Financial Position

October 26, 2009

Surviving the Current Financial Situation

In the current climate of near certain worldwide economic crisis there has been a traumatic worldwide economic meltdown which has put the world economy as we know it at risk. There are many companies who will not survive but there are some who will not only survive but will benefit in these unfortunate times. For instance our business in web design has increased recently because in an effort to reduce costs companies are turning to the internet to improve sales without incurring huge overheads. So companies like ours suddenly are in greater demand. However for the majority of the population it is a question of surviving and getting through it. If your business is on a sound financial foundation and you have reserves behind you then this will be beneficial in the coming months. You may even be able to reduce employee salaries for a period of time, rather than have redundancies or even closing down, but whatever strategy you apply it will need to be with the agreement of the workforce because a company is dependent of the good will of its employees at such a time. During the early stages of the crisis the British company JCB, which makes big machinery like bull dozers and diggers, chose with the agreement of the workforce, to reduce everyone’s salary for 6 months rather than lay off people or go out of business.

Cash flow

Most businesses go to the wall because of problems with cash flow. If there is not enough money coming it to pay for goods and services then it will not be long before a company goes into bankruptcy. Constant monitoring of the financial position is crucial. It is so easy to spend and not realise how much is leaking out and where it is all going. Keeping a tight control on costs is always a vital activity because that is what makes or breaks a company. More profits always come from reducing outgoings whether it’s reducing waste or cheaper purchasing or decreasing the workforce. I once listened to an audio tape on how to become wealthy and the one item to impact me was the advice to plug the leaks. Most people when running short of money try to find a way of making more money, but without a balance of reducing outgoings they never seem to resolve their problem. The simple reason is that when people earn more they spend more. If you imaging a bath with the tap turned on to fill it up. If the plug is securely in place the bath will fill up fairly quickly. But if the bath was full of holes no matter how much water you pour into the bath it will never fill up. The analogy is that the bath is your bank account, the tap is your earnings and the holes are your spending. Since listening to that tape, I have made a point of keeping expenses to a minimum at home and at work and every little sum of money coming in I see as a positive step to achieving wealth.

Avoid buying anything unless you absolutely have to or adjourn some necessary purchase for a few more months if possible. It’s amazing how you can manage without something for a period of time by using up existing or old stocks and making sure that waste is reduced to an absolute minimum. One of the things we teach early on is that being good with finances is often just a case of regular monitoring and being aware of what is going on with your finances.

Look for Discounts in Purchasing.

When you do have to purchase goods to run the business, make sure you look out for bargains or negotiate for a better deal than you may have achieved previously. When times are tough, sales with no profits are better than nothing and there are some good deals to be had. One company I recently heard about sold a house for half the price when a customer came along with a cash offer. Part of providing guaranteed SEO services requires that we host websites too, and we were spending quite a lot on this each year, so by consolidating various accounts we slashed the annual hosting costs by over 50%.

Look for Discounts in purchasing.

By taking a good long hard look at all of the business overheads I am sure it will be easy to identify those areas similar to ours where you have large outgoings. If those costs are essential to the functioning of the business then looking for better deals with other providers or renegotiate with current provider to maybe save thousands of euros. So in many ways the current economic climate could be seen as a good thing because it forces businesses to review their outgoings and get rid of the dead wood. In any business, the higher the outgoings, the smaller the profits. When there is an economic downturn or some loss of business unless you have unlimited capital set aside, it is necessary to reduce spending otherwise the business will not survive. Most really successful businesses understand the value of controlling outgoings and constantly review costs, even when times are good.

Tighten your Belt – Eliminate Fancy Spending

Although looking at reducing large overheads is one way to improve the viability of your company, another is to pay attention to the small amounts going out. It is so easy to think ‘Oh it’s only a few pounds’ but small amounts add up and can so easily get out of control. Remember that old saying ‘take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves’ I think it is so true. So cut out unnecessary spending, no perks on the business such as lunches or dinners to woo customers. They rarely actually need it if your business is offering honest value for money and top class services, and in most cases customers and prospects will appreciate you being prudent if it means you stay in business and continue as their valued suppliers. Directors can lead the way by paying themselves less or taking a pay cut showing that they are willing to tighten their own belts.

Recently it was announced that Bruce Forsythe was taking a cut in salary for his position as the host of Strictly Come Dancing, one of the most popular programmes on TV at the moment. He believed that they were being paid too much and put his money where his mouth was. There is nothing worse than asking other people to manage on less when you are not prepared to do so yourself.

Another major area of expense is salaries and the costs that go with them. If you employ a large number of people the overhead expenses are huge. However there is always a natural wastage where people leave or retire so without actively having to make people redundant there may be opportunities to reduce the wages bill when times are hard. Efficiency and effectiveness of the people working in the company is critical and communicating with the workforce as to how they can reduce wastage and be more effective can be a rewarding policy.

One example from my previous work in organisations was when running a supervisors workshop. One of the delegates was complaining that when he needed to order supplies he had to sent the request up the line and wait until the senior manager had given the go ahead. As he was responsible for keeping supplies stocked and felt very frustrated at the time it took for him to get the approval he needed. I was shocked to hear that he was being so hampered in doing his job properly. So when I asked the question. ‘What’s to stop you ordering the goods yourself?’ after a long think, he said it had always been done that way. Nobody had questioned the procedure and whether it was still necessary to follow it. The outcome was that the he was given the go ahead to do the ordering himself and the senior manager was freed from one task he could happily do without.

Do Your Clients have Financial Fluidity?

If one of your customers is a very large company and they are source of the majority of your revenue then you are in a high risk position. It is a good idea to ensure that you have more than one high volume customer as well as lots of smaller ones so that you will be covered if one suddenly defaults on payment.

Find out the financial viability of your best customers. When the income of a customer falls then their ability to purchase goods and services is affected. If they are able to pay, then you will be able to pay your suppliers. There is nothing worse than doing a lot of work or selling a lot of stock to customer and then not getting paid. Situations like this can often cost you money, and that is the road to financial ruin, so be sure to be aware of your client’s economic situation as best as possible. We use the free Dunn and Bradstreet financial tracking service to identify any negative changes registered against any of our major clients

One of our customers who are a team of chartered planning consultant had a very large customer go into liquidation owing about £10,000. This was a lot of money to lose, but they survived because their business was very healthy with positive cash flow.

Find out the financial viability of your best customers. When the income of a customer falls then their ability to pay for goods and services is reduced. If they are able to pay on time, then you will be able to pay your suppliers. There is nothing worse than doing a lot of work or selling a lot of stock to customer and then not getting paid. Situations like this can often make the difference between success or failure. The cost to you in money and wasted effort and resources could be the road to financial ruin, so make sure you are aware of your client’s economic situation as much as possible. When the financial crisis happened one of our best customers suddenly switched to a two month payment plan which meant that we did not get any money from them for a month. When we protested the chief executive told his manager to find another suppler. There were a number of outstanding invoices worth thousands of pounds and we were powerless to do anything. Our overheads were compromised for that month but we were fortunate enough to have access to a reserve fund to tide us over. And yes we did get paid the whole amount over time.

Don’t Borrow Money

When the world is in a financial meltdown it is better not to borrow money if you can help it. If you have already borrowed significant sums of money then make sure you talk to your bank and get the best deal on repayments you can. If it’s possible to repay a chunk of money to reduce the interest you are paying out then do so. To me interest is money Down the drain and is not good money management.

Having said all that, the interest rate in America is just over 1% and recently rates have been radically reduced in the UK. But that in itself is what caused this whole financial mess in the first place. People borrow money cheaply then re-lend it at a higher rate of interest and take the difference in profit. Once the interest rate rises to a more normal level they will bail out and take their billions off to buy an island somewhere while everyone else pays the price. I know that is an over simplification of the problem, but it serves to demonstrate that the greed of a few has caused the distress of thousands of the majority.

In my property rental business, a few years ago I had to let a house at a reduced rent but found a good long term tenant. This meant that the income was only just covering my costs but subsequently, because of the drop in interest rates, the mortgage repayments on the property have been reduced by £150 a month. This means I have been able to realise a small profit and with that money I am reinvesting it in improvements to the house. Long term I see it as a good investment to maintain the standard and value of the property. So for some companies who have had to borrow money to stay afloat there is the benefit of lower interest rates to reduce the burden of repayments.

You Only Have to Make it Through

The world financial situation at the moment, I realise, is much more complicated than is indicated above. But the simple ways of dealing with crisis can often be the best option. Cut everything down to the bone and think about the days when people did not have such complicated lives. They managed their businesses without an accountants service, a water cooler, coffee machines and other such luxuries that we often take for granted. They made do by either doing extra work themselves or just going without. Obviously as your business grows, or recovers, it doesn’t become economically viable to sit and trawl through tax return forms or to have to do a lot of extra research and administration yourself, so you can restore those facilities that help to make you money once you have recovered your initial position.

Now I am not suggesting that we should go back to the good old days. What I am saying is that we might think we can’t manage without all our gimmicks such as mobile phones that take photos, but the reality is that we can do more with a great deal less, as long as we put ourselves into the right frame of mind and think positively about what we can achieve rather than what we haven’t got. Obviously as your business grows, or recovers, it doesn’t become economically viable to sit and trawl through tax return forms or to have to do a lot of extra research and administration yourself, so you can restore those facilities as and when you have recovered your financial equilibrium.

Think what the Victorians did with the limited resources they had at their disposal. The horse was the main mode of transport and they used the manure to heat cold- frames and managed to grow pineapples without any other form of heating. They did not have cars, computers, mobile phones or even phones. The railway was only just coming into being, and they did not even have electricity. But with their energy and ingenuity they conquered the world. The industrial revolution with their steam driven machines changed our economy for ever. In the past there was no such thing as ecommerce web design and yet businesses survived|thrived.

Stay in a Positive Frame of Mind

By this I do not mean be in denial and pretend the world is not going through a tough time. But if you are continually thinking and worrying about the negative aspects of the financial situation, then you are likely to make it come true. Don’t forget you get what you wish for and by concentrating on something then it will work like a wish, so why not concentrate on ways of getting new customers, giving better value to your existing customers and how your company could offer new products or services to your existing customer base?

Conclusion

Although during this recession there is no doubt times are hard for people who have lost their work. No work, equals no money coming in, so how do people pay their bills and their mortgages? If consumers have been prudent during times of prosperity and they have a nest egg for a rainy day, then they can probably manage for a few months until they get another job. But if they are already up to their eyes in debt then they will face personal bankruptcy and could lose everything.

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In spite of all that, some people are managing quite well if they have jobs or some other type of income. One article I read recently said that the death rate reduced noticeably during recession and put that down to eating more healthily at home and not eating so much junk food. So OK we can’t afford to go out for meals as much, and things are more expensive, but home prepared food is often better for you and sharing meals with the family is a way of coming together and communicating. So it’s not all bad. Good luck for a prosperous future.

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June 18, 2009

Is There Life After Bankruptcy?

It is an important question that you have to face when considering to file bankruptcy Cincinnati as a way out of crippling personal financial crisis. Of course there is life after this loss. Though we may shudder at the prospect of going through difficult times after filing for bankruptcy, this option for the much needed Cincinnati debt relief is not as bad as you may think it to be. This decision is like a bitter pill that you have to take in order to avoid a more complicated situation. It also gives you the opportunity to fast track the process of rebuilding your financial position. Nonetheless, the answer is not an absolute “yes” as you have to take into account several things in order to get yourself but on track and on to the road to recovery.
The crucial piece that you have remember is that this poor financial condition will be reflected in your credit record as soon as you file and within the established timeline set by the credit reporting agency. An attorney will be able to give you the raw facts about such debt relief alternative as you try to evaluate your available options while considering your overall financial situation.

Your attorney is the best person who can guide you through the entire process while providing you with recommendations with your present condition and your future prospect in mind. You should remember that no two conditions are the same as far as filing of economic failure is concerned. The type may be the same but there can be difference in the approach that will be adopted.

A competent lawyer will be able to guide you in creating a solution that is well within your budget. This program shall pave the way for your full financial recovery by coming up with a realistic and attainable debt reduction scheme within the shortest timeline possible. Your lawyer will be able to lead to you the most expeditious way of getting out of your financial slammer with your dignity intact. You will be helped and be given knowledgeable advice every step of the way until you finally reach your goal of full financial recovery.
Another problem that you have to take into consideration is the length of stay of the negative feedback on your credit report. The negative feedback on your credit standing is a direct result to your filing but is not a permanent record in your credit report. Nonetheless, it is important that you understand that the initial 2 to 3 years will be bit difficult although if you seriously follow the recommendations of your attorney, you will end up just fine.
you are working your finances back up, it is important that you take note of some of the more important things that you must avoid during this period of recovery. You should avoid those unsafe offers from credit card companies. You might be tempted to consider this especially during this period when you have a relatively poor credit rating. However, your debts will continue to increase if you do so. You will also have to abstain credit offers that have larger interest charges. These credit companies shall offer you tempting terms but will hit you with exorbitant interest rates.

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May 30, 2009

Consolidating Student Loans and Debt

 

Just like scars, they are not nice to look at. Though there are a lot of ways one can get rid of them, it may take a while before results can actually be seen. It is just like using foundation to cover acne or blemishes in the face. You can use the same foundation to hide these marks. One of the best ways on how to hide stretch marks is by applying tanning products. If this is your story of attempts at removing stretch marks, then, it’s time for you to turn to stretch mark removal creams. Often associated with the obese people and pregnant women, they can appear anywhere on the body.

There are many students who find it difficult to meet the expenses involved in their educations. Not all students are required to provide security for their student loan. Variable plan that adjusts the amount of student debt loan consolidation payments as per changes in your income and expenses and extended payment plan allowing you to extend the loan pay off period and reduces monthly payments. Rather, this loan is offered only on the basis of the financial position of the borrower and his or her repayment capacity. Secured loans come at lower interest rates. You cannot avoid paying high interest as this is the price which you have to pay to lenders to encourage them to lend you money at high risk. With Nelnet you will obtain a private student loan with a variable interest rate.

Psychologists tell us that young boys today are exposed to more pressures than their counterparts in previous generations. When these factors are not recognized and help is not readily accessible, we tend to see disrespectful teen behavior. We are confused in our society today about good parenting. We think loving our children means isolating and punishing them; separating them from us and trying to make them responsible for their reactive behavior without being responsive to them. So they suffer in their confusion and lash out when parents attempt to help. Fathers who want to foster healthy development in their teenage daughters may want to encourage them to play sports while in high school. I have to call her cell phone and drive around like a detective to figure out where she might have been. It was like a nightmare. My relationship and communication is thrown out of the window. These are the mistakes I made.

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