Surviving the Current Financial Situation

In the current climate of apparent worldwide economic crisis there has been a traumatic worldwide economic meltdown which has put the world economy as we know it at risk. There are many companies who will not survive but there are some who will not only survive but will benefit in these unfortunate times. For instance our business in web design has increased recently because in an effort to reduce costs companies are turning to the internet to improve sales without incurring huge overheads. So companies like ours suddenly are in greater demand. However for the majority of the population it is a question of surviving and getting through it. If your business is on a sound financial footing and you have money behind you then this will be beneficial in the coming months. You may even be able to reduce employee salaries for a period of time, rather than have lay-offs or even closing down, but whatever strategy you apply it will need to be with the agreement of the workforce because a company is dependent of the good will of its employees at such a time. During the early stages of the crisis the British company JCB, which makes big machinery like bull dozers and diggers, chose with the agreement of the workforce, to reduce everyone’s salary for 6 months rather than lay off people or go out of business.

Cash flow

Most businesses go to the wall because of problems with cash flow. If there is not enough revenue coming it to pay for goods and services then it will not be long before a company goes into liquidation. Constant monitoring of the financial position is crucial. It is so easy to spend and not realise how much is leaking out and where it is all going. Keeping a tight control on costs is always a vital activity because that is what makes or breaks a company. More profits always come from reducing outgoings whether it’s reducing waste or cheaper purchasing or decreasing the workforce. I once listened to an audio tape on how to become wealthy and the one item to impact me was the advice to plug the leaks. Most people when running short of money try to find a way of making more money, but without a balance of reducing outgoings they never seem to resolve their problem. The simple reason is that when people earn more they spend more. If you imaging a bath with the tap turned on to fill it up. If the plug is securely in place the bath will fill up fairly quickly. But if the bath was full of holes no matter how much water you pour into the bath it will never fill up. The analogy is that the bath is your bank account, the tap is your earnings and the holes are your spending. Since listening to that tape, I have made a point of keeping expenses to a minimum at home and at work and every little sum of money coming in I see as a positive step to achieving wealth. To achieve sustainable wealth it is essential to take control of your spending and plug the leaks.

Avoid buying anything unless you absolutely have to or defer some necessary purchase for a few more months if possible. It’s amazing how you can manage without something for a period of time by using up existing or old stocks and making sure that waste is reduced to an absolute minimum.

Look for Discounts in Purchasing.

When you do have to procure goods to run the business, make sure you look out for bargains or negotiate for a better deal than you may have achieved previously. When times are tough, sales with no profits are better than nothing and there are some good deals to be had. One company I recently heard about sold a house for half the price when a customer came along with a cash offer.

We were recently tasked with setting up website hosting on a seriously low budget for www.presentsmen.com and we actually managed to find a hosting company who are providing free website hosting if you buy a domain name from them. So just because you have a pre conceived idea that something has to be paid for, or costs a certain amount, it might not necessarily be the case and it is worth investigating all markets and reviewing all costs continuously.

Look for Discounts in purchasing.

By taking a good long hard look at all of the business overheads I am sure it will be easy to identify those areas similar to ours where you have large outgoings. If those costs are essential to the functioning of the business then looking for better deals with other providers or renegotiate with current provider to maybe save thousands of dollars. So in many ways the current economic climate could be seen as a good thing because it forces businesses to review their outgoings and get rid of the dead wood. In any business, the higher the outgoings, the smaller the profits. When there is an economic downturn or some loss of business unless you have unlimited capital set aside, it is vital to reduce spending otherwise the business will not survive. Most really successful businesses understand the value of controlling outgoings and constantly review costs, even when times are good.

Tighten your Belt – No need for Fancy Spending

Although looking at reducing large overheads is one way to improve the viability of your company, another is to pay attention to the small amounts going out. It is so easy to think ‘Oh it’s only a few pounds’ but small amounts add up and can so easily get out of control. Remember that old saying ‘take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves’ I think it is so true. So cut out unnecessary spending, no perks on the business such as lunches or dinners to woo customers. They rarely actually need it if your business is offering honest value for money and top class services, and in most cases customers and prospects will appreciate you being prudent if it means you stay in business and continue as their valued suppliers. Managing directors can lead the way by paying themselves less or taking a pay cut showing that they are willing to tighten their own belts.

Recently it was announced that Bruce Forsythe was taking a cut in salary for his position as the host of Strictly Come Dancing, one of the most popular programmes on TV at the moment. He believed that they were being paid too much and put his money where his mouth was.

Another major area of expense is salaries and the costs that go with them. If you employ a large number of people the overhead expenses are huge. However there is always a natural wastage where people leave or retire so without actively having to make people redundant there may be opportunities to reduce the wages bill when times are hard. Efficiency and effectiveness of the people working in the company is critical and communicating with the workforce as to how they can reduce wastage and be more effective can be a rewarding policy.

One example from my previous work in organisations was when running a supervisors workshop. One of the delegates was complaining that when he needed to order supplies he had to sent the request up the line and wait until the senior manager had given the go ahead. As he was responsible for keeping supplies stocked and felt very frustrated at the time it took for him to get the approval he needed. I was amazed to hear that he was being so hampered in doing his job properly. So when I asked the question. ‘What’s to stop you ordering the goods yourself?’ after a long think, he said it had always been done that way. Nobody had questioned the procedure and whether it was still necessary to follow it. The outcome was that the he was given the go ahead to do the ordering himself and the senior manager was freed from one task he could happily do without.

Do Your Customers have Financial Liquidity?

If one of your customers is a very large company and they are source of the majority of your revenue then you are in a high risk position. It is a good idea to ensure that you have more than one high volume customer as well as lots of smaller ones so that you will be covered if one suddenly defaults on payment.

Find out the financial viability of your best customers. When the income of a customer falls then their ability to purchase goods and services is affected. If they are able to pay, then you will be able to pay your suppliers. There is nothing worse than doing a lot of work or selling a lot of stock to customer and then not getting paid. Situations like this can often cost you money, and that is the road to financial ruin, so be sure to be aware of your client’s economic situation as best as possible. We use the free Dunn and Bradstreet financial tracking service to identify any negative changes registered against any of our major clients

One of our clients, a firm of, Nottingham town planning consultants were unfortunate enough to have one of their major clients go bust on them with an oustanding balance of about £10,000. This was a huge sum to lose. View their planning website now. They survived because their business was very healthy with positive cash flow.

Find out the financial stability of your best customers. When the income of a customer falls then their ability to buy goods and services is reduced. If they are able to pay on time, then you will be able to pay your suppliers. There is nothing worse than doing a lot of work or selling a lot of stock to customer and then not getting paid. Situations like this can often make the difference between success or failure. The cost to you in money and wasted effort and resources could be the road to financial ruin, so make sure you are aware of your client’s economic situation as much as possible. When the financial crisis happened one of our best customers suddenly switched to a two month payment plan which meant that we did not get any money from them for a month. When we protested the chief executive told his manager to find another suppler. There were a number of outstanding invoices worth thousands of pounds and we were powerless to do anything. Our overheads were compromised for that month but we were fortunate enough to have access to a reserve fund to tide us over. And yes we did get paid the whole amount over time.

Avoid Borrowing Money

When the world is in a financial crisis it is better not to borrow money if you can help it. If you have already borrowed significant sums of money then make sure you talk to your bank and get the best deal on repayments you can. If it’s possible to repay a chunk of money to reduce the interest you are paying out then do so. To me interest is money going out for nothing in return and is not good money management.

Having said all that, the interest rate in America is just over 1% and recently rates have been radically reduced in the UK. But that in itself is what caused this whole financial mess in the first place. People borrow money cheaply then re-lend it at a higher rate of interest and take the difference in profit. Once the interest rate rises to a more normal level they will bail out and take their billions off to buy an island somewhere while everyone else pays the price. I know that is an over simplification of the problem, but it serves to demonstrate that the greed of a few has caused the distress of millions of the majority.

In my property rental business, a few years ago I had to let a house at a reduced rent but found a good long term tenant. This meant that the income was only just covering my costs but subsequently, because of the drop in interest rates, the mortgage repayments on the property have been reduced by £150 a month. This means I have been able to realise a small profit and with that money I am reinvesting it in improvements to the house. Long term I see it as a good investment to maintain the standard and value of the property. So for some companies who have had to borrow money to stay afloat there is the benefit of lower interest rates to reduce the burden of repayments.

You Only Have to Make it Through

The world economic situation is currently, I realise, much more complicated than we are suggesting above. Although it is true that the simple way of managing crisis is often the best solution. If you cut everything back to the bone and try to recreate the days when people did not have such complex lives, it can allow you to get on top of a situation. Years ago people used to manage their company without armies of specialists to provide tax advice, many coped without water coolers and other such luxuries such as cleaning services and people who come round every few weeks to disinfect the telephones! they coped through carrying out extra work on their own when required or they just went without. As your company regains its footing, or recovers, it probably won’t make commercial sense to sit and trawl through your business accounts doing book keeping yourself or to have to do a lot of extra research and administration, so you can restore those facilities that help to make you more money once the business has recovered.

Now I am not suggesting that we should go back to the good old days. What I am saying is that we might think we can’t manage without all our gimmicks such as mobile phones that take photos, but the reality is that we can do more with a great deal less, as long as we put ourselves into the right frame of mind and think positively about what we can achieve rather than what we haven’t got. Obviously as your business grows, or recovers, it doesn’t become economically viable to sit and trawl through tax return forms or to have to do a lot of extra research and administration yourself, so you can reintroduce those facilities as and when you have recovered your financial equilibrium.

Think what the Victorians did with the limited resources they had at their disposal. The horse was the main mode of transport and they used the manure to heat cold- frames and managed to grow pineapples without any other form of heating. They did not have cars, computers, mobile phones or even phones. The railway was only just coming into being, and they did not even have electricity. But with their energy and ingenuity they conquered the world. The industrial revolution with their steam driven engines changed our economy for ever. In the past there was no such thing as ecommerce web design and yet businesses survived|thrived.

Stay in a Positive Mode

By this I do not mean be in denial and pretend the world is not going through a financial challenging time. But if you are continually thinking and worrying about the negative aspects of the financial situation, then you are likely to make it come true. Don’t forget you get what you wish for and by concentrating on something then it will work like a wish, so why not concentrate on ways of getting new customers, giving better value to your existing customers and how your company could offer new products or services to your existing customer base?

Conclusion

Although during this recession there is no doubt times are hard for people who have lost their work. No work, equals no money coming in, so how do people pay their bills and their mortgages? If consumers have been prudent during times of prosperity and they have a nest egg for a rainy day, then they can probably manage for a few months until they get another job. But if they are already up to their eyes in debt then they will face personal bankruptcy and could lose everything.

In spite of all that, some people are managing quite well if they have jobs or some other type of income. One article I read recently said that the death rate reduced noticeably during recession and put that down to eating more economically at home and not eating so much junk food. So OK we can’t afford to go out for meals as much, and things are more expensive, but home prepared food is often better for you and sharing meals with the family is a way of coming together and communicating. So it’s not all bad. Good luck for a prosperous future.

All About Golf Villas

Moving my Hosting Business Offshore

When I started my hosting company I didn’t think much about accounting and how important it is to plan ahead. I didn’t know much about tax either and after a few years of steadily expanding my business I reached a point where I had to deal with both.

I did some research and finally decided to deal with taxation and accounting in a way that most of my competitors didn’t even think of: Moving business offshore.

Now that might sound a bit dodgy and more like an adventure to some of you, but today after everything is done I can say that it was one of the best business decisions I’ve ever made.

Stateside Finance helped me forming the offshore company and opening a bank account with a reputable and well-known bank in an offshore tax haven. Now, when people hear offshore tax haven they usually think of tax evasion and money laundering but little do they know how many advantages an offshore jurisidiction really features.

Quite literally every bank, insurance, international company and even governments maintain companies in offshore jurisdictions. Certainly for tax purposes but also to do business internationally in a convinient and confidental manner.

I incorporated my company in the British Virgin Islands for under $1900 and moved the company offshore. Stateside Finance guided me through the whole process and believe it or not I didn’t even had to leave my office desk.

Today I don’t have to break my head about taxes or accounting or even company liability; moving my company offshore solved all these problems once and for all.

Renting a Limousine

Do you want to know how to get the best limo rentals possible so that you can have a great time and save money all at once? Limos are usually used by the super famous or by large companies to show their clients that they are successful, but now you can use a limo to have the time of your life, too.

There are ways to make sure you get the best deal on the limo you want and here are a few tips to help you select the service you will be using for your night out.

First, you need to decide on which style of limousine you want. Do you want a traditional limo, a stretch limo, an SUV limo, or one of the other styles? Which color do you want, black, white, blue, or another color? Once you have figured out what type of limousine you want and you know how many people will be joining you, then you can start getting prices.

Second, you want to get a list of all the limousine services in the area you are going to be using it in, Towncar companies also provide limousine services. Call each one up and find out what their price is. Once you have the best price, then you need to call the most reputable limousine service and find out if they will match that price or beat it. If they beat it, then call back the other service and see if they will match or beat the price. You can do this until one of them backs down and you will get the best price possible for your limousine.

Last, you need to make sure that you tip your driver early or they might not be as willing to accommodate any special requests you have. You should tip the driver generously early on, that way they’ll go out of their way for spacial requests. This will give your driver the security that you will be taking care of them very well and you will be able to have much more fun on your night out.

Limo or Town car rentals can be a great way to enjoy a night out, go to the prom, celebrate a special event, or just have a luxurious night out on the town. Make sure that you pick a style and color, compare prices from one service to another, and tip your driver in advance. This will ensure that you have a great night out and it will not break your bank account.

A money saving advantage to US citizens is credit card debt relief

Our glorious nation is facing serious financial problems as of the moment.  For starters we’re  in the midst of the most crippling economic failure to hit since the great depression, we are also fighting two wars and may end up fighting a third, and to make matters worse consumer credit card debt is reaching an all time high.  All of these issues are leaving our countrymen struggling very badly when it comes to staying on top of their finances.

For a lot of consumers it would be great if they could figure out a procedure to get rid of credit card debt soon, this will allow them to free up room in their monthly budget and maybe evade the headaches this recession is bringing to tens of millions of families throughout the nation.  It’s pretty bad that most people do not know just how great of a adverse effect credit card debt can have on their financial well being. 

Credit card minimum payments are devised to take at a minimum of three decades to pay off, and during this time the debtor will end up paying back more than four times the original balance in interest alone; and take note these statistics are with a low interest rate.  The end goal of the credit card organization is to get the APR up to the default, which will at typically double all the figures listed above. 

Once the problem hits this point many Americans think bankruptcy is their only option to get rid of credit card debt, but the reality is there is another much more advantageous resolution that has been tremendously assisting US citizens all over the country. 

This procedure is credit card debt negotiation a process where the consumer can look to save money and time on the path to debt freedom.  Throughout the debt negotiation process saving up to fifty percent of how much is owed on the original balance is extremely common.  The procedure itself is not all that easy, but fortunately for consumers there are debt negotiation services that can tremendously assist consumers in setting up the proper program to help them escape this debt snare.

The truth is that any American who is stuck in debt during this recession would greatly advantage from getting out of credit card debt.  Nobody should jeopardize their loved ones’ well being by continuing to pay monthly minimum payments that will last until death and drain someone’s bank account all for the greed of the credit card companies.   The credit card companies are not the friends of American debtors all they care about is making as much profit as they can and they don’t care about their customers hardships.

Affiliate Marketing Via Review Sites

The most profitable method I have for generating income online is by selecting a product from Clickbank and creating a one-page review site for that product.  I learned, and follow, this method from a product that many of you have probably heard about – Day Job Killer.  This method is easy to follow and implement and absolutely produces results.  I have about 15 sites that follow the method that Chris is promoting with his product and each of them bring in a nice steady income for me.

Just as with pretty much everything I do , I did not follow Chris’s advice completely… I set up the review portion based on what he teaches in the ebook, but I also implemented my Definitive SEO Traffic Guide to really explode the sales.  See, Chris teaches you how to get into the Pay Per Click market (mostly Google Adwords) and while his method is a great way to limit your losses and really increase you sales, I still like to get natural search engine traffic.  Maybe it is that I love SEO and playing around with my sites to get top placement in the search engines… it is addicting (for me anyway)!  But, if you wanted, you could just follow Chris’s plan.

If you want to get into affiliate marketing and start making some good money with review sites, I highly recommend following Day Job Killer with the addition of following my Search Engine Optimization Training Guide together these make a great combination for a residual monthly income!  As with any method, yes, you must complete the work, but if you do, this method pays for itself over and over and over.  I have sites that have been online for almost a year and a half following this method and I do nothing with them but watch Clickbank deposit money into my bank account every two weeks… yes, it is fun

There are other types of review sites as well, such as a blanket review site that reviews all kinds of various products in one market.  For example, say you create a review site in the baby market, you may review products such as:

Baby Names
Getting a Baby to Sleep
Conquering Colic
Potty Training
Natural Baby Health
etc.

I have tried these types of review sites in a couple of different markets over the years, including internet marketing, but I personally did not have very good results with them.  They are more work than the one-page review method described above and I simply never saw any type of income worth talking about… maybe $50 – $100 per month, but when you can create a one-page review site that is pulling in $250, $500 a month, the extra work involved in a “blanket” style review site isn’t worth it for me.  If there are people reading this blog that have had better results, please share your experience with us.  If this method can be successful I’m sure we’d all love to hear about it!

If you like this article and would like to discuss it, please post a comment or question on my blog at www.ShannonLueck.com.

News

New Payday Loan – Fast Cash For a Need

We all need a little extra money from time to time to cover something that has happened quite by accident but that doesn’t mean that the only option available is acquiring an unsecured personal loan. However, there is an alternative to a personal loan called a payday loan which is much easier to arrange these days even if you do not have a checking account at a bank. By understanding exactly how a payday loan works, it is easy to see why this type of loan is such a popular form of cash advance and why so many people opt for it today.

You may have received some unexpected bill for repairs to your car and need to pay it as soon as possible. In these cases, you don’t need a large loan and you can repay the amount as soon as your paycheck comes in. This is where the payday loan comes in. The process works by a lender arranging for a small sum of money never usually over one thousand dollars, to be made available and to be reclaimed when you are paid less any interest due.

Fortunately the internet has helped this payday loan service and instead of contacting the local lenders, it is now a simple matter of finding a lender online and making your application there. The online application should only take a matter of minutes and the funds can be transferred to your bank account directly.

This service has opened up to many other lenders now when only a few years ago there was little chance of getting a new payday loan if you did not have a checking account as lenders wanted to ensure their loan to you would be safely repaid as soon as you were.

Fortunately today, just a pay statement or a savings account is enough to secure this type of short term loan and some lenders even ignore the fact you may have a poor credit history. Many just accept proof that the person is actually employed and receives pay regularly. If the situation arises again where you require some cash short term in the form of a online payday loan you will know what to do.

It doesn’t take much now to find a payday loan lender who is prepared to loan the money for a short period and all you need to do is provide proof of income or a savings account. This facility is useful but should be used sparingly as it can be very costly and some people fall into the trap of using it on a regular basis. It is easy to forget that it doesn’t take much to start relying on these types of loans for the wrong reasons; you need to improve your financial position rather than continue to use this facility as a crutch which will eventually cause more problems than it solves.