So, you have decided to open up a new computer repair business, but really are not sure how to proceed. If that is the case, below we are going to tell you everything that you need to do in order to not only make an educated business decision. But also, the steps you need to take to create a comprehensive business plans that will at the very least, provide you an excellent road map for your new venture.There are many different kinds of formats used to create a business plan. In this example, we are going to assume that you will not need an outside financing source and that your computer repair business will only be a local operation, at least initially.The concept behind a business plan is relatively simple to understand and execute. Essentially, you want to make sure that what you are thinking about opening is financially viable, and if so, then write down everything that you need to accomplish in order to turn your idea into a profitable endeavor. Below we are going to layout a traditional business plan and let you know precisely how to complete each section.# 1 – Executive Summary – You really do not have to work on this section of the business plan if you do not planning on showing it to anybody, or you are not looking for investors or an outside financing source. That being said, if you are really serious about turning your new enterprise into a profitable going concern that has the ability to not only grow, but is also sustainable, you should sit down and spend a few hours writing out the executive summary.The executive summary which is also sometimes called the management summary, goes at the very beginning of the report, but should only be written AFTER you have completed the entire business plan. Its intended purpose is to capture the reader’s attention, get them interested in the business, and briefly explain the concept and everything else that is contain in the report.# 2 – Business Description – This is where the real work starts when you decide it is time to get serious, and begin writing out your business plan. What you want to try and do is to get all of you ideas down on paper so that you can refer back them in the future if you need to.Please do not be concerned with you writing style at this point, but only the information. Later, after you are sure you have included everything that you want or need, you can go back and clean up the material. Below are some of the things that need to be discussed in this section.A) Why you believe this is a good business to start.B) What do you know about this type of business.C) What skills are you bringing to the table.D) What skills do you need to acquire.E) Who is your market.F) Why is there a need for the service or product you plan on supplying?G) Why you believe that your business will be able to serve your market better than any of your competitors.H) What will make your business standout from the competition.Okay, you get the idea. Please do not limit yourself to the things we discussed above, but also include anything and everything else that you think could be important.# 3 – Market Analysis – This might be the most important consideration for anybody that is thinking about opening up a new computer repair business. After all, if there are already 14 other similar companies competing in your neighborhood, it would probably be a good idea to think about doing something else.In all seriousness, you really have to understand your competition at the highest level, know what their fees are, be familiar with the services they provide, and figure out a way to improve on everything that they do. If you are confident you can meet or exceed the stipulations mentioned above, then your new business just might have a chance of succeeding. Below you will find some of the areas you need to research and be familiar with.A) Write down each and every store or standalone operation that you will be competing against.B) Note each and every service that they provide.C) Figure out exactly what they charge for each job.D) Here is the tough one, ask yourself, now that I know everything about my competition, how am I going to everything they do, better and cheaper?If you are able to answer that last question, and you are happy with the way you answered it, you just might have a real chance of making it.# 4 – Organization and Management – More than likely when you first start your computer repair business, you are not going to have any employees. But, there are going to be certain jobs, like setting up a computer network for a large company that could require a little extra manpower. If so, have you thought about who you know that you can bring in at a moment’s notice that would be willing to work part-time.Next, people that enjoy working on computers are usually very organized and hopefully you happen to be one of them. If not, it is really going to be very hard for you to run a company that is in an industry that is time sensitive. After all, when you tell somebody that you are going to arrive at their home or business at 4 pm, and you show up three hours later, do you really think that they are going to call you the next time they have a computer problem?Another thing that you need to take into consideration in this section, is as your company grows and you acquire more and more customers, when do you hire another computer technician and who do you hire? Do your hire somebody that already has a great deal of experience and will demand a very high salary? Or, do you hire a novice that you can train that will be less expensive? Below are some of the things you are going to need to ask yourself in order to complete this section of the business plan.A) Am I organized, and if not, how do I improve in this area?B) Am I good at training people?C) Do I have any friends that will part-time work?D) Do I know how to delegate, or do I have to do everything myself, so that I know it was done correctly?E) Can I accept other people’s shortcomings and help them improve in those areas?F) Should I invest my capital in my staff and how much of an investment can I justify?And, you thought it was going to be easy to open a small computer repair business. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. If you are not prepared to at the very least to answer some of or all of the question in this section, starting your very own business just might not be a great career choice.# 5 – Services and Products – This is an area that you really should not have too much trouble with. If you do, then you definitely should not be thinking about starting a computer repair business. In this section, you need to use the information you gathered about your competition and write down all the services or products you plan on promoting, as well as the fees you plan on charging for your services.# 6 – Marketing, Advertising, and Sales – Computer geeks by their very nature are usually not outgoing people that make good salesman. That being said, your business needs customers and to get them you are going to have to think out of the box and come up with some creative ideas. We are going to provide you a few proven marketing and advertising techniques below, but you really need to figure out what your competition is doing in this area, and then either copy them or come up with better schemes.A – Website – Of course you are going to have to build a website, after all, you are in the computer business. Hopefully, you know how to properly SEO your new site, if not, find somebody that does before you waste your time, effort, and money by creating a site that nobody is ever going to see.The good thing about a computer repair businesses is that virtually every one of them is a local operation. That means that your competition on the internet for highly targeted traffic will not be that fierce. In other words, if you correctly onsite and offsite SEO your new website, there is a very good chance that it will move up the search engine rankings extremely quickly and you will get to Google’s first page, and just maybe, the top spot on that page in only a couple of months.TIP # 1 – Remember this is a local business, and when you select your URL it is critical that you choose a local name. What we mean by that is, if the name of your new business is “Joe’s Computer Repairs”, that is not what you want to use for its URL. Instead, you want to use your towns name in the URL.That means if you live in Dallas for example, you want your URL to be “DallasComputerRepair.com”. The reason you want to do this is very simple to understand, all of the search engines will move your site up their rankings whenever somebody in Dallas types in the search term “Computer Repair”.TIP # 2 – For any new business, it is absolutely critical that when somebody does find your website, you get them to either give you a call or send you an email. To do this, you really have to offer a great deal that everybody who visits your site, is sure to see. A few examples you could use are the following.I – Second repair visit FREE.II – Half price on service calls for all new customers.III – Free antivirus and malware software for all new customers on first service call.B – Low Cost or Free Advertising – All new businesses have the same problem, which is they are not generating any cash. Thus, they cannot afford to spend too much on marketing or advertising. So, you have to find ways to promote your business that are either totally free, or cost very little. Below we are going to provide a few suggestions, but you know your local market far better than we ever could, and you need to come up with your own marketing ideas.I – Craigslist’s – If you are not familiar with this site, it allows you to place classified ads for free, so use it. In addition, there are quite a few other sites that provide the same free service, so please find them, and use them.II – Social Media – Almost everybody has heard of the following websites Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. These types of sites are called social media and they allow their users to interact with one another. If you were able to build up a strong local following on anyone of these sites, almost assuredly, your business would eventually turn into a huge success story.111 – Flyers – Printing out 10,000 flyers is not that expensive and they can be a fantastic marketing tool. Not only can you hand them out in your neighborhood, you can also distribute them to the local businesses and put them up on bulletin boards at grocery stores.IV – Neighborhood Newspapers – If you are fortunate enough to live in an area that receives a free neighborhood newspaper delivered to your door each week, you might want to think about advertising in it. Their advertising fees are very reasonable, and your ads just might be able to generate enough leads to get your new business off the ground.It really does not matter if you are the very best computer repair engineer in the world, if nobody knows about you, your business will surely fail. In reality, this might be the most important section in your business plan, because if you do not develop a marketing and advertising program that is going to work in your local market, almost assuredly your new business will not be around for more than a year, if that long.# 7 – Financial Projections – The great thing about starting a computer repair business, is that in most cases, you will not have to spend a great deal of money to get it up and running. You do not have to rent a store, more than likely you already have a car, computer, and some, if not most of the software that you need. In addition, you do not have to put anybody on the payroll right away. So, other than your advertising expense, you really do not have any cash flowing out of the business.The most important thing for you to note in the financial projection section of your business plan are the capital expenditures you need to make to open the business. These could include but are not limited to a new laptop computer, more software, a better cell phone plan, and your advertising expenses.As for your income projections, you should definitely set goals for yourself using realistic figures. After all, you do not want to set your goals so high, that you later become discouraged when you don’t achieve them, and you do not want to set them so low, so as to not challenged yourself.ConclusionFor the most part, the people that do well in business not only had a great idea to start with, but were also committed to their company and were willing to put in the time and effort that was required to make their firm a success. Working for yourself requires far more determination and discipline than just about anything else you can do in life.That being said, starting a new computer repair business is not without its risks. But, then again, it is not without its rewards either. If you feel the time is right and you have all the skills that are required to run this type of business, then why not go for it? After all, what is the worst that can happen; you lose a little bit of time and money, and end up having to get a job working for somebody else if your business does not make it.
Obama Commission Recommends End to Subsidized Student Loans
The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has issued a report that recommends the elimination of subsidized federal student loans in order to reduce federal spending. The recommendation is one of 50 that the bipartisan panel, which was created by President Obama and charged with finding ways to reduce the federal deficit, brought forward.Federal subsidized student loans are government-issued college loans on which the government pays -subsidizes – the interest while a student is in school or in an approved deferment period. During deferment periods, which are granted on a case-by-case basis when a student loan borrower is experiencing financial hardship or other extenuating circumstances, the borrower isn’t required to make principal or interest payments on his or her federal college loans.Subsidized student loans, awarded on the basis of financial need, are available to low-income students and students from low-income families. The President’s fiscal commission estimates that eliminating the federal interest payments on these subsidized college loans would save about $5 billion annually.The proposal to eliminate subsidized federal college loans isn’t a recommendation to shutter the federal student loan program altogether. Federally funded loans are also available in an unsubsidized form, and these unsubsidized student loans are awarded to eligible students, regardless of income bracket, who qualify for federal college financial aid to help them pay for college.Do Student Loan Subsidies Benefit Students?A growing number of policy groups support dispensing with federally subsidized college loans. The College Board recommended the same move in 2008, and some Democratic lawmakers also included the elimination of subsidized student loans in the initial draft of the college loan reforms that were enacted in 2009. The provision was dropped after student advocates and higher education lobbyists successfully persuaded House Democrats to retain the student loan subsidies.Supporters of dropping the subsidized interest benefit say that subsidized loans don’t do anything to make college more accessible to the low-income students to whom the loans are awarded, since borrowers don’t reap the benefit of the subsidy until after they’ve graduated.Others who support the move to do away with subsidized loans argue that student borrowers shouldn’t receive a benefit designed to reduce student loan debt that’s based on what the borrower’s family income was 10 or 20 years earlier.Instead, proponents contend, already-available flexible loan repayment plans like income-dependent payments, graduated payments, and repayment term extensions are more effective and fairer.A new income-based repayment plan, instituted last year, is based on the student loan borrower’s post-graduation income, a better measure of a borrower’s long-term financial outlook.Graduated repayment, in which a student loan borrower’s monthly payments start out low and gradually increase every two years – designed for borrowers who expect their income to increase steadily over time – is available to all borrowers of federal college loans, regardless of their family income at the time they attended college.More Proposed Changes to Federal College Financial AidEliminating federal student loan interest subsidies isn’t the only change the fiscal commission recommends. The commission’s deficit-reduction proposal would also put an end to payments to colleges and universities for the administration of campus-based federal financial aid programs.Colleges and universities administer certain federal financial aid awards locally -Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants, Perkins loans, and federally funded work-study programs. A school may retain as much as 5 percent of the federal financial aid funds provided for these programs to cover the cost of administration. Institutions that distribute federal Pell Grants also receive a small fixed payment to cover administrative costs.Under the proposed deficit-reduction plan, the 5-percent administrative fee would be eliminated, and all federal funds would be delivered in the form of student financial aid, with no portion of those funds being siphoned away any longer in the form of administrative costs.The commission’s rationale for eliminating these administrative fees is that colleges and universities benefit from federal grant programs because, unlike college loans, the federal grant dollars effectively increase enrollment by making college more affordable for students.From Policy Proposal to National LawThe fiscal commission doesn’t have the final say on which recommended reforms are enacted. Currently, the commission’s report is in draft form. The commission must prepare a final recommendation no later than Dec. 1, 2010, and the final draft must have the approval of at least 14 of the commission’s 18 members.Once the report is finalized and presented to the White House, legislators are expected to take up the recommendations and convert them into legislative mandates.The commission’s recommendations are designed to balance the federal budget by 2015. If adopted, the recommendations would involve a broad set of austerity measures, including both spending cuts and tax reforms.student loans, income-based student loan repayment
What Does My Normal E-Mini Trading Day Look Like?
E-mini trading is like any other job; you need to develop a set routine to establish a pattern of success. As I have mentioned in previous articles, I can’t tell you how many times I have watched novice traders get the surprise of their life at 8:30 am EST or at 10:00 am EST when the market explodes up or down. Of course, had they bothered to check the daily financial data releases they would have known that there were scheduled announcements at those times. Normally, I will announcement the day’s data releases as they enter the room, but if no one chimes in I sometimes remain quiet hoping that the movement will help them learn better e-mini trading habits.I have a fairly set routine that I follow each day and it has served me well. I work hard to shut out any financial television news shows as the TV has become a mechanism for varying political goals and hence, not a reliable source of news. With that being said, I head straight for the computer and begin my day as follows:1. I like to check all the potential daily announcements and analyze which e-mini contracts will be directly affected by them. As of late, we have been in a very news related market and I have been making the assumption that any bit of news is going effect all markets. Needless to say, the announcements from the USA have the most profound effect on the market since both the currency (even non-USA currencies) and financial futures pay close attention to how the announcement is going to influence the day’s price movement.2. Once I bring up my charts, I am interested in what has been happening throughout the course of the night session. I am not a huge believer that the overnight session is an accurate predictor of what will transpire in the cash session, but you can get an idea of possibilities that can occur. I am especially interested in e-mini trading that occurs in the 15 minutes prior to the opening of the cash session, as many of the larger players begin to place their orders.3. With my charts up, I make sure that all of my DOM settings are correct. I can’t tell you how many times traders initiate trades on simulator and then realize they have not switched to live trading mode. I also make sure I have the correct number of contracts selected and that each DOM is set to the right e-mini contract.4. I generally trade the CL (crude) contract from 5:00 am EST until 9:25 am EST as the CL contract opens at 9:00 am EST and can be very active in the hours prior to the cash market open. Note that the CL opens 30 minutes prior to the CME cash market open. In effect, you get to trade 2 opens. If the CL is dead, my second choice is the 6E contract (Euro) or the 6J (Japanese yen). Since I have eight screens I can monitor the activity of multiple contracts, but usually focus on just one. That is just my trading style. I know of many people who trade on multiple contracts simultaneously but I am not one of them, except on rare occasions.5. My trading is based on real-time indicators, which is bit different than trading lagging indicators, so I focus on taking high probability trades throughout the morning. I generally try to stay in the 3-5 trade per morning session area, but if more than 5 solid trades materialize I trade what the market is offering. Conversely, if few solid trades present themselves, then I may only find 1 or 2 good trades. I want to constantly remind myself not to overtrade and keep my stops within my preset parameters. (2x the Average True Range) I take the approach of trying to talk myself out of a trade before I initiate the trade, and if I can’t find a good reason not to take the trade I act quickly and decisively to enter the trade at a point of my choosing. My mentor used to harp on me by saying, “the market goes through phases where it will readily hand out money, but keep in mind you cannot steal a winning trade from the market.” It’s good advice and I have not forgotten it.6. Generally I gravitate to the US financial contracts and trade the NQ, YM, or TF contracts for the remainder of the morning. I stop trading when the market starts to flatten out around lunch time. I suppose my average stopping time is about noon EST, but sometimes later and sometimes earlier; it all depends on the price movement I observe in the morning’s e-mini trading.7. After I have finished trading, I download all the trades to a spreadsheet which analyzes how well I have performed that day. Did I let my trades run? Did I jump out too early? Was the Average True Range an accurate predictor of what each trades potential movement? Did I take some trades that were just boneheaded and why were they boneheaded trades? I try to spend 15-30 minutes understanding my trading behavior that day, in retrospect. I save the trades on the spreadsheet, make sure I have no open positions, and turn the computer off.This routine has served me well over the years, and keeps me from making the mechanical mistakes that you often see. Of course, the judgment aspect of initializing a trade is highly subjective and I strive to maintain a consistent approach every day. I trade what I see on the chart, not the economy, not what the TV “talking heads” are pushing, not the market rumors, and I try to stay in the trend. It’s a good approach and it works for me. As always, all the best in your trading endeavors.
Are You Choosing the Right Stock Market Advisory Company
What do you do if you want to learn driving a car? You will try to find an expert teacher, isn’t it? You do not want to avail the services of a novice individual to help you out, but a professional person can provide you the vital tips and most importantly guide you efficiently. Similarly, when it comes to investing in the stock market for the first time, you require a knowledgeable advice to attain your financial goals and get profitable returns.
If you are a beginner, then it is quite obvious that you may be having no information about the process of buying the right shares in the market. In such a situation, getting the right tips from an experienced financial advisor or a registered advisory company will truly prove to be a great blessing in disguise. However, there are some of the important things that have to be kept in mind while choosing the top stock market advisory company, which are as follows:
How much assistance do you actually require?
Before you make up your mind to hire an advisor, it is imperative that you must first decide about the kind of service you require from them. You may need their help at the beginning or during the time of any issues. This is because an advisor has to formulate a map according to your requirements. Hence, it is suggested to ascertain your needs first and then take further action.
Choose a top ranked advisory company
It is a very important point that has to be taken into the consideration. Availing services of the well known advisory company or a financial advisor is an absolute necessity. Make it a point to carry out a proper background or research work about the company. Check out their credentials, reputation, experience, etc before hiring them.
Asking for a sample financial plan initially makes sense
When hiring a financial advisor, then do not forget to ask for sample plan first. It is imperative to note that there is no such thing called the perfect plan. A sample plan will help you to determine whether an advisory company is actually making sense according your requirements or not.
Conclusion
The financial planners or advisory companies can really turn out to be the greatest asset for you if you choose the best one. They are just like the professional sailors who can help you out to sail through stock investment related problems quite efficiently.
Deepak is a financial advisor who likes to provide quality tips to the people facing any issues with regard to investing in the stock market. He likes to keep himself updated about the stock market by reading articles, news and blogs, etc.