Passing the Perceived Small Business Title

When building a business, we tend to look for reputable trade associations and assistance to help distinguish ourselves as a steady and reliable company.

We are Recession Proof Holdings, LLC (RPH).

In doing so, we turn to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) as it was thought to be a reliable source of information and was used by many companies as a benchmark resource to inform customers about how serious and committed a business is. 

We looked into many business associations, such as, The Chamber of Commerce, The Elk Lodge, Rotary Association, and many others.

The interesting thing we learned was that each of these organizations charged a nominal fee for membership. While most were upfront about the fees and benefits they offered, there was one that was not so easily understood. The Better Business Bureau (BBB).

The BBB appeared appealing in name and benefits.  Just look at the name... "Better" (enhancing better businesses) "Business" (the understanding of businesses) "Bureau" (a term used by government agencies). I can remember thinking that this was a Federal Agency when I was a young man.

This was the "Agency" to use, I thought, for our burgeoning business. Perfect! A government agency that my tax dollars had paid for already. A great way to register our business with the Federal Government, I thought.

We started researching. We saw the logos on many small business doors and windows, understood that this is where we report any problems with the business that we might have.  Heck, they advertised that they even helped settle any disagreements between business and customer. This has got to be it!

After preliminary research, we decided to make the call.  An older sounding gentleman answered our call. Very enthusiastic and optimistic sounding, he asked; "what type of business do you have?" I replied; "We are a holding company," being so proud to have established, what I thought was a perfect business model. 

We had started with, real-estate, owning our properties outright, established a property management and maintenance company to oversee our operations. We own a Consulting Company, working in the marketing, advertising, technology, Executive and Business Consulting spaces. 

We also hold a Non-profit organization geared towards our military, veterans and their families as our way to maintain community engagement, create additional employment opportunities and support other nonprofit organizations in this space.

He replied, "What is a Holding Company?" A little taken back, I started to explain. "We are a Parent Company that provides governance to our subsidiary companies, we provide liquid assets and absorb the majority of the tax burdens," I said. "A SMB" (small to medium sized business).

I continued, "We're registered with the Secretary of State, the Federal and State Internal Revenue Departments. We maintain our subsidiaries under the same Federal Tax Identification Number" (TIN or EIN). Our NGO (Non Governmental Organization) has a separate tax ID number."

We... He interrupted me, saying "What's you websites address? I can just look it up there."

Well, a little confused that a Bureau for business didn't know what I was describing, struck me as a little strange, I rattled off "www.recessionproofholding.com." 

"Okay sir" he said. I will take a look at it a call you back tomorrow. "Sure thing" I said.  "Look forward to hearing back from you sir."

The following day, he called.  He said, his manager was concerned about the affiliate marketing campaign on our website and asked what it was.  I explained, that our Consulting Company understood this market and were advertising our ability to assist companies and individuals in this space. He appeared to understand and respect this explanation. Finally, he then dropped the one thing we wasn't expecting... the price.

It appears, that our Holding Company, Recession Proof Holdings, LLC, our Property Management Company, dba Murphy Properties, LLC, and Consultant Company, RPH Consulting, LLC, all needed to buy a product from BBB.  And, if we so desired, we could add an additional service for RPH's Foundation for Military and Veterans Affairs (the NGO).

If you understand business, you know what I was thinking! Here's another organization that's claiming to work in good faith between company and customer, trying to profits from businesses while claiming to represent consumers. 

This concept was and still is beyond me. Why would we pay for someone to determine whether we are operating on behalf of our customers? If we were to have a non-legal dispute, wouldn't it be better to settle with our customers, rather than pay a rolling fee to a organization to stand in the middle, then siphon it's operating costs for us?

"No go," I said, not explaining my rationale to the older gentleman. He then began to try to negotiate a better price. "No go," again.  Surprised, he turn to "Let me talk to my supervisor." At this point, I'm blown away.

In typical fashion, his supervisor called. "We're concerned that your company is engaging in MLM!" (A term that means Multi-Level-Marketing or a pyramid scheme). I explain kindly, we understand the affiliate marketing programs and strategies companies use to recruit salesforces, we help companies utilize this resource. I rattled off some of the large companies that we were promoting such as, Hewlett Packard (HP), Google, Microsoft, etc..

It was then clear to me, we had left the respiratory of a traditional small business mindset behind. We had jumped the small business theory of business and possessed a medium to large business standard operating procedures. 

However, the better business bureau (bbb) stuck in the dinosaur age and like a tick or leach, stuck on our businesses and many more like us. They keep a database, derived by internet searches from complaining consumers. They attempt to force businesses to pay their operating costs to clean up negative feedback.  We're supposed to pay them to address each issue or let us respond publicly, to what may or may not be legitimate comments or complaints.  Wow, what manipulation! 

If nothing else, we've learned from this experience, to choose our battles. More importantly, never engage with unscrupulous entities. Yes we are silent, but for only publicly but not in our diary of thoughts.

By Jeffrey Murphy, 

Founder and President 

Recession Proof Holdings, LLC

Check out @RPH052012's Tweet: https://twitter.com/RPH052012/status/708018822540873728?s=09

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

Microsoft and Linx

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/technology/microsoft-opens-its-corporate-data-software-to-linux.html

Letter from Senator

https://outreach.senate.gov/iqextranet/view_newsletter.aspx?id=235538&c=quorum_kirk-iq

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

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.‎

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.

http://www.arabianmoney.net/gold-silver/2015/06/23/chinese-rushing-into-physical-gold-in-huge-volume-as-stocks-crash/

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

The five (5) "Whys" and how to ues them

FB new payment options

Facebook Messenger Adds Peer-to-Peer Payments Feature

SOCIAL

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• By Kurt Wagner
• @KurtWagner8
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• ETHICS

March 17, 2015, 12:00 PM PDT

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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.