For the continuous success of your business, you need to have solid system regarding strategic planning, marketing plan, budgeting, and Tax planning. You also need to review it every 3-5 years. One of our unique value-added service is to help you manage your most important assets: People. By offering the right compensation and motivation package, you can benefit big time!
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Greece Referendum – A good idea?
Posted by – November 1, 2011
George Papandreou, the Greek Prime minister, proposed calling a referendum on the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). This action is questionable as all negotiations with the other members of the Euro Zone, and the resulting agreement last week by all concerned parties, did not call for a public referendum. Therefore this action is a new proposal by the prime minister after the fact.
The Greek people are hurting under the proposed austerity programs because the government has raised taxes. The Greek people should turn their attention to controlling government spending without raising taxes. Smaller government is the only way to lighten the tax burden.
Under the current proposal, Greece has the added benefit of having other countries help with their budget problems. The two most obvious advantages are: Payments to meet cash flow requirements, lower interest rates on new debt due to EU17 guarantees. Greece is better off under the EFSF because a default would create an environment where the government would be unable to fund its obligations to foreigners, Greece would have leave the Euro currency and to start to print its own money. The Euro currency has been a valuable instrument in increasing standard of living. Therefore this event would lower the standard of living for Greek citizens.
Why would there be a need for a referendum?
There are several possible scenarios I can think of, the most interesting are: 1) The people of Greece would not be able to complain about the necessary austerity measures if they have a say. 2)The CDS instruments written on Greek debt are currently not exercisable under the EFSF. The people of benefit of a default might be applying influence. 3)It will scare the financial markets and maybe improve the terms for Greece.
The end scenario
As long as the country of Greece is getting funds from the other countries, and as long as they can spend more under the agreement because they are receiving funds at a lower cost, it is in their best interest to agree to the EFSF.
Pitch Your Business Essentials: A Credible Company Portal Website
Posted by – September 7, 2011
A website is important for pitching your business to investors
Today, almost every company has a website. Some have a dedicatedly hosted extensive website that can handle sales and inqueries online, while some are just an information page on Blogspot or Myspace. A properly presented website always gain credibility to the company. No matter big or small, if done right, the website plays an essential role in providing potential investors with more confidence. The key is to make the website look like a professional company portal. Read the rest of this article
What’s going on with Europe?
Posted by – September 6, 2011
What’s going on with Europe?
Yesterday, all European markets were down 3-6%. The DAX had the largest drop. Greece and Italy are not living up to their pledges for austerity to combat their current budget deficits which is needed in exchange for international financing. But many protests from the Greek public and Italian unions are against austerity measures. An IMF official went so far as to say that Greece will default by March 2012. Those are the uncertainties. Read the rest of this article
Window Cleaning, tinting, Solar shade and tile sealing : Master Franchise
Posted by – July 5, 2011
Industry: Home Care Services
Initial Investment: $500,000 – $1,000,000
Type of participation: Master Franchise
Years in business: 16
Physical Location: Canada
This is a brief summary of a Master Franchise Program. The company has been in business for 16 years and franchising for nearly 10 years. This company announced its first Master Franchise Program and awarded more franchises than any prior year in their history.
Our Master Franchise Owners do not get involved in the physical day to day to activities of their franchisees. Master Franchise owners market and sell the franchise opportunities to individuals within their defined areas. Master Franchisees get paid a portion of the initial franchise fee and earn continuing royalties from all franchisees within their defined areas. This really is the “golden nugget” as Master Franchisees get a portion of all gross sales from the franchise owners in their defined areas. So, Master Franchisees are primarily focused on bringing new franchisees into the system and then helping those franchisees become more prosperous.
Once a new franchise is sold many franchise owners hire hourly technicians to do the work. Others prefer to do the work themselves. This is a great benefit to our offering as it does not restrict who can join the franchise system. Some of our more recent franchisees joining the system are a veterinarian, a chemical engineer, and a certified public accountant. Virtually anyone can acquire our franchise and get started. Generally speaking, it is a low cost, low barrier to entry franchise. In addition, it may be operated from a home for those franchisees wishing to work from their homes.
Corporate does all the training for new franchisees including almost one (1) full week in Cincinnati, Ohio and one (I) full week in the field with each new franchisee during their Grand Opening. Master Franchisees do not have to become an expert on the technical side of the business. This allows Master Franchisees to focus initially on growing the business (selling franchises) rather than having to focus so much attention on support. Additionally, Corporate does “Best Practices” training calls regularly and manages all FDD and FA documentation, collections, etc. Basically, all franchise agreements are between the franchisee and franchisor. Royalties get paid to the Master Franchisee. Master franchisees areable to focus on growth and building their asset!
Several great reasons to consider becoming a Master Franchisee.
- The Company has a successful track record among its franchisees, but also the Franchisor has been franchising over 10 years.
- This company is consistently been recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as a nationally recognized franchisor in multiple categories.
- The management team. We know and understand the business, but most importantly we care.
- They have multiple income streams. This day and age, services can become extinct very quickly. More importantly, there are multiple ways for franchisees to earn a living.
Here are some other benefits:
- Low Barrier of Entry
- Build a Residual Income- Receive a portion of ongoing royalty payments made by franchisees within a defined area
- Earn Income from every Franchise Sale within a Defined Area
- Exclusive Master Territory
- Market a System with over 16 Years of Proven Success
- “Best of Class” Training Materials
- Training and Development on the Award Winning Window Genie® Franchise System
- Training and Development on Marketing and Selling Franchises
- Premier Support from Corporate Office
- Work from Home
- No Office Requirements
- No Employee Requirements
New franchisees pay a 7% continuing royalty, twice monthly. The range of upfront franchise fees is as follows; $19,500 purchases an area with 25,000 households and $57,000 is for 100,000 households and the franchise agreement is for 10 years and can be renewed thereafter. Franchisees may purchase any size territory between 25,000 and 100,000 households.
Please call Winflow Financial Group on 1.800.956.6897 for more information.
Business opportunity provided by:
Robert Brumer Global Franchise Group Inc.
-> Learning from others’ experience when buying a franchise – Article about Robert Brumer on Montreal Gazette
Risk Tool Games Explained
Posted by – July 4, 2011
Here we explain the concept and reasons of the games on our risk tool introduction page.
This series of games were modified from Christoph Hauert’s “Gamelab”. These games themselves originally were formed to question the expected utility theory in economics. Here we used them to show how irrational people’s behaviors are when it comes to dealing with risk.
The first set of questions is called Allais paradox, designed by Maurice Allais.
Please choose between:
• A: A chance of winning $40,000 with probability 0.2 (expected value $8,000)
• B: A chance of winning $30,000 with probability 0.25 (expected value $7,500)
Now please choose between:
• A: A chance of winning $40,000 with probability 0.8 (expected value $32,000)
• B: A chance of winning $30,000 with certainty.
A rational risk averse person would choose B for both questions while a risk lover would choose A for both questions. Surprisingly, empirical data shows most people pick A for the first question, then B for the second, which shows inconsistency when facing risk or risk-free opportunities. Our risk tool help analyze the risk level of your portfolio, no matter how risky the underlying assets are.
The second set of questions is called Preference Reversal. This game was proposed by cognitive psychologists and studied by many economists. It shows the anomaly when people make choices under a losing or depressing environment.
Now please choose between:
• A: Obtaining $2,400 with certainty (expected value $2,400)
• B: A chance of winning $10,000 with probability 0.25 (expected value $2,500)
Now please choose between:
• A: Losing $7,500 with certainty (expected loss $7,500)
• B: A chance of losing $10,000 with probability 0.75 (expected loss $7,500).
Again for both questions, a risk averse person would choose A and a risk lover would choose B. Survey data shows most people choose A for the first question then B for the second. That’s where the anomaly lies when people face the same losses as gains. In a losing situation, people tend to forget about the risk and take chance to avoid losses. As investors, we need to keep track of the underlying risks all the time and make the rational move. That’s where our risk tool helps.
The next question is essentially a combination of the choices from preference reversal,
• A: Obtaining $2,400 with certainty, at the same time a chance of losing $10,000 with probability 0.75
• B: A chance of winning $10,000 with probability 0.25, at the same time losing $7,500 with certainty.
In this case, most people choose the rational choice B, which is really a combination of 1B and 2A of the previous two questions. That’s clearly a better choice than 1A and 2B, which most people chose when asked separately.
The last set of questions also tests on gaining vs losing.
Now assume you are given $3,000. Please choose between
• A: a sure gain of $1,000.
• B: a 50% chance to gain $2,000.
Now assume you are given $5,000. Please choose between
• A: a sure loss of $1,000
• B: a 50% chance to lose $2,000
Also in both scenarios people with choice A will end up with $4000 and people with choice B will end up with either $3000 or $5000 with a 50-50 chance. Interestingly, most people tend to pick A for the first scenario and B for the second, which again shows how our mind works differently when seeing the word “lose” from seeing the word “gain”.
These questions are not set up to trick you, but rather to show the human nature and how our rationality works dealing with risks. That’s why we design this risk tool, for people to monitor the risk in their portfolio objectively. By knowing the current risk level, investors will be able to make more rational decisions and not fall into the fallacy of our human mind sets.
Some interesting charts and figures on US economy
Posted by – June 21, 2011
I have just come across the following figures and charts which are quite interesting. These by no means represent our own opinions, but they provide some different ways of looking at the economy.
First on the employment rate, Boston Properties CEO Mort Zuckerman said that
“The Great American Job Machine is breaking down, and roadside assistance is not on the horizon.”
His reasoning is that the positive job numbers reported in recent months are not plausible because there are more part-time jobs added than full time jobs which means the total working capacity did not increase as much. Hiring, in general, has not increased.
And Zuckerman is not alone. New York Times’ Paul Krugman posted a employment-population ratio chart on his blog yesterday, that showed
What you see isn’t a recovering economy that may be stumbling; you see an economy that has stopped its free fall, but hasn’t really been recovering at all.
The May existing home sales data released today were also disappointing. Some blamed on the more restrictive lending policies that forced on the banks.
“Although low mortgage interest rates are welcome, they are less meaningful compared to the tightness of loan underwriting standards,” noted Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist.
And that brings our attention to this chart on the debt level of US household, made by Richard Koo. According to this graph, US home owners will have to suffer at least 8 more years before a healthy mortgage market is restored.
Treasury auctions, Bill Gross and the boiling frogs
Posted by – June 15, 2011
The Fed is not only reluctant to take away the stimulus it thrown out to the market during QEII, it once again purchased government treasury bonds to further expand the monetary supply. As stated on FRBNY, the Fed bought $4.7B of t-bills today.
As the stock market shows uncertainties recently, treasury auctions showed better results, both 30-year and 10-year treasury bonds were well sold during the auctions last week.
PIMCO’s Bill Gross, who was famous for being bearish in government bonds recently, made some intersting comments. He metaphorically said the fate of today’s investors in bond are like frogs in slowly boiling water, who do not realize the danger until being cooked.
Much like gradually turning up the temperature on poor froggy’s kettle of water, monetary policy in developed countries has been lowering the temperature and absolute level of yields for the past 2½ years post Lehman Brothers. Teeter-totter yields down, teeter-totter prices up, and froggy’s total return euphoria at present seems to know no bounds. But once the potential for even lower interest rates is minimized by the zero floor, our future frog-legged entrée is left with a rather uncomfortable feeling. He’s resting inertly in this caldron as prices near the boiling point with the Fed, the Chinese and the banks all buying up whatever Treasury bonds are offered. Everything appears well. But
bond investors with a survival instinct (being one and the same as our cooking frog) should reflect on that old teeter-totter metaphor and realize that prices near the boiling point automatically imply yields near subzero.
That said, are US government bonds a good investment today?
Dodd Frank: legislation, implementation and current situation
Posted by – June 15, 2011
The full title of Dodd Frank is “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act”. It was passed and signed by President Obama on July 21, 2010. The purpose of this act is to advocate strict regulations in the financial market, thus to create a solid foundation for the modern economy. The specific goals of the act is to end further bailouts to “too big to fail” companies and prevent future financial crisis from happening.
The key points are:
- Consumer Protections with Authority and Independence
- Ends Too Big to Fail Bailouts
- Advance Warning System
- Transparency & Accountability for Exotic Instruments
- Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance
- Protects Investors
- Enforces Regulations on the Books
The implementation has so far been controversal. The Fed were reluctant to release the name of banks who received help during the financial crisis. More problems on Dodd-Frank were reported in a Financial Times article in March. As it said:
it fails to capture the degree of global interconnectedness of recent decades which has not been substantially altered by the crisis of 2008. The act may create the largest regulatory-induced market distortion since America’s ill-fated imposition of wage and price controls in 1971.
Last week it was reported that the new act has not been implemented in many aspects:
Ten months since President Barack Obama signed Dodd-Frank into law, regulators have missed all 26 deadlines supposed to be met by April. According to ProPublica’s Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein, “Dodd-Frank requires 387 different rules from 20 different regulatory agencies. The Byzantine, tedious rulemaking process has occasionally pitted regulator against regulator and proved a bonanza for lobbyists.”
And as a result, as reported yesterday, rules that were about to commence in July have to be postponed to a later date.
Fed Officials comment on the current economy: Bernanke, Yellen, Fisher
Posted by – June 14, 2011
At the International Monetary Conference held in Atlanta last week, the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke made again somewhat dovish comments on the economy, inflation and monetary policy.
In his speech, he stated the current economic growth is slower than expected, and consumer prices has been increasing. Talking about inflation, Bernanke still emphasize that the current high prices are unlikely to persist, and most of the inflation numbers are caused by rising gasoline prices, which will eventually fade. Speaking of commodity prices, he now turned to the demand side and said that the high prices will result in a shift in spending pattern, and that’s what we are hoping that lowers the inflation.
Over longer periods, however, high levels of commodity prices curtail demand as households and firms adjust their spending and production patterns. Indeed, as I noted earlier, we have already seen significant reductions in commodity use in the advanced economies.
Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen said on June 9th that
I unfortunately can envision no quick or easy solutions for the problems still afflicting the housing market. Even once it begins to take hold, recovery in the housing market likely will be a long, drawn-out process. For its part, the Federal Reserve will continue to use its policy tools to support the economic recovery and carry out its dual mandate to foster maximum employment in the context of price stability.
which further indicated the continuation of accomodating monetary policies.
The individual reserve bank leaders are less dovish. Dallas FRB’s Richard Fisher expressed his opposition on further round of quantitative easing.
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