Step 1. Identify something that people want and will pay for.
One of the most common stumbling blocks for aspiring entrepreneurs is deciding on a product or service to market. The primary consideration is to choose something that people will buy. And the easiest way to do that is to go with something that other people are already selling successfully.
Ideally, that will be something you love and/or know a lot about. For instance, if you’re an accountant, you could create and sell programmes about how people can prepare their taxes, how they can make a household budget, and how they can find hidden tax deductions. Or, if you’ve always loved animals, you could sell pet toys, treats, and accessories.
If you have trouble coming up with a likely product or service based on your own interests and/or expertise, choose a relatively simple service that’s in high demand. A house cleaning service, for example, or bookkeeping, lawn mowing, resume writing, or house painting. The possibilities are almost endless.
Step 2. Find a way to supply it.
This step just requires a bit of business common sense. If you’re selling a service, you would either supply the service yourself or hire someone else to do it (or help you). If, for example, you’ve decided to go into the moving business, you don’t have to be capable of handling furniture yourself. Simply hire a few people who can do heavy lifting and either buy or rent a truck.
If you’re selling a product, you would ideally seek out suppliers that can provide you with merchandise at a low enough price for you to be able to make a profit. But that usually means buying in volume - which may not work for you when you’re just starting out. Let’s say you’d like to sell bookshelves. In this case, it might make more sense for you to get your business going by buying the lumber and building the shelves yourself (or hiring someone to build them for you).
Step 3. Sell it to the people who want it.
I’m a big believer in direct marketing for small start-up businesses. It’s a relatively inexpensive way to get your marketing message to prospective customers via e-mail, regular mail, ads in local papers, or even flyers distributed door to door.
Let’s say you want to start a housekeeping service. You’d identify a few affluent neighbourhoods where the homeowners could, presumably, afford maids. Then you’d target them with either flyers or small mailers.
Or suppose you want to start a business where you take people on charter fishing boat trips. You’ll be marketing primarily to tourists, so you’d work on getting yourself listed in local tourist guides and maybe advertise on a few bus benches in your city’s hotel district. If you decide to go after locals too, you could contact local fishing clubs and see if you can rent their membership lists to do a mailing. You might also make a deal with local bait shops to distribute your flyers.
Obviously, starting and running a successful business requires time, energy, and effort. Still, when you break down the process, it’s just those three simple steps.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
7 reasons why you need to own a Trust.
* To protect your assets from creditors in the event of your insolvency, disability or divorce.
* To legally pay as little tax as possible.
* To make provision for your estate to be passed on to your beneficiaries as smoothly as possible.
* To maximise your overall profits when buying property and significantly reduce your CGT and estate duty bill.
* To avoid all inheritance tax liability.
* To create personal confidentiality.
* To safeguard against financial loss in your own business.
* To protect your assets from creditors in the event of your insolvency, disability or divorce.
* To legally pay as little tax as possible.
* To make provision for your estate to be passed on to your beneficiaries as smoothly as possible.
* To maximise your overall profits when buying property and significantly reduce your CGT and estate duty bill.
* To avoid all inheritance tax liability.
* To create personal confidentiality.
* To safeguard against financial loss in your own business.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Cash flow Rules.
Profits aren't cash; they're accounting
And accounting is a lot more creative than you think. You can't pay bills with profits. Actually profits can lull you to sleep. If you pay your bills and your customers don't, it's suddenly business hell. You can make profits without making any money.
Cash flow isn't intuitive.
Don't try to do it in your head. Making the sales doesn't necessarily mean you have the money. Incurring the expense doesn't necessarily mean you paid for it already. Inventory is usually bought and paid for and then stored until it becomes cost of sales.
Growth sucks up cash.
It's paradoxical. The best of times can be hiding the worst of times. One of the toughest years my company had was when we doubled sales and almost went broke. We were building things two months in advance and getting the money from sales six months late. Add growth to that and it can be like a Trojan horse, hiding a problem inside a solution. Yes, of course you want to grow; we all want to grow our businesses. But be careful because growth costs cash. It's a matter of working capital. The faster you grow, the more financing you need.
Business-to-business sales suck up your cash.
The simple view is that sales mean money, but when you're a business selling to another business, it's rarely that simple. You deliver the goods or services along with an invoice, and they pay the invoice later. Usually that's months later. And businesses are good customers, so you can't just throw them into collections because then they'll never buy from you again. So you wait. When you sell something to a distributor that sells it to a retailer, you typically get the money four or five months later if you're lucky.
Inventory sucks up cash.
You have to buy your product or build it before you can sell it. Even if you put the product on your shelves and wait to sell it, your suppliers expect to get paid. Here's a simple rule of thumb: Every dollar you have in inventory is a dollar you don't have in cash.
Working capital is your best survival skill.
Technically, working capital is an accounting term for what's left over when you subtract current liabilities from current assets. Practically, it's money in the bank that you use to pay your running costs and expenses and buy inventory while waiting to get paid by your business customers.
"Receivables" is a four-letter word.
(See rule 4.) The money your customers owe you is called "accounts receivable." Here's a shortcut to cash planning: Every dollar in accounts receivable is a dollar less cash.
Bankers hate surprises.
Plan ahead. You get no extra points for spontaneity when dealing with banks. If you see a growth spurt coming, a new product opportunity or a problem with customers paying, thesooner you get to the bank armed with charts and a realistic plan, the better off you'll be.
Watch these three vital metrics: "
Collection days" is a measure of how long you wait to get paid. "Inventory turnover" is a measure of how long your inventory sits on your working capital and clogs your cash flow. "Payment days" is how long you wait to pay your vendors. Always monitor these three vital signs of cash flow. Project them 12 months ahead and compare your plan to what actually happens.
If you're the exception rather than the rule, hooray for you. If all your customers pay you immediately when they buy from you, and you don't buy things before you sell them, then relax. But if you sell to businesses, keep in mind that they usually don't pay immediately.
Profits aren't cash; they're accounting
And accounting is a lot more creative than you think. You can't pay bills with profits. Actually profits can lull you to sleep. If you pay your bills and your customers don't, it's suddenly business hell. You can make profits without making any money.
Cash flow isn't intuitive.
Don't try to do it in your head. Making the sales doesn't necessarily mean you have the money. Incurring the expense doesn't necessarily mean you paid for it already. Inventory is usually bought and paid for and then stored until it becomes cost of sales.
Growth sucks up cash.
It's paradoxical. The best of times can be hiding the worst of times. One of the toughest years my company had was when we doubled sales and almost went broke. We were building things two months in advance and getting the money from sales six months late. Add growth to that and it can be like a Trojan horse, hiding a problem inside a solution. Yes, of course you want to grow; we all want to grow our businesses. But be careful because growth costs cash. It's a matter of working capital. The faster you grow, the more financing you need.
Business-to-business sales suck up your cash.
The simple view is that sales mean money, but when you're a business selling to another business, it's rarely that simple. You deliver the goods or services along with an invoice, and they pay the invoice later. Usually that's months later. And businesses are good customers, so you can't just throw them into collections because then they'll never buy from you again. So you wait. When you sell something to a distributor that sells it to a retailer, you typically get the money four or five months later if you're lucky.
Inventory sucks up cash.
You have to buy your product or build it before you can sell it. Even if you put the product on your shelves and wait to sell it, your suppliers expect to get paid. Here's a simple rule of thumb: Every dollar you have in inventory is a dollar you don't have in cash.
Working capital is your best survival skill.
Technically, working capital is an accounting term for what's left over when you subtract current liabilities from current assets. Practically, it's money in the bank that you use to pay your running costs and expenses and buy inventory while waiting to get paid by your business customers.
"Receivables" is a four-letter word.
(See rule 4.) The money your customers owe you is called "accounts receivable." Here's a shortcut to cash planning: Every dollar in accounts receivable is a dollar less cash.
Bankers hate surprises.
Plan ahead. You get no extra points for spontaneity when dealing with banks. If you see a growth spurt coming, a new product opportunity or a problem with customers paying, thesooner you get to the bank armed with charts and a realistic plan, the better off you'll be.
Watch these three vital metrics: "
Collection days" is a measure of how long you wait to get paid. "Inventory turnover" is a measure of how long your inventory sits on your working capital and clogs your cash flow. "Payment days" is how long you wait to pay your vendors. Always monitor these three vital signs of cash flow. Project them 12 months ahead and compare your plan to what actually happens.
If you're the exception rather than the rule, hooray for you. If all your customers pay you immediately when they buy from you, and you don't buy things before you sell them, then relax. But if you sell to businesses, keep in mind that they usually don't pay immediately.
Friday, March 7, 2008
How Billionaires Do...
After 13 years on top, Bill Gates is no longer the richest man in the world. That honor now belongs to his friend and sometimes bridge partner Warren Buffett.
Riding the surging price of Berkshire Hathaway stock, Buffett has seen his fortune swell to an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago. Gates is now worth $58 billion and is ranked third richest in the world.
He is up $2 billion from a year ago, but would have been as rich--or richer--than Buffett, had Microsoft not made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo! at the beginning of February. Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helú now ranks as the world's second richest person with a net worth of $60 billion.
Buffett, whose fortune is estimated based on his stake in Berkshire Hathaway and assets he holds outside the company, refused to comment on his net worth.
The race for the title of World's Richest Man has been extremely competitive in recent months. Class A shares of Berkshire Hathaway soared 25% between the middle of July and the day we priced our list. The stock hit an all-time high of $150,000 a share in December. At that time, Buffett was worth roughly $65 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway shares closed Warren Buffett is the richest man on the planet.
Riding the surging price of Berkshire Hathaway stock, America's most beloved investor has seen his fortune swell to an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago. That massive pile of scratch puts him ahead of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who was the richest man in the world for 13 straight years.
Gates is now worth $58 billion and is ranked third in the world. He is up $2 billion from a year ago, but would have been perhaps as rich--or richer--than Buffett had Microsoft not made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo! at the beginning of February.
Microsoft shares fell 15% between Jan. 31, the day before the company announced its bid for the search engine giant, and Feb. 11, the day we locked in stock prices for the 2008 World's Billionaires list. More than half of Gates' fortune is held outside of Microsoft shares.
Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helú is the world's second-richest man, with an estimated net worth of $60 billion. His fortune has risen $11 billion since last March.
per share on Tuesday, down 2% since the announcement last Friday that the company's net earnings fell 18% in the fourth quarter of last year.
Gates' fortune also swelled massively last fall. Shares of Microsoft jumped 30% between late October and early November to $37 a share, only to fall after the company announced its intentions to buy Yahoo! for $45 billion on Feb. 1.
Slim's fortune has doubled in the past two years. Stock in his most significant holding, telecom outfit America Movil has risen 120% since the beginning of 2006. Helú also owns stakes in Carso Global Telecom, Grupo Carso and Grupo Financiero Inbursa.
The son of a Nebraska politician, Buffett delivered newspapers as a boy. He filed his first tax return at age 13, claiming a $35 deduction for his bicycle. He moved on to study under value investing guru Benjamin Graham at Columbia University.
Buffett began buying shares in textile firm Berkshire Hathaway in 1962 and purchased a controlling stake in 1965. He began buying insurance companies and astutely investing those companies' cash reserves.
In December, the company purchased a 60% stake in the Pritzker family's manufacturing and services group, Marmon Holdings, for $4.5 billion. The privately held Marmon owns businesses across wire and cable, transportation services and industrial products.
Despite Buffett's meteoric rise, his days as the World's Richest Man are almost certainly numbered. He had long promised to give away his fortune posthumously. But in the summer of 2006 he irrevocably earmarked the majority of his Berkshire shares to charity, most going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
At the time, the gift was valued at $31 billion.
However, assuming that Berkshire shares continue to rise, the final amount of the donation will far exceed that sum. Buffett gives 5% of his shares to charity every July.
In October, Buffett issued a challenge to members of the Forbes 400 richest Americans list, saying he would donate $1 million to charity if the collective group (or a significant number of them) would admit they pay less taxes, as a percentage of income, than their secretaries.
Days after issuing the challenge, Buffett appeared before Congress to encourage it to keep the estate tax. Armed with a few Forbes 400 issues, he told the hearing that "dynastic wealth, the enemy of a meritocracy, is on the rise."
Riding the surging price of Berkshire Hathaway stock, Buffett has seen his fortune swell to an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago. Gates is now worth $58 billion and is ranked third richest in the world.
He is up $2 billion from a year ago, but would have been as rich--or richer--than Buffett, had Microsoft not made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo! at the beginning of February. Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helú now ranks as the world's second richest person with a net worth of $60 billion.
Buffett, whose fortune is estimated based on his stake in Berkshire Hathaway and assets he holds outside the company, refused to comment on his net worth.
The race for the title of World's Richest Man has been extremely competitive in recent months. Class A shares of Berkshire Hathaway soared 25% between the middle of July and the day we priced our list. The stock hit an all-time high of $150,000 a share in December. At that time, Buffett was worth roughly $65 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway shares closed Warren Buffett is the richest man on the planet.
Riding the surging price of Berkshire Hathaway stock, America's most beloved investor has seen his fortune swell to an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago. That massive pile of scratch puts him ahead of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who was the richest man in the world for 13 straight years.
Gates is now worth $58 billion and is ranked third in the world. He is up $2 billion from a year ago, but would have been perhaps as rich--or richer--than Buffett had Microsoft not made an unsolicited bid for Yahoo! at the beginning of February.
Microsoft shares fell 15% between Jan. 31, the day before the company announced its bid for the search engine giant, and Feb. 11, the day we locked in stock prices for the 2008 World's Billionaires list. More than half of Gates' fortune is held outside of Microsoft shares.
Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helú is the world's second-richest man, with an estimated net worth of $60 billion. His fortune has risen $11 billion since last March.
per share on Tuesday, down 2% since the announcement last Friday that the company's net earnings fell 18% in the fourth quarter of last year.
Gates' fortune also swelled massively last fall. Shares of Microsoft jumped 30% between late October and early November to $37 a share, only to fall after the company announced its intentions to buy Yahoo! for $45 billion on Feb. 1.
Slim's fortune has doubled in the past two years. Stock in his most significant holding, telecom outfit America Movil has risen 120% since the beginning of 2006. Helú also owns stakes in Carso Global Telecom, Grupo Carso and Grupo Financiero Inbursa.
The son of a Nebraska politician, Buffett delivered newspapers as a boy. He filed his first tax return at age 13, claiming a $35 deduction for his bicycle. He moved on to study under value investing guru Benjamin Graham at Columbia University.
Buffett began buying shares in textile firm Berkshire Hathaway in 1962 and purchased a controlling stake in 1965. He began buying insurance companies and astutely investing those companies' cash reserves.
In December, the company purchased a 60% stake in the Pritzker family's manufacturing and services group, Marmon Holdings, for $4.5 billion. The privately held Marmon owns businesses across wire and cable, transportation services and industrial products.
Despite Buffett's meteoric rise, his days as the World's Richest Man are almost certainly numbered. He had long promised to give away his fortune posthumously. But in the summer of 2006 he irrevocably earmarked the majority of his Berkshire shares to charity, most going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
At the time, the gift was valued at $31 billion.
However, assuming that Berkshire shares continue to rise, the final amount of the donation will far exceed that sum. Buffett gives 5% of his shares to charity every July.
In October, Buffett issued a challenge to members of the Forbes 400 richest Americans list, saying he would donate $1 million to charity if the collective group (or a significant number of them) would admit they pay less taxes, as a percentage of income, than their secretaries.
Days after issuing the challenge, Buffett appeared before Congress to encourage it to keep the estate tax. Armed with a few Forbes 400 issues, he told the hearing that "dynastic wealth, the enemy of a meritocracy, is on the rise."
Thursday, February 28, 2008
DRASTIC CHANGES OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
Oil-importing nations have been watching closely for decades. Oil priced at $100 and up will cut profits at airlines, railroads and trucking companies, to name a few. Putting unprecedented pressure on vital infrastructure and services...
Because just as pouring glue into a cassette deck will slow down, and eventually stop the music... pouring higher and higher priced oil into our economy will slow down, and at some point hold America in place to be squashed between history and the pavement.
That's why the Advanced Energy Initiative was lainched, stating:
a national goal of replacing more than 75% of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025
we're on the verge of breakthroughs in two vital areas -- how we power our homes and businesses... and how we power our cars
and a 22% increase in funding for alternative energy research
Yet, skeptics always claim alternative energies cost more -- and can't survive without heavy government subsidies.
Here's an overlooked fact: traditional energy industries are also subsidized by billions of dollars each year. There are oil depletion allowances, special treatment on coal royalties, overseas oil refinery credits, intangible drilling costs, and the list goes on.
"With America on the verge of breakthroughs in advanced energy technologies, the best way to break the addiction to foreign oil is through new technology."
The days of giving breaks to big oil companies are numbered. You see, on November 8, 2006 Democrats swept into the House and Senate poised to ignite an all-out alternative energy revolution. If you don't believe me, just check out House Energy Bill HR6!
Right now it's not hard to figure out which way the wind is blowing...
And you can bet a handful of financial power players recognize it's not a matter of if, but rather a matter of when certain alternative energy investments will take off... they see a government-funding avalanche and favorable treatment for new energy initiatives... that's why:
Wall Street's elite are RIGHT NOW betting billions on alternative energy!
According to The Economist, total investment in alternative energy last year was $63 billion, up from $49 billion the year before, and up from $30 billion the year before that. In other words, total investment in alternative energy just doubled in the last 2 years...
BusinessWeek calls alternative energy "Wall Street's new love affair."
The Wall Street Journal asked Ray Lane -- venture capital backer of Google, Amazon, and Netscape -- if this boom looked to be bigger than the Internet, or as big... "This is bigger than the Internet by an order of magnitude. Maybe two." he answered.
Just how big is that? An "order of magnitude" is an approximation of size using powers of ten. Meaning this legendary Internet investor believes the alternative energy boom will be 10 to 100 times bigger than the Internet revolution!
"The clean-energy business is turning into the next big investment boom."-- The Economist, November 24, 2006
Source: Clean Edge, Nth Power www.cleanedge.com
Another Internet pioneer, Bill Joy -- co-founder of Sun Microsystems -- is so convinced of the profit potential he says he has no doubt "we are at the point of new wealth creation."
In other words, the guys first in line for hundreds of billions during the Internet boom believe the coming alternative energy boom will be at least TEN TIMES as big.
That's why, as we speak, large investment banks are jumping on board... only rather than taking these companies public, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan "are choosing to own these alternative energy companies outright so they can keep the profits for themselves," according to BusinessWeek.
Multibillion-dollar hedge fund groups like SAC Capital Advisors and D.E. Shaw & Co. have started investing in geothermal energy, ethanol and wind power... World leading insurer American International Group is steering private equity investments into alternative energy projects...
This kind of rare potential for profits has some of the world's most successful business leaders investing hundreds of millions -- and in some cases billions -- of their own money as well.
Take a look...
Warren Buffett just invested $385 million in wind power... Bill Gates is betting on fuel additives... Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin are investing in solar... famed Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson is putting $400 million into a biofuel plant... and Jeffery Immelt, CEO of General Electric, plans to put $3 billion into alternative energy ventures by 2008...
With ten times the wealth potential of the Internet boom, it's no wonder the world's most wealthy and powerful elite are piling in!
Yet, most individual investors are still on the sideline
A recent survey by the Calvert Group found that while about 85% of investors believe there is money to be made from investing in alternative energy, only about 20% of investors have brought up the subject with a financial advisor.
Here's the upshot for you: this gap between powerful Wall Street players beginning to invest... and the vast majority of investors STILL A YEAR OR SO AWAY... creates a unique opportunity. With all the characteristics successful investors look for over and over again...
The majority of people aren't paying attention to alternative energy investments -- yet. Few people know how to capitalize on them. This gives us a window of opportunity of about 12 to 24 months before the herd catches on.
Over the next few years, we expect the 4 investments described just ahead to shoot way up in value. And our tight-knit group (more on this group in a split second) to make a Foolish pile of profits when they do...
I promise to tell you everything I can here. Then I'm going to ask you to accept a very special invitation, and I'm pretty sure you're going to like that too.
But first, that tight-knit group I just mentioned... they're called Motley Fool Rule Breakers. And they specialize in finding opportunities that could put you in on the ground floor of the BIGGEST GROWTH STORIES of the next 10 or 15 years!
This forward-looking group is headed by Motley Fool Co-founder David Gardner -- a legendary growth investor with a remarkable knack for uncovering breakthrough companies way ahead of the masses. A few of David's career picks include:
eBay in 1999... Starbucks in 1998... AOL in 1994... Amgen in 1998... and Amazon in 1997!
And more recently, David and his Rule Breakers team recommended stocks up 117%... 127%... 167%... 276%... and 295% -- all in under 3 years!
But I didn't email you to chirp about our recent success. I contacted you to show you what we're recommending next. And how it can have a dramatic effect on your personal wealth.
So if getting in early on the alternative energy boom -- what could be among the greatest investment stories ever told -- is something you might be interested in, I urge you to read on. That's because the Rule Breakers team just completed a powerful new report featuring The Motley Fool's Top 4 Alternative Energy Investments...
But first, a word of warning: the months and years ahead will NOT play out the way a lot of self-described experts are saying. So-called stock gurus, and energy pundits, and their "one amazing stock shot" approach has virtually zero chance of succeeding.
That's because we're moving into a period of dramatic opportunity where different sources of energy will be optimized to meet specific needs. It's why we spent a considerable amount of time and resources -- informed by some of the world's top CEOs, market strategists, and even a noble prize-winning economist -- putting together 4 special corresponding energy investments for the next 10 to 15 years...
INVESTMENT #1:
CLEAN COAL AND NUCLEAR...
this company owns a huge chunk of substantially growing market, is protected by close ties to government agencies, and with 2 breakthrough technologies emerging, this stock has massive upside!
INVESTMENT #2:
SOLAR...
a pure play on the soaring demand for solar power. This company has great margins, a sustainable competitive advantage, and a lit fuse with a wide-open sky waiting!
INVESTMENT #3:
RECYCLING FOSSIL FUELS... this company makes coal dust look good. Revenue is up just 14%, and earnings just jumped 69%!
INVESTMENT #4:
WIND, HYDROELECTRIC, AND FUEL CELLS...
this investment spreads our bets around in a unique way. Giving your portfolio a strong dose of only the most profitable technologies!
I can't wait to give you the full details of these 4 potential fortune makers. And I will... but you still might be wondering why 4 different investments?
As I just mentioned, we project a number of alternative energies will be used in the near future. For example, solar for portable devices. Fuel cells for telecommunications. Wind makes sense in certain places. And so does nuclear... Now consider the gold rush again for a moment. And how you would've profited from owning shares in both the Union Pacific and Wells Fargo.
Also, look for a period of creative destruction and consolidation like in the early automobile revolution... when shares in Ford Motor Co would've been a great investment and would've more than offset an investment in say, Tucker Automotive...
Or consider David Gardner's investments of the 1990s. David had the vision to buy Dell, Amazon and AOL in the early days... That's why he can't be faulted for also buying Wang Computer. You see, his mega-winners more than made up his occasional, and inevitable, losing investment.
Because just as pouring glue into a cassette deck will slow down, and eventually stop the music... pouring higher and higher priced oil into our economy will slow down, and at some point hold America in place to be squashed between history and the pavement.
That's why the Advanced Energy Initiative was lainched, stating:
a national goal of replacing more than 75% of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025
we're on the verge of breakthroughs in two vital areas -- how we power our homes and businesses... and how we power our cars
and a 22% increase in funding for alternative energy research
Yet, skeptics always claim alternative energies cost more -- and can't survive without heavy government subsidies.
Here's an overlooked fact: traditional energy industries are also subsidized by billions of dollars each year. There are oil depletion allowances, special treatment on coal royalties, overseas oil refinery credits, intangible drilling costs, and the list goes on.
"With America on the verge of breakthroughs in advanced energy technologies, the best way to break the addiction to foreign oil is through new technology."
The days of giving breaks to big oil companies are numbered. You see, on November 8, 2006 Democrats swept into the House and Senate poised to ignite an all-out alternative energy revolution. If you don't believe me, just check out House Energy Bill HR6!
Right now it's not hard to figure out which way the wind is blowing...
And you can bet a handful of financial power players recognize it's not a matter of if, but rather a matter of when certain alternative energy investments will take off... they see a government-funding avalanche and favorable treatment for new energy initiatives... that's why:
Wall Street's elite are RIGHT NOW betting billions on alternative energy!
According to The Economist, total investment in alternative energy last year was $63 billion, up from $49 billion the year before, and up from $30 billion the year before that. In other words, total investment in alternative energy just doubled in the last 2 years...
BusinessWeek calls alternative energy "Wall Street's new love affair."
The Wall Street Journal asked Ray Lane -- venture capital backer of Google, Amazon, and Netscape -- if this boom looked to be bigger than the Internet, or as big... "This is bigger than the Internet by an order of magnitude. Maybe two." he answered.
Just how big is that? An "order of magnitude" is an approximation of size using powers of ten. Meaning this legendary Internet investor believes the alternative energy boom will be 10 to 100 times bigger than the Internet revolution!
"The clean-energy business is turning into the next big investment boom."-- The Economist, November 24, 2006
Source: Clean Edge, Nth Power www.cleanedge.com
Another Internet pioneer, Bill Joy -- co-founder of Sun Microsystems -- is so convinced of the profit potential he says he has no doubt "we are at the point of new wealth creation."
In other words, the guys first in line for hundreds of billions during the Internet boom believe the coming alternative energy boom will be at least TEN TIMES as big.
That's why, as we speak, large investment banks are jumping on board... only rather than taking these companies public, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan "are choosing to own these alternative energy companies outright so they can keep the profits for themselves," according to BusinessWeek.
Multibillion-dollar hedge fund groups like SAC Capital Advisors and D.E. Shaw & Co. have started investing in geothermal energy, ethanol and wind power... World leading insurer American International Group is steering private equity investments into alternative energy projects...
This kind of rare potential for profits has some of the world's most successful business leaders investing hundreds of millions -- and in some cases billions -- of their own money as well.
Take a look...
Warren Buffett just invested $385 million in wind power... Bill Gates is betting on fuel additives... Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin are investing in solar... famed Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson is putting $400 million into a biofuel plant... and Jeffery Immelt, CEO of General Electric, plans to put $3 billion into alternative energy ventures by 2008...
With ten times the wealth potential of the Internet boom, it's no wonder the world's most wealthy and powerful elite are piling in!
Yet, most individual investors are still on the sideline
A recent survey by the Calvert Group found that while about 85% of investors believe there is money to be made from investing in alternative energy, only about 20% of investors have brought up the subject with a financial advisor.
Here's the upshot for you: this gap between powerful Wall Street players beginning to invest... and the vast majority of investors STILL A YEAR OR SO AWAY... creates a unique opportunity. With all the characteristics successful investors look for over and over again...
The majority of people aren't paying attention to alternative energy investments -- yet. Few people know how to capitalize on them. This gives us a window of opportunity of about 12 to 24 months before the herd catches on.
Over the next few years, we expect the 4 investments described just ahead to shoot way up in value. And our tight-knit group (more on this group in a split second) to make a Foolish pile of profits when they do...
I promise to tell you everything I can here. Then I'm going to ask you to accept a very special invitation, and I'm pretty sure you're going to like that too.
But first, that tight-knit group I just mentioned... they're called Motley Fool Rule Breakers. And they specialize in finding opportunities that could put you in on the ground floor of the BIGGEST GROWTH STORIES of the next 10 or 15 years!
This forward-looking group is headed by Motley Fool Co-founder David Gardner -- a legendary growth investor with a remarkable knack for uncovering breakthrough companies way ahead of the masses. A few of David's career picks include:
eBay in 1999... Starbucks in 1998... AOL in 1994... Amgen in 1998... and Amazon in 1997!
And more recently, David and his Rule Breakers team recommended stocks up 117%... 127%... 167%... 276%... and 295% -- all in under 3 years!
But I didn't email you to chirp about our recent success. I contacted you to show you what we're recommending next. And how it can have a dramatic effect on your personal wealth.
So if getting in early on the alternative energy boom -- what could be among the greatest investment stories ever told -- is something you might be interested in, I urge you to read on. That's because the Rule Breakers team just completed a powerful new report featuring The Motley Fool's Top 4 Alternative Energy Investments...
But first, a word of warning: the months and years ahead will NOT play out the way a lot of self-described experts are saying. So-called stock gurus, and energy pundits, and their "one amazing stock shot" approach has virtually zero chance of succeeding.
That's because we're moving into a period of dramatic opportunity where different sources of energy will be optimized to meet specific needs. It's why we spent a considerable amount of time and resources -- informed by some of the world's top CEOs, market strategists, and even a noble prize-winning economist -- putting together 4 special corresponding energy investments for the next 10 to 15 years...
INVESTMENT #1:
CLEAN COAL AND NUCLEAR...
this company owns a huge chunk of substantially growing market, is protected by close ties to government agencies, and with 2 breakthrough technologies emerging, this stock has massive upside!
INVESTMENT #2:
SOLAR...
a pure play on the soaring demand for solar power. This company has great margins, a sustainable competitive advantage, and a lit fuse with a wide-open sky waiting!
INVESTMENT #3:
RECYCLING FOSSIL FUELS... this company makes coal dust look good. Revenue is up just 14%, and earnings just jumped 69%!
INVESTMENT #4:
WIND, HYDROELECTRIC, AND FUEL CELLS...
this investment spreads our bets around in a unique way. Giving your portfolio a strong dose of only the most profitable technologies!
I can't wait to give you the full details of these 4 potential fortune makers. And I will... but you still might be wondering why 4 different investments?
As I just mentioned, we project a number of alternative energies will be used in the near future. For example, solar for portable devices. Fuel cells for telecommunications. Wind makes sense in certain places. And so does nuclear... Now consider the gold rush again for a moment. And how you would've profited from owning shares in both the Union Pacific and Wells Fargo.
Also, look for a period of creative destruction and consolidation like in the early automobile revolution... when shares in Ford Motor Co would've been a great investment and would've more than offset an investment in say, Tucker Automotive...
Or consider David Gardner's investments of the 1990s. David had the vision to buy Dell, Amazon and AOL in the early days... That's why he can't be faulted for also buying Wang Computer. You see, his mega-winners more than made up his occasional, and inevitable, losing investment.
How to Create a Marketing Plan
What is a marketing plan and why is it so essential to the success of your business? Find out here, in the first section of our comprehensive guide to creating a marketing plan.
Firms that are successful in marketing invariably start with a marketing plan. Large companies have plans with hundreds of pages; small companies can get by with a half-dozen sheets. Put your marketing plan in a three-ring binder. Refer to it at least quarterly, but better yet monthly. Leave a tab for putting in monthly reports on sales/manufacturing; this will allow you to track performance as you follow the plan.
The plan should cover one year. For small companies, this is often the best way to think about marketing. Things change, people leave, markets evolve, customers come and go. Later on we suggest creating a section of your plan that addresses the medium-term future--two to four years down the road. But the bulk of your plan should focus on the coming year.
You should allow yourself a couple of months to write the plan, even if it's only a few pages long. Developing the plan is the "heavy lifting" of marketing. While executing the plan has its challenges, deciding what to do and how to do it is marketing's greatest challenge. Most marketing plans kick off with the first of the year or with the opening of your fiscal year if it's different.
Who should see your plan? All the players in the company. Firms typically keep their marketing plans very, very private for one of two very different reasons: Either they're too skimpy and management would be embarrassed to have them see the light of day, or they're solid and packed with information . . . which would make them extremely valuable to the competition.
You can't do a marketing plan without getting many people involved. No matter what your size, get feedback from all parts of your company: finance, manufacturing, personnel, supply and so on--in addition to marketing itself. This is especially important because it will take all aspects of your company to make your marketing plan work. Your key people can provide realistic input on what's achievable and how your goals can be reached, and they can share any insights they have on any potential, as-yet-unrealized marketing opportunities, adding another dimension to your plan. If you're essentially a one-person management operation, you'll have to wear all your hats at one time--but at least the meetings will be short!
What's the relationship between your marketing plan and your business plan or vision statement? Your business plan spells out what your business is about--what you do and don't do, and what your ultimate goals are. It encompasses more than marketing; it can include discussions of locations, staffing, financing, strategic alliances and so on. It includes "the vision thing," the resounding words that spell out the glorious purpose of your company in stirring language. Your business plan is the U.S. Constitution of your business: If you want to do something that's outside the business plan, you need to either change your mind or change the plan. Your company's business plan provides the environment in which your marketing plan must flourish. The two documents must be consistent.
A marketing plan, on the other hand, is plump with meaning. It provides you with several major benefits. Let's review them.
Rallying point: Your marketing plan gives your troops something to rally behind. You want them to feel confident that the captain of the vessel has the charts in order, knows how to run the ship, and has a port of destination in mind. Companies often undervalue the impact of a "marketing plan" on their own people, who want to feel part of a team engaged in an exciting and complicated joint endeavor. If you want your employees to feel committed to your company, it's important to share with them your vision of where the company is headed in the years to come. People don't always understand financial projections, but they can get excited about a well-written and well-thought-out marketing plan. You should consider releasing your marketing plan--perhaps in an abridged version--companywide. Do it with some fanfare and generate some excitement for the adventures to come. Your workers will appreciate being involved.
Chart to success: We all know that plans are imperfect things. How can you possibly know what's going to happen 12 months or five years from now? Isn't putting together a marketing plan an exercise in futility . . . a waste of time better spent meeting with customers or fine-tuning production? Yes, possibly but only in the narrowest sense. If you don't plan, you're doomed, and an inaccurate plan is far better than no plan at all. To stay with our sea captain analogy, it's better to be 5 or even 10 degrees off your destination port than to have no destination in mind at all. The point of sailing, after all, is to get somewhere, and without a marketing plan, you'll wander the seas aimlessly, sometimes finding dry land but more often than not floundering in a vast ocean. Sea captains without a chart are rarely remembered for discovering anything but the ocean floor.
Company operational instructions: Your child's first bike and your new VCR came with a set of instructions, and your company is far more complicated to put together and run than either of them. Your marketing plan is a step-by-step guide for your company's success. It's more important than a vision statement. To put together a genuine marketing plan, you have to assess your company from top to bottom and make sure all the pieces are working together in the best way. What do you want to do with this enterprise you call the company in the coming year? Consider it a to-do list on a grand scale. It assigns specific tasks for the year.
Captured thinking: You don't allow your financial people to keep their numbers in their heads. Financial reports are the lifeblood of the numbers side of any business, no matter what size. It should be no different with marketing. Your written document lays out your game plan. If people leave, if new people arrive, if memories falter, if events bring pressure to alter the givens, the information in the written marketing plan stays intact to remind you of what you'd agreed on.
Top-level reflection: In the daily hurly-burly of competitive business, it's hard to turn your attention to the big picture, especially those parts that aren't directly related to the daily operations. You need to take time periodically to really think about your business--whether it's providing you and your employees with what you want, whether there aren't some innovative wrinkles you can add, whether you're getting all you can out of your products, your sales staff and your markets. Writing your marketing plan is the best time to do this high-level thinking. Some companies send their top marketing people away to a retreat. Others go to the home of a principal. Some do marketing plan development at a local motel, away from phones and fax machines, so they can devote themselves solely to thinking hard and drawing the most accurate sketches they can of the immediate future of the business.
Ideally, after writing marketing plans for a few years, you can sit back and review a series of them, year after year, and check the progress of your company. Of course, sometimes this is hard to make time for (there is that annoying real world to deal with), but it can provide an unparalleled objective view of what you've been doing with your business life over a number of years.
What is a marketing plan and why is it so essential to the success of your business? Find out here, in the first section of our comprehensive guide to creating a marketing plan.
Firms that are successful in marketing invariably start with a marketing plan. Large companies have plans with hundreds of pages; small companies can get by with a half-dozen sheets. Put your marketing plan in a three-ring binder. Refer to it at least quarterly, but better yet monthly. Leave a tab for putting in monthly reports on sales/manufacturing; this will allow you to track performance as you follow the plan.
The plan should cover one year. For small companies, this is often the best way to think about marketing. Things change, people leave, markets evolve, customers come and go. Later on we suggest creating a section of your plan that addresses the medium-term future--two to four years down the road. But the bulk of your plan should focus on the coming year.
You should allow yourself a couple of months to write the plan, even if it's only a few pages long. Developing the plan is the "heavy lifting" of marketing. While executing the plan has its challenges, deciding what to do and how to do it is marketing's greatest challenge. Most marketing plans kick off with the first of the year or with the opening of your fiscal year if it's different.
Who should see your plan? All the players in the company. Firms typically keep their marketing plans very, very private for one of two very different reasons: Either they're too skimpy and management would be embarrassed to have them see the light of day, or they're solid and packed with information . . . which would make them extremely valuable to the competition.
You can't do a marketing plan without getting many people involved. No matter what your size, get feedback from all parts of your company: finance, manufacturing, personnel, supply and so on--in addition to marketing itself. This is especially important because it will take all aspects of your company to make your marketing plan work. Your key people can provide realistic input on what's achievable and how your goals can be reached, and they can share any insights they have on any potential, as-yet-unrealized marketing opportunities, adding another dimension to your plan. If you're essentially a one-person management operation, you'll have to wear all your hats at one time--but at least the meetings will be short!
What's the relationship between your marketing plan and your business plan or vision statement? Your business plan spells out what your business is about--what you do and don't do, and what your ultimate goals are. It encompasses more than marketing; it can include discussions of locations, staffing, financing, strategic alliances and so on. It includes "the vision thing," the resounding words that spell out the glorious purpose of your company in stirring language. Your business plan is the U.S. Constitution of your business: If you want to do something that's outside the business plan, you need to either change your mind or change the plan. Your company's business plan provides the environment in which your marketing plan must flourish. The two documents must be consistent.
A marketing plan, on the other hand, is plump with meaning. It provides you with several major benefits. Let's review them.
Rallying point: Your marketing plan gives your troops something to rally behind. You want them to feel confident that the captain of the vessel has the charts in order, knows how to run the ship, and has a port of destination in mind. Companies often undervalue the impact of a "marketing plan" on their own people, who want to feel part of a team engaged in an exciting and complicated joint endeavor. If you want your employees to feel committed to your company, it's important to share with them your vision of where the company is headed in the years to come. People don't always understand financial projections, but they can get excited about a well-written and well-thought-out marketing plan. You should consider releasing your marketing plan--perhaps in an abridged version--companywide. Do it with some fanfare and generate some excitement for the adventures to come. Your workers will appreciate being involved.
Chart to success: We all know that plans are imperfect things. How can you possibly know what's going to happen 12 months or five years from now? Isn't putting together a marketing plan an exercise in futility . . . a waste of time better spent meeting with customers or fine-tuning production? Yes, possibly but only in the narrowest sense. If you don't plan, you're doomed, and an inaccurate plan is far better than no plan at all. To stay with our sea captain analogy, it's better to be 5 or even 10 degrees off your destination port than to have no destination in mind at all. The point of sailing, after all, is to get somewhere, and without a marketing plan, you'll wander the seas aimlessly, sometimes finding dry land but more often than not floundering in a vast ocean. Sea captains without a chart are rarely remembered for discovering anything but the ocean floor.
Company operational instructions: Your child's first bike and your new VCR came with a set of instructions, and your company is far more complicated to put together and run than either of them. Your marketing plan is a step-by-step guide for your company's success. It's more important than a vision statement. To put together a genuine marketing plan, you have to assess your company from top to bottom and make sure all the pieces are working together in the best way. What do you want to do with this enterprise you call the company in the coming year? Consider it a to-do list on a grand scale. It assigns specific tasks for the year.
Captured thinking: You don't allow your financial people to keep their numbers in their heads. Financial reports are the lifeblood of the numbers side of any business, no matter what size. It should be no different with marketing. Your written document lays out your game plan. If people leave, if new people arrive, if memories falter, if events bring pressure to alter the givens, the information in the written marketing plan stays intact to remind you of what you'd agreed on.
Top-level reflection: In the daily hurly-burly of competitive business, it's hard to turn your attention to the big picture, especially those parts that aren't directly related to the daily operations. You need to take time periodically to really think about your business--whether it's providing you and your employees with what you want, whether there aren't some innovative wrinkles you can add, whether you're getting all you can out of your products, your sales staff and your markets. Writing your marketing plan is the best time to do this high-level thinking. Some companies send their top marketing people away to a retreat. Others go to the home of a principal. Some do marketing plan development at a local motel, away from phones and fax machines, so they can devote themselves solely to thinking hard and drawing the most accurate sketches they can of the immediate future of the business.
Ideally, after writing marketing plans for a few years, you can sit back and review a series of them, year after year, and check the progress of your company. Of course, sometimes this is hard to make time for (there is that annoying real world to deal with), but it can provide an unparalleled objective view of what you've been doing with your business life over a number of years.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Keeping Up with Your Business Online
Doing business online requires managing and measuring lots of moving parts. And, I always say that what doesn’t get measured gets forgotten.
So, with all the metrics you could monitor, what do you assess? In short, everything. Here’s a list of at-minimum ‘think abouts’ to get you started:
website matrix
How many unique visitors do you have?
How many should you have based on your industry?
How many page views?
How many should you have?
Who are your top three referral sources?
E-mail mailing list.
How many people are on your e-mail mailing list?
How many subscribers do others in your industry with comparable experience have?
What is the percent increase from last month?
What’s a good percentage to increase?
Website lead generation
Does your lead generation tool deliver the “lead trinity”? 1)Positions you as an expert. 2)
Qualifies the lead as a quality lead for your business. 3) Gives you permission to market to them again.
If not, what lead generation tool would?
Does your web site automatically produce leads regularly?
Product/marketing funnel.
Do you put potential clients in the position of either working with you or not?
Do you have freebies for them to sample - without signing up?
How many should you have and what topics should they cover?
Blog activity.
How many visitors does your blog have?
How many posts per week do you post on average?
What are the industry standards?
Are you meeting your blogging goals?
Online marketing.
How many original articles are you posting online?
How much time are you spending adding thought leadership content about your area of expertise?
Online sales.
How much revenue do you make solely online?
How much should you make?
Which is your most profitable product/service?
Which is your least profitable product/service?
Overall direction.
Where are you going with your business online?
By when do you need to ‘get there’?
Who can help you get there faster, easier?
What are your KPIs (key performance indicators) - measurements you can use to see if you’re on-track?
Again, this is certainly not an exhaustive list but it’s more than good enough to get you started. This may seem like a long list of things to consider. And, if you’re just starting out, your answers to these many of these questions might be “zero”. But, that’s OK. Start at the top and take a section at a time. Figure out a way to keep the information you find pertinent on your radar *at least* once per month. Maybe it’s a report. A graph. A spreadsheet. Something. Anything.
Preparing For The worst
There is no crying in baseball, and there are no "sick days" when you run your own business.
Still, there are plenty of ways entrepreneurs can get sidelined--from sudden illnesses and travel delays to pregnancy and military duty. Without a well-defined plan, those leaves of absence can pose a dangerous threat.
"If something incapacitates you, it can be the death knell of your business," says Karla Leavelle, president of Human Capital Advisors, a McLean, Va.-based consulting firm that counsels small businesses.
How do you hedge the risk of lost leadership? Business insurance doesn't help. Property and liability coverage come in handy in case a customer slips and falls in your store or gets hurt using one of your products, and business-interruption insurance covers operating losses if a hurricane reduces your building to rubble.
If you really want things to run smoothly in your absence, you need other protection in place.
Here are some tips:
Have A Point Person
Be it the chief operating officer, outside counsel or even a trusted executive assistant, at least one person should have access to everything that keeps the place running--including passwords, bank account numbers and keys to safes. You might even consider handing over power of attorney in your absence.
Doling out that kind of trust isn't easy, but if something goes wrong while you're gone, you'll wish you had. "Owners are always scared that someone is going to steal secrets of the organization," says John Vyhnanek, a restaurant consultant in Boston. "It's a bit like walking a tightrope, but someone has to keep the business going if you can't be there."
map out the work flows in your organization.
Identify who does what and who can take over certain roles if need be. Start by having employees write out their own job descriptions and the list of activities they do on a daily basis.
"No one can duplicate the charisma of an entrepreneur," says Louis Celli, head of the Northeast Veterans Business Resource Center, which mentors military entrepreneurs. "But if the entire business is systematized, that can sustain the business until the entrepreneur returns."
Better yet, if you codify thoroughly and thoughtfully enough, you might even discover ways of making your business run more efficiently day to day.
Form Partnerships
If you own a medical, law or accounting practice, your clients simply can't wait for you to return. That's why you should draft a written agreement with a local competitor who can cover for you in the event of an emergency (and visa versa).
Hammer out the tough questions upfront, such as referral fees--both for your clients and any they might refer to your stand-in. You'll also want to make sure the fees are comparable, lest your clients blanch at getting a fatter bill than they are used to.
Go Mobile
Even if you aren't a gadget guy or gal, if you run your own business, you have to have access to critical clients and information at any moment.
Doing business online requires managing and measuring lots of moving parts. And, I always say that what doesn’t get measured gets forgotten.
So, with all the metrics you could monitor, what do you assess? In short, everything. Here’s a list of at-minimum ‘think abouts’ to get you started:
website matrix
How many unique visitors do you have?
How many should you have based on your industry?
How many page views?
How many should you have?
Who are your top three referral sources?
E-mail mailing list.
How many people are on your e-mail mailing list?
How many subscribers do others in your industry with comparable experience have?
What is the percent increase from last month?
What’s a good percentage to increase?
Website lead generation
Does your lead generation tool deliver the “lead trinity”? 1)Positions you as an expert. 2)
Qualifies the lead as a quality lead for your business. 3) Gives you permission to market to them again.
If not, what lead generation tool would?
Does your web site automatically produce leads regularly?
Product/marketing funnel.
Do you put potential clients in the position of either working with you or not?
Do you have freebies for them to sample - without signing up?
How many should you have and what topics should they cover?
Blog activity.
How many visitors does your blog have?
How many posts per week do you post on average?
What are the industry standards?
Are you meeting your blogging goals?
Online marketing.
How many original articles are you posting online?
How much time are you spending adding thought leadership content about your area of expertise?
Online sales.
How much revenue do you make solely online?
How much should you make?
Which is your most profitable product/service?
Which is your least profitable product/service?
Overall direction.
Where are you going with your business online?
By when do you need to ‘get there’?
Who can help you get there faster, easier?
What are your KPIs (key performance indicators) - measurements you can use to see if you’re on-track?
Again, this is certainly not an exhaustive list but it’s more than good enough to get you started. This may seem like a long list of things to consider. And, if you’re just starting out, your answers to these many of these questions might be “zero”. But, that’s OK. Start at the top and take a section at a time. Figure out a way to keep the information you find pertinent on your radar *at least* once per month. Maybe it’s a report. A graph. A spreadsheet. Something. Anything.
Preparing For The worst
There is no crying in baseball, and there are no "sick days" when you run your own business.
Still, there are plenty of ways entrepreneurs can get sidelined--from sudden illnesses and travel delays to pregnancy and military duty. Without a well-defined plan, those leaves of absence can pose a dangerous threat.
"If something incapacitates you, it can be the death knell of your business," says Karla Leavelle, president of Human Capital Advisors, a McLean, Va.-based consulting firm that counsels small businesses.
How do you hedge the risk of lost leadership? Business insurance doesn't help. Property and liability coverage come in handy in case a customer slips and falls in your store or gets hurt using one of your products, and business-interruption insurance covers operating losses if a hurricane reduces your building to rubble.
If you really want things to run smoothly in your absence, you need other protection in place.
Here are some tips:
Have A Point Person
Be it the chief operating officer, outside counsel or even a trusted executive assistant, at least one person should have access to everything that keeps the place running--including passwords, bank account numbers and keys to safes. You might even consider handing over power of attorney in your absence.
Doling out that kind of trust isn't easy, but if something goes wrong while you're gone, you'll wish you had. "Owners are always scared that someone is going to steal secrets of the organization," says John Vyhnanek, a restaurant consultant in Boston. "It's a bit like walking a tightrope, but someone has to keep the business going if you can't be there."
map out the work flows in your organization.
Identify who does what and who can take over certain roles if need be. Start by having employees write out their own job descriptions and the list of activities they do on a daily basis.
"No one can duplicate the charisma of an entrepreneur," says Louis Celli, head of the Northeast Veterans Business Resource Center, which mentors military entrepreneurs. "But if the entire business is systematized, that can sustain the business until the entrepreneur returns."
Better yet, if you codify thoroughly and thoughtfully enough, you might even discover ways of making your business run more efficiently day to day.
Form Partnerships
If you own a medical, law or accounting practice, your clients simply can't wait for you to return. That's why you should draft a written agreement with a local competitor who can cover for you in the event of an emergency (and visa versa).
Hammer out the tough questions upfront, such as referral fees--both for your clients and any they might refer to your stand-in. You'll also want to make sure the fees are comparable, lest your clients blanch at getting a fatter bill than they are used to.
Go Mobile
Even if you aren't a gadget guy or gal, if you run your own business, you have to have access to critical clients and information at any moment.
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