One of the places that has become the new frontier in the world of business nowadays is Africa. Indeed, the continent has come out from its rather backward past and emerged as a potential for commercial activity. Thus, many entrepreneurs have set their eyes into conquering Africa’s business scene.

However, doing business and investing in Africa is certainly not going to be easy. Just like any new business front, Africa poses a lot of challenges that a company opening here needs to overcome. And what’s more, the continent has some unique features that needs to be considered by any business wanting to establish itself here.

One of the biggest considerations that one seeking to put up a business here need to think closely about is the continent’s culture. In fact, there is a lot of cultural notions that one needs to take note of here, mainly because the continent has a large number of different groups. In contrast, though the Chinese market, for instance, have a large reach, its culture is pretty much a homogeneous one, which means that targeting this particular market would be fairly easy.  

Sadly, this is not the case for Africa. The groups of people here are very diverse such that you will find two entirely different cultural groups in one city alone. Thus, instead of creating a general business strategy to cover all of the possible areas, one might have to break it down into several components to specifically suit these particular cultures.

Note that such a business strategy is helpful not only in marketing but also in building your company. In particular, knowing each group’s cultural heritage would be very helpful in putting up your business team. Since many Africans came from distinct tribal groups that have been at odds with each other in the past, these sentiments would often still run deeply even in the workplace. For instance, it is not uncommon for business managers in South Africa to have a hard time putting workers with Zulu and Xhosa backgrounds together.

But, of course, this doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. In fact, this one has already been done by many of the most successful businesses in the country. So what’s the secret? Well, its all about building a long term relation with the people here. Unlike other countries where relationships are strictly “for business purposes”, here you need to build a long term, almost spiritual, bond with the people around you. This will help you strengthen your hold on the various different markets here.  

Another thing that you need to keep in mind is the continent’s economic conditions. Though it has been said earlier that Africa will be the next frontier, don’t expect the people here to be as affluent as those coming from Korea. The truth of the matter is, most people here are living on an average to below average condition. Thus, you also need to consider their livelihood in order to target potential markets or get potential employees. This way, you will be able to gain a better foothold in the continent.

Law schools do not generally teach anything about business, as opposed to business law. As a result, lawyers learn about business legal forms and contracts, but nothing about the non-legal imperatives of running a business like corporate finance, marketing, or corporate strategy. Furthermore, as members of an inherently conservative profession many lawyers resist engaging in any topic that goes beyond the four corners of their legal brief (“I only give legal advice”).

This is highly problematic for business, because every legal problem comes within a business context, and lawyers who are not willing or able to understand that context cannot give good advice; Brandeis J.’s dictum is as applicable with respect to business knowledge as it is with respect to economics, and there remains a significant knowledge gap between the practice of law and the practice of business.

In some cases lawyers address this knowledge gap by specializing not only in a particular field of law but also in a particular industry, and in this way they develop industry expertise in substitution of more general business knowledge. At the same time the scale of the knowledge gap can be masked by the natural hubris of the legal profession—lawyers who are at the pinnacle of every information and decision making-tree they are associated with can suffer from the illusion of knowing more, not less, than their clients.

A great deal has been written about alternatives to lawyers billing by the hour, or lawyers working from home instead of at a desk in a big law firm, but in my view these topics are relatively trivial. A much more significant topic is bringing business financial and strategy tools into the practice of law in order to develop a multi-disciplinary approach to the delivery of legal services.

In a litigation context for example the focus of lawyers should not be on winning their client’s case but on solving the underlying business problems—the disputes which were the reason clients came to them in the first place. One very simple example of this would be to compare the cost of litigation with the cost of buying the other side’s company—if the two numbers bear some similarity then a rare opportunity for a litigator to participate in value creation instead of value destruction may exist.

Business clients want to know how much their case will cost, how long it will take, what the risks are, and the probable result. These four basis elements—cost, risk, time, and reward, are the foundation of the financial analysis of any business proposal, and there is no reason why lawyers cannot make reasoned and reasonably reliable assessments of these elements in any given legal context—the law is no more uncertain than many projects undertaken by business, and in many cases is substantially more certain.

Once we have attached numbers, or a range of numbers, to the four elements then we can financially model them the same way we can model any other business proposal. We can start with a simple spreadsheet comparing cost to risk-discounted reward, or add time to give a net present value calculation (which will show how high the reward would have to be to justify the risk over time, all other things being equal). Nor does it stop there—we can go on to decision tree modeling to assess the value of certain choices and options, and use sensitivity analysis or tornado diagrams to identify the assumptions in the model around which most of the risk in the model revolves; this in turn allows us to go back and further assess the assumptions.

I am aware of no lawyers anywhere in the world who consistently adopt this multi-disciplinary approach in their practices. Discovering such lawyers, and developing a framework with readers to put some flesh on the bones of this theoretical multi-disciplinary approach, is a key objective of this Journal.

Copyright (c) 2009 Ajay Prasad

You have this superb idea of having a website of your own and you are eager to go to put those ideas into action. But as you get down to work for converting your idea in reality, the challenges involved in getting it done may overwhelm you and suck away half of the enthusiasm. Believe me setting up a business is no cakewalk even with years of experience.

Here is how to go ahead.

PLANNING:

Be thorough. Even though you know what you want, write it out. Keep a notepad and a pen by your side to note down important ideas, information. Make a list of the tasks for each day and cross them out when done. This is the most satisfying time

- Why an I doing it? (Money, success, to make friend, to share information)
- Where to begin? (Totally online?)
- How to do it? (Myself or some vendor)
- What is the best way to do it? (Translates to reading and gaining a lot of knowledge)
- Why Do You Need a Website?

Small established local businesses always ask this question.

It’s a well established fact that customers, especially in the US, check products online before entering a store to make a purchase. Small businesses or relatively unknown businesses can benefit out of this.

Web usage in US is huge. An average surfer spends 38 hours per month from his home and visits an amazing 65 domains every month. So he is not just replying to emails, he is searching or browsing. And that’s where your business comes in.

125 Million Websites Out There, Do You Stand A Chance?

Of course you do have a chance and you can get your share of the online business. Just do all the things correctly. Analyze your business and client behaviors and plan accordingly.

BUT make sure your website stands out either in product, offer or search engines.

Niche websites have a greater chance of doing well. If you have a remarkable business idea, create a demand for your product through the internet. Let people talk about it.

If you have a general business about which you think nothing is remarkable, concentrate on local search engine, local press and local offers. You will be amazed at the results.

What Type Of Website Should You Have?

Generally, business websites can be divided into two categories:

- Ecommerce and – Service websites.

- Ecommerce websites have a list of products along with a shopping cart and online credit card purchasing that allows a visitor to visit the site, browse the products and complete purchase.

Service websites just list their services along with additional information and a contact mail or number.

Do a lot of research on what you want your website to be. Conduct a thorough research of customer behavior for your related product. Talk to experts, ask on forums. Do a market analysis that identifies the internet market size for your product or service. Only then, you can come to a conclusion about the type of website you need.

You’ll have the following options:

1. An information site (a type of article site, or an ezine?)
2. An e-commerce site
3. A combination of both?
4. A service site with call to action
5. Info cum service site?
6. Just a blog
7. A forum
8. These issues will help determine the orientation and budget of your website.

So get you notepad and pens out…

Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen the value of my precious stock holdings go down-sometimes, alarmingly so.

Does this worry me? Not much. Why? Because I realize that these drops in the stock market have been precipitated by consumer fears over an economic slowdown. (We could argue all day long about whether the USA is technically in a recession or not, but few of us would dispute that the economy has been lagging.

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In fact, smart investors would view the current economic situation as a great opportunity. Quality stocks are being unfairly devalued, which makes them available at a real bargain. That is, stocks are being sold for less than they’re actually worth, simply because consumers are afraid. This fear can create golden opportunities for investors who are willing to plan cautiously and do a little research. Remember that one investor’s panic can be another investors’ profit.

So how does one invest wisely during an economic slowdown? After all, most of us aren’t inclined to perform voluminous amounts of research in our spare time.

One way to mitigagte the risk is to invest in what are known as non-cyclical or “defensive” stocks. These are stocks in companies whose business performance and sales are not strongly correlated with the overall economic cycle. These companies typically outperform the economy during financial hard times, and so they considered to be generally safe investments when the fear of recession rears its ugly head.

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Quite simply, the difference between defensive and non-defensive industries is the difference between necessity and luxury. Most of us can live without a new car during an economic slowdown; however, we still need certain staples, such as food, gas, and medicine. Demand for these items is not strongly affected during a sluggish economy. The same holds true for household staples such as soap, shampoo, and toothpaste. People might cut back a little bit on such items, but not by much – after all, they’re considered to be darned near essential.

For example, I purchased a sizeable amount of stock in ExxonMobil (XOM). Why? Because Americans still use large amounts of oil and gas, even when the economy takes a downturn. Sure, a lot of us will be watching our gas expenditures more, but it’s safe to say that gasoline consumption will continue to be strong. I picked Exxon/Mobile because it’s a large, stable company-the most profitable and financially healthy of the major oil firms. It has a long history of strong performance, and because industry analysts give it very positive ratings.

I also invested in Proctor & Gamble (PG). Again, why? Because everybody knows them and uses their products-coffee, razors, medicines, batteries, detergent, bathroom tissue, personal hygiene products, and so much more. They have outstanding financial ratings, and it is one of the largest and best-known companies in its field. It is likely to provide a safe, stable source of investment in the year to come.

So remember… When everyone else is scared, that’s the time to be bold. You can not completely avoid the hazards of the stock market, but you can still play wisely and with relatively little risks. By picking safe, stable defensive stocks, you can take advantage of everyone’s fear and expect a potentially high payoff.

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Deferring taxes on your income is an investment strategy in which income taxes are paid at a later date for money invested now. The benefit of tax deferral is that it provides more money for you to invest now.

For example, you are able to deduct $1000 from your taxable income this year and invest it into an interest bearing account, and in return, this deduction allows you to pay approximately $200 less in income taxes for the current year. You now have $200 more than if you had not invested

the $1000. If you add the $200 you deferred in taxes to the $1000 you have already invested, you now have $1200 growing in your investment.

Another type of tax deferral used by investors is the deferment of taxes paid on interest earned. The dollars invested have already been taxed, but any interest earned is tax free.

Investment Vehicles

Tax deferred accounts shelter your money from taxes until you begin making withdrawals in the later part of your life, when you’re likely to be in a lower tax bracket. The type of investment vehicles best for you depends on your situation.

One available plan is the 401 (k). This vehicle is available only through employers who offer the plan. It allows you to make tax-deductible contributions that grow tax deferred until you withdraw them. Depending on your particular plan, your 401(k) plan may come with a bonus. Some employers match your contributions. You could make 25%-100% on your money instantly if your employer offers matching funds.

A 401 (k) allows you to contribute much more per year than many of the other retirement plans. You can contribute up to $9,500 to your 401 (k) per year and your employer can contribute up to $30,000 per year. You can also have your bonuses issued as 401 (k) contributions to build your retirement wealth even faster. If you ever leave your employer or wish to have more freedom with your 401 (k) investments, you can always rollover the assets in your account into an IRA.

A 401 (K) may work for a beginner at investing, someone who does not know how to invest in stocks or which are the best stocks to invest in.

Another type of plan offered by an employer is the 403 (b). This plan is for public school and non-profit organization employees and it is tax deductible and tax deferred. You can contribute up to $9,500 of your annual gross income each year to this plan.

With 403 (b) plans, beware of a few cautions. Your contributions are generally invested in a tax-sheltered annuity, which may have heavy sales charges and low guaranteed rates.

Anyone with earned income, and the non-working spouse of anyone with earned income, can open up their own IRA and contribute up to $2000 a year. Your accrued earnings are not taxed until you begin withdrawing money from the account. However, withdrawals cannot be made without penalty before age 59 ½. Even if your contributions do not qualify for a tax deduction, your earnings are still tax deferred.

When you are investing your money on a certain business, you would want it to be successful. You would not want something which you have worked hard for to go down the drain within a matter of time. In order for you to make sure that you will rise above the challenges when setting up a business, you need to come up with an effective business intelligence strategy. But before you develop a strategy, you have to know more about business intelligence. In general, business intelligence is learning how the minds of your clients work. This way, you will be able to determine the right things to do in order to serve them well. On the other hand, it is also about sizing up your competitors so that you will get to emerge amidst great competition. What is more, business intelligence is about knowing the weaknesses of your organization and strengthening those weaknesses. When you are able to learn more about business intelligence, you will know how to come up with a business intelligence strategy that will surely make your investment successful.

Back Up Your Business Intelligence Strategy with Effective Tools

Your organization should plan a business intelligence strategy carefully if you want to rise above the competition. You should put in mind that when you work together as one group, you will be able to come with the best tactic to make your business victorious. Your team should continue to be goal-oriented and united. If you want to make sure that each member of the group possesses the right knowledge, choose from your organization wisely. A team which has expertise over business intelligence will help you develop an efficient business intelligence strategy. Other than great teamwork, you should also back up your strategy with the best tools. Examples of these tools would be intelligence applications or management software. Even though your business plan sounds just perfect, it will never be one unless you pair it with the right tools.

The Huge Importance of Developing a Business Intelligence Strategy

If you want to direct more profit into your business, you must comprehend the importance of a business intelligence strategy. Once you are aware the benefits that it can provide you, you will be able to come up with an intelligence solution which suits the objectives of your business. You should make it a point to create a tactic to make your business intelligence venture more successful. However, it does not have to end only with awareness and comprehension. Careful planning and development of ideas are also needed. Your business preparation should be thorough before you think of implementing any business intelligence strategy.

What Makes Your Business Intelligence Strategy Successful?

Before you develop a business intelligence strategy, you have to know the certain factors which make it more effective. There are major factors which define an efficient intelligence tactic. These include the following:

• The continuous alignment of your business’ goals with your intelligence strategy.

• The practical integration of business intelligence applications into the major workflow and processes of your business.

• Constant consultation with the right members of your organization, such as business authorities.

• Leveraging the practices of your business with technology.

• The utilization of efficient definition process for your business intelligence strategy.

Business Intelligence Strategies Change with the Growth of Your Business

Your business does not remain within a certain level. As time passes, your investment will expand and grow. This goes especially when your business intelligence strategy is effective and successful. With the growth of your business, your strategies should also change. This is due to the fact that you need to improve your tactics in order to comply with the growing demands of your clients. Your competitors are also thinking of ways to gain victory. This is why you need to enhance your business intelligence strategy all the time to gain an edge against them.

Article marketing and distribution by Web Efforts, a UK internet marketing company.

Many businesses spend a ton of money on internet marketing and are often dissatisfied with the results. Imagine spending a small – or large – fortune on a marketing plan with an advertising company and then have it fail miserably. Why put your company in a position where your marketing suffers? A successful local business depends on a well-planned and streamlined marketing strategy. A solid solution is to create at local business profiles on the internet that cost little and generate many leads. Efficient and productive search engine marketing will attract the desired clientele.

It is always a challenging task to market a small business. You have to compete with larger companies, companies who have been in the business for many years, and with other people who will do anything to obtain a client’s business. You need to stand apart from the others, demonstrate what your business can offer clients, and how you are different. Serving locally can be your advantage over these large companies that serve globally.

Management of a small business is difficult, as it largely depends on a shoestring budget. You don’t have a lot of money to spend, but you want your business to be a success. Also, professional practices and small businesses are based on the support of the local community. You need to serve local customers and have them use your services. However, proper use of local business directory resources on the Internet can pave the way for better and higher search engine rankings while providing support from the local community and potential customers. And this form of marketing is easily done on a small budget. Add your business to local business directories and start to serve the local clients while working on high search engine rankings that will help you serve outside your community soon.

One method to improve search engine rankings is article promotion. Articles containing the best local advertising tips meant for local businesses are different from web sites created for general business information. In these articles you can add active links to your website. It is best to have two separate links: one geared towards locality and the other for general business. The idea is to maximize business by driving significant traffic towards a web site. Only effective marketing leads generation can be the answer for a successful local business.

Web sites targeting local businesses should be search engine optimization (SEO) friendly. As a form of local advertising, search engine marketing is a gold mine for running locally operated businesses successfully. The technology is not complicated. Web sites offering competitive online solutions for marketing problems can enhance the profit margins of a local business by targeting the local population with local business categories. Best of all, you will be reaching the clients you want to reach – the ones who will use your services, who live within your community, and who will become your long term customers. By going local, you are maximizing opportunities in the area you want to target – right in your own backyard, so to speak.

The best investment strategy for 2010 and beyond is not likely to be the normal investment strategy recommended year after year by many investment firms.  Things ARE different this time.  Here’s your basic investment guide of things to consider going forward.

Year after year the basic investment strategy or asset allocation recommended for most people: 60% stocks and 40% bonds.  Stocks or stock funds are the growth element and bonds or bond funds are the safer investment that provides higher income in this asset allocation.  In theory, losses in one should be offset by gains in the other.  It’s time to review your present asset allocation.  You might be taking more risk than you think you are.

Sometimes the best investment strategy is aggressive in nature; other times a bit of defense is called for.  Rarely does chasing a hot asset class pay off for long.  With the stock market up 60% in less than a year and high bond prices (super-low interest rates), that’s exactly what many investors are doing.  At the same time some are chasing gold at historically high prices, and emerging stock markets that have been on fire (like China).

Your asset allocation has probably changed since you last looked due to fast changing markets.  Take a good look, and then decide if your investment strategy is on track at an acceptable level of risk.  If you are heavy into either stocks or bonds (or both) you might want to lighten up and diversify more.  In 2010 and beyond the investment landscape could change considerably.

What if the financial crisis is not really over, or the U.S. dollar continues to be unstable?  What if economic growth fails to materialize or interest rates soar?  The USA has not been faced with more economic uncertainty in my time, and I’ve followed the economy and the markets since 1972.  Here’s a basic investment guide to avoiding heavy losses should the going get tough again.

If you hold bonds or bond funds consider shortening your maturities and cutting your exposure.  For example, if you hold long-term bond funds consider moving to intermediate-term and short-term bond funds.  Rising interest rates will send bond prices (values) down, and long-term bonds will get hit the hardest.  You will sacrifice higher interest income, but will increase safety with this investment strategy.

Stocks and stock funds may have moved up too far too fast in 2009.  Don’t chase the stock market unless you want to speculate.  Consider lightening up your asset allocation to stocks that closely follow the market in general.  It’s quite likely that much of this move upward was “window dressing” by large portfolio managers who want to look good at year end.  Some of it was no doubt caused by individual investors looking for higher returns in a low-interest-rate environment.  Any bad news in 2010 could prompt these same investors to sell and send stock prices down.

Now that you’ve cut your asset allocation to bond and stock investments in general, where do you put this money?  When in doubt CASH is king.  Cash refers to safe, liquid investments like savings accounts, short-term CDs, and money market securities.  Money market mutual funds are the easiest way for the average investor to put money into money market securities.  With short-term interest rates at historical lows many investors have taken money out of these safe investments.  If you want to play defense, increase your asset allocation to cash.

For offense consider moving money periodically into a variety of areas often overlooked by average investors … to broaden your diversification.  For example, consider stocks in the following specialty sectors: basic materials, natural resources, real estate, foreign securities, and precious metals if you don’t already have money there.  Mutual funds are available in all the above specialty sectors as well.  Invest in increments to smooth out the risk of bad timing.

In times of high uncertainty don’t follow the crowd.  Your best investment strategy is to survive financially with your investment assets intact.  When the dust settles get more aggressive with your asset allocation.  Meanwhile, cash is king; and diversify, diversify, diversify.

The best investing strategy is easy to state: Buy low and sell high. It sounds so simple, but it seems people have a lot of problems figuring out how to really apply this to their own life. Unfortunately, many people will buy the hot stocks of the day and then sell if they believe they are losing money. Here are some tips on how to apply the best investing strategy to your own personal investment plan.

Take emotions out of the investment process. Just because an investment might drop overnight does not mean you should panic and sell. Likewise, if you attend an investment seminar, do not get your checkbook caught up in the rah-rah of emotions. Before making an investment decision, make sure you check your emotions to verify they are not getting in the way. Investment decisions should be made upon facts.

Buy what you know. World-famous investor Warren Buffet offers this advice over and over again. It seems to work for him, so apply it to your own life. If you are a fashion consultant, learn more about the industry trends. You will feel more comfortable investing in what you know because you can apply your own experience to the decision.

Invest for the long term. Investments can peak and dip sometimes in a span of hours. If you try to capitalize on every peak and dip, you will drive yourself crazy watching the market and trying to react in time. Instead, make decisions that you believe are going to net you results over a larger period of time.

Budget, plan and know. The best investment strategy is to stay knowledgeable. You need to understand your own budget, how much you can invest, how much you can afford to lose, how long you have to invest and more. Put some effort into planning your financial future by first understanding where you are now.

Almost all investment choices have some risk, but also have some great possible rewards. Understanding your own tolerance for risk will help you select the investments that are best for you. Keep up to date on what your investments are doing to make sure they still fit your own personal preferences.

The best investing strategy will be different for every person. But keeping in mind that some of the best tips for selection involve understanding your own personality and your own situation will help you get a great start to building your wealth.