Cross Section of Rich Invested With the Fed

By SEWELL CHAN and BEN PROTESS
Published: December 2, 2010


WASHINGTON — One investor, Kenneth H. Dahlberg, is a World War II flying ace who, as a volunteer in President Richard M. Nixon’s re-election campaign, was a minor figure in the Watergate scandal.

Another investor, Magalen O. Bryant, runs a horse farm in Virginia and is active in steeplechase racing circles. A third, Ward W. Woods, is the chairman of the nonprofit organization that runs the Bronx Zoo.

They were among scores of wealthy but lesser-known investors in an emergency lending program the Federal Reserve announced in November 2008, three weeks after President Obama’s election, to support the market for student, auto, credit card and small-business loans.

The investors, whose identities were disclosed as part of a trove of 21,000 records released on Wednesday at the direction of Congress, are a cross-section of America’s wealthy — investors who, in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, heard about an opportunity and weighed the risk.

The list, not surprisingly, includes famous Wall Street financiers like J. Christopher Flowers, John A. Paulson and Julian Robertson, demonstrating the extent to which the Fed relied on fast-moving hedge funds to keep credit flowing through the markets.

There were also institutional investors like the Ford Foundation and the pension plan for Major League Baseball. And there were wealthy businessmen like the computer executive Michael S. Dell and the home builder Bruce E. Toll.

Investors like Mr. Dell are identified in the Fed’s data because they owned or were part of a group that owned a “material” stake in a company or a fund that received funding from the Fed. They may not have been involved in the decision to borrow from the Fed. Through the program, known as the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, the investors helped keep markets for consumer loans from seizing up by steadily buying securities. About $71 billion was lent by the Fed out of the $200 billion available. The program, which began in March 2009, ended June 30, 2010; two-thirds of the loans have been repaid early. The remaining ones come due as late as 2015. The Fed has said it does not expect to lose any money in the program.

The investors put up their own money in return for Fed financing that was then plowed into the markets for securitized loans — bundles of credit card or auto dealership debt and student loans. The investors shouldered the risk that the loan packages could lose value and be worth less than the amount they had borrowed from the Fed.

Ordinarily, bundles of loans of this type are not difficult to sell, but after Lehman went bankrupt in September 2008, the market for such debt suddenly froze. The point of the program was to keep money moving through the markets while having investors, not the Fed, bear the risk.

Mr. Dahlberg was one such investor. The newly disclosed records show he was an investor in Broad Creek Partners, which borrowed $28.1 million from the Fed, through TALF, to purchase a portion of a security issued by GE Capital, the financing arm of General Electric. The security was backed by subprime credit card loans. To obtain the loan, Broad Creek pledged as collateral the market value of the security, $30.5 million.

Nearly all of some two dozen TALF investors contacted on Thursday declined to comment or did not respond to messages.

One who did agree to talk was Dov C. Schlein, a former president of the Republic Bank of New York, who estimated that he made a healthy profit, but not a killing.

“Realistically, if you were an early investor you could net 10 percent,” he said. “If you came in much later when the program looked to be successful, then the return dropped to 8, 7, 6, 5 percent.”

Mr. Schlein said he told fellow investors that they should be prepared for their names to become public at some point.

“I told anyone who invested in it at the time that if you’re not prepared for that information to be disclosed, you should not invest,” he said.

Mr. Schlein said he was by no means certain of making money; if unemployment had skyrocketed to 12 percent, for example, he would have expected to lose from huge defaults.

Indeed, when Mr. Schlein told students in his finance class at Baruch College, his alma mater, about the Fed program, some deemed it too risky. A year later, a new group of students said it was a shrewd gamble.

“They said, ‘You got a gift from the Fed,’ ” Mr. Schlein recalled.

Mr. Schlein was an investor in a fund that received 19 loans, totaling $260.9 million, to purchase securities backed by credit card, auto and student loans.

Another investor, Jeffrey R. Krinsk, estimated that he made a profit of about 13 percent, or more than $300,000 on his investment of roughly $2 million, in less than 18 months. “The risk being assumed by investors was generally far less than the risk that was perceived by commentators who hadn’t taken the time to look through the extensive documentation associated with the program,” said Mr. Krinsk, a plaintiffs’ lawyer in San Diego. “It was actually less esoteric, less risky, than other investments I’ve made.”

Many of the investors in the program had backgrounds in finance, including Stephen Partridge-Hicks, who is credited with creating the market for structured investment vehicles, and Robert F. Corvino, who is a director of the CME Group, a major options and futures marketplace.

Many of the financiers, the records show, teamed up, like Jay M. Twery, Walt K. Weissman and M. Blair Wellensiek, who work at Tradelink Holdings, a Chicago trading firm.

Some financiers show up in the Fed data because of their ownership in companies that sought funds from the Fed. In one instance, Mr. Paulson and Mr. Flowers, the financiers, formed OneWest Bank, the successor to the collapsed lender IndyMac, which borrowed from the Fed. Mr. Dell’s investment firm, MSD Capital, is an investor in the bank as well.

Records show that Ms. Bryant, the steeplechase enthusiast, was an investor in Belstar Credit Fund, which obtained 22 loans in amounts ranging from $2.5 million to $75.2 million. Belstar used the loans to purchase securities backed by credit card and auto loans, mortgages and small-business loans. When reached by phone, she declined to comment.

Mr. Woods, who is chairman of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the Bronx Zoo, and a former chief executive of Bessemer Securities, was an investor in the Nebris Corporation, which borrowed $10.2 million to purchase a security backed by student loans. He did not respond to messages left with his associates.

Mr. Dahlberg, a decorated aviator, became prominent early in the Watergate scandal because his name was on a check deposited in an account controlled by one of the burglars. Mr. Dahlberg, who was not accused of any wrongdoing in the scandal and is now a venture capitalist, did not return phone calls Thursday.

Mr. Schlein, the New York investor, said he felt he was helping out the Fed at a critical moment. “The program was well thought-out,” he said. “I thought it was an exceptional program.”

But he also said there was a downside potential. “The risk was that the economy was going to fall off a cliff,” he said.

Sewell Chan reported from Washington and Ben Protess from New York. Jo Craven McGinty contributed reporting from New York.

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5 Tips for Ensuring Your Customers’ Privacy

1. Understand that protecting customers’ privacy is essential to maintaining and increasing sales and profits online.
2. Develop a privacy policy, post it on your web site, and live by your policy. For guidelines, visit three Web sites: www.privacyalliance.org, www.respectprivacy.com and www.privacyrights.org.
3. Put top-notch security systems in place to make sure that customer data is not lost, misused, altered or stolen.
4. Require that third parties with whom you deal provide similar data security.
5. Don’t provide personal information collected from customers to third parties unless you have explicit permission from the customers to do so.

Brought to you by SCORE, America's small business mentors, at www.score.org.
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5 Tips for Domain Naming

By Christine Banning, SCORE VP Corporate Relations


1. Create an online identity. Get a Web domain now, even if you aren't building your site until later.

2. Pick three domain names that fit your business. Your first choice may be taken, so have a few domain name ideas. If your top three picks are available, consider getting all three. It's not too expensive and then you have flexibility to create a site for a special promotion or use a special landing page for an event.

3. Check out domain name vendors. You can register your domain with your choice of vendor. Here are some well-known, domain name registrars:

• Concentric, www.concentric.com
• Network Solutions, www.networksolutions.com
• Yahoo Domains, www.yahoo.com
• GoDaddy, www.godaddy.com
• Domaindirect.com, www.domaindirect.com

4. Keep your renewal current. Don't forget to renew your domain name. Businesses have been known to let a name expire and then find that their Web site has disappeared from the Internet. Don't let that be you.

5. Once you have a domain, name your URL mycompany.com, place your URL on every marketing and business document that you produce. Let your company be known.

Brought to you by SCORE, America's small business mentors, at www.score.org.
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Making Your Mark

Key elements for a lasting impression with your customers
This Week's focus: Unicycles, Foreigners and Free Publicity


My time in the South Island earlier this year was eventful. Amidst the myriad of accents, the flying unicycles, the dizzying altitudes and small armadas of insects, I found very little in the way of normalcy.

Naturally, they were celebrities. From my perch in the support van, I attempted (and often failed) to make myself useful to Connie, the superwoman who held everyone together, and I discovered something wonderful. When people think you're crazy, they're a lot nicer.

I became a hit with everyone I met, in Wanaka one of the riders received a hi five from a passing skater-boarder and went head over heels in mid pedal, I later met the sister of the flatmate of the offending skateboarder at a bar and engaged in a twenty minute conversation while Ken, the tour organizer, waited for the wine I had been sent to order. The riders were immortalized in a million photos from foreign cameras as tourists came to wonder whether this was a regular occurrence in New Zealand.

Reporters came from everywhere to meet the group; interviews were conducted at backpackers, on roadsides and at the occasional café. The jokes kept repeating themselves, I can tell you just about every unicycle joke in existence, and Ken has a bulging scrapbook of press clippings containing each and every one of those awful, awful one liners.

Let me reiterate my point to you though; these people are crazy. They tackled the steepest street in the world on unicycles, one of them punched a glacier (I still have the water from the chunk of ice that fell off), they rode 160km in one day through gale force winds, they even have their own slang, their own community, hell, they've got their own website.


The point?

These people didn't pay a cent for publicity, and everywhere we went I was hearing about them before they arrived. People love a nutter. They love a group of nutters even more. Ken sent out a simple press release, and bang, every newspaper in the South Island wants to meet this loony bunch.

So how can we harness this powerful tool of free publicity and twist it to suit our nefarious purposes? Well…

Gimmicks
Having something just that little bit strange about your business is a great conversation starter, it's a way of getting people laughing, and more importantly, getting them talking. An ongoing gimmick, even better, one that's interactive, is fantastic way to not only get attention, but to build your business a long lasting market presence, it also gives you a base from which to work your marketing, an ongoing theme, adding a consistency to your image.


Events
Organise something a little bit different, sponsor a teddy bears picnic, hold a funny hat day, if you do something a little wild, and then let people know, you'll attract interest, it's a great of throwing your name in a positive light. You can use it to reach out to your market and the people around them and reach them in a way that builds trust, because you took the first step without pushing them to buy. And better yet, you did it will they were laughing.


Press Releases
One of the best ways to get the word out to traditional publications is a press release, it doesn't have to be long, the press release for the SINZ tour was less than half a page, but it detailed when the riders would be in certain locations, what they were doing and generally outlined how funny and bizarre these people truly are. This was more than enough to entice reporters out to meet us as we entered and left towns, and the best part is, they did all the work. Ken, the tour organizer, simply had to email half a page to fifteen or so newspapers, and the word got round. People were talking about us days before we got to them, and you only had to mention a unicycle before people knew who you were. And what did it cost? Not a thing.

So be a little funky, and let the people come to you.

Wealth, Success, and Unicycles,

- Bridget Hughes

Bridget Hughes is a member of the team at www.learning4ever.com, a resource for business owners and entrepreneurs. She also works as a marketing consultant and webdesigner, and has a bad habit of getting into odd situations.

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Employee Motivation: Key To Company Success

By: Jimm Chris

Imagine this: You're the owner of a seat MNC company that produces seating for wheelchairs, auditoriums, and cars. You have approximately 100 employees, 90 percent of which are upholsters, sewers, gluers, and material cutters. The other 10 percent are office staff. Basically, you have a diverse group of employees, each with different jobs, concerns, and needs. The big question is: How do you motivate all of these people?

Treat your employees in a good way and your company will turn out well:
If you are a smart business owner, you will realize that employee motivation at the workplace is vital to a company's success. If your employees don't appreciate their bosses, their job, and their company, then your business will not thrive.

Your employees must WANT to work at your company. They must have pride in their career, as well as the outcome that they are making. This about it this way: If your employees truly believe in what they are doing, they are most likely going to output a high-quality product in as promptly a manner as possible. In the end, your customers will benefit from this. Your company will benefit from this. And your employees will the gain from this. Success is truly a chain reaction that begins and ends with employee motivation.

Put yourself in the shoes of your employees:
So how do you get your diverse mix of employees motivated? Why would anyone want to wake up at 7 AM five days a week to sew material to make seats for wheelchairs?

Would you get up to do this if, hanging above your department, you saw photos of the disabled people using the seats you stitched? Would you get up to do this if you were able to voice your ideas for new seats to your boss and to the whole company in weekly meetings? Would you get up to do this if you were given pay incentives or other types of rewards for the number or quality grade of seats you got done in a month?

If you answered yes to even one of these questions, then you would be considered a motivated employee. At least one of these things would have challenged you and would have given you reason to come in to work.


Think about some vital points that enhance employee motivation:

• Every employee wants to feel appreciated in some way.
• Every employee wants to be given some sort of proof that what he or she did bettered the world, the community, or just the company in some sort of way.
• Every employee wants to feel that his or her opinion is at least heard - whether or not it is actually used. Having the opportunity to voice an opinion and bring new ideas to the table is a constructive thing for both an employee and a company.
• Every employee wants to be rewarded for a job well done. It is understandable that large raises and elaborate prizes cannot always be available. But sometimes a simple acknowledgement from an owner or a boss can mean a great deal.

As a business owner, or as a boss, understand that one wants to work hard only to end up feeling unappreciated in the end. In a corporate world where money and power appear to mean success, it is key to remember that without good employee motivation at the basic level nothing else would be possible.

Visit my blog at How To Get Motivated by clicking the link to read more articles on ways of getting motivated.

Build A Team

Claudia Brown talks about how building the right team will help your organization. Learn how picking the right people and creating the right environment can do wonders for your workplace.


Build a Team - The Right Team (There is a Difference)

Creating the right team is imperative to your success. A team is comprised of people who can bring necessary skill sets to the venture. A team is different from partners. Partners are financially and legally tied to the venture while team members are brought in to create and continue the process. Team members can be employees or sub-contactors.

These are people you can control - you get to pick them. You can use their services for as long as you like. If they don't work out as planned, you can find a different team member or you can find a place on the team where this person can be more effective.

Creating the right environment for the team is equally important. People will give their best when they feel that their services are being valued and that they are entrusted with producing a part of the success of the venture. Team members must have the same values as that of the venture and they must follow the same code of conduct consistent with your desired outcome. They must truly want the venture to be a success and feel that they are a part of that success. They must do their job well with the other team members.

Differences are encouraged only if they are presented in a positive fashion, recognizing the efforts of the others. Each team member must give more than they are asked for in their areas of expertise. This does not mean extra hours; it means do your jobs with heart and soul, working with the creative minds flowing, working with a positive mental attitude, and working together with the others so that all are winners.

What ideas do you have that will create a positive, successful team? How can you create this team and have each person feel that they are as important a part of the success of the venture as you are? Study successful entities to find out how they treat their team members. Find out what motivates team members in successful entities to keep them successful - is it money, power, trust, fear, etc.? Thinking these things out before you create the team will help you in putting together the right team for your venture.

You should write out all the positions of your team and keep updating it as you grow as when you grow you will need to change out some positions on your team. This is a big mistake that people make as they grow. They keep the same team members that were effective when they were small and they do not re-evaluate the need for replacing members who have not grown to levels where they are now needed. Therefore the overall team growth is limited by the lack of ability of one or more members. Just like upgrading your peer group, always be open to and active in upgrading your team members.

You must strive to place the right people on your team. This goes for all positions you pay for, including lawyers, accountants, advisors, sub contractors etc. Be clear on what is a must upfront and make the positions open as specific as possible.

If you are just starting out then make your team as simple and complete as possible. Just be sure that your team members are able to excel and have knowledge in the industry and direction you are going in. The last thing you want to do is to have to micromanage your team members. If you find you are doing so you have made a mistake and replace them right away.

Your team members must be proactive to your needs and outcome. If not replace them or place them in a position where they can be more effective. Please always keep in mind that in most cases you are paying for their services in one manner or another. Never pay a team member 100% upfront for their services as this always gives them something to aspire to. Placing the right team members in the right place will make your endeavor soar.

About the Author:

Doug and Claudia Brown use their 40 plus years of business building experiences to educate people on how to create six figures or more in 24 to 36 months or less. For more information, see their website at www.whatisyourplan.com

Get new jobs (Part 1)

Employment, job, jobs

The increasing of fuel price gives significant effect for every side of life. Rising expenditure items, while postal revenue is still in place. To meet the needs of an increasingly jumped, looking for additional income could be one option. Another option that can also be considered is working abroad.

The main attraction working abroad is the amount of salary that can reach multiple times. Starting life in a new place with different atmosphere and culture also become one of the attractions are working abroad.

Every year the Indonesian labor force working abroad reached about 700,000 people, spread across 11 countries. This amount is expected to grow to 1 million people per year, spread over 25 countries worldwide. 70% of workers who work abroad are more unskilled workers. But that does not mean there is no opportunity for skilled workers to work abroad.

Based on the level of need that requires at most state workers from Indonesia are Malaysia, Australia, European countries and Japan. Other countries that require manpower medium to high-skilled are Qatar, New Zealand, Portugal, Canada, South Korea, Spain, and other Western European countries.

While industries that require workers from Indonesia are the manufacturing, plantation, construction, hospitality and tourism, oil and gas, shipping and medical health care.

But of course not easy to work abroad. Determination of physical and mental readiness is not enough. There are many factors you should consider before deciding to leave your current job, packed his suitcase and bring the whole family to a new country.

Survival Guide - Managing Stress

Banking, accounting, Employment

Organize its work to combat stress


In small doses, stress pushes us to excel. Work overload can cause stress, however, harmful to health. Here are some tips to make your life easier.

1. Do the most difficult tasks first. If you put off until later, a difficult task or unpleasant it will bother you, even if it is just a phone call. By cons, once the task, your mind will be released.

2. Bring order to your tasks and folders. "When we're busy, we forget. Therefore write all your task in a diary, clearly indicating the priorities of the day, "says Charbonneau. It is also important to classify documents. "Some people lose only five hours a week looking for records." To avoid this situation, make a big household every two weeks, or a smaller every day.

3. Do not be too perfectionist. As your boss impose tight deadlines, it is rarely possible to refine your work until absolute perfection. We need to know to allocate a realistic time for each task.

4. Respect your limits. If the boss assigns you a task while you're already overwhelmed, show him your schedule. Let him decide whether this new request is more urgent than your other responsibilities.

5. Give yourself small pleasures. When your concentration decreases after an hour of work, you often take short breaks. You can just look outside, to breathe fresh air or eat a piece of chocolate! Also apply this principle to your holiday. "Instead of taking a month each summer, divide your weeks of vacation during the year," says Charbonneau. So you'll have a short-term goal, which helps to manage stress and maintain their enthusiasm for work.

How to expand your network

Banking, accounting, Employment

Today knowledge intelligently expand his circle of relations is no longer the monopoly of seasoned networkers but also the fact that everyone, through situations of everyday life.

Opportunities not to miss method to approach your target contacts, not to make mistakes ... Here are tips to enrich their address book. A significant weapon at a time when you may need to meet the challenges of a job search or starting a business.
Expand its network

Today knowledge intelligently expand his circle of relations is no longer the monopoly of seasoned networkers but also the fact that everyone, through situations of everyday life.

Opportunities not to miss method to approach your target contacts, not to make mistakes ... Here are tips to enrich their address book. A significant weapon at a time when you may need to meet the challenges of a job search or starting a business.


Be ready at all times

It must be borne in mind that any situation can be an opportunity to enlarge its network. Travel, meals, parties and a fortiori, conferences are so many opportunities available to you. To not let your opportunity gone with the wind, always think that you must have business cards. When we meet someone, and we don't have business card is actually harmful. In 90% of cases, when you do not have your own business card, then you meet people you said you will send it, but the fact you do not send your card. It's huge mistakes. Prepare your self to have your own business card.


Decompartmentalise personal and professional relationships

People tend to separate their personal from their professional relationships and it is a mistake. Do not hesitate to open up the personal and professional relationships. Share your interests with your professional relationships. by collaborating your personal and professional life, you can open doors unsuspected, the personal circle can become a relay exceptional.


Establish your image as an expert

One way to integrate your self related to your workplace is to establish your image as an expert in the field where you have jurisdiction. The way can be done by participating in discussion circles, intervening in seminars or conferences, exchanging on expert forums .

If such an activity can quickly become time consuming, both in terms of travel or time spent on the blogosphere, it is nevertheless an excellent showcase and therefore an ideal way to meet new people, increase their network quality.

Ten Tips to Reduce Stress

Jobs Vacancy, Job Vacancies, Employment Jobs

As people are working harder but taking less time off than ever before, the level of their stress continues to increase in proportion. Also, the days are gone when people worked for the same company for 30 years with the guarantee of receiving a solid gold watch at their retirement party.

Job changes are more frequent now, and that's an additional source of stress.

How do you know if you're overstressed? Ask yourself the following stress management questions.

Do you:

• Rush in a panic to work every morning?
• Eat lunch at your desk to get as much work done as possible?
• Feel too exhausted at the end of the day to enjoy activities at night?
• Ruminate as you try to fall asleep about what needs to be done the next day?
• Dream (or have nightmares) about work related issues?
• Put off vacations or other family activities because you're too busy with work?

If you answered yes to at least two of these stress management questions, stress is probably affecting your life more than you realize. You may benefit a great deal by utilizing some basic stress management tools.

It's not uncommon for overstressed people to either ignore or fail to recognize the signs that they're over-committed to their work. However, the physical and emotional consequences of working as hard and as fast as you can every day are serious, and include increased risk of a heart attack, decreased resistance to infections, anxiety and more.

Let’s focus now on some good news about effective stress management techniques?

Fortunately, the process of redesigning an overstressed life can be relatively straightforward, and includes a full assessment of stress-related activities in ones daily and weekly routine.

Stress management actions require an awareness that there is a problem to begin with and a personal commitment to identify and change the stress-related behavior.

Here are Ten Stress Management Tips you can use to reduce your workplace stress:

1. Prioritize! Don't try to get everything done at the same time. Attack the most important items first.
2. When you get interrupted by someone at work, put them on your schedule and tell them you'll get back to them at an agreed-upon time. Maintain ownership of your own time.
3. Don't eat lunch at your desk, and don't bring work with you to lunch. Schedule some down time.
4. Use deep-breathing exercises or relaxation techniques to de-stress during the day. Go for a 20 minute walk every day.
5. Reduce the noise in your environment by shutting your office door if you have one. Take control of your environment.
6. Don't keep things bottled up. Let co-workers know if something they're doing is causing you stress. Address things calmly and professionally.
7. Eat right, sleep right and exercise regularly (with your doctor's permission).
8. Try leaving the radio off in your car on the way home. Many people find that the quiet helps them unwind and is a basic stress management practice.
9. When at home, don't dwell on work-related problems. Write them down, put them out of your mind and add them to your schedule the next day. Understand that there is a time and a place for everything.
10. Use peers and associates as a sounding board for discussing work-related issues and minimize bringing issues into the family home.

Even if you're not feeling particularly stressed right now by your work life, these stress management ideas can help you continue to enjoy your work life to its fullest and protect you against future stresses.

Five Tips for starting an e-business

Jobs Vacancy, Job Vacancies, Employment Jobs

Thinking of launching your existing business on the World Wide Web? Or, perhaps, finally pulling the trigger on your great idea for a web-based business? Either way, you better get busy because there just so happens to be an e-commerce revolution taking place while you're thinking about it.

But before you take the plunge into the new world of e-business, you'll need to do quite a bit of homework in order to ensure it's right for you and your company. Following are five things you'll want to consider before hanging your shingle out on the information superhighway.

1. Identify your customers/market. Knowledge of your e-business customers and assessment of their future needs will be your first priority and should correspond to your company's abilities, goals and marketing objectives. Ask yourself who are your potential customers? Where are the best places to reach potential customers? Determine what your customers want and need from your company and your products. Are they comfortable using computers and accessing the Internet? Does your product cater to any particular niche?

2. Evaluate your e-business readiness. Analyze your infrastructure and create a sound business plan. Get in touch with the local Chamber of Commerce and Small Business Development Center for assistance and information on tax laws, industry, business planning and patents. Determine how your company will handle the Internet-generated revenue. Do your homework regarding the international tax laws for each country that you will be active within commerce. Ask yourself, what method is most effective in getting the product to the customer? How will you insure payment?

3. Solidify your marketing messages. What message do you wish to portray to potential customers? What do you want your customers to feel when they hear your company name, see your web site and view your products? Brainstorm. Get some imaginative people involved, and then create your image. Create a marketing plan to promote your site and your products. Stay consistent with that message throughout every medium, whether it is traditional print, radio, web site banners, search engines or newsgroups.

4. Analyze your financial investments and return. Do your best to determine all costs ahead of time. The era of the single page web site has long since passed. Today even the most basic e-commerce web sites integrate a variety of scripts, databases and several tools that make processing transactions easy and secure. But add to this the cost of design, hosting and the purchase of additional software. Consider shipping costs if your product can't be sent through the Internet. Calculate your costs and investments to help determine your rate of return. A well-run e-business is worth the effort. Several costs are minimized or eliminated, such as printing, mailing and handling costs for paper catalogs. An e-commerce site will compliment your distribution channels by bringing in customers from previously untapped regions without the overhead expense of running a mail order business.

5. Determine the level of your e-commerce solution. Depending on the nature of your business, you can set up your storefront in a number of ways. The more involved your online store, the bigger the investment. But, the benefits that arise with a bigger online store are bigger as well.

Here are 3 examples:

The Content Only Approach: Think of this as an electronic brochure that publishes information about your company and products. It is easy to set up and maintain but lacks interaction, hence customers have to order offline.

The Dynamic Catalog Approach: Your online business is set up to operate 24x7 and fill orders over the web. With this approach you will have to incorporate a scalable e-commerce solution. This will allow you to further integrate it with your business model in the future, without placing extra burden on your operations.

The Total Integration Approach: Plan well in advance in terms of time and money. This solution will fully integrate your web site with all aspects of your business-payment systems, order fulfillment, inventory control and all of your traditional business functions. The end result is a web presence that truly is a cohesive extension of your company.

Regardless of the approach, it is important to select the plan that meets the needs of your e-business in the near term. As your business grows, any good service provider will grow along with you, offering an easy migration path to enhanced services and support.

After you have done your homework and selected the best e-commerce plan for your company, you?ll be on your way to joining the thousands of other e-businesses competing in the new world of business.

Verio (nasdaq: VRIO - news - people), based in Englewood, Colo., provides web-hosting and other Internet services.

What Television’s First Woman President Has To Teach Us (Part 11)

Job, jobs, career

Many women naturally have high likeability factors and can ramp up their authority and not lose all their likeability.

I worked with a young woman in her twenties whose public relations career had derailed due to her poor presentation skills. When she stood up to present, she acted like a little girl, losing all credibility and authority.

I asked her to pretend she was a tough-talking member of a women’s motorcycle gang. “Spit out the words!” I demanded. As she did, her voice got louder and deeper.

By getting in touch with her anger, the timid, little girl was transformed into a powerful woman.
Her coworkers were impressed and their positive feedback helped her overcome her discomfort in acting out her authority. From then on, she remembered the “motorcycle mama” whenever she presented and reclaimed the authority she already possessed.

Along with attitude, stance, eye contact, pausing, and vocal quality signal authority. When they present, many women I coach assume a dancer’s pose with one toe pointed out at a ninety-degree angle. While this stance may be pretty and feminine, it holds no authority. I counsel both men and women to stand in their full power by placing their feet shoulder-width apart and equally distributing their weight.

The eyes have been called the “windows of the soul.” As such, they are one of our greatest assets in winning audiences. I coach executives to begin their presentations by standing in silence, finding a friendly face, establishing eye contact, taking a deep breath, and then beginning their talk. This simple tip helps speakers become grounded and start their presentations with authority.

Many presenters talk while moving their heads from person to person like a sprinkler system, or worse they lose all connection with their audience by staring at one person, the slide screen, or into space. I train presenters to pick one person and maintain steady eye contact with that person until they have delivered a complete thought.

Like intensive eye contact, pausing signals authority. I teach students that there is power in the pause and recommend that pauses be used to emphasize important points.

Thirty-eight percent of our power as a presenter is determined by vocal quality. To maximize vocal quality, I suggest that women consider:
1. Raising the volume and projecting their voice.
2. Lowering the pitch of their voice, if needed.
3. Avoiding letting the intonation rise at the end of a sentence, or what Jerry Seinfeld termed “up-talking.” Up-talkers often appear uncertain about what they are saying, thus losing all authority and credibility.

Stance, eye contact, pausing, and vocal quality enhance a businesswoman’s authority when she speaks, but nothing creates a more powerful impression than conviction. While many women have strong convictions, they often have a difficult time expressing them. Most women have a conversational style that strives to make others feel comfortable. To accomplish this, many women position their beliefs as opinions and use disclaimers before they speak, such as, “I may be wrong about this, but.…” While this conversational style is extremely effective in building consensus, it can undermine the authority of the speaker.

When women speak with absolute certainty, claiming their full authority, their likeability factor may decrease, but it is worth it if they are able to garner the respect and recognition they deserve.

What Television’s First Woman President Has To Teach Us (Part 1)

Job, jobs, career

By: Randy Siegel

I have a confession to make: I am addicted to Tuesday night’s new hit series “Commander and Chief.” Sure, Geena Davis is beautiful. She tall, regal, and has the best lips in the business after Angelia Jolie. But, television’s first woman president has captured my attention for another reason: I am fascinated with her communication style.

President Mackenzie Allen commands respect, and yet she is likeable. I would follow her lead and still enjoy throwing back a beer with her after a hard day of work in the White House.

Most women are damned-if-they-do and damned-if-they-don’t when it comes to communicating in the male-dominated worlds of politics, business, and education. In order to compete, they must find a delicate balance between authority and likeability.

All great communicators possess what I call “the terrific triad,” credibility, likeability, and authority. While many women want to claim their authority, they are concerned about appearing too domineering or abrasive, and thus losing likeability. “We are in a double bind,” one female executive shared.

To make matters worse, our culture associates authority with men. When we think of those traits we consider authoritative, we immediately think of tall, solidly built, and a lower pitched voice – all characteristics associated with men, not women.
In today’s world, women are expected to be both authoritative and feminine. “That’s very hard,” most women agree. In my experience as a communications trainer and coach, most women have to sacrifice some likeability for authority, and that is okay.

Women Who Dared to Invent

Job, jobs, career




As you sip your morning coffee you probably don’t give any thought as to how the actual process of coffee brewing came to be. If it wasn’t for a frustrated housewife in Dresden, Germany, you might have to brew your coffee by wrapping loose coffee grounds in a cloth bag and boil water around it. Suddenly you have a much better appreciation for Melitta Bentz’s invention.

Knowing there had to be a better way, she stuck some blotting paper in the bottom of a pot that she had poked holes in. Then she poured the water over it. This filtered out the bitter taste. It worked, and she started manufacturing her “coffemakers” and selling them at local fairs. They were a hit.

Other women felt the same frustration and started the invention process. Marion Donovan was a young mom who spent her days washing, bleaching and drying cloth baby diapers. She put together some padding and a show curtain and came up with a prototype. She took her product, “The Boater” around to manufacturers who all told her it would be too expensive to make and turned her down.

So she manufactured the product herself and sold them to department stores. Pretty soon the idea caught on. Moms went into the stores asking for the throwaway diaper. Mrs. Donovan sold her company for $1 million dollars and made moms around the world very happy.

Marie Curie was the only person to win two Nobel prizes. She was a scientist and an inventor. She invented a chemical process for extracting radioactive material from ore and she also discovered radium.

Anyone who has used a personal computer can thank Admiral Grace Murray Hopper for inventing the first computer compiler. The way software was written was changed. They no longer had to write time-consuming instructions for each new software package. She developed COBOL, which is the first user-friendly computer software program.

If you take your lunch to work in a brown paper bag you have Martha Knight to thank for it. She invented the machine that produced them. She was also the first woman to fight and win a patent suit after a man stole her design and put his name on it. He couldn’t imagine that a woman could create such a complex machine. She went on to invent several other machines and tools.

As more women are encouraged to invent, the list of women inventors grows. But still today less than 10% of patents belong to women. Necessity is truly the mother of invention.

Copyright (c) 2010 Julie Austin

Life Success: The Difference Between Values and Goals

Employment, Accounting, Banking

By: Marsha Egan


Whether you believe it or not we are all governed by values. Our values influence how we make decisions and effectively run our lives. Values can be instilled in us or we can choose to adopt them. Our values can change. The important thing to know is that when we have strong values, and positive values, they will be integral to our achieving what we want in this life.

Values are not goals. Goals are targets. Values are the base upon which we run our lives.

Values are how you see the world, what you see as important, what you believe.

Why are we talking about values? Because they form the base for your approach to life! Values are the bedrock of your walking the path of life. They support and drive your purpose.

When coaching clients, one of the actions that we take is to have the client articulate what his or her values are. By writing them down, it is a way to keep our values present in our lives.

Here are a few ways to go about clarifying your values:

1. Imagine you have a day to spend any way you want. What would you do? Some of the answers will give you clarity on what some of your values are.
2. Think about your sense of right and wrong. As you articulate what is right, you will become more clear on your values.
3. Consider what excites you and what motivates you. These will give you clues to values, as well.
4. Ponder about the actions that can add stability to your life. This will open up thought on what those values might be

When you write down your values, it is important to write them in the present tense. As an example, you might write one of your values as "I am financially stable" rather than "I will be financially stable."

A great way to do all this, is to use index cards or sticky notes, because you may find that you will have many things written down. Most likely, they will work their way into natural groupings. Some people like to set a few overriding values, with supporting values.

To use the example above, an overall value could be "I am financially stable". You might have several supporting values to this statement such as, "I pay all my bills before the due date." "I review my insurance annually, " "I save x percent of my income."

Here are some areas where you might wish to state your values:

• - family
• - education
• - morals
• - community
• - career
• - friendships
• - health
• - finances
• - recreation

While this may appear to be making more work than is necessary, it's interesting to see how, by being clear on what your values are, they can influence your actions.

In a personal example, one of my values is "I explore when I travel." On a recent speaking engagement in Oklahoma City, when I arrived at my hotel room, despite the fact that I was tired, I asked how far the Oklahoma Memorial was. When I found out it was only six blocks, I walked there, and was extremely glad that I did. It was a memorial to experience. I doubt that I would have done that, if I had not "lived" this value.

So, I urge you to take a little bit of time to become clear on what your values are. They are already there, most likely you just haven't put them to paper. It's nice to live them, and it's even nicer to pass them on to those who follow you.

Marsha Egan, CPCU, PCC is CEO of The Egan Group, Inc., a Reading, PA based professional coaching firm. She is a certified executive coach and professional speaker, specializing in leadership development and can be reached at marsha@marshaegan.com or visit www.marshaegan.com .

The Executive Summary is Your Business Plan's First Impression

Employment, Accounting, Banking

By: Corey Landis

The executive summary is not a mini version of the entire business plan. Keep it brief, two to three pages long. The purpose of the executive summary is to entice the reader to review, or request to review, the entire business plan. While the executive summary is presented first, it is written after the entire plan has been completed. It should not contain any information that cannot be found elsewhere in the business plan. Don't write the executive summary first, with the idea you can always expand it later into a full blown business plan, that just doesn't work.


If your business plan will not be presented for investors or bankers you don't need to complete the executive summary.
A brief two to three page overview of the company with one or two paragraphs under each of the following headings:

• Business Activity: The company's products or services.
• Market Opportunity: Define the company's market base, the customers, where they are located. Number of customers or dollar size of market.
• Business Profile: A very brief description of when the company was established, by whom, number of employees, any recent changes.
• Competitive Factors: The competitors, their strengths and weaknesses.
• Marketing Strategy: The company's marketing: advertising, promotions, methods of distribution, and sales force.
• Management Team: Brief description of senior management.
• Capital Required: Amount, uses and type of the capital requested.
• Financial Summary: Brief summary of the financial performance of the company for the last three to five years, if available and what is projected for the next three to five years.

Some of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make in their executive summary include forgetting to put their contact information, name and phone number on each page. Not including the amount of your capital request. Not clearly articulating what business the company is in. Losing the reader in technical jargon. Some entrepreneurs think shorter is better but a one page executive summary isn't long enough to entice the reader. Most entrepreneurs have the intention to keep to no more than 3 pages but keep adding "just one more thing," until the summary is 10 or more pages long. Additional mistakes include forgetting to discuss the accomplishments of the management team. Not clearly stating who the customers (market) are. Not including the marketing strategies. And finally not including any financial projections.
If you want to know how to write a business plan you need to know what's included in the executive summary.

Small Business Ideas In Tough Economic Times

Employment, Accounting, Banking

By: Dave Johnshon

The global population of those laid off, unemployed or otherwise searching for ways to make ends meet, has caused a widespread interest in exploring business ideas. It is no longer just women who aim to work at home and tend to the home front. Everywhere, people give consideration to how to earn a living.


An employer may unexpectedly fall short of revenue, and promptly serve notice to employees that their services are no longer needed. The media regularly depict the economic woes of millions who find themselves at a loss for income. The poor economy, while seemingly harsh and unsympathetic, may also provide impetus for people to exercise entrepreneurial reactions. When times are good, people may feel free to dabble with ways to enhance income.


In times when the economy is down and out, this may launch incredible spirited efforts to make business dreams come true. Photography buffs, for example, may decide that now is the time to make that photography hobby pay off.
There are at least half a dozen reputable companies, including publishing market industry dynamos, who are offering do it yourself publishing. People enjoy picture taking and picture browsing. It can be to your advantage to consider merging book publishing with photography interests. A collection of photos can be compiled into a book format.


To make your photography book stand out, a person can develop a theme. When you go to major book publishing portals and conduct market research, you can begin to separate fruitless efforts from proven ones. Which books are doing well, along with titles, can easily be seen online through major book vendor sites. You would then migrate the book concepts, table of contents and titles, along with keywords to your photo project. You would then revise these contents to make them uniquely yours. Perhaps bestsellers include books of children or animals. Perhaps there is inspiring text or some other type of text for readers.


A person can upload images to a custom book site provider to initiate the publishing process. Images can be obtained from a number of sources. Stock photography websites, images in the public domain, or pictures you take yourself.


To find suitable text to pair with images, a person can conduct online research using the many sites offering a variety of quotes. A person can also rewrite inspirational sayings found online.


Some book publishing sites allow you to also sell your books through their site. The publisher may allow you to set your own prices and see upfront what your earnings may be. Some publishers offer different methods of publishing. Electronic or print custom books are often available. The terms and conditions will vary. For instance, commission may be better using one method, but payment time may be worse. A publishing service will often allow you to buy your own books, potentially discounted in cost. This option might be the most economical. In which case you can stock your books and set up your own website with cross marketing through the publisher site. You can take your books to local merchants, such as coffee shops, for resell, or sell them direct at community events. You could send local periodicals complimentary review copies. To get the word out about your book, there are a variety of online do it yourself public relations sites that will walk you through and distribute your press release free or at nominal cost. Among business ideas, photography books, can be an immediate venture. When you pair books with other products or concepts such as care packages for hospital patients, commuter markets, you can expand business opportunities.

Nurture Your Future Leaders

Job, Jobs, Career , Employment

By: Gen Wright

They are the fast-rising and upcoming superstars of the organization. Young and talented, these entry level managers have excelled in their academic years and are looking to duplicate their success in a working environment.

On a smaller scale, they have already shown what they can do. Now, they are in search of more challenges. It is time for them to take bigger risks and make things happen. As your newest batch of managers, they are ready to rumble!

Connect them to the organization

Use the organization's core values to connect with upcoming superstars of the organization.

On their first day, pick a respectable senior leader in the organization to inspire them with a short talk on the importance of core values. Let the senior leader tell them stories of his or her past experiences to illustrate how the company's core values have guided him/her to success. The aim is to let new young managers understand that as leaders, they represent the core values of the organization. This gives them a connection to the identity of the organization - an alignment of their personal values with the organization's core values.

Allow new young managers to cross-train for a short period of time (4-6 weeks) with teams led by more senior and experienced managers who consistently demonstrate a high regard for what the organization believes in. This way, new young managers get to fully understand the meaning of the organization's core values as it is being practiced on a regular basis.

As an extended practice, new young managers can be given responsibility for values orientation among newly recruited people across the organization. This will give them a greater sense of accountability.

Develop their Emotional Quotient

Although high IQ levels count, let them know that developing their EQ is as critical as mastery of their chosen profession. Workers value a leader's abilities to control their emotions such as anger, to withstand difficult events and stressful situations, to be fulfilled with what life can give, and to be a cooperative member of the team.

As early as possible, let your young superstars participate in a leadership development program that includes topics such as enhancing self-awareness and self-reflection skills.

Encourage them to practice and seek on-going feedback from co-workers to identify and monitor inappropriate emotional behaviour. This will help young managers learn how to control their responses and quickly recover from any setbacks. Developing their EQ is an investment that will reap rewards in the area of relationships and personal growth once they assume more senior leadership roles.

Keep them Interested

Your new young managers will definitely find it exciting if their job descriptions say: implement change, multi-task, and solve problems. Multiple tasks and challenges are never a problem.

Gradually increase their responsibilities as they show capability to keep them challenged and interested with what they are doing. Give them regular feedback about their past six months' performance and update them about what's going to happen next.

New young managers are particular about structure - a clear hierarchy in the organizational chart, a well-defined scope of work, and an outline of their career path is critical if you wish to motivate them.

Special projects are also a welcome responsibility particularly if the assignment is related to the latest in communication technology or social networking. Encourage new young managers to strengthen informal bonds and create solid teamwork by setting up a networking system that allows them to communicate and collaborate.

Give them a life

Work-life balance is a must for long-term career growth. Managers of this generation lead multi-activity lives. They work hard but they also value time for sports, adventure, and recreation with family and friends.

Create fun and let friendship bonds be formed across various teams in the workplace through lunch break celebrations and socials in the office.

Encourage young managers to join clubs or teams that promote wellness or any team sport that they are interested in.

Allow them to spend enough time with their families on weekends to re-charge and re-energize their week.

New young managers are not threatened by job security or big pay checks. They want to learn from their senior leaders, be successful with their teams, and earn the respect of the whole organization. Nurture them early to create well-balanced individuals who will surely be productive as professionals and as respectable leaders in the organization for a long time.

Mel Mendoza is a virtual assistant for whatdoyouwantfromthem.com - an informal network for managers. Create a private social network for your management recruits.

Article Source: http://www.leadershiparticles.net

Leadership Training Tip - Use Momentum

Job, Jobs, Career , Employment

By: Lee Coates

Don't let past glories slow you down. True leaders have new objectives waiting in the wings that they immediately begin to pursue, the moment the present objective is complete. It's the momentum that keeps you moving forward. Keep the energy high or things can change from good to bad. Its momentum that ensures that your team maintains their enthusiasm and remains in motion

You are going to need discipline, drive and determination to be a true leader. The price that one pays for mastery is discipline. You can't have success without it. Every day you need to devote yourself to the perfection of the path you have chosen to peruse. By doing this you will achieve self mastery. Achieve self mastery and you will have developed the essence of a great leader. Discipline is about developing powerful habits and at one point those habits will become your identity.

If you have the discipline you will keep moving forward. Keep moving forward to provide growth for you and your team in character, in strengths and virtues.

Albeit Einstein said that compound interest was the most powerful force in our society. Discipline and perseverance are a lot like the principle of compound interest - The more committed you are towards your objectives, the greater the momentum you will build. In the beginning your progress may seam small, but as one success gets stacked upon another, the momentum you generate will make you a force to be reckoned with.

The opposite result is to decay over time.

Always know - What is your new objective?

Always be a leader.

If you're not sure - Act like a leader and support others like a leader.

"What really makes greatness is white hot action around red hot ideas. A genius idea alone has zero value" - Robin Sharma

Even before the end of your current task you should be asking.

What is my new objective?

This has been the tenth and last article about a special kind of leadership. I call it leadership without a title, because I firmly believe that anyone can be a leader in anything they choose to do. These ten action steps that have been presented allow anyone to step up and lead. These action steps apply to any sized task, the most common tasks that take mere minutes to complete, to ones that can last months. If you apply these steps to everything you do I know you will stand out head and shoulders above 90% of all those around you.

It's strange that when you research the topic of leadership that there is no one clear definition of leadership. Leadership is a very broad concept and there are many different types of leadership. There are a number of words that describe the qualities that many leaders possess and as you follow the ten steps I have given you, I believe that many of these qualities you too can't help but possess. Here are the qualities that many of the world's top leaders possess - believers, listeners, kindness, kindness, disciplined, imagination, excellence, determined, enthusiastic, responsible, humility, influential, vision, they reinforce core values, attitude of ownership, refuse to lose attitude, great habits, mental toughness, understand emotions, pro-active, love, focus, action orientated, persistent, patient, integrity, passionate, creative, flexible, compassionate, confident, calm, optimistic, assertive, courageous, decisive, accountable, to list just some. Is it any wonder that delership is defined in so many different ways by different people.

Keep practicing leadership in every little task you perform and many of these qualities will be yours to enjoy.

Lee Coates - internet entrepreneur, coach and trainer InfoAbounds.com is my blog for more articles about wealth, health, personal development and of course internet marketing. We teach internet marketing to anyone with an existing business, existing product or we can provide a complete internet marketing system for newbie's. We can help you. Check us out. BecauseItsTheBestHomeBusiness.com

Article Source: http://www.leadershiparticles.net

How to Be Successful in Project Management and Leadership

By: David Shoemaker

It is not always easy to develop effective leadership in project management, but it can be done. It takes a certain drive, a lot of focus, powerful motivation, and a detailed plan. Project management and leadership courses can do two things: help you become ready to lead a team by studying your own management style and learning where your weaknesses and strengths lie in order to make yourself a better leader. They also teach you what to do to create and execute a useful project management plan. Remember that a goal without a plan is simply a dream. After completing training for leadership in project management, you should feel confident in five areas:

• Identify leadership strengths and weaknesses in the context of your own career, through feedback from colleagues and through self-assessment
• Explaining the role of colleagues, mentors, and your various networks in achieving your goal
• Explaining why it may be difficult to alter your preferences, even if making a change is the way to realize your goal
• Creating and executing a development plan
• Applying what you have learned to your management of projects and tasks

As a leader, you have a wealth of opportunities at your fingertips to continue to develop your leadership abilities. As you shape your development plan, think about where you need to review your current practices and acquire new skills. Second, evaluate the roles of those around you: how can they be part of your successful development?

What is the best way to plan for your successful development as a leader? Surprisingly, only 15% to 20% of people who study leadership in project management and create development plans in a seminar actually accomplish their end goals. Many discover that following through is difficult, for various reasons. It can be difficult to make changes to your predetermined leadership practices and many people need an effective support network. Trying to make changes to your habits is even harder within a busy work environment. Sometimes you can see good initial progress, but it's all too easy to fall back into old patterns.

Again, it is critical to utilize your colleagues, your network, and your mentor as much as you can to continue to learn and improve throughout your career. Take their support into consideration as you develop your leadership in project management.

Project management and leadership can be a difficult skill to master, especially because it is hard to continue to sustain a changed behavior. Change is much easier at first - you must work at it to keep up your new practices. One way to achieve this is to build up your support network in the workplace. Talk to people you trust about the changes you're trying to make; solicit their feedback. This is an important part of a successful development plan.

At the end of a project management and leadership course, you should have a more thorough understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses and you will understand the performance system that is being used inside your organization. Finally, you will develop a plan using this new information and insight. You will learn to make yourself as effective as possible. You will then understand the importance of getting ongoing feedback as you implement your plan. It is only by talking with other people and getting feedback from them that you can achieve the calibration that you will need in order to be successful in leadership in project management.

Job, Jobs, Career , Employment