Protect Your Business With Non-Disclosure Agreements
Protect Your Business With Non-Disclosure Agreements
Every business should protect proprietary information when dealing with independent contractors, vendors and other businesses. The best way to do this is to use a non-disclosure agreement, often referred to as an “NDA.”
Keywords:
nda, non disclosure agreements
Every business should protect proprietary information when dealing with independent contractors, vendors and other businesses. The best way to do this is to use a non-disclosure agreement, often referred to as an “NDA.”
What is an NDA?
An NDA is an agreement between two parties to protect confidential information disclosed in a business transaction. The proprietary information can include business methods, finances, client lists, and anything that isn’t already readily available in the public arena. If a party subsequently breaches the NDA, the injured party can sue for damages, an injunction against further disclosure and attorney’s fees.
Directional NDA
In many situations, only one party requires the protection provided by an NDA. If you invent a new product, you are going to need an NDA from manufacturers, distributors, etc., before you discuss the product with them. While this may seem like common sense, most businesses fail to carry the thought through to their daily activities.
Practically every business hires independent contractors, but they rarely obtain NDAs prior to disclosing information to the contractors. For example, do you use third parties to create or maintain your websites? Did you obtain NDAs from any of them? If not, what’s to keep that party from using your business methods on other sites? A directional NDA can keep this from occurring.
Mutual NDA
As the name suggest, a mutual NDA allows two parties to protect confidential information. The mutual NDA is typically used when two businesses are negotiating a joint venture. Each party must disclose enough information to make the negotiations viable, but neither wants that information made public if the negotiations fail. If negotiations go well, additional non-disclosure information will be incorporated into the joint venture agreement to protect additional information revealed during the joint venture.
Refusing to Sign an NDA
Alarms and warning lights should go off if a party refuses to sign your NDA. Unless they can provide a very compelling reason for the refusal, you should walk away from the business relationship.
When An NDA isn’t really an NDA
Just because a document is titled, “Non-Disclosure Agreement”, does not mean it provides you with protection. You should ALWAYS read the language of an NDA because the document may establish that you are WAIVING all confidentiality rights. The waiver might be very direct and read something like, “The disclosure of information pursuant to this Agreement shall not be considered confidential.” Alternatively, the language may be more indirect and read, “The parties acknowledge and agree that all information exchanged pursuant to this agreement has previously been established in public forums.” Regardless, the “reverse NDAs” strip you of protection and should not be signed.
Obtaining non-disclosure agreements should be a standard practice for your business. Don’t exposure your proprietary business secrets to others without this protection.
Tips For A Successful Garage Sale
Tips For A Successful Garage Sale
Everyone wants to throw a successful garage sale. However exactly what success means is different from person to person. This article is based on the idea that a successful garage sale does two things well. 1) makes you money 2) cleans out your house and yard. Below we provide you a collection of tips you can use to make sure you have a truly successful garage sale.
You want customers to stick around and buy something, so one of the most important tips for a successful ga…
Keywords:
garage sale tips, garage sale ideas, garage sale
Everyone wants to throw a successful garage sale. However exactly what success means is different from person to person. This article is based on the idea that a successful garage sale does two things well. 1) makes you money 2) cleans out your house and yard. Below we provide you a collection of tips you can use to make sure you have a truly successful garage sale.
You want customers to stick around and buy something, so one of the most important tips for a successful garage sale is to have an attractive display. Put a tablecloth on that table piled with china. If you want to spruce it up with a candelabra and a vase, then you would probably be well served to do so with a candelabra or vase you are actually selling. Otherwise, people will continually carry those items up to you and ask, “How much for this?” You want to save yourself the need for explanations of just what is for sale when you are trying to move stuff out of your home.
You also need tips for a successful garage sale if you really liked the first experience and want to have repeat customers. While you are setting up, you can help your sales by carefully aligning separate types of merchandise such that there is a flow between the various portions of the items on display. If you have a variety of car-care manuals, put the books near the automotive parts. Put the automotive parts near the tools. Put the tools near the gardening implements. Put the gardening implements near the camping gear.
Always try to make one section seem to be a logical fit with the items that are in the next section. That way, you will create a sort of logical buying flow in the mind of the buyer. As a result when they are looking at one item, they have a much better chance of seeing another, somewhat related item next to it that has a greater chance of catching their interest.
Following these tips for a successful garage sale will bring in lots of customers and in turn lots of sales.
The Worst Small Business Financing Strategy Ever?
The Worst Small Business Financing Strategy Ever?
If you are a small business owner, or considering becoming one, then you will be interested in learning how to avoid cash flow suicide brought on by a poor business financing strategy.
Keywords:
business financing strategy
The Worst Small Business Financing Strategy Ever?
Depending on whose stats you pay attention to, approximately 80% of small businesses fail within their first 5 years of operation.
In many cases, its not that a particular business could not succeed; there just wasn’t sufficient time to figure out how to succeed.
Which brings us to the worst small business financing strategy ever.
Here’s how it work.
The would be entrepreneur develops what they believe to be a sure fire business plan that can’t fail.
Unable to locate any form of start up capital, they start their business with credit cards as the only source of financing, and an expectation of sustainable business results within 3 to 6 months.
If everything goes well, the debt will be retired within a year and funds will start building in the bank account.
Sounds Good, right?
I mean the thinking lines up perfectly with all the get rich quick business opportunities that exist on and off the internet today where some of them even try to convince you to use your credit cards because the opportunity is soooooooo good and can’t miss.
The problem is that every business can miss.
Every single one.
And the vast majority do fail.
Have you ever spoken to someone who runs a successful small business; perhaps one that’s been around for 10 to 20 years?
If you take the time to ask one of these entrepreneurs about their start up period, what you learn may shock you.
Even some of the most successful small and medium sized businesses out there today had some hairy moments making a go of it in the early years.
And some times the difficult early years lasted for several years.
The point here is simply this.
The process of getting a business operating and successful can take many unexpected twists and turns, no matter how diligent you are in creating a thorough business plan and business financing strategy.
Therefore, to increase your probability for success you need to allow for the unknown, the unplanned, and the unfair.
A business financing strategy that cannot accommodate unforeseen events is not much of a strategy.
A business financing strategy that is based on high interest credit cards that can destroy both your cash flow and your personal credit is also not much of a strategy.
To improve your odds of small business success, here are some tips for developing a solid business financing strategy.
>>> Invest Your Own Cash
If you have some of your own cash penciled into your business financing strategy, it will immediately increase your likelihood of getting some sort of start up loan.
The more “skin” you have in the game, the more interested a lender will be in approving your loan request.
There is also something to be said about the psychological incentive of losing your own money and the motivation it creates for you to work harder to keep it.
>>> Create Contingencies in Your Cash Flow
Whatever you estimate your working capital requirement to be, double it. At least increase it by a factor larger than 1.
Things can and will go wrong, so give yourself a fighting chance and develop a business financing strategy that allows for less than perfect results.
>>> Use Credit Cards Wisely
Used properly, credit cards can be the cheapest form of working capital that you have at your disposal.
Some business credit cards provide 40 days of interest free financing. If you pay off the entire balance every month, you have an extremely low cost of working capital financing.
But if you start carrying large balances without paying them down monthly, you will go from the cheapest source of working capital to one of the most expensive, and you will likely also destroy your credit rating in the process.
>>> Make Timely Government Remittances
Small businesses are by default tax collectors. And the taxes collected can sometimes wind up funding the business for longer periods of time than they were ever intended.
Using government remittances as a business financing strategy is basically a bad idea.
Government agencies that are assigned to collect from you have large budgets and enough broad sweeping authority to create plenty of grief for you if you are too slow in paying.
If you apply for a business loan while you have an overdue balance with a government tax agency, your loan request will likely be declined.
Even after the balance is paid up, you may have burned your bridge with the lender as a history of overdue government remittances can brand you as a bad credit risk.
>>> Watch Spending Closely At Startup
One of the things you can control early on is how much you spend and what you spend it on.
This is going to change in time, but if you can spend wisely in the beginning you may be able to avoid a cost cutting exercise further down the line.
While its normally true that you have to spend money to make money, you can still be smart about the spending process.
eShagun.com-Revolutionizing the way you send Gift to India – Gift card vs Traditional gifts
eShagun.com-Revolutionizing the way you send Gift to India – Gift card vs Traditional gifts
Gift giving in Indian culture is as holy as any religious engagement. Gifts also denote how much you care and how you care. Gifts can be given in cash
Keywords:
Gifts to india, gift card to india, Visa gift card to india, wedding gift to india, anniversary gift to india, gift to india on festivals/occasions.Perfect gift to India- Gift of choice, no Guesswork.
Revolutionizing Gifting to India
Gift giving in Indian culture is as holy as any religious engagement. Gifts also denote how much you care and how you care. Gifts can be given in cash and kind, from a simple single stick Rose Flower to a Rolls Royce. They help in improving and building personal and professional relationships. Especially, the weight of the gift increases when it reaches you from far away land.
Just imagine giving a splendid anniversary gift to your parents in India or giving a gift to your sister back home on Rakhi. These moments are priceless and there is a simple way to do them, gifting visa gift cards to India. At the premium visa gifting website eShagun.com, all you do is choose the Denomination of the gift card and the recipient chooses the gift from over 300,000 locations across India.
Gifts in corporate lifestyle definitely are considered as the best morale booster and now it is made easy by eShagun.com and their Visa Gift Card. The visa gift cards exclusively from eShagun.com are the best way to recognize and uniquely reward incentives to your organizations Indian employees and/or is most scalable method of thanking your loyal Indian customers. eShagun.com has simplified your gifting needs by marking the gifts with nominated amounts pre loaded on them, ready for distribution.
This service is exclusively available online only through eShagun.com, a complete secure ordering website. The gift cards are user friendly and hassle free. These gifts can not be over priced. The denomination you choose will be the same gift amount your loved one in India will receive hence far better than choosing and sending a gift. This now has revolutionized the way people gift their loved ones in India. You just choose the denomination or the price range of your gift and leave the rest to the website. It will handle all the necessary transactions (of course secure) for you’re girt to reach your loved ones. With Visa gift cards at eShagun.com, you just give your loved ones what they want.
There are many other features on the website. As you sign up with the website you are entitled to the following services.
You can send free online greeting cards with customized look and feel. Not just this, because of your schedule there is a huge chance of you forgetting many important occasions, so this website will provide you with a free reminder service. Hence, from now on there are no sorry cards only great gifts with visa gift cards. The second most important thing is the registration will entitle you for the five star experience of gifting. You will suddenly be upgraded to a master gift giver and definitely will earn many brownie points with your loved ones. There are no more guess works, shabby ordering processes, generic and impersonalized gifts and what more the recipient has more than 300,000 locations across India to choose his shopping location. This is what I call five star gifting experience.
Juego de GoldRing de la aclaración 2012 y de la abundancia de despertar – ventas www.premieres.com de DVD
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Invoice Factoring Companies: A Valuable Funding Resource
Invoice Factoring Companies: A Valuable Funding Resource
Invoice factoring companies can dramatically improve a businesses working capital by making funds available shortly after the invoice is generated rather than when the customer decides to pay.
Keywords:
invoice factoring companies, invoice factoring company, Invoice Factoring Companies
Invoice factoring companies can provide immediate, short-term funds for companies that are unable to obtain a traditional bank loan. Financing from traditional banks generally requires commercial borrowers to have two years in business and showing a profit. Banks tend to favor loans secured by tangible assets like machinery, inventory, equipment and real estate.
Working with factoring companies, in contrast, are less restrictive. When you sell your invoices – often called factoring – you don’t incur any debt so there are no monthly payments. Plus, you can control your cash flow by determining how much to factor and when. Young, growing companies or those with tax liens – and even bankruptcy – can still qualify for an invoice factoring account. This makes factoring companies a viable source of funding for many businesses.
How It Works
In simple terms, here’s how invoice factoring works: Factoring companies purchase your accounts receivable or freight bills at a discounted rate and issue you a lump sum payment. Essentially, your company sells its accounts receivable or invoices at a lower value for quick cash, instead of waiting the usual 30 to 45 days for the invoices to be paid.
After you deliver your product/service and generate an approved invoice, factoring companies can provide your money in as little as 24 hrs. In essence, working with a factoring company can help speed up your cash flow. The influx of cash can better enable you to meet your financial obligations. For example, you can use the money to increase your working capital, pay bills or taxes, pay up front for equipment or supplies, and even take advantage of early payment discounts offered to you by your vendors.
Typically, factoring companies pay 80 percent of the invoice value upfront. Then they issue the remaining value—minus a factoring fee—once they’ve receive payment from your client. The factoring fee is determined by a combination of the credit worthiness of your customer base, the average terms, the invoice number and size, and factoring volume.
Factoring companies structure their fees in any number of ways, but the rate you pay generally works out to be about three to five percent of the invoice value. Keep in mind that financing fees will fluctuate according to the creditworthiness and performance of your individual receivables. If there’s an extremely low level of risk involved, fees can be as low as 1 percent of the invoice amount.
History of Factoring Companies
Factoring companies have been around for centuries. In the U.S., factoring companies first emerged in the colonies shortly after the British began colonizing New England. At that time, a factoring company was a business or individual that facilitated trade between sellers of goods in Europe and buyers of goods in the colonies.
Factoring companies would “vouch” for the buyer—essentially ensuring the seller in the “old” country that the buyer in the “new” country was creditworthy. In addition to charging a fee for their credit advice, factoring companies became trade merchants themselves and facilitated the sale by acting as the buyer and reseller of goods.
Currently, in North America, the factoring business maintains close ties to the apparel and textiles industries. In fact, an estimated 60 to 70 percent of the North American markets dollar turnover comes from these industries. But many modern factoring companies also specialize in industries such as furnishings, trucking, IT staffing, temporary staffing, nurse staffing and manufacturing. Regardless of the industry, many of the basic services offered by full-service factoring companies have remained largely unchanged. Factoring companies generally offer credit advice to help their clients minimize bad debt, cash advances against invoices and collection expertise.
How Factoring Companies Operate
Factoring companies range from small financial service businesses to large banks. Each company has its own approach to operating. For example, many factoring companies specialize in specific industries or regions. Some may require a certain minimum per invoice or total invoice amount before they’ll conduct business with you.
Regardless of the industry or value of invoices involved, all factoring companies work as middlemen. And they have two basic requirements for qualifying for their alternative form of financing. First, you should have no existing primary liens on your accounts receivable, which means no other company should have a claim on payments when they come in.
Next, your customers must be creditworthy because factoring companies depend on the ability to successfully collect on your clients’ invoices. That means your company’s credit history won’t necessarily factor into a decision to approve or deny your account. Instead, factoring companies will primarily consider your clients’ payment history and financial stability.
Here’s a step-by-step example of the process of working with a factoring company:
• You complete an application, submitting essential information about your company and accounts receivables.
• The factoring company does its due diligence and prepares all the necessary legal paperwork. Typically this process takes five to ten days, and some factors may charge an application fee.
• Once you begin working with the factoring company, you’ll prepare your customer invoices and forward them to the company for an immediate cash advance.
• The factoring company will bill the customer and follow up to ensure receipt of payment, handling all the accounting, invoicing and other payment processing responsibilities. (The company likely will verify that you actually completed the work or delivered the products.)
• If everything checks out, the factoring company will advance anywhere from 70 to 90 percent of the value of the purchased invoices.
• Your customers will likely send their payments directly to your factoring company. Once the company receives them, it will electronically send you the “unadvanced” portion of the invoices—minus its financing fee.
Important Considerations When Evaluating Factoring Companies
When evaluating factoring companies to work with, there are a number of important areas you should carefully consider. Of course, the pricing structure is a critical factor. You should consider likely customer payment scenarios and calculate what the total fees would be for the different vendors. Also, compare the deposit or application fees, the advance rate, and monthly minimums.
You also should inquire about how the factor company handles unpaid invoices. Some factoring companies will assume all the risk and not require you to repay them if the invoice isn’t paid within a set period of time. Other factoring companies will require you to repay funds advanced for any unpaid client invoice—plus the factoring charges. And still some factoring companies will allow you to replace the invoices of non-paying clients with invoices from paying customers.
Last, but certainly not least, select a factoring company that provides a high level of customer care. This helps to ensure that your customers will be properly treated. All factoring companies operate differently. That’s why it’s important to do your research and find the best-priced and most knowledgeable factoring company for your particular business.
Soupy Sales – Pookie does Motown
dumpster3403 asked:
The Soupy Sales Show
Selling to the big box retailers? Learn how to finance your sales!
Selling to the big box retailers? Learn how to finance your sales!
Are you selling to the big box retailers? To companies such as CostCo, The Home Depot, Wal-Mart and others? Learn how to finance your sales using purchase order financing.
Keywords:
purchase order financing,purchase order funding,po financing,po funding
Are you selling products or services to the proverbial big box retailers? To companies like Wal-Mart, Costco, Sam’s Club, Lowe’s, The Home Depot and others? There are many advantages to selling to these companies. For starters, they have incredible purchasing power and can place large orders. They can truly help your company grow incredibly and take it to the next level.
On the other hand, they also have incredible clout and negotiating power. That means that they can, and often decide to negotiate payment terms to their benefit. It is not uncommon for big box retailers to pay their invoices in 30 to 60 days. This creates two distinct types of problems, depending on your financial situation:
You can’t afford to wait to get paid
If your biggest challenge is that you can’t wait to get paid by your big box retail clients, the solution may be to factor your invoices. Invoice factoring is a form of financing whereby you sell your invoices to a factoring company who pays you for them. They wait to get paid, while you are paid immediately.
You need money to pay your suppliers
If your big box retailer client places an order that is too large for your current financial situation, your best option is to use purchase order finance. This type of financing is also provided by a factoring company, but covers all your supplier payments. It enables you to complete the order and make the sale. Like factoring, the transaction is settled once the client pays the invoice.
Which one should you use?
Both factoring and purchase order financing can be very useful. Factoring tends to cost less, so as a rule of thumb you should try it first. However, if you need more financing than what factoring can offer, then you should add purchase order financing to the solution portfolio.
Both solutions can be quite affordable though costs will depend on your financing volume. Much like regular retailers, factoring companies give volume discounts and charge less if you use them frequently. Ideally you are better off using factoring as a recurring financing tool while deploying purchase order financing on a “as needed basis” to help with the big orders.
Christmas 2005: Bargains Galore!
Christmas 2005: Bargains Galore!
Merry Christmas; now start shopping! Retailers have their work cut out for them this year as they persuade consumers to shop in the face of higher fuel costs, rising mortgage rates, and credit card changes. If you are looking for a bargain, just you wait and see!
Keywords:
Christmas, holiday shopping, birth of Jesus Christ, Santa Claus, sales, bargains, credit cards, free
If you are one of the many millions of Americans who will be shopping this holiday season for gifts for loved ones, friends, and business associates, you are in the driver’s seat when it comes to finding the best prices. Several events this past year have merchants scrambling to set prices low enough so that you will shop and shop big. Let’s take a look at how these events are shaping the retailing landscape and how you can make it all work to your advantage.
High Oil Prices – Hurricanes Katrina and Rita pushed already high fuel prices to record levels. Although off of their peak levels, prices are still too high for many consumers who feel pinched and are likely to cut back on spending. Factor in Hurricane Wilma and this will be a tough year for many.
Rising Mortgage Rates – Incremental increases in mortgage rates means that mortgage bills are going up, taking away from money that could be used elsewhere. Home sales remain steady, so companies like Home Depot are likely to benefit, while department stores will be scrambling.
Credit Card Changes – Our nation’s new bankruptcy laws coupled with credit card companies requiring higher minimum payments will certainly put the squeeze on for some. Not necessarily a bad thing to require higher payments, but the timing couldn’t be worse.
Online retailers have a great opportunity to capitalize on consumer’s reticence. With lower overheads, free shipping, and access to a large pool of inventory, look for online shopping to jump up again this year.
For “brick and mortar” retailers, expect that the motto, “If you cut prices sharply, they will come,” to hold true. Stagnant inventories cost money to maintain; moved merchandise means money that can be applied to the bottom line.
Look for aggressive sales and even price wars this holiday season as merchants redouble their efforts to reel you in. They have to; for some their very survival depends on your patronage.
Shop wisely!
Michael Port die – kleine onderneming op de markt brengt – Klemmen van Hoofdgedachte
Klemmen van een Hoofdgedachte door Michael Port, kleine bedrijfs op de markt brengende auteur en rondom goede kerel:)
