Too many businesses wait until a crisis occurs before they start to focus on improving their financial management. Often, by that time, it can be too late. By setting aside an hour now to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your company's financial management activities and systems you can save a lot of time and aggravation. It can also help increase your profits, and at the end of the day that is what it is all about. The...more
Lately the age-old business dilemma of how to stand out from the crowd has been haunting companies and professional service firms more than ever before. All too many firms nowadays look too much alike, with marketing strategies seemingly unable to distinguish them from their competition. Glossy brochures, snazzy websites, press releases, advertising: when everyone employs the same methods, everyone ends up vying for the same narrow window of...more
The intellectual property transfer market is now estimated to be worth over $100 billion. If you have a new idea, an invention, a new art or craft, you may be able to license it or sell it for millions of dollars. Many Fortune 500 companies are now making their intellectual property available for sale or licensing at new online intellectual-property exchanges. These companies are trying to maximize their return on research and development investment and generate a new source of revenue by licensing their unused and underutilized inventions to others. A number of online forums, including Minnesota-based NewIdeaTrade.com (http://www.newideatrade.com), California-based Pl-x.com (http://www.pl-x.com), and Connecticut-based PatentTriage.com (http://www.patenttriage.com) now link buyers and sellers of intellectual property. The traditional transfer of intellectual property is complicated, costly, and can take up to one year. However, these online forums simplify and speed up the process for transfer of new ideas. The Internet currently reaches more than 600 million users around the world. This makes innovators' potential for exposure much higher than with traditional forms of media. ...more
With the advancement of computer simulators, anybody can repeat all the business routines before he goes to the field, and have the opportunity of relaxing from the tedious work with numbers. The businessman can concentrate more on the human factors: The Customer Service, the relationships among fellow workers, and self care. The occupation with...more
Borrowing money has become more and more popular in the UK over recent years, and this is partly due to the fact that it has become far easier to borrow money. The rising popularity of consumer finance has also been aided by the wide variety of deals and the low interest rates available these days. Secured loans have become very popular with those...more
There are many reasons why people get into debt - some of them self inflicted and some of them way outside of our control. Losing a job, illness or accidents, all of these can suddenly plunge one into unexpected expenditure, and often the only way to deal with the emergency is to use debt. There is a tendency, however, to keep on borrowing once you start. This is because the process becomes so easy - credit card companies and banks seem keen to throw cash at you, and the interest payments, when regarded individually, often seem insignificant. Before you know it, you are deep in debt, owing money to several institutions and card companies, and the bills are mounting. This is the stage when one starts to notice infomercials and TV ads for 'debt consolidation'. Put simply, debt consolidation involves replacing a number of smaller debts at varying rates and conditions with one single 'super' debt at a single (often lower) interest rate and set of conditions. For some people, consolidating debt may be a good thing - for other people it may be bad. It all depends on an individual's circumstances. To explore this, lets look at the types of debt.Some debts are 'good'. Mortgages and student...more
Your business is successful, but now your ready to take it to the next level and begin accepting credit card transactions, or you have already taken this step but your feeling that your merchant account provider has high fees and your not sure what...more
You do your best to make sure your organization is operating as effectively as possible. But if your policies and procedures are incomplete, outdated, or inconsistent, then they are not driving the performance improvement they should. When employees...more
These days, people need to very carefully consider what type of credit card they will carry in their wallets. There are so many options out there, and each individual has different needs. Some of us tend to carry a balance, so we need a low interest...more
Here's a newsflash: Cover letters work, plain and simple. This is why I'm intrigued by the fact that a) jobseekers rarely submit them and b) hiring managers seldom read them. As a result, I started asking questions. Specifically, "What's your problem...more
Are you frustrated by the lack of growth in your firm, or the effort required to squeeze any up-tick in performance? Are inadequate policies and procedures a root cause? To find out, take this simple self assessment to see if this may be inhibiting...more
A common remedy for improving your time management is to develop the ability of saying, "NO." Since it is easier to recommend than to do, here are some tips on how to do it.1. Start with your own attitude. What is your self perception when you say,...more