns is invaluable.

10. Review your other expenses: Target an across-the-board cost-cutting initiative of 10-15%. Attempt to eliminate unnecessary expenses. Tightening your belt in order to weather the downturn makes practical, financial sense.

Proactively managing your business through an economic downturn is an enormous challenge and is critical for your survival. However, through well-planned initiatives, an economic downturn can create tremendous opportunity for your company to gain greater market share. In order to take advantage of this growth opportunity, you must act quickly to implement the above best business practices to continue realigning and resizing your company to the current economic conditions.