Make Money

Making money in service

December 31st, 2007 by monies

There is money to be made in expanding the service side of your business. Of course, there are the associated hassles and cost. But overall, I have found that dealers who increase their service operations also increase their profits. This is based on a financial study I conducted of 150 dealers. One of the key drivers of higher-profit dealerships was a higher level of service sales in the revenue mix.

The revenue mix is defined as the relative percentages of product, parts and service sales in relation to total sales. For example, a revenue mix I found, more typically, associated with lower-profit dealers looked like this:
Service sales 25%

The reason for higher profits is fairly straightforward. The margins on service are potentially higher than the margins for either equipment or parts. This, of course, assumes that the service is priced correctly. The rest of this article will address a method for determining the correct price for service sales.

Getting the right pricing. The pricing model is based on the time and materials billing method. Time for service work is priced at an hourly rate with minimum half-hour charges and billing increments, and materials (or parts) are charged out at the standard retail markup. The model is also based on recovering all service department costs in the hourly labor rate.

The pricing model is based on the average wage paid to service personnel. This wage rate must be marked up for:

* Payroll taxes

* Non-utilized time

* Overtime

* Shop indirect costs

* Shop overhead costs

* Profit margin

Let’s use the following example to determine shop service rate. We are assuming for purposes of this example that the company employs one full-time service shop mechanic.

Step 1. We start with an average wage rate of $15 per hour. We first mark up this rate by factoring in the associated payroll taxes and benefits paid by the company to employ this person for an hour. The markup includes the company-paid costs of SUTA, FUTA, PICA, vacation, sick, medical and workers compensation. In the example, these costs amount to 28% of each wage dollar paid. Yours may be higher or lower than this, so just be sure to use the right percentage for you when calculating your rates. However, the 28% rate is a fair average.

Step 2. We next calculate the cost of recovering nonutilized time. Non-utilized time is the time paid but not billed to a specific service ticket. This accounts for the hours that are not revenue-generating hours but are still paid for the mechanic to be at the shop.

You can easily estimate your utilization rate by comparing the number of hours charged to service tickets with the total numbers of hours paid through payroll. Based on survey averages, we will use a 60% utilization rate. This rate says that 40% of paid hours are not billed to a service ticket. Therefore, the cost for these hours must be recovered in the hours that are billed to a ticket.

We start with a full-time number of hours 2,080 per year (52 weeks x 40 hours per week). Multiply these hours by the utilization rate of 60% (or 0.6). This yields 1,248 billable hours (832 non-billable hours) at a cost of $19.20 per hour. Total utilization cost is $15,974 per year (832 non-billable x $19.20). Dividing this cost per year by the billable hours provides us with an hourly utilization cost that must be added to the first adjusted wage/hour.

Step 3. We then calculate the cost of possible overtime. We do not know when the overtime will occur, but we are assuming it will show up during peak season.

We are using a 10% overtime factor. This means that 10% of the wage hours will be paid an overtime premium of one-half time. Multiplying this overtime factor of 10% by the total full-time hours, then multiplying this number by one-half of the adjusted wage rate of $19.20 (or $9.60), calculates the overtime cost. This yields $1.60 per hour that must be added to the second adjusted wage/hour.

Step 4. There are two additional costs that must be recovered in the hourly rate. These are indirect and overhead costs for setting up and maintaining the shop. Indirect costs include items like uniform costs, tool costs, repair and maintenance on shop equipment, and depreciation on the equipment. Overhead costs include the costs of rent for the shop area, the costs for utilities, and the costs for administrative overhead to support the shop.

Author: Kehoe, Kevin

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Making money for the NHS

December 30th, 2007 by monies

Scottish Health Innovations was launched last week as a not-for- profit company by the Scottish Executive, intended to make money from intellectual property licensing and spin-outs within the field of medical research and development.

The company’s job will be to generate cash for the NHS, bringing a business ethic to bear on Scotland’s largest public enterprise, whose annual spend is more than (pounds) 7 billion.

McBeath will lead a drive to exploit small to medium-sized projects to either license or spin-out R&D work. McBeath has 25 years’ UK and global life sciences experience and sits on the governing council at Roslin. “There has never been a commercial culture in Scotland that accepts the real value of the intellectual property of our world-class science and health innovations. This has resulted in such ideas being creamed off by other people.”

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Making money fun for students

December 30th, 2007 by monies

Cooking school? Not quite. This is Karl Ochi’s introductory finance course at George Washington High School in San Francisco, California. Extracting a declining amount of juice from a lemon helps Mr Ochi demonstrate the concept of marginal revenue, an economic tool that his students can apply to their future personal investment and spending decisions.

The issue of financial education has reached fever pitch in the US, where sky-rocketing levels of personal bankruptcy and consumer debt, accompanied by record-low savings figures, have provoked scathing criticism of the nation’s lax attitude towards money matters.

US education experts say schools must make lessons in finance a priority to avoid another generation of reckless spenders. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that American students who took a class in personal finance were wealthier and saved more as adults, compared with those who did not receive compulsory education in money matters.

Yet teaching young people about money management is one thing; making those lessons stick so they will apply them as consumers is more difficult. To do that, teachers like Mr Ochi are replacing graphs and formulas with hands-on approaches that make finance relevant and fun. “Economic literacy is rooted in the student’s ability to intuitively understand, to `feel’, economic concepts,” says Mr Ochi.

And students at G W High cannot get enough of Mr Ochi’s lessons. “I come to class just to see what’s going to happen next,” says one. The teenagers, who hail from a myriad of income and cultural backgrounds, routinely come in the top 1 per cent in state and national finance exams.

By most marks, America is ahead of Britain in getting financial lessons into its classrooms. Vola Parker, of the Personal Finance Education Group (Pfeg), a UK educational charity which is working to develop a UK curriculum standard, says much of the difference comes down to funding. Pfeg, which is funded in part by the Financial Services Authority, the regulator, received operational funding last year of less than pounds 200,000.

In the US, however, President Bush’s 2002 Education Bill allocated $385m (pounds 211m) for innovative educational projects, including activities that promote consumer, economic and personal finance education in schools. Funding from financial institutions and other private sources is also much higher.

Ms Parker says she can only dream of having a comparable source of reliable funding for her organisation. “Our funding is renewed every year,” she says. “There’s no clear, ongoing commitment. We’re certainly hearing noises from the Government, but that’s all. It doesn’t help us when we get interested teachers seeking advice on programmes and we have to tell them we’re waiting to hear what our funding will be. It’s heart-breaking.”

Author: Jamie Felix

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Millionaire Mind - Think Like A Millionaire

December 29th, 2007 by monies

Unless you learn how to think like a millionaire, you will have trouble making money and becoming one. To think like a millionaire you must have the right thoughts and beliefs about money. Millionaires, multi millionaires and billionaires have a unique way of looking at money. Learn about it and apply it to your own thinking.

THOUGHTS AND BELIEFS OF A MILLIONAIRE

The following are some of the thoughts and beliefs which are NOT entertained by the millionaires, multimillionaires and billionaires. They eliminated all these useless thoughts/beliefs from their Millionaire Minds. Unfortunately, they constantly run through the minds of those having real trouble making money.

- Money doesn’t grow on trees

- It is real hard for me to make money

- I never have enough money

- Money is the root of all evil

- Money is evil

- Money won’t buy happiness

- Making money is not that important to me

- Making money doesn’t turn me on

- I don’t know how to make money

- I just stink at making money.

- I cannot afford it

- I will never get rich

- It is better to give than receive

- My fate/destiny is to be poor

- My family was poor and that’s my destiny

- Who am I to become rich?

- I am a loser. I always blow it

- I am a failure. I never succeed

As part of the Secrets of the millionaires, multimillionaires and billionaires, the following are some of the thoughts and beliefs constantly running through the minds of the super rich:

- Money is good

- Having lots of money is great

- With money I can help lots of people

- Lots of money mean freedom for me

- It is real easy and fun for me to make money

- Making lots of money comes easily to me

- I make money with great facility

- I am a money magnet

- I always have more money than I need

- I love making money

- I enjoy learning how to make money

- I enjoy learning how to manage my money

- I enjoy saving money instead of wasting it in instant gratification and items that don’t give me a solid return for my money

- I love learning how to invest my money

- Making lots of money feels real great

- Making lots of money is real important for me

- Having lots of money has a high priority in my life

- Having lots of money is my destiny.

Author: Al Crist

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Ways to Make Money Online

December 29th, 2007 by monies

I wanted to know if there were ways to make money online, and good money.

For years, it was in my mind that there were ways to make money online, as I had read so many claims that there were easy ways to make money online.

So I set out to search for ways to make money online, as I am sure many of you have.

I came across many individuals claiming they could provide me with ways to make money online, ways to change my life and double my wealth, within a small space of time.

Was this really possible? Were there ways to make money online? Here is exactly what I found.

Author: James CM

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Making money the green way

December 29th, 2007 by monies

A few local companies, however, are offering ways to raise money that will help keep people’s environments a bit cleaner. Not just their home — the entire planet. They also cost no more than an old cell phone or an empty soda can.

A few years ago, Corey Brown, who teaches English and coaches soccer at Fremont’s American High School, read that Americans will replace about 130 million cell phones this year. And that number is likely to soar, he said, because people now can keep their phone number if they switch companies and many are upgrading to phones with cameras.

So he helped form a company to do something about it, rather than let the discarded cell phones turn into 65,000 tons of trash in a landfill.

The cadmium in a single-cell phone battery can pollute an entire Olympic-sized swimming pool, Brown said. But even those not thrown away can cause problems because oftoxins in the fire-retardant plastic used to make them.

“People will give old cell phones to their little kids, and the kids are putting them in their mouths,” he said.

Nonprofit organizations can collect phones that no longer are being used and bring them to Cell Cycle, Brown’s company. If the phone still works, Brown will sell it to a company that will refurbish it. If not working, the phone can be broken down into components and recycled.

Cell Cycle will give the organization about half of what the phone is worth. But even if the phone is worthless, Cell Cycle will pay at least $1 for it, Brown said.

“We get them out of the drawers, out of the boxes and do something with them,” he said.

Tri-CED, Union City’s recycling company, also is providing an environmentally-friendly way for groups to raise money.

Richard Valle, Tri-CED’s CEO, said the company will give a premium to nonprofit organizations for people who bring in cans — provided those donating the cans donate their share of the proceeds to the group.

The program started when Valle was approached by Dana Hernandez, fund-raising coordinator for her son’s Little League baseball team. Hernandez said the idea came from the team’s coach, who wanted the players to earn uniforms to replace their old, tattered ones.

“He wanted to teach our kids to be green and to work for something they want,” she said.

Barry Shatzman can be reached at (510) 353-7003, or bshatzman@angnewspapers.com.

Author: Barry Shatzman, STAFF WRITER

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The ‘Sport’ of making money

December 28th, 2007 by monies

Accounts just filed for Sport Newspapers show that the three directors - Mr Sullivan and fellow Birmingham City owners Ralph and David Gold - paid themselves pounds 10.4m in dividends for the year ended last August.

Mr Sullivan, whose wholly owned management company, Roldvale, also pocketed pounds 3.9m in fees, has a 50 per cent stake in Sport Newspapers. The Ralph brothers also have a 50 per cent interest and shared the other pounds 5.2m in dividends.

The company bucked the trend at most newspaper groups and posted profits of pounds 2.4m last year, up from pounds 139,000 in 2004, despite falling sales.

ABC-audited sales of the Sunday Sport were 125,000 in May, down from 159,000 the year before. Sales of the Daily Sport, which aren’t audited, are down 24 per cent at around 24,000. By taking pounds 10.4m in dividends, the three men pushed Sport Newspapers pounds 7.9m into the red. The accounts said the money was taken from the company’s cash reserves.

Mr Sullivan, who made his fortune in pornography, set up the Sunday Sport tabloid in 1986 with David Gold, who with his brother Ralph owns sex-accessory shop Ann Summers.

The company did not return calls about why profits had risen despite the slide in sales.

Fans of Birmingham City will hope that the three will put some of the cash towards spearheading this season’s promotion drive back to the Premiership.

Author: Tim Webb

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Making sure the money’s clean

December 27th, 2007 by monies

Fighting Organized Crime

Not only does organized crime have a negative social impact on our communities and in our lives, it poses a major threat to international financial networks and national economies. As the world economies become increasingly interdependent, financial markets become ever more vulnerable to the organized crime groups who seek to exploit their weaknesses.

Representing the world’s largest economies, the Group of Seven founded a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 1989 to combat organized crime on a global basis. Part of the plan included fostering the establishment of international money laundering controls.

Today FATF includes 26 member nations, the European Commission, and the Gulf Co-operation Council. FATF’s mandate is based on 40 recommendations first put in place in 1990 and later revised in 1996. These recommendations serve as the task force’s blueprint for establishing domestic money laundering controls and fostering international cooperation between countries.

In response to the FATF initiative, the Canadian government, a member of the G-7, passed into law the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) Act (the Act”) on June 29, 2000. The passage of this Act was followed by the posting of the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) Regulations (the “egulations’) on February 17, 2001. Immediately following this posting, a 90-day consultation period ensued.

Complying with New Rules

Entitled “Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) Suspicious Transaction Reporting Regulations,” the first set of finalized regulations under the Act were posted in the Canada Gazette on September 12, 2001, and came into force on November 8, 2001.

Where there are reasonable grounds to suspect a transaction is related to money laundering, the finalized regulations require accountants to report the transaction to a newly created regulatory agency, the Financial

Transaction and Reports Analysis Centre (FinTRAC). The same regulations apply to banks, credit unions, securities dealers, lawyers, foreign exchange dealers, life companies, trust and loan companies, certain government agencies, and casinos.

When the remaining regulations come into full force, accountants and other entities will have to become fully compliant. To do this, they will be required to develop policies and procedures in the following areas:

* Ascertaining identity

* Maintaining certain records relating to financial activities

* Taking declarations of financial transactions for amounts in excess of a prescribed amount as set out in the Regulations and reporting these transactions to (FinTRAC)

Establishing a system for the reporting of cross-border movements of cash and monetary instruments in excess of a prescribed amount as set out in the Regulations

It will be mandatory for accountants to positively identify individuals and companies who conduct financial transactions pursuant to the Act and keep and retain certain records, yet to be set out in the regulations, for at least five years. In addition, the proposed regulations will require accountants to file to FinTRAC and keep a “large cash transaction record” of a cash transaction in the amount of $10,000 or more “in the course of a single transaction.” A single transaction is defined as two or more cash transactions or electronic funds transfers of less than $10,000 each that are done within 24 consecutive hours and that total $10,000 or more. Accountants will also have to report to FinTRAC any movement of cash and monetary instruments cross– border that total $10,000 or more.

Also, the pending Regulations require accountants to implement a compliance regime that, in addition to developing policies and procedures, includes the appointment of a compliance officer, the implementation of compliance reviews and an ongoing training and awareness program.

To ensure compliance, the Act gives FinTRAC the power to enter any accountant’s business premise at a reasonable time, without a search warrant, and examine records and inquire into the accountant’s business and affairs as it relates to the Act and Regulations.

Penalties for non-compliance can be severe. They can damage an accountant’s (or firm’s) reputation in the community-with clients, suppliers, partners, and associates-as well as bringing significant court costs and the disruptions resulting from an investigation. Fines range from $500,000 to $2,000,000 or to a term of imprisonment of not more than five years, or both. Reporting Suspicious Transactions The law requires that accountants

report certain financial transactions when there are “reasonable grounds” to suspect the transactions are related to money laundering. According to Section 7 of the Act

Author: Beck, Bernie

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On the buses, on the money, on the make…

December 27th, 2007 by monies

I recall it well both because it was an early punt and because a friend of mine told me I’d never make money out of a bus company. My heart sank at that, as we all like to receive peer approval for even the daftest moves. In any case I persevered through good times and bad with Stagecoach, buying more shares along the way and occasionally taking some profits too.

I can well recall how, about five or so years ago, Stagecoach looked headed for a complete smash and the stock fell to 10p, virtually penny share territory. I bought some at 15p and sold them after they’d trebled, thinking I’d done well. However, every time I look at the Stagecoach share price, now heading inexorably to the 200p mark on the back of last week’s excellent results, I wince.

In fact, it shouldn’t be too long now before it scales the heights it reached in the late 1990s when the City woke up to its potential and the remarkable personality of its co-founder, Brian Souter.

Now, having divested itself of its American operations and survived the various crises on Britain’s railways, Stagecoach is bashing the dividends out again. By now I think I’ve received the equivalent of my initial 1993 punt, so Stagecoach has proved a very fine example of what out to be the point of investing - getting sufficient returns to cover our initial investment plus some extra. Of course you have to be patient, but that is at least one case where a very traditional view of equities has been sound.

All through the post 9/11 slump I happily bought some other transport sector shares to go with my Stagecoach ones, building up my very own train set of stocks and shares. They were extraordinarily cheap then because of the general depression on the markets and because of all those troubles with Railtrack and the rest of it. Since then National Express, Go-Ahead and First Group have put me on the express route to riches, or at least a healthy paper profit. Now things are so good that the franchisees have to pay the Government for the privilege of running the trains. All thanks to Gordon Brown’s superb management of the economy and countless quarters of uninterrupted growth. (Can I have a job in the government too?)

So is it still a good time to ge t on the buses and the trains? I think so. The yields aren’t that juicy, but there’s a case for them on two grounds. First, we’ll probably see some more consolidation in the sector.

Public transport seems to have escaped the attentions of private equity and foreign investors, but I’m sure it will follow the electricity supply and water industries, with consequent uplifts for shareholders. Second, there’s the planet. A few years ago, when Stagecoach went public, it looked as if the public transport thing was doomed. No one in their right mind would travel like that if they could afford a car.

Still true, I fear, but the thrust of official policy is very much towards delivering John Prescott’s almost forgotten pledge to get us out of our cars and onto the buses. We won’t be doing this because we want to: we’ll be doing it because we’re forced to, whether simply because the congestion becomes unbearable or because local authorities introduce abominations such as road pricing or some combination of both. If that happens, as it surely will, then the only compensation I can think of is to look at the transport sector of the share pages on your morning bus/ train/ tube commute.

It really will be the only thing that could alleviate the misery. Buy Stagecoach shares, and think of them as an emotional hedge on losing the use of the Focus.

Author: Sean O’Grady

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First Step To Wealth Attraction Is Changing Your Mindset About Money

December 26th, 2007 by monies

The first step to attracting money and wealth is to change your mindset about how you feel about money. Many of us have uncomfortable feeling about money. They include beliefs that money is the root of all evil, people who have money swindled it out of people who don?t have it or they acquired immorally or illegally.

People may feel uncomfortable or uneasy when money is brought up or if someone makes a comment to them. For example, someone may make a comment to you such as ?you must be rich? just because they make an observation of where you live or what car you drive, where you vacation or what you have in your home, and you may just brush it off or say ?oh it wasn?t a lot of money? or ?I wish I was rich.?

There is nothing wrong or shameful for being wealthy or having nice things. The problem lies in the person who makes that statement. Everyone has a right to be wealthy. There is nothing wrong in being poor either but there is something wrong in STAYING poor.

People also see money in scarcity as opposed to abundance. People think that if you make money you are taking it away from someone else. This is a false premise. There is an abundance of money in the world and money is always circulating. Money is constantly being made. I say that there is no ownership in money; everyone is a facilitator of it.

I see some people who use money as a way of survival instead rather than a symbol of energy. People who view money as a way of survival have a harder time attracting money. Using money for survival stems again from the scarcity mentality. It should be used as a way to express your true self.

Author: Mark Morrison

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Making money in service

Making money for the NHS

Making money fun for students

Millionaire Mind - Think Like A Millionaire

Ways to Make Money Online

Making money the green way

The ‘Sport’ of making money

Making sure the money’s clean

On the buses, on the money, on the make…

First Step To Wealth Attraction Is Changing Your Mindset About Money