Business Generation

As we close another year and look forward to what 2010 has in store, I’d like to share three year end tips to help start the New Year with success.

Tip #1 – Assess every expense.  Have you called all of your vendors and asked for a discount, better terms, or better pricing?  Have you called the competition of your vendors to get new quotes to compare to what you are paying now?  Now is the time to switch vendors and lower your monthly expenses.  It does take time to call everyone and make the changes, but your bottom line will appreciate it in 2010.

Tip #2 – End of the year Blow Out Sale.  Put together a special promotion around “the end of the year “or “beginning of the year.”   Consumers anticipate getting great deals at the end of the year and look for the opportunity to spend money when they feel it’s worth it.  If you provide enough value in your offer people will buy.   I even heard of a retail store that had a huge inventory of a specific product that wasn’t selling.  Although they wanted to lower the price to clear it out for something new, they found their pricing was already too low and any discount would result in a loss or just break even.  Instead, they decided to raise the price of the product by 30% and provide a 25% discount.  The product sold out in just 5 days.

Tip #3 – Cash is king.  Keep as much cash on hand as possible.  You never know when unplanned and unavoidable expenses will come up, especially during the holiday season.  An increased need for inventory because sales are better than expected, the need to reward staff for a job well done, or to purchase a gift for your top clients are all situations where having cash on hand is important.  Although a solid credit line that you can access any time is great, it is something you should keep more for emergencies and not for everyday situations.

David Gass
Founder, Business Credit Services, Inc. &
Earn.com Expert Advisor

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WHITBREAD said it expects its 2009/10 results will exceed the top end of City expectations, driven by its coffee business Costa.

The coffee house brand continued to defy the recession after Whitbread reported another “outstanding” performance by the chain in third quarter figures released today.

Costa’s trading in the quarter to November 26, saw an increase of 6.7% in like-for-like sales, more than double the rise in the first half.

Total sales in UK and overseas franchise units were £141.8m, up 28.2% after Costa opened a net 154 stores in the UK and 22 internationally during the first three quarters of Whitbread’s financial year.

Across the group, which operates Premier Inn hotels and Beefeater and Brewers Fayre pub restaurants, like-for-like sales were 0.3% higher in the quarter.

Another cause for cheer came from Whitbread’s Premier Inn chain, which reported a 3.1% decline in like-for-like sales in the quarter.

This was more than half the fall seen in the previous quarter after Premier rolled out a new pricing strategy and targeted more of the weekend leisure market, boosted by the “staycation” trend.

Chief executive Alan Parker said today: “Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants have again outperformed the market in some of the toughest trading conditions for years and Costa’s sales are outstanding.”

In early trading this morning Whitbread shares rose almost 4%.

One of the less publicized fallouts of our economic tailspin has been the overnight devaluation and in some cases decimation of personal savings. This phenomenon has effected people from all walks of life and all ages.

But, there is a silver lining to every cloud… Now that the economic bubble has burst, it is forcing many people to focus on and re-evaluate their financial planning, and major priority is being given to planning for retirement in particular.

For those who are self-employed or who own very small businesses (10 or fewer employees), the onus of good financial planning for retirement is that much greater since there are no matching employer contributions to rely on, there may be fewer assets to put aside, and the cost of the best retirement plans may make them prohibitive to the smallest businesses.

Having a good retirement plan for yourself and your employees to fall back on in later years is essential. B Read more…

There is nothing as desired and as important as loan modification program for a great deal of homeowners. It is hard to find a person who would not suffer from the severe conditions in which the economy is nowadays. There are almost no ways to find financial aid with the help of which it would be possible to handle the shortage of money. That is why there are so many people who face foreclosure and appear in the street without any means for survival and without any hopes for better life. If you would like to avoid such unpleasant outcome it is much better to try hard to find some salvations to the problem. In fact there is no need to try hard in order to find the way out.

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There was joy at the giant Hola Irrigation Scheme in Tana River at the weekend when the first maize crop harvest was launched after 20 years of inactivity.

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Farmers will harvest about 2,200 tonnes of maize that will earn them more than Sh52 million, according to the scheme manager Mr Allex Wainaina Kuria.

“We have experienced the first harvest after more than 20 years of no work in the scheme. There is excitement among the 650 farmers, as others wait for the maturity of their crop in one or two weeks,” Mr Kuria said.

When the Nation team visited the scheme on Friday, it found the more than 1,200 hectares, which were bare soil three months ago, bubbling with green lush fields of maize crop. The

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A great number of people nowadays are using credit cards. Some people have only got their first credit cards and teat them as something unusual, but most people already treat their credit cards as something quite ordinary and normal. They use them almost every day and they would probably find it very difficult to do without them. Whether you are a novice or a veteran in the matters of credit cards, you have to know how to use your credit card correctly in order not to have any problems. Experienced credit card users think they can afford more and may get into the same trap as the inexperienced users.
You have to realise one crucial fact – a credit card is jus a tool in your hands, not the extra source of income. Y

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