Business and Finance

Most businesses understand the benefits of good PR. If you raise your profile and get your good news stories out in the media then people will remember you, associate you with a good product and go on to become customers.

But sometimes things go wrong and your reputation, or that of your business, is in danger. This should also be a time when you turn to PR, and use its tools to avert disaster and get a better result for yourself and your business.

So, what do you do in a crisis? What if you have a journalist ringing you for comments about a bad news story? How to you handle the fall-out?

Each situation is different, and calls for a different response but one thing you should never do – NEVER do nothing. If you bury your head in the sand, wish the reporters would go away, batten down the hatches or simply hope for the best, the best won’t happen. With nothing from you, journalists can put their own spin on a story; if you reportedly “refused to comment” or were “unavailable for comment” people will invariably draw a bad conclusion.

Continue reading ‘Crisis? What Crisis? How PR Can Help Avert a Business Disaster’ »

Anywhere you turn, you will see a story about banks and savings-and-loan giants failing. I do not know how many more banks have to fail until we see the chaos on Wall Street that the 1929 crash brought about, but people are panicking.

So, how does this all affect the average American? Sure, if you’re completely invested in one of the failing companies it is easy to see, but for someone who isn’t in the market but perhaps has a 401 (k) they may be worried about their financial future.

Because banks are playing defensively, they are doing whatever they can to protect their assets. This causes them to not want to produce any new loans, creating subprime loans and mortgages is what got most of these banks into this dire situation to begin with. Even student loans will be harder to receive, which could in itself become a disaster, because college tuition will not be going down any time soon (or ever). If a potential borrower does not have great or perfect credit, loans are and will be very hard to acquire.

Continue reading ‘The Financial Crisis to an Average American – "How Does it Affect Me?"’ »

As I pondered on the future, I am reminded of the book that became a bestseller years ago: Who Moved My Cheese? It was a book written about change. How apt it is in this season of change we are going through – changes in our spending habits, changes in our investment options, changes in the core of our financial systems. The economy that was built upon credit is shaken to the core, forcing us to rethink the fundamentals. Americans and many others have been bought with a lie that we can spend on what we want and borrow into our future. That poisonous belief has piled a $10 trillion debt onto America’s backyard. Our proud capitalistic view is crumbling to the age-old foe of socialism. China who has been condemned for its closed-door economic policy to foreign investment has breathed a sigh of relief.

But eventually, it is not a matter of capitalism or socialism. It is a matter of integrity. The new economic order will have to be built upon trust. Accounting standards will have to revamped to reflect the true value of investment. Complicated financial derivatives will have to be debundled to manager risk a better way. On the extreme side, it is very easy to enact more stringent regulation on the financial industry. However, greater inhibition without wisdom will only suppress further growth and curtail the speed of recovery from the current financial crisis.

Continue reading ‘Adapting to the New Economy’ »

Many employees had been laid off from work and are now having difficulty to get back to the corporate world. Well surprise surprise! Instead of whining and feeling low on how you will get up from the economic slump and thinking of ways to pay the bills and send the kids to school; why not get back to your old passion. Know what keeps you going and makes your heart content, something that even though you won’t be paid, you will do it with all your heart and soul to perfect it. Remember that small business ideas fueled with pure passion is the start of all successful business and not even the economic fold up can collapse it. Besides you will have the full control of the propeller and will adjust it if something doesn’t seem right. If you are thinking of how to finance those great business ideas, you could take advantage of the many federal and government grants offered in your state. There are also small business loans offered by private sectors which you could turn to for help. Moreover, if you have the positive spirit backed by a well-planned business plan you may want to consider looking for a business partner. A business partner is someone who shares your same ideal and vision about making the business grow and got the right attitude and ethics for smooth transaction.

If you have the business idea, finances, business plan; then the next step is to your location and the small business marketing strategy you will need in order to reach your potential clients. We are already in the world of internet hence; you may utilize all these social networking sites to let the world know your product and services exist. No more expensive advertisements, you could also let your friends and relatives know and try your products and services and they will be the one to spread the news out there.

There are various small business resources out there and all you need is to act on them. There are many people who are willing to guide you with all the pertinent documents and other paper works you need to legitimize your business, just head on to your nearest business department in your state and they would gladly assist you.

Tough times doesn’t mean end of your dreams, if you could only see this as an opportunity to grow and start something anew; who knows that being laid off from your corporate world is a blessing in disguise after all.

Even with loan modification programs now in place, the Obama administration’s housing-rescue efforts are increasingly ill-suited to address the changing nature of the foreclosure crisis, according to a report released by a watchdog panel. The report, from the Congressional Oversight Panel was created to oversee the government’s $700 billion financial bailout. This report concluded that the financial bailout plan isn’t set up to help the current drivers of foreclosures: borrowers with good credit who have lost their jobs and those with complex mortgage. Under the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, eligible borrowers who are behind on their mortgage payments can reduce their monthly payments. A companion program allows eligible homeowners to refinance their home loan if they have little or no equity in their home. But modifying loans for unemployed borrowers who are unable to afford even reduced payments will likely lead to even more foreclosures in the future.

The report was released one day after the Obama administration said it had met a key benchmark for the housing-rescue program by offering trial loan modifications to half of a million homeowners. HAMP The report stated that Obama’s program is targeting the housing crisis as it existed six months ago, rather than it’s current state. Even trial loan modifications might not lead to a permanent fix, and the homeowners who do receive a permanent mortgage modification will see payments rise after five years. This will likely lead to a foreclosure delay rather than prevention. Foreclosure efforts so far were designed to modify subprime adjustable-rate mortgages and other risky loans that were becoming delinquent as interest rates adjusted, dramatically increasing monthly payments. By reducing the interest rate or extending the loan over a longer term, monthly payments may become more affordable. The current wave of defaults is being driven by borrowers with good credit who have lost their jobs and can not afford to make any mortgage payments. Another category of troubled borrowers have complex home loans that can’t be easily modified without writing down the loan balance, which is unlikely due to the financial crisis.

There has been some motion generated by this report. The oversight panel, which approved the report on a 3-2 vote, called for the administration to update the strategy to address this new wave of borrower defaults. The Treasury Department said that they continue to study further ways to help unemployed homeowners. Senate Democrats introduced a bill to offer federal funds for states to offer mortgage assistance to unemployed borrowers. Policy makers are also considering proposals that would allow lenders to lower payments beyond the requirements of the HAMP program for unemployed homeowners. The vast majority of modifications have not included writing down loan balances, which many experts believe would lead to more successful modifications.

Most people do not spend time addressing their personal finances in sufficient detail ahead of unexpected and scheduled expenses. This causes significant financial crises for many families. This article addresses the issues of proper planning to avoid a personal finance crisis.

It is in the news nowadays all over the place about the home mortgage crisis that is crippling the housing industry in America. Elsewhere in the world, there is similar news about the real estate slowdown. Many families are unable to keep up with the increasing cost of energy as oil prices have been skyrocketing. To add to it is the expense of college education for children, car payments and other revolving credit card payments and the net result is a massive level of stress in the financial health of the family and a potential personal finance crisis.

The age old adage of prevention is better than cure is applicable one more time here. The only way in which one can avoid a personal financial crisis is by proper pre-planning. Keep it simple; one does not need to complicate matters any more than they have to be. Start off with your take home income and budget a certain amount for rent or mortgage, a certain amount for energy, food, transportation, education and miscellaneous expenses. You need to categorize each of these into further sub divisions and really pin point the budgeted expenses. There needs to be a savings plan for a rainy day and sufficient life insurance coverage expenses also in the event that the main breadwinner of the family passes away.

Once these expenses have been written down, then additional analyses need to be performed. If the income meets or exceeds the expenses, then you are in good shape. If the income falls short of the expenses, then you have simply only two choices. One choice is to cut down the expenses. The other choice is to find additional sources of income. There is no magical way in which you can finance yourself out of debt by borrowing additional money by any means. You do not want to get caught in the perpetual debt machine. Debt comes at a price and I cannot believe that there are people that borrow more and more to pay for things they cannot afford in the first place. Proper personal finance planning is absolutely essential to avoid crises in the future and one needs to be honest in drafting and executing such plans.