As in most situations that can spin out of control, effective communication between lessee and lessor is extremely important. At start of lease, you are primarily concerned with obtaining flexible, cost effective equipment financing. The lessor’s primarily objective is to originate a profitable lease transaction. Once a payment default is in offing, primary concerns of both parties change. You now focus on taking actions to guarantee survival, while lessor seeks protection and recovery of lease investment. That being said, it is very important that you appreciate lessor’s concerns when you are planning a recovery and when communicating with lessor.

As a first step, you should notify lessor when a payment default seems unavoidable. No one wants to be blindsided by an unexplained delinquency as first indication of a problem. Most lessors will appreciate your forthright candor in alerting them. Be prepared to give an explanation of cause of payment problem, a detailed account of your company’s financial condition, and your plan to correct situation. If you are able to generate financial projections, they will prove helpful in convincing lessor to allow you to execute your recovery plan.

Try to stay in compliance with all other terms and conditions of lease. Most lessors will appreciate your diligence in adhering to other lease provisions, especially those requiring periodic financial information. Frequent updates will give lessor confidence that you are cooperating and working with him.

If appropriate, propose a rent reduction in an amount and for a term that will give you an opportunity to recover. Remember, lessor is primarily interested in how lease will be repaid and how he will realize benefit of bargain negotiated at outset of lease. Secondly, he is concerned about his collateral position. Now that a problem has surfaced, he will want protection from a loss on transaction if your company fails or if equipment repossession becomes necessary. Offer cash flow projections to show how your firm will recover and when you will be able to resume making full rent payments.

Some of us are more successful at keeping those resolutions than others. There are those people who say they want to make changes to improve their lives this year that make a few resolutions, but don’t do anything about them at all. It’s as if they said it only because they felt it was expected of them or they were hoping that things will change by themselves without any effort on their part.

Then there are those people who make resolutions work at it for a month or two and give up when they don’t see progress quickly enough or because they really didn’t want to make change to begin with. There are people who decide if they just try a little harder, apply themselves more to their current work they will do better for themselves even though they know they were working hard enough already.

I have to admit, I used to be one of those people. My parents taught me to believe that if you work hard enough, you will succeed. They were right to a certain extent. I started off as a cashier and I became a store manager eventually. To that end I was successful. But when you reach a certain plateau, no matter what career you are in you will reach a point where working harder will not bring you any more than you already have.

If you continue to do same things you are already doing you will only have same results that you have right now. Most successful people will tell you that it did not happen overnight. That they failed a few times first, learned from their mistakes, adapted and changed their plans and tried again. Their commitment to change their lives and their commitment to implementing their action plan is what eventually made them succeed.

The only way things will change for you financially or otherwise is if you decide that you want to make changes. Once that decision is really and truly made you have to make a plan of action to implement those changes. Then you have to make a commitment to implement your action plan and stick with it. Your dreams will stay just dreams if you do not back them up with a plan of action.

If you have not set goals before and are not sure where to start here are some questions you can ask yourself to get started:

What do you want out of life?

How high do you want your net worth to be?

Can you accomplish that net worth in your current career or will you have to return to school to accomplish it? Can you accomplish it by some refresher courses or by adding to a degree you already have or will you have to start at beginning again? Can you do this at a regular State College or will you have to go to a specialized or trade school?

Do you want a bigger house, a vacation home or a boat?

Do you want your children to go to college?

When you retire will you live in same home you live in now?

Do you want to travel when you retire?

Do you wish to sell your home and retire to your vacation home permanently?

When you retire from your career will you take it easy or will you work part time?

Would you like to turn a long time hobby into a business once you retire?

Now here are some questions you need to think about when you are starting to formulate a plan to reach some of these goals or items on your wish list. Keep in mind you also need to think about amount of money goal will cost and amount of time you want to accomplish it in.