Make Money

Zen and the art of making money

December 21st, 2007 by monies

The daily practice of Yoga alone does not explain the successes of Eduardo Costantini, but it does at least suggest that an independent turn of mind played a part. Costantini, 53, is one of the few survivors among the fast-money speculators who profited from Argentina’s economic turmoil of the 1970s and 1980s.

Not only that, he realized ahead of time that the party would end, changed his strategy, and even managed to grow his fortune in times of protracted recession.

Today Costantini’s empire stands on asset management, commercial property and a US$500 million housing development north of Buenos Aires. More importantly, Costantini is emblematic of a new style of tycoon for Latin America: self-made, entrepreneurial, informal, visionary and committed to something more than making money In addition to his real estate developments, and the US$800 million that his closely held Consultatio brokerage firm manages (divided equally between its own funds and those of institutional investors), Costantini’s current extracurricular activity is the construction of a museum of Latin American art in the city of Buenos Aires.

It is no meager gift. The collection and the museum together are valued at US$100 million. There are 160 works in the collection, many of them crafted by icons of 20th century Latin American art: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Emiliano Di Cavalcanti, Xul Solares. It may very well be the best collection of Latin American art anywhere–and if there remains any doubt, Costantini is rapidly acquiring the pieces that will guarantee the preeminence of his collection.

Never one to fall behind the times, Costantini is also dabbling in the New Economy He is involved in three ventures to which he has attracted investors such as Softbank and Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helu: Dineronet.com, an online financial services site; Hogardigital.com, a site for buying or renting property; and 7por24.com, a business-to-business site connecting food producers and independent self-service supermarkets.

Commercially speaking, however, the apple of his eye by far is NorDelta, a mega-development north of Buenos Aires. There, on 1,600 hectares, Costantini is building what he calls a ciudad-pueblo for 60,000 residents, complete with three high schools, a university, an office park and commercial space–all on what was once nothing more than a strategically located swamp.

It is a monumental task and Costantini has moved 20 million cubic meters of earth to make it happen. Since the 1970s, others have ogled the vast plot only 30 minutes from downtown Buenos Aires, but the sheer magnitude of the undertaking overwhelmed most. In the mid-1990s, Australian investor Kerry Packer formed a consortium to develop the land, but got cold feet after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

With NorDelta, Costantini is playing catch up in a big way He admits that, at first, he missed out on the property boom in Buenos Aires’ northern suburbs when it began five years ago. But, in a masterful move, he has trumped his competitors with this pharaonic construction project.

Ricardo Cavanagh, an analyst at the Raymond James investment bank, calls NorDelta an “astounding gamble,” but one which he believes will succeed in spite of the present recession in Argentina and the oversupply of new developments. “I have no doubt NorDelta will fill up,” he says.

TO UNDERSTAND THE WHIRLWIND that Costantini has become, one has to look at his past. His epiphany, it seems, came when be was 14. In a story that should give hope to parents with troublesome kids, Costantini was the family comedian and, to put it lightly, an indifferent student. One of 13 children raised in the posh San Isidro suburb of Buenos Aires, he failed two class grades. He even managed to get thrown out of a school his father had founded.

His parents responded by sending him to boarding school. “Imprisoned” under the stern gaze of tough priests who had no qualms about corporal punishment, the young Costantini changed his ways. Released after a year, he threw himself into his studies, eventually graduating with the second-best grade point average in his class. “Since I had a very bad image,” he reflects, “I may have gone to the other extreme to change it.”

Author: Kevin Footer

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Making money selling systems

December 21st, 2007 by monies

As I was sitting in a meeting recently during which various library system vendors were being discussed, I went back in my memory (which, I admit, sometimes is a bit fuzzy) and wrote down the “Lives of Vendors,” insofar as I could remember them and without doing any research.

CLSI, a pioneer, went into bankruptcy for one day and was saved by an investor. Later CLSI was sold to a European company which had other interests, such as glass container factories, etc. That lasted a few years and CLSI was sold to GEAC. The name CLSI is gone. So are many of their large group of customers.

Dataphase, another early entrant, had really big parties at ALA conferences. They lasted only several years and vanished. Someone else bought their software and customers.

Ulisys, which was in a number of large libraries, just died.

Dynix was born in Utah and did very well, presumably well enough to attract the attention of the Baby Bell Ameritech (not really baby in anything other than the name). They have contracted and expanded, even bringing Paul Sybrowsky, the original developer, owner and seller, back to consult, or run the outfit or something for awhile. My completely uninformed opinion is that the Baby Bell would have been happier if everyone had to charge their books out on a touch-tone phone.

Oh, Notis was bought by Ameritech, too.

Meanwhile, out in Colorado the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL) was trying to develop a system that did everything all the others didn’t. They then went after the public library market, snatching up some biggies, looking good, and sold the company to a newspaper chain, Knight-Ridder, which supplied lots of capital to CARL. After a couple of years, the newspaper people sold the division that now contained CARL to an British outfit, which is promptly selling CARL and its affiliated companies, such as Uncover. Wanna buy a vendor?

There have been a lot of companies sort of playing, around the edges, such as SIRS, or VTLS (initials are bif in this game), but the only biggies that come to mind as not yet being bought and sold are Innovative Interfaces (reportedly a money machine), and DRA, which were started on their way, as. I remember, by the Cleveland Public Library, a money machine for 50 years.

So why all this frantic buying and selling, expanding and contracting? I asked the top dog of one of the vendors if the problem was capitalization, management or profitability? He said, “All three, but chiefly because the system purchasers don’t understand the necessity for a company to make a profit to stay healthy.”

And, of course, I suppose, as Richard Goldberg, onetime president of CLSI used to say, “Pay your bills!” Libraries, which are the creatures of municipal governments, are notorious slow payers. I know supply vendors who will not do business with some cities, and I know system vendors who won’t bid on proposals from some cities. Too expensive, too much complication, no profit, lots of headaches.

The thing to do is develop some fancy software and sell it fast, I guess. Vendors could make as much with less pain selling software to the car-wash industry, which is the same size, I’ve read, as the library industry.

Author: Robinson, Charlie

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Making sense of love and money

December 21st, 2007 by monies

Agencies such as Scottish Marriage Care, who also provide counselling for couples with relationship difficulties, report that money problems add considerably to the strains on modern relationships. Research shows that poor families on benefit separate and divorce in higher numbers than the better off. And in the unfathomable morass of the benefits system, some women can end up in better financial circumstances if they have split from their partner.

These days couples tend to have a higher level of financial commitment, with borrowing based on two wages. However, even the best laid plans can be completely thrown out by the unexpected - for instance an accidental pregnancy, as the woman stays home to bring up the kids. Sometimes they expect to return to the jobs market but find the cost of childcare too prohibitive. And many report that as time goes on, they feel less confident about returning to a fast changing jobs market. The resulting financial strain can lead them into debt and the break-up of the relationship. Even families who plan for the loss of one income find the pressure piled on in a climate of job insecurity.

Fiona Ashton, 41, of Parents Network, says her decision to give up full time work in customer services to look after her three children was a “quality of life decision”, despite the loss of her salary. But as her husband has just lost his job, it means the family’s future is uncertain, without the cushion of a second income until he finds another.

Fiona says that the cost of childcare meant that, financially, she wasn’t much worse off staying at home than she would have been if she had returned to work and paid for childcare.

“I did look for work that fitted in with school hours but that’s quite difficult,” she says, “and paying for a childminder for three children would have been too much for our budget. The children are aged 12, 10 and eight now, and I think it does get easier as they get older, but financially our lives divide into ‘bc’ time - that is, ‘before children’, when we had much more money and could have a foreign holiday every other year and eat out, things you take for granted before you have children.

“We did notice the big difference in our income when I stopped work and I think relying on one income put a lot of pressure on my husband. Everything depends on his job. For instance we like living in Newton Grange, in Midlothian, but if my husband gets work elsewhere we will certainly have to go.

“The financial facts of life mean there’s no flexibility and I couldn’t choose to work full time instead because I couldn’t earn enough to meet the family’s costs. My husband will claim benefits but there may not be any benefit to the family in my working. We’ll see. I think there should be more government support for people getting back into the jobs market and tax breaks for childcare.”

As well as the practicalities, financial tension can often creep into the relationship if the woman resents not earning and spending her own money.

“I know that for some of my friends having their financial independence is really important,” says Fiona. “It’s still important for me and I get the family allowance money paid into my own account so I always have my own money to control. But then I pay all the family bills anyway. My husband tends to earn the money and I tend to spend it.”

Sadly, money worries and separation often go hand in hand, says the Citizens Advice Bureau, sometimes because splitting up costs so much, but also because debt puts such a strain on people that they do part. The total debt Scots are currently asking CAB to help them with is more than #70 million, an average of #6700 per person, with debt problems increasing year on year for the past four years.

Colin Sim of CAB says couples sometimes have credit card or catalogue debts and then find themselves unable to pay because of a sudden change in their circumstances.

“When you are in financial difficulty it’s likely to affect every other area of your life, including your relationship or your family life. It affects people very badly sometimes. We had a young mum of two who tried to commit suicide twice because of money worries, and we had a similar case where someone actually did kill themselves for this reason.

Author: Julia Clarke

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Making money on the Web

December 20th, 2007 by monies

But don’t despair if you didn’t join a start-up or make millions on stock deals. Even though the economic engine is miles up the track and the first-class compartments are full, you can still catch up to the caboose.

Not that you couldn’t become a dot-com billionaire - with the right idea, anything is possible.

More likely, you’ll earn $6.87 a quarter in book-selling commissions as an Amazon.com affiliate or $12.50 a month for staring at an ad bar on your monitor while surfing the Net.

And, if you’re not careful, you could get scammed by a fly-by- night company or throw money away on some useless book or program that promises to reveal the secrets of online success.

Still, some folks are making money on the Net.

Erich Winnecke of Jeffersonville, Ind., said he made more than $45,000 last year, most of it when people visiting his Web site clicked through and bought into a network marketing program, thus earning money for him.

“I’m getting over 2,000 new visitors every day, and I’m making at least 80 sales per day, ranging from $2.50 to $100,” he said. “It’s turned out to be a very lucrative business for me.”

His page, www.work-at-home-dot.com, like thousands of others on the Web, showcases assorted networking and multilevel marketing plans - some free, some not - plus books, magazines and courses aimed at work-at-home wannabes. It also includes links to the Better Business Bureau, the Small Business Administration and some associations for home-based workers.

The key to his success, he said, was figuring out how to manipulate search engines so his site comes up at or near the top.

“I’ve learned how to use the algorithms,” said Winnecke, 47, who never owned a computer until two years ago. “I programmed my HTML code to fit their algorithms.”

Translation: He used the hypertext markup language that creates Web pages to highlight certain key words, or “metatags,” to increase the odds of his site being listed high in response to a search query such as “work at home.”

On the other hand, Alex Bozich, 17, had no intention of making money when he created a pro-wrestling fan page on America Online a couple of years ago.

It wasn’t easy to find, but he still was getting up to 50 hits a day. Then he bought a news board that updates site information (it cost about $30 a year), and his page views began soaring to 2,000 a day and up.

A Connecticut businessman, Jose Rivera, who sold him the news board and who runs Black Dog Media, which encompasses about 16 pro- wrestling sites, took notice and last September agreed to pay for and host a regular domain for Bozich: www.wrestling unleashed.com.

He also offered to pay Bozich based on the number of page hits he got each month and his ranking among the other sites. The payoff for Rivera: a stream of customers for ads.

Bozich’s first four checks: $150, $300, $500 and $750 for December, when his site received 768,000 hits. Last month, it exceeded a million.

“My friends say it’s free money,” he said, adding he figures he works on his site at least 10 hours a week.

“I never asked Jose to pay me, but he told me he’s paying me what I’m worth on the market. Obviously, if the money’s there, I’m going to take it, but at the same time I just wanted to give the wrestling fans something that they could go to besides the official sites, which don’t want to give you any inside information.”

In addition, he said, “it’s something fun for teenagers to do. A lot of the wrestling sites out there are run by teenagers, some even younger than me and making as much money as I am. If you have something you can market to the people that they want to read, then I think that’s worth something.”

In short, the Internet has changed the rules.

Steve Salter, project director for the Better Business Bureau Online Reliability Program, said, “What the Internet has done in a lot of ways is lower the barriers to starting your own business, and the Web has really created some interesting crossbreeds of companies.”

One example: Vstores.com.

“It does nothing but provide people with Web sites, and you can sell products from a whole variety of ranges,” he said.

“They supply the products, they supply the Web site, and you tell them who you are and what kind of products you want to sell and what you want to call your store, and they’ll set you right up. It doesn’t cost you anything, and it’s legitimate.”

Whether you’ll ever make any money with a virtual store - or a mall, based on a similar concept - is another question, Salter said.

“Anybody else can set up the exact same store at a moment’s notice. There’s no price benefit. The company sets the prices, does the shipping, service. Anybody can match you, so it comes down to hustle.”

In other words, drawing visitors to your site.

Author: RICHARD DES RUISSEAUX

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MAKING MONEY IS CHILD’S PLAY

December 20th, 2007 by monies

So it makes sense to turn their child benefit into a nice little earner and watch their money grow with them.

The benefit for a first child is pounds 14.40 a week. Invested over five years this could be worth pounds 8,700. Over 10 years it could mount up to pounds 33,000.

Justin Modray, of independent financial advisers Chase de Vere, says: “If you’re looking for total security, put the money in a bank or building society account or a National Savings children’s bonus bond.

“Those options are good because they are very safe investments and money can be taken out with the minimum of fuss.

“The downside is that the returns can look ordinary compared to other forms of investment such as the stock market, which is far more exciting. However, stock market funds are volatile.

“You should invest for five years or more to even out the ups and downs.

“And be careful if you want to choose your own shares through an execution- only broker.

“If you are investing these very small sums of money you won’t be able to spread your investments - and could lose money if one of the companies you have invested in plummets.”

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It keeps making money!

December 20th, 2007 by monies

The equipment initially baled more than 400 metric tons per day until its relocation to Rochester. Now it is used to handle 80 to 100 tons of corrugated per day.

The company also recently installed a Macpresse 108 baler that it purchased to replace an existing baler by another manufacturer at its Shorncliffe facility in Toronto, bringing the total number of Macpresse balers it has in operation company-wide to six. Metauro says the Macpresse 108 baler allowed Metro to eliminate labor while also doubling production. The baler processes 325 metric tons daily, 50 percent of which is high grades and 50 percent of which is corrugated.

“We had to run one-and-a-half to two shifts to bale the same amount of paper we are baling now,” he says of the Toronto installation. “Now, we do it in one shift and with fewer people, because we don’t need the dedicated operator. Before, we needed double the staff because we had to run more shifts,” he adds.

“From an operator standpoint, they definitely prefer the Macpresse. It is a lot simpler to operate.” Metauro adds that while two-ram balers are also available with automatic operation, they are not as simple to run as the horizontal Macpresse because jamming and wire-tying problems occur more frequently.

Not only does the Macpresse baler cut down on the number of shifts Metro needs to run and the amount of labor needed per shift, it enables Metro to handle more business, Metauro says. “We were kind of bottlenecked with the old baler.”

He also says the denser bales (650 kilos on the old baler compared to nearly 1,000 kilos on the Macpresse) allow Metro to have a more organized warehouse and reduce forklift wear and fuel consumption. “We have cut the number of bales in half and are maximizing trailer and container weights.”

According to Metro’s calculations, the new Macpresse baler will be paid off in 17 to 18 months from the installation date through labor and wire savings alone, Metauro says.

Metro has seen its cost per ton reduced since the new Macpresse was installed, thanks to electrical savings from the more efficient motor and the increased production capacity. “The cost per ton is definitely cheaper,” he says.

Author: Array

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But is anyone making money yet?

December 19th, 2007 by monies

According to participating marketing professionals, the leading objective of sites is to provide product/service information, followed closely by building brand awareness. Other findings relating to effective site operations include an increase in the use of e-commerce, as well as a slight rise in the cost of Web site maintenance.

The section on Internet advertising explores what percentage of companies are advertising online compared with the year before, what forms of advertising measurement are most popular, as well as what points are considered vital to online media planning–including visitor demographics and appropriateness of content. In addition, privacy issues and barriers to online advertising are among respondents’ concerns.

Cost: $42.95. Contact the Association of National Advertisers Inc., 708 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017-4270.212-697-5950.

Author: Rolf Maurer

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Making sense of the money market

December 18th, 2007 by monies

There is a wide range of securities and maturities that fall under this heading, ranging from the high quality, very liquid, Government of Canada Treasury Bills to the fixed term Guaranteed Investment Certificates issued mainly by banks and trust companies. Money market securities are ideal for investors needing liquidity or for those with cash who are unsure of what long-term investments to make. The money market is a good place to `park’ funds until a more permanent investment can be made.

The following are some of the more popular money market securities:

* Government of Canada Treasury Bills are marketable debt instruments issued by the Federal Government. T-Bills are highly liquid, offer the highest security, and are ideal for investors seeking a short-term investment of one to 12 months.

* Bankers Acceptances (B/As) are short term promissory notes issued by a corporation and bear the unconditional guarantee or acceptance of a chartered bank. They are usually issued in amounts of $100,000 or more and with maturities of one to 3 months.

* Commercial Paper is issued by a corporation or finance company. As unsecured promissory notes, commercial paper is ideal for investors with $100,000 or more to invest for short periods, and who are willing to accept some degree of risk.

* Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs) are notes, usually issued by a trust company, with a fixed yield and a term ranging from one to 5 years. Interest may be paid monthly, semi-annually or annually. These appeal to investors seeking periodic income payments and repayment of principal upon maturity.

Because of their short maturities and high liquidity, money market securities are at the low end of the yield curve. But even among these securities there are different risk levels and the yields vary according to the credit quality. For example, recently, for a term of 60 days, Government of Canada Treasury Bills were yielding 4.42%, Bankers Acceptances 4.59% and Commercial Paper 4.68%.

Author: Kerene Harvey

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Books that make the money or money that makes the books

December 17th, 2007 by monies

Reading literature as merely the artistic wing of industrial strength publishing takes most of the romance out of it; and anyway the hard-sell, the media tie-in, the need for controversy, and of course the publicity of silly prize money, don’t necessarily make for better books. Soon novels become just other products on the shelves, shuffled around at the occasional whim of the publishing conglomerate.

That in itself is a nasty thought. But Todd takes it further, suggesting with all his facts and figures that our bestsellers are even our best writers. It’s a daring notion this, that the free-trade in words improves our books, that in our `formidably entrepreneurial’ world, literature has become greater. The `niches, angles or selling points’ create novelists of `margin and privilege’ constantly aware of `literary trends’.

Because Todd’s book is more sociological than lit-critical he doesn’t have enough closely observed textual analyses to back up his claims. (He makes ‘heterodoxes of gender’ sound more like a sophisticated selling point than a shrewd, critical observation.) The writers he slots into a wider economic framework are only included (implicitly) because they’ve won lots of rosettes in the literary world. It’s a demeaning discussion; the size of an advance or the amassed prize money is less interesting than the writing that earned it. Using phrases like `success formula’, `raised the profile’, or `self-conscious commercial categorisation’ as an introduction to an appreciation seems like damning a novelist with the wrong praise.

He’s right to identify a powerful publishing industry, flexing its muscles for big money (a cool 3 million for Phoenix House who pumped Seth’s A Suitable Boy); and he writes well about all the smart marketing. But the notion that market forces have created a dream team of literary novelists is all too cosy.

His argument is built about the Booker prize (Booker plc is an international business for `poultry and plant-breeding . . . ‘); his claim is that there is a practice of `generating phenomena . . . in order to create maximum commercial impact’. The eligibility of the competition is such that it spreads its net over most of the Englishspeaking world (`one quarter of the world’s population’), and so notoriety only comes through `post-colonial’ writing (that is, writing that will sell all over the globe).

It’s more provocative than conclusive. One thread picks up Steiner’s assertion that adversity produces more aesthetic artefacts. The reinvention of London as it underwent a collapse of `civic and communal health’ in the Eighties is a typical example. Ackroyd and Sinclair are given due credit for their `fantasies of London’; but the look at their urban mythologies is only a brief respite on a whistlestop tour.

Another suggestion is the manipulation of nationality in Scottish writers A. L. Kennedy, Alasdair Gray and Iain Banks; then the tour takes in the `performance narratives’ of Graham Swift and Peter Carey; and finally onto Rushdie as the jewel in the crown. Many others are gone into in great murky depth. It’s all well researched, and intriguing stuff, but frustrating when whole oeuvres are summed up in a few offhand lines.

Behind it all lies a political debate Todd only hints at: has single party rule created a fine crucible for novels? If so, has that ongoing government prompted `serious literary fiction’ by offering a healthy profit margin rather than the threat of poverty? We might have passed through a `golden age’ of fiction, but it’s too much to give the thanks to Booker, the banks and Thatcher (Todd’s tacit agenda), rather than the books themselves. Britain might indeed have a ‘a truly global literature’, but only because people enjoy reading new novels, not ‘consuming’ them.

Author: Jones, Tobias

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Spending money to make money

December 17th, 2007 by monies

The Federal Reserve chairman told Congress last month that growth would pick up later this year in part because companies will increase spending on computers and other equipment that helps improve worker productivity.

Count Caterpillar Inc. and Intel Corp. among those doing their part. Peoria-based Caterpillar, the world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment, and Intel, the world’s biggest computer chip maker, are betting a wired world will help increase sales while lowering costs.

“The Internet will continue to drive increased productivity, new forms of communication and entirely new product categories well into the future,” said Craig Barrett, Intel’s chief executive. “Now is the time to invest for that future.”

Intel will spend $7.5 billion on new manufacturing equipment this year, Barrett said. “What we really need to do is prepare for the next up cycle,” he said. “You never save your way out of a recession. We’re going to grow our way out with great new products.”

On Friday, Intel Corp. said first-quarter sales will fall more than expected. Its stock closed at $29.44, down $3.81, and well off its March 10, 2000, closing price of $120.19.

Economic growth in the United States slowed to a 1.1 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, the worst in five years. Still, productivity grew faster than expected in that quarter and put in the best performance last year since 1983, a Labor Department report showed last week. That has helped companies protect profit margins during the slowdown.

Productivity rose at a 2.2 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter, faster than the 2 percent rate of growth expected by economists. For all of last year, productivity rose 4.3 percent, the best since a 4.5 percent jump in 1983.

The economy’s slowdown has been concentrated in manufacturing. New orders at U.S. factories fell 3.8 percent in January, led by a drop in aircraft bookings, a Commerce Department report showed Tuesday. Excluding aircraft and autos, orders declined for the third time in four months.

The slump in manufacturing is a particular challenge for Caterpillar. To maintain profits, the company plans to spend $350 million to upgrade computer systems and quality control, said Chief Financial Officer Lynn McPheeters.

Caterpillar is using the Internet to link customers with the company’s 207 dealers. It also has developed an Internet-based joint purchasing system that it estimates will save $100 million this year.

Caterpillar last Tuesday announced a big payoff from its investment in research and development. A new emissions control system the company developed for truck engines will cut pollution while lowering operating costs for truck operators.

That’s just what Greenspan wants to hear. Living standards rise along with productivity, because workers can produce more for less.

Author: MICHAEL MCKEE

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Zen and the art of making money

Making money selling systems

Making sense of love and money

Making money on the Web

MAKING MONEY IS CHILD’S PLAY

It keeps making money!

But is anyone making money yet?

Making sense of the money market

Books that make the money or money that makes the books

Spending money to make money