Black Swan Management, LLC

Investments and Strategies for the Future of Business

Posts Tagged wealth

List Building Tips – 3 Advanced List Building Steps

Aug 11

Posted by Melvin Perry in business | No Comments

Building a responsive email list is a very crucial aspect for anyone who is trying to start or run an internet business. Without an email list, you limit the amount of control and flow of income that comes into your business. This is why this report will reveal three list building tips that will surely place you on the right path towards having an email database full of subscribers and customers. Armed with these list building tips, youll be able to enjoy the profits and continual growth of your business now and in the future.

The first of the list building tips revealed has to do with the importance of quality over quantity. This is one of the most important list building tips because you really want to make sure that the people who subscribed to your list are likely to buy a product or service in your target market. A lot of non-informed marketers usually start off their list building journey by buying leads from a resource that provides no relevant and targeted, responsive subscribers. The poorest leads and subscribers ever are sent to them, and they convince themselves that list building is a waste of time. But if you do what is commonly referred to as quality list building, you will have a targeted list that will continue to poor profits into your business every time you send out a recommendation. Out of all the list building tips, quality list building is very crucial to the success of your list building campaign.

The second of the list building tips that you must consider has everything to do with taking diligent action. You want to be diligent in your list building efforts so that your email list continues to grow everyday. Therefore, you must find various ways to send traffic to your email opt in page, and consistently apply and work on those methods until you have a list building machine in place. Blogging, social bookmarking, article writing are various methods that you can apply to send traffic to your email opt in page. From the list building tips outlined, this one step of persistent action must not be neglected.

Thirdly, an internet marketing expert or professional can provide some outstanding list building tips for your business. Therefore, see if you can establish a good relationship with an expert to see if he or she can provide any helpful advice and further list building tips.

Author: Melvin Perry
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Cool mobile gadgets

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How to Maximize Your 401k Mutual Fund Returns

Jul 27

Posted by Ulli G. Niemann in stocks | No Comments

When it comes to 401k’s there is an overabundance of sad stories. Here is one that at least has a happy endingand it’s getting happier all the time.

Last year (in 2002) a friend of minelets call him Jackphoned and asked if I could help him with his 401k. Jack works for a large company as Senior VP of lending and is financially pretty astute. However, when it came to his 401k mutual fund decisions, he had repeatedly made the same mistake most people were making. As a result, he saw his account drop in value substantially.

At the time we were in the midst of the 2000 bear market, which showed no sign of letting up. Jack had purchased into a Lifestyle fund because someone recommended it. By the time he finally bailed out, it cost him dearly. However, he continued to make the same mistake by reinvesting.

He checked with the 401k representative and subsequently switched to a variety of mutual funds ranging from World Stock to Domestic Hybrids, Large and Small Value as well as Growth. But nothing worked and his portfolio value headed further south.

By the time we met to discuss his 401k Jack was pretty disgusted by the canned advice he had received and the continued losses he was sustaining.

Jack knew that I had pretty much eluded the bear market of 2000 by having sold all of my clients positions on 10/13/2000. We were safely in our money market accounts weathering out the storm (see my article How we eluded the bear in 2000 at http://www.successful-investment.com/articles12.htm.

Thinking about this, Jack could only shake his head because at no point in the market slide had he ever been given what I believe was the right advice. That is, no one suggested that, since we were in a bear market, he might want to step aside and remain in the safety of his money market account. So he stayed invested, hoping against the evidence all around him to find something that was not crashing. That was his mistake, and one shared by many.

The advice that he consistently and continually received was that the market was close to a bottom, stocks have to move up from these levels, and, my personal money losing favorite, the market cant go any lower. That’s what people wanted to hear and believe. But my tracking system said otherwise, and I followed its indicatorsmuch to the delight of my clients.

Jack wanted to know how I could help. Looking at his mutual fund choices I realized that they were actually pretty decent, and he had a variety of some 13 funds. So, what was the problem and how could we solve it? In a way, the answer was simple. But people were having to get pretty beat up before they would see it.

My first step was, with Jack’s permission, to log on to his 401k web site. Then I started making some adjustments. Since my trend tracking model was still in a Sell mode, I liquidated all of his positions and moved the proceeds into money market. This accomplished one thing right away: He stopped losing money. When you stop moving backward, in relation to everyone else you are moving forward!

Second, as my trend index moved into a Buy mode on April 29, 2003, I researched his funds again. Based on strong momentum figures, I invested in two of his mutual fund choices. The result was very gratifying: the funds I chose moved up around 10% in the two months after my Buy. (Other funds I had tracked and selected for other types of investment programs moved up as much as 26% in that period.)

Jacks been happy ever since. While the 10% appreciation is not as great as I was able to do with assets outside his 401k, it still confirms that the key to successful investing is methodology and discipline. Our disciplined approach relies on objective information. It disregards Wall Street hype designed to perpetuate commission-rich buy now while it’s low, or buy and hold strategies.

If you have been in a situation similar to Jack’s, or you want to avoid being in one, find an investment advisor who bases his decisions on a measured and objective approach. That will give you the edge no matter whether the market is going up or down and will give you the greatest protection from sad stories with your 401k.

by Ulli G. Niemann

Author: Ulli G. Niemann
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Entrepreneur Home Business Challenge

Jul 13

Posted by admin in business | No Comments

The best course of action to take sometimes isn’t clear until you’ve listed and considered your alternatives. The following paragraphs should help clue you in to what the experts think is significant.

Entrepreneurs are constantly looking for opportunities to be able to work at home and save on overhead cost.Young parents who want to be with their children when they get home from school are now becoming entrepreneur home business owners. Are these home business entrepreneurs making good money? Of course they are or they would not stick to such business at all.

Working from home has many advantages. First, you can work on you own time. You can work as early or as late as you want and nobody will ever call you attention to your working habits. If you don’t feel like working, you can always take the day off and go somewhere to relax and unwind. When you work at home, you don’t have to bother with dress code. You can work in you pajamas if you like. Anyway, it’s your output that your clients will be after not how you looked when you did the work.

Most of this information comes straight from the entrepreneur home business owner pros. Careful reading to the end virtually guarantees that you’ll know what they know.

Becoming an entrepreneur home business owner is a good option for young parents. Working from home would give you more time to be with your kids and supervise their daily activities. You can wake up with them early in the morning a join them for breakfast before they leave for school and go back to bed after they left if you want. You can even walk them to school and get that needed exercise. When the kids come home from school, you can always be there to welcome them. Work at home parents can spend as much time as they want with their kids as there are no fix rules or working hours if you work from home. The only thing that you should be concerned of is making enough sales to give you financial independence and to enjoy comfortable living. The idea of working at home is to earn without sacrificing quality time with your family.

How does one become an entrepreneur home business owner? There are many business areas where an entrepreneur can engage. Your guide would be your personal interest and your existing resources. Why personal interest? If you like what you are doing, you would not mind putting in a lot of time and effort to make things happen. Wanting something is already a big step towards achieving something so try to work within your sphere of interest and not jump into something you are not familiar with. Familiar things give you more confidence as entrepreneur home business owner. Aside from working with familiar things, you should always take into considerations the resources you have at your command. The scale of your business undertakings should always depend largely on how much resources you have so make sure you know what you have to prevent overexposure. Spending within your means is a cardinal rule for entrepreneur home business owners.

Now might be a good time to write down the main points covered above. The act of putting it down on paper will help you remember what’s important about entrepreneur home business owner.

About the Author
Gaetane Ross creates a great opportunity for people interested in working from homeFind out all about it TODAY at:http://www.4instant-online-business.comhttp://www.4instant-online-business.com/pips.html

Article source:
Entrepreneur Home Business Challenge

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The Truth About Upfront Fees Associated With Obtaining Business Capital

Jul 6

Posted by Jefferson Mesidor in business startup | No Comments

In business financing, upfront fees are monies paid in advance to any potential lender, investor or intermediary for performing due diligence related matters, such as business valuations, accounting or other professional services to help determine the viability or risks associated with your business project or company. It can also be applied towards the closing costs associated with your funding your business project or company.

To continue, upfront fees, is one of the most controversial areas of business financing. However, if you have ever purchased any type of real estate that required mortgage financing, you would know that the mortgage company requires you to pay for the appraisal reports, home inspections, environmental surveys, and all the associated due diligence fees “upfront” prior to closing. In business financing the concept is the same.

The reason lenders or investors require you to take on all the financial risks associated with investigating your business project or company, is because they don’t want to lose their money or time investigating your business project or company.

Yes, it is true that there are lots of predators out there waiting for the opportunity to prey on entrepreneurs and take advantage of their need for business capital by offering bogus services with no intent to provide the services that are being offered. However, in any legitimate business financing transaction, there are reasonable fees that you should expect to pay.

It’s important to note, that when dealing with institutional or private investors it does cost them money to properly investigate and research your project in order for them to make a decision as to whether or not they are going to fund your company or business project. These costs include attorney fees, professional fees, third party valuations, and more.

Stop and think about this for a moment. If you’re an investor putting up your money into any project, wouldn’t you want to have all of the information that’s available in order to make the best possible decision that you can?

Moreover, institutional investors and private investors see a plethora of projects every day, can you imagine what it would cost them to properly investigate and research every project that they may have an interest in? That is why the financial responsibility is passed on to you.

Furthermore, there is also that psychological factor. This serves as a safeguard for most lenders and investors. Meaning that, if there is something wrong with your project that you know will cause most investors to back off, you probably won’t put your money into doing all of the due diligence work.
Always remember, that the wise investor will always limit his cost in investigating your company or business project because in the end your project may not be as fantastic as it may appear to be and investors don’t want to lose money on propositions or proposals.

In my experience I have seen many entrepreneurs contact investment bankers or venture capitalists with the expectation that they will work for free. Imagine walking into an attorney’s office and asking them to do work for free? Just as your lawyer, your accountant and for that matter, your doctor charges you a fee for the services offered, an investment banker, venture capitalist, etc. is also paid a fee for the services that they perform.

There are many business finance professionals who advertise various services, such as raising capital and they are paid a contingency amount for successful funding. What that means is, they are usually agents or brokers, and if they find you the capital you require they are paid a substantial fee. That fee is usually between 4% and 10%. That is fine for an agent, but it is not fine with the lender or investor doing all of the work.

In conclusion, do not be naive in your entrepreneurial journey. It will cost you money In order to obtain the capital that you are seeking. Regardless if it is long distance phone charges, travel expenses, business valuations, professional fees, due diligence fees, etc.

Like the old saying goes, “it costs money to make money”. When starting or expanding your business, you can get a lot further by simply planning and budgeting in the very beginning for the costs associated with obtaining business capital.

As a young dynamic and energetic individual, I am an accomplished entrepreneur and executive, and writer. With a desire to make a difference and a passion to change the world around me.

Author: Jefferson Mesidor
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Duty on LCD/Plasma TV

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Wealth Building Simplified – An Easy Guide To Financial Planning

May 26

Posted by Ravi Kumar P in wealth | No Comments

Everyone wants to build wealth. Some people find this very interesting and devote a great deal of time and effort in understanding and trying our various options to build wealth. But a lot of others who want to build wealth don’t have the inclination or time to go into the details to make great investment decisions. What is needed is a simple and systematic way to build wealth at a decent rate of return (willing to sacrifice some spectacular returns for the benefit of minimum efforts!) that does not demand too much attention from the potential wealth builder. No worries; there are a few fundamental things that one should keep in mind and as long as this is taken care of, wealth building can be done with a minimum of fuss!

I have come up with 5 C’s that one should keep in mind for a peaceful and successful wealth building effort:

1. Compounding

Explanation: There are 2 way to provide interest on an investment; Simple and Compound interest. Simple interest is when an amount is paid as interest on the initial amount (Principal) at a fixed percentage. For e.g, for Principal of 100, Simple Interest for 2 years at 10% per year would mean 20 as interest (10 per year multiplied by 2 years).
Compound interest is when the Interest earned is added back onto the Principal and the next year’s Interest is paid on the enhanced amount. For e.g, for Principal of 100, Compound Interest for 2 years at 10% per year would mean 21 as interest (10 for 1st year and 11 for 2nd year).

Bottom-line: Compounding is GOOD! It means the money works harder and earns more. Just to drive the point home, consider this: An amount of 100 invested at an interest of 10% per year on Simple Interest would end up as 200 at the end of 10 years while if the same is invested at 10% per year Compound Interest, it would end up as almost 260 after 10 years! So, always give preference to an investment where compounding applies!

2. Continuity

Explanation: Whether one invests in the Stock Market or in Bank deposits, the best way to do regularly over a long period of time as opposed to big chunks of stop-start investments. Therefore, aim to invest continuously over a longish time frame, say 25 years of your working life, from the time you are 25 years old till you are 50. Needles to say, the earlier you start and the longer you do it, the more wealth you will end up with.

Bottom-line: Do it over a LONG TIME FRAME! And invest continuously and regularly over this time frame. As much as possible, do not disturb the investments.

3. Consistency

Explanation: Along with continuity, fix and invest a consistent amount at consistent time intervals, say every month. A consistent amount (at least 10% of monthly income) invested every month over the long time-frame discussed above will ensure decent returns and a very good corpus.

Bottom-line: Just TOP-UP every month and let compounding work its magic!

4. Calm

Explanation: If the above C’s are followed, then the most preferred investment avenue is Equity investments. By their nature, equity markets are fickle and will move up and down. But long term investors should not really worry about this as over a long time horizon (10 years or more), equities are almost certain to give positive returns. So, invest in equities for the long term and keep CALM!

Bottom-line: Traders who want to make some margins everyday are the ones who should worry about the market movements everyday. For Continuous and Consistent investors, the short term market movements are best ignored.

5. Caution

Explanation: Be wary of new investments ideas that are thrown your way. If you don’t understand it, ruthlessly avoid it.

Bottom-line: Caution is better than regret. So, err on the conservative side.

Conclusion

An investment option that usually combines all the above C’s is most of the good equity mutual funds. So, all one has to do is pick a good equity mutual fund, set up a systematic investment plan with this fund that ensures a fixed amount of money is invested every month directly into this from the bank account and then sit back and see it grow. Most funds charge some fees for managing the investments but this is a worth it given the convenience offered. Of course it is recommended that you track the funds’ performance every half-year, if not every quarter and if you see that the performance is slipping up consistently over a few quarters, then it is time to switch funds and set up a systematic investment plan with a different fund house. Another safe option to consider is Index funds which are linked to the market index. The management fee is very low but this will give just the market rate of return and nothing more. This is not bad but an actively managed fund, for a slightly higher fees, usually out-performs the market on most occasions. Good luck for a successful wealth building exercise!

Ravi Kumar is one of the founders of the Chennai-based e-commerce company, http://dilsebol.com, where users can create, customize and order their own t-shirts, mugs, mousepads, ceramic tiles, coasters etc. After graduating from IIMA, Ravi worked as Area Sales Manager with one of the world’s largest beverage companies and as Business Consultant with one of the big 4 Consulting companies before establishing DilSeBol in 2007. Ravi is interested in personal financial planning and the stock market and has been investing in the Indian stock market for the past few years.

Author: Ravi Kumar P
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Low-volume PCB Assembly

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Race Horses and Mutual Funds

May 19

Posted by Al Thomas in business, mutual fund | No Comments

For years investors have been taught to look
into the composition of a mutual funds. In other
words the “experts” want you to take the time to
analyze the stocks within the mutual fund
portfolio, categorize them by industry group and
try to understand the objective of the fund
manager. This is nonsense.

When I go the track I look to see what the horse
has been doing for the last several races. I
don’t give a hoot what he had for breakfast. All
I want to know is has he been fast? Is there a
good chance he will finish in the money in the
next race? I only want to know how he has been
performing.

Most mutual fund managers, except those who
follow index funds, are always trading. You have
no idea that what is in the portfolio today was
there yesterday or will be tomorrow. Some fund
managers trade more than others, but you can
prove this to yourself by looking at the fund
prospectus at the beginning of the year and one
of the updates that funds publish quarterly.
Many of the stocks will still be there, however,
you don’t know if the percentage holdings are
the same.

By the way, don’t bother reading a mutual fund
prospectus. They are worthless when it comes to
making money. Consider that most of the
information in it is about a year old by the
time you read it. Think about this seriously for
a minute. Is there anything you can find out in
the document that will show up in your bottom
line? I’ll wait while you think. OK? There
really wasn’t anything was there? All
prospectuses are basically worthless.

But you say the SEC (Securities and Exchange
Commission) in Washington approved this. No,
they did NOT. They don’t approve of anything;
they just read it to be sure it meets the
regulatory requirements for disclosure. There is
almost no difference between the prospectus for
the worst mutual fund and the best mutual fund
and both of them may have been read by the same
Dilbert in his cubicle at the SEC.

There is one excellent way to find out which
fund to buy. It is based on performance. How
much has the fund increased in price during the
past 12 months? Just 12 months. Many financial
analysts want you to look at 3-year, 5-year and
10-year performance. Remember that horse? I
don’t care how many races he won 3 or 5 years
ago. Can he run NOW? There are many publications
and web sites that tell you the best performers.
Investor’s Business Daily prints a list of best
performing funds each day. You might have to see
the paper every day as they sometimes just tell
about the long-term performance. You want the
last 12 months and the last 3 months.

Three years ago you could have bought the best
performing fund on the street and today have a
dog. I call a dog any mutual fund that is not
outperforming the S&P500 index.

If you were a jockey you would want to ride the
fastest horses because in many races you get a
percentage of the purse. The same applies to
mutual funds. You must own only the best
performing funds at all times. Like the jockey
you must pick the fastest horse if you want to
be a winner.

You should review your fund holdings monthly to
see that you are only in the best funds. It
might take you an hour, but you will find that
you will double the current return on your
mutual fund investments. Do it!

Author: Al Thomas
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Pressure cooker

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