Tag: Reasons

Top 3 Reasons For Writing Business Plans

Whether you are a start up or established business, and whether you are a non-profit organization, writing a business plan can be one of the most useful things you can do for your business. Obviously there are different types of business plans depending on the nature of your company or organization. It’s not enough that you have a “hunch” your new start up will be a roaring success, or you believe your latest web. 2.0 idea a surefire “ten bagger” success for the lucky venture capitalist. There are people who need to take a close look at your business plan; whether it’s you, internal management or external investors. In this article, we will look at the top three reasons for writing business plans.

First to answer the question: “Is the business feasible?”

Before you actually commit funds, manpower and time on starting a business, it helps to actually have a “dry run” to see if the venture you have in mind has a good chance of success. The business planning process forces you to look at what your competitors are doing and to ask yourself how you can differentiate your product or service. Typically we call this a SWOT analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. At the same time you want to identify, as clearly as possible your unique selling proposition. This can be a special feature or something unique about your branding. Just be different and attractive in the eyes of your target market. Going through this process will give you a better idea of you chances for success in the marketplace.

Then look at your projected financials – do you have the required funds to start your business? Where are you going to raise the capital? How soon will the business break even? All of them are pertinent questions.

Secondly, a business plan is used to help secure loans from banks or financing from outside investors. Typically if you are a start up, you will find it very hard to get any financing from your local bank unless you have landed collateral, regardless if you have a plan written or not. If your business is established for several years and have healthy cash flow, then the bank will definitely want to see your financials before given you any loans or bridge financing.

If you are looking for angels or venture capital investment, then a business plan, particularly the executive summary is what they will require. What’s more important to these investors, more than the plan itself, is the entrepreneur’s track record and the strength of your management team. Be sure to include these important points in your bplan.

Last but not least, a written business plan should be constantly evolving. It acts as a blue print to guide management in the execution of business strategy and to meet goals. By constantly reviewing and updating the plan, it is used as a useful communication tool within the company to guide business growth.

We’ve looked at some good reasons from writing business plans. Now, if you don’t think you know how to write one, help is available. Look for a template online, such as at the site given below. Or better still get business plan software. The good ones, such as Business Plan Pro 2007, are easy to use and will guide you to input the necessary text and numbers and come out with a complete plan for you. There’s absolutely no reason why any business person should not have a business plan blueprint.

Reasons That Make Business Document Templates Useful

There are many situations, when we face the need to fill out and submit documents to different organizations. There are, probably, no people, who have not done that at least once in their lifetime. However, situations differ and it’s not always possible to find the submission rules and guidelines right from the start. When you are in a hurry, though, there if frequently no time to look for the document samples somewhere out there. In such situations, the use of web-based catalogues of business document templates is the best choice. Such catalogues are available round-the-clock and they enlist hundreds of sample forms you can either download and print out or fill out directly at the website. These files may be free and paid. You have to consider that when looking for the most suitable online service. Let’s have a look now at some of the most obvious merits of using ready-made business document templates.

1. It Is All About Quality

If you manage to find a reliable service providing free printable document templates, this is already half of the task. It’s not a secret that the quality of sample forms matters a lot, when it comes to submitting them to different organizations and institutions. The majority of web-based catalogues of sample forms contain an extensive selection of professionally designed templates that adhere to the highest business standards. Whatever niche you specialize in and whatever documents you have to fill out, dealing with trusted services is one of the keys to success.

2. Time Economy

The number of documents you might need for business purposes is really impressive. It’s physically impossible to know the completion rules of all of them. By using a ready-made template, you don’t need to waste your precious time searching for the sample forms online or offline. It’s reasonable to find a reliable and professional platform once and use it when needed. This is how you will be able to focus on your current business or personal needs instead of browsing the web. The fact that most of these services come with a convenient search filter option contributes to the ease of use and makes the process much quicker than you could even imagine.

3. Efficacy

The use of online sample forms is not only convenient and quick, but it’s also effective. As mentioned in the previous point, you don’t need to look for the required files elsewhere to solve your current tasks. What you have to do is to find the document template you need, fill it out online and submit to the website of a certain organization. There is also another way you can go. If you have enough time, you can download the file to your computer and print it out then. Having filled it out manually, you can later send or take it to the organization you need in person. This depends upon the amount of time you have and the submission rules. By the way, many people consider the latter variant more convenient and safe, but it’s still up to you to make your choice.

4. Customization Options

Even though, all the document templates are structured with regard to specific business requirements, you can still customize any of them based on your individual needs. In this respect, the use of online sample forms is more convenient, of course. Just use any of the required files as a professional basis for your document and customize it by adding your own content.

5. Structural Consistency

As a rule, business documents have to maintain specific structure and consistency. Otherwise, there won’t be any sense in using the templates. The structure of each document reflects business specialization and it’s crucial to include all the must-have points there. By using ready-made templates, you can make sure that you won’t forget any crucial points. They are created with your business needs, convenience of use and efficacy in mind. This is what makes them so handy and valuable nowadays.

39 Reasons Why I Left The Corporate World & Became A Personal Brand

1. I realized early on that I didn’t fit into the corporate world.

2. I didn’t like the corporate world and all its ‘fakeness’ or its desire to be ‘politically correct’ and ‘polite’. I wanted to call a spade – a spade.

3. It wasn’t me living a life – I was living a routine.

4. I realized I would be a slave forever to this system.

5. Whatever I did or contributed – all that effort wasn’t me.

6. Wanted to Break away from the 9 to 5 lifestyle.

7. Wanted to be an authority & expert.

8. I didn’t want to take someone else’s business card with my name typed on it with a dummy designation and introduce myself as a slave to that company.

9. I saw others earning per hour and enjoying a luxurious life and going for holidays whenever they wanted.

10. I realised there were many people living with Flexibility in Operation & Lifestyle. I wanted part of that.

11. I wanted to create a lifestyle where whatever work and contributions I made – I could take with me wherever I wanted. The problem with working for a company was that – the day I would leave the company – all the contributions I made to the company would be with the company. And if I joined a new company – I would have to start from zero and prove myself from zero all over again.

12. I wanted to earn as much as I like.

13. I wanted to wear – whatever I wanted to wear.

14. I wanted respect for being “ME” and not an “employee” of a respected company.

15. I hated Office Politics.

16. Working for someone was forever unpredictable

17. Success in the corporate world depended on the authority of someone above me. And if he didn’t like me – that was the end of my success phase.

18. I hated pleasing others – Clients, Customers, Boss, Colleagues, Vendors & Suppliers. I was fed up!

19. I didn’t want to dance to anyone’s tunes just because he had a dummy title. And even worse was respecting someone I didn’t want to respect.

20. I wanted to be in control of my own destiny, time and lifestyle.

21. I wanted to earn as much as I wanted & rest & switch off whenever I wanted to with having to get a sick-leave-certificate.

22. I have always been restless, creative, a rebel and loved to do my own thing.

23. Loved reinventing ways and means of working. Constantly trying and experimenting new things.

24. I didn’t believe in reporting to work on time.

25. I didn’t believe in calling anyone above me “Sir” or “Madam” just because he or she had more experience than me in ONLY that given job or because he or she was my customer or client.

26. I kept failing in whatever I was doing because it was at its best – boring! I wasn’t contributing to my own brand. It felt like a job!

27. I felt a greater sense of passion knowing that what I was working for – was my own baby and would be mine forever! I wanted to create my own brand!

28. Even if I put in 100%, the ROI wouldn’t be 100%. It would be less.

29. I didn’t like when my ideas were rejected and I also hated the fact that I had to convince the world for implementing my ideas.

30. The day I resigned from the company – it would be that person’s brand and not mine which would remain.

31. I wanted to be myself – which I could never do working for the corporate world.

32. Every time I changed a job – I had to start from scratch.

33. My progress was based on the whims and fancies of others.

34. Whatever I created or made – was finally – someone else’s. And to watch someone else take credit or get a bonus for it – I hated it.

35. No matter what position or salary or successful I was – End of the day I was recognized as an employee.

36. There would be a limit to how much I earned.

37. No great visionary or legend or artist or memorable brand was an Employee.

38. If I made a good deal or got a bonus I could take many weeks off without any work!

39. There was always the risk of Management Change or Unpredictable factors which I couldn’t control where my hard work could still go down the drain.

33 Reasons Why You Need a Website Right Now

People are more internet savvy than ever before. However, there are many businesses that feel that they are OK even though they don’t have an online presence. There over 100 reasons why businesses need a website. In this article, we will only talk about the 33 reasons why you need a website right now.

#33. Your Competitor Has A Website – Whether you choose to compete or not, there is someone trying to earn your potential customers’ business. When price isn’t the issue, and 1 reference isn’t good enough to close the deal, your website can be used as a tool to gain new customers. If you don’t do it, your competitor will.

#32. Your Customers Are Looking For You – In a perfect world every customer that you ever service will keep your number on their refrigerator, or in their cell phone. When they need you they would simply go to the frig and give you a call. Unfortunately wives throw items away from the frig without asking and cell phones get lost or broken. When you customer needs your service again, it is likely that they will know your name and not your number. In many cases they will then look for your website.

#31. Your Customers Need Your Help – A happy customer would love to help you gain new business, however if someone is asking about your work and your previous customer doesn’t have you phone number off hand they may be forced to search for your business online. With no website, you give your competitor a perfect opportunity to impact your potential customer’s decision.

#30. Many People Use Websites to Research Before They Buy- Many people love the fact that they can research a service anonymously before they make a decision. No pushy sales people, only information on a product or service. Position your website properly, and you can have the greatest impact on a their final decision.

#29. Establishes Credibility- Years in business, Testimonials, Photos, and Pricing Information all help to establish credibility. Your website is a perfect tool to provide this information and much more for the customer that has never heard of your business.

#28. Shows Quality of Work – You may be able to provide the best service or have the best product, but if no one sees your work, no one will buy from you. A professional website gives a potential customer a sense of your style, a chance to see your work, and a chance to determine if you can provide the best service.

#27. Create a Fan – There are many potential customers that are not ready to buy from you right now. A website can be used as a tool to make them a fan so that you can communicate to them with your expertise until they are ready buy.

#26. Before and After Effect – Show your potential customers that you understand their needs. Use your website to tell a story with before and after photos. The better you are at showing that you can solve a problem, the sooner you will earn a customer.

#25. No One Knows The Business Better Than You – As a small business owner there is something that brought you into the business. There is something that makes you unique. Maybe its your price, or quality of service. It could be your time of completion on your job. Use your website to show customers your expertise, and what makes you different from your competitors.

#24. Many People Won’t Buy Unless You Have a Website- Where there is one person who doesn’t mind doing business with you without a website, there may be one more that would like to see your website before they make a decision. The question you have to ask yourself is, which one of these customers is more likely to spend the most money? If your answer is the customer that is looking for a website, then you need to act quickly to reach those customers right away.

#23. Your Domain Name May Be Purchased By Anyone – There are companies that buy domain names only to sell to the owner of a particular business. The more successful your business is, the more at risk you are of being a victim.

#22. If you completed Your Website Today You Are 4 – 6 months away from seeing consistent traffic – A well optimized website in a competitive market like Atlanta will take about 4 – 6 months to achieve exceptional ranking. That means that if your site was complete today, you would not be able to see the true potential of your website for some time.

#21. Your Competitors Need Your Help – You read this reason right. Your competitors may need your help. Every week I have customers that get calls from other businesses to provide a service that they don’t offer. Let’s take a roofer for example. If this roofer only provides roof repairs and cleaning, and a potential customer needs a new roof. He is not likely going to train his technicians on how to install a new roof. He is more likely to give this to a company who can provide this service. Many companies get calls like this in their industry all the time.

#20. Your Customers Don’t Know What You Do – Many times your greatest opportunity to grow your business is by up selling you current customer base. A website is a great tool to show your customers all of the services that you offer. I call it, making sure you get the low hanging fruit.

#19. Your Name Doesn’t Say It All – In #21 we talked about a roofer who doesn’t do new roofs. What if you are a car insurance company that offers health insurance as well? The key here is that your business name doesn’t say it all. A website is your opportunity to show the customer all of the services that you offer.

#18. Your Safety Net – Plan on advertising in the yellow pages, billboard, tv, radio, or even a magazine. You need a website right away. If someone sees your billboard, but couldn’t write down your phone number on the road, they will probably look you up online when they are avail-able. If they hear your radio ad, or see your television commercial they may search on the internet for more information. Your website will help to protect your investment in other forms of advertising.

#17. Your Dream Customer Is Looking Online – Do you know your perfect customer? If you do, make sure that you show them that you provide the service they are looking for, answer the questions they usually have, show some examples of completed projects, and give them the price they want. If you are successful at providing this information, you will attract the perfect customer every time.

#16. Search Engines Need Your Help – The purpose of search engines is to provide people with information. By adding information about your product or service, you help provide the search engines with answers to the questions that users may have. Fortunately for you, sometimes this information will attract new customers.

#15. It’s 2010

#14. Why Not Have Two Businesses – When people come into your brick and mortar business they can take a look at the products and services you offer, get pricing information, and make a purchase. Many people won’t leave the house until they have decided what they are going to buy. A website for many people is a second business, in that it reaches a group of people who would probably never come to your physical location.

#13. Website Design Is More Affordable Than Ever – There are more internet advertising companies than ever before. This competitive market means you win. With some companies building websites for as low as $250, the question isn’t how much anymore it is “what does this include?”. While website design is important, be sure to add an effective internet advertising strategy as well to your program.

#12. Time Is Running Out, But It’s Not To Late – With the rapid growth of the internet, many businesses are learning how important it is to advertise on the internet. The more websites that are built in a particular industry means the more competition. The search engines have factors that they use to help some websites perform better than others. One major factor is time. If you build a site today, and your competitor builds his in another year, you have the upper hand on keeping high visibility.

#11. Instant Policy Information for Customers, Phone numbers, and Business hours – Have you ever needed to get a specific department of a company, but had to be transferred several times to get the person you needed to speak to? Are you making your customers do the same thing? Give your customers a point of reference to follow for your product or service online, as well as, people to contact for more information.

#10. Reach Potential Customers 365 Days a Year, 24 Hours a day – Many people choose to research a product or service before they buy. Unfortunately, for many businesses they need to do their research after business hours when they get off work. Give these potential customers relevant information about your product or service, set their expectations on what they can expect if they were to hire you for the job, and you have a tool that will reach people 24/7, 365 days a year.

#9. Collect Email Addresses of Potential Customers – This is my secret weapon of lead generation. You would be blown away by the amount of people who would prefer to leave their contact information such as email instead of phone number. What I would have you consider is, what person is so busy that they would rather communicate through email than pick up the phone and call? You guessed it! Someone who is very busy, or said differently someone who is very successful. Someone you would like to talk to.

#8. Save Money – A website will save you money because it saves you time. It will save you time by, shortening your sales cycle. You can also use your site to narrow your market to a product or service that brings a higher return. Reduce calls for services you don’t offer. Protect Your Brand Name. Last but not least, protect your investment in other forms of advertising.

#7. Reach Local Market – If you can’t be the King of Rome, be the King somewhere! Market your site locally, and dominate your local area to generate quality leads from people who are ready to buy right now.

#6. Answer Common Questions – How long have you been in business? How much does your product or service cost? How long will your service take? When can you start? What do you need to do to get started? Where are you located? What is unique about your product or service? The questions you answer every time a new lead calls you. Save yourself time and speed up the sales cycle with simple answers to common questions.

#5. Test New Products or Services – Is there something unique about your product or service that no other company has? Have you created something that will save people time, save them money, or perhaps even make them money? Reach people quickly and receive feedback from the people who need it most. If you have something worth sharing people will invest in you.

#4. Speed Up The Sales Cycle – Provide a complete resource of information on your website that people can use to make a decision on your product or service online and you have shortened the sales cycle. Save people time, and they will give you money.

#3. A Sales Tool Outside Of The Office – Provide sales tools for your account representatives to use in the field. Give them log in and password to access spreadsheets, pricing information, or power point presentations. Consider allowing them to process sales and payments online so they will not have to carry sensitive customer information like credit cards, or checks. In many cases, this will save your representatives time, leaving more time to do what you need them to do. Sale!

#2. Protect Your Brand Name – Thousands of businesses can be tremendously impacted by the effects of 1 negative review. If a business has been around for more than 2 years, there is a very high chance that there is some information about them on the internet. Yellow page directories, search engine map listings, and BBB will often provide a platform for customers to give feedback on a business. Unfortunately, happy customers won’t usually take the time to find these directories to write reviews. Without a website, you are at risk of 1 single negative review being seen by every potential customer that looks for your business online. Give your happy customers a platform to write positive reviews about your business and perhaps a person who was going to write a negative review will reconsider based off of the work you have done over the years.

#1 Search Engines Want To Help You Grow Your Business – That’s right Google, Yahoo, and Bing wants to make you money! Think about it… If you became wealthy off of online marketing with Google, who are you going to spend money on for advertising? Big businesses and large corporations have already figured out how to get customers from internet. The search engines biggest opportunity to grow their business is to help you grow yours.

There are many reasons why you need a website. I hope this article helps to you know 33 reasons why you need a website right now!

Thanks for taking the time to read my article

What Is Local SEO and 5 Reasons Why It’s Important

What You Don’t Know Online Can Hurt You

How do you know if you need a local SEO strategy? The critical word in this question is “local.” Do you own a business that draws in customers from zero to 15 miles away? Would potential customers looking for your products and services drive up to ten minutes to get to your business? If you can answer yes to these questions, chances are you need to manage your local SEO strategy.

So, what is local SEO? And why is it important?

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO involves optimizing your online presence to attract business from local searches on Google and other search engines. According to Hubspot’s local SEO statistics, 46% of all Google searchers are looking for local information. And 72% of consumers who searched for a local product or service using local SEO near me searches visited a store within five miles.

So, does local SEO work? It sure did if you were one of those businesses. Are you wondering where to start? To illustrate the benefits of focusing on local SEO, we’ve put together a list of five reasons why it’s essential for your business success.

5 Reasons Local SEO Is Essential for Your Business Success

Reason #1 – Your Business Details Appear in Front of Consumers Looking for Your Products and Services

Remember the good old days when you scoured the yellow pages to find businesses offering the products and services you needed? Today, all you do is type the product or service you’re looking for into a search engine on your laptop, desktop, or mobile device. The businesses that provide those products or services will pop up. And, if you type “near me,” it’ll show you everything close enough to drive to from your current location.

Pretty slick. Those local SEO “near me” searches save you time. Just choose what you like, pull up the map and directions, and you’re good to go. If you look at those results carefully, you’ll see they’re populated by online business directories, much like the yellow pages of bygone days.

When you compare local SEO vs. organic SEO, both are still important. You want a content marketing strategy that helps your pages rank in search engine results for specific keywords and keyword phrases (the goal of organic SEO strategies). But local SEO is critical for businesses that serve a localized community. It’s somewhat less important for global companies that draw customers from all over.

Reason #2 – Consistently Accurate Online Directory Citations Boost Your Organic and Local Pack Rankings

You must list your business name, address, and phone number accurately and consistently across the top-ranked local citations and business directories. That information is referred to as your NAP Data (name, address, phone). A search engine bot is more likely include your business in the search engine results pages (SERPs) if it’s confident that your information is consistent and accurate.

That seems fair. Do you think you might get frustrated if Google sent you to a business that isn’t there or gave you a phone number that’s no longer in service? Search engines want to find this basic information about your business in numerous places throughout the internet.

When they find that information in several places-and it’s all consistent and correctthey trust the data. But if Google or Bing, for example, see confusing, inconsistent data, they consider it less valid-less reliable. Therefore, search engines are more likely to bypass you in favor of a business with more consistent NAP Data.

Reason #3 – Your Business Site Gets More Links Back to It from Authoritative, Trusted Sites

Backlinks, or links pointing to your site from trusted, authoritative websites, play an essential role in SEO. They validate your website’s existence, proving that your site is a viable force in the vast internet universe. Additionally, some directory citation sites add a website URL field to their listings and display these URLs as ‘dofollow’ links. That passes valuable link equity to your site. Search engines use backlinks to determine your domain authority, boosting your SEO (as opposed to ‘nofollow’ links, which are nice but don’t give you any juice).

Want another great way to snag a backlink while doing something else worthwhile to build your business? Join the local chamber of commerce or other business group. Doing this will provide a relevant local link back to your website, and you can network at local events. While you’re at these events, you might pick up some business or even more backlink opportunities.

In addition, if you have vendors or are a product provider, you may want them to link to your website as well (with a dofollow link, of course).

Reason #4 – Your Business Will Be Closer to Landing on the First Page of Search Engine Results

Online business directories take up quite a bit of real estate on search engine results pages (SERPs). As a result, local businesses they list in their directories get top billing on local search queries. If you’re not on those lists…

You need to know how to get your business listed in these local citations business directories because you’ll lose out on valuable business. And what you don’t know online can hurt you.

You might have the best pizza in town, but if the guy across town doesn’t find you when he searches for “pizza near me,” he’s going to go buy his pizza from your competitor. And that brings us to Reason #5.

Reason #5 – Your Business Will Gain Opportunities for Third-Party Reviews

Here are the three core pillars for ranking well in the Google Local Map Pack.

  • Relevance

How well do you target the keywords or topics your potential customers would search for on your website?

  • Prominence

How well does your business stand out online?

  • Proximity

How close is your business to the potential customer searching for your products or services?

We’ve touched on relevance and proximity. Now it’s time to talk about prominence: the positive reputation and comments your business enjoys across the internet. How do search engines find this information? Many citations and directories allow customers to post reviews and grade their experiences with local businesses.

If you deliver excellent service, your business will benefit from this added perk. But it’s not enough to get good reviews. You should also respond to them. And, if you get a negative review, don’t sweat it. Just be sure you keep your cool and respond appropriately. Work on resolving the issue as quickly as possible. Even a simple apology is better than no response at all.

More Tips for Local SEO

Local SEO for multiple locations, list all of your staffed locations, including the complete name, address, and phone number on a Contact Us page on your site.

For businesses with 10 or fewer locations, list the complete name, address, and phone number of each location in the sitewide footer.

Make sure people can easily find your phone number on your website-and that it’s clickable on mobile devices.

Just as you want to be consistent on the directories, make sure your NAP Data is consistent across all pages of your website.

If your business serves multiple locations, you need a separate page with unique content for each site. Avoid copying and pasting from one page to the other.

Customize Your Local SEO to Your Business Type

So, what you don’t know online can hurt you. If your business isn’t working on a local SEO strategy, you’re leaving money on the table that your competitor across town will pick up.

Local SEO works well, but it takes time and patience just like organic SEO. That’s why many businesses hire a local SEO agency to put all the pieces together.

Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Work in Malaysia Compared to Philippines

In the early 90s, there was a huge demand for Filipino skilled workers in Saudi Arabia for manual labor. With their struggle to feed the family and give their kids a proper education, Filipino parents would often remind them to “study hard and get a good job.” Soon after, it was believed that working abroad would help Filipinos alleviate poverty thus the Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) trend started. People then started to see huge improvements especially from OFW families and government keeps praising them as the modern hero of the Philippines. With the recent economic factors that aggravates the living conditions of the masses, Filipino parents would now remind their kids the same phrase… with a little tweak – “study hard and get a good job abroad.“

One of the most promising countries to work abroad is located roughly 1500 miles southwest of the Philippines – the Malaysia. Their labor force often demands a potentially huge number for manpower where Filipino workers often wage competition with laborers from neighboring countries such as India, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.

However, they still want to work in Malaysia due to a variety of reasons which our country, the Philippines, does not adequately provide or makes it impossible to reach by sheer hard work and determination. As one of those employees who previously worked in our hometown, going abroad sounds like a fairly natural response that brings solution to this issue. Nevertheless, no matter what occupation you do or what skill set you have, many of the things here might make you say “Yes, this is exactly the reason I’ve gone abroad!”

So without further ado, here are the top ten reasons why it’s better to work in Malaysia compared to Philippines:

10. Different culture

Once you step foot on a foreign land, you’ll notice that everything you lay your eyes on is different from home. You may suddenly pay attention to the women wearing Muslim scarfs known as hijab. Also, when you’re roaming the malls that you’re so used to when you were in Philippines, you’ll observe that there are specific prayer rooms in some floors that they call surau, which we are not accustomed because we belong in a different culture.

Humans, in general, are curious beings and we as Filipinos, do not stray away from that behavior. We tend to be fascinated with these divergent perspectives including the mere differences in religion and celebrations. Moreover, as millenials, we embrace change so much that we like living out-of-the-norm and share our experiences in social media.

As such, we abide to these cultural standards, respect them and if possible, meet-in-between since we have an obligation to go to Church every Sunday and spread the word of God. And whatever you do, believe me, they will respect what you believe as well.

9. More opportunities

Although Malaysia is a developing country like Philippines, working here opens the gate to countless opportunities. In our home country, it is evidently hard to get a job even if you have the most impressive resume in town. However, in Malaysia, you can get a call for an interview in an hour provided that you have the right skills and experience that the foreign agency or headhunter needs.

If you have plans for furthering your career (especially in IT or engineering field), working in Malaysia is a boost on your hard-earned credential since HR often takes into account how you deal with your foreign bosses. It’s also a huge plus for a candidate to have the experience of managing superb work relationships with foreign clients.

Also, if you have other life event goals like immigrating to first-world countries such as Australia, Canada or New Zealand, processing the documents you need is relatively easier, faster and safer in Malaysia. Even though you need to go back home to gather papers for the lengthy list of immigration requirements, still its better to ‘just get it done’ in Malaysia because you have the edge, financially right?

8. Delicious cuisine

I’m turning 6 months now in Malaysia as of the time of writing and I have to say it out loud that Malaysian cuisine, in the simplest sense, is incomparable. No matter how I become “foodsick” (no it’s not what you think – I mean it as missing food back home) while living here, still every Malaysian dish I try completely satiates my craving and satisfies my tummy albeit going to toilets (because I cannot handle some spicy dishes).

Due to the different cooking traditions and practices from the three main ethnic groups in Malaysia – Malays, Chinese and Indians – Malaysian cuisine are so much imbued with a variety of spices that makes foods so much better than the ones at home. The popular everyday food you encounter here in Malaysia are Nasi Lemak, Mi Goreng, Rendang or Bak Kut Teh and some hot Teh Tarik on the side.

To top it all off, they are all cheap. The Fried Nasi Lemak in the picture costs around RM 6.70. With a huge plate and lots of servings on the side, you cannot get this type of food for P80 in the Philippines except if you live in the provincial area. Even with the GST (Goods and Services Tax) newly implemented this year, you can still eat on a budget by buying from wet markets and cooking it yourself. That way, you can eat at an even cheaper price AND can cook Filipino foods the way you want it.

7. Improved lifestyle

Once you arrive here in Malaysia, you’ll automatically be called a foreigner or expatriate. If your work does not have free accommodation, you’ll have no choice but to rent rooms on condominiums or on landed estates. Oftentimes, rental rate at major states like Kuala Lumpur and Selangor turns out to be higher than the usual.

However, housing units in Malaysia are usually equipped with aircon, automatic washing machines, fridges, water heater and induction cookers which will mostly make your life a bit easier. If you are living in the Philippines with just an electric fan and cold water, then your lifestyle in Malaysia will definitely get better.

If you choose your place right, you can have access to other engaging lifestyles such as going to gyms, shopping at malls or maybe swimming at condominium pools. Whatever your job is, I promise you, your life will be better, if not a bit then slightly better, but will still be better than it used to be back home, probably with your parents.

6. Easy travel back to hometown

With the boom of low-cost airlines and the accessibility of Asian countries to the world, it has now been very easy to book tickets online and fly back home. Tourists and backpackers from all parts of the world easily fly back and forth everyday to Malaysia including our very own OFWs (Overseas Filipino Workers).

If an OFW becomes so homesick that she wants to be with her daughter during the school awarding ceremony or on her 7th birthday, she can just hit the keys on websites like AirAsia or CebuPacific, book flights and board the plane on the travel date to see her kids. With flight discounts ongoing every month, she can definitely travel back home and still be in budget thus a win-win situation for every OFWs in Malaysia. Moreover, it’s less than four hours going back to Philippines so it’s not that much of a hassle.

However, if your work partially restricts you from leaving the country (probably for domestic helpers), you can still contact them through social messaging apps like Whatsapp (very common in Malaysia) or Messenger and video call through Skype.

5. Tourist destination

As Malaysia strives to live up to their tourism brand – Malaysia Truly Asia – and remain a strong contender as Top 2 in the World Tourism Rankings on Asia’s top destination, it has always been included on every traveler’s checklist of the most wanted travel places. As a Filipino, can attest to the beauty of Malaysia and its awesome tourist attractions as I’ve seen it firsthand.

If you’re free on weekends, you can always travel to famous tourist destinations like Petronas Towers, Genting Highlands or the Petaling Street easily through trains and buses. You can also travel a bit farther to places like Melaka or Penang especially on long holidays since it’s surely a long drive from the city but I promise it’s definitely worth it. You need not to go taxi if you don’t know where they are located since you can fully navigate Malaysia, especially Kuala Lumpur, through web mapping services such as Google Maps.

On the other hand, if you are not sure where to go, you can browse TripAdvisor OR you can browse here at Roumery since I will be posting travel guides in Malaysia soon enough. Stay tuned for more updates!

4. Low cost of living

Some economists use a more digestible exchange rate theory called the Big Mac Index to enact a global standard in measuring Purchasing Power Parity. In layman’s term, it can be used to gauge, although not accurately, the cost of living in a certain country. If base rate is USD, then Malaysia’s currency, the Ringgit, is undervalued at 63% per the mentioned index. Thus, it means that the Big Mac in McDonalds Malaysia is cheaper than most of the countries hence it has low cost of living.

However, you don’t need to consult an expert to measure the cost of living since we do it ourselves automatically without knowing it. Often for first time OFWs, they always convert Ringgit to Pesos every time they buy something and conclude from their everyday groceries if Malaysia is generally cheaper than in Philippines.

In my opinion, food and transportation are customarily cheaper in Malaysia since oil is one of Malaysia’s ace card for its economic growth. Unit rentals are higher in urban areas but mostly normal on the outskirts of the major cities. In general, Malaysia still maintains a low cost of living (if outside Kuala Lumpur) compared to Philippines, or Singapore for that matter.

3. Faster internet

According to this chart, you’ll see that in year 2014, Malaysia has an Internet Speed Index of 5.5 Mbps while Philippines has an Internet Speed Index of 3.6 Mbps. If you are a Filipino reader, you can agree and attest that this is not true. This is one of the reasons why I worked in Malaysia – because they have faster Internet than the Philippines.

I was in the Philippines on the year 2014. The average plan for a home DSL (or WiMax) through any telco carrier was up to 1-2 Mbps as advertised and it had been consistently not even gaining at least 500 Kbps download speed even at 2 pm after midnight (to which 100 Kbps is the usual). Also they didn’t have fiber optic network until recently when PLDT Fibr has been introduced. The price ranged from P1000 to P1500 (RM 222 to RM 333) for this type of plan. As I’ve heard, new plans moving forward already have data caps according to the networks’ Fair Usage Policy.

Here in Malaysia, you can order for a 10 Mbps plan that efficiently exceeds after midnight (around 20 Mbps) and is consistent in the morning. This is already connected to the Fiber Network laid out on the condominium (or on landed house) and can range only from RM 100 to RM 150. Moreover, it is unlimited with no cap and can be disconnected (although with minimum 2 yrs bond) once you’re leaving the country. If you’ll look at the comparison, Malaysia is still leading the Internet race compared to the Philippines in this aspect.

2. Better transportation

If you have worked in Metro Manila like I did, chances are you’ve probably rode the MRT once, or everyday OR depending on where you’re coming you need to interchange from the LRT station first. There are already many stories in the Internet describing their misery on commuting through these trains everyday. I would not describe it here anymore but let me tell you that it is very stressful, time-consuming and unsafe to go to work by MRT everyday.

In Malaysia, the railway infrastructure consists of interconnected commuter rail service, rapid transit service, monorail service and airport rail link service. Commuting through train is not stressful since it’s easy to buy tokens from ticketing machines instead of waiting for long queue, not time-consuming since trains arrive faster than you think and safe since there are stationed guards on every train waiting area and locals are very disciplined that stealing is seemingly nonexistent on train stations.

As one of my wise colleague said, “A developed country is one in which rich people use public transport”.

1. Higher salary

Undoubtedly, the top reason you may want to work abroad is and has always been money. Even if you have the nine reasons above, if the salary discussed during the contract signing is not what you expected, then working abroad may not be possible.

Sometimes, if you are in a desperate situation, you’ll accept the job offer abroad regardless of the salary. On the other hand, your work colleagues would often advise you that if you’ll take another job, your asking salary should sure be twice of what you’re having currently. However, for me, part of the reason I took the work abroad is the lower income tax in Malaysia (around 5 to 10% per month depending on the salary) compared to Philippines (roughly 32% per month). It also helps that when you tune in to Philippines news, you’ll see that there are often reports on allegations of graft and corruption to your own politicians using the taxes that majority of the Filipinos pay.

But in all aspects, the salary must also reach your expectation since it’s the main reason you want to work abroad right? As an IT consultant and with conversations from some of my Filipino colleagues here in Malaysia, the salary will always be higher than what you earn in the Philippines. Since most of us are contractual, it is true that agencies have salary standards depending on your work experience and skillset. It’s also true that some agencies give a higher salary than the usual but it usually falls down to your negotiation skills although you can barter a bit more because of the unstable Malaysian currency (there, I gave you one tip – good luck!)

These are the top reasons to consider when you want to work abroad in Malaysia. There is always a job demand for expatriates but recently there had been raids on illegal workers so please be careful on who or what agencies you trust to (especially those asking for hefty placement fees). However, there are news of freeze hiring for incoming foreign workers in Malaysia so if you’re ready then by all means go apply and work abroad here in Malaysia. Cheers!

5 Reasons To Use a WordPress Website Developer to Build Your Business Website

WordPress is a hugely popular platform for small business owners and bloggers alike. Primarily because WordPress does not require payment for hosting at its basic level as well as having a user-friendly dashboard. As a small business owner, there are countless benefits for using this platform, including saving the time and expense usually associated with setting up a website for your business.

Even though it is possible, to create your own website using the free WordPress platform, it’s a daunting project to take-on, on top of the usual tasks involved in running your business. For a beginner; the learning curve is steep.

Most business owners find it saves them time, money and frustration enlisting a professional web design company to build a custom website for them using the WordPress platform. Do your business justice by increasing its potential to continue to grow and expand your online presence, with a professional designer to guarantee a seamless user experience.

But what does a professional web designer really bring to the table?

1. Customize the look, feel and functionality of your website to suit your brand

WordPress popular for its abundance of ready to use website templates, however, if want a unique brand experience for your visitors, even the templates need considerable tweaking. A developer can upgrade a basic template to suit the look and feel you want for your site. The free templates might seem like the easy option, however, I can’t even count a number of times I’ve been asked to step in a takeover from well-meaning business owners who’ve come to realize the time investment in customizing a template is significant, without the necessary the skill set.

2. Optimal and responsive website performance

Anything less than a friendly user experience will cause your hard-earned traffic to click off your site at warp speed. A professional web design and development engineer will not only help with aesthetics but also guarantee a seamless experience that will surprise and delight your site visitors. Use your designers’ experience to choose the right plugins to complement the functionality of your website without compromising performance.

3. Your website developer is your troubleshooting guru

WordPress is known for its regular updates which keep the sites safe, secure and offering the latest functionalities of your plugins. Unfortunately, sometimes plugins and updates wreak havoc with each other in the background causing issues and can even crash on your site. Save yourself the panic and headache of troubleshooting issues as they arise.

4. A professional website development company will have SEO options to suit your budget

You want your content to get picked by the major search engines, business directories and blogging platforms offering do-follow backlinks that are SEO compliant and work to attract targeted traffic to your site.

In addition to this, professional SEO services offer keyword research, heading creation, sitemap creation, URL generations, Google Webmaster, Bing Website Master and Google Analytics creation. Some services will also include Robots.txt generation, meta tag generation, image alter tags and check your websites crawl errors.

5. Create and support a responsive website on all devices

WordPress is our first choice for building small business websites because making it easy to design a responsive and mobile friendly website on. When you add content like images, videos, links and other feeds, you want them responsive on all devices too.

A professionally designed and developed website gives your business a competitive edge.

15 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Mobile App

Digital media has exploded and Google reported that 2015 marks the year that web searches done on mobile devices have surpassed desktop searches in 10 countries!

Mobile has grown so rapidly that it is now the leading digital platform for media consumption. 62% of total digital media activity is from tablets and smartphones combined, 54% of that activity is from apps alone, according to Comscore.

As of April 21, 2015, Google is now indexing mobile apps, which allows them to rank in search engine results. Read the SearchEngineLand article about app search engine ranking. What does this all mean for you and your business? You need a mobile app!

What are the benefits to having an app for your business?

As mobile marketing continues to grow, more and more businesses are hopping on the mobile app bandwagon to connect with “on-the-go” consumers, drive more traffic, generate repeat business, increase sales through better product promotion, and most importantly, be available to their customers, on their mobile devices, 24×7.

Having an app for your business takes marketing efforts to a whole new level. Apps are not just for huge companies like Amazon, eBay and Wal-mart anymore. Medium and small businesses are now upping their marketing strategies and expanding their customer reach with mobile apps.

Today’s technology has given us the entire world at our fingertips! Mobile phones have rendered pay phones and most landlines obsolete since we can take them with us wherever we go. That gives businesses a huge marketing advantage. Let’s look at the benefits a mobile app offers your business and your customers:

1. Reinforces your brand

2. Increases your visibility and accessibility on mobile devices

3. Builds relationships and loyalty with your customers

4. Generates repeat business with app tools like coupons and loyalty cards

5. Enhances social networking strategies

6. Connects you with “on-the-go” consumers

7. Increases sales with push notifications

8. Your products/services are easily accessible to your customers 24×7

9. One touch access to your contact information

10. Provide directions to your location anywhere your customers are

11. Fast appointment setting for your customers

12. An app is more easily accessible and loads faster than a website

13. Increase customer engagement and provide value

14. Customers have easy access to your social media posts

15. Stand out from your competition

Why a Mobile App is Better Than a Website

Bottom line: An app loads and operates much faster! It takes only a second to launch whereas a website can take significantly longer, especially if the mobile user has bad reception. Mobile optimized websites serve an important business purpose, but they do not replace the need for apps. Let’s look at a side-by-side comparison:

• Mobile apps give you almost instant access to the content you need, websites don’t

• Mobile apps appear in the app stores, websites don’t

• Mobile apps can keep your business in direct contact with your customers through push notifications, websites don’t

• Mobile apps are always visible on the home screen of your mobile device, websites are not always visible

Do you see the power that mobile marketing apps have to offer? With features like push notifications, you can instantly reach your customers with much less time and effort than snail mailing sales ads, not to mention, significantly less advertising costs. But the biggest benefit a mobile app has to offer your business is return on investment.

The Apple App Store has over 100 billion downloads a year, that’s almost 274 million downloads per day according to Statista! Statistics from the Wall Street Journal show that Q1 of 2015, Google Play Store had 70% more app downloads than the Apple Store. Now is the time to tap into the mobile app market! The more users that download your app, the more people you can reach to offer sales, product promotion, events, launches, you name it! The app market is booming and continues to grow. Are you convinced yet?

Just remember, mobile apps are quickly becoming the standard component of businesses large and small. Choosing an app today can set the foundation for the future of your business and help put it on the express lane to continue to grow, build your customer database, and make you more money!

Reasons Why Local Banks in Cameroon Failed Within the 1980-1990 Peroid

Financial distress has afflicted numerous local banks IN Cameroon, many of which have been closed down by the regulatory authorities or have been restructured under their supervision. In

Cameroon banks such as the B.I.C.I.C. Meridian B.I.A.O. Cameroon Bank were closed

Many more local banks were distressed and subject to some form of

“holding action”. Failed local banks accounted for as much as 23 per cent of total commercial

bank assets in Cameroon.

The cost of these bank failures is very difficult to estimate: much of the data is not in

the public domain, while the eventual cost to depositors and/or taxpayers of most of the

bank failures which occurred between the 1988 to 2004 period will depend upon how much of the failed banks’ assets are eventually recovered by the liquidators. The costs are almost certain to be substantial.

Most of these bank failures were caused by unprofitable loans. Areas affecting more

than half the loan portfolio were typical of the failed banks. Many of the bad debts were

attributable to moral hazard: the adverse incentives on bank owners to adopt imprudent

lending strategies, in particular insider lending and lending at high interest rates to borrowers

in the most risky segments of the credit markets.

Insider lending

The single biggest contributor to the bad loans of many of the failed local banks was

insider lending. In at least half of the bank failures referred to above, insider loans accounted

for a substantial proportion of the bad debts. Most of the larger local bank failures in Cameroon,

such as the Cameroon Bank, B.I.A.O. Bank and B.I.C.I.C. Bank, involved extensive insider

lending, often to politicians. Insider loans accounted for 65 per cent of the total loans of

these local banks, virtually all of which was unrecoverable.

Almost half of the loan portfolio of one of the local banks local banks had been extended to its directors and employees .The threat posed by insider lending to the soundness of the banks was exacerbated because many of the insider loans were invested in speculative projects such as real estate development, breached large-loan exposure limits, and were extended to projects which could not generate short-term returns (such as hotels and shopping centres), with the result that the maturities of the bank assets and liabilities were imprudently mismatched.

The high incidence of insider lending among failed banks suggests that problems of moral

hazard were especially acute in these banks. Several factors contributed to this.

First, politicians were involved as shareholders and directors of some of the local banks.

Political connections were used to obtain public-sector deposits: many of the failed banks,

relied heavily on wholesale deposits from a small number of firms.

Because of political pressure, the small banks which made these deposits are unlikely to have

made a purely commercial judgement as to the safety of their deposits. Moreover, the

availability of micro deposits reduced the need to mobilize funds from the public. Hence

these banks faced little pressure from depositors to establish a reputation for safety.

Political connections also facilitated access to bank licences and were used in some cases to

pressure bank regulators not to take action against banks when violations of the banking laws

were discovered. All these factors reduced the constraints on imprudent bank management.

In addition, the banks’ reliance on political connections meant that they were exposed to

pressure to lend to the politicians themselves in return for the assistance given in obtaining

deposits, licences, etc. Several of the largest insider loans made by failed banks in Cameroon

were to prominent politicians.

Second, most of the failed banks were not capitalized, in part because the minimum

capital requirements in force when they had been set up were very low. Owners had little of

their own funds at risk should their bank fail, which created a large asymmetry in the

potential risks and rewards of insider lending. Bank owners could invest the bank deposits

in their own high-risk projects, knowing that they would make large profits if their projects

succeeded, but would lose little of their own money if they were not profitable

The third factor contributing to insider lending was the excessive concentration of

ownership. In many of the failed banks, the majority of shares were held by one man or one

family, while managers lacked sufficient independence from interference by owners in

operational decisions. A more diversified ownership structure and a more independent

management might have been expected to impose greater constraints on insider lending,

because at least some of the directors would have stood to lose more than they gained from

insider lending, while managers would not have wanted to risk their reputations and careers.

The high cost of funds meant that the local banks had to generate high earnings from

their assets; for example, by charging high lending rates, with consequences for the quality of

their loan portfolios. The local banks almost inevitably suffered from the adverse selection of

their borrowers, many of who had been rejected by the foreign banks (or would have been

had they applied for a loan) because they did not meet the strict creditworthiness criteria

demanded of them. Because they had to charge higher lending rates to compensate for the

higher costs of funds, it was very difficult for the local banks to compete with the foreign

banks for the “prime” borrowers (i.e. the most creditworthy borrowers). As a result, the

credit markets were segmented, with many of the local banks operating in the most risky

segment, serving borrowers prepared to pay high lending rates because they could access no

alternative sources of credit. High-risk borrowers included other banks which were

short of liquidity and prepared to pay above-market interest rates for inter bank deposits and

loans. We all experienced in Douala and Yaounde how some of the local banks were heavily exposed to finance houses which collapsed in large numbers in the 1990s.

Consequently, bank distress had domino effects because of the extent to which

local banks lent to each other.

Within the segments of the credit market served by the local banks, there were probably

good quality (i.e. creditworthy) borrowers as well as poor quality risks. But serving

borrowers in this section of the market requires strong loan appraisal and monitoring

systems, not least because informational imperfections are acute: the quality of borrowers’

financial accounts are often poor, many borrowers lack a track record of successful business,

etc. The problem for many of the failed banks was that they did not have adequate

expertise to screen and monitor their borrowers, and therefore distinguish between good and

bad risks. In addition, credit procedures, such as the documentation of loans and loan

securities and internal controls, were frequently very poor. Managers and directors of these

banks often lacked the necessary expertise and experience.

Recruiting good staff was often difficult for the local banks because the established banks

could usually offer the most talented bank officials better career prospects. Moreover, the

rapid growth in the number of banks outstripped the supply of

experienced and qualified bank officials.

Macroeconomic instability to an extent contributed to these failures;

The problems of poor loan quality faced by the local banks were compounded by

macroeconomic instability. Periods of high and very volatile inflation occurred in Cameroon, just before the devaluation of the FCFA. With interest rates liberalized ,nominal lending rates were also high, with real rates fluctuating between positive and negative levels, often in an unpredictable manner, because of the volatility of inflation .

Macroeconomic instability would have had two important consequences for the loan

quality of the local banks. First, high inflation increases the volatility of business profits

because of its unpredictability, and because it normally entails a high degree of variability in

the rates of increase of the prices of the particular goods and services which make up the

overall price index. The probability that firms will make losses rises, as does the probability

that they will earn windfall profits .This intensifies both adverse selection and adverse incentives for borrowers to take risks, and thus the probabilities of loan default.

The second consequence of high inflation is that it makes loan appraisal more difficult for

the bank, because the viability of potential borrowers depends upon unpredictable

developments in the overall rate of inflation, its individual components, exchange rates and

interest rates. Moreover, asset prices are also likely to be highly volatile under such

conditions. Hence, the future real value of loan security is also very uncertain.

Conclusively ,we should not be scared when we see micro financial houses multiplying in the economic capital of Cameroon, Douala, and Yaounde today, all, heavily involved in the banking sector, it is merely as a result of these huge bank failures recorded in the past years.

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