Leadership Management » Challenges

Parenting School Years

dennis — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 10:53:10 +0000

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Parenting School Years

Small Business Financing With Factoring

dennis — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:59:30 +0000

Small business owners have always had a tough time obtaining financing. Simply, most small businesses just can’t qualify for conventional business loans. The requirements are too onerous – the company must have sizable assets, multiple years of profitability and many times, it’s financial statements must be audited by a 3rd party.

Most business owners consider that a business loan is their only business financing alternative. When they get turned away, they give up any hope of obtaining financing. What most small business owners don’t know is that they do have alternatives – and – many times those alternatives can work better that conventional financing.

Let’s take a common cash flow challenge. Companies that sell products or services to other businesses usually have to wait between 30 and 60 days to get paid for their services. So, they incur the expenses of delivery immediately, but then wait a long time to recoup their investment. While this is fine for companies with adequate banking reserves, it is one of the major challenges that business owners face today. As a matter of fact, few startups plan for the fact that it takes 4 to 8 weeks to get paid, which not only limits their growth opportunities, but challenges their very survival as a business.

Now, most business owners would consider that the only solution to the previous problem is to get a loan or a line of credit. But there is another option – it’s called factoring financing. Few people have heard of it, so not many owners consider it if they fail to get a business loan.

Invoice factoring offers a very simple solution to the slow payments problem. Let’s say that you sold $10,000 worth of consulting services to a company. And let’s say that they’ll pay the $10,000 in about 45 days, which is the industry average. Now, what happens if you can’t wait because you need to meet payroll or make supplier payments? Well, you could sell the invoice to a factoring company. The factoring company would buy it from you in two installments. The first installment would be for 80% of the invoice, or $8000 in the case of our example. This is paid at invoicing.

The second installment, paid to you when your client actually pays the invoice, is the remaining 20%, less a fee. Using our example, it’d be $2000 minus the cost of the factoring service.

So factoring invoices offers you the following proposition: an immediate advance of about 80% at time of invoicing, and a second advance for the reminder (less fees) at the time of actual payment.

As you can see, factoring provides the needed working capital to meet business expenses without worrying about when your client will pay. It provides you with predictable cash flow, positioning your business for growth. And qualifying for factoring tends to be relatively easy. The biggest requirement (though not the only one) is that you must have a good roster of clients.

What To Do If You Are Waitlisted Or Rejected From Your Top Choice College…

dennis — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:18:09 +0000

What if things do NOT go like you planned? What if you are rejected or waitlisted at your first choice? Here are some ideas that may help overcome these challenges.

First, create a plan B. Pick the best option of the schools that have accepted you. Send in a housing deposit if you need to meet the May 1 deadline. You are much better off accepting an offer at your second choice college, working hard to get great grades, and transferring to your first choice college than you are attempting to take a year off. Even if you do something really cool like live in Europe or work on a cruise ship, this will not help your chances of getting accepted the next fall. You will just end up doing the same paperwork and get the same result. However, the Peace Corps is an exception. This may enhance your chances of being accepted.

So, if you really want to go to college, go to college. For some schools, waitlisted is a waiting list of students to offer admissions. The schools wait until they figure out their yield, which means how many students will accept our offer of admission and how much room do we still need to fill. For other schools, they do not really mean it, but it sounds politer than a no.

To find out which type of school at which you are waitlisted, find out what percentage of students are accepted from the wait list. If 10 of 170 are accepted, you may decide not to waste your time. If you think you could get off the waitlist, try the following ideas to significantly improve your chances of acceptance.

Write a letter telling the school all your accomplishments since your original application. List the awards you have won, the great grades you have earned, the community service you have done, and your summer internship. Give the admissions officer a reason to choose you instead of someone else. Be polite, but do not be shy. Be as specific as you can. Do not tell them you have improved your grades; tell them exactly how much you have improved your grades.

Add a list of reasons WHY you want to attend their school. Again be as specific as possible about why this school is your number one choice. For instance, reference a new music center, a visiting professor, or a really great research opportunity at their school. It shows you are paying attention to their school.

Address the letter by name, not just to the Dean of Admissions. Look up the name on the school website. Then CC (copy) the letter to anyone else on campus that has helped you or would be interested in having you attend this school: a coach, a band director, a family friend, an employee, anyone you can think of.

Send the package Fed-Ex. Here is why: the first battle is getting your letter seen by somebody, so you need to get it to the right people. And NOTHING does that better than a Fed-Ex package. You can write the best letter ever, but if nobody sees it, it will not do you any good.

Include a picture of yourself, it personalizes the package. It helps the admissions officer to identify with who you are. And, if you are going to include a photo, make it of you with your family, your dog, or doing something interesting. Do NOT make it of you with your boyfriend/girlfriend or wearing a sweatshirt from their college.

You have done something most waitlisted students have not. You have tried to argue your case and that alone will help you stand out from the crowd. Like Woody Allen said 50% of success is just showing up. If you have been rejected, you can use the same method to try to get a second chance. You need to be sure that your grades, test scores, and other activities fit the schools profile first. If the average student scores a 29 on the ACT and you scored a 23, chances are you will not get that second chance.

Outsmart!: How to Do What Your Competitors Can’t

dennis — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:51:23 +0000

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Outsmart!: How to Do What Your Competitors Can’t

College Applications: Getting Over the Hump

dennis — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:17:30 +0000

No doubt about it, applying to college can be quite tedious and boring. You have to get an application, fill it out, send letters of recommendation, write an essay, pay a fee, and finish all this on a deadline. A daunting proposition, when taken all at once.

However, you shouldn’t let these little barriers stop you from filling out that application to the school of your dreams. Let me tell you a story.

The college I wound up attending had a very straightforward and quick application process. When I started at school, I found many students who were attending simply because the application was easy. Their good grades has gotten them excepted quickly, but they had no particular interest in the courses at my school (an engineering school). Some, when asked what they wanted to do, would give such decidedly non-engineering careers such as fashion design!

Most of these people dropped out soon. I can’t help but think that if they had spent a little more time finding the right school for them instead of applying because the application was easy, they might have done a lot better. Rather than allowing the challenges of applying to a school to cause you to look for an easier path, plow ahead through the process.

To help with this plowing process, I’ve created this quick list of tips on eliminating the barriers that stop most people from making the leap and applying for the schools they really want to attend. Read them and learn.

1. Application Fees

To many it may seem odd that a $60 fee would be a hurdle for someone applying to a school that costs thousands, but if you are applying to many colleges, the fees will stack up quickly. The solution to this one is simple, though. Just call up the the admissions office and tell them about your financial situation, and many times they will waive the fee for you. Even if they don’t, it never hurts to try.

3. Letters of Recommendation

There are a few quick fixes here. When you’re out begging for letters, ask if they could make the letter generic enough to change a few words (preferably just the school name) out for different schools, and give them a list of schools you’re applying to so they can make multiple copies. Then, give them pre-addressed and stamped envelopes to send the letters out in. This “batching” technique is much more time efficient that individual letters.

3. The Essay’s

For many, this is the most daunting aspect of the entire application. Let me tell you how to make it easier. Go through each of your applications, and find out what they’re looking for with the essay. You will notice that many of these essays are on similar topics. Once you’ve identified these similarities, you can “modularize” your essays in order to save time. Once you have these topic modules written, you can just copy, paste, and change the sections into the appropriate essay. Just be sure to alter any references to the school name, or else Harvard admissions might be puzzled as to why your only goal in like is to attend Duke!

Hopefully, these tips have help you out a bit with the applications process. Be sure to never give up on your dreams, particularly due to what are actually very small (though largely annoying) obstacles such as college applications. Good luck with the process, and I hope you get into the school of your dreams!

Real Simple

dennis — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:53:00 +0000

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Online or Traditional Education: Which Is Right For You?

dennis — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:17:40 +0000

For most people, the decision to get a college education is, if you’ll pardon the expression, a “no-brainer.” A not-so-obvious decision is to whether to get your education in a traditional, on-campus setting or – as is becoming more common – to get it online. The purpose of this article is to examine the differences between traditional and online education in terms of cost, class schedule, classroom environment, social life, and job opportunities.

Cost

The primary financial advantage of online education is that it is typically less-expensive to obtain. Tuition is cheaper for online classes than it is for traditional classes, and by studying online you also save money on housing, transportation, and other fees. The primary advantage of traditional education is that despite its relative cost you are more likely to get a high-paying job than a graduate from an online university. Thus, online education is less-expensive to obtain but traditional education may provide a bigger pay-out at the end. Please note that these are general differences and may vary greatly depending on the school and area of study.

Class Schedules and Classroom Environment

One of the great appeals of online education is its convenience. Online education allows you customize your classes to fit within your life while still maintaining a balance with your career, your family, and your social calendar. Traditional education, by contrast, revolves around a set schedule. Classes are held at specific times and vary semester to semester (or term to term, depending the school), and attendance is mandatory. The set nature of traditional education can present challenges to students with families or work commitments. That being said, traditional classes are more “hands-on” than online classes, which means they offer the kind of face-to-face contact with instructors and access to equipment that can greatly enhance the learning experience.

Social Life

One of the great strengths of traditional education is that it facilitates social interaction among students. In addition to classes and study groups, students are encouraged at traditional schools to network with each other through dorms, clubs, athletic events, and various other extracurricular activities. Online education, by contrast, is much more limited in this respect. Students may correspond via email or participate in discussion boards for specific classes, but there is little, if any, face-to-face contact. On the other hand, for students more comfortable with this kind of social interaction, online education may be an ideal alternative.

Job Opportunities

The truth is that despite the growing credibility of online education, many employers still rank applicants with online degrees lower than those with traditional degrees. In other words, while an online degree will allow you apply for a job, it may put you lower in the “hire pile” than someone with a degree from a traditional school. The upshot is that if a job doesn’t work out, or you wish to change your career (as many people do) it is much quicker and less expensive to do it through online education.

In conclusion, when it comes to getting your education in a traditional classroom or getting it online, there is no clear-cut winner. Each has its strengths and each has its weaknesses. Each prospective student must weigh the options carefully based on personal preferences and professional goals. Just remember this: the choice between online and traditional is, ultimately, far less important than the choice to actually finish your college education – that’s the decision that really matters.

Surviving in This Economic Hardship Should Start From the Family Unit

dennis — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:01:34 +0000

Despite it being a vital aspect of life, some of us find it harsh when told to create a culture of saving for the future. And this has brought me to say that during those formative years it would be of utmost importance for parents to instill knowledge on ways of saving. I thank my parents for where I am now financially; I can still hear my mother’s voice not to be wasteful. Even when it came to serving food, she insisted for one to serve what you know you can finish.

In these tough economic times and the constant fluctuating inflation globally it would suicidal if parents don’t regard teaching their children on how to save even if it just means getting them a piggy bank. Maybe you would call my father old school and a disciplinarian but I thank him for the efforts he took to make sure his children adopted a habit of saving. I came to realize that nothing in life is got easy or overnight but one has to work on achieving some sort to success. I have to believe in small beginnings and building on them not forgetting to follow up until you finish. It’s from my parents’ effort I learnt the saving culture while still in my formative years, as my father found it a character flaw not planning for the future.

I remember it was never an issue when it came to paying for my college fees as my parents planned in advance how to cater for my education. Thanks to them now as am now starting my own family and my wife expecting our first born, am giving a lot of thought how to feed, house, cloth and educate my children. Before when one would expect the government to chip in and help educate our children, but with the economic hardships governments are finding that taxing.

The ability to sustain a family and the challenges that lie ahead in raising a family, educating the children or just starting a business venture will highly depend on how one prepares for the future and the challenges life brings. With the current economic crisis ravaging the United States and virtually the rest of the world it would be prudent that one spends less while saving and not forgetting to invest. Some of the fundamental aspects to consider would be to have credible insurance policies, opening a fixed account in a strong and stable bank, buying stocks of profitable companies and for those with enough funds can look at investing in real estate or consider offshore investments.

Families should start saving and investing now by putting low risks investments. For me it’s a call for families to diligently budget and come up with solid money management plans of where and how to invest. The reason for dwelling on families it’s because they are the backbone of any society and in order to affect the world effectively would be to start with the family unit. History has proved it’s safer to start saving early, as the adage goes “the earlier the better.”

Leadership Management » Challenges

Parenting School Years

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