9 Signs It Might Be Time To Sell Your Business

Most business owners ignore these… until it’s too late.If you are like most business owners, you’ve occasionally found yourself wondering what your life would be like without the stress and hassles inherent to business ownership.Perhaps you are facing personal challenges, such as divorce, a death in the family,or other issues that need your full attention.Maybe you have health concerns that prevent you from engaging in your business as fully as you would like.Or, it could just be that you are ready to try something new, go back to school, buy a home in the islands, or devote more time to a hobby or interest that you’ve had on the back burner for far too long.Whatever reason you have for contemplating the sale of your successful business,you must understand that selling a business is a process for which you can fully prepare.The first place to start in those preparations is to recognize some of the warning signs that let you know it is time to plan your exit.

Life changes are causing you to lose focus. It’s difficult enough to run a successful business without the added stress of unforeseen life events. Situations such as divorce, illness of a family member, or the need to care for elderly parents can upset any work/life balance you think you have achieved. If you feel overwhelmed and depleted trying to focus on both the business and family matters, you might seriously consider selling.

You have a hard time getting up in the morning and going to your workplace. Everyone in business experiences episodic burnout. However, if you have a regular pattern of looking for any excuse not to go to the office, it might be time to sell. Forcing yourself on a daily basis to engage with your business can have a negative impact on your financial, physical, and mental well-being. Your attitude can wind up costing you lots of money, time, and effort.

You spend a lot more time thinking about retirement than you do about your company. There’s no shame in doing this. Many of us look forward to a life without work. However, spending inordinate amounts of time watching the travel channels on television and visiting trip planning websites might point to your deep-down desire to get on with the rest of your life.

Your kids don’t want, or are incapable of running, your business. Even if your children or other family members have worked with you in the business for years, this doesn’t mean that they necessarily want to take it over when you leave. As badly as you may want the company to stay in the family, you can’t make assumptions. Junior may love working with customers at your pool company during the summer, but he might very well have bigger plans for his life. Even more painful to contemplate is the fact that your chosen successors might not be capable of running the business, even if they want to do so.

Everything has grown stale and you’ve run out of ideas to keep things moving. Years ago, when you started the business, creative thoughts spewed out of your brain with the speed and intensity of a high pressure hose. You had tons of ideas about how to differentiate your business and make your brand unforgettable. These days though, you feel stuck and the idea well is bone dry. Without improvements and innovations, your company’s growth will stagnate. If you can’t re-ignite the idea machine, it could very well mean that it is time to sell.

You need to pour tons of money into updating your business. If you are in a highly competitive niche that is continuously evolving, you might find that you’ve fallen behind and need to do an extensive (and expensive makeover) in order to stay profitable. Even if you are currently making a nice income, it might not be in your best interest to spend money to stay in business, especially if you aren’t having fun with it anymore.

You get an offer you’d be foolish to refuse. This happens more than you might think, even during a down economy. Someone out there has his or her eye on your business and they like what they see. Out of the blue, they make you an offer that is considerably more than current valuation. In most of these situations, it would be crazy not to sell.

Interest rates are lower than ever before. I am writing this article in 2014, a time when interest rates are historically low. There has never been a better time to leverage other peoples’ money. For investors, it makes sense to borrow like crazy and snatch up any and every appreciable asset they can, especially companies which, if managed properly, will generate nice returns.

You have an opportunity to participate in another venture. Most business owners, even those who are only marginally successful, are constantly approached by purveyors of new “business opportunities.” These can range from hyped-up multi-level marketing positions to Ponzi schemes to legitimate investment opportunities. I am sure you’ve probably been approached by more than your fair share of people pitching these kinds of things. However, once in a while a really good opportunity manages to come your way. Maybe it’s a chance to partner with another successful entrepreneur in your local area or it’s a start-up with amazing potential. When you find something like this and your gut feeling is that you want to be in on the action, then it might be time to sell your existing business and try something new.
It is never too soon to plan for the eventual sale of your business, especially if any of these warning signals sounds familiar to you.As the starting point for planning your exit, seek out real business experts who, unlike the majority of business brokers, have actually bought and sold businesses.Such experts will help you gain an understanding of the business selling cycle from A-Z and learn methods to avoid common pitfalls associated with the process.I believe that the greatest legacy you can leave to your family is a company that you have converted into a money-creating machine, protected by design against erosive elements such as taxes and inflation that threaten to consume your wealth.Consulting with experts enables you to do just that by showing you exactly how to design a custom plan that lets you to sell your business, get cash flow for life and pay no taxes.Imagine how much peace of mind you would gain by incorporating this kind of proven business exit plan into your business- before you need it.Successful business transitions don’t come about by accident. They are the result of painstaking planning under the guidance of seasoned business professionals who know how to get the job accomplished with outcomes more favorable both to sellers and buyers.Savvy business owners realize that the complexities of selling a business are many and that it makes sense to partner with people who have been in the trenches.

How Would Tying Student Loans to Repayment Rates Affect Higher Education?

As the U.S. Department of Education considers linking colleges’ and universities’ eligibility for federal student financial aid to the school’s student loan repayment rate, some analysts are looking at just how large the student loan default problem is and what might happen if new college loan repayment rules take effect in 2012 as expected.Defaults on college loans can be measured in a number of ways, but one of the most common measures of default is the official cohort default rate, defined by the Department of Education as the percentage of a school’s student loan borrowers who enter repayment on certain federal education loans “during a particular federal fiscal year, Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, and default or meet other specified conditions prior to the end of the next fiscal year.”In other words, the cohort default rate is the percentage of borrowers who enter repayment on their federal loans and then either stop making payments on their loan debt or never make payments at all during the 12-24 months after entering repayment.Student Loan Default Rates vs. Repayment RatesGovernment analysts now want to look more closely not at schools’ default rates on federal college loans but at schools’ repayment rates on those loans.Consumer and student advocates have long argued that the cohort default rate, as currently measured, severely underrepresents the proportion of a schools’ students who are struggling with college loan debt by looking at only an initial 24-month period. The two-year snapshot, these critics maintain, misses a large swath of students who are able to muddle through making their payments for the first couple years but then begin defaulting in the third and fourth years of their repayment periods in accelerated numbers.The default rate also fails to take into account those students who aren’t able to make payments on their college loans but who aren’t considered to be technically in default because they’ve arranged for a student loan debt management plan that permits them to put off making payments on their federal college loans.In proposed rules that would regulate a school’s eligibility for federal student aid, the Department of Education would consider a school’s college loan repayment rate and not simply its default rate, as current regulations do.By expanding its institutional financial aid eligibility rules to include student loan repayment rates, the Education Department would be looking at how many students simply aren’t repaying their student loans — not only counting borrowers who have defaulted, but including those borrowers who are in a legitimate deferred repayment plan or approved forbearance period that allows them to temporarily forgo making their federal student loan payments.The Student Loan Debt Problem, as Measured by Repayment RatesEarlier this year, the Department of Education reported that the national cohort default rate was 7 percent for the 2008 fiscal year, the last year for which repayment data are available.Looking at repayment rates, on the other hand, while also expanding the time span over which student loan repayment is measured, yields a far larger non-payment rate among college loan borrowers and paints a truer picture of the size of the inability-to-repay problem among student loan borrowers.The Department of Education estimates that in 2009, among alumni of public universities who carried federal student loan debt, only 54 percent of those who had graduated or left school within the last four years were in repayment on their federal student loans — a far cry from the 93-percent national non-default rate of 2008.The four-year repayment rate was marginally higher for students at private nonprofit universities, at 56 percent. Perhaps predictably, the repayment rate among alumni of private for profit colleges was substantially lower — just 36 percent over four years.These figures come from a new repayment database that the Department of Education will use to track government-issued loans, from the time they’re issued until the time they’re paid off. The database can also track what happens in between.By looking more carefully at each loan’s entire lifespan, the Education Department hopes the database will help identify the point at which borrowers first begin to show signs of trouble repaying their federal college loans.Schools’ Student Loan Problems Could Mean Loss of All Financial AidAs the government’s proposed financial aid rules are currently worded, the new rules would allow the Department of Education to impose financial aid restrictions on schools whose overall student loan repayment rate falls below 45 percent.Schools that have a repayment rate of lower than 35 percent would face the loss of federal student aid altogether.Using the Education Department’s 2009 data, more than half of the higher education institutions in the United States would face some type of federal loan sanctions if the proposed financial aid rules were in effect today, and 36 percent of post-secondary institutions would be barred from offering federal student aid for a period of at least two years.However, the proposed new Department of Education rules will also allow schools to report student loan repayment rates separately by program. By segmenting out repayment rates by program, institutions could avoid school-wide federal financial aid sanctions, leaving intact federal student aid for academic programs whose repayment rates are within the established guidelines, while still receiving sanctions for programs whose graduates consistently fail to make payments on their federal college loans.Student loans: http://www.nextstudent.com/, student loan default rates by school: http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/defaultmanagement/cdr.html

10 Tips to a Better Forex Trading Strategy

Over the past decade,Forex trading has grown rapidly thanks to its expansion on the internet. What was once considered a side trading strategy by those who delved in stocks is now open to millions of people who can trade on a daily basis.The low initial cost and promise of quick results have certainly lured people of many different backgrounds and experiences into this form of trading. However, as many find out it is not as simple as they may have heard or have been promised. This is because proper Forex trading strategy is not based in short term gain, but in long term results which may run counter to the expectations of those who believe they will make quick cash.The following are ten solid tips into creating the proper Forex trading strategy that will help deliver the results:-Forex Trading is a Long Term Wealth Building Tool:For those who are new to this form of trading, this is not a “get rich quick” scheme. In fact, effective Forex trading strategy is based on risking a little bit of money each day and not trying to “win big” off of a few trades. The weighing of the risk and reward is very important to employing the best strategy that will result in getting good trades. In other words, do not risk more than you can afford to lose.Trade from Logic, Not Emotion:A “good feeling” or “gut instinct” is exactly that, an emotion-based response that actually has no bearing on whether a trade will turn out good or not. Those that excel at Forex trading strategy base it on research, current events and trends while leaving their emotions out of the equation. The good feeling is simply not enough to risk any money on a trade without the proper research and backing.Use Limited Leverage:The ability to trade on margins is one of the most attractive features in Forex trading strategy. In fact, many Forex trades are accomplished with a high degree of leverage which means that only a small amount of money is actually put up front. However, if the trade goes badly then you will owe more than what was initially placed up to your entire investment depending on the margins. This means that careful management of the margins is in order, so limit the amount of leverage used on your trades.Carefully Consider All Decisions:Despite all the planning, there are a lot of random events that may occur which will create results that you may not expect. However, this does not mean that you should make decisions too quickly or not consider all the possibilities. Too many traders will simply go by their gut feeling and not do the proper research in order to get the best results. For example, it is always a good strategy to have a “stop losses” order in place just in case the trade goes against expectations.Understand the Market:It pays to know how the market in general reacts on a day to day basis. While some might say that “history never repeats”, it is helpful to understand the conditions which created favorable trades on your behalf. Good Forex trading strategy includes a good understanding of the market itself and how it reacts to daily events.Always Use Stop Losses:Stop losses exist because one of the worst traits that many Forex traders develop is the belief system that things will turn around for a trade no matter how bad the losses. By putting in a stop losses order, a trade that goes horribly wrong will only cost a small amount of the investment because it was stopped at a pre-set amount.Keep a Checklist:It always seems to be the little things that matter when it comes to successful Forex trading. When creating a winning strategy, develop a checklist that you can mark off once each step is accomplished. In that manner, you can better follow your strategies for creating the best trade possible.A proper checklist should include the following:

Time of Day

Technical Indicators Used in the Trade

Buy or Sell Signals that have been Noticed

Risk/Reward Value

Daily Stop Limit
Be Methodical and Disciplined:Once you have developed a disciplined Forex trading strategy that works, stick to it. A well tested plan will pay off more often than not which means that you can increase your overall success rate. The secret behind creating a healthy income stream with Forex trading is consistency in the approach. This means that each trade needs to be well thought out through good analysis and research.Keep a Diary:In other words, learn from your mistakes. Successful Forex traders keep a diary of when, where and why they took each trade while writing down all the pertinent details. From that information, a trader can then discover their winning strategy and then pursue it on a daily basis. Keeping a detailed diary, especially in the first few weeks of trading is a very valuable strategy.Forex Trading is Money Management:The difference between long term success and failure is how the money is managed. By risking a set percentage each and every time, a trader will limit their losses when they occur and thus keep more of their money in the long run. By effectively managing your money from day to day, the trading will limit the losses and the winning results will start to add up over time.The most successful Forex traders are those who base their strategy on winning more trades than losing and building up their investment over time. Keeping up your motivation and following a daily plan will help anyone execute the best Forex trading strategy possible. This means additional research and looking for signals which indicate the best circumstances to make a trade. Once a proper trading strategy has been developed, you can use it over and over again with success to build up your investment.

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.

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