How To Boost The Value Of Your Business By Christine Comaford-Lynch

All too often banks, potential investors, and creditors will determine a company's value based on financial statements. This is a mistake. Financials don't come close to telling the true story. Sure, they present the tangible value. But what about the intangible value? Company valuation is emotional—a company is worth what an acquirer will pay, what the market will pay, what the interested parties perceive. We see evidence of this frequently when companies with a trickle of revenue are acquired for gushing millions or even billions of dollars.

Maybe you aren't planning on raising financing, securing a credit line, being acquired, or one day going public. You still need to continually boost the value of your company. A higher-value company has more options. It gets the right partners, preferential terms, and often a more glorious future. There's an art to value-boosting, and I am going to tell you how to do it. First, know the facts:

• Company valuation is emotional.

• Intangibles often matter more than tangibles.

• You can't build value if your business isn't enticing.

• You should always be selling: to financiers, customers, strategic partners, staff, and strangers.

I've used some or all of the following seven value-boosters to quintuple the value of my clients' companies and my own. These value-boosters have also worked for companies such as Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), YouTube, and many, many more.

1. A killer team and a killer business plan.

2. A hot board of directors and/or advisory board.

3. Specific strategic alliances. An LOI (Letter of Intent) with a partner ain't gonna cut it. You need a binding contract spelling out exactly what the terms of your deal are. Clarify how many widgets they will buy/distribute/co-market, the time period, as well as what happens if they default on the agreement.

4. New sales channels. Distributors, value-added resellers, outside sales forces, affiliates, joint-venture partners—all boost the value of your company. Of course, you'll track the performance of your sales channels. Use the affiliate tools in your online shopping cart to track the performance of your online sale channels, and use your accounting system or sales force management software to track all others.

5. Product line extension. Let's assume you sell a supercool widget. What's next? Son of Widget? Platinum Widget? Widget Extraordinaire? Map out your future product lines so financiers, partners, and staff can see where you are headed and how you plan to get there.

6. Intellectual-property (IP) portfolio. Protect your corporate jewels! A patent portfolio can be worth gold. A friend of mine sold his company for $425 million (with about $30 million in trailing revenue) because he had locked in so many patents. That's what the acquirer bought. They didn't give a hoot about the business.

7. Compelling prototype of product. This is key when you're in the zero or near-zero revenue range, as you'll see below. People need to see/touch/feel what the product will be like. Then they can envision your fabulous future.

Consider this example. A professional services firm with an initial value of $2 million hired me to help boost its value. But the trouble with services firms is they are often valued at only revenue times one. Ick. So we beefed up the board and advisers (adding $1 million in value), helped nail down specific strategic alliances ($3 million), mapped out a line of 'productized' services ($2 million), and developed new sales channels ($2 million). About six intense months later, the firm sought financing with a respectable pre-money valuation of $10 million. It closed the financing in three months.

Then there is the example of the Internet promotion company I started with no revenue. Before seeking financing, my team and I had to answer the question: How do you make an idea into a hot commodity? The solution consisted of pulling in a rocking team and coming up with a hot business plan (adding $1 million in value), developing a compelling product prototype ($1 million), locking in killer alliances ($1 million), and building an IP portfolio ($2 million). We took its value to $5 million in four intense, somewhat sleep-deprived months. Then we raised $2.5 million in financing with a pre-money value of $5 million, and a post-money value of $7.5 million. The $2.5 million invested bought one-third of the company.

Value is about potential. Potential today, potential tomorrow. The main reason you keep building value in your company, in all the tangible and intangible ways (and as I've shown you, the 'intangible' ways often do have dollar values attached to them!), is because a high-value company gets the financing it wants on the terms it wants. It also gets multiple acquisition offers at fabulous terms. The high-value company gets the alliances, the staff, and the opportunities it wants, too.

Remember, you are selling the future as you are selling the present. The present must look promising for the future to be potentially glorious. What are you doing to boost the value of your company today?

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=184567&ca=Business

Halloween Tips: How To Pull Off Tricks And Treats Safely By Abbie Stutzer

Boo! Ha-ha. Got you. Honestly though, Halloween can be a spooky time for everyone. Kids are scared of the un-known ghosts and goblins that possibly reside behind trees or in gutters while parents are scared of un-known people who are out and up to no good.

To ensure your employees and clients’ families are safe and have a stress free Halloween, make a check list or consider giving them promotional products before Halloween. Not only will the products increase safety, they will also promote your business!

Here are a few promotional products ensure safe trick-or-treating in your community:

1) Flashlights

Sidewalks are sometimes uneven and many neighborhoods are not lit well. Help your clients and employees’ kids avoid injuries by giving them flashlights. Flashlights are an easy and economical way to keep kids safe and aware of their surroundings.

2) Tote Bags

Occasionally plastic bags and even worn pillow cases can get holes in them, leaving candy to spill on the pavement. Help clients and employees’ kids avoid this problem by giving them a tote bag. This product may not aid in safety, but it will make carrying candy easier for kids. A tote bag can be used for gathering candy…a lot of candy.

3) Glow Bracelets

Ensure that kids are easily seen with these nifty glow bracelets. While most people are aware children are out and about collecting candy on Halloween, some people may forget. Glow bracelets can help people driving cars see children quicker and make them slow down. Plus, kids love them!

These promotional products can take some of the stress off parents before their kids go out on Halloween. Not only will they promote your business, but they will show your community that your company cares about its well-being. Make sure all your clients and employees’ have a spooky, not dangerous, Halloween.

Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=184932&ca=Business

How to wind up a greengrocer company

In these hard economic times business is very hard. If you are a company director looking for a bit of advice because your greengrocers business is struggling, you have come to the right place. I have created many articles which try to help a director take the right steps in either closing or liquidating a business or pre-packing a sale and starting again.

Firstly if your greengrocers company is insolvent you have a duty as a director to close the company and not incur any further debt, unless you can be pretty sure that you can put in place a rescue plan to turn that business around. If you can’t them you need to liquidate the company yourself or take professional advice on how best to close the business in an orderly fashion.

By far the most popular choice is to engage an insolvency practitioner to call a meeting of creditors on your behalf, prepare the statement of affairs, hold the meeting and then deal with all the procedural aspects of liquidation necessary to make sure all creditors now what is going on and how they can participate in any dividend. This is called a CVL or creditors voluntary liquidation.

There is a fee for all this and generally it will be about £5000 whoever you use around the country. There are some advertisements for liquidations at less than this but by the time all costs are accounted for, it will still come in at about the same sum.

These costs can come out of the assets of the greengrocers company and indeed many businesses do have just enough assets or cash to take this final step. For many businesses, the central core of what the business does is still profitable and so often directors will want to continue to trade. This is easily possible and a sale of assets can be arranged to a new company and a lease re-assigned by a landlord, which often leaves the new company trading on in the same line of work from the same premises.

Media Apocalypse Now!

The mainstream media is a sorry little place. The major broadcasters, newspapers and 'experts', are a sad, limp, spineless and pointless collection of end-of-the-world fanatics. Their diatribes are not news but poorly concealed socialism, with tales of endless disaster; overt racism against Whites; eco-cult support; anti-American, anti-Jew, anti-war coverage; and tearful pro-Arab propaganda whilst demagogueing against capitalism. They are a lewd and pathetic bunch.


All mainstream media fed off of the apocalypse now scenario. In particular European and American media have 7 obsessions – call them the 7 pillars of irrationality: Bushitler Derangement Syndrome; predicting defeat in Iraq; hating the economy; anti-White, anti-Jew, anti-Western biases; promoting Eco-fascism; denigrating Christianity but tolerating and supporting Arab culture and Islam; and supporting illegal immigration. These are their touchstones of faith. All their news is filtered through these biases. What they give you is not news but a program of indoctrination.


This is why the mainstream media and increasingly the university system, as well as general political processes are viewed with such contempt by most people – at least those who are still mentally alive.


Pillar 1: Bushitler Derangement Syndrome:

Even if Bush were Mohammed himself, the media, so slavishly pro-Arab would still hate him. BDS applies to all aspects of media deformity and is the main filter of their hate. Economics, politics, faith, immigratioun, defending civilisation, conservative principles – all these and more are negative in the media's eyes since Bush in part or in whole, holds such views. BDS is a serious impediment to thinking, rationalising and inquiring. It is also a thin cover for anti-American bigotry and anti-Jew racism.


Pillar 2: Iraq War:

For some bizarre reason almost all the media wants the US to lose in Iraq; withdraw from the middle-east and hand fascistic elements of Islam a victory. They also believe that Islam and Arab culture with their premodern pagan fascism is the equal if not the superior of Western Civilisation. Worse for the MSM the Bushitler crowd are behind American neo-imperialism in the Middle East. Or maybe it is the hated Jew? Tsk tsk. Arab and Muslim imperialism is okay, but not pre-emption to secure Western interests. Israel defending itself against Arab fascism is of course unconscionable.

The Media Research Council did some fine work recently analyzing all 354 Iraq war stories that aired on the big three American evening newscasts from September 1 through November 30, including weekends. In September these networks reporters voiced skepticism airing a total of 178 Iraq stories, or just under two per network per night. Most if not nearly all of the stories were negative.

In October, Iraq war news fell by about 40 percent, to 108 stories, with the number of reports filed from Iraq itself falling to just 20, or less than one-fifth of all Iraq stories. Why? The war was much improved.


By November, the networks aired only 68 stories, with eleven or just 16% from the war zone itself. With the US clearly winning in Iraq and with about 60.000 or more dead jihadists and fascists [a body count the mainstream media never comments upon] fertilising Iraq soil, the media is distressed. Surely we can't be winning in Iraq?


As the war improves the coverage falls. This is true throughout the world's press. No death and violence to report? Ah pity. Then we can't air our anti-American, the war-is-illegal, Bushitler-lied-the-world-died sloganeering. Let's move on, the media then says, to our other obessions. If we can't be negative on the war we can be negative on everything else!

Pillar 3: The end of the economy!

Nightmarish reports of economic doom swamp media coverage each week. Many countries like the US have low unemployment, reasonably high employment rates; good economic growth; rising income levels [$500 billion in the US this year alone]; strong banking and financial systems and widespread house and asset ownership. Technologies are pushing society and people into untold areas of wealth and opportunity. US income and corporate tax revenues are at record levels. Yet the media take-away?


Lies, and damned lies. Mortgage meltdown. Housing depression. Economic recession or worse. Poor getting poorer. Only the rich benefit. Taxation is too low. More government spending for this and that is needed. Trade is bad. China trade is evil. Oil companies should be nationalised or have their profits stolen.


According to research the media reports, the ratio of bad to good economic news is 13:1. Nice bias.

Pillar 4: Eco-fascism:

Supporting the globaloney warming cult is a busy business. Lies, distortions and fantasies must be deployed daily to re-educate the poor, stupid, illiterate mass. Simple facts such as the natural biomass emitting 95% of Co2; current and recent past global mean temperatures being entirely within historical averages; the poor modeling and crass assumptions of the UN and their eco-allies; the lack of concrete, provable science and methods to link Co2 to anything; and wild swings in temperatures going back to the last ice age and beyond [how did the last ice age end?]; these and more inquiries are shelved by the media.


Just doom, gloom and apocalypse now, with pictures of nice polar bears supposedly stranded on an ice floe.


The eco-cult is the perfect cover to implement global redistribution; global marxism; and reinstate complete elitist-cult rule over the mass. The implications are clear and the media supports them. In this world view the average person is an idiot who must be managed, and the dynamics of choice, the market, competition, rationality and science must be quelled. Only elitist, technocratic rule can propel civilisation forward. How these geniuses explain the massive gains in Western civilisation in the past 1000 years and the creation of the modern world, is rather unclear.

So it goes with the other pillars of media obsession. The anti-white, anti-Western fanaticism; anti-Christian dialogue; the incredibly ignorant and dangerous pro-Arab and Muslim sympathy; and the rather mindless support of open borders and illegal Immigration. Not only is the media interested in negative stories by about a 10-15:1 ratio; but they are actively campaigning to end our civilisation.


It is not clear why the media is so left-wing and so corrupted by marxist-fascism. They want to suppress debate; brainwash and lie. But the question I have is why? Lying about capital markets; the economy; Bush's policy; Arab imperialism; Muslim fascism; the Iraq war; and denigrating Christianity, civilisation and white people, serves what purpose exactly?


I don't know and don't get it. But one thing is truly certain, if you get your information and your world-view from the general media, then you my friend have a very disturbed view of reality and a very deep hatred of the modern world. Maybe you can move to Riyadh?


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Instrumentation Engineering In The Process Of Automation

These are the days of automation. Most of the works that were performed manually or using primitive tools have now been automated with the use of machinery with advanced technologies. Instrument engineering is the process through which the equipment that are used for designing and configuration of systems that are automated.

Process automation is widely used in chemical or manufacturing plants. The basic objective is always to enhance the productive capacity of the plant concerned. Side wise the process also aims at improving the reliability and optimizing the stability of the plant.

Instrument engineering is also known as instrumentation engineering in some circles. Industrial automation means the process of managing industries in a self dictated manner. Such self dictating could be made with the use of computer technology or some other processes. However, the major media for automation today is the information technology that performs the task mostly by way of intelligent programming.

An instrument engineer has a much wider scope in performing the task than he used to have in the days of mechanization. In the process of mechanization, people were assisted with the supply of tools and machineries so that they could meet the manual requirements of the task in hand. In the said process that was an improvement over the manual labour in the sense that such labour put up either by human beings or animals were replaced with machines. Obviously the tasks were performed in a better way but it was no where near the efficiency of the modern day Instrument engineering.

Automation is thus a further progress and improvement over the process of mechanization. You must appreciate that mechanization was not mere use of hand tools but included steam, electricity or power driven machines. For example, instead of hand held lathe, people used power driven lathe machines to carry on different tasks with metals and tools. Such instrument design was superior to the earlier native tools used by the people.

Gradually however, mechanization started falling short of the requirements of modern fiercely competitive commercial world. Engineers and scientists therefore were on the constant look out for some thing better and faster to deliver the desired results. The search for such means resulted in the evolution of the concept of Instrument engineering, the process of automation.

The Global economy is highly influenced by the process of automation. The task of an instrument engineer is cut out to day. They try to join together the automated equipments and tools based on mathematical analysis and create complex processes for an ever increasing range of such equipments in all spheres of social activities.

It does not mean that the prophecy regarding man being dominated by machine is going to come true in near future. Even today no such instrument design has been devised that could match the efficiency of many human limbs. For example, till date no automated machine could be devised that would replace effectively the function of human eyes. It becomes even more difficult when it comes to identifying abstract senses like human social patterns, languages and reproduction abilities inherent in living beings. These are feelings and no machine can exactly identify their intensity perfectly however modern they could be or whatever advanced technologies they might have applied.

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Green Energy Revolution: Energy Saving Devices

World today is experiencing energy revolution. Environmental issues are catching up and with the increased emphasis placed on preserving the environment we all need to play our roles in saving energy. By saving energy, we can definitely take a positive step in fighting the climate change and in preserving non-renewable sources of energy. Let us look at some devices and measures that can help us conserve energy and replace non renewable sources with renewable sources of energy.

Many companies are now providing customer-focused energy equipments like Energy savers, Utility Instruments, Level Controllers, Control Panels and Process Control Equipments etc. Various products that are now placed in the shelves of the store and that help in energy revolution and conservation are:

• Integrated Intelligent Home System:
This provides you with home security, control, automation and communication related features. One can control and monitor their home and office security along with controlling the home appliances and lighting from any telephone, keypad, handheld remote control system, computer or the internet. The products have outstanding remote communication features which can allow you to communicate with visitors when they are still at office doors, you can send them your messages and can also hear their messages. In case there is alarm notification, you can listen to different sounds and the activity present in the surroundings.

• Light and Air -conditioner Energy Saver:
These devices are normally very easy to install and help to save energy directly. They can adjust the temperature by automatically realizing the self-motion adjustment. They do not connect to any circuitry in the AC. They have stable capacities and do not get affected by fluctuations in external temperature. Trouble from these energy saver devices do not harm or affect the functioning of your equipment in any way. The devices are shock proof and help you reduce your power requirement by minimum 20%.

• Green Energy Products
Today, you would find an array of Green products in the market. Green products and appliances include energy saving appliances and devices for your office and home, windows/doors utilizing solar energy and household products built out of eco-friendly materials. Fluorescent light bulbs are another light saving devices utilizing minimum amount of electricity per watt. All these energy saver products positively influence the environment and reduce the energy and electricity costs. They also reduce the emission of pollutants in the long-term.

Other products like energy saving remote control made out of plastic are also available for saving energy in your day to day use.

Benefits of using Energy saving & Intelligent Products:

• Uses 75% to 80% less electricity.
• Cost less and work too well
• Reduce dependence on coal and petroleum
• Help to address concerns of global warming
• Reduce the gasoline and electricity bills
• Reduce the green house gas emission levels

Overall, reduced energy usage means that the need to go for building new transmission lines, infrastructure and other related devices can be delayed and prolonged. Hence, one can defer the environmental concerns and issues, if not have complete removal. All the energy saving programs and devices will reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions made by coal utilizing power plants. Emissions up to an average of around 2.1 billion pounds per year can be saved for around 20 years

So, when we are aware of these things, why not head on the way to conserving energy!

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Cut Your Audio Learning Time in Half by Speed Listening

Did you know you can speed-listen to 60 minutes of audio in 30 minutes or less with full comprehension using special speed-listening software? You can even go faster with a little practice and blast through an hour of audio learning in 20 minutes or less saving you hours and hours of time.

If this is your first exposure to the concept of speed-listening to your audio learning you may be a bit skeptical like I was. You may also have doubts speed-listening to audio learning materials will work for you too. I can’t blame you.

The first time I heard about speed-listening I was skeptical and doubtful it was for real too because the only faster audio I ever heard was Alvin and the Chipmunks at Christmas time or when as a kid I sped up the old record player for kicks!

Using FasterAudio speed-listening software is the secret to effective speed-listening because it speeds up your audio without changing the pitch so the voices sound normal just faster. This is why you can accelerate your audio 2X and faster with full comprehension.

What’s cool about using the FasterAudio software is you can convert your audio files into an accelerated format Mp3 which is easily transferred to your iPod or any Mp3 playing device. This lets you maximize your audio learning time whenever you are away from your PC or Mac running Parallels.

Getting Started With Speed-Listening

When I first tried FasterAudio speed-listening software I set the audio to 125% of regular speed. After just a few minutes at 125% I accelerated my audio learning up to 1.5 X of regular speed. Not only was I able to listen to the accelerated audio with ease, but was doing so with full comprehension. It was easy and fun. Really amazing.

Then I did the math. At 1.5X regular audio speed you save 20 minutes for every 60 minutes of audio learning, but I wanted to listen faster. After about 1hr of listening at 1.5X I went to 1.75X of regular speed. It took another hour or so to get used to listening at 1.75X speed with ease.

My goal was to cut my audio learning time in half so over the next few days I used FasterAudio to slowly increase the speed of the audios I was listening to. It wasn’t long before I hit 2X speed and reached my goal. Then I heard about people who speed-listen at up to 4.5X of regular speed. This motivated and challenged me to keep pushing my listening speed faster and faster. I have since reached 3.5X of normal listening speed and continue to push myself.

That said, 1.5X of normal speed is quick and easy to reach and will save you hours of valuable time if you listen to audiobooks, podcasts, home study programs etc.
Bottom line… your first goal should be to get comfortable with 1.5X (most people have no trouble reaching that) and then work at doubling your listening speed so you cut your audio learning time in half. Then keep pushing yourself to go faster.

You can check out FasterAudio speed-listening software at this link and experience speed-listening for yourself live on the website.




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Reducing The Overall Costs With Procurement Outsourcing

Today in the industrial world we often hear the term procurement Outsourcing and many of us do not even know what it means. In fact procurement outsourcing is the process of transfer of the identified vital activities related to procurements in the industry. Such transfer is generally made in favor of a third party. The aim is to cut down the overall cost of the procurement using the services of such third party and also to pin pointedly concentrate on the core values of competence.

The third party services that are requisitioned in the process are referred to as the procurement services in industrial terminologies. In the process you are supposed to categorize your key procurements. It is the procurement of indirect materials that are typically outsourced. Another aspect that is ordinarily outsourced by most organizations is the vendor management. These two are the typically most popularly outsourced items in an industrial organization.

However, before procurement outsourcing you should try to reply to certain questions and be convinced about the benefits of such outsourcing. It is necessary to know whether you could rely completely on the third party about prompt delivery as well as the quality of the services offered and timeliness. Else the purpose of your procurement Outsourcing will not be fulfilled.

There are many experts in the field of industrial enterprises who do not favor the system of obtaining procurement services without proper planning. To them this is an unwelcome trend that does not predict well for the industrial world itself. Initially the efforts made for outsourcing were strategically framed where the companies that were buying something used to get their administrative burdens reduced in the process.

Thus the companies were focusing more and more on their real business instead of bothering for procurements. Some of the companies were also trying a type of decommissioning in a strategic manner so that more and more of their peripheral functions became open to outsourcing. Moreover, the supply base for any industry has expanded manifold necessitating such steps.

In fact in modern times we are experiencing decommissioning in multiple ways. They could be industrial, technical, managerial or even electrical decommissioning. Leading companies in the market are going in a large way for both outsourcing as well as decommissioning. The trend is prominent not only in case of large scale industries but to day is also prominent in case of small and medium scale industries.

That is why the experts are of the opinion that the size of a company has little or no bearing on the procurement outsourcing strategy. Perhaps the smaller companies feel the necessity of outsourcing more than the larger ones due to resource constraints they face. This is one reason why smaller companies shall opt more for outsourcing as well as the methods like electrical decommissioning.

The alternative method of reducing cost other than outsourcing is to reduce the manpower in the organization but such steps will meet stiff resistance from many counts. Thus outsourcing aims at optimum utilization of existing resources and not displacing them.

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