Monday 8 October 2012

Unsecured business funding

Unsecured business funding can be useful for businesses which either don’t want or don’t qualify for unsecured lines of credit.

Hawkeye can help your business obtain the loan it needs, and gives you guidance on whether a loan or a line of credit may suit your business best.

Hawkeye Management provides solutions to help your business get the funding it needs. Obtaining a loan is a process and Hawkeye will help you through the process to ensure that you are best positioned to get a loan from the bank.

Avoid being turned down for a loan. Turn to Hawkeye for the loan solution you need for your start-up company, or to build or grow your business.

Thursday 4 October 2012

Dental practice for sale


Occasionally dental practices come up for sale. Are you a dentist looking to buy a practice, or looking to sell one?

If you are then you’ll be looking for an experienced practice broker or consultant to help you with the process. In the United States the National Association of Practice Brokers (NAPB) is the organisation that can best help you find the solution customised for you.

A dental practice for sale may be for any number of reasons, such as retirement, lifestyle change or a plan for an exit strategy. Whatever the reason NAPB member brokers have the experience to help you, giving you assistance with partnership agreements, relocations, tax arrangements, contracts and financial packages.

If you have a dental practice for sale, look no further than NAPB.

 

Thursday 12 July 2012

Anger at the banks

It's hard not to be irritated by banks these days.

It's hard not to feel outright anger.

Fixing interest rates, mis-selling products ... on top of the crisis they caused by the way they acted before the credit crunch and recession.

And they still merrily charge individuals and business owners punitive amounts when they go ever-so slightly overdrawn. Yes, it did happen to my business recently. Overdrawn for less than a day: charge of £30.

How is this justifiable?
How does this help?

If my business was really short of cash (it's not - it was just in a different account), how would charging the business help that cash shortage?

And yet banks are supposed to helping businesses.

The only business they're helping is their own. Helping themsleves to our money.

Tuesday 12 June 2012

Manitoba carpenters

Carpenters are at the heart of most construction work. Wood is fundamental to the construction of houses and most buildings, as well as the cabinets, doors and other furniture inside.

There are basically two fundamental types of carpentry work: rough carpentry and finish carpentry. The former is for outdoor work with projects using unfinished wood, such as house frames, scaffolding and other forms. The latter is for doors, windows, interior moulding, cabinets, floors and the like.

Manitoba carpenters provide all this kind of work, and they also provide carpentry in the film and theatre industry, as well as the less obvious area of wharves and docks.

While many pieces are built at base and shipped to the construction site, other work has to be carried out onsite.

Cabinetmakers work on custom designed cabinets, shelves, counters and other fittings for stores, restaurants and the home.

From small workshops to large construction sites, the influence of carpenters is everywhere.

Friday 13 April 2012

Embrace the Optimism

I am back working at home after a stint on a client site for the past couple of months.

I may be wrong and, of course, the sample set is very small, but it seems to me that there's a very slight increase in business optimism.

I have had more enquiries and pay rates for work seem to be slightly higher. It may be an illusion; I've not analysed it, it's based on a general feel.

And what happens when you're more optimistic about business? Things seem brighter, better, more sustainable, and you're keener to get on with things.

How about we stop all the doom and gloom, threat of strikes, moans about the Olympics and...

Embrace the Optimism

Tuesday 7 February 2012

The European Trade Register Scam

I am little embarrassed to admit that I fell foul of an invitation from European Trade Register to ‘update your details for free’ recently. I filled in the form and sent it off believing that a free update to my details in a directory would be a good thing.

I was shocked, therefore, a couple of weeks later, to receive an invoice for €990 for my "insertion" into the directory. Sure enough, on reading the tiny print on the original form I could see that there was a charge of €990 per year for three years and then following on year after year. There was no "right to change your mind" or "cooling off period".

I didn't pay. I couldn't afford to pay. I immediately emailed them and wrote to them by post to tell to take me out of the directory as I would not be paying. No response.

There followed further demands to pay by email and by post and a threat of a late payment charge and an admin fee which took the total to €1124.

Sharing this news with a colleague, she pointed me to this site: 

http://www.mukaumedia.co.uk/european-trade-register-scam-usual-decide

Well, good for SAM DEEKS, and other websites of a similar topic.

Thus, I realise this is not a new thing and it is a scam, in that it comes from an unsolicited, mis-leading email and offers virtually nothing for a huge amount of money, using fear to frighten people into paying. In addition, they never respond to any attempts to contact them. But they do note them and feed on that to continue to try and frighten people into paying.

In the end, after reading many comments from people who had fallen foul of this scam like me, I was actually amused at the sheer effrontery of these people and their shameless attempts to frighten people into paying. 

After sending threatening emails, they then use an apparent global debt collection company, Waldberg & Hirsch, to chase up the debt. It's the same people.

If you're in the same boat and have either received apparently good "offers" from any so-called business directory (particularly if it has a 3 part name in the following format:
[Europe / European / World / Global] [Company / Trade / Business] [Directory / Register]
then just bin it.

And, if you receive emails, faxes, letters, phone calls from these people demanding money, just IGNORE THEM. They won't sue you, because they wouldn't win (because it's an illegal scam) and it would expose them. Read Sam Deeks's blogs, join in the fun, sit back and relax... 
...AND NEVER PAY A PENNY.

On reflection, of course, it was foolish to respond to unsolicited mail and believe in something that appeared to be free. I will not make the same mistake again.

Thursday 26 January 2012

Be wary of moaning about work on your social media

I find it interesting the number of people who moan about their place of work on social media such as Facebook.

Let's face it, Facebook and Twitter are great places to get things off your chest, and moans about work are something many of us have often wanted to get off our chests. With so many like-minded friends, family and followers linked to our Facebook and Twitter accounts, we're bound to get a sympathetic hearing.

But do we remember all those people we friended on Facebook? Your colleagues, your staff ... your boss?

You might not get such a sympathetic view from them.

And even if you're not connected to colleagues from your current place of work, one day you might need to use your connections on Facebook and Twitter to get yourself a new job. But, browisng through your historical comments, they might not take too kindly to someone who's often moaned about their place of work.

Is there anywhere you can really let off steam? The pub? Even walls have ears.

Friday 20 January 2012

Non-communicative businesses look like scams

It is frustrating that we all get junk mail and spam email, and it shows no sign of decreasing.

Equally frustrating, I find, are businesses who cannot communicate. These are businesses who may write to you (by post) or email you, but when you reply to them, there is no acknowledgement of your communication at all.

This is happening to me at the moment with one organisation, so much so that I am beginning to believe that it is actually a scam operation, despite its headed note paper etc.

Until they reply to my communications I cannot believe that they are a true operation and if they are, what does it say about them when they can't even reply to my emails?

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Can you suggest more back-office systems?

As a small business owners, we sometimes neglect those small, yet significant, tasks that bigger companies have whole departments for.

I'm thinking of back-office systems.

I'm sure we've all got things like our accounts under control, including our invoices and our purchase orders, but what about the other back-office systems?

Things like:
  • Work enquiries
  • A list of clients
  • A list of suppliers
  • Staff holiday management
  • Work applications (e.g. speculative CVs sent through to you)
  • Staff sickness management
There must be loads of others; things that I haven't thought of because my business is too small.

Can you suggest some other back-office systems for me?

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Use the excitement of 2012, not the gloom

The Prime Minister gave a "downbeat" message yesterday about the business and economic prospects for 2012. There is little doubt that it will be a hard year, especially for those with low incomes.

For small business owners, the year will also likely prove to be a tough one.

However, for small business owners, there is little choice but to plough on and make the best of it. We cannot go on strike; we cannot moan about "fat cats" somewhere higher up the company ladder. In many cases of single-person businesses, the owner is the potentially striking "worker" AND the would-be "fat cat"!

At least there's a reduction in fussing and fighting, my friend.

Small business owners will probably be using much of January to plan how they will improve their business prospects for the year. 2012 promises to be an exciting and complicated year and business owners should try and tap into such events as Euro 2012, the Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Olympics. How could you use those to your advantage?

The smart ones will work out how, make the best of it and come out the other end of the year saying what a great year it was.