Business & Finance Online Expert

Archive for September, 2009

For many people, having a home business would be something really attractive. To be your own boss, to not having to commute, to choose the working hours freely and to be able to plan the work-day entirely on your own.

If you are considering starting your own home based business, then you could start with thinking it through, by asking yourself some initial questions, such as:

<b>1.</b> If I’m going to keep my current job, at least as a starter, when will I find the time to build my home based business? How many hours each day can I put aside and use to my business endeavours? Can I work early in the morning or at the late evenings? Maybe at the weekends?

<b>2.</b> Do I have a suitable room or place for my home business? Can I work uninterrupted? And, would my neighbours also feel uninterrupted?

<b>3.</b> How much energy and determination am I willing to put into learning something new, if required? Even if the basic direction of my home based business  is something that I already know of and master, then: How about the management of the home business itself? Should I delegate some or any chores, like the book-keeping?

<b>4.</b> Do I know how to market my home based business, in order to get  people aware of that they can buy something from me? Should I use online- or offline marketing, or both maybe? How much money and or time do I need to put aside for marketing efforts alone? What is the most effective way for me to market my home business, within my particular economical frames? If I plan to do this myself, could I learn something that would make it easier and more effective?

It’s my opinion that today’s “best” practices of leaders not only fail to resolve the problems they’re meant to resolve or achieve the results they’re meant to achieve, they actually escalate problems. I’d like to recommend alternative practices to take their place. After all, reality has shifted and those who cling to old practices that no longer serve them and perhaps never did, will fail to thrive. Seriously. Fail to thrive. Here, I will touch on the first “best” practice and hope to provoke your thinking, in subsequent entries, regarding all six.

Consider that you are always practicing something. The question is: what are you practicing. And why? Are you emulating practices of well-known, global companies, many of whom are now struggling and, in some cases, bankrupt? It’s time for some original thinking.

“Worst” Best Practice #1: 360 Anonymous Feedback

Which word in “360 Anonymous Feedback” alerts us that a company professing to value openness, honesty and transparency is out of integrity? Anonymous. I expect to take a lot of heat from those who make a living ensuring anonymity, but I believe that, while there is a time and place for anonymity, we only need it in trace amounts.

It starts early in our impressionable lives – this attraction to anonymity. This hiding. So it’s no wonder that, when there are invaluable opportunities for candor, we send in good old underpaid, overworked “anonymous”, slip the feedback over the transom and run like hell. The fact is that 360 anonymous feedback rarely creates real or lasting impetus for change, which is crazy because the whole idea is to encourage professional growth and it most certainly doesn’t connect us with one another; rather, it tends to drive us apart. Here are a few highlights, or lowlights:

*The culture suffers side effects. Commercials for the latest, greatest drugs include the warning that side effects can include loss of vision, muscle spasms, internal bleeding, uncontrolled barking and sudden death. OK, maybe not barking, but you get the drift. The warnings for anonymous feedback should read: “Not to be used within organizations that value honesty,transparency, or openness or by anyone who views “authenticity” as a desirable character trait. Side effects can include a culture of terminal niceness, avoiding or working around problem employees, tolerating mediocrity, beating around the bush, dancing around the subject, skirting the issues. If you experience rapidly deteriorating relationships or have difficulty maintaining eye contact with others, call your doctor immediately as these may indicate a serious problem and could become permanent.”

*Most people hate performance reviews – hardly the response you’d hope for regarding a best practice. Other emotions associated with performance reviews include: dread, anxiety, hopelessness, fear, frustration and a firm conviction that a trip to the bathroom for a surreptitious examination of the boil on your backside would be a far better use of your time.

Debt elimination is very important and thus it should be eliminated very fast. If debt isn’t eliminated fast, then it can become a big burden. Debt doesn’t allow any savings or investments for the future. Debt happens when there is a gap between the income and the expenditure. Many a times, people also take debt for trivial things which amount to only $50 or %100. However the cumulative effect of such small loans can be quite disastrous. All debts have an interest factor too. Thus not only does the capital have to be paid back, but even the interest has to be paid back.

Its important that you take note of all the debts that you have. Debts can be for short term, medium term or long term. Calculate the value of the debts. Start by paying of the smallest debt as well as the debt which has the shortest tenure, in this way you there is faster elimination of debt and one can breathe more easily. Pay off the credit card loans as well as small payday loans. For long term loans, try to make bigger down payments. This will reduce the interest factor on the remainder of the loans.

As the interest rates go either north or south, the rates can also be negotiated with the lenders in your favor. In case, the interest rates come down, then they may revise the interest rates, this means that there is less outflow of the funds. In case the interest rates are increased, then the tenure may be increased of the debt. Its essential that you pay the interest timely else there will be no relief unless there is elimination of debt. if not, your credit report will not become positive. If you have a persistent negative credit report, then it will not be possible for you to take debts in the future, as lenders will be wary of lending to you.