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Easy Personal Loans for Unemployed? Trouble Free Loan for Unemployed

Now, there is the best opportunity for unemployed people who have been in financial fix and have desire to avail loan but due to have bad credit status they can’t get loan. But now, with the help of easy personal loans for unemployed they can get cash and solve their all financial problems such as medical treatment, electricity bill, home renovation, water supply bill and so on. There are a number of loan lending institutes and loan companies that provide many types of loans, you can get any one of them according to your requirements and desire and can accomplish all pecuniary catastrophe within snap of fingers.

If you are suffering from bad credit records such as defaults, arrears, late payment, skipping of installment, CCJs (country court judgments), IVA (individual voluntary arrangements), bankruptcy, insolvency and so on, now you have no need to be panic any more because now, in spite of having bad credit records, you can obtain easy personal loans for unemployed and cash quickly. There is no requirement of faxing the documents and paper working. This loan is hassle free from lengthy procedures. The service of providing loan is available twenty four hours so now it is up to you mean you can get cash any day, anywhere and anytime.

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Easy personal loans for unemployed available in two forms one is secured loan and second is unsecured loan. With secured loan, you can get the loan amount in the range of £ 5000 to £75000 and the repayment duration is 10 to 25 years. The rate of inters is not a high. To get secured loan you have to pledge any valuable asset as collateral against loan. If you have collateral, you can get unsecured loan. With the help of this, loan you can get the loan amount in the range of £500 £15000 and the repayment duration is 1 to 10 years. Due to have unsecured in nature the rate of interest is bit higher in comparison of other loan. The best part of this loan is that, to get loan, you have no need pledge any valuable asset as collateral against the loan.

Loan Easy And Convenient Nowadays. Easy Loans now! Nowadays loan are easy and convebient. Can getting a loan be that easy?
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Tags: Easy, Free, Loan, Loans, Personal, Trouble, Unemployed

Quick Personal Loan-Calculated Rates For Simple And Trouble Free Finance

Here are some reasons why people may require a quick personal loan. Sometimes you want cash quick for    urgent situation expenses such as an unforeseen illness or house repair. No subjects what the life issue are you can obtain a quick personal loan to aid you from side to side hard times. This loan is extremely simple to apply for. If you seem at all the online lenders obtainable today on the marketplace you will definitely discover one to suit your wants.

The application method for a quick personal loan is calculated to be simple and trouble-free. Once you have submitted your quick personal loan request you could without difficulty have the cash you want honestly deposited into you account the extremely next business day. You will want to have a present job, proof of earnings, pay stubs, a bank account, and a recent bank report when applying for a quick personal loan. This allows the lender to identify that you have a method to pay back the loan and obtain you the cash you want fast.

How much you borrow will depend on what your wants are and your monetary condition. It is extremely significant to create sure the total of your quick personal loan reflects what you can sensibly pay beck on time. Deciding a quick personal loan can be now what you want to obtain cash quick

Reasons to Get a Quick Personal Loan

getting a quick personal loan is a superior plan for a lot of reasons. You can make use of it for now about anything you may be in want of. There are manifold reasons one may want this loan compared to a larger total of cash from extra types of loans. Unforeseen car repair is one example of why somebody may decide to obtain this loan. Sometimes one now does not have the money on hand to wrap such any expense.

You will not have to be anxious about your credit score with a quick personal loan. This category of loan does not affect your rating. You will have up to 30 days to pay back your quick personal loan. You will discover that this loan will offer you the cash you want quick and put aside you from high interest rates that can go away you paying extra than you wanted.

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Tags: Finance, Free, LoanCalculated, Personal, Quick, Rates, Simple, Trouble

Small Secured Personal Loans ?No Trouble At All ?Apply Today

You have assets like house for taking a secured loan other than there is no want for risking house if you need only a lesser loan. There are particularly calculated small secured personal loans for meeting necessities of urgent smaller cash. From side to side small secured personal loans you can meet any of operating cost similar to paying for marriage, health check or education bills.

There are a lot of lenders who have entered in the business of making cash by lending small total of loan to the poor people. A diversity of lenders and small secured personal loans have only ready small loan availing easier.   Small secured personal loans are here as well as per the ability in conditions of providing security to the lender. Small secured personal loans are as well identified as payday loans, cash advance loans, military loans although they may not be secured loans in the term is severely applied on them.

This method the borrower is saved from putting high worth assets like home at risk for a small total of loan. Thus small secured personal loans can be in your pocket just offering your jewelry vehicles etc as security of the loan. Extra than different any extra secured loans, small secured personal loans providers may charge high interest. The main cause for higher interest price is that the loan is typically provided or availed for extremely short refund period of say 30 days. Consequently like all short term loans these loans as well attract higher interest rate.

Small secured personal loans are as well identified by the extra names like payday loans, military loans.   Though the borrower can offer any assets as security other than usually a small secured personal loan like payday loan or military loan needs only an advanced check from the borrower as security of the loan. The post dated cheque contains borrowed sum and lender’s high fee. At the due refund date the lenders gets back the loaned total on submitting the checque in the borrower’s account.

While choosing for small secured personal loans you should keep in mind that despite the security the loan comes at high interest rate and as well there is lender’s high fee concerned. Consequently you should apply for online small loan total only when you want the most. Bad credit is typically not seen seriously by the lenders in offering a lesser loan.

You will discover some of the lenders offering reasonably lower interest price at better terms. Observe if the loan package suits your requirements. Apply to the lender then and there on his online loan request for fast agreement. Surely small secured personal loans can without difficulty meet your smaller obligation without any hurdle.

Tags: Apply, Loans, Personal, Secured, Small, Today, Trouble

Easy Loans: for the Trouble Free Financial Assistance

In the loan market a large number of loan plans are available that can be attained by a borrower to sort out his/her financial crisis. One among these available loan options is an easy loan. Easy loans are designed for an individual to attain a loan in the most convenient way. These loans aim to eliminate all the troubles that are attached with an ordinary loan.

If a borrower wishes to attain an easy loan he/she is provided with a choice to either attain it in secured form or unsecured form. Secured easy loans are which you can avail by placing any of your assets as collateral. In case of secured easy loans, borrowers may apply for anything from £5000 to £75000 for a term of 5 to 25 years. These loans provide you elongated period of repayment, flexible terms and conditions and low rate of interest.

While for an unsecured easy loan there is no requirement of any collateral. Hence, you need not have to indulge in the valuation of collateral, which could save a significant amount of time. In case of unsecured easy loan a borrower can get an amount £1000 to £ 25000 for a term of 1 to 10 years.

You can meet different needs with this loan type. You can opt for an easy loan to improve your home, meet medical expenses, pay for the education of your children or buy a new property. You can go for a long cherished holiday or consolidate all your debts. You can buy your dream car or a computer.

To make the easy loans all the more convenient a borrower can apply for these loans online. Through this process a borrower is required to fill in a small application form which would not charge you anything at all. By providing your simple personal and employment details you can get your loan approved. Filling these online forms does not compel you to accept the offer. Through the online application process availing easy loans turns real easy.

Easy loans can be availed by a borrower at easy terms and conditions. These loans are designed in such a manner that they offer a comfort zone to the borrowers. Thus, it can be very correctly said that easy loans are very customer friendly.

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Tags: Assistance, Easy, Financial, Free, Loans, Trouble

Two Orlando Schools in Trouble with State Board of Education

Two Orlando schools are in trouble with the State Board of Education. Both Evans and Jones High Schools have repeatedly failed the state’s annual school grading system that is based on student scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Evans has received three Fs and five Ds over the past eight years, while Jones has been scored with five consecutive Fs since 2002. A grade of F means these two Orlando schools have high numbers of students who perform far below grade level in reading and math.

These two Orlando schools, plus five other schools in Miami-Dade, Duval and Jefferson districts, faced dramatic overhauls by state mandate. In July, the state threatened sanctions against the four districts. The districts did not draft bold enough strategies for school reform, which prompted revisions from Duval and Jefferson that were accepted by the state in August. Miami-Dade and Orange (which governs the Orlando schools) plans were not accepted by the state, with both districts arguing the issue of who can run chronic-F schools in Florida.

The state wanted new principals hired at the two Orlando schools, who had track records of raising a school’s grade by more than two levels (from a D to an A, or an F to a B grade). Orange Superintendent Ron Blocker believed such a move would destabilize the already fragile Orlando schools and argued that the state’s pool of qualified leaders was too small to locate new principals with such successes.

The state reacted by penalizing the Orange County School District by reducing its August funding by slightly more than $17,500, the equivalent of Blocker’s monthly pay and benefit costs. They additionally barred the district from applying for some grants that are considered “extra funding” by the state, such as technology grants that would not directly impact the students. The lost grants could potentially cost Orange, the 12th largest school district in the nation, millions in grant dollars. This is the toughest move the state has even made to force change within one of its school districts.

In mid-Setember, the state education officials and Blocker came to an agreement that will help the district comply with the state’s 26-point reform strategy for the two high-poverty, high-minority Orlando schools. The state has lifted the potentially costly penalties against the district and will return the August deducted penalties to the district within the month. State Education Commissioner John Winn stated that the penalties were a symbolic move to show the district that the state was serious in reforming the two Orlando schools.

Additionally, the principals at the two Orlando schools will continue in their positions. Karen Wilson has been principal at Evans High School since 2004. Bridget Williams became principal at Jones High School in 2006, after pushing Robinswood Middle School from a C to a B, then to an A during her transition to Jones. Robinswood also is a high-poverty, high-minority school. Both Orlando schools principals will be paired with state-approved mentors.

Winn stated that he expects the State Board of Education to approve the agreement and reform plans for the two Orlando schools by the end of September.

For more information on Orlando schools visit http://www.schoolsk-12.com/florida/orlando/index.html

Tags: Board, Education, Orlando, Schools, State, Trouble

Rising From the Wreckage: How Microfinance Services Help in Times of Trouble

Eduarda Rodriguez watched helplessly as her livelihood went up in an ominous tower of flames. She had been slowly building up her market stall business in this back corner of the Mercado Huembes in Managua, Nicaragua for over a decade. The vegetable stall, though humble, was the lifeline that supported Eduarda and her nine children. And, just like that, the fire reduced it to a bed of smoldering embers.

As we witnessed in Haiti this year, calamity often lurks just around the corner for the 2.7 billion people worldwide living on less than $2 a day. Whether victims of an earthquake in Haiti, a market fire in Nicaragua, a famine in Sub-Saharan Africa or a tsunami in South Asia, those who have the least usually stand to lose the most. In a matter of minutes, homes are swept away, businesses are reduced to rubble and dreams of a better life go up in smoke.

Microfinance is not emergency aid. However, it is well-positioned to be a source of support and stability to people who live in poverty after they endure a disaster. ACCION’s 23 partner microfinance institutions are firmly established in some of the world’s poorest communities and can quickly mobilize assistance to their combined 3.3 million clients when disaster strikes. And microfinance isn’t going away—sustainable by design, it provides a permanent stream of responsible financial tools.

Diversifying Microfinance Services to Meet a Variety of Needs

Increasingly, the microfinance institutions ACCION builds and supports can offer clients financial safety nets to help them deal with disasters in a diversity of ways—including with grants, microcredit, interest-earning savings accounts, insurance policies and remittances services. Following the January earthquake in Haiti, ACCION’s longtime partner microfinance organization, SOGESOL, quickly mobilized its staff to search for clients in affected areas. Walking the devastated streets of Port-au-Prince, Leogane, Petit-Goave and Jacmel, SOGESOL staff located each surviving client and helped them assess the damage to their home and business. Leveraging relationships with international partners like ACCION, SOGESOL was then able to issue grants to clients to facilitate the rebuilding process.

Microfinance has a role to play in helping people deal with calamity in other, subtler, ways as well. ACCION and other microfinance providers are pioneering the delivery of savings accounts to people who have never before had access to a safe, secure place to store their earnings.

To help bring savings accounts to millions more people, ACCION has initiated a sweeping new program, supported by a $5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, that will extend savings accounts to more than one million people in Latin America within the next five years.

We have also invested heavily in the emerging area of “micro”insurance. Offering health, life, crop and a variety of other types of insurance policies that start as low as $1 per month, microinsurance providers are proving that the poor are worth insuring, that they are capable clients and that the demand is there.

For our part, ACCION has invested millions in ParaLife, a microinsurance holding company that specializes in providing insurance policies to low-income and disabled people, and LeapFrog Investments, the world’s first microinsurance fund for companies that insure people living with HIV in Africa.

Over the last six years, ACCION has also studied the impact that remittances, or money transfer services, can have among the world’s poor in times of need. Remittances represent a significant amount of resources in poorer countries: In 2006 immigrants in the United States sent more than $300 billion to family members in Central and South America. Sending money via a microfinance institution allows recipients to leverage funds and take advantage of other financial products—such as savings accounts, home improvement loans, and microinsurance—that can serve as safety nets for the poor.

Out of the Ashes, a Better Business Grows

When particularly hard times hit, the world’s poor need all the assistance the local and global communities can raise. We at ACCION recognize the unique role that microfinance has to play and are committed to making sure people have a place to turn for responsible and reliable financial services when they need them most.

Thankfully, Eduarda’s story did not end with her and her family living in destitution. Financiera FAMA, ACCION’s partner microfinance institution in Nicaragua, was quick to step in after the market fire that destroyed her stand. They offered her an emergency microloan that she applied, along with her tenacity and ingenuity, to restore her business to profitability and move forward toward a better future.

Tags: From, Help, Microfinance, Rising, Services, Times, Trouble, Wreckage

Rising From the Wreckage: How Microfinance Services Help in Times of Trouble

Eduarda Rodriguez watched helplessly as her livelihood went up in an ominous tower of flames. She had been slowly building up her market stall business in this back corner of the Mercado Huembes in Managua, Nicaragua for over a decade. The vegetable stall, though humble, was the lifeline that supported Eduarda and her nine children. And, just like that, the fire reduced it to a bed of smoldering embers.

As we witnessed in Haiti this year, calamity often lurks just around the corner for the 2.7 billion people worldwide living on less than $2 a day. Whether victims of an earthquake in Haiti, a market fire in Nicaragua, a famine in Sub-Saharan Africa or a tsunami in South Asia, those who have the least usually stand to lose the most. In a matter of minutes, homes are swept away, businesses are reduced to rubble and dreams of a better life go up in smoke.

Microfinance is not emergency aid. However, it is well-positioned to be a source of support and stability to people who live in poverty after they endure a disaster. ACCION’s 23 partner microfinance institutions are firmly established in some of the world’s poorest communities and can quickly mobilize assistance to their combined 3.3 million clients when disaster strikes. And microfinance isn’t going away—sustainable by design, it provides a permanent stream of responsible financial tools.

Diversifying Microfinance Services to Meet a Variety of Needs

Increasingly, the microfinance institutions ACCION builds and supports can offer clients financial safety nets to help them deal with disasters in a diversity of ways—including with grants, microcredit, interest-earning savings accounts, insurance policies and remittances services. Following the January earthquake in Haiti, ACCION’s longtime partner microfinance organization, SOGESOL, quickly mobilized its staff to search for clients in affected areas. Walking the devastated streets of Port-au-Prince, Leogane, Petit-Goave and Jacmel, SOGESOL staff located each surviving client and helped them assess the damage to their home and business. Leveraging relationships with international partners like ACCION, SOGESOL was then able to issue grants to clients to facilitate the rebuilding process.

Microfinance has a role to play in helping people deal with calamity in other, subtler, ways as well. ACCION and other microfinance providers are pioneering the delivery of savings accounts to people who have never before had access to a safe, secure place to store their earnings.

To help bring savings accounts to millions more people, ACCION has initiated a sweeping new program, supported by a $5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, that will extend savings accounts to more than one million people in Latin America within the next five years.

We have also invested heavily in the emerging area of “micro”insurance. Offering health, life, crop and a variety of other types of insurance policies that start as low as $1 per month, microinsurance providers are proving that the poor are worth insuring, that they are capable clients and that the demand is there.

For our part, ACCION has invested millions in ParaLife, a microinsurance holding company that specializes in providing insurance policies to low-income and disabled people, and LeapFrog Investments, the world’s first microinsurance fund for companies that insure people living with HIV in Africa.

Over the last six years, ACCION has also studied the impact that remittances, or money transfer services, can have among the world’s poor in times of need. Remittances represent a significant amount of resources in poorer countries: In 2006 immigrants in the United States sent more than $300 billion to family members in Central and South America. Sending money via a microfinance institution allows recipients to leverage funds and take advantage of other financial products—such as savings accounts, home improvement loans, and microinsurance—that can serve as safety nets for the poor.

Out of the Ashes, a Better Business Grows

When particularly hard times hit, the world’s poor need all the assistance the local and global communities can raise. We at ACCION recognize the unique role that microfinance has to play and are committed to making sure people have a place to turn for responsible and reliable financial services when they need them most.

Thankfully, Eduarda’s story did not end with her and her family living in destitution. Financiera FAMA, ACCION’s partner microfinance institution in Nicaragua, was quick to step in after the market fire that destroyed her stand. They offered her an emergency microloan that she applied, along with her tenacity and ingenuity, to restore her business to profitability and move forward toward a better future.

Tags: From, Help, Microfinance, Rising, Services, Times, Trouble, Wreckage

Money Trouble

During the height of the new cold war in the 1980s the comedian Jasper Carrot quipped on his programme that the Swiss had a more potent deterrent than a nuclear bomb. If anyone ever thought they might invade Switzerland, the Swiss would threaten to burn their money!

At present the British government, through the Northern Ireland Office, is attempting to apply such Swiss-style deterrence on Ian Paisley and his Democratic Unionist party.

On Monday last BBC Northern Ireland broadcast a “scoop”, quoting from a confidential NIO document that if there were no restoration of devolution in Belfast by the end of this November Paisley’s party would stand to lose £1.5m in assembly grant money.

This exclusive was revealed to the public just a few days before Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart, Bertie Ahern, were scheduled to arrive in Northern Ireland with an uncompromising message to the Ulster parties that their warning to wind up the assembly by the end of November was serious. Timing in politics, as in journalism, is everything.

The revelation that the DUP was in danger of losing £1.5m has to be seen in the context of other NIO briefings – all of which make clear that all the Ulster parties will suffer financial punishment if powersharing doesn’t return before this Christmas.

The trouble, however, with this tactic is that it is cack-handed and completely counter-productive.

Let’s imagine an unlikely event, the one Blair and Ahern yearn for today as their helicopters touch down in Belfast: the DUP agrees to enter into powersharing with Sinn Féin.

The obvious conclusion the DUP electorate – especially its new support that has recently switched allegiance from the Ulster Unionists to Paisley’s party – will draw is that they did it for the money. Which in turn will result in a huge electoral backlash against the DUP.

Key DUP strategists such as its MEP Jim Allister know that that is exactly the danger the party faces if it jumps now.

Bending the knee at this stage at least will be seen to be given into financial blackmail; the party will stand accused of only caring about career and the perks of power, and it will risk losing its hegemonic position within unionism.

Opinion polls and anecdotal evidence in Northern Ireland indicate that a majority don’t care if the assembly is closed and the MLAs lose their salaries.

Being held responsible for Stormont’s closure will hardly cost the DUP many votes. In fact, it might gain them a few more, thus confirming the DUP’s unassailable leading role in unionism.

Money certainly helped the west win the second cold war. The United States and its allies outspent the Soviet bloc in the arms race.

Western economies produced the goods and services communist states simply couldn’t deliver to their citizens. And the Swiss stayed neutral and free, perhaps partly because of the Carrot-money-burning deterrent.

Yet Northern Ireland still remains a place apart, where international power play logic rarely applies.

Money, or rather the lack of money, can’t buy the DUP. If it did, Ian Paisley knows he would run the risk of having his “Martyrs’ Memorial” super-church in east Belfast burnt to the ground.

Besides all that, the DUP – the north of Ireland’s largest political force – are still waiting for Gordo, believing possibly that today might be Tony Blair’s last prime ministerial visit to Stormont.

· Henry McDonald is Ireland editor of the Observer and author of Trimble.

Tags: Money, Trouble

My Wife Has Trouble Writing Articles

My wife works in a stressful job as a membership and careers advisor, and part of her job is to write articles for submission into various trade magazines.

I know it’s going to be a tense night when she comes home from work and sets up her lap top up on the dining table. She doesn’t come in and say something like, “Honey, tonight I have to do an article on the recent careers expo, could you help me please?” Partly because words like Honey went out of our vocabulary a long time ago. Partly because, as a Taurus, or as a spouse, she is too bloody stubborn to ask. So I set about getting the meal. Tensions build.

The way she goes about her article is wrong. She builds up the tensions. She resents having to bring work home, hates computers, hates writing and hates me because I won’t do the articles for her. If I was a word inside her computer, the moment she opened the lap top, I would run and hide. If I was a good word, I would let all the crappy words go out before I made my entrance. Words take on feelings and you can sense the feelings when you read an article.

I have suggested to her that she use WhiteSmoke. Do the article, even if she is in a foul mood, (I didn’t actually say that bit to her) and then use WhiteSmoke to coax the good words back out into the article. WhiteSmoke does a grammar and spell check and suggests enhancements. For more information please visit my site Cashmakeronline

The enhancements introduce diversity of language and can be used to help create better emotional tones. She reckons that is my job but, by that time we have gone five rounds and all my good words have gone into hiding. If it was on my computer I would let her White Smoke her articles and save her massive time and energy and help her to find the article tone she is looking for.

In addition to being too uptight, every time she has to write an article she starts at paragraph one and then tries to just keep going. That is a habit she learned from the old typewriter days. It was the way she learned to use a keyboard so it is her primacy learning experience and therefore instinctive and hard for her to go beyond.

She will get a few words down and then just stare at the screen like a startled jellyfish with l stinging glance in my direction. Anyway, she freezes up, gets massively tense, and doesn’t enjoy the process so her creativity shuts down. Why don’t I write her articles? I could, but pretty soon she would be found out. I can teach her tricks and short cuts and she can use them to develop her own style as a writer.

She is not a writer and writing is a necessary part of her job so cheat. Well not really cheat, but use the available technology to speed up the processes and create more time for other things in her life, like being nice to me.I reckon she should be using voice recognition to ‘talk’ the article into a document, then whip through it to clean it up and then WhiteSmoke it to give it a lift. Her stock answer is “Well, are you going to pay for those things”? My stock answer is that she should pay for them and get them reimbursed or write them of as a tax deduction.

When she is really bogged down (and I have finished the dishes and cleaned up) I will gently ask “Would you like me to help?” If she is frustrated enough and the article has to be in the next day, she will reply “Yes”.

At that point I stipulate that we have to start again and do it my way and I get her to close the lap-top. That sounds harsh but she is in too deep and sometimes it is best to ditch and restart. If I try to fix her article it is going to take hours. If we start over, the article can be done in less than half and hour.

What I do then is simple. I use a writer’s formula. First I ask “Who is the target audience?” In this case it is the membership in a construction environment so I draw a cartoon hand with the thumbs up to convey the thumbs up that guys give when they like something.

That step sounds trivial but it is really important. If I can get my wife to move into a talking mode, as if she was just chatting with to one of the guys, then her writing to that audience will improve. The stiffness and uppity language disappears from her writing and her work becomes far easier to read. A lot of people try and write to too broad an audience. It doesn’t work.

Then, I ask how many words are required. Usually it is 200, 500, or 800. In this case she wanted 250. Now I know who I am writing to and how much. I can break the task down, 250 words. 5 paragraphs, is 50 words per paragraph (47 words in this paragraph).

Next, on a blank sheet of paper I space five words or short phrases equally down the page as follows: Intro, point 1, point 2, point 3, and conclusion. Then I get her to give me a few words on each heading. Up to ten is fine. I do a word count 30 words – 120 to go.

Because there is a structure in place, and we have been mulling over the whole piece for a few minutes now, ideas are starting to flow. I ask for about 10 to 15 words for each point. That gives enough information to define the point but not enough to run out of ideas. It also adds another 50 words. The total now is 80 with 130 to go.

I go back to each point and build it up a bit. As we discuss each point I will pick up the elements and jot down about 20 to 30 words for each point. Let’s say 25. That adds 125 words so we are now up to 205 words. This whole process has taken less than ten minutes and we are almost there.

I then get my wife to open up a blank sheet on her lap top and put in the material we have just done on paper. We could have gone straight to the lap top but she had frozen and locked up so we needed a fresh start.

Also, I wanted her to use the blank paper approach because one of the great tricks is to jot down the outline in the morning over a cup of coffee, forget it for a while, and then just pick it up from the rough notes and write the article.

She gets the first draft less than 20 minutes after we started. She chucks a few more words in each paragraph, give or take a bit as required, and the word count is up to the required 250.

She reads the article, is not happy with the fourth paragraph so she ditches it and writes a new, single paragraph in a few minutes and presto – the article is done and it is her article, not mine. In the morning, on her way out she said “Oh, thanks for helping me with the article” – and she meant it.

Tags: Articles, Trouble, Wife, Writing

How To Identify The Signs That Your Business Is Heading For Trouble

Has your business started to take a turn for the worse recently? Are your cash flow worries keeping you awake at night?

The following ten questions will help you to determine if your business is the lean mean fighting machine you believed, or a bed-ridden sick note, coughing and spluttering its way on a wobbly pair of last legs.

1. Increase in staff turnover

If you’ve watched a number of your key employees walk away from the business recently you should sit up and take notice. Staff is arguably a company’s most valuable asset and if your people are leaving, it’s often the first sign that something is going wrong.
The problem is not just the associated cost of recruitment, but also training new starters and the additional burden on remaining staff while the new team members get up to speed, that add further strain on the business.

Remedy

One of the best ways to keep track of staff morale is to hold regular reviews where employees can air their views on both the business and their specific concerns without fear of recrimination.

2. You lose a key account

It’s believed that winning a new customer is seven times more expensive than keeping an existing customer happy. Small businesses are often too reliant on a couple of main customers, as demonstrated in this year’s collapse of MG Rover and Courts.
There are a number of reasons key accounts could defect: Your product or service is not of the standard promised or expected, or you could be beaten on price, quality or service.

Losing a key account can have a serious impact on your cash flow. Credit companies such as Experian offer a credit scoring service which can be invaluable when setting credit terms for key accounts. This is important: You wouldn’t lend a stranger £20,000, so why offer new customers this kind of credit facility without checking their financial strength? In order to manage this risk further, there is a wide range of bad debt protection policies available which pay out in the event of your customer going under.

Remedy

Take a long, hard look in the mirror and discover the underlying reasons for your clients’ lost faith. This way, you’ll have a much better chance of either winning the client back, or at least making sure you don’t lose others going forward.

If your customers’ satisfaction isn’t a priority for you already, it should be now! Paper trails for every transaction can be an extremely effective way to guard against disputes and to keep an eye on quality control. Obtain written purchase orders to back up your invoices and always get a signoff from the customer to say goods have been received or a service completed satisfactorily.

3. Orders are rising fast

This is not something that would be immediately cited as a sign of problems. However, when your business is growing quickly you need to be even more careful about your cash flow.
We’ve all heard the phrase “cash is king” and this is never more true than when you’re struggling to keep up with increasing demand for your products or services.

While most resources will be occupied meeting that demand, it is worth remembering the income from these orders may take three to six months to come in. That means you’ve got to be able to cover your costs for at least that period to keep the business afloat.

Remedy

Two of the most effective ways to manage your long term cash flow are to use factoring or invoice discounting services and to lease your manufacturing or office equipment.

Factoring and invoice discounting raises up to 90% of your invoice value ‘up front’, enabling you to invest back in the business. You get the remaining monies when your customer pays the debt, less a fee.

4. Waiting longer for payments

If your customers are taking longer to pay your invoices but you’re still working to fulfil a growing order book, you’re going to start having problems. And it may happen sooner than you think.
A customer who puts in repeat orders is important for your business success. However, if they take too long to pay, you have to ask if it is worth accepting their next order until some agreement has been made about payment.

Remedy

Too few small businesses employ a designated credit controller to collect invoice payments and chase up late payers. If you’re starting to notice customers taking too long to pay, it’s worth sitting down with them and discussing the reasons.

Business is built around mutually beneficial relationships and the better you, your suppliers and your customers understand each other, the more flexible the relationship will be.
Be understanding when you’re asking for payments but remember that you have rights, including being able to charge interest on overdue invoices. Make sure that all credit terms are stated on each invoice, along with the due date for payment. If you don’t, your customer can quite rightly say they didn’t know when they had to pay.

Remedy

Factoring companies can also collect your outstanding debts. They’ll effectively buy your outstanding invoices, release up to 80% of the value and take their fee from the remainder when payment is collected. If you do not need an external credit control facility but would still like the funding it can generate, an alternative product is available called invoice discounting.

5. Unrealistic assets on your balance sheet

Many businesses have valuable assets on their balance sheet, including machinery or equipment owned outright. All assets depreciate over time – how long has it been since your business assets were valued?

Out of date and inaccurate valuations make a business look healthier than it actually is and may cause problems when you’re looking for growth investment or calculating your profit and loss statement.

It’s also worthwhile considering that older assets lose their market value very quickly and can start costing more in operating and maintenance costs.

Remedy

Leasing and asset finance services can help simplify cash flow by enabling you to use the equipment you need without actually owning it outright. This financing mechanism is available for both existing and new machinery.

6. Increasing stock levels

Unused and unsold stock isn’t just cash tied up in the business, it’s also a depreciating asset with a diminishing return on the money you invested to produce it. In other words, it’s a waste of money.

Although this is more relevant to manufacturing businesses, the underlying factors behind this problem should be a concern for all businesses – if you’re producing something that isn’t selling, how long do you expect to last?

Remedy

Keeping a close eye on patterns of supply and demand and having the flexibility to adjust to these changes is the difference between a growing business and a dying business. By automating your ordering process. wastage is minimised and the business has moves closer to a just in time delivery structure.

7. Cutting prices

While a popular tactic for promoting new products or gaining short-term market share, reducing your prices without cutting your production costs can seriously damage your business prospects.

Remedy

Instead of cutting prices if sales start to fall, try to find the reason sales have slowed. It’s possible that your market sector has reached saturation point or it could be a problem with the quality or perceived value of the product.

There are a number of ways to differentiate products from the competition. There might be an alternative to cutting prices that will strengthen your business and its prospects, rather than eating into your profit margins.

It’ often worth spending a bit of money to market your product more effectively, or by hiring a designated sales person to reverse the downturn in sales.

8. Rising debts and slowing growth

Getting into more debt is not the best way to finance business growth. The quicker you can get your business trading on profits rather than debts, the better.

That said, some forms of borrowing are more sustainable than others and can reduce the time it takes your business to begin trading on your profits.

The debt to asset ratio of the business becomes serious when your assets (including book debt) are outweighed by liabilities (including creditor’s ledger and longer term liabilities such as director’s loans).

Remedy

VAT and PAYE payments are often tricky to keep on top of if you are experiencing a change in your sales volumes. While many companies pay their VAT quarterly, if it might be easier to pay monthly. Many VAT offices will be happy to change to this structure.

The Crown has lost its preferential creditor status and so is under increasing pressure to secure payments from companies which look a little shaky. If you do anticipate problems paying the Crown, you should immediately meet your tax officer to discuss a payment plan.

Agree in writing to clear your arrears and guarantee future payments. As long as you stick to the terms, this should stave off further action from the Crown on outstanding monies.

Most businesses have a number of assets that can be used to secure much-needed capital – including your outstanding invoices, machinery, equipment or company vehicles. Two of the most effective ways to manage your long-term cash flow are to use factoring or invoice discounting services and to lease your manufacturing or office equipment.

Factoring is essentially selling your outstanding invoices to a company that will release a percentage of those funds immediately for you to invest back in the business, for a fee.
Also, don’t be afraid to have another look at your business plan. The most successful businesses have management teams that can spot opportunities and have the flexibility to adapt to these opportunities.

Don’t rely on your yearly accounts for the day to day financial management of your firm. Even simplistic management accounts, if kept up to date, can be invaluable.

9. You don’t admit the truth

Are you still trying to convince yourself that everything will be alright? Do you find yourself hiding from bills and avoiding contact with your accountant, investors and staff?

Covering up the truth about your financial situation will not only stop you getting out of the mess you’re in, it may get you into deeper trouble. Investors aren’t going to penalise you for getting into problems – every business faces financial difficulties– but if they don’t know what’s going on, they can’t help.

Remedy

Investors will be far more likely to help if you are open and honest with them, so that potential problems can be caught earlier rather than later.

Your investors will have put a significant amount of money into the business and would undoubtedly prefer to invest more money than to lose it all because they were never told of the difficulties.

10. It’s not fun anymore!

Think back to the reason you first got into your business. It’s generally because of the excitement and the challenge, rather than the opportunity to make a quick buck.

If you wake up in the morning and can’t stand the thought of going to work or is it that the company has evolved beyond your interest or control, then perhaps it’s time to consider getting out.

Many entrepreneurs enjoy the challenge of getting a company off the ground but once the business has become reasonably self-sufficient, they lose interest and need to move on to the next challenge.

Remedy

Perhaps it’s time to start thinking about how you can start delegating more authority to employees that you trust as part of your exit strategy.

By giving some of your key employees the authority to make decisions, you can free up more of your time to concentrate on the parts of the business that still excite you, and potentially even get the passion back that made you start the business in the first place.

The main thing to remember in all of these cases is that they do not necessarily mean that your business is on its last legs. If you catch any of these signs early enough, they can all be turned around so the business ends up stronger in the long run.

Copyright © 2006 Jonathan Farrington. All rights reserved

Jonathan Farrington is the Managing Partner of The JFA Group. To find out more about the author, read his latest articles or to subscribe to his newsletter, visit: http://www.jonathanfarrington.com You can now also read his weekly blog for dedicated sales professionals: http://www.thejfblogit.co.uk

Tags: Business, Heading, Identify, Signs, Trouble