Your Financial Planning Clients May Hold the Key to Free Publicity.txt

Every reporter, from the cub at the small town paper to the high-paid anchor on 60 Minutes, dreams of finding a lead to that news story that everyone will want to read.

Any marketing-minded financial planner will start to do the same if they are serious about getting free publicity through the media.

See, the media has a pretty good idea of what appeals to the public. That's a big part of their job--determining what stories are likely to attract their customers: readers, viewers or listeners.

You must develop this skill as well.

Luckily, you talk to the media's customers every day--they are your clients. They can help you determine what tips, tricks and trends are likely to appeal to the masses.

Chances are if one or two clients are asking you about something new, dozens more prospects – and the media – are primed to get interested too.

For example, let's say that the state university raised tuition 25%. You might have several clients asking how to reallocate or add to their college savings funds to pay for the increased cost. And if a couple of your clients are asking about it, you can bet that hundreds, even thousands of people are facing the same problem.

Whatever tactic you come up with to meet this challenge is your story for the media.

Get ahead of the curve: master the new topic, and introduce it to the media – with you as the expert on it.

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.

[tags]financial planners publicity, financial planners marketing, marketing, publicity, pr[/tags]

You Can Make Financial Resolutions Anytime.txt

The New Year often brings with it a desire to right the wrongs in your
life. From this desire springs the tradition of New Year resolutions.
You should take advantage of this to change your financial situation.

There is a good chance by the time many of you read this, you will
have already made and BROKEN your financial resolutions. Those of you
who have not already done so, know they are hard to keep. You can
change that. Anytime is a good time to make financial resolutions.

Since you are thinking about this, you must suspect a problem. The
first step is defining the problem. Define it specifically. "I spend
too much money", is not good enough. You spend too much money on what?
Why do you spend too much money? It is not often you are speaking of
life's necessities here. You need to specifically target your problem
areas.

The best way to identify problem areas in your spending, is to pull
out your check registers and credit card statements for the past
twelve months. Write down all checks and charges for items other than
necessities. This spending will be your gold to mine.

After making this list, add up the total amount of these expenses.
This will be a very revealing exercise. For some the total will be
staggering, especially when done for a twelve month period.

Pay close attention to checks and charges for restaurants and fast
food chains. Look at the amount and frequency of payments to
convenience stores. Examine closely the spending on your home and your
closet.

Using this information you become aware of your weaknesses and where
they occur. You are now better equipped to overcome them. You need to
make conscious decisions to stay away from the places where you
overspend. If you don't go there you won't be tempted to waste your
resources and place your financial life in peril.

Now, armed with these bits of information you can boldly and
successfully make resolutions. Remember, changing your behavior is how
you will keep these resolutions. If you fail, and you will, just climb
right back on the resolution wagon. Dogged repetition will help you
succeed. Check how you are doing on a monthly basis. Make any
adjustments needed.

Putting your financial house in order and becoming debt free is a
process before it is an event.

(C) David Wilding

David Wilding has for the past ten years worked with groups and individuals to rid their lives of debt. Visit his website http://www.debtattack.com for more ideas, tools, and strategies to become debt free.

[tags]debt, financial goals,[/tags]

Why You Need A Solid Financial Statement.txt

There are many important documents in the world of business and business ownership, but perhaps no one document is as vital to your financial future as the financial statement.

It is this simple statement that banks, investors and potential partners will use to gauge the current success of your business, and to calculate its future odds of success.

==Using Your Financial Statement To Get Your Business Off The Ground==

Just about everyone who has ever held a nine to five job has dreamed of striking out on their own and leaving the rat race for a slice of the pie.

This approach can be a great choice for many people, but it is important for any would be entrepreneur to understand the world of business, and to understand just what goes into the average financial statement.

Preparing a detailed business plan, including a strong financial statement and a compelling executive summary, is a big part of getting any business off the ground.

==Understanding The Financial Health Of The Business==

It goes without saying that the financial statement will detail the financial health of the business, including the sources of income, all of the business related expenses and of course the profit and loss statement.

The financial statement should also detail the past performance of the company, including how the current performance compares to what the company has done in the past.

==Using A Mentor To Help You Create Your Financial Statement==

The new business owner with a solid business background behind them may have little trouble creating a solid business plan and financial statement, but those who lack such a business background will probably need some help creating this important financial document.

It may be a good idea to seek a business mentor who can help guide you through the creation of your first financial statement. After you understand how the statement works, and what it should include, it will be far easier to create another financial statement as you more forward.

Shaunta Pleasant is a professional writer and editor on business planning topics. Visit my site to learn more about planning the perfect wedding at http://www.yourbusinesspal.com/financial_statement_example.html

[tags]financial statement, financial, statement[/tags]

Why You Must Have a Great Website!.txt

Pick a target audience and the research says they are looking for their financial advisor to communicate with them over the Internet. They expect the advisor’s website to be a digital extension of the personal relationship they have with their financial advisor.

Over one million affluent households were surveyed by Forrester Research and overwhelming they chose email over snail mail. They are extremely busy with their careers, families, traveling and social commitments. They simply don’t have the time to surf through a lot of junk mail to find your important piece of mail. You need to use the convenience, efficiency and timeliness of email to personally touch your clients on a regular basis.

People over age 60 now constitute the fastest growing segment of computer users and information seekers on the World Wide Web, according to the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine. According to Jupiter Communications, over 58% of those over age 50 are online. Furthermore, Suddenly Senior reports that the over 50 age bracket has an average network almost twice that of the national average and they hold 70% of all money market accounts and certificates of deposit assets.

An online survey of 1000 visitors to www.thirdage.com found that online consumers over 50 are eager to learn about new products and services and are tolerant, and often interested in online advertising,” according to the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine. In fact, people over 50 are likely to share what they learn online with their network of family and friends.

What are they looking for?

According to Forrester Research, they are looking for their financial advisor website to support the messages of the financial advisor. So when the financial advisor is talking about tax free income or alterative minimum taxes or required distributions from IRAs, the clients are expecting to find supporting content and tools on the website. Remember with seniors there’s a lot of ‘show me’ in their attitudes. They expect to find calculators, so they can see for themselves how much their IRA might shrink from income and estate taxes. They expect to find supporting articles that teach them more about estate tax planning or building an investment policy when their advisor is talking to them about those concepts.

Are you building your brand?

Have you invested in ‘branding’? If so, then use your website to leverage your brand. The website should reflect your logo, color palette, signature photos and other branding elements to create a consistent public presence.

Remember your brand is what the customer perceives your brand to be. Your website should include your unique value proposition. Don’t make your website sound like every other boring institutional site. To make a connection with the customer you need to tell them who you are, what you do and why you do it better than your competition. You need to tell them why they need a relationship with you. Use what makes you unique.

Looking for help in building your brand, building a great website or more strategies to drive your business? Visit BuildYourMarket.com (http://www.buildyourmarket.com/) to find everything you need to get the most out of your website.

Reprinted with permission from the Ezine: AdvisorMarketingNews.com- "Delivering Today’s Trends the Advisor Professional" (http://www.advisormarketingnews.com/)

[tags]Financial Advisor, web-based, on-line marketing tools, BuildYourMarket.com, CRM, Drip Marketing,[/tags]

Why the Personal Savings Rate is so Low The Untold Story.txt

I am reminded about the phase “there’s no money in truth”. I mention this on the heels of an AP news article January 30, 2006 declaring that personal savings have not been as low as they are today since the period of 1932-33 during The Great Depression. The Department of Commerce recently released data indicating personal savings, once nearly 11% in 1984, plummeted to 0.5% in 2005. Said another way, people are spending more than their after-tax earnings and no doubt using credit to fill the gaps.

The article goes on to point the finger for this disconcerting fact to American complacency as per high real estate prices (paper wealth) and general over consumption. With 78% of baby-boomer Americans turning the corner towards retirement, the negative rate of savings is alarming. According to Lyle Gramley, senior economic advisor at Schwab Washington Research Group,"Americans have been content to spend a lot more than is good for them or for the economy”.

Interestingly, the AP article never once mentioned the impact skyrocketing cost of living for life’s basics: health insurance, mortgages, rents, groceries, higher education, child care, home heating, etc., was having on the ability to save any money. This fact alone pushes families to the edge and often over the edge of their budgets as they are forced to make some difficult choices.

Now for the “there’s no money in truth” part of this article. Ever notice how we the “consumer” are always the ones at fault for the glaring financial challenges so many people face these days? What’s worse, most everyone agrees. It’s like in the Emperor’s New Clothes where everyone agrees that the emperor is wearing the finest garments. But is he really? Similarly, are we alone, as individuals, responsible for the personal finance crisis that currently affects millions? I don’t think so.

There’s seldom a shred of accountability from the financial industry and advertisers in general when it comes to the blatant selling of emotional propaganda such as “ Live Richly” and “have it all now”. Their version of happiness and success is the one most often subscribed to. How do experts like Lyle Gramley think we “consumers’ came to cultivate our attitudes and spending styles in the first place?

Not to mention, don’t even think of taking a look at the structure of the monetary system itself. You could discover that its system design has a direct affect on the average American’s ability to put some money away. Heaven forbid. That would be biting the hand that feeds you! Throughout history, change agents have known effective and permanent change in any sphere of life requires review and adjustment at a systemic level. As regards the financial conundrum of more money going out than coming in on a mass societal level, the same thing holds true. Until we each are willing to consider the critical systemic component to this snowballing financial crisis, one thing is certain: Behind closed doors, people will continue to believe they have only themselves to blame.

Susan Boskey is author of the book, The Quality Life Plan™:7 Steps to Uncommon Financial Security available at http://www.alifestylerevolution.com. Her company, Redefining Success, LLC, specializes in breakthrough personal finance products and services that address the unique economic challenges people face today.

[tags]Fresh solutions financial, frugal or simple living, latest ideas achieve financial freedom, savings[/tags]

Who's Plundering your Plumbing Business.txt

If you occasionally feel that you are working for nothing, chances are that you are.

How many times have you put your invoice in for payment only to have to wait for 30 days for your money? If this is happening to you and your business, chances are that your business is being plundered by pillagers.

Pillagers are those people who sneak around thieving from you. They seem to have an instinctive nose for any Plumbing contractor in business who is not minding his business.

By not minding his business, I am referring to any plumbing business that is lax-a-daisical about his accounting procedures and following-up on over-due invoices. Every time you have an over-due account, it means you are paying for that client’s job. So the question is, are you a Plumbing business or a financial services business?

It is the function of financial institutions to lend money, not a Plumbing Contractors. Any Plumber in business today has to be a good business person first. Why? Because no matter how good a Plumber you are, if you aren’t being paid at job completion you soon won’t have your own Plumbing business to grow into a business.

Business is about profits. Building profit into each job to grow a business from your Plumbing activities. Plumbing is how you make the money to grow your business.

In today’s technological world there is no excuse for not being paid at job completion every time. There is no excuse except excuses for being a bad business operator.

With the information highway that the Internet provides, there is training and information products readily available for learning any aspect of operating a Plumbing business you may need assistance with. There is no shame in acknowledging you need information. Besides, no-one even needs to know that you are learning via the internet anyway, but if you feel your business could be run better, then you would be a poor business operator if you didn’t seek out the information.

You didn’t ‘just become a Plumber’ did you? You studied hard and ‘did your time’ learning. What makes you so sure then that you can run a successful Plumbing business without learning? Just because you are an excellent Plumber does not necessarily equate that you are therefore a good business operator.

All new skills have to be learnt from the bottom up. Building a business is no different.

Treat your business like a job site. Plan it out, lay it out on paper, understand why you have to dig the ditch to the required depth before you lay the pipe – by understanding why things have to be done in your Plumbing business allows you to plan ahead. Once you have this planning done, you can then see what needs to be done to achieve the desired outcome.

Because you have a plan for your business you will be able to quickly see who or what is plundering your business and stop it before it becomes too late.

Pillaging is still a crime so make sure you aren’t the one responsible for plundering your own Plumbing business.

http://www.constructingprofits.com
Showing contractors how to make more money
~ working less hours!

[tags]Plumbing,business,contractor,plumbing business,financial institutions,profit,grow your business,[/tags]

What's the Rave About RONA.txt

To start with I must admit that I am not a big fan of RONA. I know many of you out there including some clients that I have worked with are religious about RONA. Some like Rice and some like potatoes. It certainly has its attributes. It’s about value based management.

RONA stands for Return On Net Assets. This equals the Net Operating Profit after tax divided by the sum of cash and working capital requirements plus fixed assets.
It takes into consideration the assets a company uses to achieve its success.

RONA = Net Income divided by Fixed Assets + Net Working Capital

The higher the return, the better the profit performance for the company.

RONA Attributes:

• It can maximize value creation

• Increases corporate transparency

• Aligns managers interest with share holder/owners interest

• Improve internal strategic communication

• Establishes clear priorities

• Streamlines budgeting

WHY I AM NOT A BIG FAN of RONA

Several things keep me from being a big fan of RONA.

1. It can create a negative incentive for individual managers to avoid investing in growth. This is especially true when their bonus or incentive is tied to RONA. Branch managers, middle managers and other managers may make decisions based on RONA that are not in the best interest of the company’s long term growth strategy. A manager could elect to make his personal bonus on the backs of his employees by running too lean. This could cause service problems, customer complaints and quality problems just to mention a few. There are other measurements that can be used just as effectively but I’ll leave that discussion up to you and your CFO.

2. It is an all embracing process that often requires a culture change. This almost always requires consulting assistance. (Good for our business)

3. It can seem complex to middle management. Actually for most of management that are not trained in finance.

4. Requires diligent, explicit CEO and Board support

5. Specific RONA value based management training is essential

By the way---- just for the record --- the perfect value based management system has yet to be invented or discovered. All methodologies have their drawbacks.

Dr. Rick Johnson (rick@ceostrategist.com) is the founder of CEO Strategist LLC. an experienced based firm specializing in leadership for wholesale distribution. CEO Strategist LLC. works in an advisory capacity with company executives in board representation, executive coaching, team coaching and education and training to make the changes necessary to create or maintain competitive advantage. You can contact them by calling 352-750-0868, or visit http://www.ceostrategist.com for more information.

Rick received an MBA from Keller Graduate School in Chicago, Illinois and a Bachelor's degree in Operations Management from Capital University, Columbus Ohio. Rick recently completed his dissertation on Strategic Leadership and received his Ph.D. He’s also a published book author with four titles to his credit: “The Toolkit for Improved Business Performance in Distribution,” the NWFA & NAFCD “Roadmap”, Lone Wolf-Lead Wolf—The Evolution of Sales” and a fiction novel “Shattered Innocence.” Rick’s next book due in November is titled; Lone Wolf – LEad Wolf The Evolution of Leadership

[tags]Management, financial measurements, leadership, value based management, financial controls[/tags]

What's Stopping You From Making a Profit.txt

Numbers! Don't have the right sales volume? Costs to high? Competition driving prices down? There are a lot of numbers you can point to. Certainly, you can't control all of the factors impacting your numbers. But, most of the things you'll list are really just symptoms - not the cause. What's really stopping you from making a profit?



My experience from talking with hundreds of small business owners indicates several causes for them not making the profit their business is capable of. In come cases, the owner hasn't made an active, dedicated, daily action decision to "make a profit". Others, don't know enough about their numbers to know where to make the changes in their business activities to increase their profitability. Still others, perhaps most, want to increase their profitability, know their numbers, but don't know what to do on a daily basis to create more profitability. Finally, action is required to make a business as profitable as it can be and deserves to be.



No decision leads to less profit. Keeping up with the daily demands of running a business can get in the way of making clear cut decisions. You start your business with the best intentions. Your goal is to make a living (that's not profit) and, ultimately, make a profit - a return on your investment. Somehow, once the day gets launched all bets are off. Not renewing your decision to make a profit every day may be stopping you from making a profit. Don't let a busy day get in the way of making a profit.



No numbers leads to less profit. I trust you have a set of financial statements. And, your statements break out the numbers in the categories impacting your bottom line. If not, STOP. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200, go directly to Jail. This isn't about Monopoly money. It's more serious than that. If you've got the statements, use them. Use them to impact today. Don't just review them on "Monday Morning".



No knowledge leads to less profit. You can not know all or be all. However, there is no lack of good, solid, "how to" information available to you. Action is required to access the information, absorb it, formulate a plan, implement the plan and continually adjust your plan. Where most fail is in "learning and doing".



Optimum profit comes from action. Perhaps your business is profitable and you don't have a clue why. Don't be too excited. What's stopping you from making the profit you and your business are truly capable of? Make a decision. Know your numbers. Make it happen

Don Osborne is the author of The Profit Puzzle - a website to help you envision, plan, start, run and grow your small or home based business. The Profit Puzzle Directory links small business articles, books, courses, products, services, websites, blogs, and software covering objectives, management, finance, personnel, marketing, operations, production and resources. Use BizBuzzLink to easily share your links and quickly build your own knowledge network.

[tags]small business, home based business,finance,financials,budget,profit[/tags]