Investors are waiting for the next great business idea

Investors Are Waiting For the Next Great Business Idea

What they may not realize is there are many people in the business world waiting for people just like them. They are looking for people with both passion and a solidified plan, who are without funds to make their dream a reality. People who are already successful will often provide startup capital or venture capital to someone to help them begin their dream of owning and operating their small business.

Venture capital, or VC, is money provided by a person or business to another person or business to help them start their business. It is typically provided to businesses that are in the early stages of growth and have a high potential for growth. The providers of venture capital will often exchange their money for shares in the company. Although they may believe greatly in the company or business, most venture capital investments are not made for entirely altruistic reasons.

The person providing the money, the venture capitalist, expects to have a substantial return on their investment. The person or company that goes looking for VC is often a young company without an established history. They are far too small to raise the money they are looking for through IPO’s, stock issuance, or other standard ways larger companies raise cash. Neither are they able to secure a loan from a bank.

Venture capitalists are constantly approached by people with new business ideas. However they will typically reject the large majority of opportunities that are shown to them. Most simply do not have the combination of rare qualities and potential for growth. A good business model and an excellent management team are also important requirements.

Venture capitalists do not make a living by throwing money at every person who approaches them. They evaluate every opportunity critically and those that do not match their unique criteria will be rejected. Several key things need to be in place before a venture capitalist will invest in a business. A solid business strategy is one of the first keys to securing VC.

Without it, most people will be rejected before their first meeting. Succession planning is also quite important to a venture capitalist. Pumping money into a business without a backup person who knows how to run the company is a bad idea at best. Finally, a group who has a mentor on their team will greatly increase their chances at securing VC.

Although a new company may have a great idea, their lack of experience can be the single greatest inhibiting factor in their pursuit of VC. Finding a mentor with established and successful business experience who will help guide them will greatly increase their chances of securing VC. It will practically ensure the future success of their business. Mentors are also valuable for helping to determine a real value for the business so that one doesn’t ask for too much, or worse, too little when the time comes.

Venture capital comes from a variety of sources. They make their living by providing both capital as well as marketing, small business consultants, and in some cases, mentors. Family and friends are a tried and true source of venture capital. Turning to them can be a last resort because things can get messy, especially if the business fails.

The oft-searched for but not often found angel investor, or someone who can provide the seed money is an option too. They will determine whether a new idea is viable or not, however finding such an investor can be next to impossible. While nothing can ever be certain, making sure a budding small business has a solid business plan is a very basic requirement. A good marketing plan, potential for growth, and realistic expectations are good steps in the path to securing venture capital.

Keeping the cash flowing

Keeping the Cash Flowing

IT’S TOUGH OUT THERE in retailing You read the papers, you walk through the shopping malls, and retailers are closing up or being bought out. It’s been a long time since retailing was so tough. Having personally gone through the extreme highs and the lows in retail, I can now comment on why I feel a lot of retailers are going through hard times.

Whether you are a start-up, small business or a multi-national, cash flow is imperative to business survival. Retailers have gone through a stop-start love affair with cash flow management, by putting out fires when they arise, rather than implementing some simple management tools.

To understand how to manage cash flow, you must fully understand what its components are:

Pay accounts slower — Your suppliers that you have good relationships with should give you some leeway with time frames to pay your accounts. Sometimes we chase the discount that is given for early payments on accounts, but should ask ourselves if that discount will make a major impact to the bottom line.

Remember — don’t mistake profit (the money that you make after you have paid for everything) with cash flow (the money that pays the running and growth of the business).

Reduce inventory — Retailers are generally very good at doing this. But rather than slashing prices, have a look at some other alternatives such as: setting open-to-buy budgets; standardising layouts across stores that maximise sales in core departments; reviewing/implementing a replenishment program; concession arrangements with suppliers; and returning stock that has not sold and replacing it with faster moving lines.

Collect accounts receivable — Because most retailers don’t have large accounts outstanding, this really applies to those who have a corporate section of their business. If you are a retailer that has account systems in place, look at ways to reduce the terms of the account from 30 days down to 14 days, or take deposits.

Reduce costs of goods — Internally this would be your processing in which you receive, store, and distribute stock. When dealing with suppliers, organise strong trading terms, which gives you more margin in the backend for rebates, co-op advertising and return-to-supplier programs.

Increase prices — «You’re insane, you can’t increase prices, we’ll get murdered out there.» Yes, retail is competitive, and the majors have pushed everyone into discounting mode to increase sales. But without freaking you out, have a look at the stock on the floor, and determine which items you have that experience high levels of competition (and keep these prices competitive), and review the items which have little or no competition (and increase the prices of these products).

Stopping the leaks

In understanding what makes up cash flow, retailers should put in strategies to ensure that they maximise their cash position at all times. Here are some simple strategies that can be implemented in your retail business.

Measure stock turns — This is the cost of sales times the cost of goods in stock for a 12-month period. So if you had $1 million of total inventory for the year, and sold $1 million at cost, you would have one stock turn a year. The benchmark is to have four stock turns a year, to maintain a healthy cash flow.

Measure wages as a percentage of sales — Setting a benchmark on wages as a percentage of sales is a very basic, but important, strategy. Remember to factor in all of the add-on costs that are associated to wages such as commissions, payroll tax, superannuation, workers compensation, etc. Also when deciding on your wages percentage target, look at what you can afford within your margins, and also adequate floor coverage, so in order not to miss any sales opportunities.

Measure marketing expense as a percentage of sales — It is amazing how many businesses burn cash on useless or over-marketing expenditure. Some of the budgets are plucked out of the air, with no real understanding of how it impacts cash flow. Then when times get tough, retailers rein in advertising, which compounds on the loss of sales. Set yourself a marketing expenditure budget based on a percentage of sales, so that you don’t overspend, or lose traction when business slows down.

Evaluate your rent expenditure — Evaluate your location strategy on a regular basis, if you can rent cheaper premises without hurting the business, then move. We know how hard it is negotiating rents with a major shopping centre, which is why we focus on location strategy rather than negotiating a cheaper rent.

Intumescent strips — a practical addition in fire safety

Intumescent Strips — A Practical Addition in Fire Safety

Interestingly enough, when an establishment invests in fire safety one stocks up enough fire extinguishes & fire blankets then proceeds to install a network of smoke detectors, sprinklers and a good number of fire safety signs to boot. Of course, there are less known methods of fire safety but certainly quite effective in their own right — one such example is the use of intumescent-based fire safety devices such as intumescent strips.

For starters, lets define in lay terms what an intumescent is. Basically, intumescents are substances that expand when temperatures rise — increasing in volume but lowering in density. This is especially useful then, in lining gaps that may conduct fire into other larger spaces. When the fire starts, the intumescent material then expands closing the gaps to prevent further spread of fire and therefore, any further damage from happening. The usage of intumescent material in this way is part of a larger process known as fireproofing.

Intumescent material comes in a variety of chemical compositions depending on its use. While intumescent strips in general, come in a variety of forms — a couple examples are the intumescent pipe wrap and intumescent glazing tape. The pipe wrap as its name gives away — is used to protect pipes like ones found behind walls as part of the network that distributes water to the different outlets. Installed properly, intumescent pipe wraps should, upon exposure to the heat of fire expand and collapse while covering any holes for up to 2 to 4 hours. Intumescent glazing tape on the other hand is used for sealing the gaps on fire resistant glass and fire doors. Intumescent glazing tape effectively seals out gaps like these for about 30 minutes.

While the use of intumescent material certainly helps quite a bit in terms of safety from fire spreading, there are a few things one has to note of. First, that excessive moisture tends to ruin the material — and thus proper installation of the material on an environment that is relatively low in humidity is crucial. Secondly, that the human response to the fire must be immediate enough as the intumescent material does not last very long and only serves as a temporary «shield» from further damage. Indeed, intumescent material works best when applied together with other fire protection methods such as a fire alarm and a network of sprinklers.

Used properly, intumescent material such as the intumescent strips mentioned above give ample time and help for response to the occuring fire. This is especially useful in bigger establishments such as in buildings, schools, offices but has ample use for the home as well. This is because the bigger the area, the longer the response time and preventing further damage to expensive building material is more cost-effective than replacing them with new ones. While not as common as perhaps say, a fire extinguisher or a fire hose reel, the use of intumescent material proves to be a worthy edition to any establishment that wishes to safeguard its assets.

How to get high demarcation test equipments

How to get high demarcation Test Equipments

Products 4 testing is highly reputed and renowned destination to find the excellent quality pat testing equipment, electrical test equipment and other high definition test equipment and devices. The companies also are the standard licensee by the local electrical authority to supply the best branded high standard pat tester like Fluke, seaward, etc. They also stock the auxiliary of all their pat equipments so that if any equipment or device is damaged due to the abuse by its user, it could be repaired with an instant effect providing the creative spared from the manufacturer.
Right from the launch of the business, the company has stressed more on providing only the enhanced superiority pat testing equipments and the electrical abettors that are manufactured by the improved brands from all across the country. All their testing equipments are guaranteed against any breakdown while operating and they presents the perfect and undisputed outcome. The companies also offer the sales services to the clientele for all the equipments and thus have the trained professionals from the manufacturers of the appliances so that they can perform the repairing work easily. They also stock every type of electrical fixtures and abettors to meet any requirement of their reputed clientele.
Product4testing also undertakes the deals to test the workmanship and form of portable appliance being used everywhere at corporate, industrial, public and domestic sector. The company is the largest stocker of all the regular <a href=»http://www.products4testing.co.uk/»>pat testers</a> and the testing assists created by the finest brands like the fluke testers, Seawards etc. so as to become the solid backbone of their dear customers during the diverse emergency cases. To overcome the rising require for their products, they have introduced their website with the detailed minutiae about all their product types, their item and part numbers, status of availability and prices on different level.
They have a team of well trained proficient and they are certified to test the equipment. Being the famous licensee for performing the pat testing, the company can also conduct the diverse training meetings for the fresh electricians and later on their successful completion of the training course. Also, with the new developing technological advance taking place, we see fresh unique inventions being created everyday in the various fields which we add in our enterprise to revise its operations in the field of pat testing. It has now become effortless for their remote clientele to order any desired pat testing product through their website and they make certain the delivery at your doorstep within the nearest possible time. Their website proved highly important to their overseas customers to place the regular orders of pat campaign and equipments as per their requirements selecting the appropriate mode of expense. The wide series of pat tester equipments that are provided by the company are very handy and also easy to utilize and are obtainable in the market in the most affordable prices.

How to select a network marketing company

How to Select a Network Marketing Company

Network Marketing is now being taught at over 200 colleges and Universities.

This will only increase as Companies and Individuals look for ways to minimize distribution and advertising costs. This allows the Company to avoid huge marketing costs and collection issues, and also allows the Company to maintain an acceptable profit margin.

In return, the Independent Distributors are given an opportunity to share in the profits. Tod do so, the product should be of a higher quality than what can typically be found at traditional retail outlets, and be value priced with comparable products. It is better for the Independent Distributor, often called an «IBO» (Independent Business Owner) If a product of equal quality and value cannot be purchased through traditional marketing channels.

What typically happens is that products that are superior quality from a Network Company are successful are «copied» by others, and often when end up on store shelves. Many of these are inferior quality to the original, but are offered at a lower price point using the same appearance and similar ingredients. In marketing, whether network or not, this is called the «product life cycle».

In the beginning, Network Companies and their «IBO’s often have a strategic advantage, especially if the product is unique, which it often is, and excellent quality. Regardless of the Business Opportunity, it cannot sustain the Company itself. In the end, it has to be about the product. If you are fortunate enough to have a unique , quality product, and are in «early», then your chances for success are greatly enhanced.

The longer the product is on the market, the more «copied» product will appear, and the more distributors. A good example are nutritional supplements. 40 years ago, you could purchase higher quality supplements and vitamins from direct Companies like Shaklee. Lower quality vitamins were(and still are) available at retail, Like «One a Day». As society has looked for alternatives, Network Companies offering quality supplements have increased.

Currently, the Health and Wellness sector for Nutritional Products is approaching the 1 trillion dollar mark. These type of products are consumable, and offer an excellent chance at repeat sales.

If you carefully select the right Company with a unique product, and your timing is right,then your chances for success are greatly enhanced. It is much better to get in early, selecting the right Company and other «IBO’s»
to work with, which are often referred to as your «upline».

Most Networking Companies that fail do so in the first 18 months; But, it is also true that those that enroll during pre-launch or shortly thereafter stand to make the most money; so it is important to select the company carefully. You don’t want to invest 2 years of your time, and start making a residual income that you never though possible, and the company gets sold, goes out of business, or can’t produce enough to meet demand. And you don’t want to wait 2 years, to see if the Company has staying power, and then miss out on all that early growth and opportunity.

It’s sort of like picking a «penny stock» , anything under $5 per share. Microsoft, Apple, Dell, and Cisco were once «penny stocks».

Inevitably, you will pick some good ones and maybe some that seemed like a good idea that didn’t turn out as well. So in evaluating a Network Company, you want to consider the Financial Stability of the Company, the Uniqueness and price point of the product, and the upside growth potential.

Look at the owners and Management team. many were successful as an IBO in a previous company, or as an officer or Investor.

The great thing about Network marketing is using the Power of Leverage, that is others will help you grow your business. So in the best case scenario, you invest a small amount in product, primarily what you will use, and then spend time developing your business. Network marketing is all about working smart first and hard second. You can spend an extraordinary amount of time and money and have little to show for it. On the other hand, if you work smart, you will be one of those successful entrepreneurs we hear and talk about. And realize it may not happen on the first Company. I know a fellow who was a house painter by trade who did not find success until his seventh company, and became a multi-millionaire from that one.

Had he done due diligence, he may have been able to shorten his learning curve. The good thing for anyone considering a Networking Opportunity is we can learn from others who have succeeded. Many have had failures along the way, and by studying them you can enhance your opportunity for success.