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

The Secret To Successful Weight Loss

Have you been struggling with your weight for a long time? Have you tried several fad diets, or maybe even taken diet pills, but none of them worked to get the excess weight off you? You most likely have tried starving yourself. In fact, you probably tried to starve yourself first before trying out all the other fad diets.

Do you lack the willpower to lose weight? Do you need weight loss motivation?

What you need to realize is that starving yourself is not going to (and won’t ever) help you lose weight. In fact, starvation can cause you to keep those excess pounds on and even add on a few! By the way, did you make exercise a part of your weight loss plan? No?

No wonder you can’t shed off those unwanted pounds! The keys to weight loss are nutrition and exercise. And you have to be consistent and persistent too.

Eating a well-balanced diet is one key to sustainable weight loss in the long term. This means cutting back (or eliminating) on fatty foods, junk food, sugary drinks and similar foods. You also need to exercise to increase your body’s metabolism. The better your metabolism, the more efficient your body is burning the calories. When your body is efficiently burning calories, you will see the weight come off. There are breathing exercise designed to encourage weight loss.

Doing the above mentioned isn’t a one-off thing. You need to be consistent — in eating healthy foods and on exercising. Don’t act surprised if you don’t lose weight if you’re still eating the same unhealthy foods you’ve been eating. And you need to be persistent. Don’t expect to shed off the excess pounds overnight; it takes time. Your body needs to adjust itself to a healthy weight loss plan for a few weeks.

Let’s take an even closer look at each of the key aspects to successful weight loss:

1. Nutrition

Switch to non-fattening foods that will provide your body with sufficient amounts of nutrients it needs to function efficiently on a daily basis. Starving yourself doesn’t work for weight loss. Why? When your body recognizes that you are starving it, it will go into survival mode and store whatever food you give it. It may be counterintuitive, but eating can cause weight loss, not starving! Go for low-fat and no-fat foods. Consume fresh fruits and vegetables every day. If you love meat, go for lean meat, preferably salmon or chicken instead of red meat.

2. Exercise

Exercise not only helps your heart become stronger and make you healthy overall, it helps raise your metabolism. The higher your metabolism, the faster your body burns calories. You can achieve weight loss safely if the amount of calories your body is burning is more than the calories you are consuming. Health experts recommend exercising at least 30 minutes three times a week. Walking, cycling and swimming are exercises that can help promote weight loss.

3. Deep Breathing

A few times during the day, do a 15-minute deep breathing session. It is believed that deep breathing helps your body burn energy.

4. Consistency and Persistence

5. Weight Loss Inspiration

Frankly, weight loss motivation should be at #1, but for most people it’s the least considered part of a successful weight loss plan.

In order for your weight loss plan to be effective, you need to be consistent and persistent. Keep eating healthy meals and exercising regularly. If you waver or skimp on any part of your weight loss plan, you’ll stop losing weight.

A Few More Tips

Instead of eating 3 big meals, try to eat 5 or 6 smaller meals. Don’t eat four hours before you go to bed as doing so can disrupt your sleep. Your body needs to rest at night and it can’t do that if it has to digest the foods you’ve eaten close to bed time.

No fad diet or diet pill can bring you the same results of a healthy weight loss plan that involves proper nutrition and exercise. This weight loss plan is safe too and guaranteed to give you results!

This site does not provide medical or health care advice, diagnosis or treatment. The site is for information purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should always seek the advice of your medical doctor or other qualified health professional before starting any new treatment or making any changes to existing treatment.

Parvo Treatment – How Much Do You Know?

Spring-time means the start of the Parvo season, and there is a much more aggressive strain of Parvo that is killing dogs at a scary rate. The 2c Strain (aka F-Strain) can kill both adult dogs and puppies within 6-12 hours after symptoms first appear, even though they may be fully-vaccinated and up-to-date with all their shots.

We put together this little quiz to see if you are up on the latest Parvo facts. These are True/False questions:

1. Parvo is a puppy disease and my adult dogs are safe.
2. All of my dogs are up-to-date on their shots, therefore they are protected.
3. I’m worried that my cat can get infected from my Parvo puppy, should I be?
4. Foul-smelling dog diarrhea mainly comes from eating junk food.
5. Canine Parvovirus is not contagious to humans.
6. My vet quoted $750+ for Parvo treatments for my dog, I heard this is low?
7. Parvo cannot survive snow and desert-heat temperatures.
8. Parvo can only be spread via infected dog feces.
9. Parvo can incubate from 3-15 days before symptoms appear.
10. Parvo tests at the vet are always accurate.

Parvo is widely misunderstood. One thing is for sure, it will devastate your pet and can take him away from you if you do not get on top of the situation swiftly. Many times, people are taken by surprise and just do not know what to look for. Parvo symptoms can appear from absolutely nowhere – one minute your dog is his usual playful self and the next minute he is lying around, not eating, no energy – basically, not the dog you know and love.

The typical symptoms of Parvo can mislead you at first. You may suppose your dog has simply swallowed something that disagreed with him, when indeed he may already be infected and very ill with the scourge of the Earth, Canine Parvo virus.

This is why we wrote Parvo Treatment 101, a FREE eBook that contains a wealth of information to help you learn much more about Parvo and what are the dog Parvo symptoms to watch out for. We also talk about exactly what makes for an effective Parvo treatment. You will undoubtedly run across many treatments for Parvo, and we can shed light on their advantages and disadvantages, as we’ve done hours of research into the subject matter.

We hope that you found this information useful and when you download and read our free eBook, that will clear up many issues you may have about Canine Parvovirus.

And finally, how did you fare on our little Parvo Quiz? Ideally, you should be aiming to score at least 9 … Well, we can help you out. If you visit our PET Blog we will have all the answers to this quiz and possibly other issues you may have on your mind.

Slim Fast Diet

In order to lose weight you must take in fewer calories than you use.  Many diets, like the Slim fast diet, follow this general principle — having a dieter eat less than they normally burn. Let’s take a look at the Slim fast diet to see just how effective it can be. This diet tries to avoid all kind of carbohydrates, like the ones in a gourmet chocolate gifts.

First let’s examine the basics of the Slim fast diet. In essence it revolves around drinking a shake in place of two meals for the day. You can add, if you wish, a table spoon of organic gourmet chocolate. The dieter can also eat a regular meal for dinner, as well as two pieces of fruit and one Slim fast nutrition bar.  In general the plan averages about 1200 calories a day. This is about 500 less than the average female diet and 1000 less than the average male diet.  Even without exercise, which Slim fast recommends, this diet will result in weight loss.

This Slim fast diet is easy to use, that’s important. If diet is too hard to maintain it will never work. another healthy aspect of the Slim fast diet is drinking a lot of water – 6 to 8 cups everyday.

The Slim fast diet is lacking in some of the vitamins, minerals and other necessary nutrients of a healthy diet. Most of these are found in the average foods that people eat, but not all are found in the Slim fast shake or nutrition bars.  Another danger on this diet is to cut out the dinner meal. they think this will help them lose weight at an even more rapid pace. But that’s a very bad idea because it’s far too few calories, and multiplies the problem of missing certain nutrients.

Some people have found success with a modified Slim fast diet.  This is something like eating two normal meals a day and replacing only one with the Slim fast shake. many people tend to eat junk food at lunch, so replacing that meal with a shake is a good idea.

As long as you maintain a healthy amount of food, Slim fast diet can work for you. For pampering purposes, you can try fat free chocolate dipped strawberries delivered to your home.