There is a great article written by SmartCompany.com.au on a tragic story of a successful business, whose director died, and as a result, the company has been placed into administration.

Not many people know, but if a director has personal guarantees on a loan, the financiers have a clause in the majority of contracts that if that director dies, they will call on the full amount of that loan immediately!

As you would agree, this is the worst time that this could happen for several reasons:

1. Staff morale would be low due to employment uncertainty (Eg; What’s going to happen now that the boss has died?)

2. Creditors withdraw due to the unkown (Eg; How are they going to pay the accounts now that the decision maker is gone?)

3. The estate from the deceased director comes calling - It’s the estate lawyers job to get as much out of the estate as possible for the surviving partners, so loans need to be paid, accounts tidied up, shares in the business attributed to the spouse or relevant party. (This is why a Buy/Sell Agreement is so vital alongside a structured Keyman insurance policy)

So have a think about what could potentially happen to your business and the value of it if the unknown were to happen. If you wanted it to be sold at time of death for your family’s sake, do you think that a worthy buyer would purchase it with the above mentioned points outstanding?

of course not! They would smell a ‘Fire Sale’ in an instant and the surviving spouse, who doesn’t particularly want anything to do with the business due to grief or ability, would just want it sold and pocket the money.

In that event, the remaining business partners will be left with a forced sale, or a partner who they never wanted in the first place.

All this can be avoided by a simple Keyman insurance policy being in place. Otherwise known as ‘Life Insurance’ for the business. you can Email me or call me on 1800 989 657 to discuss how easy it is to start the cover, and we’ll even shop it around with a range of insurers for you.

For something that is rather insignificant to set up, can save you from something catastrophic to your business and the impact on your family in the process.

Paul Davies

The Keys to High Performance

What makes a high performer? Why do some people achieve greatness and others get left floundering behind.

When I was working with elite athletes at the AIS and in America, special forces soldiers, some high profile people in the entertainment industry and more recently with high performers in corporate organizations, I noticed some clear characteristics that set high performers apart. The good news is that it is not all about talent, ability and potential, it’s more to do with how they execute on a daily basis.

The most common characteristic that sets high performers apart is their ability to focus deeply on the tasks that they perform in a day. However as a society we are losing our ability to focus. It seems like the whole world has ADHD. There are three main reasons for this.

1. Attention deficit habit (ADH). ADH is a condition where the habits in our day are sapping our ability to focus. For example most people leave their email open and every time it alerts us to a new email we stop what we are doing and we go off and check it. Also we leave our phone on constantly during the day even when we are writing a report or meeting with someone. These habits actually set ourselves up to be distracted and train us to have poor focus.

2. Information Obesity – This is the result of shifting from a physical economy to a digital economy. We are overloaded with information and we have so much information coming at us we don’t have to focus on one thing for too long before something else will come and take our attention away. A recent report released by Proud Foot consulting said that information overload was responsible for a 10% decrease in productivity.

3. Multi-tasking - The greatest enemy of focus is this idea of multitasking, multitasking suggests that you can focus on many things at once. Reality is multi tasking is a very inefficient process and in reality all you are doing is focusing poorly on a number of tasks rather than focusing well on one thing.

New research tells us that the average employee in an office environment is interrupted 11 times in an hour. Sounds a lot but when you think about it most people are constantly responding to their email alert, answering the phone, having people come into their office, suddenly remembering things that they should have done and dealing with noise from open plan offices. What’s the fall out of all these interruptions?

The fall out is a massive reduction in productivity and creativity. A study by Basex found that office distractions take up 2.1 hours of the average day (28%) with workers taking an average of 5 minutes to recover from a distraction and re-focus on the original task. In fact a recent study conducted by The Institute of Psychiatry at King’s college London, compared the cognitive ability of people who had been multi tasking and people who had just smoked marijuana. Who came out on top? The drug affected workers.

The reason why is that multitasking is incredibly stressful on the brain, it impairs short term memory and concentration. The result is that the brain is left in an impaired state. This message is important for the leaders of the business. Due to distractions and interruptions people rarely get the time to think creatively and come up with innovative ideas. We need to minise distractions and start to focus again.

A recent study by my company Dr Adam Fraser Pty Ltd showed that the top 10 distractions were:

1. Emails – office alert and volume of emails

2. People – office colleagues

3. Phone – office and mobile

4. Distracting thoughts – thinking of the next thing to do

5. Noise - in open plan offices

6. Clients expecting instant responses

7. Personal Issues playing on your mind

8. Un-necessary meetings

9. Mixed priorities from management

10.Fatigue

So what is the solution how do we improve our focus? Well there are three simple techniques we can use to have the focus of a high performer.

1. Control Your Environment. Set up your external world to support focus, turn off the email, turn the phone off, and educate your staff on when you are not to be interrupted. Push back on the environment, don’t be a slave to your environment.

Strategies to minimise distractions:

* Turn off the email alert
* Check your email at certain points of the day, for example every hour or every two hours. ·
* During important tasks when you need to focus block all distractions or remove yourself from the office environment.
* Communicate to people around you that at certain points of the day you are not to be disrupted.
* If the noise around you is too great look at using ear plugs at certain points of the day.
* Have a clear plan of what you want to do; this will stop you bouncing from task to task.
* Practice being “present” this is where you calm those racing thoughts and only think of one task.

2. Formal Practice. An example of a formal practice is meditation. Years ago I thought that meditation was tree hugging, hippie stuff, however a huge amount of evidence shows that meditation has a beneficial impact on our cognitive ability. In its purest form meditation is about calming the mind and focusing on one task, this ability will translate into work.

3. Be Present. During the day practice focusing your attention on what ever is in front of you. Lose yourself in what ever you are doing. If you are writing a report focus entirely on that report without thinking of the other things you need to do later in the day. Likewise if you are having a conversation with someone totally immerse yourself in that conversation don’t let your mind drift. So often we have conversations and we are not really present.

Business is built on relationships, the greatest complement you can give another person is your undivided attention. However we all have a highly tuned BS detector, and we know when people are not truly engaged with us. Some people believe that being present is the key to team building. Companies spend millions of dollars a year getting people to build better relationships within an organization.

They usually spend this money on personality profiling, isn’t the first step getting them to engage and be present with each other? In addition some psychologist are now talking about the concept that people are creating fewer and fewer memories. The reason for this is that memories are created in the present and the fact that most people are either obsessing about the past or worrying about the future means that they are not laying down current memories. How sad!

This is the first step towards high performance. Go forth and focus!!!

Written by Dr Adam Fraser

With the property market becoming more valuable, there are more and more strategies becoming more popular. I think some of the readers of this blog, some of these strategies might come in handy to give some options of getting in and ahead.

Lease option sales were popular financing instruments in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were primarily used as a way to circumvent alienation clauses in mortgages. Proponents claimed the sale was not really a sale because it was a lease; however, courts argued otherwise.

Today, options to purchase, lease options and lease purchase agreements are three different financing documents. The variances are state specific and not all states have identical laws. Before entering into an agreement with a seller, buyers should obtain the advice of a real estate lawyer. The information below is an overview and is not meant to be construed as legal advice.

Basics of an Option

• Buyer pays the seller option money for the right to later purchase the property. This option money may be substantial or as little as $1.
• Buyer and seller may agree to a purchase price now or the buyer may agree to pay market value at the time the option is exercised. It is negotiable. However, most buyers want to lock in the future purchase price upon inception of the option.
• The term of the option agreement is negotiable, but the common length is generally from one year to three years.
• Option money is rarely refundable.
• Nobody else can buy the property during the option period.
• The buyer can sell the option to somebody else.
• If the buyer does not exercise the option and purchase the property at the end of the option, the option expires.
• The buyer is not obligated to buy the property.

Basics of a Lease Option

• Buyer pays the seller option money for the right to later purchase the property. The lease option money may be substantial.
• Buyer and seller may agree to a purchase price now or the buyer may agree to pay market value at the time the option is exercised. It is negotiable. However, most buyers want to lock in the future purchase price upon inception of the lease option.
• During the term of the lease option, the buyer agrees to lease the property from the seller for a predetermined rental amount.
• The term of the lease option agreement is negotiable, but the common length is generally from one year to three years.
• The option money generally does not apply toward the down payment.
• A portion of the monthly rental payment typically applies toward the purchase price.
• Option money is rarely refundable.
• Nobody else can buy the property during the lease option period.
• The buyer generally cannot assign the lease option without seller approval.
• If the buyer does not exercise the lease option and purchase the property at the end of the lease option, the option expires.
• The buyer is not obligated to buy the property.

Basics of a Lease Purchase

• Buyer pays the seller option money for the right to later purchase the property. This option money may be substantial.
• Buyer and seller agree on a purchase price, often at or a bit higher than market value.
• During the term of the option, the buyer agrees to lease the property from the seller for a predetermined rental amount.
• The term of the lease purchase agreement is negotiable, but the common length is generally from one year to three years, at which time the buyer applies for bank financing and pays the seller in full.
• The option money generally does not apply toward the down payment.
• A portion of the monthly lease payment typically applies toward the purchase price.
• Option money is nonrefundable.
• Nobody else can buy the property unless the buyer defaults.
• The buyer typically cannot assign the lease purchase agreement without seller approval.
• Buyers are often responsible for maintaining the property and paying all expenses associated with its upkeep, including taxes and insurance.
• The buyer is obligated to buy the property.

Doing a Lease Option / Lease Purchase

Hire a real estate lawyer to draw the documents and explain your rights, including those of possession and default consequences. The property might be encumbered by underlying loans that contain alienation clauses, giving the lender the right to accelerate the loans upon sale.

Sometimes sellers give the option money to their real estate agent as full payment of commission. Agents are not always involved in the exercise of lease options or fulfillment of lease purchase agreements and, even if you have retained real estate agent representation, you still need a real estate lawyer. Agents are not lawyers and cannot give legal advice.

In the event of a lease purchase, obtain all the disclosures and do your due diligence just like you would on a regular sale. This means:

• Get a home inspection.
• Examine the title policy.
• Obtain an appraisal.
• Read seller disclosures.
• Consider obtaining pest inspections, a roof certification, home warranty plan and hiring other qualified inspectors.

Lease Purchase Benefits for Sellers and Buyers

Lease purchase agreements are commonly offered by sellers of hard-to-sell properties. Think about it, if the property was easy to sell, the seller would sell it to a conventional buyer who would pay the seller cash.

• Sellers generally get market value at today’s prices and relief from paying a mortgage on a vacant property.
• Although the lease payments may exceed market rent, the buyer is building a down payment and banking that the property will appreciate beyond the agreed upon purchase price.
• Buyers generally make a small down payment, with little or no qualifying, making a lease purchase an attractive way to ease into the benefits of home ownership.
• Buyers also receive a forced savings plan since part of the lease payment is credited toward the purchase price at the end of the lease option agreement.
• If the buyer defaults, sellers do not refund any portion of the lease payments nor the option money and may retain the right to sue for specific performance.

For more information, contact a real estate lawyer.

By Elizabeth Weintraub, About.com Guide

The First Home Owners Boost, which was introduced in October 2008, came to an end on December 31 but there is still assistance for first-home buyers. The $7000 First Home Owners Grant (FHOG) remains in place and most of the states and territories have additional benefits.

If you are buying or building your first home you can still apply for grants of $10,000 or more and transfer duty concessions worth thousands of dollars.

The FHOG is administered by state and territory governments and has been available since 2000. The Boost meant that for contracts made between October 14, 2008, and September 30, 2009, first-home buyers purchasing established homes would receive a total grant of $14,000 and buyers of a newly constructed home would receive a grant of $21,000. The Boost was wound back progressively, so that for contracts made between October 1, 2009, and December 31, 2009, first-home buyers purchasing established homes would receive $10,500 and buyers of a newly built home would receive $14,000.

On January 1 the Boost was cut out altogether. Grants reverted to the old FHOG scheme plus any additional state or territory supplements.

FHOG works the same way in each state and territory and applies to houses, townhouses and apartments. Supplementary schemes have rules that vary from state to state.

NSW

In November 2008, the NSW Government introduced a $3000 supplement to go with the Boost, available for first-home buyers purchasing a newly constructed home.

First-home buyers in NSW could receive a benefit of up to $24,000.

The supplement remains in place until June 30 and, combined with the $7000 FHOG, first-home buyers purchasing a newly constructed home can apply for a total benefit of $10,000.

After June 30 the only grant available will be the $7000 FHOG - available for buyers of established and newly constructed houses.

There has been a cap on the FHOG since January 1 this year. The home purchase must be for less than $750,000.

The NSW Office of State Revenue also offers a scheme called First Home Plus. First-home buyers can apply for an exemption on transfer duty on homes valued up to $500,000 and concessions on duty for homes valued between $500,000 and $600,000. The duty on a $500,000 home is $17,990. The NSW Government paid $1.7 billion of first-home benefits last year.

Details at osr.nsw.gov.au.

VICTORIA

Victoria’s State Revenue Office has a First Home Bonus scheme that is available until June 30 and offers $11,000 on top of the $7000 FHOG for first-time buyers purchasing a newly constructed home and $2000 on top of the FHOG for purchasers of an established dwelling.

Victoria also has a Regional Bonus scheme operating until June 30.

First-home buyers can receive another $4500 on top of FHOG and the Home Bonus scheme if they buy a newly constructed dwelling in a regional municipality.

Victoria has exemptions from land transfer duty. If the home is the principal residence and the purchase price is below $440,000, the rate of duty falls from 6 per cent to 5 per cent.

If the price is between $440,000 and $550,000, the concession is a flat $3100.

Buyers who entered a contract after May 6, 2008, are eligible for both the bonus and the transfer duty concession. Details at http://www.sro.vic.gov.au.

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

The ACT Government has a scheme called Home Buyer Concession, which offers concessions on transfer duty for dwellings with a dutiable value of up to $422,000 and vacant land with a dutiable value of up to $233,300. There is an income test for eligibility, which starts at $120,000 and increases to $136,650 according to the number of children in the household. First-home buyers can also apply to defer payment of their duty for up to five years.

Details are at revenue.act.gov.au.

QUEENSLAND

First-home buyers can apply for transfer duty concession. The concession is weighted in favour of properties with lower values. A duty rate of 1 per cent applies for homes worth up to $350,000. Buyers can expect a saving of about $8750 on a purchase of up to $500,000. Details at osr.qld.gov.au.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

First-home buyers in the west can also apply for duty concessions. The arrangements are relatively generous. There is no rate of duty on a home with a value of up to $500,000.

Details at http://www.dtf.wa.gov.au.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

In 2008 the SA Government replaced a duty concession scheme with a First Home Bonus Grant. Buyers who qualify for FHOG can apply for the bonus. The additional payment is $4000 on dwellings with a market value of up to $400,000. The value of the grant is reduced by 48 cents for every $100 of value in excess of $400,000; the grant is reduced to zero when the value of the dwelling reaches $450,000.

Details at revenuesa.sa.gov.au.

STATES AND TERRITORIES

Each has different eligibility rules covering occupancy and how concessions will be applied if the home is a joint purchase.

PD

I read an article by Jason Del Ray at Inc.com which gives a great outline on how to advertise on Facebook. As a small business owner, you will find some good tips here.

These days, it seems everyone and his mother has a Facebook page. In the U.S., about 100 million unique visitors flock to the social network every month. Many business owners are among them, using Facebook profiles to promote their companies and create customer communities. For some entrepreneurs, social networks have also become a useful advertising platform. Ellie Sawits, CEO of Frutels, a New York City–based maker of chocolate candies used to treat acne, says ads on Facebook are an affordable alternative to the high pay-per-click rates for acne-related keywords on Google’s AdWords. “For me, the economics of Google just don’t work,” she says. But it’s not easy to make your ad stand out among the Facebook status updates, party photos, and comments. Here are four tips to help you get started.

1. Choose your target

People who use social networks often divulge a plethora of personal information in their profiles, which can prove useful to advertisers. Facebook lets you pick and choose which groups you would like your ads to reach. Companies can target ads based on a user’s profile information, such as age, gender, location, college, relationship status, and interests. You can choose to target people who are fans of your company’s Facebook page or friends of your fans. Or avoid your fans altogether, if your goal is to broaden your pool of customers.

You can also advertise only to Facebook users who mention certain words in their profiles or status messages. For example, Howie Goldklang, co-owner of The Establishment, a hair salon and spa in Milwaukee, occasionally targets young women in Milwaukee whose pages mention the names of pop stars such as Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga. Zeroing in on a specific audience lets you get the most bang for your advertising buck, but be careful about narrowing your focus too much. When Chris Lindland, founder of Cordarounds.com, a clothing site based in San Francisco, attempted to target specific colleges in an ad campaign, he didn’t get many clicks. “I thought there was a chance to cordon off influencers in some way,” he says. “But I had to realize, everyone wears pants.”

2. Test, test — and test some more

Ad prices on Facebook are determined by auction, as they are on Google AdWords. You can pay based on either the number of times people see the ad or the number of times people actually click on it. The majority of Facebook advertisers choose the latter, says Tim Kendall, Facebook’s director of monetization. Still, it’s worth testing both payment types to see which is more cost effective, says David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation for 360i, a digital marketing agency. He suggests spending about $20 or so for a small ad buy using both methods. “It’s incredibly cheap to run tests,” says Berkowitz.

Testing various target demographics is also a good idea, says Adam Golomb, the head of e-commerce at Eat’n Park Hospitality Group, a Pittsburgh-based company that runs a chain of 76 restaurants. Golomb launched an ad campaign last spring, hoping to draw more visitors to Eat’n Park’s Facebook page, where the company posts surveys, contests, and coupons. In testing, Golomb found that an ad targeting women performed better than one that targeted both sexes. “The click-through rate dropped dramatically when we went out to both,” he says. After he began advertising only to women, the company was able to add nearly 1,000 new fans over a two-week period.

3. Do your own tracking

Facebook keeps tabs on how many times your ads are shown and the number of clicks they receive. But it doesn’t track what users do after they click — did they make purchases or just browse and move on? That’s the largest drawback of Facebook’s ad service, says Lindland of Cordarounds.com. “Return on investment is not immediately trackable,” he says. Facebook’s Kendall says the company is working to include more information in its reporting tools. Until that happens, it’s critical to do your own tracking. “The beauty of microtargeting an ad buy based on location, age, and sex is the data you’re going to get out of that,” says Michael Kahn, senior vice president of marketing at the digital marketing firm Performics. “To not take advantage of that would be a terrible waste of an opportunity.” Sawits of Frutels uses two analytics programs: Google Analytics, which is free, and HitsLink, which starts at about $10 a month, to track which Facebook ads result in purchases. Sawits, who spent $50,000 on Facebook ads in 2009, says her rate of return is about 2 to 1.

4. Make your ads pop

Companies write their own ads, which may include a short headline, ad copy of 135 characters or fewer, and a small image. Ads must be crafted carefully, because it’s tough to get noticed. Typically, three ads from different advertisers run next to one another. And, of course, there are photos and messages from friends that compete for Facebook users’ attention. “It is a social network, so if you put up a traditional ad, you’re going to be pushed to the side,” says Goldklang. Edgy advertisements, he says, seem to work best for his hair salon, which caters to a young clientele. One advertisement that performed well last year proclaimed, “Springtime is here. Time to get waxed.” “I find just being irreverent and trying not to write in traditional copyspeak connects us the best with potential clients,” Goldklang says. Since he started advertising on Facebook a year and a half ago, the number of new clients who discovered the salon online has risen 20 percent.

Facebook will reject your advertisement if you use an image that is deemed too risqué or language that is deemed offensive or lewd. But it usually pays to push the envelope. Sawits says one of Frutels’s Facebook ads that includes a photograph of a woman licking a lollipop gets the most clicks.

For Facebook’s list of common advertiser mistakes, go to facebook.com/ads/mistakes.php.

Consider this: It wasn’t until 1997 that the Internet reached 50 million users in the United States. Facebook gained over 100 million users in the U.S. from January 2009 to January 2010, marking a 145 percent growth rate within one year, according to research by digital marketing agency iStrategy Labs. If you’re a business owner that hasn’t embraced social media networking as a major component of your success strategy, it’s due time to hop onboard.

“When you’ve got 300 million people on Facebook, that’s a huge business watering hole,” says Lon Safko, social media expert and co-author of The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, of the site’s global reach. “The profile is like an index to your company.”

While Facebook has become the most popular social media site, there are plenty of others for your company to explore. LinkedIn, for example, houses 55 million professionals seeking jobs, employees, or basic business or networking opportunities. MySpace, I believe has been left for those who paved the way such as Facebook, etc. but I doubt very much that it will make a return. It seems only good for bands at the moment.

The user profile is generally what distinguishes social networking sites from other social media platforms. It helps set the stage for building relationships with people who share the same interests, activities, or personal contacts, as opposed to primarily disseminating or digesting information feeds. This also means social networks enable companies to invite audiences to get to know its brand in a way that traditional forms of marketing or advertising can’t.

But what, exactly, are the methods that businesses should use to effectively leverage the burgeoning userbase of these sites as a tool to grow their companies? This post will detail what to do – and what not to do – in order to maintain a viable presence in the realm of social networking.

Developing a Social Networking Strategy

Before opening an account and becoming active, it’s important to consider what each site offers and how you can benefit from their resources. Figure out which tools are best for your demographic. Without a fully developed plan for your social networking activity, you could end up meandering throughout the sites and wasting a lot of time.

Here are a few basic questions to ask yourself when forming your social networking strategy:
1.    What are the needs of my business? Hopefully, you’re not putting your company name on a social networking account just to send messages back and forth to former high school classmates, so there has to be an impetus. Figure out what your needs are. Are you short-staffed? Is your advertising budget running thin?

2.    What am I using the site for? After you’ve established your needs, consider the primary goal of your social networking strategy. Do you want to recruit employees for a certain department? Do you want to market a new line of products? Do you want to connect to more people in your industry?

3.    Whose attention am I trying to get? Okay, so you want to market that new line of products, for example. You still need to know your target audience for that product, and with more than 300 million users on Facebook, you’ll need to narrow your focus.

Got those answered? Good. Now, consider these questions:
1.    Which sites do I want to take on? If you have enough staffing power to handle multiple social networking sites, that’s great. If not, it’s important to focus on one or two, or you could spread yourself too thin and fall victim to the “gaping void” perception, where you end up going days without activity. Your followers will notice.

2.    Who’s going to manage my page? Would your social networking activity fall under a current employee’s responsibilities, or do you need to bring on new talent? If you ever find yourself without the staffing resources to manage your page, don’t stick your head in the sand, says Safko. “Find some interns,” he advises. “In most cases, they’ll do it for free.”

3.    Who has access to my page? What type of trust level do you have established at your company? Will all of your employees have access to the social network account, or a select few? Take the time to assess the skills and character of those who can log into your page, or you may run into unsavory situations down the road – especially when dealing with former workers.

4.    Who’s going to be the personality of my page? Does your company already have a public representative that usually handles speeches, press, etc.? It may be beneficial to rein in that person as the voice of your social networking site. Just remember that people buy from other people, not from other companies. Try to pick someone, even yourself, to represent your brand. Many people do it successfully, such as Richard Branson, Mark Bouris, etc. But be careful, because some do it bad.

In the end, just enjoy the relationship between you and the customer because that’s how you will pick up their loyalty, by delivering quality and reliability.

Have you had experience with successfully generating business from social networking? Let me know below.

Paul

It is a constant debate: what is the best investment? Is it shares or property? Should you buy gold bullion or tip extra money into your superannuation?

Lets have a look back at the past decade to see how these investments have performed.

Gold is the winner for pure gains but a rising Aussie dollar rubbed off some of the shine. Still, in $US per ounce it’s up a massive 284 per cent.

Houses

The median Australian house price has climbed 127 per cent in the past decade but there are big differences between the best and worst.

The big winners are Darwin (up 223 per cent), Hobart and Perth (both 208 per cent), data from the Real Estate Institute of Australia has found.

Adelaide’s median house price has climbed 176 per cent during the decade.

As a rule of thumb, residential property doubles every 10 years.

Sydney was the only city to underperform, with a 93 per cent increase.

However, this does not tell the whole story. The median Sydney price, currently at $569,000 is still below its $571,000 high in 2004.

Shares

It has been a rocky road for shares during the past decade, with two bear markets and a long boom. The All Ordinaries index of 500 companies is up 49 per cent over the past 10 years.

Australian Stock Report head of research Steven Dooley says the energy sector had a great decade as the oil price rose from about $US10 a barrel to highs near $US150 in mid-2008.

Consumer staples companies showed that slow and steady wins the race.

Superannuation

Super is technically not an asset it’s a structure to hold your investments and it has been hit for six during the past 18 months.

However, it’s on the way back up again, and for the decade the average balanced fund has still climbed 72 per cent.

The global financial crisis wiped 20 per cent off the average balanced fund in 2008, while the year before super was down 6.4 per cent.

But the GFC was not the only glitch during the decade. The 2002 Asian financial crisis caused losses of almost 5 per cent.

“The funds soon shook that off, however, and we had five strong years of predominantly double-digit growth,” SuperRatings chief operating officer Nathan McPhee says.

“People soon just expected that those extraordinary levels of growth were normal.”

Wine

Australians’ love of wine can be justified by investors to a point. Average prices of premium reds have climbed 78 per cent, although most wine is still traded on the secondary market for pleasure.

“The fine wine market is today’s modern spice trade,” Langton’s auctioneer Andrew Caillard says.

During the past 10 years, however, the wine market has developed a bit of a “cult phenomenon” where unheard-of wines can fetch more than $1000 a bottle.

“Don’t borrow money to buy wine. There are no guarantees of making returns,” Mr Caillard says.

Very rare wines, however, are a market to themselves with some Australian rare wine up 300 per cent this year.

Cash

It has been an uneventful start and finish for cash investments for the decade.

In December 1999 the average one-year, fixed-term deposit rate was 5.22 per cent.

Today it is 5.09 per cent, according to RateCity. The average during the decade was 5.3 per cent.

Unlike shares and property, cash does not deliver capital growth only income but is seen as a safe investment.

HSBC has some great offers currently. You can find them here.

Commercial Property

Listed property trusts offer the easiest access for investors to commercial property but what a shocker of a decade for this sector. The Listed Property Trust index fell 31 per cent.

During the decade, many trusts started at just 50 per unit, rode the back of the global property bubble up to $8 or $9 then tumbled back again, Australian Stock Report’s Steven Dooley says. Other trusts were wiped out.

Thoroughbreds

The average yearling sale price has jumped 88 per cent during the decade.

“The globalisation of the industry has been a boon to Australian horses because it has brought international investment and recognition during the past 10 years,” Inglis commercial manager Matt Rudolph says.

“In Australia, anyone can be an investor but in the UK or Europe, for example, it is often only for the elite. Here you can dream of winning a Golden Slipper or a Melbourne Cup. You only have to have a look at the past winners to see it can happen.”

Gold

If you put your money in gold 10 years ago, you’d be on a winner, with 284 per cent growth.

Although currency fluctuations have boosted the price recently, the sector is still seen as a haven and a growth asset.

There is a real bull market in gold, says Daily Reckoning gold analyst Bill Bonner.

“It’s what you buy when you think government is making a mess of the monetary situation. You put your trust in gold as an antidote, as protection, as wealth insurance.”

Diamonds

Diamonds have not been a girl’s best friend this decade, with virtually no growth a mere 0.5 per cent.

According to the international benchmark index of South Africa’s PolishedPrices.com, diamond prices roughly ended the past 10 years at the same place they started. However there were a few ups and downs.

PolishedPrices spokesman Richard Platt says diamonds reached a peak in August last year, but even that high translated to a mere 18 per cent increase since 1999.

So, the next time you are told in the jewellery store that it’s a ‘great investment’, refer them to this article.

Where have you found some great value from investments?

PD

Every business has a Unique Proposition that other companies in the same space can’t offer, but how do you make the details of this offering available to the masses?

There is only so much money you can throw at advertising and marketing companies to make your business stand out from the rest. And in many cases, it is very hard to measure the success of each campaign.

With the advancement of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc, etc. More and more people are jumping online to digest their information and in recent surveys, they suggest that almost 80% of people are researching their purchase before they actually buy it!

Even if you are sceptical toward online advertising and social media (Which I am, by means of attracting new business vis Social Media), you have to acknowledge the need for an online presence. But how?

Google Adwords seem to be a waste of time, Facebook advertising doesn’t seem to attract much attention unless you are selling a ‘cool product’. But have you considered a Merchant Account?

What is a Merchant? Well, many times on blogs and websites, you will see advertising, and this site is no different to any other in that respect. In that advertising, if the reader clicks on it and either signs up, or contacts the advertiser, the person hosting that ad will be paid accordingly.

The advertiser is the merchant. They pay a fee each time the ad is clicked. After some research I have been doing for the past few months, I have come to the conclusion that there are only a handful of Australian Only accounts that can be targeted this way. In my opinion, Commission Monster is the best and offers a variety of support and your campaigns can be tracked and measured very well.

If you run a small business, that can be promoted online, especially within Australia, you need to consider trialing this service. I would love to hear some stories about how you have been successful with your online advertising. Please share below.

Australians need to look at long-term saving options that sit outside superannuation if they are to have enough money to maintain their current lifestyle in retirement, according to investment group IOOF Research from the firm has shown more than a third of respondents to its consumer survey believe they will not have enough money to maintain their current lifestyle when they retire, with only 29 per cent believing they could carry on as normal. More than one-third of survey respondents still plan to use superannuation as their sole source of income.

“It’s alarming to find out that many Australians believe compulsory superannuation will be enough to maintain their current standard of living, the harsh reality is that in many cases it won’t,” said IOOF’s investor solutions general manager, Renato Mota.

Mota added that those looking to top up their super through voluntary contributions would find their saving potential has been limited following recent cap reductions imposed on voluntary contribution levels. As a result, he advised consumers to look at a selection of investment vehicles as a means of saving for retirement.

IOOF’s survey, which was conducted by AC Neilsen, found 33 per cent of respondents saw retirement as the most important thing for which to save, however, almost one-third had yet to begin long-term planning. Shockingly, despite the lack of financial knowledge among Australians, almost 80 per cent of respondents had not sought professional financial advice for their retirement.

If you need help with determining how much you will n eed in retirement and how to get there, please feel free to contact me at super@protectmywealth.com.au

Source: Moneymanagement.com.au
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The December and January period is normally a slow time for small-to-medium sized businesses, with most customers on holidays, suppliers operating on skeleton staff and budgets on hold. An article from Australian Anthill offers five tips for surviving the Christmas slowdown.

“Hope for the best, plan for the worst.”

Business owners and entrepreneurs are notoriously optimistic about their businesses and that is often the key to their success — optimism creates the energy needed to tackle inevitable business challenges. But optimism should not come at the expense of prudent planning, particularly when it comes to seasonal slowdowns.

Here are some tips to help you start 2010 with momentum:

1. Stay on top of invoicing.
   There may have been a mad rush to supply customers prior to Christmas. Prompt and accurate invoicing is obviously critical to managing cashflow, particularly if your clients and customers are themselves going to be away over the holiday season.
2. Consider different scenarios.
   Many businesses are finding it more difficult to forecast in today’s dynamic and tumultuous economic environment. As a result, business owners should ensure that they consider a number of potential scenarios for how their businesses might operate over the holiday season. For example, ask yourself, if sales are 10 percent lower versus the same period last year, then what does that mean for us? Or, if the sales we expect to have in January are deferred until February or March, what will that mean for our cashflow? Often, planning for the worst-case scenario is the best approach. At the very least, it will help you sleep at night!
3. Know the availability of your key suppliers.
   It is important to know if your key suppliers and partners (including financiers) are available during the holiday season and into January. You don’t want to be caught out needing something from them only to find out that a decision-maker will be overseas and not able to give you the necessary support, without having a backup arrangement.
4. Consider financial alternatives.
   With traditional bank funding becoming all but non-existent for small business, SMEs should consider alternatives, of which there are a range of different solutions, depending on the need. At Christmas time, a more flexible approach can be attractive to small businesses because they may not need a long-term solution.
5. Implement mandatory annual leave.
   It may be too late to enforce this year, but companies with full-time staff should consider enforcing Mandatory Annual Leave during traditionally slow periods. Many Australians do not take their annual leave (see the Government’s “No Leave, No Life” campaign) and the accumulation of annual leave entitlements can become a problem. Businesses should consider closing down when activity levels are slow. The period between Christmas and New Year’s is an obvious time to consider closing. This will have a significant impact on cashflow for companies that carry contractors. As an additional benefit, it’s a great opportunity for the business owners to recharge their batteries

If you have a current income protection policy, and any old superannuation, you should consider rolling them together and having the super deduct premiums from your account. To find out more, please contact us below.

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