Showing posts with label Trending. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trending. Show all posts
Saturday, March 12, 2016
The Young
In the Age of Google DeepMind, Do the Young Go Prodigies of Asia Have a Future? — http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/in-the-age-of-google-deepmind-do-the-young-go-prodigies-of-asia-have-a-future?mbid=rss&utm_medium=App.net+Broadcast&utm_source=PourOver
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Celebrating Women History Month
“Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women. There is so much yet to be done.” – Suffragist Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)
The consumer movement, trust-busting, the women’s movement, and the work of the FTC have traveled parallel (and often intersecting) paths. Women’s History Month offers us a chance to consider the contribution women have made to the mission of the FTC and the unprecedented moment in women’s history we’re witnessing at the FTC today.
At the start of the 20th century – before women won the right to vote – managing the household budget was the first step many women took toward economic empowerment. Their efforts fueled the drive for safer products and fair dealing.
From the beginning, the FTC has been committed to encouraging a competitive marketplace where truth prevails. Skim the first volume of FTC Decisions and you’ll see a surprising number of “shopping cart” cases – inferior coffee beans sold as mocha java, sweetheart deals that kept competing household goods off store shelves, and misleading testimonials for health products, to name just a few. Our law enforcement actions continue to target practices that hit Americans in the wallet.
How has the FTC maintained its consistent focus on unfair and deceptive practices that affect the day-to-day dollars-and-cents interests of consumers? We think some part of that may be due to the leadership of outstanding women.
Appointed in 1964 by President Johnson, Mary Gardiner Jones was the first woman to be named an FTC Commissioner. Since then, 14 women have served as Commissioners. Janet D. Steiger was the first woman to be named Chairman, a position she held from 1989 to 1995.
And now to that moment of living history. We note that for the first time, all four sitting Commissioners – Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, Commissioner Julie Brill, Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen, and Commissioner Terrell McSweeny – are women. What’s more, the FTC’s three bureaus have women at the helm: Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Jessica Rich, Bureau of Competition Director Deborah Feinstein, and Bureau of Economics Director Ginger Zhe Jin.
We think their efforts to protect the interests of all consumers give us a special reason to celebrate March as Women’s History Month
Monday, March 7, 2016
Microsoft and Linx
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/technology/microsoft-opens-its-corporate-data-software-to-linux.html
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Dynamics and Challenges of Business Growth
Growth has traditionally been regarded by academics as the stage of the business lifecycle that follows market entry. Many small companies that were founded during the recent "age of the entrepreneur" have never made it to this next stage, usually due to stagnation or failure. To advance to the growth stage and stay there, all the challenges and changes caused by sustained growth must be well managed, which is no easy task.
Business growth is truly a two-edged sword. When it's controlled and well managed it has the potential of providing tremendous rewards to the managers and shareholders of your company. But when growth is poorly planned and uncontrolled, it often leads to financial distress and failure. Rapid growth for many companies is the only way to survive in highly competitive industries, such as technology, telecommunications and E-commerce. These companies are faced with a choice of either acting quickly to capture additional market share and build brand recognition or sitting on the sidelines and watching others play the game. But do these competitive conditions justify unplanned and unbridled growth, where sound management, legal and accounting principles are disregarded? Certainly not.
Your business's need to grow must be tempered by the need to understand that meaningful, long-term, profitable growth is the by-product of effective management and planning. A strategy that focuses on sensible and logical growth dictates that a balance be created. You must achieve the organizational flexibility to quickly seize on market opportunities, adapt to changes in the marketplace and develop creative solutions for problems that arise within the context of a controlled and well-managed expansion plan. Failure to create this balance will result in a vulnerability to attack by competitors, creditors, hostile employees and creative takeover specialists.
A commitment to properly grow your company will invariably trigger the need for management to undertake greater risks. These risks must be managed from a legal perspective. So, too, must the changes that your emerging-growth business is likely to experience in its structure, products and services, markets and capital requirements. Growth means that you'll be hiring employees, and they'll be looking to your company's top management for leadership.
Growth means that your management will become increasingly decentralized, which may create greater levels of internal politics, protectionism and dissention over the goals and projects that your company should pursue. Growth means that market share will expand, calling for new strategies for dealing with larger competitors. Growth also means that you'll require additional capital, creating new responsibilities to shareholders, investors and institutional lenders Accelerated growth will mean that the risks and changes will occur with greater frequency and with more serious implications.
The requirements and restrictions imposed by the law that affect most business objectives and transactions will typically retard the rate at which your company can grow. The delays caused by legal drafting and negotiation of documents, filings with regulators and meeting statutory requirements, however, are unavoidable and a cost of doing business. Since the law is not likely to go away, take the time to learn the fundamental legal issues that govern your plans and strategies. The specific legal requirements will depend on: the market segments and industry sectors in which your business operates; the exact stage of your company's development; your business's the current and projected capital needs; and the types of barriers that your company must overcome to achieve its objectives.
Why Do You Want to Grow? A key question to ask is, "What is motivating my desire to grow?" For most entrepreneurs, it comes down to fear, greed or ego, as set forth below. Fear. This may be fear of the competition, technological innovation, becoming obsolete, becoming (or staying) unprofitable, losing key employees, rapidly changing marketing conditions, or just be a general fear of being left out or left behind as a company. These fears become the motivator to grow and remain competitive and viable.
These fears may also manifest themselves into specific growth strategies or influence what paths or new markets the company chooses to penetrate. Greed. The desire to be the biggest, the best, the market leader, the most profitable, the fastest growing, or the highest in profile within the industry can be a strong motivator. The focus is on increasing revenues and profits, maximizing shareholder value and maintaining very aggressive rates of growth.
Companies in this mindset are more likely to choose the capital markets or acquisitions as their preferred method of growth. Ego. This is a more dangerous strategy than being motivated by fear or greed. This type of company has a strong need and desire to be loved by its customers and its employees, even at potential cost to its shareholders. It is very focused on building brand loyalty, long-term customer relationships, and strong vendor and distribution channels. It may have a larger marketing and public relations budget than its competitors and is more likely to be a media favorite and household name, even if it is not the darling of Wall Street.
These companies typically enjoy entering into strategic relationships with others and helping to build wealth and are more likely to grow through franchising, licensing, joint ventures or even multi-level marketing. The Challenges of Growing Too Quickly It's natural for a successful business to grow, but some small companies, flushed with early successes, try to grow too quickly. They launch new lines of business, expand into unfamiliar regions, hire layers of employees and sign expensive leases.
When growth is not based on careful planning and efficient use of resources, expansion can rapidly spin out of control. These signs of impending trouble can show up early or late in the process: The decision to expand is based more on instinct than on sound financial analysis, market studies or economic conditions. Servicing the debt you assume to expand begins to consume the added cash flow. You find yourself becoming a stranger to key employees, who have been hired by someone else in the firm. Mounting overhead is squeezing other vital expenditures.
The expansion is generating more media attention or vanity satisfaction for the owner than net profit. Bureaucracy mushrooms: more memos, meetings, manuals and buck-passing. Less business, service and decision-making. How to Evaluate Your Expansion Plans To protect your company from the dangers of unwise or poorly planned growth, run your plans through these checks. Consider the possibility that your company is expanding in too many directions at once, seeking too large a geographical market, too much market share and too many groups or types of customers with too many different products. Sticking to what you do best is often the surest route to growth.
Federal Express doesn't make hamburgers and McDonald's doesn't deliver packages. Carefully assess your motivations. Growth motivated by ego (you "must have" the target company), an excess of cash or an assumption that the company can carry a lot of debt rarely succeeds. Be sure your financial systems can handle the demands of the expansion. That means cash flow, receivables and payables, inventory management, benefits and pension plans, compensation and shareholders' plans. Be sure your current management structure is capable of handling the expansion. For instance, a hierarchical company in which managers have limited autonomy or decision-making responsibility may not be flexible enough.
RPH
Business growth is truly a two-edged sword. When it's controlled and well managed it has the potential of providing tremendous rewards to the managers and shareholders of your company. But when growth is poorly planned and uncontrolled, it often leads to financial distress and failure. Rapid growth for many companies is the only way to survive in highly competitive industries, such as technology, telecommunications and E-commerce. These companies are faced with a choice of either acting quickly to capture additional market share and build brand recognition or sitting on the sidelines and watching others play the game. But do these competitive conditions justify unplanned and unbridled growth, where sound management, legal and accounting principles are disregarded? Certainly not.
Your business's need to grow must be tempered by the need to understand that meaningful, long-term, profitable growth is the by-product of effective management and planning. A strategy that focuses on sensible and logical growth dictates that a balance be created. You must achieve the organizational flexibility to quickly seize on market opportunities, adapt to changes in the marketplace and develop creative solutions for problems that arise within the context of a controlled and well-managed expansion plan. Failure to create this balance will result in a vulnerability to attack by competitors, creditors, hostile employees and creative takeover specialists.
A commitment to properly grow your company will invariably trigger the need for management to undertake greater risks. These risks must be managed from a legal perspective. So, too, must the changes that your emerging-growth business is likely to experience in its structure, products and services, markets and capital requirements. Growth means that you'll be hiring employees, and they'll be looking to your company's top management for leadership.
Growth means that your management will become increasingly decentralized, which may create greater levels of internal politics, protectionism and dissention over the goals and projects that your company should pursue. Growth means that market share will expand, calling for new strategies for dealing with larger competitors. Growth also means that you'll require additional capital, creating new responsibilities to shareholders, investors and institutional lenders Accelerated growth will mean that the risks and changes will occur with greater frequency and with more serious implications.
The requirements and restrictions imposed by the law that affect most business objectives and transactions will typically retard the rate at which your company can grow. The delays caused by legal drafting and negotiation of documents, filings with regulators and meeting statutory requirements, however, are unavoidable and a cost of doing business. Since the law is not likely to go away, take the time to learn the fundamental legal issues that govern your plans and strategies. The specific legal requirements will depend on: the market segments and industry sectors in which your business operates; the exact stage of your company's development; your business's the current and projected capital needs; and the types of barriers that your company must overcome to achieve its objectives.
Why Do You Want to Grow? A key question to ask is, "What is motivating my desire to grow?" For most entrepreneurs, it comes down to fear, greed or ego, as set forth below. Fear. This may be fear of the competition, technological innovation, becoming obsolete, becoming (or staying) unprofitable, losing key employees, rapidly changing marketing conditions, or just be a general fear of being left out or left behind as a company. These fears become the motivator to grow and remain competitive and viable.
These fears may also manifest themselves into specific growth strategies or influence what paths or new markets the company chooses to penetrate. Greed. The desire to be the biggest, the best, the market leader, the most profitable, the fastest growing, or the highest in profile within the industry can be a strong motivator. The focus is on increasing revenues and profits, maximizing shareholder value and maintaining very aggressive rates of growth.
Companies in this mindset are more likely to choose the capital markets or acquisitions as their preferred method of growth. Ego. This is a more dangerous strategy than being motivated by fear or greed. This type of company has a strong need and desire to be loved by its customers and its employees, even at potential cost to its shareholders. It is very focused on building brand loyalty, long-term customer relationships, and strong vendor and distribution channels. It may have a larger marketing and public relations budget than its competitors and is more likely to be a media favorite and household name, even if it is not the darling of Wall Street.
These companies typically enjoy entering into strategic relationships with others and helping to build wealth and are more likely to grow through franchising, licensing, joint ventures or even multi-level marketing. The Challenges of Growing Too Quickly It's natural for a successful business to grow, but some small companies, flushed with early successes, try to grow too quickly. They launch new lines of business, expand into unfamiliar regions, hire layers of employees and sign expensive leases.
When growth is not based on careful planning and efficient use of resources, expansion can rapidly spin out of control. These signs of impending trouble can show up early or late in the process: The decision to expand is based more on instinct than on sound financial analysis, market studies or economic conditions. Servicing the debt you assume to expand begins to consume the added cash flow. You find yourself becoming a stranger to key employees, who have been hired by someone else in the firm. Mounting overhead is squeezing other vital expenditures.
The expansion is generating more media attention or vanity satisfaction for the owner than net profit. Bureaucracy mushrooms: more memos, meetings, manuals and buck-passing. Less business, service and decision-making. How to Evaluate Your Expansion Plans To protect your company from the dangers of unwise or poorly planned growth, run your plans through these checks. Consider the possibility that your company is expanding in too many directions at once, seeking too large a geographical market, too much market share and too many groups or types of customers with too many different products. Sticking to what you do best is often the surest route to growth.
Federal Express doesn't make hamburgers and McDonald's doesn't deliver packages. Carefully assess your motivations. Growth motivated by ego (you "must have" the target company), an excess of cash or an assumption that the company can carry a lot of debt rarely succeeds. Be sure your financial systems can handle the demands of the expansion. That means cash flow, receivables and payables, inventory management, benefits and pension plans, compensation and shareholders' plans. Be sure your current management structure is capable of handling the expansion. For instance, a hierarchical company in which managers have limited autonomy or decision-making responsibility may not be flexible enough.
RPH
Friday, September 4, 2015
The Word For Today
Thursday, 3 September 2015
"Go on a Complaining Fast"
‘… do not complain …’. (James 5:9 NCV)
Whatever you keep doing becomes a habit. That’s why James says, ‘… do not complain …’ Author Jon Gordon says, ‘A complaining fast won’t just make everyone around you happier … you’ll experience more joy, peace, success and positive relationships.’ So instead of complaining when things go wrong:
1) Practice gratitude. Giving thanks for three blessings every day energizes you and makes you feel happier. It’s impossible to be grateful and negative at the same time.
2) Encourage others. Instead of complaining about what people do wrong, focus on what they’re doing right. ‘…encourage … people who are afraid. Help those who are weak. Be patient with everyone’ (1 Thessalonians 5:14 NCV). It’s okay to criticize people’s weaknesses as long as you balance it with three times more praise.
3) Focus on your success. Start a success journal. Every night before you go to bed, write down something great about your day. It could be an uplifting conversation … or an accomplishment you’re proud of. There’s truth to the old saying, ‘Nothing succeeds like success'. When you focus on success you set the stage for more to follow.
4) Learn to let go. Instead of obsessing about what you can’t change, focus on what you can influence. When you stop trying to control everything and place your life in God’s hands, things have a way of working out.
5) Use the power of prayer. Paul says, ‘…pray … on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests …’ (Ephesians 6:18 NIV). Prayer reduces stress, boosts positive energy, and promotes health. When you’re under pressure, instead of complaining, plug into God’s power and recharge your batteries. Amen.
"Go on a Complaining Fast"
‘… do not complain …’. (James 5:9 NCV)
Whatever you keep doing becomes a habit. That’s why James says, ‘… do not complain …’ Author Jon Gordon says, ‘A complaining fast won’t just make everyone around you happier … you’ll experience more joy, peace, success and positive relationships.’ So instead of complaining when things go wrong:
1) Practice gratitude. Giving thanks for three blessings every day energizes you and makes you feel happier. It’s impossible to be grateful and negative at the same time.
2) Encourage others. Instead of complaining about what people do wrong, focus on what they’re doing right. ‘…encourage … people who are afraid. Help those who are weak. Be patient with everyone’ (1 Thessalonians 5:14 NCV). It’s okay to criticize people’s weaknesses as long as you balance it with three times more praise.
3) Focus on your success. Start a success journal. Every night before you go to bed, write down something great about your day. It could be an uplifting conversation … or an accomplishment you’re proud of. There’s truth to the old saying, ‘Nothing succeeds like success'. When you focus on success you set the stage for more to follow.
4) Learn to let go. Instead of obsessing about what you can’t change, focus on what you can influence. When you stop trying to control everything and place your life in God’s hands, things have a way of working out.
5) Use the power of prayer. Paul says, ‘…pray … on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests …’ (Ephesians 6:18 NIV). Prayer reduces stress, boosts positive energy, and promotes health. When you’re under pressure, instead of complaining, plug into God’s power and recharge your batteries. Amen.
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Chinese rushing into physical gold in huge volume as stocks crash
A simple truth;
Owning paper “Gold ETF’s” or “Gold Certificates” is like holding a receipt for a parachute
in a crashing plane.
Posted on 23 June 2015
The first signs of a rush to convert financial assets into physical gold in China have emerged with a spike in physical gold payouts at the Shanghai gold exchanges.
Withdrawals of physical gold from the Shanghai Gold Exchange and Shanghai International Gold Exchange jumped 41 percent in the trading week 8-12th June from the previous week, while year-to-date withdrawals are up 20 per cent to an incredible 1,061 tones.
Massive rotation
To put that figure into perspective, that is higher than China’s entire last officially declared gold reserve. It represents a massive conversion of paper assets into bars of the precious metal.
The 8-12th June gold rush came before the Shanghai Composite began to sell-off late last week, quickly entering a bear market with stocks down more than 20 percent. How much paper gold trading has been converted into the physical stuff in this market collapse?
The shift into physical gold earlier this month looks like the smart money getting out ahead of the herd. But where else can Chinese investors park their cash in an emergency?
Their fear must surely be that another deluge of money printing will be the response of the authorities. Chinese inflation has already been epic since the global financial crisis and the money printing that followed, just go there and buy things to find out.
Bubble profits
Indeed the stock market bubble itself is a product of money printing. Investors wishing to protect themselves from the next blast of inflation, or actually to profit from it are buying gold.
How long before this begins to affect headline gold prices? Surely as the stock market tanks we will not have to wait until the next batch of figures confirms what was happening in early June.
Monday, April 13, 2015
Thumb Tack
Thumb Tack is a search engine that allows the customer to search by location. They basically interview the provider of services and allow the consumer to make an educated decision to utilize the offered services.
Recession Proof Holdings, LLC has joined the free service and encourage you to give it an evaluation along with a review of our services.
They can be found by following this link: Recession Proof Holdings, LLC
Sunday, April 5, 2015
USA.Gov
Don’t Get Scammed by Investment Fraud on the Internet
Don’t Get Scammed by Investment Fraud on the Internet
From the Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Social media and the Internet have become important tools for investors — providing not only a wealth of information for investors, but also opportunities for those looking to take advantage of innocent victims.
Scam artists use social media and the Internet to conduct complex frauds and schemes that even the most seasoned investor may have trouble detecting. They spread false or misleading information, and conceal their identities or even impersonate credible sources of market information.
Below are five tips to help you avoid investment fraud on social media and the Internet:
Be Wary of an Unsolicited Offer to Invest — If you receive an unsolicited message from someone you do not know regarding a “can’t miss investment,” pass up the offer and consider reporting it to the SEC.
Look out for Affinity Fraud — Never make an investment based solely on the recommendation of a member of an organization or group to which you belong. You should use independent information to evaluate any financial opportunity, even those recommended by people you know.
Research the Investment and the Investment Professional — Never rely solely on a testimonial or take a promoter’s word at face value in making an investment. You can check out many investments using the SEC’s EDGAR database or your state’s securities regulator. You can check out registered investment advisers at the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website and registered brokers at the BrokerCheck website of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Be Thoughtful about Privacy and Security Settings — Unless you guard your personal information, it may be available to anyone with access to the Internet — including fraudsters. If you use social media websites as a tool for investing, be aware of the features on these websites that help you protect your privacy and personal information.
Ask Questions and Check out Everything — Be skeptical and research every aspect of an offer before making a decision. It’s your money and if you don’t understand something, ask questions until you are satisfied.
For additional information for investors, visit Investor.gov, the SEC’s website for individual investors.
Sign up for Office of Investor Education and Advocacy Investor Alerts and Bulletins by email orRSS feed. Follow OIEA on Twitter @SEC_Investor_Ed. Like OIEA on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/secinvestoreducation.
The Office of Investor Education and Advocacy has provided this information as a service to investors. It is neither a legal interpretation nor a statement of SEC policy. If you have questions concerning the meaning or application of a particular law or rule, please consult with an attorney who specializes in securities law.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
FB new payment options
Facebook Messenger Adds Peer-to-Peer Payments Feature
March 17, 2015, 12:00 PM PDT
Facebook users can now send money to one another through the company’s standalone messaging app, Messenger.
The long-rumored product was unveiled Tuesday, and lets users tie their debit card to their Facebook account in order to pass money through messaging. The Messenger app now includes a small “$” icon above the keyboard which opens a payments screen where users can type the amount they wish to send.
The money is then transferred through Facebook, which holds the money for “seconds” before sending it along to the other user’s bank, according to Facebook product manager Steve Davis. If the recipient doesn’t have a card attached to his or her account, Facebook will hold the money until they’ve set one up.
The new product makes Facebook an instantaneous competitor to other peer-to-peer payments companies like Venmo, Square and even Snapchat, which rolled out a similar pay-through-text service in November called Snapcash.
“We realized that there were all these conversations [on Messenger] that were forced to go somewhere else in order to actually finish,” Davis said. “You had to go to another platform to actually pay another person.”
Unlike Snapchat, which partnered with Square to handle the actual money transfers, Facebook built its entire system in-house. That means that debit card info will be housed on Facebook servers.
The company has stored data like this for years already when people pay for games or gifts through the platform. Messenger payments are a good way to get more debit cards on file in case Facebook does decide to expand further into commerce later on; the company is already partnering with Stripe to power the Buy button, and that test is likely to expand.
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