October 2022 - Page 2 of 13 - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

Online Business App Solutions: Microsoft Office 365 Vs Google Docs

2011 was a good year for web-based “software as a service” suites. Although these aren’t new technologies, now more than ever people seem interested in using and taking advantage of the cloud and of the cloud computing document-sharing services. If in January 2011, Google has announced that it will offers its users free data storage of files up to 1GB for Google Docs, on June the same year, Microsoft released to the public its “commercial software plus services” called Microsoft Office 3665.

Both services include a suite of desktop apps which can be accessed and delivered over the Internet, and provide users with mobility and immediate access to their documents no matter where they, as long as they have a compatible device and an Internet connection.

Such tools address mainly businesses, but also users who work in a team and for whom collaboration tools are an essential part of their work. In order to have an optimal communication between users, such a communication tool needs to be compatible with all the hardware and software components of all members. So it’s essential to know what devices (PC, smartphones, tablets, etc.) your colleagues use and what software products. The best approach would be that the entire team uses the same web-based software service and avoid working across multiple hardware and software platforms.

In terms of familiarity and wider compatibility, Microsoft Office 365 is the best solution, but if your team prefers online ease of use, Google Docs offers a cheaper alternative. Regarding the user’s experience, Microsoft solution relies on locally installed copies of Office (instead of web apps), while Google moves the entire action into browsers. So let’s see what these web-based office suites have to offer:

• Microsoft Office 365 comes with: email, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, OneNote, Lync and calendars. On the other hand Google Docs provides users with: email, Word processor, Drawing app, Presentations, Online spreadsheet

• In terms of price, Google Docs is free (including Gmail, Google Talk, and other Google products), however for $5 per user, per month ($50 per year) you can get Google Apps which comes with Google Docs + support + extra storage + SLA (service level agreement). Microsoft comes with a more intricate license plan which includes various options, such as Plan E4: for $27 a month you get full Microsoft Office license + enterprise voice capability, etc.

• Docs suite is quite easy to install, and all the information you need is on the Google site. We cannot say the same thing about Office 365, as you need to install a browser plug-in, as well as Microsoft Lync.

• Docs is compatible with most important browser, while Office 365 doesn’t support Google Chrome.

• Both tools have an easy to use UI, however Office 365 offers a familiar touch: you’ll be working with documents (as usual), but these will be saved to Office 365 and not on your local machine.

• When it comes to spreadsheets, Google let’s you right-click in the app and resize hide/unhide rows. Also, Google spreadsheets provide more advanced features, such as: charting, image embedding, pivot tables, etc.

• On the other hand, when it comes to presentations/PowerPoint, Office 365 has a clear advantage: the web app offers the same experience and results as the desktop application

Google Docs has the advantage that’s easy to install, is inexpensive, and is compatible with almost any device with a browser. So no matter if you work from your home PC which has installed Linux, or away, from your Android smartphone, the experience will be the same. However, Docs has a series of limitations as well, such as: flawed integration with local apps, scarce compatibility with PowerPoint files, etc.

Microsoft Office 365, although is more expensive, provides a complete set of advanced features, as well as full compatibility with offline Office apps.

So, I can’t really say that one tool is better than the other, but that both have a series of advantages as well as limitations, and that before making your choice you should first take into account the needs and requirements of your team.

Buying a Business With Its Own Cash – And Not a Penny of Your Own

After reading this article, you will be ready to start applying your knowledge and reach your American Dream of owning a business. This comes with a serious effort on your part; however, by reading this article, I assume you’ve decided to take this long journey and start making a change in your life. I’m going to introduce you to some easy ways to get the money you need through the modern-day miracle of leverage. We’ll start with an approach that enables you to make the business actually pay for itself without requiring you to reach for your wallet.

Question: Is it true that the method of taking money out of the company’s cash flow is reserved exclusively for financial gurus?

Answer: It is partly true. Most leveraging techniques have that reputation. And frankly, they shouldn’t. If more people knew about them, many entrepreneurs would have been in business long ago. Such techniques only seem to be reserved for financial experts because they [the techniques] appear more frequently in strategic financial markets. You hear of many major acquisitions worth billions of dollars. Yet, you will never hear how it happened or what was involved. This information never goes public. As will be mentioned in Strategy 4, by developing a strong network with corporate leaders, you will definitely have access to that valuable information even though you might not work in the field.

These are actually hidden secrets that I’m revealing to you right now. The power of information will allow you to go far. However, it’s up to you to make the effort in searching for more information about the company that you want to acquire. Remember, the most powerful tool you have while you are dealing with the seller is showing him your knowledge in the industry and how it can be beneficial for him (and yourself, of course) to sell you the business. And, believe me, you too can put these powerful, yet simple, tools to use immediately.

Question: What is the easiest way to explain how to use a business’s cash flow for financing purposes?

Answer: Let me start by giving you some perspective on how much money we’re really talking about. One expert explains it this way:

“The amount of cash an average business puts into its cash register over just two or three weeks is usually enough to cover the down payment to buy that business”.

Think about it. The cash that collects in just a matter of days is usually enough so that, with some creativity, you can use it to satisfy the seller’s down payment. That can work no matter what type of business you are pursuing. Since there is no law that says you can’t “borrow” that money, all you have to do is figure out how to use the cash collected to pay for the business once you have acquired it. This easy if you have a C.P.A to calculate your cash flow in order to know how to approach the seller with your proposal.

Question: How does the process work?

Answer: A few steps are required. You, or your C.P.A, must determine the net cash flow generated over the first several weeks of business by determining the difference between cash receipt totals and operating expenses.

Question: What are the proper procedures to evaluate a business, and what should I prioritize to make my decision?

Answer: There are several methods used to evaluate companies. Typically cash flow, assets, or replacement values, or a combination of these, are considered when determining the value of a company. The following lists various valuation methodologies typically used by valuation firms.

Replacement Cost Analysis:

o Generally, the value of a company does not relate to the value of replacing the assets of the company. Sometimes the replacement value of the property, plant, and equipment (PP&E) is far higher than the fair market value of the operating business. Sometimes the value of goodwill, such as customer relations, corporate logo, and technical expertise are far higher than the replacement value of the PP&E.

You can often choose a particular industry by expanding facilities already owned, investing in entirely new facilities, or by purchasing all or part of a new company operating in the industry. The decision as to which investment to make depends, in part, on the relative cost of each. Of course, an investor will often consider capacity utilization, location, environmental, political, and legal issues among other things in determining where and how to invest. These issues may outweigh the importance of the replacement cost analysis; in such cases, this valuation method is not used to determine the fair market value of the company.

Asset Appraisal Analysis:

o It is generally possible to liquidate the PP&E assets of a company, and after paying off the company’s liabilities the net proceeds would accrue to the equity of the company. It is necessary to determine whether such liquidation analysis should be performed assuming rapid or orderly liquidation of the assets. However, even when assuming an orderly liquidation of a company, it is generally the case that an operating company will be of substantially higher value. It is not appropriate to use the asset appraisal approach in this case because the company is operating successfully; under such circumstances, in the industry in which the company operates, the company’s fair market value will almost certainly be in excess of the value of its assets on a liquidated basis. The sum is more valuable than the parts. It is appropriate to appraise non-operating assets using an asset appraisal approach to determine their value as part of the fair market value of the company.

Discounted Cash Flow Analysis.

o Another determinant in a company’s value is the anticipated cash flow. Discounted cash flow analysis is a valuation method that isolates the company’s projected cash flow that is available to service debt and provide a return to equity; the net present value of this free cash flow to capital is computed over a projected period based on the perceived risk of achieving such cash flow. So as to take into account the time value of capital it is typically appropriate to value the company’s cash flows using a discounted cash flow approach.

Total Invested Capital.

o Each method of valuing a company or its business units places a value on the total invested capital. These various values are compared to reach a definitive fair market value. Often it is appropriate to weight the various implied values for total invested capital based on the relative effectiveness of each valuation method used for the analysis. When the value of the total invested capital has been determined, any claims to that value that have a more senior right than common stock are subtracted to determine the fair market value of common stock. These other claims include the fair market value of all debt, outstanding preferred stock, outstanding stock options, and share appreciation rights. Non-operating assets that had not been previously valued must be accounted for and added to total invested capital. These generally include cash and the fair market value of any non-operating assets.

Terminal Value.

o An owner may expect cash to flow to capital over an indefinite period of time. While valuation models often use predictions of future cash flows, it may be necessary to represent the value of the cash flow that can reasonably be expected to extend beyond the horizon of the projections. This value, known as the terminal value, is often calculated by multiplying the fifth year cash flow by a multiple. Selected multiples commonly use the median multiple of total invested capital to comparable companies selected in the comparable public company analysis. The selected multiple may be discounted to reflect the company’s performance or size characteristics relative to comparable companies. This is quite similar to dividing the cash flow by the weighted average cost of capital and including a growth factor.

Question: Well, that is all great. However, how will that help me in the purchase of the business?

Answer: You negotiate a deal that enables the seller to receive the down payment directly out of the cash flow once you’ve taken over the company. If this sounds too good to be true, here is an example of its viability:

An aspiring young entrepreneurial couple, Sandy and Kevin, wanted to buy a thriving restaurant and pastry shop in Northern Virginia. Although they were bright and energetic, and possessed some experience in the food industry, they nevertheless lacked-by a long shot-the ability to pay the $100,000 the seller wanted down on the total price of $500,000. (The restaurant’s annual sales equaled $1 million, some of which came from a thriving commercial business selling its fresh roasted coffee to local gourmet supermarkets and coffee shops.)

Fortunately, the seller agreed to pitch in and finance the $400,000 difference over five years at 10% interest. This happens often, especially with a good deal of persuasion. The couple’s problem, however, was raising the remaining $100,000. Kevin’s parents believed strongly in their son and daughter-in-law’s skills and determination and decided to loan them $20,000 to be paid back at their convenience. That certainly helped, but they still needed $80,000. In order to reach this goal, the couple’s C.P.A developed a cash flow statement for the first month of his clients’ new ownership. Their suppliers wouldn’t require any payment for a month so Sandy and Kevin would not have that expenditure. However operating expenses such as rent, payroll, and utilities had to be considered.

Upon seeing the numbers from the financial analysis, Sandy and Kevin were convinced they could easily draw $80,000 from their business within four weeks. But the big question was: How could they convince the seller (who expected a $100,000 check on closing) to wait three to four weeks for his money?

This is where creativity, persuasion, and earnestness were required. Strategizing with lawyers and their C.P.A, Sandy and Kevin devised a plan that enabled the seller to withhold the final papers of the sale for four weeks. During that period, they would pay the seller approximately $20,000 a week. If they missed a payment, the seller would have the right to renege on the deal. The seller agreed to this proposition giving Sandy and Kevin their American Dream for no cash of their own.

This example represents over 80% of all take-over and acquisitions. In the worst-case scenario, the seller may not cooperate; in this case you should understand that he probably was never seriously interested in selling his business. It is possible that the seller was waiting to see how far you would go during the negotiating process, which brings us to the next question.

Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky – 6 Elements of a Successful Creative Team-Business Book

Generating ideas is easy. It’s executing them once they’re exposed that’s challenging. For six years, Scott Belsky, creative industry guru and entrepreneur, studied prolific creative professionals. He found that those most successful followed similar procedures; which seems counter-productive for creatives. He details his findings in his new book entitled, “Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming The Obstacles Between Vision & Reality.” Following is the sixth article in a series highlighting Belsky’s message. Here, the focus is building your creative team. Successful team leaders must strike a balance between flexibility and expectations, idea generation and execution and helpful disagreements and consensus.

Engage Initiators in Your Creative Pursuits. Effective managers measure a prospective employee’s ability to take initiative, rather than exclusively focusing on their experience. Productive teams are powered by people who pursue whatever interests them, even if sometimes prematurely. The best indicator of future initiative is past initiative. “Initiators ” attach themselves to an interest and then relentlessly advance it. When assembling creative teams, probe candidates for their true interests. Measure the extent to which the candidate has pursued those interests. Ask for specific examples and seek to understand lapses of time between interests and activity. Nothing will assist your ideas more than a team who possesses real initiative.

Cultivate Complementary Skill Sets. Some designers use the letter “T” as a model. The letter’s top, long, horizontal line represents an individual’s breadth of experience. The tall, vertical line represents a depth of experience in one particular area. Each team member should have both a general breadth of skills that supports collaboration and good chemistry, and a deep expertise in a single area, such as graphic design or business.

Provide Flexibility for Productivity. Realistically, ideas are made to happen in spurts. Rather than measuring work by time spent working, creative teams should embrace transparency; and strive to build trust between colleagues. Create rules and norms for the sake of efficiency, rather than as a result of mistrust. Some companies have implemented programs, including ROWE (Results Only Work Environment).A ROWE environment compensates employees based on their achievement of specified goals, vs. the number of hours worked. The ultimate goal is to empower employees to make their own decisions about when and where they work as long as mutually agreed upon goals are accomplished. People thrive when their judgment and autonomy are respected. ROWE and other attempts at hands-off management require establishment of concrete goals that are constantly revisited.

Foster an Immune System That Kills Ideas. A cohesive team develops new ideas and helps eliminate bad ones. Ongoing projects face risks when new ideas arise during the process. The ability to extinguish new ideas is critical to productivity and the capacity to scale existing projects. Team skeptics are always questioning ideas first rather than falling in love with them. They keep the group functioning and on track. Differentiate between skeptics and critics. Critics cling to their doubts and are often unwilling to abandon their convictions. Skeptics contrarily, are receptive to new ideas; they’re just initially wary and critical. The challenge is to balance idea generation and relentless focus. It requires allocating time for open idea exchange along with a healthy level of intolerance for idea generation during execution.

Fight Your Way to Breakthroughs. Conflict commonly occurs in any creative process. It’s a good sign and powerful opportunity to refine your ideas and methods. Successful creative team leaders value the friction that results when opinions vary among passionate creative minds. Despite the opportunities that conflict provides, we tend to shy away from it. Conflict is a by-product of different viewpoints, but don’t let it become a source of apathy. Imagine that a problem’s answer lies somewhere on a spectrum between A and B. The more arguing that takes place at both ends of the spectrum, the more likely it is that the complete terrain of adequate possibilities will be explored. The more individuals involved as the team brainstorms the solution, the better. As creative team leader, promote healthy debate between people with different levels of influence and experience. When you sense shortness or impatience, ask, ” How can we keep all options on the table?” or “Since we’re all trying to find the best solution, why are we getting impatient with each other?” Many successful creative teams share the tenet that they’re comfortable fighting out their disagreements and diverse point of view. But they always share conviction after the meeting. Your team is more likely to conceive breakthroughs if its chemistry is strong enough to capitalize on conflict.

Don’t Become Burdened by Consensus. The ultimate challenge in collaborative projects is understanding how to draw on the best input of all without settling on the lowest common denominator. Consensus can often lead to a lackluster outcome. When working with an extended team of stakeholders, listen to their stories, gather knowledge about all their viewpoints and identify the “extremes” that will differentiate the project. Hold these extremes sacred. Incorporating two extremely different viewpoints into a project might signal an “either/or” decision. But, consensus can often be achieved by taking an “and/and” approach. Teams should not strive for complete consensus at a project’s outset. Preserve the extremes and seek common ground on the rest, otherwise, risk mediocre creations. Choose a process that engages all, while preserving the extremes that make an idea extraordinary.

To build a high-performing creative team, look beyond technical skills. Develop a chemistry that will transform ideas into remarkable accomplishments. To learn more about Making Ideas Happen, visit http://the99percent.com/book.

Jobs You Perform From Home – Starting a Home Business

At this point in your life, you may be in search of a career, which allows you the opportunity to balance work with family life. There are companies that offer just that. There are available jobs you perform from home. The problem is finding one that is legitimate and for which you are qualified.

Work-at-home jobs require discipline. If this is your first attempt at earning an income from home, you should know you’d need good organizational skills coupled with the ability to meet deadlines. These factors are essential to completing the tasks that will arise and projects you will accept.

Because so many desire the flexibility working from home offers, there are those that take advantage of this fact. Don’t be too hasty; make certain you aren’t sucked in by a scam. When you apply for employment in person, you neither pay a fee to fill out an application, nor do you tender cash prior to interviewing. So don’t do it for an at home worker position unless you’re certain it’s a bonafide opportunity.

Not to fret, there are real opportunities for jobs you perform from home out there. By using the internet, you can stumble upon them with a little research. If you’re particularly good at research, try becoming a ChaCha Guide or an expert for About.com.

There are various virtual assistant or data entry positions that may be available with companies such as Virtual Office Temps, Team Double-Click, and Avion Data Entry. Qualified persons seeking employment for data entry, administrative assistant, or typist may be required to have previous experience in a secretarial or administrative field, in addition to a specific typing speed.

If you enjoy writing and have a basic understanding of grammar and sentence structure, you might try your hand at freelance writing. Some places to start are the Freelance Writing Center, Textbroker, Triond, Associated Content and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. By accessing the websites of the aforementioned companies, you can find out the requirements for becoming an active author writing articles about specific topics, works of your own interest, or simply re-writes of entire articles or sentences.

You’ll find that many of the positions are for independent contractors not actual employees. You will not receive benefits and are responsible for your own expenses, including settling up with the IRS during tax season. Though it may be a bit more involving then simply using a W-2 and 1040, it’s worth the effort because of the freedom you’ll gain by finding one of the great jobs you perform from home.

Once you find that perfect at home worker position, you need to be able to offer a good work ethic, which produces accurately completed projects in a timely fashion and/or clients pleased with your performance. If you are capable of responsibly completing quality work from home and are computer literate, you are an ideal candidate for many jobs you can perform from home. Good luck in your pursuit of finding that balance.

Insider Secrets to Investing in Real Estate in Nicaragua

The word is out: “Nicaragua is the new Costa Rica” but with prices 45-55% lower than its southern neighbor. Nicaragua is well and truly bouncing back from its troubled and often misunderstood past and beginning to transform into a sought-after investment and tourism destination. Misconceptions still persist, but in many ways that only increases the opportunity that Nicaragua offers.

Nicaragua’s democratically elected government is showing a great capacity to reform in line with its commitment to a free-market economy. The country is booming and tourism is now the number-one industry, increasing by over 19% in 2005 even considering a record-breaking year in 2004. There is a real buzz in the air for this land of opportunity. Whether you are looking for a retirement or vacation destination, a place to start a business or a place to invest for the future, Nicaragua is definitely worth considering.

How much is good real estate information worth?

Market knowledge based on fact and base trends, rather than exaggeration and hype (in both directions) can make the difference between a good investment and a great one. The aim of this article is to capture the essence of the successful real estate investor in Nicaragua. We have consolidated the experience of hundreds of investors and identified seven success strategies for successful real estate investing in Nicaragua.

We hope that this encourages more investors into taking the first step in exploring real estate opportunities outside their home countries with confidence. Although imbued with a Nicaraguan flavor for the purposes of this article, many of the principles and steps highlighted in this article will also hold true in other investment destinations and contexts.

Seven success strategies for real estate investing in Nicaragua

1. Understand the link between tourism and real estate

Tourism brought in almost $200 million in 2005, according to the Nicaraguan government, more than any other single industry in its $5 billion economy. Current projections indicate that by 2007 there will be more than one million visitors to the country. The profile of visitors has shown a marked shift from budget tourists to more affluent and sophisticated travellers and higher-end hotels in tourist areas show consistently high occupancy.

There is strong relationship between leisure and vocational markets and the market for second homes and retirement homes. The areas attracting the most tourism are also generating the greatest levels of real estate activity. For certain real estate products, the link between tourism and real estate is particularly direct and immediate. Pelican Eyes…Piedras y Olas the highest quality hotel in San Juan del Sur, boasting occupancy levels well above industry standards since it opened, offers the possibility for investors to purchase a villa or duplex unit and participate in the revenues generated by the hotel.

2. Know where you are in a property cycle

Nicaragua has seen considerable price rises in the past few years. We have calculated percentage price changes for serviced lots between 2002 and 2005 for seven well known real estate developments on the Pacific that have been active over this period (most developments are more recent) and are still selling property. Over this period prices have risen by an average of 87%. Unimproved colonial homes in Granada have been rising by around 25% per year for the past three years. These price rises indicate that Nicaragua is now on the map as an investment destination, the positive price trend has started, but we are only just seeing the beginnings of a “second wave” of investors: the pre-retirement and retirement market.

Speculators still make up a considerable proportion of investors but an increasing number of pre-retirement / retirement and second home buyers are emerging. Much has been made of the ‘baby boomer’ generation when analyzing future buying trends in many markets worldwide. Baby boomers began turning 50 in 1996 and 78 million of them began to enter their period of highest earnings and greatest discretionary dollars. It is said that over the next 20 years the baby boomer generation will likely constitute the largest potential market ever for real estate products, especially second homes and timeshare/fractional ownership offerings.

The real estate product on offer has also evolved from simple lot sales (sold mainly to speculative buyers) to turnkey products with sophisticated facilities and services for longer term investors and the retirement market. A consistent growth in condominium constructions and sales has been evident for 18 months and is accelerating.

3. Follow trends not events

The bulk of foreign investment into the real estate and tourism sectors in Nicaragua is focused on the south-western part of the country. To take the Pacific coast as an example, in conjunction with Calvet & Associates, we have catalogued over 70 developments on the Pacific marketing to foreign buyers between El Transito and the Costa Rican border. The south-west of the country also includes the colonial town of Granada, Lake Nicaragua and the beautiful Laguna de Apoyo crater lake.

A number of investors are seeking out areas where there is less activity, for example beachfront areas further north. The prices may be lower in the northern part of the coastline – but for a reason – and it is important for investors to take this into account before they make an property purchase. The south western coastline has more dramatic geography, whiter sand beaches, richer biodiversity, better surfing, safer swimming areas and cooling lake and ocean breezes and, yes, also more recently investor momentum. This is not to say that there will be no price appreciation and development on beach areas further to the north but that a significant price differential will likely remain into the future.

4. Build a good network

Investors commonly complain of an overload of market information and building a good network will allow you to triangulate and contextualize information that you receive. Not surprisingly, given the excitement about the real estate market, there is a great deal of story telling and exaggeration that goes on. Do your due diligence, work with realtors who know the market, learn from professionals and be skeptical about claims that you can flip your property for 100% more “when the International Living investors come into town in a few weeks.”

A solid piece of advice is to buy only what you see. Make up your mind on what you think the inherent value is of the property that you are looking at is. Don’t factor in the “new coastal road” the “new airport” the “new Marriott” into the price. Certainly not if you are investing for the short term. Coldwell Banker Nicaragua has a network of lawyers, project managers, master planners and investment analysts who have a long track record of advising investors on real estate acquisition and development in Central America – these are independent third parties who can provide un-emotive grounded advice.

5. Due diligence everything

More specifically, retain competent legal representation and take out title insurance. Nicaragua has a particularly complex title history and some buyers who have not looked deeply enough into the title history of purchased property are now mired in difficult legal problems. A number of real estate developers try and persuade buyers to use their own legal team for property purchasing. Our advice is to employ independent legal advise at least to review (if not draw up) the purchase contract you are signing and check the title history on the property.

Coldwell Banker Nicaragua recommends investors to take out a title insurance policy. Other realtors do not recommend title insurance as the due diligence that ensues can slow down the purchase process and raise difficult questions. Seeking title insurance will force your lawyer to delve many years back into the property history of the property you are purchasing and follow a set of criteria in their reporting. If you are buying raw land parcels outside of a development your due diligence list needs to be longer and will cover infrastructure issues, environmental issues and development permits.

6. Invest with a confidence, develop with a conscience

This is the strap-line of the Nica Dev campaign run by Donn Wilson a developer, entrepreneur and surfer who has made San Juan del Sur his home. Nica Dev recognizes that real estate investors are entering into another country and have an obligation to respect the land, the people and the environment. When you arrive in Nicaragua the impression that you get is of a warmhearted nation that is welcoming to international visitors. In order for this warm feeling to endure into the future, local Nicaraguan also need to benefit from the real estate and tourism activity that is going on in the country.

Las Fincas, a development aligned with the Nica Dev campaign, is designed with sustainable development principles built in. For example a basic solar power setup is provided for everyone who buys and the project runs a series of active community outreach projects introducing highly effective, yet low-cost and low-tech, solutions for cooking and purifying drinking water. Skills and suppliers for low impact construction with elements such as rain water capture, composting and recycling, hard to find 18 months ago, are now readily available in-country. Coldwell Banker Nicaragua is launching its own campaign to generate funds for the Nica Dev fund as well as other projects that our clients are involved in here in Nicaragua. We will be giving our clients the opportunity to contribute to selected projects at the time of closing.

7. Become and expert in investing in real estate in Nicaragua…before you invest

Coldwell Banker Nicaragua Real Estate has launched a series of concise buyer briefings to help investors interested in the real estate market in Nicaragua in their decision making. The briefings highlight real estate hotspots, analyze market trends and set out good value investment opportunities.

Business Book Summary: Teaming

In Teaming, Amy C. Edmondson explains how the increasingly complex and demanding nature of the business world poses learning challenges to organizations. Those who form flexible and collaborative teams to achieve their goals are more likely to be successful. Such collaboration does not come naturally, however, and Edmondson examines how hierarchical status, cultural differences, and distance often prevent individuals from teaming effectively. Leaders can overcome these barriers by recognizing them and modifying their leadership styles to support and facilitate teaming. Learning is paramount in this process, and much of the most useful learning comes from conflict and failure, which can only occur when leaders foster an atmosphere of psychological safety.

Amy C. Edmondson offers readers the following advice:

• Teaming is a dynamic activity, not a bounded, static entity. It involves coordinating and collaborating without the benefit of stable team structures, because many operations require a level of staffing flexibility that makes stable team composition rare.

• The power of teaming in complex operations is the ability to anticipate, solve, and diagnose problems, and reduce system risks in order to avoid consequential failures.

• In innovation operations, leadership is needed to create a receptive environment for exploration and experimentation. Teaming is essential for coming up with new ideas, reducing them to the most viable options, testing and refining them, and ultimately producing ground-breaking and useful new possibilities.

• Learning from failure is a crucial teaming skill. Unfortunately, most people see failure as unacceptable and therefore go to great lengths to avoid any association with it. This attitude is regrettable, as many failures provide useful information about improvement techniques or enhancing efficiency.

• To advance useful experimentation, leaders must reward both experimentation and failure, use verbiage that overcomes intellectual barriers to learning from failure, and devise insightful experiments that generate more smart failures.

• Essential learning in organizations occurs not through individuals working alone to sort through and solve important problems, but rather through people working and learning collaboratively in flexible teams.

Teaming by Amy C. Edmondson is written for executives, managers, project leaders, and supervisors who wish to study or promote the concept of teaming in order to improve organizational performance. The book provides guidelines to establish frameworks for comprehending and responding to the fluidities of collective learning. It is written in a scholarly, well-researched style and contains numerous tables and exhibits. Most chapters conclude with sections titled “Leadership Summary” and “Lessons and Actions,” which highlight key points and essential performance considerations. It was written to enable readers to navigate between chapters to locate specific information as needed, but it can also be read sequentially. Readers will find the book a useful aid in leading colleagues and organizations to overcome increasingly complex problems and challenges.

For more information, please visit http://www.bizsum.com.

MLM Network Marketing Lead Generation Systems – Are They Effective Business Tools?

So, you’ve decided to pursue an MLM business opportunity. What is the first step in getting a new venture off the ground? Although this choice made perfect sense to you, why doesn’t it seem to make sense to your friends and family? Even after they went to a meeting with you and listened to the company sales pitch? Home-based business, and in particular, network marketing is now a $110 Billion industry, after all! Believe it or not there is no deficiency of prospects for your business. If this is true, why don’t you know any of them? So you’re tempted to give up and become part of a statistical 95% who “fail” in business. Your sponsor has told you to talk to people in the supermarket and at the gas pump? Isn’t there a more informed way to find interested people, or better yet, have them seek you out?

What many are finding is that Internet marketing tools can be used to advertise their opportunity through “attraction marketing” and to generate MLM network marketing business leads. In most MLM companies there are certain associates who have discovered a way to leverage the Internet, but few who have their own marketing system, by which leads are coming to them. Due to the high cost of Internet marketing, most rely on the marketing expertise of others, who generate MLM leads, usually via Internet marketing systems, and then make these these leads available for sale. Using leads from a “Leads Company,” can be very effective, but involves the price tag of up to $10-15 per lead and still takes a lot of work since each individual “lead” has to be called and informed about the specifics of your business.

The quality of these “leads” can vary significantly and many get “over-exposed,” receiving calls from numerous distributors, since the “Leads Companies” sell each name up to 30 times. And what about the new FTC rules? But the biggest problem is that unless you generated the lead yourself, it’s still up to you to make the contact. Wouldn’t it be better if the prospect saw your advertisement and contacted you about it?

One thing that is seldom taught by leading MLM companies is how to market, and more specifically, the discipline of Internet marketing. Realizing the need, several companies founded by successful Internet marketers now have developed turn-key MLM marketing systems designed to automate the MLM lead generation process using proven Internet tools.

Should You Let Affiliate Marketers Sell Your Products?

If you have created great products that you are looking to sell online, you may have thought about using affiliate marketers to sell your products. Using this marketing method certainly has its appeal. You don’t have to write tomes of content to market your products. You don’t have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on pay per click marketing. You don’t have to figure out how to drive traffic to your sales pages.

Before you commit to making your products available through affiliate marketers, though, there are a few things that you should think about. This article will help you determine if selling your products through affiliate marketers is right for you and your business.

First, you should realize that you will be giving up a significant portion of your profits to the affiliate marketers that are driving traffic to your sales pages. The percentage of revenues that you will need to pay to affiliate marketers differs depending upon the types of products you are selling, and the caliber of affiliate marketers you want to attract.

If you are selling tangible products, such as books, cookware, yoga mats, or ceremonial swords, you will usually need to pay a commission of 10 to 20% of sales to your affiliates. These commissions can represent a significant portion of your total revenues, especially when you consider that you still have to pay for manufacturing, shipping, and product returns.

If you are selling electronic products, such as software, ebooks, or website subscriptions, you won’t have to worry about paying for manufacturing or shipping, because there are virtually no shipping costs, and no production costs beyond the initial development of the products.

However, affiliate marketers are accustomed to receiving commissions of 40%, 50%, or even 75% for promoting and selling these products. So if you are selling a $40 ebook, you may only realize a profit of $10 after your affiliate commissions have been paid, not counting the minimal costs associated with maintaining your sales website.

Second, you should think about how widely you want to spread your advertising. Once you make your product available to affiliate marketers, you have very limited control over where and how your products are marketed. Some larger companies have means of checking up on affiliate marketers to find out how there products are being marketed, but even the most sophisticated methods are only moderately effective.

If you have a high end product that creates a sense of luxury for your buyers, affiliate marketing may not be the best way of promoting your products. You don’t want your product to be advertised on just any website – certainly, there are certain types of websites that would not cast your products in a favorable light. Even on the internet, you have to maintain your business’s image, and this is more easily done if you keep your advertising in house.

On the other hand, if you have inexpensive products that you would like to make readily available to a wide base of internet consumers, affiliate marketing can work quite well for generating a high volume of sales.

Third, you should evaluate how much time and money you want to spend tracking affiliate sales and writing out commission checks. If you only plan on accepting a handful of affiliate marketers to promote your products, this may not be a big deal. A simple software program can help you keep affiliate IDs straight, so you can determine which affiliate marketer should be credited for each sale. If you plan on using hundreds of affiliates to sell your products, though, this can quickly become a very burdensome task.

If you do want to accept a high number of affiliate marketers, you might want to use a site such as Clickbank to handle tracking and payment functions for you. Clickbank charges you a flat free per product, but in the long run, it can be well worth this fee to have someone else handling these tasks.

Finally, you should consider how much time you have to spend evaluating and accepting affiliate marketers to promote your products. Essentially, you have two options when recruiting affiliate marketers. You can either accept every affiliate marketer that applies for your program, or you can conduct a thorough review of every applicant to make sure that they are a good fit for your program.

If you accept every marketer that applies for your program, you won’t have to spend much (if any) time reviewing your affiliate marketers’ websites and selling history. However, you will likely find that only 2 or 3 percent of the people who apply to your program have the motivation and skills necessary to effectively market your products. Most people that apply for your program will never get around to setting up dedicated websites, writing pay per click ads, or crafting the content necessary to generate interest for your products and drive traffic to your sales pages.

If you conduct a thorough review of every applicant, you will spend significantly more time on your affiliate marketing efforts, but you will likely find more qualified marketers to sell your products. This is especially true if you make this known to potential internet marketers up front. If you ask affiliate marketers for website addresses, verifiable sales figures, and professional references on your affiliate application page, you will immediately weed out those people who are not really serious about marketing your products. Of course, you’ll want to make sure you have the time to review websites and verify sales numbers, or you will quickly generate a backlog of work while your own sales figures suffer.

So before you start signing up affiliate marketers to promote your products, take the time to evaluate whether an affiliate model is truly right for you and your business.

Retail Business Accounting Software

Imagine your favorite little retail shop. Think of how many people come in and out of that business establishment in an hour. Now think of the number of people that look at the shop’s products. Take into consideration the variety of products they buy, as well as the amounts they buy.

If you think about it, such numbers could reach hundreds, or maybe even thousands, during busy days. And the figures could double or triple easily if you take into account every single purchase made at the store.

To assist the owners and accountants of such retail businesses, computer techies and number wizards have come up with a great idea: retail business accounting software.

What is retail business accounting software? This kind of business accounting software has been specifically designed to make the numbers game much easier for business owners and accountants to play. For retail businesses, it is important to keep track of the shop’s stock and how many products are being sold. By identifying these factors, businesses are able to determine which products are the most profitable and which ones are draining them of resources. With retail business accounting software, processing these important figures becomes fairly easy.

Especially integrated into the program itself are important business criteria that are taken into consideration by the retail industry. All a person has to do is key in the required figures as well as other information or business data. Retail business accounting software does the rest of the work. The next thing that the user of the software needs to do is simply understand the statistics that have been summarized for him by the software. There is no need to manually tally laborious computations.

If you are interested in using retail business accounting software for your own retail business or for the company that you are working for, you can easily find one of these through the internet.

Interview With Author Jan Pippins

Jan Pippins, author of Henry Darrow: Lightning in the Bottle, explains how she first got involved writing the biography of veteran actor, Henry Darrow, the first actor of Puerto Rican heritage to star in an American television series. In chronicling the obstacles and successes during the actor’s more than fifty years in show business, Pippins (who co-wrote the book with Darrow) combined personal interviews, internet archives, and the actor’s personal memorabilia collection.

Although Pippins has written professionally for many years, this is her first book. Throughout several careers, she has written legislation, a local newspaper column, short news articles for trade publications and “Where are they now?” fan articles. But when she met the ALMA and Emmy Award-winning actor on her first trip to Los Angeles, she knew he would make the perfect subject for a book.

“It’s a story of life, work, love and redemption,” Pippins says. “Henry Darrow’s story entertains, inspires, and introduces readers to a very human hero who succeeded despite very long odds.”

Insider Scoop on Mid-Century America Show Business

In particular, the book follows the ups and downs of show business in mid-century America from Darrow’s unique perspective. He provides the insider scoop on how public sentiment, government intervention, advertising projections and hard feelings joined forces to kill the landmark series The High Chaparral and other television westerns. He also shares his observations about the problems confronting Latinos and other minorities before, during, and after the Civil Rights struggles of 1960s and how some people like Darrow surmounted those obstacles. The benefits of stardom, however, often came at great personal cost, such as the alienation from his children.

How did Pippins choose this particular subject? “Actually the subject chose me,” she says. “Darrow’s life has all the components of a good novel: a protagonist with big dreams and even bigger talent overcomes humble beginnings, life-threatening illness, crippling anxiety and prejudice to become an international star. At the height of his fame, he put his own hard-won career on the line to open doors for others. Hollywood chews people up and spits them out, but Henry was a working actor for over fifty years. When he asked me to write his biography, how could I refuse?”

Researching and Writing the Biography

Darrow’s massive memorabilia collection helped the author find the right background materials and authenticate stories from various sources. “He’s a packrat,” she says. “We cleaned out one garage and two closets, making his wife, Lauren, very pleased. It was sweaty work, but worth it.”

Her additional research included reading books on the history of Hispanics in the entertainment industry, television and movie westerns, and American history covering pertinent time periods. She also credits internet newspaper and trade magazine archives with helping her establish the proper context for Darrow’s biography.

As enjoyable as the researching and writing was for Pippins, she did face challenges in telling the story of someone in the public eye. One particular challenge was in structuring a career that spans over such a long period. She decided to begin Henry Darrow: Lightning in the Bottle, with a scene of the actor at age seventy-five while he was rehearsing for a demanding role in a stage play of “My Fair Lady.”

Pippins describes the opening of her book: “His knees are bad, his back aches and his memory is failing. For the first time in his life, he’s unsure of himself as an actor. From there we flashback through Henry’s remarkable life and career in three sections – three acts as if in a play. At the end we circle back around to ‘My Fair Lady’ and what happened in that performance.”

The author also recognized the importance of telling someone’s life story with accuracy, attention to detail, and tender loving care. According to Pippins, “While writing the book, I was acutely aware that I had a significant responsibility. This kind and charming man, his wonderful wife, friends and family entrusted me with their stories. I owed my best work to everyone involved, including eventual readers.”

Book Details

Henry Darrow: Lightning in the Bottle. Authors: Jan Pippins and Henry Darrow. Publisher: BearManor Media, 2012. Pages: 392. http://www.henrydarrowbook.com. ISBN: 978-1593936884.