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Evaluate Your Personal Finances
James Dicks examines the importance of balancing your personal financial portfolio and investment opportuinities on a regular basis.

Women and Men are Different: Financially Speaking

Men and women think differently, especially about money. Although both men and women are concerned about security; many women think about what money represents, where men tend to think of what money can buy. There is no right or wrong, we just think differently. Money has no gender, anyone, man or woman can earn, spend, save or invest it. The results of a survey of 1,000 spouses conducted for Money Magazine, found men and women had dramatically different ideas about who does what with the family finances and what is important to their partners. 27% of men believe their wives think having the right investments is very important. Yet nearly half of the women surveyed say it is important. 45% of men say that having cash for emergencies is very important to their spouse, when in reality 67% of women believe it's crucial.

Social Response Capitalism Today and Tomorrow
Social Response Capitalism Today and Tomorrow

Wealth Management

With so much wealth being created it is vital to know how to manage and preserve your wealth for you retirement, your children and your family if you choose. Investments in all sorts of vehicle are available from stocks and bonds to real estate, funds, currency and precious metals markets. It is also vital to know and create a will among other safeguards for retirement and transference of wealth to your offspring in the event that you choose this route.

Tax Free Savings Account
An overview of TFSA (tax free savings accounts)

5 Reasons Why You Must Stop Working With Your Broker

Do you know the difference between a broker and an investment advisor? Did you know there WAS a difference? Well, there is… and it’s BIG. Brokers have major conflicts of interest, can have hidden fees and often do not even directly handle your money. In fact they may not even KNOW the person who IS handling your money! Scared yet? With your investments, your kid’s education and your retirement portfolio at stake, perhaps you should be. Read on to learn more.

How to Find the Best Financial Education Program
The path to true wealth and prosperity lies in understanding your own finances and taking control of them. The path to failure is letting others, like financial advisers, family or friends, take control of your future by managing your investments or telling you what you should be doing. Worse still, is trying to do it on your own without understanding where you are going.

Opportunities in Retirement
Financial education is one of the great opportunities in retirement to take control of your own financial future. What excuse do you have? You have more time to devote to growing your own nest egg than any financial adviser is likely to have. If you’re saying that you know nothing about investments or managing your own money, then this is a great opportunity to start.

Understanding the Need for Financial Education (or growing old and poor on lottery tickets)
For most of us financial freedom and prosperity are challenges that we all seek in our lifetime. It’s the reason why so many of us spend money on gambling and lotto around the world in the hope of achieving that dream without the pain and effort needed to get there under our own steam

DIVIDEND PAYING STOCKS THE WAY TO GO!
At CAIM we’ve always touted the plusses of dividend paying stocks. Here's why!

Marketing Dashboard Best Practices
Over the past 10 years there has been a distinctive shift in Marketing activities; budgets are only being allocated to investments that can produce measurable returns, such as sales support and lead generation. In a time of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, repeatable controls, processes, and policy & procedures, have been implemented to ensure accountability.

Lithium is the Next Big Investment Opportunity
Lithium is central to some of the most popular technologies including mobile devices and electric vehicles. For the foreseeable future, lithium will be a major source of power for the new energy economy. Today, lithium is where oil was in the mid 1800s, and like oil, it will grow exponentially. However, lithium provides power without the environmentally destructive consequences of fossil fuels.

What is your Marketing Effectiveness Quotient
Industry-leading demand generation platform provider, Eloqua, has developed a marketing maturity model designed to help organizations benchmark their current levels of process maturity, measure results from marketing investments, and demonstrate the effectiveness of their marketing department.

Do You "Park and Pray"?
A common theme amongst investors is to become complacent when things are going well or the market is quiet. This reminded me of a term we use in the industry known as "park and pray". Read on to learn more!

Lesson #1: Don't Follow the Crowd or the Market
“When there is a crisis, that’s when some are interested in getting out,” says Helu, “and that’s when we are interested in getting in.”

Poor Man, Rich Man: How Kiyosaki Fought His Way To First

“I still consider myself a little, fat kid from Hawaii,” says Kiyosaki. He may still be from Hawaii, but Kiyosaki’s impact on the world of personal finance has been anything but little. Today, as one of the leading authors and motivational speakers in America on strategies of achieving personal financial freedom, Kiyosaki has achieved a cult-like in the millions. How did this little, fat kid from Hawaii become a big, strong player in the extremely competitive industry?

Canada’s Billionaire Businessman: How Schwartz Made Onex a Success

Schwartz is 66 years old this year but has no plans of slowing down. As Chairman and CEO of one of Canada’s most successful companies, Schwartz’s goals for the future remain the same as they have for the past quarter century: “More people. More transactions. Larger amounts of capital. Identical philosophy,” he says. How did this son of an auto-parts dealer become one of the Top Ten Wealth Creators in all of Canada?

Five New Rules for Marketing
Marketing is part art, part science and part business. Because it's such a subjective thing, there are few hard and fast rules. But here are five new ones to guide you in your quest to boost your profits with a minimum investment and avoid nasty surprises along the way.

The Trump / Kiyosaki Road to Riches
An exclusive look between the covers of our new book, Why We Want You to Be Rich.

I'll Never Do An Investment In That Kind of Thing Again
Every great investor has made some investments that he wishes he’d never made. Occasionally he’ll make another one like it. And another one like it. Eventually you learn. Or maybe you don’t.

What Does It Take to Scale A Web 2.0 Startup?
Last year, the meme of “you can start a company for minimal capital” made the rounds. This is still true. But – it’s not trivial to scale a company for minimal capital (it’s possible, but an exception, not the norm.) This meme is starting to make the rounds – Heather Green at BusinessWeek just wrote an article titled Make-or-Break Time For The Net Newbies.

How Many Angels is the Right Number

I got the following question via email today: All things being equal and all things being perfect, is it better to have more or less 'angels' in the mix? I can come up with reasons for both more and less. Also, it seems to me that more and less are very relative - but, in this case, Ohio has a limit of 25 investors before exemptions no longer apply (we're still investigating that one), so that is the absolute upper limit. I'm thinking "more" is in the range of 4 - 10 and "less" is in the range of 3 or fewer -- allowing more growth later, if needed.

Should You Force Your Investors To Use Your Product?
I had the following exchange with the CEO of one of my investments the other day. Q (Brad): It’s strange to me that only a few of the investors / board members are using Product X. Any insights?

Social Graph - The Next Future Overused Phrase

Get ready to start hearing “Social Graph” as frequently as you hear “Web 2.0.” The construct of the Social Graph (and its friend – Social Network) has been around for a while. Now that Facebook has stolen our minds (and help us control our friends), we all are part of a social network. Or nine. Or 721 (that’s my best guess for the number of different services that have a social network that I’m a user of.)

Weathering the Market
With the current state of the market, everyone keeps asking me what to do with their money.

I Blog, I Tweet, But Why
Fred Wilson has a great post up today titled Can We Live In Public? If you go back in time to May 4, 2004 when I started blogging, you'll see that Fred was one of the key inspirations with his post Transparency to my question of To Blog or Not to Blog. At the time, my interest came from a very simple place.

Ignore sunk costs
The most important decision-making rule you learn in business school is still largely misunderstood.

Graphic Design Goal
Graphic design is based on objective goals, not subjective opinions like "I like red!" The design of your ads, brochures, newsletters, proposals, and web site should be determined by the image you want to communicate.

Fred Wilson and the Venture Capital (Non-)Cartel
When a capitalist says that he is pleased to see profits increase as his competitors disappear and the remainder hold the line on price is that a cartel? How is it different from the CEO of, say, Honda, gloating about the elimination of other auto companies, and then asking the remaining companies to hold car prices?

Spending and Saving

Whether you make millions of dollars a year or earn minimum wage, there are only three things you can do with your money: You can spend it, save it, or give it away. Your spending may range from absolute necessities to outrageous luxuries. Your savings may be prudent investments or coins in your piggy bank. And your giving may be coins you drop in a donation jar or launching your own foundation. But there are still only three things you can do with every dollar.

Training and Development in Economic Recessions
During economic downturns, companies typically choose to cut training budgets as they are often viewed as a luxury when times are prosperous. However, investments in training with a clear, concise plan as support during economic downturns actually work to maintain overall performance and lower costs, keeping the company competitive.

Do You Really Want Fixed Income Investing?
Fixed income investing is an excellent way to teach saving and has it’s benefits. If you are searching for a means to increase your financial position this isn’t the answer. Knowing how to invest and the options available to maximize those investments are the keys you are looking for. As in every situation, knowing how and following through with it leads to the desirable result.

Mobile Home Parks - Why Landscaping is the Best Investment You'll Make

Some people invest in Google. Some buy shares of Berkshire Hathaway. Other invest in Apple. But sheer investment geniuses invest in bushes. And trees. Because if you own a mobile home park community, these are, dollar for dollar, the best investments you will ever make. How good are the returns? I would estimate that one well placed $20 bush might add $1,000 of value to a mobile home park community. That's a 500% return on investment. And that's a lot better than any of the aforementioned stocks have produced lately. In fact, compared to the current stock market, if the bush was worth $10, it would still be better than the market has produced. And, unlike the market, at least the bush creates oxygen and has other productive uses.

How to Make Money in the Mobile Home Park Business
Although it has taken us literally thousands of pages to describe how to do due diligence and operate mobile home parks effectively, the general theory on how to make money with mobile home park investments could fit on the back of an envelope. These are the few, simple steps to making money in mobile home parks.

Finding and Evaluating Mobile Home Park Investments

Of all the questions I receive from investors that are looking to purchase a mobile home park there are two questions that are asked most often: 1) How do I find a mobile home park deal that makes sense? 2) How do I place a value on that mobile home park? These are important questions and there are several ways to find mobile home park investments and even more ways that one can approach evaluation of that investment.

How to Properly Evaluate Mobile Home Park Investments
So how do I determine what a specific mobile home park is worth? In this article I will discuss the methods I use in evaluating a mobile home park once I have found one that looks like a winner.

Universal Life Insurance

In the early 1980’s a new, more flexible version of whole life insurance entered the indemnity business world. This new life insurance was known as Flexible Premium Adjustable Life Insurance, or, more simply put: Universal Life Insurance. Very similar to whole life insurance, ULI showcases a savings constituent that flourishes on a tax-deferred basis. A fraction of the premiums are invested by the life insurance company through a variety of facets including: mortgages, money market endowments, and bonds. The revenue accrued through these investments is directly credited to the insurance policy, tax-deferred. An assured minimum interest rate applied to the life insurance package means that no matter how the individual investments do, the insurance policy is going to retain a minimum yielding on the money.

Deflation - Defined

While we believe we are in a recovery phase, it has certainly not met the expectations of most individuals. I recall an interview of Nouriel Roubini who was asked if we were going to have a double dip. His reply was no, but we will have such slow growth that it will feel like we are in a recession. In addition, many news stories have been carrying the headline of 'deflation.' Deflation is actually an uncommon climate here in the U.S., but anything is possible. To learn more about deflation and how it affects your investments, please read on.

Email Etiquette - 6 Key Guidelines to Consider Before You Hit Send
The internet and email can provide a fast and easy way to communicate information but there is a right way and a wrong way to go about it. Follow these guidelines before writing your next email.

How Do Companies Retain Their Under Performing Salespeople?

Yesterday, while reviewing the findings and answers from a Sales Force Evaluation with a client, the conversation turned to the possibility of replacing some of their reps. As we began to talk about the 5 factors, they wondered how they were able to retain these people who, for the most part, weren't very good and weren't a very good fit for the roles they were in. Three of the factors came up big in explaining why the tenure of their 9 salespeople:

Footwear Major Woodland to franchise internationally

Feb 16, 2010: Footwear and apparel player Woodland will open exclusive stores in select foreign markets later this year, marking its foray into single-brand retailing overseas. The company, according to its top official, would be using the franchise route for its international expansion. The home-grown brand is in advanced stages of negotiations in some markets like the Middle East, South-East Asia and Sri Lanka for selecting local franchise partners and said it will have three to four exclusive outlets abroad by the year-end. At present, Woodland is present in over 600 multibranded outlets in the Middle East, Singapore and Thailand.

Four Ways to Increase Your Return of Investment
When businesses consider ROI, they're usually thinking in dollar terms, but there is actually more to it. When you make an investment, it is costing you more than money, so it stands to reason you want to bring everything within your power to bear to increase the return on your investment.

The Intuitive Genius of Your Being
You already know everything you need to know, whenever you need to know it. The challenge is that you either don't have conscious access to it, you don't know how to interpret the messages, or you don't know how to apply what you know.

Thanks For Accepting My Facebook Friend Request, Now Accept My New Business Opportunity. Did You Hear Me? Do It NOW.
Do you get business opportunity emails from people you do not know? I just have to share a once in a lifetime opportunity email that was recently sent to me.

Measuring Your Social Media ROI
If you’ve added social media to your marketing mix, you’re probably asking yourself, “Is it worth all the time and effort involved?” That might seem like a difficult question to answer at first, but there are definite steps you can take to measure the return on your social media investments.

Keeping An Eye Out For The Newest Affiliate Programs
The internet is filled with lots of people that want to make money online, but don't have anything to sell or any services to offer so what they do is they affiliate themselves with other companies that pay them commissions for every sale they help make.

Looking For Home Business Opportunities - Where To Find Them

Many people have always dreamed of being able to escape from the 9 to 5 world and get started on founding their own business. For these people who are looking for home business opportunities, they need look no further than the exciting world of internet marketing, which can lead to a host of wider opportunities. This also leads to lifestyle changes that come along with a greater income and more financial freedom, including more time with friends and family, and more money and time to invest in personal hobbies and activities.

Qualifying your Prospects
Qualifying your customer is the process of determining their interest in your value proposition, their budget and their decision-making process. Do they have the Money, Authority and Desire (MAD)? They are not fully qualified unless they have all three. One of the ways you can determine if they are MAD is simply to ask. Here are some qualifying questions that work.

5 Good Reasons to Not Go to a Seminar
There's a plethora of great seminars out there. How do you decide if you should sign-up? Here's 5 ways to help you make the best decision.

7 Golden Rules to Financial Prosperity

Not Enough Money? I believe that most people haven't got enough money for everything they wish to have - the more you have the bigger your plans, and you have a feeling that you have less and less money. Whether you have lots of money or just so-so, you need to economize and take proper care of your money ie your income, expenditures, savings and investments. The article brings 7 Golden Rules to a Financial Prosperity.

Traditional Retailers Missing the Online Search Potential
A recent study by ‘Internet-Engine’ revealed that traditional retailers are extremely behind their online counterparts in typical online searches. At the same time, e-tailers have a sturdy base in search queries. The growing importance of search among online population depicts its remarkable potential to enhance business opportunities, which the traditional retailers are not focusing on.

Warren Buffett and his Effect on the Stock Market! Part 2
Buffet is indeed one of the greatest investors to ever walk the face of the earth, and his strategies and ideas carry tremendous weight. He influences the influencers and very often his beliefs are taken out of context and therefore misunderstood and lead to stock bubbles.

Leadership Coaching – Is It Right for You and Your Business

Within the last decades of the 20th century, coaching began to appear as an asset to help individuals successfully navigate through the quagmire of changes taking place at work and home. The old system of following the leader started being transformed by leaders teaching others self-leadership within the circle of influence of the individual. Leadership development from the bottom up began to spring up to create teams of leaders.

Warren Buffett and his Effect on the Stock Market!
When Warren Buffett speaks, people listen. However, when he is misinterpreted or taken out of context his words carry so much weight that they can have a large negative effect.

3 Keys To Succeed Working From Home
Learn the 3 keys to make you a successful entrepreneur and become one of the top income earners while working from home.

What's That Prospect Thinking?
Even the young gun sales star is in danger of becoming a dinosaur if they fail to reexamine their sales approach. The presentation that earned you a trip to Madrid two years ago may land you on Monster.com next year. Can you morph your presentation and sales strategy?

References for Failure
Why do we keep repeating the same patterns and habits over and over again? Well this article is about to open a completely new insight into your thought processes and habits. You're about to discover why things aren't happening the way you would like.

Are Balanced Funds Really Balanced?
After the stock market crash of the late 90’s many experts called balanced funds the saviors of retirement planning and the 401k world. Although they have a lot of strong qualities and their internal strategy is ideal for a goal oriented portfolio, they are not the saviors of the retirement plans in the world!

Make Money Online - in Your Spare Time
Rebecca Matter, AWAI's VP of Marketing, shows you an easy way to make money online even if you only have a few hours a week.

How effective is your Advertising?
Have you ever heard of Guerrilla Marketing? It’s an effective way of marketing execution for mostly small businesses but its techniques can be applied in huge corporations as well.

Commercial Property: 10 things to do
Jones Commercial wants to help you be successful with your Commercial Real Estate experience so have put together 10 things to do.

Home Accounting has Many Uses
Home accounting is used for many different functions. Individuals and businesses alike, utilize home accounting to track and report on financial figures.

Three Case Studies on Core Desire

Uncovering your Core Desires and unleashing your Conquering Force will cause you to live a fuller, happier, and more successful life. As you learn to identify, and pursue, your Core Desires, you may find yourself in any of these three situations. Right on the Money Once, a vice president of a large insurance company came to me and asked for my help. Although he was earning more than enough money, he wasn't happy in his job. He had been at it for twenty-two years and had just grown tired of it. He wanted something else. When I asked him what else he'd like to do, he replied, without emotion, "I've been looking at real estate and investments because I know people who have succeeded in those areas."

Make a fortune buying under performing businesses.

The fundamental principle of investing is to buy low and sell high. Every investor seeks to achieve this principle, regardless of what they invest in. Whether you trade stocks, bonds, gold or real estate, everyone seeks to find the diamond in the ruff or “The Bargain”. If you’ve ever read my blogs, or spoken to me on the phone, you know that I look at business ownership as an investment, and just like all the other investments, there are “Bargains” here as well and you could make a fortune buying under performing businesses as long as you know what to look for.

Navigating A Marketing Spin Out

If you own a medical, dental or legal practice, you probably already know that marketing your practice in today's difficult economic times is like navigating a race car during a spin out. Putting the brakes on your marketing budget is not the best way to survive and thrive in a challenging economic environment. You can and should cut back on marketing that is not working. However, you should invest in f you the areas that are generating your most cost effective leads - especially Internet marketing.

Which Industries hold most promise in 2009

The January issue of Entrepreneur Magazine is out on the news stands and for those who have never read the magazine, January issue is dedicated to the Franchise industry. In this issue, there is an article (see link on my web site under News and Articles) that talks about the Magazine's predictions for Franchise Industries that hold the most promise for growth and stability in 2009. Interestingly enough, I wrote a blog about the very same topic in October of 08 (See blog titled: "Businesses that are still making money in this economy"). Almost every industry that is mention in my blog is mentioned in the Magazine's article. Now I am not saying that I am the smartest man alive, but it is comforting to know that the experts agree with my views and that I am on the right track. There have also been plenty of talk about how Franchise ow

Where Entrepreneurs Should Invest their Money First

Where entrepreneurs should invest their money first - Where should you invest money when you're investing back into your business? There are so many tools and software choices. Or maybe you should hire more staff? In this article, you'll read about a series of investments that might surprise you – and these might currently be pretty low on your investment list – but they should be much higher, and perhaps even immediate. When you do invest in one of these options, you'll not only be setting your business on a firmer foundation, but you'll also be opening your business up to much greater opportunity.

Selling in the Recession

It's been advertised. It's all the media wants to talk about. It's had an impact on the company you run or work for. Your customers and clients have been affected. Your home and investments have lost value. The recession is here, in full force, and there isn't a single sign that it's going to improve soon. So what must you do to not only survive this down-turn, but thrive in it as well? Here are my top 10:

HR Departments: Making Structure Make Sense
Human Resource departments are not being optimized because of the way they tend to be structured. Usually “HR” refers to things like benefits, payroll, hiring, firing, training, reviews, compensation and the like. But we in corporate America missed the opportunity to better organize Human Resources when it moved away from its roots in “Personnel.” But not to worry. It's not too late.

Panic on the Sales Force and What to Do About It
What gets you in a panic? The economy and how it impacts them, either directly or indirectly, is having this effect on about one third of your salespeople right now - today.

Home Staging The Perfect Career for Baby Boomers Nearing Golden Years

The economy has everyone worried about their financial situation, especially those nearing retirement age. Many baby boomers consider starting a small business to supplement their income into their retirement years, while affording them the flexibility to pursue their passions and hobbies in a way they didn't have time for when they were younger. The Staging Diva® shares why home staging is the ideal career to get into at any age.

Preparation of Profit and Loss Account
As already stated profit and loss account is commenced with gross profit or gross loss as ascertained by trading account. Then the profit and loss account is debited with all indirect expenses and losses. This results in closing of indirect expenses and losses account. The profit and loss account is then credited with various incomes and gains accounts by which all these accounts are closed.

How to Make Getting Sales Success Easier
Man, sometimes it feels like everything depends on you. If you let up for one second you’re falling behind. Can you keep up the pace?

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN UNSETTLED TIME
Management is increasingly concerned about their ability to have a lean, mean focused core team that is supported by long-term external partners that are open to flexible and ever changing needs.

Getting Prospects to Call You
Having a strategy to acquire new customers is vital because customers are lost over time for a variety of reasons. Additionally, if you are serious about sales growth then you’ll want to ensure that your salespeople become competent ‘Hunters’ of new business as well as ‘Farmers’ with their existing accounts.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
There are ways to turn even your most difficult customers into raving fans.

How to Purchase a Franchise that is Right for You
Before buying a franchise, there are some things you need to be fully aware of. Don’t throw yourself blindly at all the franchising opportunities you find online or at nearby bookstores.

How To Protect Yourself If Your MLM Goes Bankrupt
Home based businesses, such as multi-level marketing, also known as MLM, is thought of as a very efficient way to make a suitable income. However, there are risks to choosing this type of business and many people have failed.

Three Top Reasons You're Not a Success
If midlife finds you feeling like you're a failure, perhaps it's because you misunderstand success. There are three beliefs that can cripple even the best of us.

6 Ways To Fund Your New Business
Here are a few of the most common ways to finance a new business. All methods have pros and cons and some (or most) may not work for a specific situation. In any case one must always thoroughly investigate the ups and downs of any new venture before jumping in it with both feet.

10 Good Reasons To Turn Down A Job
Should you take every job that comes your way? No. Here are 10 good reasons to turn down a job.

Easy Investment Ideas for the Time Starved Entrepreneur
Get up, have a cup of coffee, go to work, get through your day, attend a meeting, go home, make dinner, crash. The next day—repeat the cycle. The only thing between you and a nervous breakdown is a thread. You don’t have time to think about investing.

The Path of Least Resistance
Have you ever faced a situation where none of the obvious next steps felt good? Or what about a financial crisis and all of the solutions made you cringe? There’s nothing like feeling stuck or out of control that will give you a stomachache or a splitting headache faster. How do you use the laws of attraction deliberately when you don’t know how the heck to get to a better state of mind?

What's Your Money Style?
We all have a different style when it comes to our relationship with money. I'm not talking about your fears or stories about money. Your fears are a whole other box of worms. When I refer to style, I mean how you would relate to money if you had never been influenced by another persons style or fears.

A Wealth Plan That REALLY Works
The question people ask me most often is, "How do I do a plan for getting out of the rat race or expanding my wealth?" My answer is, "Make one up." Then, I feel the confusion creeping into their mind.

10 Truth's About Prosperity
For those of you who tend to use only your logical mind to create wealth, you may want to sit down. Here are a few rules of prosperity that guarantee results.

Risk and the Entrepreneur – 3 Ways That Risk Separates the Winners from the Rest of the Pack
Life is risky. We are taught from an early age that taking a risk is dangerous and not always worth it. Raising your hand in class when you think you know the answer could pay off, or it could lead to being ostracized. Asking someone out on a date could lead to success or it could backfire.

Home Business Resource – What You Will Need To Start A Successful Business
Starting a home business is a very important decision, and there are some typical home business resources you will need to have in order for you to succeed. Home business resources are assets, services and systems you will need to make your home business run smoothly; and also other steps you will need to take to make sure that you will succeed with your business.

ROI – 411 for Measuring Human Capital
Looking for a quick lesson on ROI? This article explains what exactly ROI is, how it relates to HR, and easy techniques to utilize within your organization.

Time, Money and Life-Balance, Part 2: Money!
Do yourself a favor and master the art of money. Avoid or get out of debt. Spend less than you make. Save the difference and invest over time. Treat money as an honored guest in your life, one who will quickly flee if you do not treat her well, but one who will stay and enrich your life beyond measure if you treat her with skill, care and respect.

A Business or a Job?
The advantage of building a business, however, is that it is as an asset. It can be sold, or franchised, or licensed to other people. The systems can often be replicated, sometimes even in other industries, and that gives a business tremendous financial leverage.

Revealed key elements of a successful customer loyalty programs

Customer loyalty programs refer in general to points rewarded to customers for either brand or company loyalty. These types of customer loyalty programs can be a very effective form of promotion as long the rewards are valuable to the particular customer base. They are also more effective if they are regularly updated and kept relevant to the company’s products/service or are a good complimentary item to the product they are being used to promote.

How to manage risk (but don’t stifle innovation)

Mining is a capital intensive industry and a lot of money is spent to reduce the risk of making wrong decisions on investments and to reduce the risk of investments not delivering what was promised to shareholders. The same principle applies to any sized business. Every business wants to make the right investment decision and increase the likelihood of the business of delivering what is expected. When evaluating a new business good risk management tools and techniques can assist the decision making process and increase the likelihood of business success.

The Uniform Franchise Offering Circular
Just How Important is the UFOC? I started playing golf about 10 years ago and over time have come to love the game. Although technique is a large part of what drives many golfers back to the greens, golf also has a very specific set of rules that define the game and create an equal playing field. The rules spell out how to play, how to keep score and how to determine a winner.

When is the right time to expand?

When is the right time to expandis a question that many small business owners have. There are many issues that need to be addressed to find the answer but one of the big ones is how much will the expansion cost (the initial outlay) and how much cash (operating cash flows) will be generated. A tool to help evaluate whether the operating cash flows generate a return to justify the initial outlay is called Net Present Value (NPV).

What is a Wealth Cycle

A wealth cycle is simply shifting one investment from one sector that is over valued to another investment from another sector that is undervalued. Then you wait for that undervalued investment to become overvalued and then go through the cycle again. The Dot.com bubble of the 90's is a prime illustration of this. What the majority don't know is, this boom started way back in the early 80's at the same time when the Gold and Silver bubble was bursting. At this time most of the money was shifted out of Gold and Silver and put into emerging tech stocks and internet start ups.

Different Types of Investments
Overall, there are three different kinds of investments. These include stocks, bonds, and cash. Sounds simple, right? Well, unfortunately, it gets very complicated from there. You see, each type of investment has numerous types of investments that fall under it.

Choosing a Broker
Depending on the type of investing that you plan to do, you may need to hire a broker to handle your investments for you. Brokers work for brokerage houses and have the ability to buy and sell stock on the stock exchange. You may wonder if you really need a broker. The answer is yes. If you intend to buy or sell stocks on the stock exchange, you must have a broker.

Investing Basics – What Are Your Investment Goals
When it comes to investing, many first time investors want to jump right in with both feet. Unfortunately, very few of those investors are successful. Investing in anything requires some degree of skill. It is important to remember that few investments are a sure thing – there is the risk of losing your money!

Franchising with all its Success
This article shows point on why franchising is a better business venture.

How To Valuate Your Business
The venture capitalists will usually look at your projected, or pro forma, earnings 3 to 5 years from the point of their investment. From there they will deduct a 30% annual return that they expect to receive and will subtract a further percentage for the fact that you are a private and therefore non liquid company. This is known as the pre-money valuation.

Introduction: Human Capital and Economic Development
Health and education are both components of human capital and contributors to human welfare. One index of human welfare, which incorporates income, education and health, shows that Africa’s level of ‘human development’ is the lowest of any region in the world.

5.9 Employment and enterprise development: Working Out of Poverty
Analysis of trends in employment to identify sectoral or regional patterns of growth or decline. Improving the information base on where people work and how much they earn, labour force participation and household incomes, disaggregated by sex and age.

6.1 Macroeconomic policies for diversification: Economic Report on Africa 2007
the need for pragmatism over orthodoxy

5.1 It is not just a matter of policy as institutions matter in diversification efforts: Economic Report on Africa 2007
Governance is one of the variables that capture the part that institutions play and it emerges as strongly significant. In fact, in absolute terms, looked at from the regional level, governance has stronger marginal effects compared to other variables in our investigations.

Customer Relationship Management

One of the biggest mistakes that I see entrepreneurs making time and time again is trying to bring in the customer for that initial sale, and then just letting them go. They place on their focus on that first sale that they forget to look at the potential long-term advantages of keeping in touch with their customers. That is where customer relationship management comes in – a set of tools and practices that help business people perform customer-related tasks.

Perfecting Your Pitch: Winning the Hearts and Minds of Investors
The keys to increasing your effectiveness with prospective investors. This article provides a detailed overview of the components of a winning presentation, and it provides tips on what to do, and what not to do, if you want to persuade investors to finance your company.

Have a clear vision and focus on the people
Have a clear vision – Know what your future looks like, feels like, and acts like. It has to be a compelling vision that gets your people excited and focused. Latch onto that picture as though it has already happened. Transport yourself into the future so you can see it with picture clarity. Share it with your team so they can see it and do what it takes to achieve it.

Is it Time to Revise Your Long-Term Financial Plan?

Given the turbulent nature of our financial markets, many prudent investors are reassessing their positions as well as their long-term objectives, and with good reason. In fact, since 2008’s downturn many wealth managers and financial advisors have adopted a more holistic approach to planning for their clients’ futures. A large number of today’s private investors have taken-on a similar approach as well, which places an equal amount of focus on fiscal needs as well as quality of life, more in-depth retirement planning, long-term medical care, philanthropic preferences and more strategic estate planning. Prudent research indicates there are five critical areas to consider.

Shares
Unfortunately, the majority of penny stock investors aren't getting rich from trading, like so many sites claim will happen. Investors don't know the other step.

Return on Investment for owning your own business
Owning and actively running a franchise can be a very profitable and rewarding investment. In order to evaluate where to invest your money for the best return on your investment, there are three main categories to consider:

Investments That Build Personal Wealth
The real investments do not promise getting rich quickly. While there are few investments that guarantee huge profits, the risks are too much to handle. If you can earn a fortune in few days, you can also lose all your money instantly if risks are not handled very well.

Self Storage: Second Class Investment? Not Anymore!
Investments are investments, especially in real estate. The rules haven’t changed and the name of the game is still “Return.” Then, perhaps, it should not be so surprising that a niche in the broad spectrum of real estate investing that was once considered to be an alternative, is fast becoming the new trend-setter.

Why Santa was sued for a personal grievance when he changed the Elf roster
Even Santa wasn’t immune from the recession. The global credit crunch had affected his long term investments in reindeer stock and commodities, which meant that the income from those investments had taken a tumble. Santa knew that he could not cut back on Christmas presents for the kids so something had to give. He felt the only option was to cut some hours out of the Elf roster.

DIVERSIFICATION - HOW TO GET THE BENEFITS
Quite simply, it is about not putting all your eggs in one basket. There are many places to invest your money from low return, low risk investments such as cash and fixed interest investments to growth assets such as property and shares, both domestic shares and international.

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