Five Qualities of a Great Business OpportunityWritten by John R. Barker
1. A low overhead and startup costOverhead is any fixed cost that accrues whether you make a dime or not. They include; rent, employees, utilities, phone access, etc. Starting a business can be costly if it requires developing a new office space. A home-based business makes most of existing resources. The lower fixed costs, greater odds a new business will be able to weather storm from start-up to profitability. After much searching, I chose The Success Website as an additional income stream: http://www.thesuccesswebsite.com/2542 It is a great opportunity at just $19.95 per month. It requires NO additional overhead and I am entitled tax write-offs on my computer, Internet access, phone line, in-home office space, utilities, lunches where I talk about opportunity and more. In tax savings alone it pays for itself without making even a dime. (*Consult your tax advisor for your specific situation). 2. Leverage Leverage is difference between rich and poor. The rich effectively leverage their time, money and resources. The poor do not. The rich leverage time by having others do tasks at less than what they have potential to earn during same time period. The poor spend their time working for profit of others. And, rich leverage their money by controlling a cash flow generating resource – assets - with as little of their own money as possible. Working on your business and in your business are not same. As Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki says, if you can walk away for a year and it doesn’t miss a beat you have a business. If not, you’re self-employed – you have a job. You are not utilizing power of leverage. (I highly recommend Kiyosaki’s books if you have not read them. Learn more at http://www.getSynergized.com/richdad.htm) 3. Little or no inventory Inventory is expensive to acquire and maintain. It requires a big chunk of cash - or debt - to acquire and there is no guarantee of selling even one widget. It requires complicated systems. It requires a team of people to manage it, order it, sort it, ship it, restock it, count it and reorder it again. Inventory also requires space. Having a low, or ideally, no-inventory business is way to go.
| | Rx FOR FALLING CORPORATE PROFITSWritten by John Di Frances
"Corporate Profits Fell 43% in 1st Quarter" proclaimed 15 May 2001, Wall Street Journal headline. The article went on to say that: "The nation's (1700) largest corporations posted one of worst profit performances in at least 10 years in first quarter, suggesting companies may further cut spending to stem tide ... technology has made companies more reliant than ever on volume to keep unit costs down. As volume has slowed, unit costs have risen and eroded profitability."Once again squeeze is on and many companies are looking at massive cost cutting as means to scramble back to profitability in an uncertain economy. The problem with this classic approach is that it sends clear message to your brightest and best talent that no matter how well they perform, today there is no job security. Not only does such a move have a serious impact on morale, but with most of country still in a very tight labor market, what happens if economy improves later this year or early in 2002. It will be next to impossible to replace laid-off workers and worse yet, your current work force, especially those brightest and best, may well decide that it is time to move on to greener and possibly more secure pastures before next downturn hits. Is there a better approach than cutting off your nose today and spite your face tomorrow? Absolutely! The way for any organization to beat this cycle, especially in an economy that may well in this decade experience several see-saw periods of growth and contraction, is to adopt synergistic innovation as its model for continuous expansion despite short term economic declines. Most corporate leaders know that productivity increases provide best way to increase profits quickly without increasing prices. What is less well understood is that continuous innovation is most effective means to improving productivity over long term. Internally generated innovation in products, services, processes and methods provides an endless series of new opportunities to make rapid productivity increases for both organization and its customers an on-going reality. Innovation channels creativity of organization's greatest asset, its people and puts it to work in practical ways that are "real world market" driven and directed. Far too often we immediately look outside of our organization for "new solutions", when instead we should rather be looking within, especially in times of economic downturn. New ventures and other outside opportunities, while potentially profitable for long term future, typically take a significant period of time and frequently much additional capital to bring them to point of being substantial profit contributors. Meanwhile opportunities often abound internally to enhance our market offerings, streamline our operations and save money through creative approaches and best of all, these capabilities exist today within minds and hearts of our present employees. If we will endeavor to unlock these potent assets rather than choose typical knee-jerk reactions of cost cutting and down-sizing as our first response, we will find our people willing and capable to respond in frequently unimagined ways to grow our productivity and profitability. Later, when economy rebounds, we will not need to replace down-sized workers and will find we have built a deeper allegiance and sense of ownership within our people.
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