<ul><li>Consistency</li><li>Trends</li><li>Intrinsic meaning</li><li>Competitive Comparisons</li></ul>

What To Look For When Examining A Company For Investing

The hallmark of good management, as well as of an attractive long-term investment, is the consistency of results delivered. If profit margins are consistent and changing at a consistent rate, the company is predictable — and most likely in control of its markets. Inconsistent ratios reflect inconsistent management, competitive struggles, and cyclical industries, all of which diminish a company’s intrinsic value.

Consistency

Better than consistency alone is consistency with a favourable trend. Growing profit margins, return on equity, asset utilization, and financial strength are all very desirable, particularly if valuation ratios (P/E and so on) haven’t kept pace. Value investors who study trends carefully have information that most investors don’t have.

Trends  

For many analysts, and especially credit analysts, who are trying to get a picture of a company’s health, a comparative analysis is the most important use of ratios. A ratio acquires more meaning when it’s compared to direct competitors, the company’s industry, or much broader standards, like the S&P 500.A profitability measure, such as gross profit margin, reported at 25 percent tells more when direct competitors are at 35 percent plus.

Comparisons

Intrinsic Meaning  

These numbers tell you something without looking at any comparisons or trends. Want an early test for determining whether a ratio is good, bad, or ugly? hink of the company’s ratio as it would apply to your personal finances.A household with 3 times as much debt as equity is in dire straits, as is a household that turns over inventory (say, groceries) only once a year, as is a household that achieves only a 2 percent return on its investments, or a household that’s owed a third of its annual income. You can’t apply this test to all ratios, but where common sense tells you something, use it!

These ideas show how you can make sense of financial data from 4 different angles.

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

Start With What You know: A Beginner’s Guide to Making Stock Investment Decisions

<ol><li>Quants</li><li>Scalpers</li><li>Day traders</li><li>Swing traders</li><li>Position traders</li><li>All of the above</li></ol>

Different Types Of Traders 

Starting with the fastest traders of all, quants are the high-frequency traders who trade using quantitative methods and complex computer algorithms

1. Quants

Scalpers also operate in the short term, but they may do so manually or by using a computer program. Scalpers look to profit from inefficiencies in markets and can hold trades for anything from a couple of seconds to a couple of hours.

2. Scalpers

Day traders enter and close their trades on a daily basis, rarely holding any positions overnight. Typically, they trade off charts using technical indicators such as pivot points or moving average lines to justify their trades. They may also take into account fundamental factors and news releases – perhaps buying or selling a stock the moment an economic figure is released. Some day traders may also use strategies to hedge their trades as they go.

3. Day traders

Swing traders typically hold positions for a couple of days, but not normally weeks. They are therefore less active than day traders but they do trade frequently enough to have to stay tuned to the markets at all times. They may use technical indicators such as trend lines or resistance channels to identify profit but are just as likely to look at fundamental news flow. They also look out for the possibility of reactions to upcoming news releases and events.

4. Swing traders

Position traders take many longer-term positions and hold positions for weeks, months or years. They are therefore just slightly down from buy and hold investors in terms of time frames. Position traders study big macroeconomic trends in order to find the long-term moves that can often define a market for years. They are also likely to enter big short-position trades and use hedging strategies to build a successful and stable portfolio.

5. Position traders

It is also possible to be one, none, or many of these different trading styles combined. Some traders concentrate on one market and one style only, perfecting their technique as much as they can, while others take a bit of each style depending upon the situation. For example, a trader might take long-term positions but keep a little bit of capital in reserve, in order to profit from short-term opportunities when they arrive.

6. All of the above

These ideas contain information on the different types of traders who trade securities

Getting Your Investing Sails right Before You Go to Sea: 11 Fundamental Concepts

There is no formula to determine how much wealth is wealth enough for you, or how much income is needed to build that wealth that will keep you satisfied. It all depends on you. What’s common to all of us is that In order to start building wealth, a proportion of our after-tax income should be saved regularly. Financial advisers would recommend a target of one-third but your income has a large role to play here. So let’s start with, how you generate income.

Moving From Income to Wealth  

Unless you encounter the good fortune of inheriting money, property, or other assets to fast-track your journey to wealth, savings and investments from your income are the two principal strategies that can make you wealthy. That income can be earned in two main ways:<ul><li>Active or earned income: such as wages, salaries, tips, commissions e.tc which usually involves a degree of exertion to generate.</li><li>Passive income: Money is received in exchange for little ongoing effort. You may have to do some work to set it up but after that, it needs less attention. </li></ul>

1. Generating Income  

2. 2. Storing And Saving  

The closer you are to retirement, the less risk you can afford. Before you make investment decisions assess the risk vs the return of such a decision. <ul><li>Shares (Higher risk, potential for higher income)</li><li>Property (Medium risk, potential for steady income)</li><li>Interest-paying (Lower risk, potential for some income)</li></ul>You can also consider supporting a startup this can result in big gains, but many fail so it can be risky.One common strategy is to create an investment portfolio spread across a variety of assets with different risk levels, such as shares, property, and bonds.

3. Invest wisely  

It’s good practice to re-evaluate your investments from time to time; you may find better assets to invest in, or opportunities to have better returns at lower fees.Also political and economic events affect your investments, so it’s always good to watch out for them and react accordingly.

4. Maintaining and Managing Wealth  

These ideas talk about how to use your money/income as a means to build wealth

Everybody wants a juicy secret, even when it abandons pure facts, we fill in the holes ourselves. If you tried to recall the number of gurus who promised they’ll make you rich and the number of money-making secrets you have heard, I am sure you won’t be able to fit them all in one hand.…

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

How to See Through the Smokescreen of Gurus who Promise you Wealth

The value investing philosophy was pioneered by Benjamin Graham and has been popularly put to great use by Warren Buffett (who needs no introduction). The core ideas behind this philosophy can be summarised as follows:<ul><li>Price does not always equal value</li><li>The price you pay for something is only relevant in relation to its value</li><li>The essence of value investing is to purchase shares of a company at a price that is substantially lower than the company’s underlying value.</li></ul>

Understanding The Value Investing Philosophy 

Margin of safety represents the difference between a company’s stock price and the company’s value.When the stock price of the company falls sufficiently below the intrinsic value, it creates a buying opportunity. Value investors expect that over time, as others recognize the true value of the company, its share price will climb toward its intrinsic value. As this happens, the margin of safety shrinks. When the share price equals or exceeds the company’s intrinsic value, the margin of safety has disappeared and the shares should be sold.

Margin of Safety  

Growth investing and value investing have more in common than apart, the major difference lies in the emphasis on “margin of safety”.

Comparisons With Growth Investing

Growth and Value investing are joined at the hip.

Benjamin graham defines an investment operation as “one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return.”Based on this definition, there are three components to investing:<ul><li>Thorough analysis,</li><li>Safety of principal</li><li>Adequate return.</li></ul>Any operations not meeting these requirements according to Graham should be considered speculative.

Value Investing Vs Speculating

On paper, the logic of value investing may appear obvious: buy stocks at a bargain price and sell them after the price has gone up. However investment decisions are not that straightforward, an investor is subject to an ever-changing environment where logic can be overshadowed by emotion.It takes a great deal of conviction to stick to value-investment disciplines, especially when a company’s stock price declines after you purchase its shares.This is why value investor’s trade long-term (3-5 years).Value investing principles are therefore mostly unappealing unless the investor has large bucks.

Criticisms of Value Investing  

This ideas explain the basic elements of value investing philosophy.

Prices in themselves are not appropriate determinants of value, this is one of the core principles of value investing and after examining this idea thorougly, you'll see this principle cannot be denied. Consider this example If I went to a store and got two items one for $40 and the other for $90 dollars. You…

Value Investing: The Philosophy That Gets you Investing like Warren Buffett

A valuable product or service is integral to starting your creative business. Still, to run and manage your business successfully, you need to consider other factors such as:

Things You Need To Know Before starting Your Business 

Branding Is About Loyalty—Not Just LooksYour branding should draw upon components of communication to give people an idea of what you’re all about and what to expect when working with you.It’s not just about logos, though the visuals on your business cards and Web site are a key aspect of branding. It’s really more about the client’s experience. You want to use your brand—logos, content development, publicity, and the like—to build credibility, convey a message, and encourage loyalty. You want prospects and clients to want you and only you.

Branding   

One of the nicest things about being your own boss is being able to negotiate your rate. Everything is negotiable; don’t be offended if a client asks you to come down a bit, but know that you have the power to negotiate just as much as a client.When you set your rate, make sure you go high enough so that if you decide to come down in price, you are still making enough money to turn a profit on the project.

Negotiations 

Your portfolio is the best example of your talents as a creator. To put a portfolio together, gather as many examples of your work as possible.Most clients only want to see 1-3 pieces so it’s important that when you want to show potential clients your portfolio make sure it is tailored to their job descriptions, this helps you put your best foot forward.The goal of a strong portfolio is threefold:<ul><li>You want it to highlight the range of services you offer</li><li>Show off your capabilities, and</li><li>Resonate with the prospect so they will hire you.</li></ul>

Portfolios 

Working 40+ hours per week for an employer while adding your own business to your plate is certainly a challenge. Without much time for charging your batteries, it is a recipe for creative burn-out. I found the following recommendations from Khierstyn Ross really helpful:

Moonlighting

<ol><li>Set aside 1 hr per day for your business (before or after work), and 1 day on the weekend.</li><li>Plan your week ahead of time.</li><li>Batch task (ex. Writing emails for the month)</li><li>Know what your priorities are before you start working on them.</li><li>Define what “done” looks like on a project so you can get momentum and check it off.</li><li>1 day off a week.</li><li>Consider hiring a VA for admin tasks.</li><li>Can you habit stack? Listen to the content at the gym/audiobook while driving.</li><li>Work on the important, not easy.</li><li>Have a “dailies”/”weeklies” list of non-negotiable things you need to do every day or week.</li></ol>

Moonlighting Tips

Tips that help small business owners, start and run their businesses successfully 

communication

Communication

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

business

Business

startup

Startups

A Dozen Things You Need To Know Before Starting Your Creative Business

We know that obsessing over tomorrow isn’t going to make it better, contrarily it mostly produces the opposite effect. We know that having ambition doesn’t necessarily mean you want to be the greatest of all time or the best there ever was.Ambition can be wanting a healthy mind and body, a happy home or a person to call love.But all our years of obsessing about the future won’t just disappear in a moment’s decision. Like me, you’ve probably taken one step forward only to go back three.We don’t know how to take our eyes off what the future could be. So how do we start focusing on ourselves?

How To Live A Life You Love

Stop the conscious searching for your passion and just live passionately.Before you know that you love something, you must first open yourself to possibilities by trying it out.Yet our fruitless quest for a passion is usually based on the assumption that you are just supposed to know. Thinking like this fuels indecision and does great damage to our self-confidence. All the time you could spend tasting life bouquets of experiences is spent panicking that you may not be good enough. Hi dear, you are everything that you need to be, step out there and make yourself proud.

1. Live passionately

Multitasking shatters your ability to focus on one task and has been <a href="https://health.clevelandclinic.org/science-clear-multitasking-doesnt-work/">proven to be an ineffective time saver.</a> It’s time to stop it and not just when you work. Practice being present in every moment of your life, like when you eat, instead of scrolling YouTube for a video to watch focus instead on your food only. What does it taste like? What colours do you see in it? How does it make you feel?

2. Don’t Multitask

Spending time with people who make you feel happy is a way to remind yourself of the value of the present moment. Spend time with people who are helping you believe in yourself, sometimes we are our own worst critics. Having a friend to remind you that it’s possible and you can do it, is an invaluable help.

3. Surround Yourself with Positive People

We forget that our bodies and brain are just systems made up of muscles and flesh. Muscles get tired and require rest. YOU ARE NOT LAZY! It is unhealthy to try filling all the 24 hours in a day with tasks.An adult is required to sleep at least 8 hours a day. Also, it is advised that for every hour of work you complete you give yourself 10 minutes of rest for your mind to recover. Failure to do this can lead to anxiety and sleep difficulties, with all the thoughts you tried to bury during the day rising up to the surface when you try to fall asleep.

4. Sleep Rest Sleep!

These ideas talk about developing a positive approach to life. Taking each day step by step.

It’s odd how we have been raised to try and conquer the world, to dream of success –mostly in terms of finance and status- as the pinnacle of life. It’s odd how we came to believe that we had to surpass our peers, and become the source of their envy, otherwise, we would have failed…

health

Health

habits

Habits

mentalhealth

Mental Health

Investment in its most simple form means “using an asset you own to generate future profits” and assets don’t always mean money; sometimes it could be time, effort, or a property you own.With this perspective, we can consider two school kids pledging portions of their lunches to each other as a crude form of investment.As for profits, it is up to you to define what is acceptable to you, based on the alternatives that surround you. For skilled investors, this is where using the time value of money comes in.

The Foundations of A Successful Investment

The time value of money rule is:"Money received today is worth more than that same amount received in future."The time value of money is used to guide investment decisions. Before you invest, you want to know which of the options before you promises the highest profits in today’s value. To do this you would grade your investments using either of these time value factors depending on your exact situation.<ol><li>Present value</li><li>Future Value</li></ol>

How Is This Applied?

Calculating the present value of money answers the question;If an investment promises to pay me a certain amount in future, how much is that sum worth today?

1. Present value

This answers the questions:I have a certain amount in hand today, how much is it worth in future?

2. Future Value of money

PV= FV / (1+i)n Where:PV=Present value FV=Future valuei=Interest rate n=Number of years.

The formula for the present value of future payments

Interest rates used in the present value or future value formula can also be called discount rate. When considering an investment, it is appropriate to use the opportunity cost of putting your money elsewhere as your interest rate. This is calculated as:Opportunity Cost = FO−COwhere:FO= Forgone optionCO= Chosen option​

Interest rates

Choosing the investment with the highest interest rate (returns rate) is viable but this doesn’t work in all cases, because it might be difficult to estimate the return rates on all available options.The length of time it takes for each investment to pay their respective returns should also be considered, among other factors like cost of investments, industry differences, the possibility of other cash inflows or compounding interest and any non-quantitative factors.

Factors To Consider In Your Decision

<ul><li>The time value of money is vital in making business decisions</li><li>The present value of money can be used to estimate what the profit of your investment is worth in today’s terms.</li><li>Discount rates or interest rates can be determined by considering what return you’ll get from another investment</li><li>And I may or may not have been a middle school business mogul with my lunch. You’ll never know.</li></ul>

What You Have Learnt

These ideas explain the importance of time value considerations in making investment decisions.

Every time the word investment is mentioned most people immediately think of the stock market, crypto, real estate and the likes. You probably do too and you are not wrong. But, investment in its most simple form means “using an asset you own to generate future profits” and assets don’t always mean money; sometimes it…

crypto

Cryptocurrency

Creating a successful marketing and sales strategy as an entrepreneur requires that you understand the breadth and depth of your individual product or product line, who your target customer is, how you will reach this customer, and why your product is better than that of any of your competitors.It is essential to know what your competition is doing (don’t just compare results) so that you can highlight the key differences that make your product unique. You should begin with a simple self-analysis:

How to Create and Evaluate your Business Strategy for Success

<ul><li>Describe your business right now. What words express exactly where you feel you are? Brainstorm and just jot down what comes to mind.</li><li>Make a list of the main services/products you offer</li><li>What is selling well?</li><li>What isn’t selling well?</li></ul>

– Of Your Business:

<ul><li>What is your turnover?</li><li>What is your current end-of-year profit?</li></ul>

– Of Your Profits

<ul><li>How many customers do you have?</li><li>Where do they come from?</li><li> What kind of profile do they have?</li><li>Who are your best customers?</li><li>Who are your worst customers?</li></ul>

– Customers

<ul><li>What are the key strengths your business has?</li><li>What are the key skills contained within this business?</li></ul>

Business Strengths

<ul><li>How do you feel about your business?</li><li>What do you find difficult?</li><li>What is it that you like and enjoy?</li></ul>

Your Attitude towards your Business

You will need to be honest with yourself and focus on the facts. This may involve some detail that you haven’t paid attention to for a while. You will need to be disciplined as you gather this information. Don’t rely on guesswork or gut feeling. Get the specifics as it is these details that will form the bedrock from which you can move forward. If you want to grow your business you will need to know exactly where you are starting from.

Your challenge

These ideas consider how to create and evaluate a small business strategy for successful business growth.

Most of us are too busy "doing" that we rarely take out time to plan and reflect. Picture this: David spends all of his time baking bread and curating his display window. He wonders why he gets only 4 customers daily while his competitor, 5 blocks away pulls in the same number in 2 hours.…

strategy

Strategy

In what became one of his final interviews before his death, Crazy John’s founder John Ihan sat with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/reubenbuchanan/">Reuben Buchanan</a> to discuss what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur -how he did it.<ol><li>Always have humility</li><li>Be Compassionate</li><li>Be ruthless with your business strategy, but not with individuals</li><li>Always give back to the community</li><li>Whatever you do pick something you love and never ever give up</li><li>Takes risks and learn from your mistakes</li></ol>

Crazy John’s Founder on Principles of Success and Happiness

Many people accomplish a little bit and decide that they are experts, John’s principle of humility keeps you aware of your weaknesses, and leaves room for constant growth and learning. Humility helps you acknowledge your vulnerability to bias and keeps you open to feedback on your blind spots and habits.

1. Always have Humility

Compassion can be understood as recognition of suffering, with an emotional feeling, and a desire to do something to end that suffering. People always remember those who patiently showed them compassion, in their time of distress. However to effectively practice compassion, it’s important that you start with yourself.

2. Be Compassionate

As an entrepreneur you must be able to nurture a culture that embraces change. For that to happen, a clear, coherent strategy outlining your agenda is essential. You will need a clear vision for your company’s future and you should be willing to commit resources and implement the needed policies needed to make change happen. However as mentioned above remember to always show compassion to your stakeholders (customers, employees, suppliers etc.) as your relationship with these people would be greatly impact your success or failure.

3. Be Ruthless with your Business strategy, but not with Individuals

If you treat your staff as your equal, they'll roll their sleeves up to get the job done.

Not only will your kindness influence others, but studies show it’ll also <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/generosity-health_n_4323727">make you happier, too</a>. Being a compassionate person and helping others can help solve some of society’s biggest problems. Find a way that you can share your unique talents or time with a local shelter, an elderly home or at children’s school.

4. Always give back to community

Do what you love is career advice that’s easy to give, but hard to follow, because we can’t always accurately predict what kind of job we’ll love until we’re actually doing it or maybe we love doing a lot of things.

5. Whatever you do, pick Something you love and Never ever give up

<ul><li>What can I do better than others? Think about what you’re really good at, and how you could use the skills where you have an edge in order to get results.</li><li>What problems do I want to solve? This question is productive because it helps you identify your values and the issues you care about, without confining you to a narrow role.</li><li>How do I want to be known? What you do for a living often informs other people’s impressions of you—as well as your own self-image. </li></ul>

Questions to help you choose the right career:

Challenge yourself to take a risk each day, do something new or differently, anything that pushes you out of your comfort zone. Risks help to push your mind beyond its comfort zone.

6. Takes Risks and Learn from your Mistakes

These are ideas on success from the words of the late John Ihan Crazy John's founder.

In what became one of his final interviews before his death, Crazy John's founder John Ihan sat with Reuben Buchanan to discuss what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur -how he did it. Using this interview and others, journalists Nick Gardner and Stephen Corby came up with the following Golden rules for success. Always…

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

The number of people who want to go into businesses is increasing every day, however starting a business from scratch is difficult and the work involved is unappealing to most people, they’d rather buy an established one. This is where business brokers come in.Business brokers assist buyers and sellers of privately held businesses in the buying and selling process. There are two ways in which you can approach this hustle.<ol><li>Simple Approach</li><li>Complex Approach</li></ol>

A Simple Guide To Becoming An Online Business Broker


A basic approach to starting out as a business broker is to create a website, where you’ll provide listings of potential businesses for sale. To generate income, you will charge businesses a monthly or annual fee, so they can be listed on your site. You can also add special offers such as the purchase of banner ads on your site to enhance their listings.

1. Simple Approach

If you go with the more simple approach, you’ll need:A computerInitial costs. Which would include, costs for the design, development, and hosting of your Web site.An experience with online marketing. As you are going to want to actively promote your Web site and generate substantial traffic. People are not going to want to purchase advertising or a listing on your site if you are not receiving any Web site traffic.

Requirements for a simple approach

This approach to starting your own online business brokerage firm is by actively seeking business opportunities for business buyers and investors to review.This requires a more in-depth knowledge of business fundamentals and excellent sales skills, as you are ultimately negotiating to sell someone else’s business. Revenue is typically generated on a commission basis –usually as a percentage of your sales- when you operate at this level.You list the businesses that you are selling directly on your Web site at no charge. You do this to expose the business opportunities to potential buyers.

2. Complex Approach

Knowledge of business valuations would be an asset.There are also certifications and professional memberships available for business brokers. If you obtain one of these, it adds tremendous credibility to your business brokerage firm.You will have to develop professional marketing collateral.Also, you’ll need to invest more in research and business promotion to find businesses that are looking to sell.

Requirements for the complex approach

If you are taking the more complex approach, you should monitor the quality of businesses that you are trying to sell. It can take months, even years, to close a business sale, so you want to ensure that you are not wasting any time on a business that will not provide you with a return on your investment. This is especially important because you are typically receiving payment based on sales commissions.You can proceed from here to the website of the <a href="https://www.ibba.org/">International Business Brokers Association</a> to find webinars, e-magazines, <a href="https://www.ibba.org/more-ibba/become-a-business-broker/">Pdf guides</a> and more resources to help you starting this business.

Important  Issue To Know

This ideas are meant to offer you clarity on what a business broker does, It should not be the end of your quest for knowledge, but rather the beginning of a thorough process to determine if Business Brokerage is right for you.

The number of people who want to go into businesses is increasing every day, however starting a business from scratch is difficult and the work involved is unappealing to most people, they’d rather buy an established one. This is where business brokers come in. Business brokers assist buyers and sellers of privately held businesses in…

Start With What You know: A Beginner’s Guide to Making Stock Investment Decisions

Getting Your Investing Sails right Before You Go to Sea: 11 Fundamental Concepts

How to See Through the Smokescreen of Gurus who Promise you Wealth

Value Investing: The Philosophy That Gets you Investing like Warren Buffett

A Dozen Things You Need To Know Before Starting Your Creative Business

James Oluwatobi