There’s feeling around that people in the West are far too indebted for their own good. People in the UK are said to owe £1 trillion ($1.78 trillion) in debts.

New data from the British Alliance and Leicester Bank, however, paint a different picture. The Alliance claims that many people now have more assets, mainly in the form of housing equity, offsetting the rise in personal debt.

Also, low interest rates mean it is cheaper to service the debt. A typical household with a mortgage will pay 13.8 percent of income compared with 25.7 percent in 1990.

However, low inflation means that the real burden of debt is not amortized as quickly as in the past. Big debts also make us more vulnerable to rises in interest rates or becoming unemployed.

The advice is to borrow only if you are investing in an asset you have reason to believe will rise in value, or you expect to earn more … or spend less.

Other than that, be very careful.

What are the key indicators that allow you to track the progress of your business? Here Justin Woolich explains what they are and how to make good use of them:

Key Indicators allow you to track the health and growth of your business. By deciding what values are critical, then measuring them over time, you can determine exactly where you are in your progress towards your business development goals.

Most business owners would argue that they have a ‘good feel’ for their businesses. This is probably true but it is not sufficient to be successful. The Key Indicators in your business need to be defined and a schedule established to track and measure your progress towards them over time.

Key Indicators can be used to track both measurable and implied areas of your business.

Measurable Key Indicators are values that you can actually calculate or determine by looking at the operations of your Business. Typical examples include: - Net Profit, Growth Rates, Sales Person Calls and Production Rates etc.

Implied Key Indicators are values where you establish the best case and worst case values and then assign a measurement value at a point in time using your judgement. These values may not be able to be determined by looking at the operational metrics of your business. It may be useful for you to document exactly how to arrive at a value. Typical examples include:

- Customer Satisfaction, Market Leadership and Employee Moral etc.

To begin tracking Key Indicators in your business:

1) Consider where you are and where you want to be.

2) Determine the areas that need tracking in order to reach your Business Development Goals.

3) Determine the range of values you will use to measure a Key Indicator, these may change as your Business Develops.

4) Develop a description for the Minimum and Maximum values that you will use to measure the Key Indicator (This will assist you when measuring the values).

5) Measure the current value of the Key Indicator.

6) Schedule a task for the regular measurement and evaluation of your progress with the Key Indicator so you can track where you are over time.

You should share the measurement and evaluation responsibilities of Key Indicators with employees and managers in your business. You will find that once you start using Key Indicators to set the goals and parameters of your business, you and your employees will become aligned and begin working towards achieving your Business Development Goals.

Be bold but realistic in setting your Business Development Goals. By defining and then measuring Key Indicators there is a good chance you will reach and exceed what you have set as the best case scenario.

About the Author

Business System Manager Software allows you to define Key Indicators in your business also assisting you to create Tasks and Business Systems to ensure that the Key Indicators are measured and reviewed. Start a Free Trial Today http://www.BusinessSystemsManager.com
Justin Woolich has been involved with the Development of Innovative Business Software for over 12 years. He is passionate about assisting Businesses with Software for Business Development.
http://www.BusinessSystemsManager.com/AboutJustinWoolich.aspx

Note: The Money Blog has no financial links with Justin Woolich, nor any knowledge of his business.

Knowing about FOREX, or the foreign exchange markets is another string to the bow of anyone interested in financial dealings. Here Jimmy Cox explains how the markets work:

FOREX, also known as the FX market or the foreign exchange market, is largest and oldest financial market in the world. It is also the biggest and most liquid market in the world, a market that runs 24/5, circling the globe with financial transactions.

There has been some sort of foreign exchange for as long as people have needed to exchange currencies to do business. Technically, if you are a tourist travelling in a foreign country and you use a traveler`s check to pay for a transaction, you are engaging in foreign exchange. However, traders are not interested in that type of foreign exchange. They are concerned with trading foreign exchange, which occurs when one currency is traded for another on the market purely to make a profit.

In the past, foreign exchange trading was limited to banks, major currency dealers and occasionally to very large speculators. Only these groups were able to take advantage of the currency market`s fantastic liquidity and the strong trending nature of many of the world`s primary currency exchange rates. However, recent technological advancements and the development of various online trading platforms have made it possible for small traders to take advantage of the many benefits of FOREX trading.

Foreign exchange market brokers are now able to break down the larger sized inter-bank units and offer individual traders the opportunity to buy or sell any number of these smaller units. These brokers give any size trader, including individual speculators or smaller companies, the option to trade at the same rates and price movements as the big players who once dominated the market.

Transactions on the FOREX market are performed continuously by dealers at major banks or at FOREX brokerage companies around the world. FOREX is a part of a worldwide market, and it is active 24 hours a day. Dealers at major institutions work 24/5 in three different shifts. Traders may place orders with brokers for overnight execution, without waiting for the opening of any market.

Because of this continuous activity, price movements on the FOREX market are very smooth, without the gaps that occur on the stock market. The daily turnover on the FOREX market is somewhere around $1.2 trillion, so there is never any danger of an investor being unable to enter and exit positions whenever they want to. The fact is that the FOREX market never stops. Even on September 11, 2001, you could still get your hands on two-side quotes on currencies.

These currencies are on a floating exchange rate, and they are always traded in pairs such as Euro/Dollar, or Dollar/Yen. About 85% of all daily transactions involve trading of the major currencies. Four major currency pairs are usually used for investment purposes. They are: Euro against US dollar, US dollar against Japanese yen, British pound against US dollar, and US dollar against Swiss franc. They appear on the market in this form: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, and USD/CHF. As a note, you should know that no dividends are paid on currencies.

If you feel one of the currencies in the pair you are trading in is undervalued, you can buy more of that currency (by selling the other). If everything goes as you expect, you later sell back the currency you bought (buying the currency you sold in the beginning) for a profit. Trading on FOREX utilizes margin in such a way that an individual trader is able to profit well from trades such as these. The market is one where high profits are accessible to all types of traders, and the market is also big enough to ensure that there will almost always be a good trading opportunity.

When you compare them, you will see that the currency futures market is only one per cent as big as FOREX. In addition, currency trading is not centered on an exchange, unlike the futures and stock markets. Trading moves from major banking centers of the U.S. to Australia and New Zealand, to the Far East, to Europe and finally back to the U.S. it is truly a full circle trading game. As you can see, the foreign exchange market has come a long way. Being successful at it can be intimidating and difficult when you are new to the game. However, once you understand the market, you will be able to realize your potential to be a highly profitable trader.

About the Author

Jimmy Cox writes: Who Else Wants To Learn A Simple, Step-By-Step System For Generating Quick & Easy Profits, Trading Forex?
http://www.forextradingstrategies.org

Note: The Money Blog has no financial links with Jimmy Cox, nor any knowledge of his businesses.

How do you raise private risk capital for your business? It could cost you, as William Cate demonstrates here:

In the beginning, you need money to start your company. You invest your money. Your close family members invest their money. Thereafter, your efforts to raise money from investors will cost you money. There are three basic steps in raising private risk capital.

Step I. You must have a business plan. You can hire a professional to write it. They will charge you anywhere from $8,000 to $75,000. If you write it yourself, it will take your time. Time is money. Unless you have written several successful business plans, you should have a professional business writer edit your business plan. It will cost you anywhere from $3,000 to $25,000 to have it edited.

Step II. Your investment offer must comply with State and Federal Laws. Assuming you are seeking a million dollars in risk capital, you should file a 504 Reg D Exemption with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. While any High School Graduate can complete the filing, you should have the Reg D form reviewed by an attorney. The attorney will charge anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 to ensure that you haven’t made a clearly fraudulent filing.

Because it allows advertising your risk capital investment, the usual State filing is a SCOR (Small Corporate Offering Registration). Filing a SCOR meets the Federal 504 Reg D requirements. In California, the SCOR State filing fee is $2,500. If you have an attorney prepare your SCOR filing, it will cost you between $5,000-$50,000.

A DPO (Direct Public Offering) is a SCOR filing that includes investment advertising on the Net. It will cost you anywhere from $75,000 to $225,000.

You can ignore the law and not file with the State or Federal Government. You might raise the risk capital money that you need to start your business. However, if your business fails and your investors complain to any Government Agency, you can face criminal charges for failure to file.

Step III. Advertising for your investors costs money. You could be the president of the local country club and its members your investors. This might limit your investment marketing costs to a few Country Club dinners. You can run ads in local newspapers and your costs will be a
hundred dollars or less. You can use a variety of creative marketing techniques and your costs may still remain below $1,000.

You can use a professional marketing group to help you find your investors. They’ll charge anywhere from $15,000 to over $200,000 for their help.

In California, if you did everything yourself, your out-of-pocket costs could be as low as $6,500. If you have the investor contacts, this is a good investment of your time and money. If you lack investor contacts, doing it yourself wastes your money. You need professional help.

The odds of honest Professional Help raising $200,000 for your company are about 1-in-4. On a statistical base, any professional payment over $50,000 is a mistake.

It costs money to raise money. Your goal is to find a beneficial ratio between costs and the probability of raising risk capital. Because it offers greater investor liquidity, I think that taking your company public makes more sense than doing a SCOR offering. However, creating and funding a public company costs more than doing a SCOR offering. In the same risk reward progression, buying a public blind pool costs more than taking your company public. But, you achieve near certainty that you will be rewarded by getting the money in the Blind Pool Treasury.

A successful business makes the right decisions in a maze of risk reward steps. Until you understand the risk reward ratio, you can’t make an informed business decision.

About the Author

William Cate has been the Managing Director of Beowulf Investments: [http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/] since 1981 and is the Executive Director of the Global Village Investment Club:
[http://home.earthlink.net/~beowulfinvestments/
globalvillageinvestmentclubwelcome/]

Note: The Money Blog has no financial link with William Cate or his companies.