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Your children are most precious for you. Their needs and desires cannot be neglected. Right from buying a car for your son to meeting college expenses of your daughter, you always dreamt of satisfying all their needs. But are you finding the way to fulfill theses needs a tough one? Does lack of finance always stops you from proceeding? If your answer is yes, personal loans are there to help you out.

Personal loans are perhaps the easiest and the most convenient way to borrow money. They are not meant to fulfill a particular need. They are available for you to fulfill your children’s numerous desires.

Many times an urgent need occurs like paying college fee or filling application forms etc. which cannot be delayed. Personal loans in that case help you a lot. They require very less documentation and hence the loan transaction process is fast. They are easily accessible and can be reached in minutes through online money lenders. This further makes personal loans the most preferred borrowing. If you need any information about lenders offering personal loans, you can simply find it on the net.

Personal loan asks you for certain details about you and about your son or daughter. You will be required to show your credit history, income proof, employment proof etc. You will also be required to show some details about your child too.

When you look for personal loan lenders available online, you will come across mainly three distinct types of personal loans.

Secured personal loans

Unsecured personal loans, and

Line of credit

A Secured personal loan is one in which the lender keeps with himself some kind of security against the loan amount. The security is kept in the form of collateral. In case you fail to repay the loan, the lender will take away that property. This loan offers money with a very low rate of interest as there is less risk on part of the lender. Secured loans will offer you money up to £75,000.

The next is unsecured personal loans where you do not require to put any collateral. They offer faster loan approval because of less paperwork. But it might offer a slight higher rate of interest as compared to a secured loan. It will offer you loan up to £25,000

Line of credit sets up a limit to your credit. That means they will offer you a credit card and you will be allowed to withdraw money only to a certain credit limit. The interest rate will be charged depending upon how much you borrow from that credit card.

Personal loans allow you to borrow money for your son and daughter for a period of 6 months to as long as 25 years. It depends upon your loan amount; however you also have the option to choose a repayment term based on your convenience.

Personal loans are the best loan available that can satisfy your son and daughter without any pressure on you.

India's US$40b education market is experiencing a surge in investment. Capital, both local and international, and innovative legal structures are changing the face of this once-staid sector

The liberalization of India's industrial policy in 1991 was the catalyst for a wave of investment in IT and infrastructure projects. Rapid economic growth followed, sparking a surge in demand for skilled and educated workers. This, combined with the failure of the public system to provide high quality education and the growing willingness of the burgeoning middle class to spend money on schooling, has transformed India's education sector into an attractive and fast-emerging opportunity for foreign investment.

Despite being fraught with regulatory restrictions, private investors are flocking to play a part in the "education revolution". A recent report by CLSA (Asia-Pacific Markets) estimated that the private education market is worth around US$40 billion. The K-12 segment alone, which includes students from kindergarten to the age of 17, is thought to be worth more than US$20 billion. The market for private colleges (engineering, medical, business, etc.) is valued at US$7 billion while tutoring accounts for a further US$5 billion.

Other areas such as test preparation, pre-schooling and vocational training are worth US$1-2 billion each. Textbooks and stationery, educational CD-ROMs, multimedia content, child skill enhancement, e-learning, teacher training and finishing schools for the IT and the BPO sectors are some of the other significant sectors for foreign investment in education.

Opportunity beckons

The Indian government allocated about US$8.6 billion to education for the current financial year. But considering the significant divide between the minority of students who graduate with a good education and the vast majority who struggle to receive basic elementary schooling, or are deprived of it altogether, private participation is seen as the only way of narrowing the gap. Indeed, it is estimated that the scope for private participation is almost five times the amount spent on education by the government.

CLSA estimates that the total size of India's private education market could reach US$70 billion by 2012, with an 11% increase in the volume and penetration of education and training being offered.
The K-12 segment is the most attractive for private investors. Delhi Public School operates approximately 107 schools, DAV has around 667, Amity University runs several more and Educomp Solutions plans to open 150 K-12 institutions over the next four years. Coaching and tutoring K-12 students outside school is also big business with around 40% of urban children in grades 9-12 using external tuition facilities.

Opening the doors

Private initiatives in the education sector started in the mid-90s with public-private partnerships set up to provide information and communications technology (ICT) in schools. Under this scheme, various state governments outsourced the supply, installation and maintenance of IT hardware and software, as well as teacher training and IT education, in government or government-aided schools. The central government has been funding this initiative, which follows the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) model, under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan and ICT Schools programmes. Private companies such as Educomp Solutions, Everonn Systems, and NIIT were among the first to enter the ICT market, which is expected to be worth around US$1 billion by 2012.

Recently, the central government invited private participation in over 1,000 of its industrial training institutes and offered academic and financial autonomy to private players. Companies such as Tata, Larsen & Toubro, Educomp and Wipro have shown keen interest in participating in this initiative.

Regulatory roadblocks

Education in India is regulated at both central and state government levels. As a result, regulations often differ from state to state. K-12 education is governed by the respective State School Education Act and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Rules and Regulations concerning affiliation and/or the rules of any other affiliating body. Under current regulations, only not-for-profit trusts and societies registered under Societies Registration Act, 1860, and companies registered under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956, qualify to be affiliated with the CBSE and to operate private schools.

While the K-12 segment accounts for the lion's share of India's educational market, weaving through the complex regulatory roadmap to qualify for affiliation poses serious difficulties for investors. The CBSE requires privately-funded schools to be non-proprietary entities without any vested control held by an individual or members of a family. In addition, a school seeking affiliation is expected to have a managing committee controlled by a trust, which should approve budgets, tuition fees and annual charges. Any income accrued cannot be transferred to the trust or school management committee and voluntary donations for gaining school admission are not permitted.
Schools and higher education institutions set up by the trust are entitled to exemptions from income tax, subject to compliance with section 11 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. In order to qualify for tax exemptions, the trust needs to ensure that its predominant activity is to serve the charitable purpose of promoting education as opposed to the pursuit of profit.

Alternative paths

Alternative routes do exist for investors seeking to avoid the web of regulatory barriers that constrain their involvement. Sectors such as pre-schools, private coaching and tutoring, teacher training, the development and provision of multimedia content, educational software development, skill enhancement, IT training and e-learning are prime sectors in which investors can allocate their funds. These areas are attractive because while they relate closely to the profitable K-12 segment, they are largely unregulated. As such, they make attractive propositions for private investors interested in taking advantage of the burgeoning demand for quality education. Companies such as Educomp Solutions, Career Launcher, NIIT, Aptech, and Magic Software, are market leaders in these fields. Educomp recently acquired a large number of educational institutes and service providers across India. It has also formed joint ventures with leading higher education groups, including Raffles Education Singapore, for the establishment of higher education institutions and universities in India and China. Furthermore, it has entered into a multi-million dollar collaboration with Ansal Properties and Infrastructure to set up educational institutions and schools across the country and closed an US$8.5 million deal to acquire Eurokids International, a private provider of pre-school educational services in India. Gaja Capital India, an education-centric fund, has completed the funding of three education services companies in India. NIIT and Aptech, meanwhile, are engaged in the IT training business.

Core Projects and Technology is also focusing heavily on India and is likely to bid to takeover, upgrade and run public schools for specified periods on a public-private partnership basis.

Higher hurdles

While state governments are largely responsible for providing K-12 education in India, the central government is accountable for major policy decisions relating to higher education. It provides grants to the University Grants Commission (UGC) and establishes central universities in the country. The UGC coordinates, determines and maintains standards and the release of grants. Upon the UGC's recommendation, the central government declares the status of an educational institution, which once authorized, is entitled to award degrees.

State governments are responsible for the establishment of state universities and colleges and has the power to approve the establishment of private universities through State Acts. All private universities are expected to conform to the UGC guidelines to ensure that certain minimum standards are maintained.

Amity University in Uttar Pradesh is one of the private universities to open its doors. It was approved by the Uttar Pradesh state legislature on 12 January 2005 under section 2(f) of the University Grants Commission Act.

Not-for-profit and anti-commercialization concepts dominate higher education fee structures. To prevent commercialization and profit-making, institutions are prohibited from claiming returns on investments. This, however, does not pose a hurdle for universities interested in mobilizing resources to replace and upgrade their assets and services. A fixation of fees is required in accordance with the guidelines prescribed by the UGC and other concerned statutory bodies. For this purpose, the UGC may request the relevant information from the private university concerned, as prescribed in the UGC (Returns of Information by Universities) Rules, 1979.

In line with the policy on Fee Fixation in Private Unaided Educational Institutions Imparting Higher and Technical Education, two types of fees are required: tuition fees and development fees. Tuition fees are intended to recover the actual cost of imparting education without becoming a source of profit for the owner of the institution. While earning returns on investment would not be permissible, development fees may provide an element of partial capital cost recovery to the management, serving as a resource for upkeep and replacement.

Legal precedents

In order to be awarded university status by the UGC, institutions must comply with the objectives set forth in the Model Constitution of the Memorandum of Association/Rules, and ensure that no portion of the income accrued is transferred as profit to previous or existing members of the institution. Payments to individuals or service providers in return for any service rendered to the institute are, however, not regulated.

In this context recent court judgments on private universities are relevant. The Supreme Court, in Unnikrishnan JP v State of Andhra Pradesh, introduced a scheme regulating the admission and levy of fees in private unaided educational institutions, particularly those offering professional education. The ruling was later notified in the fee policy.

Subsequently, in the case of Prof Yashpal and Anr v State of Chattisgarh and Ors in 2005, the Supreme Court assailed the Chattisgarh government's legislation and amendments which had been abused by many private universities. It was contended that the state government, simply by issuing notifications in the Gazette, had been establishing universities in an indiscriminate and mechanical manner without taking into account the availability of any infrastructure, teaching facilities or financial resources. Further, it was found that the legislation (Chhattisgarh Niji Kshetra Vishwavidyalaya (Sthapana Aur Viniyaman) Adhiniyam, 2002) had been enacted in a manner which had completely abolished any kind of UGC control over private universities.

The Supreme Court concluded that parliament was responsible for ensuring the maintenance and uniformity of higher education institutions in order to uphold the UGC's authority. Following the judgment, only those private universities that satisfied the UGC's norms were able to continue operating in Chattisgarh.

Professional institutions

Professional and technical education in India is regulated by professional councils such as the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Established under the AICTE Act, 1987, AICTE gives recognition to courses, promotes professional institutions, provides grants to undergraduate programmes, and ensures the coordinated and integrated development of technical education and the maintenance of standards. The AICTE has recently exerted pressure on unrecognized private technical and management institutes to seek its approval or face closure.

A single bench decision of the Delhi High Court in Chartered Financial Analysis Institute and Anr v AICTE illustrates the far-reaching implications this kind of pressure can have on all institutions operating independently of the AICTE. The court found that the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, a US-based organization, was engaged in imparting technical education and that its charter, though not described as a degree or diploma, was nevertheless descriptive of the candidate attaining an academic standard, entitling him to pursue further courses, and achieve better prospects of employment in the investment banking profession. The AICTE argued that the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute fell within the ambit of its regulation and was therefore obliged to submit to the jurisdiction of the regulatory body. The Delhi High Court upheld the AICTE's view that the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute did qualify as an institution imparting technical education..

This judgment may have emboldened the AICTE to proceed against a number of other establishments that are on its list of unapproved institutions. It holds particular significance since despite not granting degrees and diplomas, the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute was still deemed by the court to be covered under the description of a "technical institute".

Enthusiasm grows for foreign participation

While regulators such as the AICTE continue to exercise influence in the Indian education system, the sector is expected to witness a surge in foreign investment and perhaps a reduction in the number of regulatory roadblocks as a result of the central government's enthusiasm for overseas investors. Foreign direct investment in higher education could help reduce government expenditure and there is a general consensus that education as a whole should be opened for domestic and foreign private participation.

The entry of foreign educational institutions into India will be covered by the new Foreign Education Providers (Regulation for Entry and Operation) Bill. The bill seeks to regulate the entry and operation of foreign education providers, as well as limit the commercialization of higher education. Foreign education providers would be given the status of "deemed universities" allowing them to grant admissions and award degrees, diplomas or certificates.

Operationally, the bill proposes to bring foreign education providers under the administrative umbrella of the UGC, which would eventually regulate the admissions process and fee structures. Since these foreign institutions will have to be incorporated under central or state laws, they will also be subject to the government's policies of reservations. The bill is pending approval from the Indian Parliament but it is unclear if it will be taken by the present government for a vote prior to the general elections in 2009.

Innovative structures unlock profitability

The regulatory restraints on running profitable businesses in the K-12 and higher education sectors have driven Indian lawyers to devise innovative structures that enable private investors to earn returns on their investments. These typically involve the establishment of separate companies to provide a range of services (operations, technology, catering, security, transport, etc.) to the educational institution. The service companies enter into long term contracts with the trust operating the institution. Payments made by the trust to the service companies must be comparative and proportionate to the services rendered by such companies. Furthermore, in order to qualify for tax exemptions, the expenses paid by the trust to the service companies must not exceed what may reasonably be paid for such services under arm's length relationships.
Despite the regulatory constraints, the Indian education sector is on a path of exponential growth. A growing number of private companies are undertaking creatively structured projects in the education business and the level of investor confidence is demonstrated by the recent spate of M&A activity that has taken place.

With more domestic players emerging, the education sector is likely to witness consolidation, but at the same time, increasing foreign participation will drive competition and raise standards. Liberalization will continue to intensify as the government struggles to remedy its poor public education system and provide quality institutions to educate India's masses.

The first meeting or telephone conversation with your prospective tenant is the beginning of the screening process to find a good tenant. If they are viewing the rental property - are they on time? Are they smartly dressed? Is their car well maintained? Do they wipe their feet before entering the property? Small details like this can give you an insight into what type of tenant they are likely to be. When you question them about such things as employment, references or rental history are they happy to provide the answers? If both parties are keen to proceed with the let, you will need to put things in writing. At this stage the prospective tenants may decide to pay a holding deposit, while you go through the screening process necessary to complete the tenancy agreement.

Tenancy Application

It is strongly advised that as a first step you get any prospective tenants to complete a full application form. This needs to include: identity evidence, income and credit history, past accommodation and full employment details, references and other details, such as: any children, pets, car owner, smoker or non-smoker, the intended number of people living in the rental. The application should also specify the length and type of letting, the basic terms and the rent and deposit required. The application should also inform the tenant that credit checks and references checks will be made in accordance with the Data Protection Act.

Reference Check

Don't ever be tempted to not check the prospective tenant's credit or identity history, and do take up the references before deciding to enter into any tenancy agreement. Consider asking for a guarantor if you are not 100% sure. All these steps are much easier than having to evict a problem tenant. However 'nice' your prospective tenants seem don't be lulled into taking chances - your screening process is your insurance.

Tenancy Agreement

When you decide to let your property your new tenant will need to sign a Tenancy or Letting Agreement. This can be drawn up by anyone (and some landlords prefer to have it checked over by a solicitor) - the signing should be witnessed by an independent witness. This should be accompanied by a full inventory and statement of condition of the rental property. If you are arranging a let for more than three years you will legally need to get a Lease by Deed arranged by a solicitor.

What makes a Top Tenant?

makes rental payments on time
complies with the conditions of the tenancy agreement or lease
causes no damage to the property
keeps the property clean and tidy - rubbish is properly disposed of and any garden area is maintained, such as cutting the grass
noise levels are kept to a minimum
notifies the landlord about any repairs, before any further damage occurs
allows any necessary access for servicing or maintenance
gives plenty of advance notice when vacating the property

Building a successful business from scratch has always been the dream of every entrepreneur. Smart entrepreneurs will always pay for any knowledge, professional advice or innovative tip that will be beneficial to the process of building a successful business from scratch.

So what does it take to build a successful business from scratch? Well, it takes much but most of them are so minor that you tend to over look them without realizing that little things make big differences.

Below are 7 strong steps to building a successful business from scratch:

1. Be a person of integrity:

I listed this first because building a successful business from scratch starts from you the entrepreneur. You can never build a successful business without integrity. Integrity is supreme. Integrity is vital when dealing with customers, financial institutions, suppliers, employees and investors.

Now what happens if you are a person of integrity? Investors will trust you with their money, accessing credit facilities from suppliers will be easier and your customer's will remain loyal to your business.

2. Surround yourself with smart, positive people. Look for people who will push you up, not pull you down. Associating with positive people will really to help develop your business.

Sometimes in business, things might not turn out the way you expect or you might be experiencing difficult times. When you are surrounded with positive people, a word of advice or encouragement from them might just be the magic you need.

But if you associate with negative thinkers or pessimists, all they can say to you is "the earlier you quit the better" or "quit now, you have tried your best" or "I have tried it before, it failed."

A familiar case study is that of Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company. When he was trying to bring into reality his idea of a gasoline engine, he failed a couple of times. But he was encouraged by Thomas Edison, founder of General Electric and the end point was that he later succeeded. The aspiring part of it is that Thomas Edison also failed 10,000 times before his light bulb became a reality. Both men later went on to build successful businesses, that is the power of associating with positive people.

3. Take care of your customers and they will in turn pledge their loyalty to your business. Customers talk a lot, a happy and satisfied customer will surely tell one or two friends about your business.

4. Be swift to align your business with the ever changing technology and trend. Your ability to adapt swiftly with change in customer's need, industrial change and trend will be a competitive advantage for your business. Bill Gates anticipated the customer's need for easy to use software; he gave it to them and became a billionaire.

5. In your quest to find new customers, always remember that your first impression on the customer is not enough, you must strive for sustained impression. Don't just impress the customer on the first visit; make every visit a surprise package.

6. Are you building a brand for your business?

This is really a question you must answer. If you are not building a brand, it means you are not building customer's loyalty. Then ultimately, you are not building a business. To build a brand, you will have to develop a Unique Selling Proposition. You can call it a promise to your customer, a promise that will differentiate you from your competitors. And if you eventually make that promise, strive to deliver it. Lack of reliability can kill your business so always deliver; it will do you good in the long run.

7. Assemble A Strategic Team For Your Business:

This is the most important key to building a successful business from scratch. You can never achieve greatness alone. Check the life of successful entrepreneurs; they all have a team made up of accountants, attorneys, legal advisers, tax strategists, investment analysts, personal coach, mentors and so on. You can't do it all alone, a team is crucial to your success.

In the course of teaching entrepreneurship and business building, I observed that whenever I raised the issue on the importance of assembling a business team, the reply I usually get from small business owners is "how can I afford it?

Well, since I have been asked this severally, I decided to search for a solution to the problem of "how can I afford it." and this is what I came up with. I decided to create an avenue, a website to be precise, where small business owners with the problem of "i can't afford it" can access to get first class business development tips and strategies from my Strategic Business Team. They can also use the avenue to interact with other entrepreneurs and business owners.

At this juncture, I rest my pen. Till I come your way again, remain blessed.

As the financial crisis continues to grip markets and businesses worldwide, is there any clarity as to the consequences for the sourcing sector? We hosted a roundtable debate looking at the short- and long-term impact of the turmoil on the sourcing space; our editor was joined by some of the keenest minds in sourcing to analyse the possible repercussions, the potential winners and losers - and steps industry players can take to minimise the impact on their businesses.

Attending were:

Charles Aird
Senior Managing Director of Outsourcing/Shared Services & Offshoring
PricewaterhouseCoopers

Phil Fersht
Research Director, BPO, Offshoring & IT Services
AMR Research

Katherine Kawamoto
VP Research & Advisory Services
IACCM

Tony Rawlinson
Managing Director, Financial Services
EquaTerra

Brian D Smith
Partner & Managing Director, Financial Services
TPI

Dr. Thomas Tunstall
Advisory Liaison
ACS

Q: Let's kick off with the immediate future: how do you see the short-term impact of the financial crisis playing out across the outsourcing sector?

Brian Smith: I think we've seen we've seen some impact here already; people are starting to think carefully about discretionary projects, particularly in the application development space. But we've seen less impact on day-to-day BPO-type activity which is outsourced and offshored, I think largely because the financial crisis has had more of an impact on credit and the capital structure of organizations, and less impact at this point on operating volumes.

I think what we're seeing is a slowdown in discretionary activity - but that will pick up again at some point as people get back to realizing their projects to execute against - and then the string of mergers that are taking place particularly here in the US as well as in Europe is obviously going to spawn a degree of activity in restructuring. I think that will impact the captive side of life; I think we'll see more activity there. So my thought would be that we're going to see a lull followed by a large amount of activity.

Q: To what extent do you think the mergers that have taken place have been driven directly by the crisis rather than having already been in the works?

Brian Smith: I would say most of the big mergers that have taken place here are directly related to the financial crisis. I suspect very few, if any, were even on the cards three months ago.

Tony Rawlinson: Picking up on that, I think we see the economics at the moment both disrupting and driving outsourcing. On the one hand there's certainly a disruption in the short term, an impact on project budgets, a deferral of capital expenditure, a deferral of all but mission-critical projects especially in financial services. Conversely our view is that the credit crunch and economic downturn mean that structurally outsourcing and offshoring are even more useful strategic tools going forward.

I'd share Brian's view that there's going to be a short pause before the true implications of the market crystallise, and then a forceful push for cost-reduction - but also a recognition that the winners now in recessionary times are going to turn their service delivery model into something that's a lot more flexible. I think the winners in recessionary times will already be thinking about their sourcing strategy for what comes after the recession; the flipside of flexibility in a downturn is a need to switch on as the upcurve starts again.

Q: You said a short pause: how long do you think that short pause is going to be?

Tony Rawlinson: I think it's going to be market-specific; my sense is that the US is further through that process than the UK and continental Europe. Some institutions are still, frankly, focused on survival - I'm going to meetings with institutions that are clearly worried about their continued existence - but over the next month or so we should have a lot more clarity. The other interesting flavour of course in the US, the UK and increasingly in continental Europe is the impact of the virtual nationalization or semi-nationalization of some institutions; we see that potentially impacting the political attitude to offshoring at a time when offshoring is clearly going to help address the short-term cost objectives of some of these players. So there are some interesting forces at work here, some of them pulling in different directions, and I think all will become a lot clearer over the next few weeks.

Phil Fersht: There are some interesting discussion points here and I'm inclined to agree with them. We went out of our way to speak with 44 of the major US financial institutions over the last two or three weeks to really gauge what their short- and medium-term plans are with regards to embracing outsourcing, and naturally the short-term focus is very much on stability and understanding how the hell this is going to play out for them. Taking 20 or 30 per cent off the bottom line is a nice-to-have, but at this moment just knowing you're going to be around is taking precedence. However, the way things seem to be moving, I think people are going to have a pretty strong idea in the next month about stability, about M&A - I think we'll see a lot of the M&A start to happen in the next few weeks as this thing starts to settle down a bit - and then the process is going to move on towards further optimization in the back office, further means to find cost-containment and broader-scale strategies.

In addition to that, there's definitely a change in mindset amongst the finance operations leaders in terms of embracing outsourcing as a strategic vehicle for longer-term plans to cut costs - and being perceived to do so. When we spoke to these institutions, 40 per cent of them said they were going to increase their spend and their impetus towards outsourcing in the next 6 months and only 15 per cent said they were going to decrease that. And when we break that down further, it's the banking sector that has the strongest impetus to increase outsourcing; nearly half the banks - all the usual suspects going through this meltdown right now - said they were increasing their impetus towards outsourcing, and only 10 per cent were decreasing. When we get into other areas like insurance it's a much more neutral effect; it's definitely the banking sector that's driving this.

When we get a bit deeper into the actual specific areas they're looking to get quick hits from, it's the bread-and-butter areas of outsourcing which don't require massive amounts of upfront transformation, where they've already done some educational exploration and some evaluation, and it's areas like banking BPO, application outsourcing, and F&A BPO that are clearly those that are going to offer the lower-hanging fruit opportunities. Taking the areas like core financials, core HR, bringing them out into third-party models quickly and effectively, is where we see a lot of activity in probably the middle of Q1, Q2, Q3 next year; we're expecting to see a big spike in contracts being signed, but we don't think they're going to be very large contracts, we're expecting to see a lot of small-to-medium-size contracts as companies try and move quickly into engagements that are more workable.

The short-term areas that we're seeing a drop-off include areas like IT infrastructure. Any IT staff augmentation projects seem to be a negative right now; anything discretionary is definitely being put on the back burner; things like HR outsourcing are definitely being put on the back burner in the near-term as companies look to have quicker, more impacting areas to move into. Then when we look at the sort of 6-to-12-month timeframe, we see a much stronger bend towards things like mortgage BPO, or even HRO coming back, and areas like staff augmentation have to come into play. When you think about Wells Fargo and Wachovia merging, that's a ton of systems integration that has to go on. Wachovia had a very broad, well-documented BPO and ITO strategy, Wells Fargo is not traditionally a big adopter of broad outsourcing, so how are these companies going to align? Which road are they going to go down? We think outsourcing is going to be one of them.

Q: Charles, is this reflected in how your clients are approaching the crisis at the moment?

Charles Aird: I would say yes and no. I think for the traditional back office that everybody's been talking about, the answer is yes, short-term; there's definitely a pause, people are trying to figure out what their existence is going to be and it's taking longer for them to make decisions. However, having said that, we do a lot of work around sourcing with clients in manufacturing, R&D, and other areas both for captive and outsourcing - and we're not seeing a significant change for those organizations, because, as you'll find, research shows that the US just isn't turning out science and technology people anymore - well, I shouldn't say that, universities are, but people are going back to India and China, to their home countries - and so we don't have the skills in the US to do a lot of the work that needs to be done for the US economy. So outsourcing's now embedded in organizations.

Plus we see a lot of organizations that we work with are using outsourcing as a means to penetrate markets that they haven't been in before, particularly in developing countries; we see those things continuing. But definitely in the BPO, ITO environments - particularly over the last month or six weeks - organizations are loath to spend, so they're looking for ways - creative ways, which I think probably helps the outsourcing service providers - to finance some of these deals, particularly the upfront part of them that deals with transition costs and may be involved with severance, consulting fees, legal fees, whatever it may be. And interestingly enough we're seeing some private equity firms with interest in providing some of the finance for doing this transformational kind of thing. So it's becoming a much more interesting - remembering the Chinese proverb "may you live in interesting times" - environment to work in and it probably is going to stretch a number of organizations like ours in the consultancy and advisory markets in helping our clients get over the issues that they may be having.

Tom Tunstall: I would agree with that. One thing I do want to comment on, with regard to when we would see things getting clearer, and settling out, I think a month may be too optimistic - particularly considering the fairly massive government interventions taking place right now. I think it's more likely it'll be a full quarter before we see clients deciding upon, or being able to strategise around, increased use of outsourcing. The analogy I've heard used recently is the deer in the headlights - a lot of companies, particularly financial service firms have been caught off-guard by the depth of the financial turmoil.

I think it's likely that's the first-order effect. The second-order effect, we're starting to see apart from banking is a cascade into insurance as well as other types of organizations. Automotive manufacturers are under stress, and other industries are likely to be affected as well. Probably consumer non-discretionary items are going to be least impacted, and if they are it'll take the longest to occur. Unfortunately, financial services are probably just the first-order effect. As all of you know this often creates opportunities for outsourcing suppliers.

Q: So at least a quarter of uncertainty?

Tom Tunstall: I think so. If the markets had been allowed to correct, and to assign prices to the assets, then I think we might have had a sharper downturn but it would have occurred more quickly and we would have started to see some clarity. The government involvement creates more uncertainty and will stretch the timeline out for any sort of recovery.

Charles Aird: Until the credit crisis sorts itself out a lot of clients just aren't able to get financing for operating capital, so we see clients just hanging onto their cash because of that kind of issue.

Phil Fersht: I think the election plays into this a little as well, in terms of who gets in; are there going to be any immediate strategies on bringing work back onshore? I think that's another factor.

Katherine Kawamoto: I think what we're seeing is that some decisions are starting to stall, particularly in areas related to outsourcing, and if companies are going to go forward with an outsourcing operation they're proceeding very cautiously and are really waiting for the dust to settle. We're hearing that budgets are starting to be looked at with more scrutiny and are starting to be reduced for the coming year, so some of the projects that people had anticipated rolling out in the first quarter are now on hold; that could be problematic for a number of the companies that we work with.

Q: Looking a bit further ahead, what do you think will be the impact on the sourcing industry over the next few years? Do we think this is going to lead to a general reorganization of sourcing providers?

Phil Fersht: I think for some of the up-and-coming Indian providers I think this might have come a little bit sooner than they'd wished. Yes, it's creating a ton of opportunity, but the bigger question is: when the world's in crisis, and companies are looking to find relationships that can take them to the next level - or that can get them out of this mess - are they willing to take a risk on a provider that doesn't have a lot of experience. So I think that this might have come a little sooner than some of the providers may have wanted, whereas it may create an opportunity for some of the incumbents to cement their positions so they can ride out the storm and consolidate further. I think we'll see some really step up and be successful; I think others will drop away quite quickly.

We'll also see a move towards the ability to augment application development work with BPO, for example. Providers who can really prove that they've got their act together bringing together systems architects, business process analysts and application development people to work across broader business goals are really going to be more successful in the long term; those providers that are pure-play process or pure-play IT need to think very seriously about how they're going to develop their solutions in the coming years.

Tony Rawlinson: I think it's going to be quite situational. On the one hand firms like TCS - who've recently done what I take to be a very attractive deal to buy Citi's BPO banking operations in India - clearly have a strategy to acquire service lines and scale up, and I think they'll be successful. There're clearly signs at the moment that it's a buyer's market, and some of the activity we will see will be more selective sales of captive operations - or if not that, certainly selective outsourcing of captive back office processes. I think conversely what we'll also see emerging will be providers that continue to specialize. Some of the big Indian KPO players will not want to scale up. They won't want to be reliant on having to make large capital investments. They'll stick to their knitting. I think service providers with a clear strategy will be those that are successful.

To pick up on the point a minute ago, I think I'd agree too that actually it's not so much the new deal activity that's pivotal for a lot of these providers: it's going to be extending, restructuring, realigning their existing outsourcing relationships with clients, in order to grow revenue for them but also to address client needs. We see a continuation - certainly in financial services - of center-led strategies to outsourcing being successful but conversely there are still a lot of institutions out there that are behaving quite dysfunctionally, at business-unit level or geography level, and those sort of buyers are still a real headache for providers to deal with.

Brian Smith: One observation I would make is that we've seen a lot of people looking at moving away from India over the last few months, and starting to look at different locations, and I suspect that this will cause some reconsideration of that because there will be - at least in the sort term - some capability in India that may not have been there previously as things slow down a bit, and this may cause people to stop looking elsewhere. In that sense, for the Indian provider community, this may not be as bad a thing as maybe could be construed.

Charles Aird: I agree with that. I think that the Indian market is not as attractive as it was before, but then I don't consider a TCS or an Infosys to be an Indian company any more; they're just as global as IBM as Accenture, and they've diversified very successfully into Eastern Europe and China and South America and places like that. But one of the things we've seen, just before this hit - and I wonder what the impact is going to be - is that we've found clients more comfortable with setting up captives in remote areas, in Eastern Europe, in China, in India, wherever, because of some perceived dissatisfaction with service providers. Service providers are getting spread really thin in their delivery teams. We're all going for similar skill-sets, whether it's a major service provider, one of the advisory firms like us and our competitors, or a client with its performance management and governance - and so the thing with service providers is that clients think they're not getting out of the deals what they expected to, and start to think about going more into the captive environment. So it'll be interesting to see over the next few months if that continues as a trend - and some of our research has shown that a lot of people are going to more captive - or if they will leverage the financing that I mentioned earlier through service providers to go the outsourcing route.

Tony Rawlinson: From an EquaTerra research perspective we've certainly seen signs of a slowdown in the trend to captives. I think we're beginning to see now - depending on the market and the proposition of the provider - certainly a growing maturity and range of some service provider offerings, and I think I'd expect to see the credit crunch at least make financial institutions and other organizations reassess whether they want to be in the captive game, and certainly in some circumstances - as the Citi example has shown - to focus on core businesses and leverage the growing capability of some of these providers to pick up commodity services, whilst at the same time assessing which of the processes that are in their captives right now give them competitive differentiation, and making sure they hold onto those.

Brian Smith: Tony raises some good points there; we just did some benchmarking of captives in India and observed that the smaller captives - even the medium-sized captives - are not as efficient as third parties; it's only the bigger ones that can achieve that degree of efficiency, and it tends to be the bigger ones which get sold, as we've seen happening twice recently. My sense is that I do agree that people do want to have captives, but sometimes the economics don't support that decision and sometimes it's more a politically or risk-driven decision.

Phil Fersht: We definitely don't see a move back towards captives at all at AMR; it's been much more of a shift away from that strategy, particularly for captives smaller than 150, 200 staff that are very challenging to run, very costly, and where in many cases the cost per transaction or the cost of managing staff has spiralled out of control. The other issue is finding providers that actually want to invest and buy them. You look at the financial services space right now and the cost per transaction or trade is through the roof at the moment - because you can't lay off staff very easily in India, it's very complex to do that - and at the same time these companies want to be more flexible. They want to have a more flexible infrastructure that can allow for future divestitures, and the common thinking is that an outsourced model allows for more flexibility in the future. We'll see a few selective strategic acquisitions like TCS-Citi, and we may see Lehman and a few of the other captives get snapped up, but I don't think this is going to be a broad trend. I just don't think there's enough appetite to buy all these captive centers. We're going to see a lot of them being slowly phased out and merged into outsourcing operations. That's the way we see things right now.

Q: Are you saying that - without wishing to be too melodramatic - we might witness the slow death of the captive?

Phil Fersht: I think unless you're a big-brand, well-resourced organization where you want to invest in having high-quality processes running offshore - and a lot of the captives now are very high-quality, they do very good work, they're just expensive - in a down-market or volatile market it goes against the model of being predictive and being nimble. I think we'll always have specialist areas remaining within certain captive operations, but I think it's going to be more in areas like engineering than in back-office, data-analytics, areas like that where we're getting a proven model. Offshore companies are very good at doing this stuff: it doesn't make sense to keep it all in-house.

Charles Aird: I would agree with that. When I say "captive" I go back to my definition of sourcing which includes manufacturing, engineering, R&D, and so on, and a lot of the time we see our clients going as captives into China, India, etc, in manufacturing and R&D because again they're not able to find resources in the US, whereas they're not as likely to do that in IT or accounting or the F&A processes that are not core to their operations.

Phil Fersht: We were talking with some clients the other day, and a lot of them have reduced budgets for next year in things like IT, and now have no choice but to look at outsourcing models that work for them; anything that is bread-and-butter like core HR, core financials, they're looking at moving out now, and actually taking industry-specific areas that give them the value-add, that are client-facing, and consolidating that stuff in-house. That's really where things are moving and I think we'll see a heavy move towards non-core, non-mission-critical support operations being moved into the outsourced model; I think this economic crisis is just going to accelerate and expedite that process.

Tom Tunstall: I would agree with that. Captives represent something of an opportunity, either as an acquisition candidate, or as a way to put together a creative deal to help clients move to more of a variable cost model.

Tony Rawlinson: The only other thing I'd add - and it's been a thread running through our conversation anyway - is that a lot of clients have very complex sourcing maps, multi-sourcing, multi-provider landscapes. Some of them have not traditionally been very good at managing these landscapes. So in an era when we're all agreeing there's going to be greater pace to selectively offshore and selectively outsource more, the skills that are going to be fundamental to success are going to be around governance and managing these multi-source landscapes. So there's certainly going to be a need for us in the advisory community to play our part in equipping clients to successfully make that trip.

(This article continues with "Roundtable: Sourcing in the Face of a Financial Crisis (Part 2) also on EzineArticles.)

If you are concerned about the economy and your financial future, you are not alone. The world economy connects us all, regardless of where we live, where we shop and who we work for. When this global economy blooms, we all potentially benefit. But when it declines, we all potentially suffer. The key word in both statements however, is potentially. Because regardless of how all-encompassing the world economy is, we each, to varying degrees, control our own destinies.

Turmoil in the international financial markets invariably leads to problems in our own financial markets. So if you work for or are affiliated with a company that does business on Wall Street, or if it's traded there, global financial problems will have a direct affect on your company, and on you. Unfortunately, there is little you can do about this-other than to work elsewhere-because the forces at work are well beyond your control.

Conversely, if you work for yourself, you still face potential threats, but you have more control over the outcome. One of the things we're seeing as we approach the 2008 Holiday Season is increasing tension in our domestic economy. Many analysts are predicting that this year's holiday retail sales numbers will be at an all time low. Circuit City, a huge and very successful company, has declared bankruptcy because it can't pay its bills. News like this causes people to tighten the hold on their pocketbooks. Even if they're not directly affected, they reign in spending and assume a far more cautious outlook.

This all comes back to your privately owned small business. Even if you're self employed in a bricks-and-mortar business-that operates on Main Street, not Wall Street-it is quite likely that the economic tsunami will reach your doorstep as well. Frustratingly enough, there's not much you can do about it.

But we as a nation are entrepreneurial problem solvers. Like our fathers did before us, we face challenges, and overcome them. As you face these financial threats, consider options that will allow you to rise above the fray. Look for a business you can run from home, but that gives you global reach. Find an online opportunity that provides systems, training and support. Look for a solution that can provide long-term financial security and freedom for you and your family. As you consider these options, you'll know what's right, and what's not. Follow your heart-and trust your judgment.

When seeking a loan against collateral, you are usually encountered by large amount of paperwork and a long verification process and because of which you fail to receive the loan amount at the right time. Keeping these nuances in mind, the loan market has designed online secured personal loans which can offer you easy fund against collateral with reduced paperwork and documentation.

Secured personal loans are made available online in order to give you ease and convenience. Previously you had to look out for lender and visit them personally and kill enormous amount of time to get a loan deal. The dispatching of loan took another century to reach you. But with online lending the borrowing process has become fast and quick. You can find hundreds of lenders available online offering different rates and charges. Here you can choose a lender which suites you the most according to your repayment capacity.

Once you have chosen the lender, the next step is to fill an online application form. This form will ask you for certain information regarding your credit history, employment, residential and identity proof etc. Just submit the form once you finish it and the lender will automatically get back to you with the loan quotes. Online borrowing also offers you to negotiate with the lender about the loan rates. Once you get satisfied with the loan deal, you can sign it off and very shortly the loan will be transferred to your bank account.

You can get these loans even with bad credit. So you no more need to worry about your poor credit score.

In order to get a secured personal loan, you need to put a security as collateral against the loan. The security can be in the form of any valuable asset such as your home, car, real estate, jewelry etc. Putting collateral secures the lender that his money is not at risk and in case you fail to repay the loan he can always sell this property and get his loan amount back.

Online secured personal loans offer you a good loan amount ranging from £3000-£75,000. But you can even get more money by putting a higher value collateral. The repayment term is usually 3-25 years. The interest rate depends upon the repayment and the loan amount.

Getting a secured personal loan provides you a lot of benefit. You can use this loan for almost any purpose as the lender would not ask you the reason for taking this loan. Thus it is a multipurpose loan which you can use for as many purposes as you can.

Online availability has made secured personal loans very beneficial for you. This is because online lenders have broader options for borrowers than other regular lenders.

Design of experiments, (DOE) or conjoint analysis as it is known in marketing context, is known to be the most powerful statistical method for establishing the linkage between a customer's decision-making process and the service or product being offered. After effective application of DOE, companies find it easier to gain an insight into the significant Xs affecting a customer's decision-making ability.

Marketing Problems

Eventually, the primary aim of marketing is to calculate the upcoming market share net sales, or profitability of an offering, thus, allowing a company to:

• Foretell customer buying tendency

• Boost customer retention

• Ascertain trade-off strategies during contract negotiation

• Ascertain competitive pricing

• Predict sales

• Control brand equity

• Devise product elements

• Establish price sensitivity

• Forecast and reduce customer switch rates

• Ascertain best market position for new product introductions

• Forecast and optimal response rates for advertising campaigns regarding content creation and allocation channel mix.

The Unknown X and Y

During decision-making processes, customers usually prefer accepting or rejecting a company's offering. There ought to be a way of understanding the connection between factors customers consider before coming to a final decision, as there are times customers are oblivious of the complicated psychological processes behind their decision-making processes.

A standard contingency plan would be to develop an analytical model that involves evident characteristics of the offering. It is a wrong notion among businesses to assume that customers make decisions based on the cost - a criteria they usually follow. Usually customers make decisions based on- a complex interplay of psychological and sociological factors.

Divorcing critical-to-quality elements (CTQs) for the external customer (value) and internal customer (cost) allows a company to ascertain an appropriate offering for optimizing both CTQs simultaneously.

Usually a Six Sigma project concentrates on a single Y for simplifying the analysis. Although there is a complicated mapping of Xs to Ys in the mind of the customer, the primary focus is the 'yes-or-no' or the single Y. Since this discrete measurement is not as beneficial as a quantitative measure, hence the data gathered is used for driving into the multiple Ys in a customer's thought process by asking them to decide from the given choices. After this is successful, it allows the derivations of an extrapolative model for the decision-making process.

Rating Factors in Decision Making

Customers are incapable of determining ratings on absolute scales, but are considerably good at forming ratings on the basis of the relative scale. A customer's resolution to reject or accept an offering is done in a similar poorly understood and complex process.

Xs and selecting Factor Levels

Studies carried for selecting Xs use the same brainstorming tools employed in DMAIC's Measure phase. A fishbone illustration could be used for charting all probably factors the marketing department wishes to evaluate. In the end, the fishbone diagram should illustrate "a buying decision" effect.

The project should be expanded for including elements of the form of the presentation or include aspects of the offering. One can limit the factors included to a dozen by spanning the project, or carrying out a short customer survey for determining the essential aspect making buying decisions.

Lastly, studies conducted should depict the advantages of inspecting DOE/conjoint analysis applications for Six Sigma projects after being used in marketing. Quantitative predictive models that capture the customer decision-making process are powerful marketing tools for foretelling customer behavior.

College life can be tiring, not necessarily academically but also in terms of going to and forth the campus. If the distance of your home is far from your school or university, you'll have problems traveling. It's OK if your parents are willing to take you to your school all the time. However, it's not always the case. Your parents have also other matters to attend to. You don't have any choice but to take a public transportation. The disadvantage, on the other hand, with public transportation is the time it consumes. That's why it's good if you have a car of your own.

If money is somewhat tight at your home, you can opt for a student car loan. With your own vehicle, you can avoid coming in late to your classes due to time-consuming travels using public transportation. You won't anymore be waiting for the next bus to arrive. Going to school will be much more convenient on your part. The vehicle will not be only used exclusively to school. You and your family can use it also for other purposes. You can do errands anytime of the day without any hassles at all. Getting a student car loan is even easier for you.

There are lots of financial institutions and banks offering the said loans to college students. You have to decide whether you plan to purchase a brand new vehicle or a second-hand one. You and your parents will decide on the matter. It's advisable to get a vehicle which is within your parents' means. If you can't afford a new vehicle, then just settle for the old one. Anyway, what matters is the purpose of the car and not whether it's new or old. You can directly go to the office of the financial institution of your choice and apply for a student car loan.

There is however, a much easier way of applying- go online. You just have to fill in the necessary information required from you. The best thing about online application is the processing time- it consumes lesser time. It is advisable to have a co-signer in the loan- much preferable your parents or guardian. With a co-signer, the loan will be approved faster than just applying alone. Lenders favor those student car loan applications with co-signers because your parents or guardians have a steady source of income. They will be somewhat assured of your parents/guardians making timely payments. The amount of the student car loan will depend on your type of vehicle.

If you will choose a new car, the model as well as the brand will determine the amount. You can borrow as much as 80-100% of the amount needed. That will still depend on your financial condition. Sometimes, financial institutions require a minimal down payment from you. The period of the loan can take years like 3-7 years. A co-signer is very helpful when it comes to interest rate. You can negotiate for a much lower interest rate especially when your co-signers have stable jobs. You won't be worrying about credit history in getting student car loan too. Even if you are suffering from bad credits, you can still avail of the loan.

Another good news, right? Student car loan is really a lucky thing for students who want to own a car of their own. So apply now and just remember, drive safely.

Unexpected sudden increases of monthly expenses as well as cash shortage- many of us have faced such kind of situation once in a while. Generally, in such cases, people try to cope up the situation with their next payday cheque. But what if they are in urgent need of cash? In such cases, borrowers in the UK usually apply for payday loans. Payday loans UK try to bridge up the void of sudden cash shortfall.

Unlike other loans, in the UK payday loans are approved fast. With these loans, borrowers can avail cash within 24 hours. These loans are basically short-term loans, available for one to two weeks. Borrowers generally pay off the amount after getting their next payday cheque. But expanding of the period up to one month is possible as well.

Some prerequisites are there to avail payday loans UK. These are as follows

• Borrowers should be a UK dweller with minimum age of 18

• Borrowers must have fulltime employment

• A regular and recurring income is mandatory and it should not be less than ₤1200 p.m.

• And borrowers must have an active checking account

Usually, while availing payday loans, borrowers have to give lenders a post dated cheque. With these loans a borrower can avail the amount, ranging from ₤100- ₤1000. But borrowers’ monthly income pays an important role in deciding the lending amount. Normally, lenders do not check borrowers’ credit score while offering the loan amount. Hence, if you have a bad credit score, it won’t create any hurdle in your way.

Due to the short tenure, in the UK these loans are available at a higher interest rate. But at the same time, getting a favorable deal is not impossible as well. Do some research; it will facilitate you in availing payday loans UK at a better interest rate. In such cases, online option can be the best choice.

Peter Lynch ran the Fidelity Magellan Mutual Fund from 1977 to 1990 averaging an astounding annual return of 29% during this time. This is a staggering performance.... if you had put in $30,000 in 1977 in his fund and did nothing after that, Lynch would have turned you into a millionaire by 1990.

So how did Peter Lynch do it? What investment methods did he use? Before we go into the details of his investment style, let's first take a brief look at his early life and the start of his investment career.

Early Life

Peter Lynch was born on January 19, 1944, in Newton, Massachusetts. He studied history, psychology and philosophy at Boston University, graduating in 1965.

His introduction to the investing world came through his after-school job - caddying at the Brae Burn County Club in Newton. Caddying for several leading executives over the years, Lynch picked up several stock tips. As a sophomore in 1963, he bought his first stock - Flying Tiger Airlines, for $7 a share. Also known as Flying Tigers, it was the first scheduled cargo airline in the United States and a major military charter operator during the Cold War era.

Lynch's timing was perfect. The stock did amazingly well, benefiting in large part because the Vietnam War came along. Over the next few years, Lynch made 500% on his investment.

Investment Career

One of his caddying clients was D. George Sullivan, the then president of Fidelity Investments. Sullivan urged Lynch to apply for a summer internship at Fidelity. And, In 1965, Peter Lynch joined Fidelity as in intern.

Lynch's windfall from Flying Tiger helped pay for graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. He also spent two years in the army as an artillery officer.

By 1968, Lynch was back at Fidelity as a full-time investment analyst covering textiles, mining, metals, and chemicals. His huge talent landed him the position of Director of Research by 1974. Three years later, Peter Lynch was made the head of the Fidelity Magellan Fund, a small, obscure fund with $18 million in assets.

When Lynch retired from the Magellan fund in 1990, he had grown its assets to an incredible $14 billion - an unbelievable 29% average return per year, a feat unheard of in the mutual fund industry.

Investment Style - Important Lessons

Peter Lynch was a strong fundamental investor. He always bought the "company behind the stock".

His investment style was very flexible. Often described as a "chameleon," Lynch adapted to whatever investment style worked at the time.

Lynch was also a workaholic. He talked to company executives, investment managers, industry experts and analysts around the clock.

After retiring, Peter Lynch has devoted a fair amount of his time educating individual investors. He distills his investment style into these fundamental principles:

Invest in what you know: Lynch notes that you can spot investment opportunities all around you by concentrating on what you already know and are familiar with. He always invested in industries he understood, especially if that business operated at the dim end of the glamor spectrum.
Profitability, price, and a good business model: Lynch generally looked for these three qualities in a good company.... the company had to be making money, the stock price had to be attractive, and the business had to have a strong competitive advantage.
Check the key numbers: Lynch's advice when looking at the fundamentals of a business....
If a particular product or service excites you, ensure that it accounts for a sufficient percentage of total company sales and that it makes a significant contribution to profits.
Favor companies with a strong cash position.
Stay away from companies with high debt-to-equity ratios.
Avoid slow growers and cyclical stocks.Do not hold cash: Stay fully invested, otherwise you will likely miss out on market upswings. Don't panic at the gyrations of the market - ignore the ups and downs.
Good management is very important: Buy good businesses run by competent, investor-oriented managers.
Summarize the story behind your stock: Before you buy stock in a company, you should be able to explain why you're buying. You should briefly describe the reasons you are interested in the company, what has to happen for the company to succeed, and the obstacles that might prevent its success.
Base your buy and sell decisions on specifics: Your profits and losses do not depend on the economy as a whole. So ignore the ups and downs of the market. Buy whenever you come across an attractive idea with a compelling story behind it. Sell when the stock price exceeds the intrinsic value and is, therefore, in danger of being overpriced.

Books

Peter Lynch, partnering with John Rothchild, has written three powerful books on investing:

Learn to Earn: Targeted more toward beginning investors, it covers investment fundamentals and principles - choosing stocks, picking a broker, reading an annual report, etc.
One Up On Wall Street : How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market Lynch's main message here.... Investment opportunities abound for the layperson. By simply observing business developments and taking notice of your immediate world - from the mall to the workplace - you can discover potentially successful companies before professional analysts do. This jump on the experts is what produces "tenbaggers," the stocks that appreciate tenfold or more and turn an average stock portfolio into a star performer.
Beating the Street: This is Lynch's Magellan story - a deep-dive into his investment methods when he operated the Fidelity Magellan Fund.
In summary, Peter Lynch is undoubtedly one of the great investing masters of our times. His easy to understand investment style and publications are valuable to the beginning investor. We have provided you with the basics of Lynch's strategy. We encourage you to dig deeper and read all three of his books to build a strong foundation for your investment approach.

People always want to be among the winners or victors but not everybody is ready to pay the price. You may look at Bill Gate of Microsoft or Andrew Osakwe of Summit Ministries and say to yourself "I want to be like these men or even become greater than them". It is a good disposition and dreams but my question is always this: are you ready to pay the price? Are you ready to do some of the hard things they did? To take the decisions some of them took? It is easy to dream and above all, it is a free commodity. Nobody pays anybody any dime just to dream and vision. You can dream all you want but also be ready to do what it takes to bring such dreams to reality. The essence of this article is to show you what the successful entrepreneurs do that others don't do; the kind of spirit they carry.

Every entrepreneur has a dream

This is one basic asset every entrepreneur has. They all have dreams because without it, they get nowhere even when others think they are somewhere. It's like setting out on a journey without knowing where to go. You get to the ticket booking office or the bus station and say "I am traveling but I really don't know where I am going to". Everyone will think you have gone crazy. Its funny but that is what most young entrepreneurs do. They just set out and launch with a dream and a vision.

Your dream is like a propeller, it pushes you even when you feel like giving up. It is something you look up to achieve. It is only when you get there that you could say I have fought a good fight as Apostle Paul said in the Bible. This dream is not achievable over night; if it is possible then it is not a dream. It must be broken down to smaller achievable points; for example: X years goal, Medium term goal, small term goal, et cetera. Goals will be dealt with in another article. But what I am trying to establish here is that every entrepreneur must have a dream.

Every entrepreneur has a need to meet

What makes you an entrepreneur is the fact that you have been able to identify a need you are meeting. Every element of being successful entrepreneurs inter connects with each other. For example, meeting a need must be factored into your dreams or else you will have something missing and that can frustrate you big time when you launch out. You must be willing and able to create value by providing answers to questions or solutions to problems for you to be a successful entrepreneur.

People are always wiling to pay for quality solutions, for things that make life easier, things that help do things faster and smarter, et cetera. The reason why Mr. A would prefer to pay the laundry man more money to wash his suite than what he would spend on soap and wash by himself is simply because the laundry man's job is to wash and he is most likely going to wash it better and faster. Mr. A would have saved his energy and time for his core business.

There is always this driving force to succeed in every successful entrepreneur that separates them from others. That is the same reason several people may start a business but along the line, some fall off why others take over the entire business. We will dwell more on these aspects in the part two of this article.

There are a variety of businesses that want to capitalize on the "under 18 crowd." However, focusing your entrepreneurial mind on relative and successful topics might be difficult. Even without the stipulation of age, a microwavable vending machine could become a great addition to your new and inspiring startup business. When you decide on your business strategy, consider that the frozen pizza industry is a huge market. If you decide to use frozen pizzas in your microwavable vending machine, you could become part of the large profits they make. The frozen pizza industry continues to expand. Currently, the top frozen pizza markets have the ability to generate up to 2.5 billion dollars annually. This could be a great start for a budding entrepreneur looking to capitalize on a relatively "stress free" operation.

Another important point is that this technology is surely "green." The government is investing billions into green technology and new research. For example, the federal government is investing 8 billion dollars into renewable energy. A microwavable vending machine is a great chance for a startup business to capitalize on the success of the "green economy." They can be a great profit generating business, allowing you to make money while working on other ideas. They also tap into that existing "green" market by offering an affordable, clean and efficient machine. Digital machines are also becoming the trendy choice, which offers an exciting and low-energy solution with fancy digital components. Think about the popularity of offering frozen meals, or the excitement of "going green" with a digital machine. This could be a great chance to make profit for your startup.

If you are interested in the vending market or a microwavable vending machine, United Vending Group is a good place to start for your entrepreneurial startup.

Various studies show that at least 10% of the
American working population (14.4. to 18.6 million)
is self-employed. And that's increasing at approximately
5.7% annually.

Women and minorities (especially African-Americans
and Hispanics) show even higher increases in
self-employment, 5% and 10%, respectively, above
the national average.

Middle age and older people are more likely to be
self-employed than younger age groups. And the
incidence of self-employment increases in direct
proportion to educational attainment.

People in western states enjoy higher increases in
self-employment, 1.8% above the national average.

Nevada, Arizona and Texas lead the way in the West.
Georgia and Florida in the East are above the national
average.

We believe that the "de-industrialization" of the USA,
caused by the end of the 20th Century and its
Industrial Revolution, has forced many seasoned, older
workers to move from supposedly secure, lifelong
employment into self-employment.

Moreover, we believe that many women and minorities
ere sick and tired of waiting for significant employment
opportunities, finding that self-employment is the true
route to their prosperity and professional success.

Politicians dither and whine about the "jobless recovery,"
since new job formation is statistically unimpressive.

But they are oblivious to permanent self-employment
growth, incorrectly viewing self-employment as something to
do between jobs.

These math-challenged officials don't get it.We are
in an economic recovery thanks in large part to the
big growth in permanent self-employment.

While the most recent self-employment boom is due
to declining employment opportunity, we believe that
another, even larger self-employment boom is
underway, powered by Generation X'ers using
the Internet and, in many cases, advantageous
direct selling and network marketing opportunities.

73% of Americans use the Internet. If you plan to
succeed in any business today, employment or self-
employment, you must learn to use the Internet well.

Generation X'ers number 49.3 million. They are ages
28 to 39, although various analysts have slightly different
age definitions of this group. All agree, though, that this
population group is one step younger than the Baby Boomers.

X'ers were the first to grow up with high divorce
rates, computers, AIDS, latch key kids, legalized abortions,
the dotcom bust, the end of the Cold War, and MTV. They're
strong individualists, having a reluctance to conform.

They shop around before buying, using the Internet
to gather information in most cases. They are very
ethnically and racially diverse.

They were slandered as "slackers" years ago, since
they appeared to lack the materialistic drive of Baby
Boomers and the dull, plodding, conformist, corporate
habits of the Silent Generation, born between 1925 to
1942, an older group than the Baby Boomers.

Data show that X'ers are really not "slackers," but an
ambitious "unbeholden" generation, wanting to do things
their way-discarding the vocational paradigms of both
the Baby Boomers and The Silent Generation.

X'ers-a $1.1 trillion consumer market--include
marrieds (62%), minorities (37.9%), employed (81%),
and admirers of their parents (51%).

They prefer small, economical cars, marry later in life,
are very tech savvy (cell phones, computers, etc.), dislike
hype and self-importance and hate hypocrisy.

X'ers reject the core values of 20th Century corporate culture
of job security by sucking up, lifelong employment at one company, unquestioning company loyalty, doing exactly what they were told, and bowing down meekly to dim-witted coneheads holding lofty corporate titles.

The sun is setting on lifetime employment. The sun is rising
on self-employment. We are returning to the historical normalcy
of self-employment. Except for the Industrial Revolution,
self-employment has been historically normal. Lifelong employment
really has been a wretched historical abberation.

It's very risky to be employed. Dell is doubling its staff in India. Wal-Mart is creating tons of jobs in China. GM, Delphi and the auto unions are ready to strike a deal to buy out unionized auto workers for up to $140,000. American employees, get the hint?

So much for secure employment. Today's employers don't bother use phony, upbeat platitudes like "people make the difference." The new employee platitude for employees is, "Hasta La Vista, Baby."

Don't wait until the ax falls. Plan now to be self-employed,
then depart from the cubicle farm voluntarily at your convenience, not involuntarily at theirs.

ZONING OFFICER'S JOB

The Administrative Officer (known locally as the Zoning Officer) under the Municipal Land Use Law in New Jersey is the municipal official designated by local ordinance or statute with enforcing the provisions of the zoning ordinance. Due to proposed large scale development which many new Jersey municipalities will be faced with in the coming years, the Administrative Officer is a particularly vital and valued employee of the municipality. The key issues confronting many New Jersey municipalities are should our municipality grow; if so, how much and when? These are crucial questions. Municipalities need some local official to focus exclusively on these questions; an official whose ultimate responsibility is to assist the mayor and council in protecting and improving the quality of life in the community. The Administrative Officer's primary duties should be to serve both the mayor and the council as an expert advisor in planning and development matters and as an operational coordinator of factual information relating to development proposals and their impact upon the community.

Possessed with knowledge of the provisions of the local planning and zoning ordinance and familiarity with the practices and procedures of the municipal boards, the administrative officer can prove to be very helpful to the mayor, council, and board members.

Among the varied duties specified in the Municipal Land Use Law, the Administrative Officer:

receives and reviews certain applications,

certifies subdivision approvals,

certifies statutory default approvals,

certifies prior non-conforming uses,

issues zoning permits,

provides lists of property owners,

receives notices of appeals or protest, and

serves as a depository for certain documents.

The Administrative Officer may also provide support to the municipality by causing building plans or premises to be inspected or examined, to order the remedying of violations and issue certain permits.

Because the Administrative Officer is often the first official an applicant for development comes in contact with, the Administrative Officer serves as a crucial liaison between the applicant, to whom direction and guidance are provided, municipal officials, with whom substantive and procedural knowledge - as well as foresight into proposed developments - are shared, and the municipality itself, whose best interests are the ultimate concern.

When it comes to expenses of a person or a family, they are on an all time high. Everyone wants a lavish lifestyle and all needs fulfilled. Luxury as well as basic needs require money to be fulfilled. To fulfill your needs and desires, personal loans UK can be sought and borrowed.

Personal loans UK are the opportunity that everyone can look forward to when in need of money. The needs of the borrower can be personal and need not be disclosed to the lender. He can spend the money as he likes, whether it is on home improvement, car purchase, wedding expenses, educational funding, luxury cruise vacation etc.

Personal loans UK can be sought by the borrower whichever way he wants, depending upon his readiness for pledging collateral with the lender. If he is ready to pledge his asset as collateral with the lender, he can borrow the secured form of personal loans UK. Through the secured personal loans UK, he can borrow an amount in the range of £5000-£75000 depending upon the equity that is placed in the collateral of the borrower. Also, he is charged a lower rate of interest as the retrieval of loan money is assured. He gets a term of 5-25 years for repayment of secured personal loans UK.

If the borrower does not have or is not willing to place collateral with the lender, he can go for unsecured personal loans UK. an amount of £1000-£25000 can be borrowed for a term of 6 months to 10 years. Since this is a collateral-free loan, it is highly popular amongst tenants and non-homeowners.

Personal loans UK are available to bad credit borrowers as well. To avail low rate deals, they are suggested to research online. Due to competition, low rate deals are available to them easily.

By availing the opportunity called personal loans UK, the borrower can fulfill his requirements practically any way he likes. All needs can now be fulfilled easily with personal loans UK.

The whole concept of interconnection among the factors of money, risk, and time comprise the sphere of finance. The chief catalysts and triggers behind the endowment of money are done by banks, which provide credit. However, today, hedge and mutual funds, private equity and other instruments are increasingly becoming important as similar facilitators. Averting and restricting threats in finance are done by means of impeccable scrutiny and attention to detail while dealing with investments, which are known as financial assets. Securitized versions of these investments can be traded with securities exchanges, through various financial channels.

The fundamental idea behind the operations of finance all through the world depends on the fact that any body, unit, or organization that spends less that it earns is capable of loaning or putting up that extra money or asset for further investment. If, conversely, anybody, unit, or organization spends more than it earns, it usually tries to augment its capital asset by taking loans or putting up for sale its assets, in order to reduce its spending and enhancing its earning. The entity which loans money usually has two options, either it can directly buy currency or other assets like bonds from the market, or find some go-between entity like a bank which will take the loan from it. The interest collected for this loan, is much more than the one that the actual lender gets, as the difference goes to the go-between.

The major concept of the world of finance works on the basis that a financial instrument like a bank brings together and synchronizes loaning and borrowing functions, of dissimilar proportions sizes, while getting reimbursed with assets for the jobs done.

The organization and administration of businesses around the world are centered on the pivotal notion of finance, without proper controlling and plan of which a new business or even an old one might falter. Be it a man or an organization, any entity's finance is vital for the guarantee of its flourishing prospects.

Finance can be of many kinds, the most important of which would be personal and corporate. The concept of personal finance depends on the quantity of money a person or his or her family requires at a particular time and the actual way that they can keep themselves afloat during adverse and unpredicted conditions, related to personal or impersonal exterior situation. The idea behind corporate finance depends on the provision of capital money for an organization's functions, keeping steady its threats and profits, to augment the company's income and worth. Some other kinds of finance include public finance that deals with money or funds related to a nation, a town, district, or any other form of political and geographical entity while there is also the concept of experimental finance that tries to institute diverse backdrops or conditions of the financial market in order to monitor under investigational circumstances, and offer a specific view, by means of which financial analysts can examine properly the activities of negotiators and the subsequent nature of particular movement of assets through trading, data dissemination and collection, machinery that fixes costs, and returns procedures.

As with any source of funding there are pros and cons relative to other sources of funding. Some of the pros and cons of government business grants are as follows:

The Pros

No repayment: Different from other sources of financing, grants require no repayment of the award amount. If your business is given a government grant, then it is assumed that your project is improving society. Taxes from a successful business and jobs for the community are payment enough in the government's eyes.

Oversight: If a grantor gives you funds, chances are that they will occasionally "remotely" or in person supervise the business from time to time, just to see if things are going the right way. Although this is also included in the cons section, oversight may not be a bad thing. If you are on the wrong track, it helps if someone is watching over you to alert you to mistakes. Whether this is a pro or con depends entirely on management's attitudes and feelings. Some may like the grantor to look over their backs while others may resent it.

The Cons

Time: Grants take time to be processed and evaluated. Businesses might have to wait a few months at the least before they receive funding. Sometimes funding may take up to a year. If you need funding fast, perhaps some short term loans or other financing options will be better suited for your business.

Difficulty to Obtain: Most lines of debt and equity financing will only assess the viability and projected income of the business. However, since grants require no repayment, they have additional requirements. Your business must help the community or society in general, and meet stringent requirements of the grantor. If grants are not a fit for your business, look for other sources of financing.

Oversight: Although it depends on the terms, debt financing has less oversight than equity and grant financing. Equity financing leads to shareholders that hold management accountable. Grantors have stringent requirements that have to be adhered to throughout the course of the grant term. Debt financing may be certain requirements such as asset to liability ratios but debt financiers are generally content as long as the business is repaying them the agreed upon amount at the agreed upon time.

Documentation: Businesses that are financed by grants will usually have to provide documentation in addition to the regular documentation done by the business. This is due to the fact that businesses that receive grants have more requirements and therefore must provide proof that they are continuing to meet those requirements. In reality however, "excessive" documentation may be a good thing as it forces you to see things about your business you may have otherwise missed.

Although it seems that the cons outnumber the pros, the fact that government grants don't require repayment far outweighs the cons; that is, if you are willing to accept some of the requirements that the government wants you to meet.

A proposal refers to an offer made by an entrepreneur to the prospective clients. This offer can include a proposal of products and services. It can also unfold the offer to a client to enter into a contract or an agreement. An offer letter enables a marketer to portray the image of the company favorably and create a positive impression to the client. This is an essential and effective form of promotion for the company. It helps in building a brand image of the company. An entrepreneur can communicate the message of the corporation through the proposal efficiently. It is useful means to entice the customer to purchase the product or to initiate the business with company.

Types of business proposal:

Two types of offer letters are written to propose business to the customer. One is solicited proposal and the other is unsolicited proposal. A solicited proposal is the offer sent by the seller at the request of the buyer. Unsolicited proposals are those that are sent by the merchant to the potential customer without the request of the customer.

Tips to write impressive proposal:

There are useful tips that can make your proposal writing easy and effective. A marketer should first conduct an in-depth analysis of the current market trends. One can have extensive and thorough knowledge of the customers. This gives a clear idea of the preferences, needs and wants of the customers. You can also know the problems faced by the customers. Focusing on their problems you can describe way to meet these challenges using your services. One can include all this in the first section of the summary. The summary gives a clear idea to the customer of the subject discussed in the proposal. One can also mention the complete company profile. It is advisable to give details of your successful and challenging past projects. You can also mention the prestigious present assignments you have obtained. The credentials and certification add authenticity to the company image. Testimonials can convince the customer about your company and its products. Check the business proposal grammatically and examine its readability before sending to the client. These tips help you in fetching clients through powerful offer letters

As I write this, very few, if any, initial public offerings for venture companies are being done. The IPO market is at a virtual standstill for companies looking to raise venture capital.

As the IPO market slowed, there has been a trend to more and more reverse mergers. As you may know, in a reverse merger, an operating company merges with a public shell or OTC shell to have publicly trading stock.

Generally, there are only two reasons to for going public, whether it is done with an IPO underwriter or through a reverse merger with a clean OTC shell. The two goals are to get capital and to get a liquid market, whether the liquidity is for the principal shareholders, employee shareholders with stock options or to attract acquisitions for stock.

For the company seeking venture capital, the reverse merger or pubic shell route seemed to be the only choice.

An SEC rule issued in 2005 requires companies merging with a public shell company to file disclosure with the SEC tantamount to the disclosure required in a full-blown IPO. This disclosure is filed in a Form 8-K, called a Super 8-K. The super 8-K must be filed within four days after the merger is closed.

This SEC Rule means that there are usually no real advantages in a reverse merger over a self filing.

I believe that more and more we will find companies, especially companies seeking venture capital, choosing a self-filing or direct registration to go public. In a self-filing, the company does not buy a shell but rather simply files a registration statement with the SEC. This registration statement is much the same as the super 8-K filing in information, time and expense.

The advantages of a self-filing are easy to understand. In a self-filing, you are saving as much as 20% of the stock in the operating company that would otherwise go to the shell company shareholders. You also save having to pay at the same time a large amount of cash, typically $50,000 to $750,000, to the shell promoters, in addition to your legal and accounting bill.

It is true that a shell already has a trading market, as the promoters will tell you. As a former OTC market maker who traded shells, many IPOs, and many venture companies, I can tell you with authority that the trading market for any shell is weak in volume and market makers. The trading market for any decent operating or venture capital company will easily surpass any shell's trading market you care to name.

Shell promoters further point to the fact that the shell comes with many shareholders. They call this distribution. However, when you start to look deeper, ask questions, and do the math, you can discover that this also is illusory.

If the shell is 60% owned by the promoters and has another 200 shareholders, this means that the average shareholder pre-merger owns one-fifth of one percent of the stock. In the reverse merger, even if the shell shareholders receive 20% of the stock in the combined company, this means that the promoters now own 12% of the combined company and the average minority shareholder of the shell company now owns two-one hundredths of one percent (0.0002) of the combined company.

If the operating company was worth $25 million pre-merger, the shell promoters now have stock worth $3 million to throw on the market. Millions of dollars of stock will have to be removed from the market before new buying can have a beneficial effect on stock prices.

This will not make for a good trading market. Based on my experience, the shell promoters will do whatever it takes to get cash fast, causing the shell stock price to collapse. The minority shell shareholders may not even be aware that they have stock in a new company.

Even if the operating company does a large amount of investor relations to promote their stock, the market usually collapses. As the price collapses, all investor interest in the company usually goes with it. It is very unattractive to investors if you stock is selling at a bid of $0.0001 per share?

Consider the effect of a weak stock on the goals of doing the reverse merger. Does a weak stock price help to raise cash or venture capital? No. Does a weak stock price provide liquidity to key employees? No. Does a weak stock price help management acquire other companies for stock? No. Thus, all of the original goals of the operating company are often crushed by a reverse merger done ineptly.

Self-filing have a better outlook. Selling stock to friends, family, employees and associates of the company can create two hundred shareholders. These people are likely to make loyal shareholders. The block of stock in the hands of the shell promoters is gone so there is no overhang of stock depressing the market.

Seriously studying the self-filing and the reverse merger shell deal can cause you to want to do the self-filing.

Having a good, experienced professional working with you is important now matter how you do your deal. Naturally, the key skills you need are those of the corporate lawyer, the investment banker, the security analyst, and the market maker. I trust that you will discover the wisdom in having such a team behind you. There are many traps for the unwary in the financial markets and mistakes can be more than expensive, they may even stop your company's development altogether.