Buisness Administration

Best Ways to Profit!

2009-09-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

Ask any small business owner to come up with ideas on how to market their business and they will say adverts, brochures, leaflets, direct mail etc. Whilst all these are great ways of promoting your business they all cost money! What if I could show you a better and more effective way of marketing your business? In this article I am going to share with you some key strategies to get more business and ultimately increase your profits.

The biggest mistake businesses make is to focus all their marketing effort and budget on getting new customers. Research has shown that it costs up to 6 times more to get a new customer than to retain or sell to an existing one. And this is the key. Concentrate on selling more to your existing clients. Simple! Squeezing more profit out of your customer base is a cost-effective way of increasing your bottom line.

So, let?s look at the steps you can take to tease more profit from your client base.

Pareto?s Law:

No doubt you have heard of Pareto?s Law? You may know it better as the 80/20 rule. In a sales context if you examine your sales pattern, you may find that 80% of your profit comes from only 20% of your customers. While the percentages may vary slightly, as a principle it generally holds true. Yes, it may come as a bit of shock to find out that most of your profit comes from a handful of customers, but armed with this information you can now create a plan to earn more profit!

So, the first step to squeezing out more profit is to identify your top 20% profitable customers. Obviously, to do this you have to have a database, which keeps track of who orders what and how much. What? You don?t? Keeping track of your customer?s dealings with you is essential. Get a database up and running ? today! The effort in setting this up and keeping it up to date will be quickly paid back.

Get them buying more often:

Having identified your top earners, the next step is to focus on how you can get them to buy more frequently. Increasing their ordering frequency may sound a bit simplistic but that?s the beauty of it ? it is! The trick works especially well if you are in the retail or supply business. The idea is to catch the customer in advance of them needing your product or service and offer it either before they know they require it, or before they go to a competitor.

So how does this work? Let?s take your customer Bodgit Ltd. You go through their purchasing history (from the database you have now set up!) and you see that every 6 weeks or so, they re-order. But some months there are gaps, suggesting that they may go to competitors on some occasions. Make a note in your diary for one week before you would expect them to order again. When the time comes, pick up the phone and say, ?Mr Smith, I imagine you must be getting low on widgets? Would you like me to send your usual amount or do you need more??

?Wow? thinks Mr Smith, ?This company is sharp!? Result? One happy customer; an order that may have gone to your competitor comes to you; one extra cheque to bank!

Have a think about how you can apply this technique to your business. Try it out.

Increase the average order value:

As well as getting your customer to buy more often, why not get them to spend more? They may be buying one product from you, but a complimentary product, which you also supply, from a competitor. Be bold; ask him for a bigger share of the pie! Try to resist cutting your margins to secure a deal but instead, see if you can tailor the product to meet his needs. Can you change your delivery system? Can you provide better after-sales service. Explore all these avenues to see how you can get more business. If you do have to cut your margins, work out how much overall extra profit you will get if the average order value goes up.

If you have an extensive range of products, you may be surprised to find out that some of your customers are not aware of the full extent of your range. Part of your strategy to squeeze out more profit should be to ensure your customer knows what you sell! When did you last call with your customer with the sole aim of chatting through your range of goods or services? You could be amazed by how little they know!

Talk to them:

Too often the only contact a business has with its clients is when they receive an order. The customer hears nothing until the next order is sent in. To get your profitable customers to do more business, find any excuse you can to talk to them. Make an effort to contact them on a regular basis. Ask them what they want from you? What do you have to do to increase business with them? Would a new addition to your line fit in with what they want? Question, question, question! Even if nothing comes out of your conversations immediately, at least they know you are interested in them. This all builds loyalty to you and your business.

Love them!

As well as taking the time to pick up the phone and ask for more business, why not just call to say hello? A call to check levels of service, and to see if everything is okay, can still reap benefits.

If you spot something in a magazine or newspaper linked to one of your customer?s line of business, cut it out and write a note ? ?Saw this and thought it may be of interest to you.? A simple thing, yet it shows they are important to you.

Referrals:

As well as aiming to get your existing customers to give you more business, why also ask them to introduce you to one of their business contacts? This way you leverage more profit out of them by tapping into another business ? all without spending a penny on advertising! Referrals can be very powerful. They carry the stamp of approval for your business from the referrer. This is a great example of squeezing profit out of your customers.

Don?t ignore the others

By concentrating on the top 20% of your customer base you could be danger of losing a potential diamond hidden in the other 80%. Set some time aside to develop this part of your business. Go through your database and select a few customers who you think, with a bit of courting, could become a 20% business. Put a plan in place to woo them!

Squeezing more profit out of your customers can be done. It takes planning, effort and a little cheek! It?s about building and strengthening the relationship, so they enjoy doing business with you.

Don?t take them for granted and watch your profits grow!

Two ways to increase your profit.
1.Gain new "profitable" business.
2.Reduce the costs of existing business.

We all know it's not as simple as that, but in a nutshell these are the only ways to grow profit.

The above two "obvious" methods of growing your business and increasing your profits are rarely seen in tandem.

Most companies throw vast resources into securing new business, and then throw yet more resources into servicing that newly acquired customer, the profitability of this activity is rarely questioned.

How much more profitable could you be?
The answer, in 90% of cases is as simple as the question itself, the fact is that by paying as much attention to your expenditure as you do to your income, your bottom line can be vastly improved. You can:

Improve your cash flow.
Reduce the need to seek finance.
Gain a competitive edge with sustainable margins.
Forge strong relationships with suppliers based on mutual respect.
Improve organisation-wide motivation and confidence in leadership.
The problems faced by the small to medium sized business in the UK today are twofold:

What measures do I need to focus on to increase my company's profit?
How do I find the time, or manpower to realise these benefits?
The bigger issue of actually running your company often gets in the way of finding any solution to these two problems, and those minor areas that could reap significant profitability benefits are often not focused on.

The first step is often accurate reporting on the current business position through the provision of management information, and management accounting systems.

What are the most important focus areas for increasing your business profit?
Accurate management information must be available, in the form of management accounts and a realistic, professional business plan.
An audit of your business expenditure over the last 12 months can often reveal areas for considerable savings.
Make sure you're in total control of your waste, many companies can realise a serious financial benefit by controlling office, warehouse or factory waste.
Analyse the culture within your organisation, how could a change of attitude or behaviour within your company increase efficiency and reduce waste?
Negotiate with your suppliers and don’t be afraid to look at alternative suppliers to reduce costs.
If you’re sitting there looking at this list and thinking; “There’s no way I have time to do all of that” you are not alone.

Small Business Tips

2009-06-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

For over twenty years, Daniel Diener has worked closely with small business owners, organization executives, engineers, and management to set goals, conduct research, and produce effective business strategies. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. Along with Jan Triplett, Ph.D., he founded Diener, Triplett & Associates, Inc. (DTA) in 1981 which owns the Business Success Center, formerly the Entrepreneurs’ Association.

Mr. Diener is also the co-developer and co-instructor for the award-winning "Street MBA" and "Owners MBA" which teach people how to start and run a business. These programs have graduated over 9000 small business owners.

He also developed and was an instructor for another award-winning program,"The City Management Academy". The program taught managers and first line supervisors how to be more "intrapreneurial" within their organizations.

He is a frequent speaker and workshop presenter on various small business and entrepreneurial topics locally, nationally, and internationally. He has also written articles about small business for many publications including the Austin Business Journal's Small Business Sourcebook, the Austin American Statesman, and several specialty publications. In 1996, he and his partner, Dr. Triplett, were asked by the Nikkei Corporation to come to Japan to discuss entrepreneurship and venture capital at a special forum.

He was selected and served as an elected delegate to the 1995 White House Conference on Small Business. Also in 1995, his firm, was evaluated by the Austin Quality Council and was selected as a Level I award winner.

He has been recognized by the Austin City Council, the Austin Chamber of Commerce, and American Society for Training and Development. He is cited in Who’s Who in the Southwest and Personalities of the South. He was nominated for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

For four years he served on the North Central Area Council for the Austin Chamber of Commerce and served as VP of Communications for the Austin chapter of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).

He currently serves on the Small Business Advisory Board of the Texas Department of Economic Development and Students Involved in Free Enterprise (SIFE).

1.Throughout the history of small business, being downsized is one of the most successful life changing experience in born new, thriving, entrepreneurs.

2.Getting back into the workforce with the standard you had before is not as easy as you think - businesses cut costs, and one of the area that are being heavily cut is payroll - bottom line, businesses want more for less these days.

Without further adieu, the following are the top 10 small business ideas for 2009 that might entice you to plunge into entrepreneurship:

01.Do-It-Yourself business:
Most of the case, DIY reduce costs. If you can provide products and services that allow people to DIY something, such as creating your own home cleaning products, you are on a roll.
02.Energy saving business:
This idea is definitely hot in the past few years, and in 2009 the emphasis on energy cost-cutting regimes will push any energy saving businesses even further. Producing or distributing LED lightings will be the right business this year.
03.Online business:
Ah, my favourite small business idea. The wonder of the Internet is this: For as low as $50 (a domain name + affordable web hosting fee) or even for free, you can start a lucrative online business and shoot for a chance to create a six figure business before this 2009 ends! Of course, one key factor: your competitiveness in a low-cost, high-competition market.

04.Baby boomer-related business:
The highlight of the year: Baby boomers are retiring from the workforce, creating a mega-problem to the economy - thanks to the flawed MediCare, Social Security and retirement funds. Creating a business that act as a safety-net for those baby boomers will boom your business sky-high. One example of such business is entrepreneurship training business for baby boomers.
05.Cheap and/or recycled product business:
“Turning trash into cash” type of business is very, very lucrative this year. With the increase in material and production costs, making use of ‘useless’ materials and create something out of them will proved to be a thriving business. One example: Creating Converse-like canvass shoes out of wastes - the scrapbooking style.
06.Home based business:
The best cost-cutting innovation of all - work from your home! With the ever-presence of the Internet, working at home
07.Charity and philantropy:
Giving as a business? Never - However, you can be a business that match recipients and givers, such as the web-based Kiva.com that match small business borrowers with lenders.
08.Outsourcing:
There is a better solution in your cost cutting campaign - outsourcing. Outsourcing main benefit is leaning your company so you are more nimble and resposive to changes. The key in outsourcing is finding the right companies to outsource to. The business idea: outsourcing company that manage service buyers needs.
09.Mobile business:
No longer a trend for road warriors out there, but a growing trend for new entrepreneurs who envision themselves as location independent business owners. Again, the Internet plays a major role in mobile business, as well as the more powerful and cutting-edge mobile technologies and gadgets. Your iPhone and MacBook Air will enable you to run your business wherever you are.
10.Bootstrapping and cost-cutting consultancy business:
As every business owner aim to be leaner and more responsive, bootstrapping and cost-cutting consultants will have their moments this year - roles, such as energy consultants, Internet startup consultants, and similar others will enjoy substantial growth this year

Business Plan Layout

2009-06-09T07:09:00.000-07:00

Business plan layout and writing into 8 easy to remember sections by business plan and fund raising expert Andrew Millet, chartered accountant, principle of Wisteria, a small business advisory and ...
Business plan layout and writing into 8 easy to remember sections by business plan and fund raising expert Andrew Millet, chartered accountant, principle of Wisteria, a small business advisory and accounting firm based in Edgware, North London, UK.

When you start a business it is really important to put your plans down in black and white. It will help you focus and decide on your targets, development plans, priorities, financial requirements and profit forecasts. It should reveal any weaknesses to you and help you structure your business effectively to avoid any future problems - enabling you personally to make decisions about how you are going to run and grow your business.

A business plan is an essential tool to making sure your new business will be a success and to focus your efforts.

Your business plan, as well as being useful as an internal document for your own use, can also showcase your aims to external bodies, such as when you need funding such as a business start up loan, grants, are seeking partners or are selling your business. It will be essential if you are looking for a UK small business government loan or UK small business grant.

A good business plan will describe and sell your business, the market, your intended strategies, financial requirements and projected targets. A well-drafted business plan is especially valid when you apply for financial help with your start-up, and will help convince a lender that your business is worth investing in. Here's an example of what you should include in your business plan.

Business Plan Example:
Executive Statement

The first and most important part of your business plan should be the Executive Statement. This is where you explain what your business is all about and how it is going to fill the gap in the market. This is the opening and needs to grab the attention of the reader with the highlights and key points of your business plan.

Make sure you describe the type of profit you hope to achieve and the investment required to meet this goal. Some lenders and investors make provisional decisions based on the executive summary. The summary should be concise and ultimately interesting, as when you are seeking finance for instance, you must realise that your business plan will be one of a pile and needs to stand out. It is usually easier to complete this summary of your plan after you've completed the rest.

Your Business Overview :

This is where you state what your business is all about in the form of an overview : describe your product/service and how your business will operate, the existing market and why your business will succeed, your business history, when you began or are planning to start up, the legal structure of your company and your vision for the future of your new business. Include the pros and cons of your product and how you will develop it for success.

Marketing :

You need to show evidence of a market for your product or service: existing competitors, likely customers and the appeal of your product; how you plan to sell your product - online, by telephone, from your premises. Detail your plans for promotion and advertising for your new business.

You may need to carry out some market research - directly from customers and also using data and information from other sources, such as business organisations and government agencies.

Detail what your business will provide, illustrate that there is a market and any shortcomings of your competitors. For success you really need to offer something better or more original than your competitors. Your product or service preferably needs a ‘Unique Selling Point’ – an edge that will make your business the customer’s first choice.

Management:

Provide details about the people involved in running the business:

Who is going to run the business? Are you planning to be a sole trader, partnership or limited company? You will need to decide the number of employees, business premises and prospective suppliers.

Include the skills of those involved.their skills and experience, strengths and weaknesses of the business. A strong management team will make investors more confident.

If you are a one-man band stress your own skills and enthusiasm and your plans for the future, which may involve recruiting further help when you become successful and expand.

If finances aren't your strength then you need to make it clear that you will be taking financial advice from a professional, so provide details.

Finance:

Provide details of your expected monthly income and expenditure, the projected profit and overheads and the turnover needed to break even. State the capital needed and how you intend to repay any loans. Include your budgets and ensure your sales forecasts are not over-estimated.

Risk Assessment :

It is always best to face what could go wrong and plan for the pitfalls as well as the success, so you have an emergency plan in hand. So be honest at this point and list any risks involved and how you intend dealing with them.

Try to make your business plan clear and simple. If you want to add statistics or relevant data it is best to add it in the form of an appendix.

SAP LO MM Excise Duty and Logistics Invoice Verification Application Menu

2009-04-29T09:17:00.000-07:00

The Customs Act was formulated in 1962 to prevent illegal imports and exports of goods. Besides, all imports are sought to be subject to a duty with a view to affording protection to indigenous industries as well as to keep the imports to the minimum in the interests of securing the exchange rate of Indian currency.

Duties of customs are levied on goods imported or exported from India at the rate specified under the customs Tariff Act, 1975 as amended from time to time or any other law for the time being in force. For the purpose of exercising proper surveillance over imports and exports, the Central Government has the power to notify the ports and airports for the unloading of the imported goods and loading of the exported goods, the places for clearance of goods imported or to be exported, the routes by which above goods may pass by land or inland water into or out of Indian and the ports which alone shall be coastal ports

In order to give a broad guide as to classification of goods for the purpose of duty liability, the central Board of Excises Customs (CBEC) bring out periodically a book called the "Indian Customs Tariff Guide" which contains various tariff rulings issued by the CBEC. The Act also contains detailed provisions for warehousing of the imported goods and manufacture of goods is also possible in the warehouses.

For a person who do not actually import or export goods customs has relevance in so far as they bring any baggage from abroad.

Importance of Central Excise Duty:

Central excise revenue is the biggest single source of revenue for the Government of India. The Union Government tries to achieve different socio-economic objectives by making suitable adjustments in the scope and quantum of levy of Central Excise duty. The scheme of Central Excise levy is suitably adapted and modified to serve different purposes of price control, sufficient supply of essential commodities, industrial growth, promotion of small scale industries and like Authority for collecting the Central Excise duty.

Article 265 of the Constitution of India has laid down that both levy and collection of taxes shall be under the authority of law. The excise duty is levied in pursuance of Entry 45 of the Central List in Government of India Act,1935 as adopted by entry 84 of List I of the seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. Charging section is Section 3 of the Central Excises and Salt Act,1944.

Liability to pay Central Excise Duty:

Section 3 of the Central excises and Salt Act,1944 provides that there shall be levied and collected in such manner as may be prescribed, duties of excise on all excisable goods other than salt which are produced or manufactured in India at the rates set forth in the schedule to the Central excise Tariff Act,1985.it is therefore clear that as soon as the goods in question are produced or manufactured, they will be liable to payment of Excise duty. However for convenience duty is collected at the time of removal of the goods. While Section 3 of the Central Excises and salt Act,1944 lays down the taxable event, Rules 9 and 49 of the Central excise Rules,1944 provides for the collection of duty.

The Four Risks: Trading Options Lab

2009-04-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

Overview: While the majority of traders hope to make a profit trading options, we take a more business like approach and hope has nothing to do with it.

Trading options to us is entrepreneurial. We take advantage of market opportunities, build positions, manage a portfolio and generate profits trading options based on:

1. fundamental business principles and
2. market truths

We are not investment advisers or financial planners, we are retail investors like you. We do not not manage money and we do not make recommendations on any stock or option investment. We trade our own accounts.

Our purpose for establishing our training program and this website is to provide education to retail investors like us who want a smarter, simpler, less stressful and more profitable way to trade even with limited capital.

Business Principles:

We pursue opportunities in the market and then manage those opportunities based on the numbers.

All successful businesses manage their activities based on certain numbers: key ratios, profit and loss, conversions, overhead and more. That is what we do: manage our investment business by the numbers.

When a number is off we dig deeper into our business activities to see where the problem lies and make adjustments to our portfolio so that we generate the maximum amount of profits for the capital we invest, just like any good and successful business.

The only thing that matters in business is ROI (return on investment). In our type of business, we regard ROM (return on margin) as our ultimate goal. That is the name of the game and we never deviate from it because the numbers never lie.

The Only Truths of the Market:

For stocks there is only ONE Absolute Truth:

1. All stocks fluctuate in price.

For options there are only TWO Absolute Truths:

1. All options fluctuate in price.
2. All options expire.

The top traders in the world learn to respect these rules because they are the only truths of the market.

You might think there are other truths but there are not - everything you hear about the market outside these 2 rules is hearsay, opinion, commentary and even complete fantasy.

We are investing as entrepreneurs - we watch for opportunities, create a plan for trading activities based on solid business principles, plot our expected ROM (return on margin) and then manage those trades by the numbers.

How Do We Trade This Information?

We take these Market Truths and design a trading strategy which means taking advantage of market opportunities and building positions and portfolios around them. As we know its impossible to predict the future and that the market can be irrational and cause large losses at times for the average retail investor So instead of predicting market behavior we create fluid positions that are managed and adjusted according to market conditions so that we are always allocating capital as new opportunities present themselves.

The one art most retail investors are not taught is how to adjust positions once they are placed. Learning the art of adjusting trades is the insiders edges over retail investors- but not any longer. Once you learn how to adjust a trade so that it makes money (instead of losing money) you will be amazed at the results.

All businesses have risks. In this business there are 4 risks but the risks can be managed. And, it takes 15 minutes - sometimes less - a day to manage these types of positions.

If you are interested in learning more about how we trade as a business and get information on our home study course we have developed, watch the videos that are available on our site - no email address or registration is required. And when you are ready to learn the EXACT way to trade for monthly profits and with total confidence go here to sign up for our course:

Overview of Financial Mkts - Investment Bank Hierarchy

2009-04-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

Investment or investing is a term with several closely-related meanings in business management, finance and economics, related to saving or deferring consumption. Investing is the active redirecting resources from being consumed today so that they may create benefits in the future; the use of assets to earn income or profit.

Types of investments:
The term "investment" is used differently in economics and in finance. Economists refer to a real investment (such as a machine or a house), while financial economists refer to a financial asset, such as money that is put into a bank or the market, which may then be used to buy a real asset.

Business management:
The investment decision (also known as capital budgeting) is one of the fundamental decisions of business management: Managers determine the investment value of the assets that a business enterprise has within its control or possession. These assets may be physical (such as buildings or machinery), intangible (such as patents, software, goodwill), or financial (see below). Assets are used to produce streams of revenue that often are associated with particular costs or outflows. All together, the manager must determine whether the net present value of the investment to the enterprise is positive using the marginal cost of capital that is associated with the particular area of business.

In terms of financial assets, these are often marketable securities such as a company stock (an equity investment) or bonds (a debt investment). At times the goal of the investment is for producing future cash flows, while at others it may be for purposes of gaining access to more assets by establishing control or influence over the operation of a second company (the investee).

Economics:
In economics, investment is the production per unit time of goods which are not consumed but are to be used for future production. Examples include tangibles (such as building a railroad or factory) and intangibles (such as a year of schooling or on-the-job training). In measures of national income and output, gross investment (represented by the variable I) is also a component of Gross domestic product (GDP), given in the formula GDP = C + I + G + NX, where C is consumption, G is government spending, and NX is net exports. Thus investment is everything that remains of production after consumption, government spending, and exports are subtracted.

Both non-residential investment (such as factories) and residential investment (new houses) combine to make up I. Net investment deducts depreciation from gross investment. It is the value of the net increase in the capital stock per year.

Investment, as production over a period of time ("per year"), is not capital. The time dimension of investment makes it a flow. By contrast, capital is a stock, that is, an accumulation measurable at a point in time.
Investment is often modeled as a function of Income and Interest rates, given by the relation I = f(Y, r). An increase in income encourages higher investment, whereas a higher interest rate may discourage investment as it becomes more costly to borrow money. Even if a firm chooses to use its own funds in an investment, the interest rate represents an opportunity cost of investing those funds rather than lending out that amount of money for interest.

Finance:
In finance, investment is the commitment of funds by buying securities or other monetary or paper (financial) assets in the money markets or capital markets, or in fairly liquid real assets, such as gold, real estate, or collectibles. Valuation is the method for assessing whether a potential investment is worth its price. Returns on investments will follow the risk-return spectrum.

Types of financial investments include shares, other equity investment, and bonds (including bonds denominated in foreign currencies). These financial assets are then expected to provide income or positive future cash flows, and may increase or decrease in value giving the investor capital gains or losses.

Trades in contingent claims or derivative securities do not necessarily have future positive expected cash flows, and so are not considered assets, or strictly speaking, securities or investments. Nevertheless, since their cash flows are closely related to (or derived from) those of specific securities, they are often studied as or treated as investments.

Investments are often made indirectly through intermediaries, such as banks, mutual funds, pension funds, insurance companies, collective investment schemes, and investment clubs. Though their legal and procedural details differ, an intermediary generally makes an investment using money from many individuals, each of whom receives a claim on the intermediary.

Within personal finance, money used to purchase shares, put in a collective investment scheme or used to buy any asset where there is an element of capital risk is deemed an investment. Saving within personal finance refers to money put aside, normally on a regular basis. This distinction is important, as investment risk can cause a capital loss when an investment is realized, unlike saving(s) where the more limited risk is cash devaluing due to inflation.

In many instances the terms saving and investment are used interchangeably, which confuses this distinction. For example many deposit accounts are labeled as investment accounts by banks for marketing purposes. Whether an asset is a saving(s) or an investment depends on where the money is invested: if it is cash then it is savings, if its value can fluctuate then it is investment.

Real estate:
In real estate, investment money is used to purchase property for the purpose of holding or leasing for income and there is an element of capital risk.

Residential real estate:
The most common form of real estate investment as it includes property purchased as a primary residence. In many cases the buyer does not have the full purchase price for a property and must engage a lender such as a bank, finance company or private lender. Different countries have their individual normal lending levels, but usually they will fall into the range of 70-90% of the purchase price. Against other types of real estate, residential real estate is the least risky.

Commercial real estate:
Commercial real estate consists of multifamily apartments, office buildings, retail space, hotels and motels, warehouses, and other commercial properties. Due to the higher risk of commercial real estate, loan-to-value ratios allowed by banks and other lenders are lower and often fall in the range of 50-70%.

Home Business Ideas

2009-04-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

Work-at-Home and Home Business Ideas:

You know you are ready to work at home, and you know you have the desire and motivation to make it work, but you have no idea where to begin?

It isn't easy, and if you've spent any time sifting through millions of home-based business related websites, you probably wonder if there even is such a thing as a perfect (let alone legitimate) home based business out there at all.

There is truly a very fine line between many home-based jobs and home-based businesses, and sometimes you are doing both at the same time.

While it might be difficult for you to choose a business that will work for you, think about your skills and interests, and be open to the idea of doing several closely related things.

Don't pass up an opportunity to use your talents, education, skills, and create multiple streams of income!

When choosing your new home based venture, make sure you don't base your decision solely on the potential income. Instead, choose ideas that you would enjoy doing, or have a strong interest in learning and doing, because you'll be spending a lot of time doing them. Of course, income potential should be considered, but definitely should not be the sole reason for choosing a type of home business.

This is a short list of Work-at-Home & Home Business Ideas:

.Accounting Business

.Auctions: Sell on eBay and Other Online Auctions

.Home-Based Professional Alterations and Seamstress Service

.Professional Pet Grooming Service

.Answering Service

.Bridal and Wedding Consulting Service

.Cake Decorator and Custom Cake Design Service

.Cleaning Service

.Dance Instructor

.Child Day Care Service

.Desktop Publishing

.Family History and Genealogy

.Freelance Photographer

.Create Custom Gift Baskets

.Medical Transcription

.Marketing Consultant

.Newsletter Service

.Internet Research Service

.Online Tutoring Service

.Proofreading Service

.Recruiter

.Resume Writing Service

.Scrapbooking Business

.Selling Your Arts and Crafts

.Virtual Assistant Secretarial Service

.Web Design Service

.Write eBooks

In recent times anyone looking for home-based jobs has many opportunities in the field of
equity finance. Here people can easily make good commissions by promoting new clients
of loan and mortgage to financial institutions. Normally best bank offer good commissions
on bad credit refinancing clients. It is because high credit card interest rate by banks
converts most of the people into bankruptcy situation. This is why banks offer high
commissions for the refinancing of such loans.

Financial Analysis

2009-03-10T08:17:00.000-07:00

Financial analysis refers to an assessment of the viability, stability and profitability of a business, sub-business or project. It is performed by professionals who wish to derive useful informat...
Financial analysis refers to an assessment of the viability, stability and profitability of a business, sub-business or project.

It is performed by professionals who wish to derive useful information from financial data such as GAAP financial statements.

These are basic steps you may use when evaluating company cases in my graduate and undergraduate business strategy and business policy courses.

Before you start, you must understand a couple of things.

· This is not meant to be an exhaustive list; there are other steps that can be followed to get deeper into the meaning of the numbers.

· You cannot analyze the numbers in a vacuum. The numbers only provide indicators to trigger further questions in your mind.

· In order to do a thorough job, you must understand something about the company’s business and strategies, and its industry. Financial indicators vary from industry to industry; the ratios can only be interpreted when compared and contrasted with other companies in that industry. For example, financial indicators are (and should be) different among financial institutions, manufacturing companies, companies that provide services, and technology and computer information and services companies.

· Financial analysis is something of an art. Experienced managers, investors and analysts develop a data bank of information over time, and after doing many such analyses, that they bring to bear every time they review a company.

Step 1. Acquire the company’s financial statements for several years. These may be found in your assigned case study; in a recent annual report; in the company’s 10K filing on the SEC’s EDGAR database; or from other sources found at my LINKS website. As a minimum, get the following statements, for at least 3 to 5 years.

· Balance sheets

· Income statements

· Shareholders equity statements

· Cash flow statements

Step 2. Quickly scan all of the statements to look for large movements in specific items from one year to the next. For example, did revenues have a big jump, or a big fall, from one particular year to the next? Did total or fixed assets grow or fall? If you find anything that looks very suspicious, research the information you have about the company to find out why. For example, did the company purchase a new division, or sell off part of its operations, that year?

Step 3. Review the notes accompanying the financial statements for additional information that may be significant to your analysis.

Step 4. Examine the balance sheet. Look for large changes in the overall components of the company's assets, liabilities or equity. For example, have fixed assets grown rapidly in one or two years, due to acquisitions or new facilities? Has the proportion of debt grown rapidly, to reflect a new financing strategy? If you find anything that looks very suspicious, research the information you have about the company to find out why.

Step 5. Examine the income statement. Look for trends over time. Calculate and graph the growth of the following entries over the past several years.

· Revenues (sales)

· Net income (profit, earnings)

Are the revenues and profits growing over time? Are they moving in a smooth and consistent fashion, or erratically up and down? Investors value predictability, and prefer more consistent movements to large swings.

For each of the key expense components on the income statement, calculate it as a percentage of sales for each year. For example, calculate the percent of cost of goods sold over sales, general and administrative expenses over sales, and research and development over sales. Look for favorable or unfavorable trends. For example, rising G&A expenses as a percent of sales could mean lavish spending. Also, determine whether the spending trends support the company’s strategies. For example, increased emphasis on new products and innovation will probably be reflected by an increased proportion of spending on research and development.

Look for non-recurring or non-operating items. These are "unusual" expenses not directly related to ongoing operations. However, some companies have such items on almost an annual basis. How do these reflect on the earnings quality?

If you find anything that looks very suspicious, research the information you have about the company to find out why.

Step 6. Examine the shareholder's equity statement. Has the company issued new shares, or bought some back? Has the retained earnings account been growing or shrinking? Why? Are there signals about the company's long-term strategy here?

If you find anything that looks very suspicious, research the information you have about the company to find out why.

Step 7. Examine the cash flow statement, which gives information about the cash inflows and outflows from operations, financing, and investing.

While the income statement provides information about both cash and non-cash items, the cash flow statement attempts to reconstruct that information to make it clear how cash is obtained and used by the business, since that is what investors and creditors really care about.

If you find anything that looks very suspicious, research the information you have about the company to find out why.

Step 8. Calculate financial ratios in each of the following categories, for each year. You may use the formulas found in your textbook, or other materials you have from your finance and accounting courses. A summary of some useful ratios appears at the end of this document.

· Liquidity ratios

· Leverage (or debt) ratios

· Profitability ratios

· Efficiency ratios

· Value ratios

Graph the ratios over time, to find the trends in the ratios from year to year. Are they going up or down? Is that favorable or unfavorable? This should trigger further questions in your mind, and help you to look for the underlying reasons.

Step 9. Obtain data for the company’s key competitors, and data about the industry.

For competitor companies, you can get the data and calculate the ratios in the same way you did for the company being studied. You can also get company and industry ratios from the Quicken.com Evaluator, Schwab Stock Evaluator, or other locations on my LINKS website.

Compare the ratios for the competitors and the industry to the company being studied. Is the company favorable in comparison? Do you have enough information to determine why or why not? If you don’t, you may need to do further research.

Step 10. Review the market data you have about the company’s stock price, and the price to earnings (P/E) ratio.

Try to research and understand the movements in the stock price and P/E over time. Determine in your own mind whether the stock market is reacting favorably to the company’s results and its strategies for doing business in the future.

Review the evaluations of stock market analysts. These may be found at any brokerage site, or from various locations on my LINKS website.

Step 11. Review the dividend payout. Graph the payout over several years. Determine whether the company’s dividend policies are supporting their strategies. For example, if the company is attempting to grow, are they retaining and reinvesting their earnings rather than distributing them to investors through dividends? Based on your research into the industry, are you convinced that the company has sufficient opportunities for profitable reinvestment and growth, or should they be distributing more to the owners in the form of dividends? Viewed another way, can you learn anything about their long-term strategies from the way they pay dividends?

Step 12. Review all of the data that you have generated. You will probably find that there is a mix of positive and negative results. Answer the following question:

“Based on everything I know about this company and its strategies, the industry and the competitors, and the external factors that will influence the company in the future, do I think this company is worth investing in for the long term?”

A popular way to analyze the financial statements is by computing ratios. A ratio is a relationship between two numbers, e.g. ratio of A: B = 1.5:1 ==> A is 1.5 times B. A ratio by itself may have no meaning. Hence, a given ratio is compared to:

Ratios from previous years for internal trends

Ratios of other firms in the same industry for external trends.

Ratio analysis is a diagnostic tool that helps to identify problem areas and opportunities within a company. , we will discuss how to measure and interpret some key ratios.

The most frequently used ratios by Financial Analysts provide insights into a firm's

Liquidity
Degree of financial leverage or debt
Profitability
Efficiency
Value

A. Analyzing Liquidity

Liquid assets are those that can be converted into cash quickly. The short-term liquidity ratios show the firm’s ability to meet its short-term obligations. Thus a higher ratio (#1 and #2) would indicate a greater liquidity and lower risk for short-term lenders. The Rules of Thumb for acceptable values are: Current Ratio (2:1), Quick Ratio (1:1).

While high liquidity means that the company will not default on its short-term obligations, one should keep in mind that by retaining assets as cash, valuable investment opportunities may be lost. Obviously, cash by itself does not generate any return. Only if it is invested will we get future return.

1. Current Ratio = Total Current Assets / Total Current Liabilities

2. Quick Ratio = (Total Current Assets - Inventories) / Total Current Liabilities

In the quick ratio, we subtract inventories from total current assets, since they are the least liquid among the current assets

B. Analyzing Debt

Debt ratios show the extent to which a firm is relying on debt to finance its investments and operations, and how well it can manage the debt obligation, i.e. repayment of principal and periodic interest. If the company is unable to pay its debt, it will be forced into bankruptcy. On the positive side, use of debt is beneficial as it provides tax benefits to the firm, and allows it to exploit business opportunities and grow.

Note that total debt includes short-term debt (bank advances + the current portion of long-term debt) and long-term debt (bonds, leases, notes payable).

1. Leverage Ratios

1a. Debt to Equity Ratio = Total Debt / Total Equity

This shows the firm’s degree of leverage, or its reliance on external debt for financing.

1b. Debt to Assets Ratio = Total Debt / Total assets

Some analysts prefer to use this ratio, which also shows the company’s reliance on external sources for financing its assets.

In general, with either of the above ratios, the lower the ratio, the more conservative (and probably safer) the company is. However, if a company is not using debt, it may be foregoing investment and growth opportunities. This is a question that can be answered only by further company and industry research.

A frequently cited rule of thumb for manufacturing and other non-financial industries is that companies not finance more than 50% of their capital through external debt.

2. Interest Coverage (or Times Interest Earned) Ratio = Earnings Before Interest and Taxes / Annual Interest Expense

This shows the firm’s ability to cover fixed interest charges (on both short-term and long-term debt) with current earnings. The margin of safety that is acceptable varies within and across industries, and also depends on the earnings history of a firm (especially the consistency of earnings from period to period and year to year).

3. Cash Flow Coverage = Net Cash Flow / Annual Interest Expense

Net cash flow = Net Income +/- non-cash items (e.g. -equity income + minority interest in earnings of subsidiary + deferred income taxes + depreciation + depletion + amortization expenses)

Since depreciation is usually the largest non-cash item in most companies, analysts often approximate Net cash flow as being equivalent to Net Income + Depreciation.

Cash flow is a “critical variable” in assessing a company. If a company is showing strong profits but has poor cash flow, you should investigate further before passing a favorable opinion on the company. nalysts prefer ratio #3 to ratio #2.

C. Analyzing Profitability

Profitability is a relative term. It is hard to say what percentage of profits represents a profitable firm, as profits depend on such factors as the position of the company and its products on the competitive life cycle (for example profits will be lower in the initial years when investment is high), on competitive conditions in the industry, and on borrowing costs.

For decision-making, we are concerned only with the present value of expected future profits. Past or current profits are important only as they help us to identify likely future profits, by identifying historical and forecasted trends of profits and sales.

We want to know whether profits are generally on the rise; whether sales stable or rising; how the profits compare to the industry average; whether the market share of the company is rising, stable or falling; and other things that indicate the likely future profitability of the firm.

1. Net Profit Margin = Profit after taxes / Sales

2. Return on Assets (ROA) = Profit after taxes / Total Assets

3. Return on Equity (ROE) = Profit after taxes / Shareholders’ Equity (book value)

4. Earnings per Common share (EPS) = (Profits after taxes - Preferred Dividend) / (# of common shares outstanding)

5. Payout Ratio = Cash Dividends / Net Income

Note: The terms profits, earnings and net income are often used interchangeably in financial statements. Be sure to review the statements to understand their components.

D. Analyzing Efficiency

These ratios reflect how well the firm’s assets are being managed.

The inventory ratios shows how fast the inventory is being produced and sold.

1. Inventory Turnover = Cost of Goods Sold / Average Inventory

This ratio shows how quickly the inventory is being turned over (or sold) to generate sales. A higher ratio implies the firm is more efficient in managing inventories by minimizing the investment in inventories. Thus a ratio of 12 would mean that the inventory turns over 12 times, or the average inventory is sold in a month.

2. Total Assets Turnover = Sales / Average Total Assets

This ratio shows how much sales the firm is generating for every dollar of investment in assets. The higher the ratio, the better the firm is performing.

3. Accounts Receivable Turnover = Annual Credit Sales / Average Receivables

4. Average Collection period = Average Accounts Receivable / (Total Sales / 365)

Ratios #3 and #4 show the firm’s efficiency in collecting cash from its credit sales. While a low ratio is good, it could also mean that the firm is being very strict in its credit policy, which may not attract customers.

5. Days in Inventory = Days in a year / Inventory turnover

Ratio #5 is referred to as the “shelf-life” i.e. how quickly the manufactured product is sold off the shelf. Thus #5 and #1 are related.

E. Value Ratios

Value ratios show the “embedded value” in stocks, and are used by investors as a screening device before making investments.

For example, a high P/E ratio may be regarded by some as being a sign of “over pricing”. When the markets are bullish (optimistic) or if investor sentiment is optimistic about a particular stock, the P/E ratio will tend to be high. For example, in the late 1990s Internet stocks tended to have extremely high P/E ratios, despite their lack of profits, reflecting investors' optimism about the future prospects of these companies. Of course, the burst of the bubble showed that such confidence was misplaced.

On the other hand, a low P/E ratio may show that the company has a poor track record. On the other hand, it may simply be priced too low based on its potential earnings. Further investigation is required to determine whether the company would then provide a good investment opportunity.

1. Price To Earnings Ratio (P/E) = Current Market Price Per Share / After-tax Earnings Per Share

2. Dividend Yield = Annual Dividends Per Share / Current Market Price Per Share

F. Uses and Limitations of Ratio analysis

Uses

1. To evaluate performance, compared to previous years and to competitors and the industry

2. To set benchmarks or standards for performance

3. To highlight areas that need to be improved, or areas that offer the most promising future potential

4. To enable external parties, such as investors or lenders, to assess the creditworthiness and profitability of the firm

Limitations

1. There is considerable subjectivity involved, as there is no “correct” number for the various ratios. Further, it is hard to reach a definite conclusion when some of the ratios are favorable and some are unfavorable.

2. Ratios may not be strictly comparable for different firms due to a variety of factors such as different accounting practices or different fiscal year periods. Furthermore, if a firm is engaged in diverse product lines, it may be difficult to identify the industry category to which the firm belongs. Also, just because a specific ratio is better than the average does not necessarily mean that the company is doing well; it is quite possible rest of the industry is doing very poorly.

3. Ratios are based on financial statements that reflect the past and not the future. Unless the ratios are stable, it may be difficult to make reasonable projections about future trends. Furthermore, financial statements such as the balance sheet indicate the picture at “one point” in time, and thus may not be representative of longer periods.

4. Financial statements provide an assessment of the costs and not value. For example, fixed assets are usually shown on the balance sheet as the cost of the assets less their accumulated depreciation, which may not reflect the actual current market value of those assets.

5. Financial statements do not include all items. For example, it is hard to put a value on human capital (such as management expertise). And recent accounting scandals have brought light to the extent of financing that may occur off the balance sheet.

6. Accounting standards and practices vary among countries, and thus hamper meaningful global comparisons.

This outline discusses how the myriad of information presented in the financial statements is used to facilitate decision making by the managers, investors, regulators, competitors, banks, and other interested groups. The analysis is performed chiefly by summarizing the financial statement information into ratios. The outline will assist you in getting a general understanding of the financial statements and identifying some of the key ratios.

CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. Annual Reports and Financial Statements

3. What you Need to Know About Financial Statements?

4. Financial Ratio Analysis

5. Uses and Limitations of Ratio Analysis

1. Introduction

Financial statement analysis involves analyzing the firm’s financial statements to extract information that can facilitate decision-making. For example, an analysis of the financial statement can reveal whether the firm will be able to meet its long-term debt commitment, whether the firm is financially distressed, whether the company is using its physical assets efficiently, whether the firm has an optimal financing mix, whether the firm is generating adequate return for its shareholders, whether the firm can sustain its competitive advantage etc; While the information used is historical, the intent is clearly to arrive at recommendations and forecasts for the future rather than provide a “picture of the past”.

The performance of a firm can be assessed by computing key ratios and analyzing: (a) How is the firm performing relative to the industry? (b) How is the firm performing relative to the leading firms in their industry? (c) How does the current year performance compare to the previous year(s)? (d) What are the variables driving the key ratios? (e) What are the linkages among the ratios? (f) What do the ratios reveal about the future prospects of the firm for various stakeholders such as shareholders, bondholders, employees, customers etc.? Merely presenting a series of graphs and figures will be a futile exercise. We need to put the information in a proper context by clearly identifying the purpose of our analysis and identifying the key data driving our analysis.

Financial analysis is performed by both internal management and external groups. Firms would perform such an analysis in order to evaluate their overall current performance, identify problem/opportunity areas, develop budgets and implement strategies for the future. External groups (such as investors, regulators, lenders, suppliers, customers) also perform financial analysis in deciding whether to invest in a particular firm, whether to extend credit etc. There are several rating agencies (such as Moody’s, Standard & Poors) that routinely perform financial analysis of firms in order to arrive at a composite rating.

2. Annual Reports and Financial Statements

The annual reports of companies typically contain: (a) CEO/President’s letter to shareholders (b) Financial statements (c) Other information

(a) CEO/President’s letter summarizing the operations of last year, explanations for good/bad performance, and a discussion on the goals for the immediate and long-term future. It will be a good idea to review the letter to shareholders of some prominent companies. Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway is famous for writing the most insightful letters.

(b) Four Financial Statements

The financial statements (typically published every quarter and annually) are prepared according to GAAP and audited by “independent auditors”. However, as the recent corporate scandals have revealed, there are definitely too many gaps/loopholes in how the GAAP is implemented!!. Nonetheless, financial statements are an invaluable source of information.

B1. Balance Sheet (also known as the Statement of Financial Position): This provides the value of firm’s assets (what the firm owns), liabilities (what the firm owes to outsiders) and equity (what the inside shareholders or owners own) on a particular date. The value of assets will equal the value of liabilities plus owner’s equity (or A = L +E). Items in the balance sheet are listed based on conservative principle i.e. if estimating or in doubt of the actual value, the value of assets is not be overstated and the value of liabilities is not be understated.

What do we see in the balance sheet? Assets: Current assets (ex. cash, marketable securities, accounts receivable, inventory, prepaid expenses) that are more liquid than the long-term/fixed assets (ex. equipment, land), assets that are intangible and yet valuable (ex. goodwill, patents, deferred charges). Liabilities could include current liabilities (ex. bank advances, income tax payable, accounts payable, accrued expenses), deferred income taxes (difference between the tax reported on the income statement and tax reported on the tax return), Minority interest in subsidiary companies (representing outside ownership in subsidiary companies), long-term debt (ex. Bonds, capital leases). Shareholder’s Equity includes Share capital (par or stated value of shares received at the time of original issue), Paid-in-capital (when shares are sold for more than the par or stated value), retained earnings/deficit (undistributed earnings), foreign currency translation adjustment (fluctuation in the value of assets of foreign subsidiaries due to changes in exchange rates). Equity is also expressed as “residual interest” (E=A-L). If E is negative, the firm is technically bankrupt.

Net worth or Book Value refers to what is available to common shareholders and is given by:

Total Assets – Total Liabilities – Preferred Stock = Net Worth

Net worth divided by number of common shares outstanding will give us the book value per share. The market value is equal to the price per share times the number of shares outstanding (also referred to as the market capitalization of a company). We can estimate the intrinsic value of stock by using discounted cash flow models.

All assets (except Land) lose their value over time and this is accounted for through depreciation (for fixed assets), depletion (for natural resources) and amortization (for intangible assets/deferred charges).

Limitations of Balance Sheet: The balance sheet records the values of assets and liabilities in terms of their original cost. This is especially misleading for fixed assets (that could have significantly changed in value). Also, it is difficult to value intangible assets. Current assets are less troublesome, partly because of their short-term nature (inventories and marketable securities are listed at lower of their cost or market values). Liabilities are also not biased (since they are generally contractual, and market values will be equal to their book values; For example, if the company has taken a loan, the dollar amount of loan obligation does not change with time). Also, an analyst should pay close attention to “off-balance sheet items”.

B2. Income Statement (also known as The statement of earnings or profit & loss statement or the statement of operations): The income statement provides information on the various revenue and expense items during a certain period. Thus this statement shows the total income generated in a certain period. Items in the income statement are based on accrual principle i.e. transactions (such as sales) are recognized when they occur and not when actual cash is received. Furthermore, the expenses are matched to when the revenue is recognized and not when the actual payment is made. The above principle makes it obvious that there could be wide discrepancy between a firm’s revenue and actual cash flow.

There are several forms of income statement. An example of a generic form is as follows:

Sales Revenue

- Cost of Good Sold

= Gross Profit

- Selling and Administrative expenses

- Depreciation

= Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT)

- interest expenses (on bank loans and bonds)

+ interest income

= Earnings before Taxes (EBT)

- taxes (current and deferred)

= Earnings after Taxes (EAT)

+ income from subsidiaries (equity income)

+/- Gains/Losses from discontinued operations

+/- Gain/loss on extraordinary items

= Net Earnings

- Preferred Stock Dividends

= Earnings available for common shareholders

Limitations of Income Statement: In finance, the focus is on “valuation” that requires knowledge of expected cash flows rather than historical earnings. Note net income does not equal the actual cash flow. This is because the income statement reports revenue/expenses when they are earned/accrued and not when actual cash is received. Further, several items are subjectively determined (ex. depreciation). Also, depreciation is based on historical cost of the asset. Thus, during periods of inflation, depreciation expense will be understated as it is based on historical cost while the revenues reflect the current market price.... such non-synchronization leads to inflated earnings. Furthermore, a traditional income statement only records transactions and not “opportunities”. As Block, Hirt, and Short (1998, pp. 34) note, “The economist defines income as the change in real worth that occurs between the beginning and the end of a specified time period. To the economist, an increase in the value of a firm’s land as a result of a new airport being built on an adjacent property is an increase in the real worth of the firm. It, therefore, represents income. The accountant does not ordinarily employ such a broad definition of income”.

B3. Statement of Retained Earnings (also known as the Statement of changes in shareholder’s equity, statement of shareholders’ investment or statement of changes in shareholders’ equity): It shows the balance in retained earnings after making adjustments for current profits and current dividend. It also shows information on treasury stock, any new shares issued, the impact of exercised options, preferred stock details and additional paid-in-capital.

B4. Cash Flow Statement: It shows how the company obtained cash and for what purpose they were used. Thus cash balance at the end =

Cash in the beginning

+ Net Cash flow from operating (income statement cash items)

+ Net Cash flow from financing (ex. proceeds from sale of bonds, repayment of loan, payment of dividends)

+ Net Cash flow from investing activities (ex. Sale/purchase of asset).

(c) Other information in the annual report

1. Notes to financial statements[1]

2. The Auditor’s report

3. What You Need to Know About Financial Statements

(Reference: Prentice Hall Publishers; Authors: Unknown, 2003)

As the Enron fiasco has brought to light, there is plenty wrong with the way financial results are reported. Congressional committees will determine how much of Enron’s troubles were due to criminal activity, and how much due to poor judgment and loopholes. But "managing results" is an old game on Wall Street. The pros know how to read between the lines to identify shaky financials. They read the footnotes to the financial statements carefully for clues that will tell them how aggressively the company is pushing to use legal, but misleading GAAP, rules to their limit.

So here is a list of things to look for in financial statements that will tell you as much or more about the company than the actual reported results.

First, Wall Street is not your friend. Making money in a stock market that is trading flat is a zero sum game. For you to profit, someone else must lose. Be skeptical and very careful where you get your investment advice. Question the motives of so-called experts. As of yet, there are no rules ensuring that they disclose their conflicts of interest.

Proforma Earnings Announcements - Many companies now issue Proforma Earnings Statements that exclude certain expense items as being "extraordinary". It is now a normal part of business for many firms, particularly tech firms. The trouble is that there are no standards for reporting Proforma Statements, leaving the door open to manipulating earnings and misleading investors. Outgoing SEC Chief Economist Lynn Turner says pro forma earnings are effectively "EBS" earnings--"Everything but the Bad Stuff." A study that compares the unaudited Proforma Earnings Statements to the NASDAQ 100 companies with the audited statements they filed with the SEC shows a huge $101 billion difference for the first three quarters of 2001.

Frequent Restructuring Charges and Write-Downs - As businesses adjust their internal structure, they incur costs for shutting down one activity and starting another. In a small company, charges for these activities would occur infrequently, but in a large company, they will be routine. If charges and write downs for restructurings occur regularly, the company may be classifying normal business expenses as extraordinary to create the illusion that the core business is more profitable than it really is.

Reserve reversals - Companies generally establish reserves to cover the costs of restructuring. Reserves allow management to "store profits" for later use if the reserves are unusually large. At a later time, they can reverse the reserve for the amount that was not spent and it flows directly to the bottom line.

Pension Funds - are great sources of earnings manipulation. Boost earnings by under funding them or by overestimating the investment return of the fund so that current payments will be lower and profits higher. If the fund does particularly well, pull the excess back into the income statement to boost profits.

Footnotes to Financial Statements - Statements can mislead and evade but they must come clean in the footnotes or face criminal charges. That’s why the pros look here first. You will learn about risk exposure, debt that changes character under certain conditions, the use of aggressive accounting practices and all sorts of other details that management would like to avoid telling you.

Sales/Non-Sales - Look at the revenue and receivable numbers over several years. Is the ratio of receivables to sales increasing? If yes, then the company is shipping goods faster than customers are paying for them. Are deferred revenues dropping? If so, the company is living off last year’s sales. In the current slowdown, customers look to change sales terms to use the supplier’s money as much as possible by acknowledging the sale as late as possible.

Cash Flow is King - The pros know that it is too easy to manipulate earnings numbers. So they focus on cash flow as being a more reliable indicator of performance because the cash is either there or it isn’t. One expert, thinks a comparison of cash flow vs. non-cash revenue could have been an early tip of to Enron investors.

Goodwill - Companies account for the premium over book value that they pay for an acquired company as goodwill. Under the older accounting rules, companies could write down the payment for goodwill with a charge against earnings spread out over decades. First Call estimates that, because of the goodwill accounting change, analyst forecasts for 2002 are about three percentage points too high. As companies restate prior year earnings to account for the change, earnings will shrink.

Employee Stock Options - 78% of companies with sales over $10 billion compensate management with stock options. Yet accounting rules do not require the issuing of the option to be accounted for with an expense. In the wake of Enron, this controversial and questionable rule may be changed. If so, one expert estimates that many large tech companies may see an annual reduction in earnings of 1/3.

Ratio analysis

2009-03-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

In finance, a financial ratio is a ratio of selected values on a enterprise's financial statements. There are many standard ratios used to evaluate the overall financial condition of a corporation ...
In finance, a financial ratio is a ratio of selected values on a enterprise's financial statements. There are many standard ratios used to evaluate the overall financial condition of a corporation or other organization. Financial ratios are used by managers within a firm, by current and potential stockholders (owners) of a firm, and by a firm's creditors. Security analysts use financial ratios to compare the strengths and weaknesses in various companies.

Ratio Analysis

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Ratio Analysis is a form of Financial Statement Analysis that is used to obtain a quick indication of a firm's financial performance in several key areas. The ratios are categorized as Short-term Solvency Ratios, Debt Management Ratios, Asset Management Ratios, Profitability Ratios, and Market Value Ratios.

Ratio Analysis as a tool possesses several important features. The data, which are provided by financial statements, are readily available. The computation of ratios facilitates the comparison of firms which differ in size. Ratios can be used to compare a firm's financial performance with industry averages. In addition, ratios can be used in a form of trend analysis to identify areas where performance has improved or deteriorated over time.

Because Ratio Analysis is based upon Accounting information, its effectiveness is limited by the distortions which arise in financial statements due to such things as Historical Cost Accounting and inflation. Therefore, Ratio Analysis should only be used as a first step in financial analysis, to obtain a quick indication of a firm's performance and to identify areas which need to be investigated further.

The pages below present the most widely used ratios in each of the categories given above. Please keep in mind that there is not universal agreement as to how many of these ratios should be calculated. You may find that different books use slightly different formulas for the computation of many ratios. Therefore, if you are comparing a ratio that you calculated with a published ratio or an industry average, make sure that you use the same formula as used in the calculation of the published ratio.

Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE)
The Return on Assets Ratio indicates the dollars in income earned by the firm on its assets and the Return on Equity Ratio indicates the dollars of income earned by the firm on its shareholders' equity. It is important to remember that these ratios are based on Accounting book values and not on market values. Thus, it is not appropriate to compare these ratios with market rates of return such as the interest rate on Treasury bonds or the return earned on an investment in a stock.

Example Problems:

Use the information below to calculate the Profit Margin, Return on Assets (ROA),
and Return on Equity (ROE).
Sales: $
Net Income: $
Total Assets: $
Total Owners' Equity: $
Profit Margin: %
Return on Assets: %
Return on Equity: %

Introduction to Managerial Accounting

2009-03-10T07:53:00.000-07:00

Course Description:
This course covers managerial accounting and how to study cost accounting information in order to help management do its job more effectively in the areas of planning, control, motivation, communication, evaluation of performance and decision making. Accordingly, selected topics such as traditional and activity-based costing, standard costing, relevant costing, variable costing, cost-volume-profit analysis, short- and long-term budgeting, alternative decisions, performance measurement, responsibility accounting and transfer-pricing are covered through lectures and homework assignments.

Career education

2009-03-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

You may have gone to high school cause you had to. At Everest, you're here because you want to be. You're here for career training and to get on with your life. It's a decision that deserves respect. Programs offered: Accounting, Business, Criminal Justice, Dental Assisting, Massage Therapy, Medical Administrative Assistant, Medical Assisting, Medical Insurance Billing and Coding, Nursing, and Pharmacy Technician.

Let us offer you our warmest welcome to the Career Education website. Our mission is to help career builders like you to improve their careers or to find career advice in order to implement a deep career change. Whether you’re at the start of your career or you have already achieved a middle or even a relatively high level, improving your career is certainly a legitimate concern which needs to be addressed carefully.

Education has always been the basic tool to shape a career, but things have changed in the past few decades as the developed world has undergone a thorough revolution based upon information and knowledge. Our grandparents and even our parents lived in a much more static career environment where the very concept find career advice was almost unthought of. A specialist telling them what they should and shouldn’t do about their jobs, and urging them to acquire newer knowledge and skills after youth would have been taken as a sort of charlatan. Our parents and their parents would study at youth and seldom acquire any further knowledge (other than by working). Career training was not an option after ordinary education. Only medical doctors and a few other professions would be keen on recycling. Companies rarely provided any internal education other than the mere training to use a certain machine or tool. People didn’t feel they actually needed to learn anything more than they already know, or at least they didn’t think it mattered in terms of keeping their jobs or making progress in their careers. In this website we help you find the perfect degree program for you and we provide with FREE information on colleges near you!

Nowadays, continuous career training and career education is no longer a plus but a need if you wish to progress in your career. Many executives who have failed to take care of their career education realize too late that they have failed as career builders: they haven’t “updated themselves, for example, many executives and employees understimate the need to keep themselves up-to-date on IT training. IT is necessary nowdays and a path to success. In the best scenario it becomes hard for them to reach any further in their careers. In the worst cases, unless they get proper career advice they may go backwards because other people, including current subordinates, will manage their careers better through the permanent acquisition of knowledge and skills by means of career training, presential or online master’s degrees and other ways of career education.

As you will find out in these pages, Career Education is a broad concept, and one that is subject to permanent evolution and rethinking as the information society develops and reshapes our whole way of life. From joining Career Training to Career Counseling, or evening university studies or even an online degree program to improving your skills via short courses or self-learning, there are many ways in which career builders can attain their career education goals. Career coaching will also help you along the way as you will find the necessary advice to start your career as an employee or a freelance career.

From this career education homepage we would like to introduce some of the main issues we are going to tackle:

Career Builder.

Our age has seen the development of skilled professionals into career builders. This section will specifically address this matter and provide related information and resources: at about career education we offer you a variety of career guidebooks and MBA career guides.

Career-driven Education.

On this section we shall be providing post-university studies and other further studies, as well as a resource directory to find most of the top providers of such studies. This well help you to make a preliminary decision on a shortlist of universities and other educational careers institutions to contact for further information.

The Pro-active Career Approach.

This chapter will allow us to provide you with a new focus on your career. A career-aware attitude and decision-making will help you to target any short term project and to consider every small step in the light of your global career goals. This section includes information on sabbatical and other career breaks for further study or other ways to achieve further knowledge and skills.

Test your career.

How many of us actually take some time to test our careers? And yet, this is a most necessary part of any career builder’s long-term planning. You need to know what kind of individual you are regarding your career, and then you need to see where you have reached and which steering may be necessary. You may need to fully reconsider your career and take a radical turn, or you may be on the right path. Testing is therefore essential.

Career Education Counseling.

These are the people who can assist you to test your career and to take important decisions about it. Career counseling and coaching has become an important help to any career builder.

Jobs and Career Options.

Every particular kind of work requires a specific type of individual (in terms of his or her career orientation). The options you have will be determined in part by the work type you target.

Career Education: Foreign Languages.

Even if your native language is English, foreign languages have become extraordinarily important in this globalized economy. See how they can help your career.

Career Resources.

Whenever you make a big career decision, these resources need to be at hand. It is important for you to manage them properly. Find information on career tests, career advice, career fairs, and career jobs.

Career Education: improve your skills.

On this part of our website we shall be presenting a complete set of personal skills that are necessary to any career builder. Two persons with the same studies and employment story may reach completely different career levels depending on many of theses skills, so we consider them extremely important.

Classes in accounting, business administration and more

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Everest campuses offer flexible programs to fit your lifestyle. Our schools offer classes in accounting, business administration, criminal justice, dental assisting, medical assisting, massage therapy and much more. When you're ready to learn more about our diploma and degree programs, complete our easy contact form. We'll provide you the education and hands-on training you need to start a new career. Programs offered: Accounting, Business, Criminal Justice, Dental Assisting, Massage Therapy, Medical Administrative Assistant, Medical Assisting, Medical Insurance Billing and Coding, Nursing, and Pharmacy Technician.

Starting a New Business - Part 2, Develop a Business Plan

2009-03-05T02:32:00.000-08:00

If you have reached the point in your career where you are seriously considering starting your own CPA practice, the following information and checklist is presented to help you plan and launch your new venture. Success, of course, is up to you and the effort and creativity you put into building your business. But following the blueprint that others have followed in establishing their own business can help you clearly define your objectives, assess your needs, and avoid many pitfalls along the way.

.Self-Assessment
.Developing a Business Plan
.Financial Considerations
.Start up and Operating Costs
.Cash Management
.Borrowing Money
.Legal Considerations
.Insurance Considerations
.Marketing
.Additional Information
.Summary/Checklist
Disclaimer: The following narrative is provided simply to point out some of the issues and concerns attached to any of the Life Events, and it is not intended to be dispositive of all of the issues or concerns possibly confronting individuals dealing with such Starting Your Own CPA Firm. Any individuals wanting or needing additional information should contact the appropriate professional, whether an attorney, a financial planner, a retirement planner, etc., to receive such information and guidance.

Self-Assessment:
Do you have what it takes?

Before you announce to the world that you are now self-employed, it is wise to ask yourself some very serious questions.

.Why do you want to start a practice?
.Do you have the motivation and personality to start and manage a business?
.Does your spouse and family support your decision?
.Does your employer know of your intentions and will there be support or interference in your plan?
.Do you have the financial means to weather a start up period?
Being your own boss sounds like the American dream. But the reality is hard work, low pay and many, many hours building a business from scratch. The time commitment alone will change many of your familiar routines and the cash flow of a start up venture will strain your budget and change spending patterns for you and your family for many months or even years. But once you've weathered your start up phase and your business is established, the rewards can't be beat.

There are several ways to put yourself in business.

Consider:

Buying a practice. An established CPA may be ready to retire or move onto other opportunities. Buying an existing practice has the advantage of an established client list and assets, but the cost may be prohibitive.

Finding a partner. With another CPA, you can share the start up expenses. Of course, you'll also share the revenue as well. And all decisions will require agreement or compromise.

Starting from scratch. You call the shots. You handle all expenses. And of course, you reap all profits.

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Developing a Business Plan:

Step number one in launching a new business is to develop a written business plan. The business plan is an outline of all aspects of your anticipated practice. It captures all your thoughts in a logical, detailed presentation that not only acts as your guide but also tells others what your business is all about. A solid business plan is critical if and when you seek funding for your venture.

Your business plan should:

.Outline the goals of your business
.Identify the structure of your business (sole proprietor, partnership, .Corporation, Corporation, or Limited Liability Company)
.Describe your experience and skills
.Describe the services you will provide and competitive advantages you foresee
.Identify your market and client potential
.Outline pricing of your services
.Explain management and staffing
.Outline equipment and office requirements
.Estimate start up costs
.Estimate monthly operating costs
.Estimate projected revenue
.Define the source of start up and operating capital

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Financial Considerations:

Before opening your practice, it is critical to review your personal financial situation, your income needs and your cash flow projections. Even if you have a paying customer lined up from day one of opening your practice, consider the fact that it may be several months before you actually receive payment for your services.

Do you have the cash on hand to pay your ongoing household expenses plus the start up and operating expenses of a new business? If you are leaving an employed position, what impact will the loss of a paycheck have on your financial obligations and your family's lifestyle? Aside from savings and equity you hold, what other sources of income can you rely on? Can your spouse provide adequate income to handle the day to day household bills? Do you have a severance package from your employer to help get you started? Can you rely on family and friends for financial assistance? Do you need to borrow money from a bank or commercial lender? Do you have a solid credit history? Are you heavily in debt? Will you qualify for a business loan?

Consider:

.Current assets (cash, liquid equity, line of credit availability, other income)
.Household budget
.Current personal debt and payment schedule
.Estimated start up costs (office furnishings, equipment, etc.)
.Estimated operating costs (rent, utilities, salaries)
.Estimated revenue
.Estimated break-even point

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Start Up and Operating Costs:

The cost of starting a CPA practice depends on many variable factors. Your geographic location will determine the cost of renting office space. You might consider starting with a home office and then growing into larger quarters. You may already have some equipment or computers that you can use to get started, or you may need to purchase or lease complete furnishings and equipment. Here are the basic elements you'll need:

Office Space:

The Home Office:

Many start up businesses begin as home offices. Although the home office offers many cost savings, it may or may not be right for you. Do you have adequate space to devote solely to your business? Is it quiet and away from family noise and traffic? Do you feel comfortable bringing clients into your office? If you anticipate employees, is your family comfortable with this? Do local zoning requirements allow for a business in your home and what restrictions are there on employees, client visits, parking, deliveries, signage?

The Commercial Office:

Renting space in a commercial office building may better fit your business requirements. Rent and lease conditions vary considerably, so it is best to shop around before settling on a location. Before signing a lease agreement, be aware of the long term commitment and cash requirements. If your business grows rapidly, is there space to expand? Conversely, if your business does not take off, are you locked into a commitment of many years? Does the office meet realistic financial considerations, does it convey a positive image to clients, and does it offer flexibility based on your actual performance?

The Shared Office:
Many businesses today are using the shared space concept. Within a commercial building, you rent private office space but also use a shared reception area and staff, shared conference facilities, copy machines and phone systems, as well as rest rooms and coffee or lunch areas. This arrangement offers the image and amenities of a large office at shared costs with others.

Equipment

Once your office space is procured, you'll need to furnish and equip yourself for business.

Basics include:

.Desks and chairs
.Lamps
.Bookcases
.File cabinets
.Visitor chairs
.Worktable or conference table and chairs
.Secretary or receptionist desk and chair
.Computer(s) and stand(s)
.Computer printer
.Software
.Fax machine
.Telephone(s) and answering machine or service
.Supplies
.Reference library

Staffing

Determining staffing is one of the most critical elements in starting your business. Can you handle all aspects of the business yourself? Is it the best use of your time to be answering phones, scheduling appointments, sending correspondence and handling general office duties, as well as professional services? If you do hire, be sure to identify specific job duties before you bring someone on board.

In planning for staff costs, consider that you must offer a competitive salary and benefits package to attract and retain quality staff.

You may want to consider part-time or temporary office staff until your practice is established and you can comfortably meet expenses. Once your cash flow reaches the stage where you can meet your operating costs and your personal income requirements, consider the expense of salary and benefits to full-time employees.

Cash Management

Develop a monthly budget. Include rent, utility costs (if not included in rent payment), telephone, email or online service, cleaning and trash services, parking (if not provided), supplies, and postage.

Establish a business checking account with your bank. Do not use your personal checking account for business expenses.

Consider whether you have sufficient personal capital available for your start up period or if you need to borrow money.

Borrowing Money

If you do not have sufficient capital of your own to cover start up costs and at least the first six months of operating costs, you may need to borrow the money to get started. There are several options to consider.

You may start with your own personal credit availability. A loan against your home equity may be sufficient to get started. Family or friends may be willing to loan you money to get off the ground. Or consider establishing a business line of credit with your bank. This can provide the money you need, as you need it, without borrowing a fixed lump sum.

If these sources do not provide all capital you need, apply for a business loan through your bank. Keep in mind that before you'll qualify for a loan, you must be able to put up a percentage of your own capital against the loan amount. Your home and other assets may be needed as loan collateral. Before you approach a commercial lender make sure you:

Have a solid, realistic business plan developed.
Itemize specific expenses you anticipate.
Apply for only the amount you can account for; a bank will not lend for unexplained purposes, without specific itemized needs shown.
Outline your repayment abilities.

Legal Considerations

Before you open for business, be sure to check local, county, and state business requirements and certification. You may want to engage an attorney to assure your compliance with all local requirements and to handle the formal establishment of your business as a legal entity.

Insurance Considerations

Before you begin your first engagement or open your doors to the public, it is important to address your total insurance requirements.

If you are leaving an employed position, you will most likely lose all insurance coverage provided by your employer. You will need to address personal health insurance coverage for you and your family.

As a professional today, Professional Liability insurance is critical. Lawsuits are a fact of life in the business and professional world. You must protect your practice and your personal assets against legal liability resulting from errors or omissions in providing professional services. If and when your practice has employees, Employment Practice Liability insurance protects you against charges of discrimination in hiring, wrongful termination, and other workplace liabilities. And as a benefit to employees you may want to offer Group Life Insurance.

Commercial Property and Liability - Business Owner's Policies (BOP) combining property and general liability coverages are available to meet the diverse and growing needs of small to medium-sized firms. Worker's Compensation coverage is offered to you at low rates. Other coverages include commercial liability umbrella and commercial auto.

Professional Liability- Plans which provide comprehensive coverage tailored to meet the diverse needs of CPA firms of all sizes and areas of practice.

Employment Practices Liability- A wide range of services to help firms understand and comply with the rapidly expanding arena of employment law.

Group Life Insurance for Firms- Term life insurance for owner and employees.

Marketing

There are two aspects to marketing your services that need to be considered at the outset of your business planning:

Defining your service
Reaching prospective clients
Your marketing plan needs to define the kind of accounting services you will provide. Do you have sufficient experience to provide many areas of service or are you more narrowly focused? Will you serve private individuals, businesses, or both? Can your local area support your business or is it already crowded with other firms? Is there a niche that you can fill that your competitors are not serving? Knowing the needs of your prospective marketplace is critical to success.

Once you've determined your services, you need to communicate with your prospects. Get business cards printed as soon as you determine your office location and phone number. Get listed in the yellow pages of your local phone directory. Since phone books may only be printed annually, it is important to know when the next book is printed and get your information out on time. You may want to consider an announcement ad in your local newspaper, or a mailing to a compiled prospect list. Networking also plays a critical role in marketing, particularly professional services. Pass the word to family, friends, and business associates about your service and ask that they tell others.

Consider joining your local Chamber of Commerce or other business associations. This provides networking opportunities and many times marketing support as well. Contacting clients that you served while in the employment of others can be precarious. Be sure to use discretion as this may alert your employer to your self-employment intentions, negatively impacting your planning and financial set-up stages. There could also be legal implications. It is better to hint at your intentions and let the client follow you rather than make a solicitation.

Finally, once you have identified your services and market, you need to establish a pricing schedule. This is often the most difficult aspect of running a business. Your price must be competitive with other CPAs, low enough to attract new clients yet not so low as to undercut your revenue requirements.

Motivation at Work - how to increase workplace motivation

2009-03-05T02:18:00.000-08:00

Motivation at work. People don't get passionate about shareholder value or business profits or excel spreadsheets. They get passionate and motivated about challenge, g...
http://www.globalchange.com Motivation at work. People don't get passionate about shareholder value or business profits or excel spreadsheets. They get passionate and motivated about challenge, great teams, vision, important goals, having fun, about family and friends, about the community and world they live in. How to make things happen in Business. Connect with passion, keys to motivation, leadership and change management in business. Managing uncertainty with rapid change. Leadership styles. Why people get out of bed in the morning. How to motivate teams at work to do great things. Business management. Secret of leadership and ultimate leadership speech. Business ethics and values in corporations. Secrets of business success and increased productivity. Cutting costs. Increasing output. Adding shareholder value. Sustainable business success. Work life balance and lessons from non profits / volunteering. Why building a better world is such a powerful motivation. Lecture by Dr Patrick Dixon for MTN, author of Building a Better Business, Futurewise and conference speaker.Motivation at work. Leadership. Leadership purpose, aims, strategy and objectives. Profits and profitability. Motivation to succeed and secrets of business success. Productivity and efficiency key. Workplace morale. Team dynamics and leadership styles. Business mission and vision. Business values and office culture. Connect with passion and you will motivate teams to change organisation, business and world. Work-life balance, family, children. Conference keynote speaker and Futurist Dr Patrick Dixon. Business productivity and motivating teams. Team leadership, targets, bottom line profit, increasing shareholder value. CEO speeches, annual general meetings. Publicly listed corporations. Attracting talent, retaining talent, winning the war for talent. Human resources and making a difference. Why workplace motivation depends on corporate vision, workplace passion and clear purpose. Connectedness and engagement at work. Business priorities, strategy and objectives must connect with individual passion - key to business success.

How to Write a Business Plan

2009-02-02T02:15:00.000-08:00

What is a Business Plan?
Why prepare a business plan?
What to avoid in your business plan

Business Plan Format
Vision statement
The people
Business profile
Economic assessment

Six Steps to a Great Business Plan:

Basic business concept
Feasibility and specifics
Focus and refine concept
Outline the specifics of your business
Put your plan into a compelling form
Review sample plans

Does Your Plan Include the Following Necessary Factors:

A sound business concept
Understanding your market
Healthy, growing and stable industry
Capable management
Able financial control
Consistent business focus
Mindset to anticipate change
Plans for online business

Formulate (and Reformulate) Your Business Plan:

Top Ten Do's and Don'ts

Sound Byte Transcriptions

Sample Business Plans

Session 1 and 2 Business Plans

Session Feedback

What Is A Business Plan?

Read Transcript The primary value of your business plan will be to create a written outline that evaluates all aspects of the economic viability of your business venture including a description and analysis of your business prospects.

Since the My Own Business, Inc. course is broken down into 14 of the most important topics to consider in starting or operating a business, your business plan can easily be organized into this same format. Included in this session, and in each of the following sessions, there is one-page business plan template, which you can fill in and print. (Session 2 contains templates for both Sessions 1 and 2.) When you put these all together, you will have completed your personalized, overall plan.

We suggest that you fill in each section of the business plan, found at the end of each session, as you proceed through the course.
Each of the 14 Business Plan Sections can be downloaded from our Web site and provide you with a single, attractively presented document. To begin, let's take a preview look at each of the 14 Business Plan Sections:

Why Prepare A Business Plan?

Read Transcript:

Your business plan is going to be useful in a number of ways

First and foremost, it will define and focus your objective using appropriate information and analysis.

You can use it as a selling tool in dealing with important relationships including your lenders, investors and banks.

Your business plan can uncover omissions and/or weaknesses in your planning process.

You can use the plan to solicit opinions and advice from people, including those in your intended field of business, who will freely give you invaluable advice. Too often, entrepreneurs forge ahead ("My Way!") without the benefit of input from experts who could save them a great deal of wear and tear. "My Way" is a great song, but in practice can result in unnecessary hardships.
To help get started in lining up appointments, you can fill in and use the following template. We have also provided a larger blank template for you to use at the end of this session.
Names include your investors, family members, banker, lawyer, attorney, business mentors, trusted business friends, potential customers, competitors (distant ones), potential landlords, and the U.S. Small Business Administration.

What to Avoid in Your Business Plan:

Place some reasonable limits on long-term, future projections. (Long-term means over one year.) Better to stick with short-term objectives and modify the plan as your business progresses. Too often, long-range planning becomes meaningless because the reality of your business can be different from your initial concept.

Avoid optimism. In fact, to offset optimism, be extremely conservative in predicting capital requirements, timelines, sales and profits. Few business plans correctly anticipate how much money and time will be required.

Do not ignore spelling out what your strategies will be in the event of business adversities.

Use simple language in explaining the issues. Make it easy to read and understand.

Don't depend entirely on the uniqueness of your business or even a patented invention. Success comes to those who start businesses with great economics and not
necessarily.

Business Plan Format:

Read Transcript:

The Business Plan format is a systematic assessment of all the factors critical to your business purpose and goals.

Here are some suggested topics you can tailor into your plan:

A Vision Statement: This will be a concise outline of your business purpose and goals.

The People: By far, the most important ingredient for your success will be yourself. Focus on how your prior experiences will be applicable to your new business. Prepare a résumé of yourself and one for each person who will be involved with you in starting the business. Be factual and avoid hype. This part of your Business Plan will be read very carefully by those with whom you will be having relationships, including lenders, investors and vendors. Templates for preparing résumés are available in your library, Kinko's, bookstores and the Internet under "résumés."

However, you cannot be someone who you are not. If you lack the ability to perform a key function, include this in your business plan. For example, if you lack the ability to train staff, include an explanation how you will compensate for this deficiency. You could add a partner to your plan (discussed in Section 4) or plan to hire key people who will provide skills you don't have. Include biographies of all your intended management.

Mari Lohr
Graphic Artist
"Being in business for yourself is not for everyone."
Read
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Your Business Profile: Define and describe your intended business and exactly how you plan to go about it. Try to stay focused on the specialized market you intend to serve.

Economic Assessment: Provide a complete assessment of the economic environment in which your business will become a part. Explain how your business will be appropriate for the regulatory agencies and demographics with which you will be dealing. If appropriate, provide demographic studies and traffic flow data normally available from local planning departments.

Cash flow assessment: Include a one-year cash flow that will incorporate your capital requirements (covered in Session 8). Include your assessment of what could go wrong and how you would plan to handle problems.

Include your marketing plan and expansion plans.

Free Business Plan Templates

2009-02-02T02:01:00.000-08:00

Each business specific business plan template is fully geared towards the specific business type. The business type has been thoroughly researched and relevant details are inserted wherever appropriate. The product mix has been entered (providing ideas about possible revenues), many paragraphs have been made targeted to the business type, market specific details have been entered if available, the personnel chart has been optimized, and so forth.

Business specific business plan templates:

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Plan Magic Business:

The generic yet business specific business plan program. See an overview of possible uses.

Products business plan template - generic
Services business plan template - generic
Accountant business plan
Advertising agency business plan
Bank business plan
Business consultant business plan
Call center business plan
Casino business plan
Cleaning service business plan
Consultant business plan - generic
Day care center business plan
Debt collection (agency) business plan
Dental clinic business plan NEW
Employment agency business plan NEW
Equipment leasing business plan
Farm business plan template
Insurance agency business plan
Lease company business plan
Management consultant business plan - generic
Marketing consultant business plan - generic
Manufacturer business plan - generic
Medical clinic business plan - generic
Non profit business plan
Real estate agent business plan
Record company business plan
Vehicle leasing business plan
Veterinary clinic business plan
Video production service business plan

PlanMagic Retail 10.0

The retail store business specific business plan program.

Retail (store) business plan template - generic
Beauty salon business plan
Bowling center business plan
Car dealer business plan NEW
Car rental business plan
Car wash business plan
Coffee shop business plan
Fitness center business plan
Garden center business plan
Health spa business plan
Pharmacy business plan
Pizza delivery business plan
Supermarket business plan
Travel agency business plan
Vehicle rental business plan
Video rental store business plan

PlanMagic Construction

Specialized planning software for general contractors, specialty contractors, and subcontractors.

Construction business plan, Contractor business plan. Use the construction template for: Airconditioning contractor business plan, Electrical contractor business plan, Flooring contractor business plan, Heating contractor business plan, Roofing contractor business plan, Utility contractor business plan, Plumbing contractor business plan, Solar energy contractor business plan, and more..

PlanMagic Hotel

Hotels with amenities (room service, laundry, biz center, etc.)

Hotel business plan

PlanMagic Resort

Resorts with accommodation, amenities and profit centers (disco, casino, gift shop, etc.)

Resort business plan. Use the resort template for: Beach resort business plan, Golf resort business plan, Ski resort business plan, Spa resort business plan, Resort hotel business plan

PlanMagic Bed & Breakfast

Hotel, motel, inn, lodge, bnb without amenities or profit centers. Just rooms and optional breakfast.

Bed and Breakfast business plan. Use the bed and breakfast template for: Guesthouse business plan, Inn business plan, Lodge business plan, Motel business plan

PlanMagic Restaurant

Full-service restaurant with bar, catering and takeaway options.

Restaurant business plan. Use the restaurant template for: Bistro business plan, Pizzeria business plan, Catering business plan, Take-away restaurant business plan

PlanMagic Coffee Bar

Coffee bar, cafe, cafeteria, tea house, coffee shop, sports bar, juice bar, with/without a terrace.

Coffee bar coffeeshop business plan

PlanMagic Bar

Bar, pub, cafe, club with/without a terrace.

Bar business plan, Cafe business plan, Pub business plan

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Business plan templates under construction:

Computer repair business plan template

Generic business plan templates:

If your specific business is not listed here, find out which plan template (PlanMagic Business) is best used for your business: click here to see the list of available business plan templates and their possible application.

Note: PlanMagic Business plan templates are only available with PlanMagic Business

Develop your Business Plan

2009-02-02T01:45:00.000-08:00

As I write here about business plan outlines, please remember that your plan should be only as big as what you need to run your business. While everybody should have planning to help run a business, not everyone needs to develop a complete formal business plan suitable for submitting to a potential investor, or bank, or venture contest. So don’t include outline points just because they are on a big list somewhere, or on this list, unless you’re developing a standard business plan that you’ll be showing to somebody else who expects a standard business plan.

I’ve done a lot of work on this idea lately, resulting in my new “Plan As You Go” business planning, which is a now a book published by Entrepreneur Press, available through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Borders, and bundled as an eBook with Business Plan Pro. I’ve also added a short video here to the right, illustrating how the outline could be simpler with a new approach.

However, if you do need a standard plan, so the plan-as-you-go approach doesn’t help you, then there are predictable contents of a standard business plan outline. For example, a business plan normally starts with an Executive Summary, which should be concise and interesting. People almost always expect to see sections covering the Company, the Market, the Product, the Management Team, Strategy, Implementation and Financial Analysis. The precise business plan format can vary.

If you have the main components, the order doesn’t matter that much, but here’s the order outline I suggest for a business plan.

Simple Business Plan Outline:

1.Executive Summary: Write this last. It’s just a page or two of highlights.

2.Company Description: Legal establishment, history, start-up plans, etc.

3.Product or Service: Describe what you’re selling. Focus on customer benefits.

4.Market Analysis: You need to know your market, customer needs, where they are, how to reach them, etc.

5.Strategy and Implementation: Be specific. Include management responsibilities with dates and budgets. Make sure you can track results.

6.Web Plan Summary: For e-commerce, include discussion of website, development costs, operations, sales and marketing strategies.

7.Management Team: Describe the organization and the key management team members.

8.Financial Analysis: Make sure to include at the very least your projected Profit and Loss and Cash Flow tables.

don’t recommend developing the plan in the same order you present it as a finished document. For example, although the Executive Summary obviously comes as the first section of a business plan, I recommend writing it after everything else is done. It will appear first, but you write it last.

Standard Tables and Charts:

There are also some business tables and charts that are normally expected in a standard business plan.

Cash flow is the single most important numerical analysis in a plan, and should never be missing. Most plans will also have Sales Forecast and Profit and Loss statements. I believe they should also have separate Personnel listings, projected Balance sheet, projected Business Ratios, and Market Analysis tables.

I also believe that every plan should include bar charts and pie charts to illustrate the numbers.

Business Plan Outline:

Here’s an expanded full business plan outline, with details you might want to include in your own business plan.

1.0 Executive Summary

1.1 Objectives

1.2 Mission

1.3 Keys to Success

2.0 Company Summary

2.1 Company Ownership

2.2 Company History (for ongoing companies) or

Start-up Plan (for new companies)

2.3 Company Locations and Facilities

3.0 Products and Services

3.1 Product and Service Description

3.2 Competitive Comparison

3.3 Sales Literature

3.4 Sourcing and Fulfillment

3.5 Technology

3.6 Future Products and Services

4.0 Market Analysis Summary

4.1 Market Segmentation

4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy

4.2.1 Market Needs

4.2.2 Market Trends

4.2.3 Market Growth

4.3 Industry Analysis

4.3.1 Industry Participants

4.3.2 Distribution Patterns

4.3.3 Competition and Buying Patterns

4.3.4 Main Competitors

5.0 Strategy and Implementation Summary

5.1 Strategy Pyramids

5.2 Value Proposition

5.3 Competitive Edge

5.4 Marketing Strategy

5.4.1 Positioning Statements

5.4.2 Pricing Strategy

5.4.3 Promotion Strategy

5.4.4 Distribution Patterns

5.4.5 Marketing Programs

5.5 Sales Strategy

5.5.1 Sales Forecast

5.5.2 Sales Programs

5.6 Strategic Alliances

5.7 Milestones

6.0 Web Plan Summary

6.1 Website Marketing Strategy

6.2 Development Requirements

7.0 Management Summary

7.1 Organizational Structure

7.2 Management Team

7.3 Management Team Gaps

7.4 Personnel Plan

8.0 Financial Plan

8.1 Important Assumptions

8.2 Key Financial Indicators

8.3 Break-even Analysis

8.4 Projected Profit and Loss

8.5 Projected Cash Flow

8.6 Projected Balance Sheet

8.7 Business Ratios

8.8 Long-term Plan.

What is Entrepreneurship?

2009-01-28T02:12:00.000-08:00

What is Entrepreneur:
For the person who starts a new organization, see Entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting new organizations or revitalizing mature organizations, particularly new businesses generally in response to identified opportunities. Entrepreneurship is often a difficult undertaking, as a vast majority of new businesses fail. Entrepreneurial activities are substantially different depending on the type of organization that is being started. Entrepreneurship ranges in scale from solo projects (even involving the entrepreneur only part-time) to major undertakings creating many job opportunities. Many "high-profile" entrepreneurial ventures seek venture capital or angel funding in order to raise capital to build the business. Angel investors generally seek returns of 20-30% and more extensive involvement in the business.[1] Many kinds of organizations now exist to support would-be entrepreneurs, including specialized government agencies, business incubators, science parks, and some NGOs.

Characteristics of an entrepreneur:
Entrepreneurs have many of the same character traits as leaders, similar to the early great man theories of leadership; however trait-based theories of entrepreneurship are increasingly being called into question. Entrepreneurs are often contrasted with managers and administrators who are said to be more methodical and less prone to risk-taking. Such person-centric models of entrepreneurship have shown to be of questionable validity, not least as many real-life entrepreneurs operate in teams rather than as single individuals. Still, a vast but now clearly dated literature studying the entrepreneurial personality found that certain traits seem to be associated with entrepreneurs:

David McClelland (1961) described the entrepreneur as primarily motivated by an overwhelming need for achievement and strong urge to build.
Collins and Moore (1970) studied 150 entrepreneurs and concluded that they are tough, pragmatic people driven by needs of independence and achievement. They seldom are willing to submit to authority.
Bird (1992) sees entrepreneurs as mercurial, that is, prone to insights, brainstorms, deceptions, ingeniousness and resourcefulness. they are cunning, opportunistic, creative, and unsentimental.
Cooper, Woo, & Dunkelberg (1988) argue that entrepreneurs exhibit extreme optimism in their decision-making processes. In a study of 2004 entrepreneurs they report that 81% indicate their personal odds of success as greater than 70% and a remarkable 33% seeing odds of success of 10 out of 10.
Busenitz and Barney (1997) claim entrepreneurs are prone to overconfidence and over generalisations.
Cole (1959) found there are four types of entrepreneur: the innovator, the calculating inventor, the over-optimistic promoter, and the organization builder. These types are not related to the personality but to the type of opportunity the entrepreneur faces.

Other characteristics include:

The entrepreneur has an enthusiastic vision, the driving force of an enterprise.
The entrepreneur's vision is usually supported by an interlocked collection of specific ideas not available to the marketplace.
The overall blueprint to realize the vision is clear, however details may be incomplete, flexible, and evolving.
The entrepreneur promotes the vision with enthusiastic passion.
With persistence and determination, the entrepreneur develops strategies to change the vision into reality.
The entrepreneur takes the initial responsibility to cause a vision to become a success.
Entrepreneurs take prudent risks. They assess costs, market/customer needs and persuade others to join and help.
An entrepreneur is usually a positive thinker and a decision maker.
An entrepreneur needs inspiration, motivation and sensibility.

Advantages of entrepreneurship:

Every successful entrepreneur brings about benefits not only for himself/ herself but for the municipality, region or country as a whole. The benefits that can be derived from entrepreneurial activities are as follows:

Enormous personal financial gain
Self-employment, offering more job satisfaction and flexibility of the work force
Employment for others, often in better jobs
Development of more industries, especially in rural areas or regions disadvantaged by economic changes, for example due to globalisation effects
Encouragement of the processing of local materials into finished goods for domestic consumption as well as for export
Income generation and increased economic growth
Healthy competition thus encourages higher quality products
More goods and services available
Development of new markets
Promotion of the use of modern technology in small-scale manufacturing to enhance higher productivity
Encouragement of more researches/ studies and development of modern machines and equipment for domestic consumption
Development of entrepreneurial qualities and attitudes among potential entrepreneurs to bring about significant changes in the rural areas
Freedom from the dependency on the jobs offered by others
The ability to have great accomplishments
Reduction of the informal economy
Emigration of talent may be stopped by a better domestic entrepreneurship climate
Serious tax advantages.

excel practice test

2009-01-28T02:07:00.000-08:00

Excel Trick

2009-01-28T01:54:00.000-08:00

Introduction to Writing Excel Macros (VBA)

2009-01-28T01:29:00.000-08:00

Excel Macros (VBA) tips for beginners. I do not use macros that have too many lines of codes as this may confuse beginers. I remembered when I started learning macro programming and going to sites by Chip Pearson & John Walkenbach and started seeing stars instead of VB!!!. Simplified macros are used for easy understanding for people like YOU and ME. By the way by, I am trained to be an Accountant and not a programmer. I hope the this site gets you started in Macro Programming & Good Luck.

Auto Run [24/12/2001] (back to top)
Making your macros run automatically when opening your workbook. You can either use the Auto Open method or the Workbook Open method. These macros will display the message "Hello" when you open the workbook.

Sub Auto_Open()
Msgbox "Hello"
End Sub

This code would be located in the module. However if you use the second method, the code must be in the workbook (double click "This Workbook" in the explorer window). Click on the drop down list (that says General) and select Workbook. Click on the drop down list (that says declarations) and select Open.

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
Msgbox "Hello"
End Sub

Active Cell [5/1/2002] (back to top)
An active cell is the current cell that is selected. This term is used in many macros. This can be used as a marker. A good example is when you need to move from your current cell. Refer to Moving your cursor macro.

Adding Items to a combobox [15/3/2002] (back to top)
To add a combobox refer to User Form. To populate a combobox or a listbox is the same. You could add from the code or even from a range of cells in your spreadsheet. To add from the code, just add this line to your code.

ComboBox1.AddItem "Product A"
ComboBox1.AddItem "Product B"

Counting Rows & Columns & Sheets [27/10/2001] (back to top)
When you have selected a range, it is sometimes useful to know how many rows or columns you have selected as this information can be used in your macros (for eg when you have reached the end, you will know it is time to stop the macros. This macro will do the trick.

Sub Count()
myCount = Selection.Rows.Count 'Change Rows to Columns to count columns
MsgBox myCount
End Sub

The next macro counts the number of sheets instead. Refer to Protecting all sheets macro which uses this method.

Sub Count2()
myCount = Application.Sheets.Count
MsgBox myCount
End Sub

Copying A Range [5/1/2002] (back to top)
Copy data from a specific range can be done with this macro. Here data is copied from the current sheet to the activecell. (Refer to Active Cell)

Sub CopyRange()
Range("A1:A3").Copy Destination:=ActiveCell
End Sub

To copy from a range in another sheet (eg Sheet3) to the active cell you need to change the code to;

Sheets("sheet3").Range("A1:A3").Copy Destination:=ActiveCell

Carriage Return [10/11/2002] (back to top)
Sometimes you may want to put a line of text on the next row and not let it continue on the first row. See this example in a message box.

Sub TwoLines()
MsgBox "Line 1" & vbCrLf & "Line 2"
End Sub

Counter [17/2/2002] (back to top)
To use a counter in your macro, just assign any cell to retain the value. In this example the cell A1 is chosen. Each time the macro is run, it adds the value 1 to the cell A1.

Sub Count()
mycount = Range("a1") + 1
Range("a1") = mycount
End Sub

Current Date [24/12/2001] (back to top)
It's a good idea to insert the current date when you save the file so that you can tell if it's the latest version. Of course this is shown under file properties but how many people know where to find it? You could also put the current date in the footer of your print out. It is ideal if the date does not change unless the file is saved. You can use this code. (On the drop down list that says declaration, select before save and you will see the 1st line of code shown below - more details refer to Auto Run macro)

Private Sub Workbook_BeforeSave(ByVal SaveAsUI As Boolean, Cancel As Boolean)
Range("A1") = Now 'Select any cell you want
End Sub

Current Cell Content [24/12/2001] (back to top)
Sometimes we need to know what the cell contains ie dates, text or formulas before taking a course of action. In this example a message box is displayed. Replace this with a macro should you require another course of action.

Sub ContentChk()
If Application.IsText(ActiveCell) = True Then
MsgBox "Text" 'replace this line with your macro
Else
If ActiveCell = "" Then
MsgBox "Blank cell" 'replace this line with your macro
Else
End If
If ActiveCell.HasFormula Then
MsgBox "formula" 'replace this line with your macro
Else
End If
If IsDate(ActiveCell.Value) = True Then
MsgBox "date" 'replace this line with your macro
Else
End If
End If
End Sub

Current Cell Position [10/3/2002] (back to top)
Sometimes we need to know the current cell position. This would do the trick.

Sub MyPosition()
myRow = ActiveCell.Row
myCol = ActiveCell.Column
Msgbox myRow & "," & myCol
End Sub

Deleting Empty Rows [27/10/2001] (back to top)
To delete empty rows in a selected range we can use the following macro. The macro here uses the For Next Loop. First the macro counts the rows in a selected range to determine the when the macro should stop. The For Next statement acts as a counter.

Sub DelEmptyRow()
Rng = Selection.Rows.Count
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 0).Select
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
For i = 1 To Rng
If ActiveCell.Value = "" Then 'You can replace "" with 0 to delete rows with 'the value zero
Selection.EntireRow.Delete
Else
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select
End If
Next i
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

The statement "Application.ScreenUpdating = False" prevents the screen from updating to ensure the macro runs faster and the screen will not flicker. Don't forget to set it back to "True".

Deleting Range Names [15/03/2002] (back to top)
To delete all the range names in your workbook, this macro will do the trick.

Sub DeleteNames()
Dim NameX As Name
For Each NameX In Names
ActiveWorkbook.Names(NameX.Name).Delete
Next NameX
End Sub

Duplicates (Highlight duplicates in Bold Red) [27/10/01] (back to top)
There are times you need to highlight duplicate data in your worksheet. This macro does the trick.

Sub DupsRed()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Rng = Selection.Rows.Count
For i = Rng To 1 Step -1
myCheck = ActiveCell
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select
For j = 1 To i
If ActiveCell = myCheck Then
Selection.Font.Bold = True
Selection.Font.ColorIndex = 3
End If
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select
Next j
ActiveCell.Offset(-i, 0).Select
Next i
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Errors in macros [1/2/2002] (back to top)
Ever had a macro running perfectly one day and the next day errors keep on popping up even though you never made changes to that macro? This is no fault of yours. Due to the excel VBA design, macro files get badly fragmented due to heavy editing of macros, insertion of modules & userforms. What you need to do is copy your macros else where, delete the macros, save the file without macros. Open the file again and import the macros and save it once more with the macros. You macros will run properly until it gets fragmented again at a later stage.

Error Trapping [4/1/2002] (back to top)
Trapping errors are important as users can do marvelous things to mess up you macros. Here you can use either of these 2 statements.
- On Error Resume Next OR
- On Error Goto ErrorTrap1
... more lines of code
ErrorTrap1:
... more code (what to do if there is an error)
The first statement will allow the macro to continue the next line of code upon hitting an error but the second statement will run an alternative code should there be an error.

Excel Functions [8/2/2002] (back to top)
Using Excel functions in VBA is almost the same as using them in a spreadsheet. For example to round an amount to 2 decimal places in a spreadsheet would be;
=round(1.2345,2)
In VBA you would need to use the term Application followed by the function ie;
ActiveCell = Application.round(ActiveCell, 2)
For more examples see Rounding Numbers

Expiry Dates for Workbook / Macro [4/1/2002] (back to top)
See Security in Excel.

For, Next Loop [5/1/2002] (back to top)
See Deleting Empty Rows or Protect All Sheets. A point to note is, try not to use the For, Next loop because this method is very slow unless of course you don't know how to write your macro another way.

Flickering Screen [27/10/2001] (back to top)
Sometimes when you run a macro, the screen flickers a lot due to the screen updating itself. This slows the macro done especially when the macro has a lot of work to do. You need to include the statement as shown below.
Also see Deleting Empty Rows

Application.ScreenUpdating = False

You need to set the screen updating back to true at the end of the macro.

Functions [31/1/2002] (back to top)
Creating function is useful as complicated formulas can be made easier in code than in a spread sheet. Formulas can be protected so that users cannot see or modify them. The example I use will calculate tax using the Select Case Statement. Here's the scenario.
First $2500 is tax free.
Next $2500 is taxable at 5%.
Anything above $5000 is taxable at 10%.
In cell A1 type Income and in cell B1 type in your income in numbers say $20000.
In cell A2 type Tax payable and in cell B2 type =tax(B1).
Put the following code in a module. The tax payable here would be $1625.

Public Function tax(income As Single)
Select Case income
Case Is <= 2500
tax = 0
Case Is <= 5000
tax = (5000 - 2500) * 0.05
'in this case is 125
Case Else
tax = (income - 5000) * 0.1 + 125
End Select
End Function

Goto (a range) [27/10/2001] (back to top)
To specify a macro to go to a specific range you can use the Goto method. Here I have already named a range in my worksheet called "Sales". You may also use an alternative method ie the Range select method. Naming a range in excel is recommended rather than specifying an absolute cell reference.

Sub GoHere()
Application.Goto Reference:="Sales" OR Range("Sales").Select
End Sub

Going to the 1st Sheet [27/10/2001] (back to top)
You can select the first sheet of the workbook without knowing the name of the sheet by referring to it by the index.

Sub FirstSheet()
Sheets(1).Select
End Sub

GoTo Sheet [18/03/2005] (back to top)
Sometimes we have many sheets or sheets with long names & we cannot view them all. You can select which sheet to go to by using this macro.

Sub Go2sheet()
myShts = ActiveWorkbook.Sheets.Count
For i = 1 To myShts
myList = myList & i & " - " & ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(i).Name & " " & vbCr
Next i
Dim mySht As Single
mySht = InputBox("Select sheet to go to." & vbCr & vbCr & myList)
Sheets(mySht).Select
End Sub

Hiding Sheets [27/10/2001] (back to top)
To hide your worksheet from users you can use the following code.

Sub HideSheet()
Sheet1.Visible = xlSheetVeryHidden
End Sub

If you hide your sheets this way, users will not be able to unhide them using the menus. Only using VB codes will be able to display the sheets again.

Hiding Excel [3/9/2002] (back to top)
You can hide the Excel application with this macro. This disables the user from using the excel menus. Don't forget to set it back to visible.

Sub HideExcel()
Application.Visible = False
End Sub

Input Box [27/10/2001] (back to top)
When you need to get input from users, you can use input boxes. This macro will ask for the user's name and will display a message "Hello" plus the user's name.

Sub GetInput()
Dim MyInput 'This line of code is optional
MyInput = InputBox("Enter your name")
MsgBox ("Hello ") & MyInput
End Sub

Inserting Rows [4/1/2002] (back to top)
To insert rows required by a user is easy. Here the input box is used so that a user can define the number of rows required.

Sub InsertRow()
Dim Rng
Rng = InputBox("Enter number of rows required.")
Range(ActiveCell.Offset(0, 0), ActiveCell.Offset(Rng - 1, 0)).Select
Selection.EntireRow.Insert
End Sub

Here the macro uses the range technique where a range is first selected and then subsequently rows are inserted.

IF, Then Statement [27/10/2001] (back to top)
See Protect All Sheets

Joining Text Together [10/3/2003] (back to top)
There are times where we import text file into Excel an we get text that are separated. I received an email asking how put these text together. Select across your cells first and run this macro.

Sub JoinText()
myCol = Selection.Columns.Count
For i = 1 To myCol
ActiveCell = ActiveCell.Offset(0, 0) & ActiveCell.Offset(0, i)
ActiveCell.Offset(0, i) = ""
Next i
End Sub

Killing Files [1/12/2001] (back to top)
Killing or deleting files is easy. However the files must not be in used.

Sub Killfile()
Dim MyFile As String 'This line of code is optional
On Error Resume Next 'On hitting errors, code resumes next code
MyFile = "c:\folder\filename.xls"
kill MyFile
End Sub

Wildcards can be use. Replace the file name with * (use with caution!).

Killing The Current File [8/2/2002] (back to top)
Killing the current file you need to change it's status to read only.

Sub Killed()
Application.DisplayAlerts=False
ThisWorkbook.ChangeFileAccess xlReadOnly
Kill ThisWorkbook.FullName
ThisWorkbook.Close False
End Sub

Lower Case [27/10/2001] (back to top)
To change text in a selected range to lower case use this code.

Sub LowerCase()
Dim cell As Range
For Each cell In Selection.Cells
If cell.HasFormula = False Then
cell = LCase(cell)
End If
Next
End Sub

Modeless Forms [10/11/2002] (back to top)
Sometimes you want to allow users to be able to switch between your form and your spreadsheet by clicking on either one. All you need to do is set the form property of Show Modal to False or you can try this. However this is only for Excel 2000 & above.

Sub myForm()
UserForm.show vbModeless
End Sub

Moving your cursor [27/10/2001] (back to top)
Sometimes you need to move your cursor around your worksheet to re-position it before running the next step of a macro. The movement here uses the row, column position method. Also see (Visible Rows)

Sub Down()
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select
End Sub
Sub up()
ActiveCell.Offset(-1, 0).Select
End Sub
Sub Right()
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Select
End Sub
Sub Left()
ActiveCell.Offset(0, -1).Select
End Sub

Protecting / Unprotecting a sheet [27/10/2001] (back to top)
The macros below will protect/unprotect the current worksheet with a password.

Sub ProtectSheet()
Dim Password 'This line of code is optional
Password = "1234"
ActiveSheet.Protect Password, True, True, True
End Sub
Sub UnProtectSheet()
Password = "1234"
ActiveSheet.Unprotect Password
End Sub

Protecting all sheets [27/10/2001] (back to top)
To protect all the sheets this macro uses all the methods contained in this page (see counting sheets). The If, Then statement is also used here. This tests for a condition and if the condition is TRUE, then the macro continuous the next line of code. In this case it will END the macro. If the condition is NOT TRUE, then it will go to the following line which in this case is to select the next sheet. You will also notice the For, Next statement is also used. This acts as a counter to tell the macro how many loops to run. In this case if there are 3 sheets, the macro will run 3 times protecting all the 3 sheets.

Sub protectAll()
Dim myCount 'This line of code is optional
Dim i 'This line of code is optional
myCount = Application.Sheets.Count
Sheets(1).Select 'This line of code selects the 1st sheet
For i = 1 To myCount
ActiveSheet.Protect
If i = myCount Then
End
End If
ActiveSheet.Next.Select
Next i
End Sub

Protecting your VB code [10/3/2002] (back to top)
To protect your VB code from being seen by others, all you need to do is go to the project explorer, point at your project and right click on it. Select VBA project properties, click on the protection tab and check the Lock project for viewing and key your password. That's it.

Random numbers [27/10/2001] (back to top)
For macros to generate random numbers, the code is takes this format - Int ((upperbound - lowerbound +1) * Rnd + lowerbound). Where the Upperbound is the largest number random number to be generated and Lowerbound is the lowest.

Sub RandomNo()
Randomize
MyNumber = Int((49 - 1 + 1) * Rnd + 1)
MsgBox ("The random number is ") & (MyNumber)
End Sub

In this case the random numbers that will be generate is between 1 and 49.

Range Names [3/9/2002] (back to top)
Assigning range names to a range of cells.

Sub RngName()
Selection.Name = "myRange"
End Sub

Resizing a Range [3/9/2002] (back to top)
Resizing a range is simple. You can apply this to inserting rows & columns or to expand a selected range. This macro resizes the range to 7 rows by 7 columns.

Sub ResizeRng()
Selection.Resize(7,7).Select
End Sub

Rounding Numbers [8/2/2002] (back to top)
Here I will show how to perform different types of rounding. Key in 12345 in any active cell and run the following code.

Sub Round()
ActiveCell = Application.round(ActiveCell, -3)
End Sub

This code round to the nearest 1000 thus giving the value 12000.

ActiveCell = Application.Ceiling(ActiveCell, 1000)
Replace with this line of code and it will round up to the next 1000 ie 13000
ActiveCell = Application.Floor(ActiveCell, 1000)
Replace with this line of code and it will round down to the next 1000 ie 12000

Running A Sub Routine [5/1/2002] (back to top)
To run another macro from within a macro you need to use the Call statement.

Sub Macro1()
Msgbox("This is Macro1")
Call Macro2 'This calls for Macro2 to run
End Sub

Saving a file [27/10/2001] (back to top)
There are times you may want a macro to save a file automatically after running a macro. The second macro will save the file with a name called "MyFile". You may specify the path if you need to.

Sub Save()
ActiveWorkbook.Save
End Sub
Sub SaveName()
ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:="C:\MyFile.xls"
End Sub

Security in Excel [4/2/2002] (back to top)
Level 1 - To protect your excel files, there are a few steps required to make it more difficult for other users to by pass security. To prevent changes made to the worksheet, you need to protect your worksheet. See protecting sheets. To prevent sheets from being renamed, moved or deleted, protect the workbook. However protection of worksheets and workbook can easily be hacked using macros as shown by an Excel developer. I believe the next level of protection is protecting your macros. To protect your macros, point at your project in the explorer window, right click on it and select VBA project properties, click on the Protection tab, check on Lock Project for Viewing and next key in your password and you're done. Now the project cannot be viewed or amended.

Level 2 - The next step is to force the user to enable your macro when opening your file. The best way is to use a macro to hide the important sheets (see Hiding sheets) when saving your file. Upon opening the file, a macro will be used to unhide these sheets. If the user disables the macros when opening the worksheet, they will not be able to view your worksheet unless they allow the macro to run.

Level 3 - The final step is to put an expiry date for your worksheet or your macro. However this has a draw back as the user may change the system date of the computer to by pass the step. Alternatively you can use a counter (Refer Counter Macro) to allow a fixed number of access to your worksheet or macro. Here you need to save the counter value each time the file or macro is used. Upon reaching the defined limit, disable the macro or disable the access of your worksheet.

The steps mentioned above are not 100% fool proof. But it will keep normal users out but not hackers and crackers. Here I will not supply the code as this can be lengthy and may be difficult to understand but I believe these steps may be useful to some of you out there.

Select Case Statement [31/1/2002] (back to top)
This is a useful statement to use when you have many conditions. Too many IFs in your code will only make you more confuse. See Functions macro.

Sentence Case [6/6/2005] (back to top)
To change text in a selected range to sentence case use this code. This code was supplied by Simon Huggins. He did a fine job of making the code work for both earlier & current versions of Excel. Thanks for the contribution.

<> Sub SentenceCase()
For Each cell In Selection.Cells
s = cell.Value
Start = True
For i = 1 To Len(s)
ch = Mid(s, i, 1)
Select Case ch
Case "."
Start = True
Case "?"
Start = True
Case "a" To "z"
If Start Then ch = UCase(ch): Start = False
Case "A" To "Z"
If Start Then Start = False Else ch = LCase(ch)
End Select
Mid(s, i, 1) = ch
Next
cell.Value = s
Next
End Sub

Select Data Range [3/3/2006] (back to top)
This is a useful when you need to select the whole range of data to copy to another sheet (especially a large range).

Sub SelAllData()
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Dim myLastRow As Long
Dim myLastColumn As Long
Range("A1").Select
On Error Resume Next
myLastRow = Cells.Find("*", [A1], , , xlByRows, xlPrevious).Row
myLastColumn = Cells.Find("*", [A1], , , xlByColumns, xlPrevious).Column
myLastCell = Cells(myLastRow, myLastColumn).Address
myRange = "a1:" & myLastCell
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Range(myRange).Select
End Sub

Text Manipulation [30/6/2003] (back to top)
I received many queries regarding text manipulation. Here are some useful text functions which you could use to EDIT your text.

Sub myEdit()
MsgBox Left("abcd", 2) 'Displays 2 characters from Left
MsgBox Right("abcd", 2) 'Displays 2 characters from Right
MsgBox Len("abcd") 'Displays number of characters
End Sub

Text Box Calculations (In user forms) [24/12/2006] (back to top)
To perform calculations using text boxes in user forms, you will need to validate the data first, otherwise you will be in for surprises. Assuming you want to add two values in 2 separate textbox and assign the answer to another.

Textbox1 = Val(textbox2)+Val(textbox3)
Timer [1/2/2002] (back to top)
To create a macro to measure time before executing the next line of code use this simple code.

Sub timer()
Application.Wait Now + TimeValue("00:00:10")
MsgBox ("10 sec has elasped")
End Sub

Title Case [27/10/2001] (back to top)
To change text in a selected range to title case use this code.

Sub TitleCase()
Dim cell As Range
For Each cell In Selection.Cells
If cell.HasFormula = False Then
cell = Application.Proper(cell)
End If
Next
End Sub

Top of the screen [10/11/2002] (back to top)
To make the activecell be at the top of the screen & to the left on the screen try this.

Sub TopLeft()
ActiveCell.Select
With ActiveWindow
.ScrollColumn = ActiveCell.Column
.ScrollRow = ActiveCell.Row
End With
End Sub

Upper Case [27/10/2001] (back to top)
To change text in a selected range to upper case use this code.

Sub UpperCase()
Dim cell As Range
For Each cell In Selection.Cells
If cell.HasFormula = False Then
cell = UCase(cell)
End If
Next
End Sub

User Forms [8/3/2005] (back to top)
Adding user forms in your macro is simple. With user forms you can create GUIs (Graphical User Interface) for user who do not have much excel knowledge and make you excel programs more professional looking. Go to your Visual Basic Editor window & click on Insert, select user form and a user for will appear along with the toolbox. Now you can add labels, buttons, text boxes and many more items. The property window will allow you to customise your user form. To display your user form use these codes.

<>UserForm1.show 'to load form
Unload Me 'to close the form with a macro

Loading User forms with MultiPage [8/3/2005] (back to top)
To select a page in a Multipage object is fairly simple. Just remember the page 1 has a value of 0, page 2 a value of 1 and so forth. To load a form with a specific page in mind, try using these codes.

Sub page2()
UserForm1.MultiPage1.Value = 1 'this sets page 2
UserForm1.Show 'this displays the user form after page 2 has been set
End Sub

vbYesNo [17/2/2002] (back to top)
There are times you may want users to click Yes or No. Just insert this line of code. Here the Select Case statement is used.
YesNo = MsgBox("This macro will ... Do you want to continue?", vbYesNo + vbCritical, "Caution")
Select Case YesNo
Case vbYes
'Insert your code here if Yes is clicked
Case vbNo
'Insert your code here if No is clicked
End Select

Visible Rows (selecting) [24/12/2006] (back to top)
The normal way of selecting the next row cannot be used where there are hidden rows or filtered data. To select the next visible row in a filtered list we test each row until we find the next visible row.

Sub NextVisibleRow()
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select
Do While ActiveCell.EntireRow.Hidden = True
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select
Loop
End Sub

Free Business Plan Templates

2009-01-28T01:24:00.000-08:00

Introduction
This section introduces Free-Plan and its sister product, Biz-Plan. It also introduces Exl-Plan, a range of financial planners, which incorporates a copy of Free-Plan. Here is what DOWNLOAD.COM said in two reviews of Biz-Plan (aka Free-Plan):

Writing a good business plan is the first step to success. But what if you don't know where to start? Never fear; Biz-Plan can help. This Word template provides the outline of a business plan along with an excellent help file (in CHM and PDF format) containing detailed instructions and important hints. The template itself has helpful comments in each section. Colors and fonts greatly facilitate text editing, as does the automatically updated table of contents. Best of all, Biz-Plan is free; you just have to register by e-mail. Whether you follow it to the letter or draw on it for ideas, Biz-Plan is a great resource for getting a business off the ground.

This Word template aims to help novices write a sensible business plan. Biz-Plan holds your hand throughout the process. First, the concise white paper offers brief directions and important hints. The template itself is commented in detail and has an extensive tutorial in the appendix. Colors and fonts greatly facilitate text editing, as does the automatically updated table of contents. Finally, Biz-Plan is free, with email registration required. Novice business people will benefit from this program's advice.

Free-Plan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Free-Plan is a Business Plan Guide and Template compiled and distributed as freeware by PlanWare. It comprises:

A Word-based Template (48 pages) contains a detailed framework and structure for writing a business plan with sample text, typical tables and charts (click thumb opposite to enlarge view).

A complementary Guide (supplied as a 90+ topic Help file and as a 100+ page PDF file for printing) offers extensive section-by-section help related to the Template. It covers executive summary, strategy and mission, profiling target markets, marketing strategies, sales plans and projections, technology and R&D, operations and management, financial projections and funding. It also discusses such matters as planning to plan, length of a business plan and writing a basic/short plan.
Free-Plan is ideal for new and established businesses seeking to expand, raise finance etc. which need to produce a comprehensive business plan for internal/external use. While Free-Plan is not specifically aimed at very small businesses (e.g. annual sales under, say, $250,000), it contains many ideas and issues which could be adopted to produce a shorter, simpler plan as explained in the Guide.

Free-Plan is freeware. The supplied Template is a protected, 'read-only' document for Microsoft Word. Upon registration, this protection can be removed and the Template can be freely modified by the registered user. Free-Plan registration is completely free and there are no strings attached ! You will not be added to any email list as a result of registering. Check our privacy policy.

The latest release of Free-Plan is designated 3.0. It is a major revamp with the complete separation of the Template from the Guide. The Template has been restructured and the Guide contains substantial additional advice and guidance. If you have an earlier release, you may wish to delete/uninstall it and use the links below to download the latest release.

To check your release of Free-Plan, look for the release number on the third line within the colored table on the first page of the DOC file.

Business Plan Layout

2009-01-03T09:39:00.000-08:00

Business plan layout and writing into 8 easy to...
Business plan layout and writing into 8 easy to remember sections by business plan and fund raising expert Andrew Millet, chartered accountant, principle of Wisteria, a small business advisory and accounting firm based in Edgware, North London, UK.

Tags: how to write business plan writing planning strategy help advice london wisteria Andrew Millet layout UK fund raising

http://www.laravideos.blogspot.com/

Develop your Business Plan

2009-01-03T09:36:00.000-08:00

This Web Seminar features Tim Berry as he expla...
This Web Seminar features Tim Berry as he explains how to develop your business by developing a business plan.

Tags: business plan develop

http://www.laravideos.blogspot.com/

Building a Pivot Table in Excel 2007

2008-12-08T02:29:00.000-08:00

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Making a Gantt Chart with Excel

2008-12-08T02:27:00.000-08:00

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VLOOKUP in Excel 2007

2008-12-08T02:26:00.000-08:00

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excel practice test

2008-12-08T02:23:00.000-08:00

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Introducing Nike's Air Force 25

2008-11-22T07:49:00.000-08:00

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Nike Leave Nothing Commercial

2008-11-22T07:47:00.000-08:00

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Need Motivation

2008-11-22T07:45:00.000-08:00

Tags: Nike, NikePlus, Plus, Nike+, Running, Viral ad Pegasus Motivation, Nano Apple.

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Employee Motivation: Elements of Greatness

2008-11-22T07:42:00.000-08:00

Tags: motivation, motivational, inspire, inspiration, great, greatness, employee, engagement profiles sirbasku waco Tom Kilbride.

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Motivation at Work - how to increase workplace motivation

2008-11-22T07:38:00.000-08:00

http://www.globalchange.com Motivation at work. People don't get passionate about shareholder value or business profits or excel spreadsheets. They get passionate and motivated about challenge, g...
http://www.globalchange.com Motivation at work. People don't get passionate about shareholder value or business profits or excel spreadsheets. They get passionate and motivated about challenge, great teams, vision, important goals, having fun, about family and friends, about the community and world they live in. How to make things happen in Business. Connect with passion, keys to motivation, leadership and change management in business. Managing uncertainty with rapid change. Leadership styles. Why people get out of bed in the morning. How to motivate teams at work to do great things. Business management. Secret of leadership and ultimate leadership speech. Business ethics and values in corporations. Secrets of business success and increased productivity. Cutting costs. Increasing output. Adding shareholder value. Sustainable business success. Work life balance and lessons from non profits / volunteering. Why building a better world is such a powerful motivation. Lecture by Dr Patrick Dixon for MTN, author of Building a Better Business, Futurewise and conference speaker.Motivation at work. Leadership. Leadership purpose, aims, strategy and objectives. Profits and profitability. Motivation to succeed and secrets of business success. Productivity and efficiency key. Workplace morale. Team dynamics and leadership styles. Business mission and vision. Business values and office culture. Connect with passion and you will motivate teams to change organisation, business and world. Work-life balance, family, children. Conference keynote speaker and Futurist Dr Patrick Dixon. Business productivity and motivating teams. Team leadership, targets, bottom line profit, increasing shareholder value. CEO speeches, annual general meetings. Publicly listed corporations. Attracting talent, retaining talent, winning the war for talent. Human resources and making a difference. Why workplace motivation depends on corporate vision, workplace passion and clear purpose. Connectedness and engagement at work. Business priorities, strategy and objectives must connect with individual passion - key to business.

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100 billion new computers the size of a grain of sand,

2008-11-22T07:35:00.000-08:00

http://www.globalchange.com RFID technology will be used in billions of things in our world - and these tiny chips will also be fused to brain tissue. 10 billion RFID computer chips were used by Wa...
http://www.globalchange.com RFID technology will be used in billions of things in our world - and these tiny chips will also be fused to brain tissue. 10 billion RFID computer chips were used by Wal-Mart alone last year. Impact of RFID on retailing, manufacturing, wholesale, distribution. Security and privacy. Multimedia conference lecture, keynote presentation by Futurist Dr Patrick Dixon. You can watch the entire presentation on Google Video (one hour keynote conference lecture on future trends.

http://www.laravideos.blogspot.com/

Future Consumers, Lifestyles and Online Communities

2008-11-22T07:33:00.000-08:00

Future of Telecom and Consumers. Belgacom client event - 700 CEOs and CIOs by conference keynote speaker Dr Patrick Dixon. Future of communications, marketing, management, leadership, virtual tea...
Future of Telecom and Consumers. Belgacom client event - 700 CEOs and CIOs by conference keynote speaker Dr Patrick Dixon. Future of communications, marketing, management, leadership, virtual teams and virtual organisations. Virtual meetings and distance learning. Future bandwidth, video streaming demand, convergence and divergence of technology. Future innovations in communication. Strategy for emerging markets and developed markets.Banks will become phone companies and telecom companies will become banks. Mobile payment systems, micropayments, mobile phone credit card transactions and loans.All innovation is divergent - doing things different and better. But most companies focus on convergence on price, quality, features.image, branding, winning customers, online marketing and building trust. Consumer changes, preferences and lifestyles. Videoconferencing and virtual teams. Winning the war for talent - motivation and leadership styles.

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Motivation leadership change management

2008-11-22T07:31:00.000-08:00

Tags: futurewise conference speaker motivation leadership, management, passion, workplace, patrick, dixon, change communications, economics, humanities, social, science, Business Communications Economics.

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Leadership, Motivational Management Training

2008-11-22T07:26:00.000-08:00

Patrick Dixon ranked one of world's 20 most influential business thinkers alive today (Thinkers 50 2005) http://www.globalchange.com Great events change people: 4,500 event organisers(MPI. Keynote ...
Patrick Dixon ranked one of world's 20 most influential business thinkers alive today (Thinkers 50 2005) http://www.globalchange.com Great events change people: 4,500 event organisers(MPI. Keynote conference speaker (MPI).Future corporate events: motivational leadership programmes, executive education, team development, seminars, workshops, groups, forums, think tanks, team building exercises and client events. Effective management depends on great communication of leadership vision, mission and strategy. Conference organisation and event planning. Great leadership speeches, motivational tools for team leadership, and how to communicate with large audiences. Change management, business transformation and vision building. Video by keynote conference speaker and Futurist Patrick Dixon. How to motivate business leaders for high performance, profitability and shareholder value. Industry trends for successful events in banking, insurance, retail, manufacturing, services, marketing, aviation, travel, transport, tourism, government and non profit organisations, energy, food and drink, IT and communications and other sectors. Secrets of successful corporate events, and how to give a great, inspiring, uplifting, encouraging, powerful CEO keynote speech. Effective programme development and manager training. Work-life balance and workplace motivation, leadership styles. Why staging, lighting, theatre and performance really matter in successful corporate events. Videoconferencing, virtual teams, virtual working and virtual organisations why most people do not like videoconferencing and how to make video interviews or presentations work in conference programmes. How to create and deliver great lectures using powerpoint and other technology. Innovation and creativity in conference planning or business school programmes. Impact of global warming, climate change and energy prices on demand for corporate events, corporate travel and event location. Secrets of great event production, staging and use of multimedia.

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Small Business Plan Sample

2008-11-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

Locate details about using a small business plan sam...
Locate details about using a small business plan sample to help you create your business plan for your business. Reviewing others businesses business plans as a guideline and writing a business plan for your business, featuring Shaunta Pleasant.

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Develop your Business Plan

2008-11-18T07:38:00.000-08:00

Tags: business plan develop

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Yung Berg - The Business Remix ft Maino Jim Jones Pleasure P

2008-11-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

Tags: yung berg the business casha maino jim jones pleasure lil wayne rick ross trick daddy plies twista.

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AC/DC Rock N Roll Train - ASCII music video in Excel

2008-11-13T09:24:00.000-08:00

Tags: rock acdc ac/dc "ac dc" ascii art excel microsoft music video office "black ice" roll train ac dc.

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Making a Gantt Chart with Excel

2008-11-13T09:21:00.000-08:00

Tags: cis 121 ralph phillips excel gantt chart project management cocc.

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Business Plan Software in Excel

2008-11-13T09:19:00.000-08:00

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Business Plan Layout

2008-11-13T09:16:00.000-08:00

Business plan layout and writing into 8 easy to reme...
Business plan layout and writing into 8 easy to remember sections by business plan and fund raising expert Andrew Millet, chartered accountant, principle of Wisteria, a small business advisory and accounting firm based in Edgware, North London, UK.

Tags: how to write business plan writing, planning strategy, help advice london, wisteria, Andrew Millet layout UK, fund raising.

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C++ Tutorial (17) - Absolute n00b spoonfeed

2008-10-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

Logical Operators
* Operator Precedence problem
* Parenthesis and clarity

how to programming program make game c++ cplus cplusplus cpp plus tutorial tutorials absolute noob newbie n00b spoonfeed.

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EdIT - poletna sola racunalnistva

2008-10-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

EdIT Hermes Softlab Litijska Ljubljana.

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Cookie Monster vs Martha Stewart

2008-10-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

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Kermit and Cookie Monster: The Lost Episode

2008-10-24T07:03:00.000-07:00

Kermit Cookie Monster Funny Sesame Street.

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The real Computer Monster

2008-10-24T06:57:00.000-07:00

muppets, puppets, muppet , kermit seasme.

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boy scared by computer

2008-10-24T06:55:00.000-07:00

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Safe Computer Kids - Internet Monitoring

2008-10-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

Tags: Internet Safety monitoring.

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Child Computer and Internet Safety

2008-10-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

video help information , pirillo blog , gadgets internet , safety child, children , web predator , stalker , myspace youtube prank.

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Madonna "Give It 2 Me" (feat. Pharrell

2008-07-29T11:05:00.000-07:00

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Jessi Malay - Cinematic

2008-07-29T11:03:00.001-07:00

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Jessi Malay - Cinematic

2008-07-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

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Love In This Club REMIX PART 2 FEATURING BEYONCE W/ LYRICS

2008-07-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

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Usher & Beyonce -Love In This Club (feat Lil Wayne) w/Lyrics

2008-07-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

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The Story Of ZamZam

2008-07-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

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Funny Kids

2008-07-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

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Dance

2008-07-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

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Best kids joke

2008-07-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

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kids jokes

2008-07-23T08:50:00.000-07:00

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Sonic and Shadow tell jokes

2008-07-23T08:49:00.002-07:00

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night of champions 2008- tripleH v.s john cena

2008-07-23T08:49:00.001-07:00

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WWE Night of Champions 2008 Highlights

2008-07-23T08:48:00.001-07:00

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WWE NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS 2008 RESULTS

2008-07-23T08:47:00.000-07:00

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Evil Kitty

2008-07-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

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Garfield is real

2008-07-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

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Funniest cats

2008-07-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

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Nala the Laughing Cat

2008-07-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

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Jokes That Cats Tell - Ep1 They Were Alone

2008-07-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

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Jessica Alba The Stare Response

2008-07-22T11:00:00.000-07:00

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Orlando Part 1 - Jesse McCartney - Radio Promo Tour

2008-07-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

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WWE Raw 7/7/08 - Rey Mysterio vs. Santino Marella

2008-07-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

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WWE Raw 7/7/08 - Batista vs. JBL vs. Kane vs. John Cena

2008-07-22T10:54:00.000-07:00

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Jackie Chan breaking stones on german Bet Show

2008-07-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

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Jackie Chan vs Jet Li

2008-07-15T10:46:00.000-07:00

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2008-07-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

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Cinemassacre's Top 10 Jackie Chan Fight Scenes

2008-07-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

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The Stupid Side of Star Wars

2008-07-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

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A fake savior

2008-07-15T10:31:00.000-07:00

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Dancers - The Police - Roxanne

2008-07-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

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lego star wars 2 glitches part 4

2008-07-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

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lego starwars 2 most funniest moments

2008-07-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

Charlie Bit Me... remix

2008-07-11T12:10:00.004-07:00

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Charlie Bit Me... remix

2008-07-11T12:10:00.003-07:00

Charlie Bit Me... remix

2008-07-11T12:10:00.002-07:00

Charlie Bit Me... remix

2008-07-11T12:10:00.001-07:00

Charlie Bit Me... remix

2008-07-11T12:10:00.000-07:00

MBA project pre-proposal

2008-02-19T21:56:00.002-08:00

How to choose MBA project and do pre-proposal, data collection and write up?

The steps and phases are not as linear as they appear here, but they must all be completed. They assume an empirical piece of work (e.g. case studies, interviews, surveys, data analysis) and will change with other project forms (e.g. literature survey, software product).

General Sections in a Project Report: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Findings, Conclusions. Again, these are only guidelines; you should look at a few projects to find the best format for your own project

1. Pre-Proposal
Approach 1: - Assumption: you do not have a job in place and you want to use the project as a way to get ready for your next career step.

Decide what your job goal is after you graduate.
Decide which topics might give you a comparative advantage in getting your ideal job
proceed to research them (Library, CIO mags, with faculty, with contacts etc.)

Approach 2: you already have a job lined up and just need a project to graduate. You have little preference as to what the topic is.

ask your new employer what interesting questions there are ... OR
Decide what you are good at - e.g. statistical analysis, software creation, interviewing, etc.
get a couple of ideas of your own in place and also visit the profs in your area and ask them if they need help on any of their own projects - something that you could turn into a project. Be clear about what you are good at so they know where you could add value.
Create several mini-proposals (1 to 2 pages)
The proposals should include general research problem, relevant literature, methodology (data collection plan).

NOTE: expect that any faculty member you encounter will ask you what theoretical base you are planning to use to explore your topic. This is not a trick question - it is the difference between an academically rigorous project and one that you could have done before you enrolled in your MBA. The idea is to look for answers to your research problem in a careful, systematic way, using previous theory and studies to guide you. If you do not do this, you are wasting both your time and your supervisor’s, since your findings may be too weak to mean anything (remember your research course??). Faculty members are not trying to make your life miserable, they are trying to get you to do a piece of work that you and they will be proud of. Your project will be bound and in the library for a long time.

Review the proposals with proposed Senior Supervisor (SS) until one is OK
Use the Proposal to find 2nd Reader (2R) and confirm project and time line.
You now have a rough topic area and a first cut at your approach. You will refine this a few times before proceeding to gather data.

2. Data Gathering

DO the reading and then write a draft of the Literature Review section to narrow your search (data collection plan) and guide your data collection instruments
Meet with SS to OK narrowed topic and approach
Revise your Proposal as necessary with focused topic and approach.
Create your data collection instrument and analysis plan.
Meet with SS until data collection instruments are OK
Circulate new info to 2R for OK

EARLY PRESENTATION - NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO DO YOUR PROJECT PRESENTATION. You get feedback, and then are on your own timetable until you finish. The ""early"" presentation format is so that people can critique your detailed project proposal. You need the first 3 chapters of your project done, checked by SS and 2R, and changes made before the presentation. In other words, you have to have the Intro, Literature review, and Methodology finished. If you are doing interviews or surveys, you need a good draft of the data collection forms.

Refine your project and data collection instruments as suggested in the presentation
Execute the data collection
if you are waiting for data to come in, write the Intro and Methodology sections.
Analyze your data

3. Write Up

Review library guidelines on formatting and follow them in all your work.
Write a draft of Introduction, Methodology, Findings, and Conclusions sections. Include any sections relevant to the content (appendices, diagrams, TOC)
Review with SS until generally OK
Circulate draft to 2R for general comments
Add references, abstract, sign-off pages
Review with SS
Review with 2R
THIS IS THE REGULAR TIME TO DO YOUR PROJECT PRESENTATION. At this point, you are defending a ""finished"" product. You will most likely be asked to make changes to it. Work with Angela and SS and 2R to set time, book rooms and advertise. Allow all principals at least 1 week with your document before you present. If this is a thesis, you need several weeks here.
Make any changes required after presentation.
Take to library for format check. Fix as necessary.
Submit required copies to the LIBRARY
give an unbound copy to the MBA office.
Get an extra copy made, put in nice binder, give to SS. Say thanks.
CELEBRATE!! You did it!! You are an MBA Now!

4.Project Management Tips :

Set aside times each week to work on the project. If you are planning to finish it in less than 4 months, plan at least 2 days per week. No kidding.
There is a set of deadlines, forms, steps from Grad Studies that pertain to an MBA project. They are your responsibility.
There is a set of guidelines from the Library that govern how your project write-up must look. Follow the guidelines from day 1 and avoid re-work.
Expect to hire an editor if your command of the English language is weak. Supervisors cannot take time to edit your work.
Create an Overall Project Timetable based on the Phases above. Discuss with your SS. Refine as necessary.
Set up a regular schedule for communicating with your SS - in person or by email. Hand in written material a few days before your meeting so it is more productive.
Your supervisor may wish to use your data and analysis in his/her own research and teaching. This subject should be discussed at some time while you are partners on the project, so that you have an agreement about publishing or use of data.
Expect to work harder than you have worked to date in your MBA program. After all, you are in charge here, this project is part of your new career, and it is supposed to create a little piece of new knowledge in the world. All of this adds up to an excellent, but sometimes stressful, learning experience. This project/thesis is what makes a graduate program different from an undergraduate program.

GUIDELINES AND REQUIREMENTS FOR THE PROJECT

2008-02-19T21:56:00.001-08:00

Your project report should make clear what you have attempted and why you have attempted it; the methods that you have used to collect, collate and analyze the information obtained; and how you have evaluated it. Any recommendations made should be supported by the evidence presented and by logical argument using deductive and inductive reasoning. For a Project to be of a high quality it is imperative to avoid detailed description devoid of analytical content.

An acceptable project will normally fall into one of the following categories:

Exploratory- a study that involves carrying out original research in order to meet the organization’s continual need for new information for forward decision-making. The main issues may be human, economical, functional etc, but the construction and/or application of some kind of research instrument are the focus of the study. The analysis of the research findings (e.g. client’s responses to questionnaire about changing product specifications) should take place, resulting in proposals about how to manage relevant aspects of the organization’s future.

Explanatory- a study, which would involve studying relationships between different variables like a cause & effect relationship study.

Descriptive- a study that would need an in-depth portrayal of an accurate profile of events or situations from the business environment.

The structuring of the project will reflect your preferences, so there is no one best way to do it. However, there are predictable issues that need covering and your structure should permit you to deal with them in an orderly fashion. For example, a project will include a literature review; most will involve the reporting of primary research; all will need to draw conclusions and consider recommendations. Additionally, all projects will include a section outlining, and justifying, the methodology you have adopted and should link research methods to the objectives and literature review.

The main body of the project must take the reader logically through a variety of linked arguments, relating theory and practice, concepts and concrete observations, so that the reader can understand and identify with the conclusions and recommendations of the author. Your arguments need to be drawn demonstrably from your own observations and grounded in an authoritative set of ideas. They should not be anecdotal. Although the arguments should be presented in a tight structured form – using headings at regular intervals to achieve this – they should also have an essential discursive character, i.e. you should fully explore the implications and ramifications of the topic by developing the arguments in a relevant way.

You should ensure that you have covered all the major issues pertinent to the topic by the end of the main body of the project.

Depending on the nature of your project, it might be appropriate to include a summary of your findings before embarking on your conclusions.

CHOOSING PROJECT TOPIC

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Choosing project topic is probably the hardest thing you will do. The choice of topic is up to you, with guidance from your supervisor, but, he/ she is not there to make the decision for you. To a large extent, your ideas will be influenced by your situation. If you are in employment you may be able to research into a real life problem or, if you are not employed, you may choose a more general business issue. In either case, initial ideas are likely to originate in a vague form and may lack a clear focus. These then need to be developed into something manageable and practical by consideration of available literature/ texts and discussion with your project supervisors once allocated.

Most Project ideas come from:
Personal experience of employment: this is an obvious starting point for the project because in every organisation there would be some issue that can be researched into. An example of a project originating from this way could be an evaluation of the Training Department of your organisation or an evaluation of the performance appraisal systems used for salesmen in your organisation.

Observation of events: Personal observation of events in the organisation/ environment can serve as a starting point for a project idea. An example of this could be that as an employee you observe that the employee turnover in your organisation is very high and as your project you could research into the reasons for this and make suitable recommendations.

Issues of current interest: Reviewing key issues of broader relevance may be another useful indicator for a project idea. Specific consideration of the aspects of the effect of a government policy or a phenomenon on the performance of an organisation/segment/system may provide suitable ideas for a Project. You need to take care when dealing with issues such as these. It may be necessary to confine yourself to an aspect of the issue or you could find yourself tackling something that is too big to handle effectively and gives you a very wide project area, which inevitably lacks depth of analysis.