Category Archives: Business

How To Select The Best Residual Income Business Opportunity

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A lot of people are actively looking for a lucrative residual income business opportunity, but they make critical mistakes. Heres how you can avoid those costly errors. The 3 key main factors to consider are:

1) the amount of monthly income generated
2) the amount of resources required to create that stream of residual income
3) the duration of the income, including whether or not the amount of income increases or decreases over time.

Most people make the error of, first, being introduced to a company and then, second, trying to see if it is a good residual income business opportunity. They fall into the proverbial trap of not being able to see the forest for the trees. They find the tree first, without knowing what kind of forest it is in. A better approach is to identify the ideal forest first, and then look for the best tree in that forest, second. Giant Sequoias are much much taller than pine trees, but you wouldnt see that if you only look in pine forests.

The kind of forest to look in for the absolute best residual income business opportunity is NOT that of the employee or the self employed. This includes traditional work-from-home businesses. In addition, some people think that network marketing is a good forest to look in, but there is so much competition in network marketing, both in selling products and in recruiting a downline, that the return on your efforts is almost guaranteed to be low. That is how micro-economics works: high competition = low margins of return. If you are looking for the absolute best residual income business opportunity, the proper forest to look in is that of the investor.

As an investor, you are able to leverage other peoples time and other peoples money, while retaining control. You dont have to sell any products or services in the midst of fierce competition. The amount of income created is directly related to the rate of return you are able to generate. You can even hire high-performing professional traders to do the active investing for you, on a pay for performance basis, so that you dont have learn how to become a full-time trader yourself. The amount of personal resources involved can be minimal, especially if you are using other peoples money. The most valuable resource is specialized knowledge, which can be learned, from the right source. And the duration of income can be multi-generational, recession proof, and increasing every year, due to the power of compounding returns.

One excellent, yet relatively unknown source for gaining the specialized knowledge, and careful guidance on how to apply it correctly, is The Financial Freedom Foundation. They are a non-profit organization dedicated to showing people how to become financially independent. With the resources they provide, you can grow your own personal forest of Giant Sequoia sized money trees with $100 dollar bills coming off of each branch, for you to use at your convenience. Theyll show you how to create up to $100K residual income within 12 months, and give you the knowledge of how to grow that to over $1M per year, within 5 to 10 years all this using other peoples time, talents, and money. That is the absolute best residual income business opportunity around. They even have a FREE REPORT that you can download from their website, to get an inside peek as to how you can do it yourself.

Is It Better To Buy Or Lease Commercial Space For My Business

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Your business location should be tailor-made to fit with your company budget, spacing requirements and ease of operation. For some business owners, leasing affords a sense of freedom and relieves the financial burden of a down payment, yet may be too restrictive for some kinds of operations. The decision to buy a piece of commercial property offers its own set of risks and rewards, and should be considered carefully before entering into a mortgage contract.

Leasing Commercial Space

1. Cost Effective

Leasing a commercial space will usually require a one to two month move-in deposit, making the rental space a cost efficient way to do business. New business owners may be strapped for cash, and by leasing, rather than purchasing, your storefront or office is cost effective to set up shop with minimal funding.

2. Flexibility

Leasing a commercial space gives the entrepreneur plenty of room to grow, downsize or change locations. Although once you sign a lease, you are locked into a fixed amount of time to make the lease payments, the terms may be only a matter of months to be released and start over in another location.

3. Freedom

Setting up shop without the burden of a mortgage to pay allows a sense of financial freedom. Albeit, a purchased piece of commercial property could be leased or sold to another, there could be months before the owner receives any income from the property. A hefty mortgage may also interfere with business profits and may demand downsizing of personnel.

4. Maintenance

A leased office or shop has a landlord to lean on, taking away tedious responsibilities with the plumbing, electricity and security. In a leasing situation, any repairs or legal liabilities are left in the hands of the building management team.

5. Subletting

In some situations, you may sublet your leased office space to another. However, this must be cleared in writing from the management office, and careful attention given to their rules and regulations for renting out the space.

Buying Commercial Space

1. Secured Location

Buying a piece of commercial property adds assurance that the space is secured and cannot be given to someone else. In a leasing situation, when the lease expires, the renewal process may not have the same initial terms, thus proving unfavorable to renew. However, when you purchase, your prime location is secured.

2. Equity

As with a residential piece of property, a commercial owner may take out cash against the mortgage. In an emergency financial crisis, having a mortgage to borrow from lends a sense of security and provision of funds. Most commercial purchases will require 20 to 25 percent down on the purchase price, giving instant equity to the business owner.

3. Remodeling

When you have bought a property, it is your to do with as you wish. Remolding, expansion and reconfiguration are yours for the taking. The ownership allows the business structure to be molded around the enterprise for a perfect fit and usage of space.

4. Tax Deductions

The interest on a commercial loan is tax deductible, with allowances for deducting any depreciation.

5. Lease Your Excess Space

If you own the property, you may lease your excess space without any restrictions from a third party over your head.

Use Noncompete Agreements To Help Protect Your Business From

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Q: One of my former employees has started a competing business and is calling my clients and trying to steal their business from me. Do I have any legal recourse against him?
— Brad J.

A: I hate to break this to you, Brad, but unless this former employee signed a noncompete agreement while on your payroll, there is probably very little you can do to stop him from wooing your customers. You should discuss the situation with your attorney, but unless this person is also breaking the law in some other way (using stolen trade secrets, for example) your attorney will probably concur with me.

Renegade former employees riding the free enterprise wave is one reason noncompete agreements are gaining in popularity among employers who hope to use them to help protect their business from competitive threats launched by former employees. Many employers are now demanding that key employees sign noncompetes as a stipulation of employment. While signing noncompetes usually doesn’t sit well with employees who view them as potential roadblocks to their upwardly mobile career path, many businesses will not hire a key employee without his or her signature on the dotted line.

A noncompete agreement is a formal contract between you and your employees in which they promise not to use information or contacts pertinent to your business in a competing situation. In other words, they agree not to take everything they learn working for you and put it to use for someone else. This could mean going to work for a competitor or starting a competing business of their own.

While not popular with employees, noncompete agreements are a good way for employers to keep key employees on the payroll and protect the company’s proprietary information. That said, do not go overboard with noncompetes: not every employee should be required to sign one. If an employee does not have access to sensitive information, customer or accounting data, or is integral to the overall success of your business, there is no need to have them sign a noncompete. The janitor, for example, poses very little threat to your business if he gets a job with a competitor. Your sales manager, on the other hand, can devastate your business by hooking his wagon to a competing horse.

Which employees should sign noncompete agreements? While the prerequisites vary from business to business, the following is a good general list. The term “employees” represents executive level, management, supervisory, and non-management personnel relative to that example:

– Employees involved in research or product development. – Employees involved in the design, fabrication, engineering, and manufacturing process. – Employees who service products made and sold by your company. – Sales and service employees who have regular contact with customers or sensitive customer information. – Employees with access to sensitive business information or trade secrets. – Most importantly, employees who have sufficient information about your business that would allow them to start a competing business.

Most business experts agree that noncompete agreements are generally a good way to protect your business. The downside is that noncompete agreements are often difficult to enforce and in some states, may not be enforceable at all. Many state courts have ruled that noncompete agreements are too restrictive on an employee’s right to earn a living.

In California, for instance, noncompetes are generally only enforceable in connection with the sale of a business and not for employees. In Alabama, noncompetes are generally enforceable in only two contexts: the sale of a business and in connection with employment – but even then the enforcement requires that there be a valid interest worthy of protection.

Some states require that the noncompete be signed at the beginning of the employment relationship and will only consider the enforcement of a noncompete signed after the initial employment date if the signing of the noncompete was accompanied by a promotion, raise in pay, or other event that elevated the employee to a more important role within the company.

To be enforceable, noncompete agreements must be reasonable on three accounts: Time, geography and scope. Regarding time, you can’t restrict someone from competing with you forever, so one to three years is the accepted time period for most noncompetes.

As to geography, you can enforce restriction in the general area where you conduct business, but you can not enforce the restriction beyond those boundaries. And for scope, the agreement can restrict certain actions on the part of the employee, but can’t be so generally restrictive that the employee won’t be able to earn a living working in the same industry in a noncompetitive position.

One interesting thing to note: noncompete agreements are not enforceable against certain “professionals,” like doctors, CPAs, and lawyers (who do you think writes all those noncompetes).

At this point, Brad, the best thing you can do is contact your attorney to see if you have other grounds for suit, then contact your customers and let them know what’s going on.

Explain the situation regarding the former employee, but do so calmly and resist the urge to tell them what you really think of this guy. Showing your anger to the customer is not going to help you keep their business .

Reaffirm your relationship with the client, tell him how much you value his business, remind him of your track record and level of service, then ask one simple question: What can I do to make sure your business stays with me?

Here’s to your success!

How Office Cleaning Services Can Improve Your Business

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Your business and your office represent a major investment of your time, effort, energy, and finances. Keeping them up and running effectively is important for many reasons, then, and the payoff for keeping things in great shape is multifaceted. A clean space allows more work to get done and keeps your employees happiness levels higher. In order to get the best service and cleanliness possible, you can seek expert help from people who have been in the business for many years. Quality office cleaning services in Gainesville, FL, are a necessary part of running an office, and there are many benefits to utilizing an outside service.
A Clean Office Is a Happy Office
The benefits of having a clean office over one that does not receive regular, thorough cleanings are too numerous to count. For one, a space that is more sanitary prevents the spread of germs and diseases, which not only keeps everyone healthier, but also keeps people working harder and cuts down on time spent at home, sick.

In addition to physical health, a clean office leads to better morale, whereas a cluttered space leads to cluttered minds, and it is hard to work efficiently in a dirty space. This also leads to better employee retention, since no one wants to work in a disgusting space, and someone with real talent wont stick around for long if they do not enjoy the office in which they work every day. If things are kept clean and nice-looking, people are much more likely to work hard and stick around.

When your companys reputation is on the line, you want everything to be as perfect as possible. Being known for a clean, tidy, and pleasant office space can go a long way, and the benefits you will reap will be well worth the effort.

Take Care of Business

To make things easy on yourself, sign up for a cleaning service and get on a regular schedule. Something consistent, regular, and thorough will keep things clean and make sure they run smoothly. When setting up your services, you can discuss your exact needs and expectations, rather than just hoping that things work out for the best, and you can monitor the state of the office over time to make sure that those needs and expectations are being met.

Benefits of a Contractor

When considering office cleaning services in Gainesville, FL, your two main options are to set up a contract with an outside company or to hire someone in-house to work for you specifically. While both options have pros and cons, hiring a contractor has many benefits. First, the employees of the company should be licensed and insured, which could be a lot of work to obtain if you were taking care of it all yourself. There is also the benefit of using someone professional and experienced, even if you are new to the business. The company will know how things normally work (although you can personalize your contract as much as you desire) and how to keep things running smoothly. Cleaning companies already have efficient systems, preferred vendor relationships for cleaning products and equipment, the benefit of cheaper costs for materials because of buying in bulk, and more. The company will also take care of staffing, subs, etc., taking one more responsibility off of your plate. Additionally, since companies are eager to maintain their contracts, the quality of work is often higher because the employers hold their employees to very high standards. Quality work, good prices, and years of experience make these kinds of packages very cost-efficient and very beneficial to your business.

Proper Stockpile Management In Construction Works

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A typical component of waste management is the storing or stockpiling of waste materials for recycling or reuse. The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) requires that this action is carried out in the correct manner to ensure the probability of damage to human health and the environment is eliminated or reduced. Storage or stockpiling will have to be taken on exclusively in appropriate circumstances for genuine and favorable purposes.

Stockpile sites are used to enable the short term storage of material or tools for construction or maintenance projects. The kinds of components which may be put away are:

Select substance and fill – like sand and rock
Topsoil, wood chips, mulch and waste vegetation
Virgin Excavated Natural Material (VENM) and spoil
Recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) – rotomilled material
Concrete or asphalt block material taken from pavements
Aggregate and Pre-coated aggregate
Cold mix asphalt
Road base
Parked machinery and vehicles
Construction materials such as Jersey Kerb and traffic signs
General materials such as timber, steel etc.

Stockpile sites are generally not to be used for the storing of any waste which contains coal tar or any sort of waste which is classified as unhealthy, restricted solid, special or liquid waste as classified in the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997

Stockpile sound management routines

Just before decision is taken to start a impermanent stockpile on site a risk assessment must be undertaken with the goal of protecting against or reducing the chance of destructive blows on human health and/or the environment. In every case, the site and substance specific conditions must be thought about when deciding on the actual demands pertaining to bunding, on-site structure and community assessment.

With regards to the locality, probable off-site challenges and amount of community interest associated with an action, the proper measure of community consulting may need to be set up both at the preparing and operational periods of stockpiling activities. In such cases, stakeholders including adjacent neighborhoods and nearby citizens ought to be notified on factors including duration, possible threats and impacts and the associated minimization measures. Suitable contact info of business or project managers should also be provided to the community for open correspondence to enable inquiries or complaints to be attended to.

On-site risks would be determined by factors including the:

waste type and chemical and physical qualities of the materials being stockpiled
locale and climate of the site
hydrological and hydrogeological conditions which include closeness to surface and ground waters, water quality and secure environmental values
stretch of time materials are going to be stored
projected management method of the stockpiled materials

Further off-site risks have to be taken into account and rely on factors like:

closeness to and sensitivity of the enveloping atmosphere (including unpleasant effects to water, human health and amenity)
exposure due to height in metres AHD of the working floor level which the stockpile is situated upon and in accordance with the encompassing environment
enactment of proper pollution control standards
supervision of traffic within the site

The following environmental protection actions should be used to ascertain and maintain stockpiles on construction sites:

The border of the stockpile need to be delineated with a bund (made out of earth/RAP etc) or other type of fencing or barrier.
Materials must be stockpiled at the least 5 metres away from foliage or native vegetation, without having it pressed up around the foundation of trees.
Stockpiled materials should not be in excess of 2m tall and should have a maximum 2:1 slope.
Erosion and sedimentation regulators needs to be constructed in between the site and any drainage lines or down-slope areas.
A diversion bund need to be placed on the uphill section of the site to redirect water round the site.
Cover stockpiles with plastic or store them damped down if airborne debris may be a problem.
Stockpiles sites have to be just right to hold all needed components without burying protective precautions just like silt fences. If you have excessive material you may need to widen your site protection actions.
Stockpile sites have to be examined repeatedly to make sure that the site sign (which plainly labels and locates the site), border bunding, sedimentation and erosion controls and boundary delineation are all in order.

At the end of the construction project all non permanent stockpile sites ought to be removed from site and the site restored as essential for contract specs.