Prospecting For Commercial Real Estate Listings

When you prospect in commercial real estate sales or leasing situations, you will meet with and will talk to many people on a daily basis. The more people you do this with the better. Prospecting is critical to your business growth and listing processes in any market.

It is interesting to consider what prospecting situation you find yourself most often in. The answer is different for everyone as each person has communication preferences and methods of approach that works for them over other standard approaches. It is therefore most important to prospect in the way that suits your character and business style.

Your daily prospecting method should be the thing that works for you and gives you the best results and could be any or all of:

  • Telephone
  • Door to door
  • Networking events
  • Referrals
  • Face to face contact

In all respects the prospecting and meeting process will be enhanced if you refine it and use a small number of statements that gain the attention of the prospect. We call these statements ‘Prospect Value Statements’ (PVS) and they must relate to you and your commercial or investment real estate market.

Prospect Value Statements

The ‘Prospect Value Statement’ is one of a kind and should match you, your business, and your focus. It should clearly declare and communicate the fundamental reason why your organisation exists and why you’re selling or leasing commercial investment property from the prospects perspective. It is the most important thing that you can learn and use in commercial real estate. That being said, it is amazing how many salespeople in commercial real estate do not master the concept and some never even know about it. The PVS is such an important statement to your conversion process that we will spend time now on it in helping you design your own.

So why is the PVS so important? It succinctly, clearly, and precisely defines what you do and how you do it in commercial real estate. Better still, it does so in a way that your clients and prospects can see and know why they should do business with you. The PVS will tell them that you are better than the competition agents in the market.

The PVS plays a role in just about every business opportunity and prospecting situation that you come across.

Sample of a Commercial PVS

‘We assist our commercial investor clients in the industrial market at Salisbury to find new tenants that match their investment plan or cash flow expectations, and therefore enjoy a more stable occupancy. We do this by canvassing all tenant changes in the region for the coming 3 years and directing deals to the desirable tenants at the right time for our clients.’

Sample Structure of a PVS

‘We assist our commercial clients (companies, tenants, or investors) in the … industry (or business, or market segment, or location) to … and enjoy … We do this by …’

To make this work, it’s important for you to know and really understand what end result benefit you actually deliver to your commercial real estate prospects, customers and clients (be they landlords, tenants or investors). You also need to know exactly what benefit your prospects or clients actually want to gain, enjoy, achieve, or have in this market. Your PVS is matched to the end user of your services at all times.

‘Your PVS will also change over time as it will have relevance to the current market conditions and the pressures that your prospects need resolved.’

So What Results and Benefits do Prospects Need?

Before you start to create a PVS or a series of them for you and your business, let’s define some of the results and benefits that are typical desired outcomes for a client or prospect in a commercial real estate sale or lease situation. Consider your market. What are the priorities of the prospects that you deal with today?

Commercial Real Estate Lease situations:

  • Stable tenant
  • Good rent
  • Long lease
  • Major tenants
  • Quality tenants
  • Ability to refurbish
  • Make good obligations
  • Growth of rent
  • Stability of rent
  • Sound lease document
  • Resolving vacancies faster

Commercial Real Estate Sales situations:

  • Quick sale
  • Higher price
  • Confidential sale
  • Method of sale
  • Faster settlement
  • Good enquiry
  • Good promotion and marketing
  • Comprehensive market coverage
  • Sale to investors
  • Sale to owner occupiers

Given these benefits and your market trends now in your location, you should be able to easily construct a series of PVS models that suit the prospects that you deal with. Ideally you should be able to quickly call on 2 or 3 of these statements in any prospecting conversation to match the needs or interest of the prospect you are talking to.

Women’s Fitness Tips For Saggy Breasts

More women than ever are having cosmetic surgery on their breasts, some have implants, some have breast size reductions. But there are a group of women who are almost at their wits end – the ones whose breasts sag, have gone south, have married their knees, whatever you want to call it. These women are sick of feeling unattractive, so what can they do if they either don’t want to, or can’t afford to go under the surgeons knife?

Lets have a look at why breasts sag in the first place. The main reason is that the pectoral muscles (just under the breasts) have not been kept in good shape, sometimes it is due to breastfeeding but if these muscles are not kept toned, they tend to shrink, which in turn causes the nipples to aim for the floor!

So, I have compiled the three most effective exercises to firm your boobs up again! While I’m on the subject of exercise, just a reminder about the importance of breathing properly, if you breathe properly when exercising you will get your muscles working to maximum capacity.

These are the two rules:

Breathe out as the ‘effort’ part of the movement is performed and breathe in as you return to the start position.

The Exercises:

The Half Press Up

Set- Get down on your hands and knees in a press-up position. Place your hands just over shoulder width apart and make sure that your knees are further back than your hips.

Movement- Bend your elbows slowly into a right angle and then push back to the starting position.

Advanced tip- As you progress with this exercise, try moving your hands slightly further apart. The movement will be harder to complete but it will have more of an effect.

The Oblique Sit-up

Set- Lie flat on your back with your knees bent, your legs apart and your feet flat on the floor. Put your hands on the back of your head.

Movement- Bring your torso up and bring your right elbow over to touch your left knee. Then twist the body and make your left elbow touch your right knee. Then return to the starting position. On the next repetition reverse these instructions.

Advanced tip- No real science on this one, just do more repetitions!

Flat Fly

Set- Lie flat on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Take a weight in each hand and place your arms stretched out either side of you.

Movement- With your arms slightly bent, bring them up so they meet directly above your head. Then slowly bring the arms back down to the starting position, stretching your chest high and wide as you do.

Advanced tip- Again as you progress and get stronger, when you bringing your arms back to the start position, do not let the weights, your hands or arms touch the floor.

Complete these exercises at this rate:

Days 1, 3 and 5- All three exercises, 5 reps each

Days 2, 4 and 6- Rest days

Days 7, 9, 11 and 13- All three exercises but now at 8 reps each

Days 8, 10, 12 and 14- rest days

Days 15-21- Choose any five days to do all three exercises at 8 reps each

Days 22-28- As above but increase to 12 reps each

Days 29-42- All three exercises everyday at 12 reps each

Once you have completed this program, make sure you keep the exercising at a constant level, after all of that, the last thing you want to happen is for them to head south again!

Quality Affiliate Marketing Tips And Tricks

What is creating major headlines and buzz around the online community is undoubtedly the word and term affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is one of the simplest and effective ways an individual can venture and make massive gains from the scheme. Just like any other real job out there for success to be real then more time and effort should be dedicated to the plan.

Affiliate marketing involves an individual signing up with some of the major online companies, which offer their services and products to the online world. What actually takes place is you create a blog or site, which in turn will be used as a platform to market and advertise such products to the online visiting clients. In order for this to take place then the need to have a blog or website becomes compulsory. Affiliate marketing has grown over the years and more companies are adopting this new way of revenue maximization through paying you a small percentage on any product sale that is done through your blog or site.

Various individuals have differed with regards to the maximum amount that can be derived from the program; others will rate it very well but in some quarter’s bad ratings and negative attitude persists regarding the whole business plan. However in this article I will try to outline some of the best affiliate marketing tips and tricks that if effectively used and followed to the latter they will most definitely leave you with a very fat cheque at the end of the month.

One of the major affiliate marketing tips and tricks is getting quality to your site or blog. By doing this you will have automatically increased the probability of visitors looking up your site and making a purchase. For this to be as smooth as possible to your visitors then you as the owner should put in an effort to make sure the content written and posted in your site is compatible to the product you are marketing or selling.

The other affiliate marketing tip and trick will call for creativity with regards to the kind of content posted on your sites. Let your visitors have an unquenched like desire to visit again and again and by doing this they get a chance to have a second look on the products you will be marketing. The other trick will require you to make a precise choice on the type of product to market, this will most probably determine how many sales you are able to make.

Another quality affiliate marketing tip and trick is making sure you work hard and well through posting relevant posts and doing a lot of traffic generation work. If one is able to undertake this affiliate marketing tips and tricks then the possibility of making massive gains is endless and unlimited.

Using Videos and Vlogs As Internet Strategy to Get Visitors

Videos are an effective way to get a message across to our clients and yet they are still under used. With the explosion of web 2.0, videos can be supported by most sites and they can be hosted cheaply too. A vlog is short for videoblog. It is a blog which uses video as the primary content as technically it is linked to within a videoblog post. A vlog is accompanied by supporting text, image, and additional meta data to provide a context for the video. Vlog like Blogs are updated regularly, generally includes personal reflections, comments and often take advantage of RSS for syndication to other web sites and aggregator software (rss readers).

Why Use Videos?

If audio has more impact over text, visual takes it all. Visuals have a cutting edge as far as conversions are concerned. It leads to more personalization hence greater customer involvement.
Some examples of business videos are:

o Showing a demo of a product
o A presentation of services
o A CEO giving a speech
o An explanation of a procedure
o Showing different uses of a product
o Fun videos
o Create interaction
o peer-to-peer knowledge sharing and acquisition

Earlier videos were used sparingly because of bandwidth considerations and the increases of loading time. Moreover content was needed for optimization. However with the introduction of Video Sitemap Protocol optimization of videos has been made possible. Moreover now there are dedicated media servers to take care of vlogging and podcasting

Requirements:

o A Microphone compatible with your PC
o A Webcam that allows you to record video and save it on your computer hard drive.
OR
o A camcorder
o Video editing software

How does it work?

1. Get a microphone: To record a video, you need to have a microphone that is compatible with your computer.
2. Get a webcam.: You need to get a webcam that allows you to record video and save it on your computer’s hard drive.
3. Take time to Prepare your vlog content: Take some time to think about what you’re going to say or do during your vlog.
4. Record your vlog: Turn on your microphone, start your webcam and begin recording. Save the file when you’re done.
5. Upload your vlog file to YouTube or Google Video:
6. Get the embedding code of your uploaded vlog file. Alternately if your server supports these type of media, upload it to your website.
7. Copy the embedding code: Once you upload your vlog file to YouTube or Google Video, copy the embedding code and keep it handy.
8. Create a new blog post: Give it a relevant title and add content to introduce your vlog.
9. Paste the embedding code for your vlog file into your new blog post. Using the embedding code you copied earlier for your uploaded vlog file, paste that information into the code of your new blog post.
10. Publish your new blog post. Select the publish button in your blogging application to send your new blog post with your vlog in it live online.

Deciding on a video host: Check the following

Check out the other videos on the site. Are they high quality and in good taste, or a little raunchy and inappropriate? Choose a site you feel comfortable about.

Check the File Size Limits: Web video hosting sites have varying limits in the size of the video files they allow you to upload. Generally you’ll have to compress your video before uploading so it meets the file size requirements of the video hosting site. If you have to compress it too much, your video may not look very good by the time it’s playing on the web.

Storage Space Offered: Is there a limit to how many videos you can upload to your account, or how much storage space you can use?

Uploading Formats: What video formats does the site accept? Most web video hosting sites accept multiple video formats, such as Quicktime, Windows Media, MPEG etc. You can even find sites that allow you to upload directly from your camcorder or cell phone. If this is important to you, make sure that the web video hosting service you choose to use offers these features.

Viewing Formats: What format do the videos on the site play in? Flash is the standard for most web video hosting sites, because it is installed on most computers and plays quickly and easily. However, some sites offer other video formats, in case you want to share your video on a site that doesn’t use Flash, such as iTunes.

Compression Quality: Web video hosting sites will recompress your video before publishing it. Some sites do this better than others.

Video Downloads: Because of copyright issues, many web video hosting sites do not allow users to download copies of the videos on the site. There are some sites though, such as Google Video, that allow users to save copies of videos to their desktop or portable video player.

Editing Capabilities: Many web video hosting sites now offer editing features. JumpCut offers extensive online nonlinear editing, and other sites give you the ability to remix your video or add titles, narration or photos.

Audience: Different sites have different audiences. If your video focuses on a niche topic, choose a web video hosting service that serves that niche, else YouTube.

Video Sharing: Most web video hosting services allow you to embed your videos in blogs, on personal web pages, and on sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

Video Player: Some sites will include advertisements next to the video player, or will place a watermark of their logo over part of your video. This may be fine, but it doesn’t look so professional if you’re sending the video to clients and it has a big “YouTube” logo on it.

Tips

o Decide on the purpose of your video. If it’s to attract traffic to your website, host is there. Else you can go in for third part hosting. like http://www.youtube.com.
o Use keyword rich title for your videos.
o Add a video sitemap on your website. Sign into Google webmasters to create a Video Sitemap
o Get your video transcribed. Either use an automatic transcriber or use an affordable cheap transcription service vendor.
o Keep your video duration around 5 minutes, not more for bandwidth considerations and to keep it effective.
o Add a call to action.
o Test your vlog after publishing to ensure it’s working smoothly.
o Some popular Download-First video formats are AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, and MPEG4. Here are some popular Streaming Video formats: WMV (Windows Media Video), QT (QuickTime), and RealVideo (RM).

Video Editing Software

o iMovie: iMovie comes free with new Macs. iMovie offers many options for editing video and audio, and adding photos, music and narration to your movies.
o Movie Maker: Movie Maker is Window’s free video editing software, which comes installed on new PCs. Use the program to create and share high-quality
o Avid Free DV: Free DV is Avid’s free video editing software, and it works with both Macs and PCs. It’s a stripped down version of Avid’s professional software, and gives users limited video and audio editing capabilities.
o Jump Cut: An online entry, Jump Cut’s free video editing software allows you to cut video, and add audio, photos, effects and titles right on the web.
o Virtual Dub: Virtual Dub offers simple editing capabilities. You can’t get too creative with the software, but you can use it to make simple, clean edits in your video footage. Virtual Dub works with Windows only.
Places to Host Your Vlog

o Free Vlog
o Internet Archive

Some Video Sharing Sites

o YouTube: YouTube is the biggest and best known, and it offers many features if you want to share your video and get it seen by a large audience.

o Revver : Revver is a revenue sharing, as well as video sharing, web site. Ads embedded at the end of videos can earn producers real money.

o Google Video : Google purchased YouTube, but it still maintains its own video sharing and search tools.

o Blip.tv : Use Blip.tv to start your own online television program.

o Jump Cut : Yahoo!’s entry into the world of social video sharing, Jump Cut offers a sleek online video editing tool, as well as all the bells and whistles for uploading and sharing your videos.

o Yahoo! Video: Yahoo! Video has all the features available on other large video-sharing sites. It also gives you the ability to upload a transcript for your video, which makes it easier to find in web searches.

o My Space: If you have a My Space page, you have a forum for easily sharing your videos online.

o Video Egg: Upload your video, share it and, possibly, make money off of it.

Why Shop in a Shopping Mall?

A shopping mall changes the experience of shopping into more of a day out than simply a trip to the shops.

Shopping malls will also make the shopping experience a lot more convenient as there are many different types of shops all available under one roof, there is also more spaces to fit these shops as most shopping malls are multi-storey.

Doing your shopping indoors can also be more pleasant than shopping outside, as the weather may make the journey from one shop to another unpleasant. If for example it’s raining heavily outside or it’s too hot, a shopping mall can provide the perfect environment in which to do your shopping. These malls are often air-conditioned so are often very peasant places to visit in very hot countries where heat exhaustion and sunburn can be a very real problem, particularly for elder people, the very young and people who may come from abroad and are not used to the hot climate.

A shopping mall is also an ideal place to own a shop as there’s a lot of foot traffic and people who might happen across your shop that might not have otherwise. In a shopping mall your shop is on display, whereas if you were located in a side street, away from the town centre you may experience a lack of potential customers. Being located in a shopping mall may mean that the lease for the shop is more expensive, but it will more than be paid back by the massive increase in foot traffic.

If you are doing your shopping in a mall, you may also notice that there are often places where you can eat, this allows you to take a break from shopping and enjoy a nice meal while you at it. Many of these food stores are very popular franchises who make food people know and love for a bargain price. As well as food vendors, there are often coffee shops for people who just want to sit and enjoy a nice cup of coffee whilst they take a break. The food and coffee shops are an ideal place to sit and wait for someone you may be meeting, or take a moment to consider items you have viewed before you go back and commit to a purchase.

Some indoor shopping establishments also contain well equipped Cinemas featuring the latest 3D Imax technology and the latest Hollywood movies. Some shopping malls also contain bars for people who may like an alcoholic drink or a game of pool.

Some places may even feature entertainment which is laid on for the customer such as, musicians or street performers who can entertain crowds of people and also draw in additional foot traffic to the nearby shops.

So to sum it up, shopping malls are for more than just shopping, they are a place where you can have a good day out and see many sights you may not see elsewhere, they also provide protection from the environment and the convenience of having many shops together in close proximity to each other, reducing the amount of walking that has to be done.

Employment Over 50

Facing sudden unemployment is bad news for most people, but to find yourself on the job market when in your 50′s can be very worrying. Its natural think that you will have big trouble getting a career over 50 – however this train of thought is what can lead to problems finding employment.Try to look on the bright side and concentrate on what you can offer potential new employers. Don’t focus on the fact that you think you are too old to gain employment – this negativity will come through whenever you speak to people.One thing you are able to offer is experience – that one elusive thing that younger job hunters are desperate for! Make sure you advertise how experienced you are when putting your CV together. Do not put your age or date of birth on your CV – employers are not allowed to discriminate against age now, and its not mandatory to be on the CV so leave it out.Again – looking on the positive side when looking for employment over 50 – take this as a good opportunity to go for a career change. Make everyone you know aware of your situation – networking is just as important for older people looking for a job as it is for new college grads. Tell your family and friends that you’re interested in a career change, and see if they known anyone who is hiring in the field you want. Network with people in the industry you are interested in and review job openings on the job finder websites. Learn about the skills and other credentials that will be important in your new career that you wish to pursue.Another thing to consider is an employment over 50 makeover! After years on the same job, perhaps you’re no longer certain what is expected of today’s workers. Have your resume professionally updated to reflect current language as well as to make sure that no information is included to suggest your age.Consider working for yourself. There are many opportunities out there now that can be utilised for self employment. Working as an Internet marketer is a great way to earn money when looking at employment over 50.The great benefit of Internet marketing is how it fits in withe the lifestyle that you wish to follow. If you want to take advantage of your sudden freedom due to unemployment and do some traveling – internet marketing gives your the freedom to do just this. If you have a laptop – you can even work while you are traveling as you can access the internet now from virtually anywhere.Training is also important, so if you are looking to work from home using internet marketing as your business, ensure you get your self the right training up front.

The Many Health And Fitness Benefits Of Sports

If you are on this page, chances are that you are interested in finding out the health and fitness benefits of taking part in sports. If you want to take up a sport, you are reading the right article. As a matter of fact, if you take part in your favorite sport, you can enjoy a number of health and fitness benefits. In this article, we are going to talk about some of these benefits. Read on to find out more.Generally, taking part in physical activities can help you improve your health and fitness. Most people don’t feel like going to the gym or using a treadmill, but many of them will happily take part in physical sports such as football. The thing is that it is the element of fun that makes it possible for people to get out and take part in a sport.According to most people, engaging in physical activity helps improve their mental health and overall well-being. As a matter of fact, there are many reasons why you may want to engage in sport. For example, physical activities can help you reduce your body fat, improve your stamina, and increase your bone strength. These are some solid reasons why you should be physically active.Given below is the description of some of the common health and fitness benefits of taking part in a sport.

If you remain active, you can reduce your body fat and monitor your body weight.

Physical activities allow you to get the satisfaction of remaining fit.

If you want to fight anxiety and depression, nothing can work better than engaging in your desired support on a regular basis.

If you play sports, you can set goals and challenge yourself on a regular basis.

If you engage in physical activities, you can improve your flexibility, balance, and coordination.

Taking part in sports may help you to give a boost to your concentration and stamina.

It can also help you to become more active in real life.

Taking part in physical activities on the field can help you make new friends who will share the same interests as you.

Taking part in sports can help families get together and reap all the benefits of physical activities.

If you want to adopt a healthy lifestyle, make sure you take part in your decide sport.

Long story short, this was a description of some common benefits of taking part in sports. If you have never taken part in this type of physical activity in your life, now is the right time to get started. After all, nothing is more important to you than your own health and overall well-being. Hopefully, these benefits will inspire you to get out of your comfort zone and do something physical.

The Multiple Advantages of Childrens Entertainers

Childrens entertainers are all the rage at the moment, and with good reason. They do a whole lot more than just provide a guaranteed focus for a kids’ party: they can also represent better security and help deliver as smoother feel to the whole party experience. Leaving, generally, a lot more breathing space for the poor old parents, who usually end up twice as tired and scratchy as the children at the end of a birthday party or other celebration.The first and most obvious benefit of the kids’ entertainer is clearly his or her ability to entrance a whole house or garden full of children with jokes, games and magic routines. Childrens entertainers are highly skilled professionals, used to dealing with the most critical audiences in the land.Children are notoriously good at seeing through less than perfect routines, or spotting adults they know who have dressed up as something else. A kids’ entertainer is a different box of tricks entirely. Because the children in question don’t know the entertainer, they are incapable of divorcing the man or woman inside the costume from the character he or she is conveying. That means that to a child, a children’s entertainer really is whatever he or she purports to be – a clown or magician, for example. Because childrens entertainers encourage kids to suspend their disbelief in this way, the children who see them are more disposed to believe that the things they are doing are “real” – real magic, real tricks and real clown routines. Having mum or dad try to do the same thing, even if mum or dad happens to be pretty good at it all, will be seen through in seconds.The other obvious benefits of hiring and using a kids’ entertainer all revolve around the free time that mum and dad have when the entertainer is used. First, mum and dad are able to keep a much better eye on everything that is going on because they don’t need to provide the entertainment themselves. That means fewer upsets and no tantrums. Childrens entertainers take the focus of games and so on away from the parents, leaving them free to watch the kids as supervisors rather than nervous amateur magicians.Secondly, a kids’ entertainer’s presence gives the parents or house holders more time to arrange the food, liaise with other parents and so on. While the children themselves may not notice much of a difference, all the parents of those children will find a party staffed by a kids’ entertainer much easier to deal with, in terms of picking their charges up at the right time, feeding them at the right time and taking them home happy.Childrens entertainers are pretty much an all in one solution for any child’s party. Why waste time, energy and emotion trying to do everything at once – when a really good entertainer can take all the stress out of the occasion and make it a happy one for adults as well as kids? Choose the right one and there’ll be no tears before bedtime, no fights and no tantrums. Perfect.

Do You Have The Knowledge To Buy The Right Life Insurance?

We’ll start with the all-time dilemma; the question of whether you should purchase a Term Life Insurance or another type of Life Insurance that accumulates cash value. One way or another, everybody is aware of the main reason why this question constantly surfaces; monthly premiums! Term Insurance happens to be the least expensive, and most of the time people tend to purchase it just because of this reason.Additionally, people get different answers from different insurance professionals; some advocate Buy-Term and Invest-The-Difference and some recommend Whole Life, Universal Life, Variable Life, or maybe combination of the two or more of them. In the end, choosing an insurance policy becomes a dilemma between the premiums and the suggestions that you hear from various insurance professionals.So what is the answer to this question and how do you select the right insurance policy for yourself?In reality, there is no cookie-cutter answer for purchasing either Term, Whole Life, or any other one for that matter. Everybody has different needs and one size hardly fits all. So in order to accommodate different situations and needs, Life Insurance has evolved into many different types. As a result, the right choice depends on your answers to the following questions:o What is the very purpose of your life insurance?
o Why are you really buying it?You should keep in mind that Life Insurance is indeed one of the most versatile products that you can purchase in the market. It can be used for many purposes such as;o Retirement Supplement
o Pay off debt
o Estate Planning
o Pay off taxes
o Supplement for a college education
o Income replacement for your spouse
o And the list continues depending on your personal needsOnce you determine the purpose of your needs, you now have to identify the type of life insurance you should be purchasing. This actually creates another dilemma; now you need to have the proper knowledge of every type of policy so you can decide which one or maybe the combination of the ones to purchase. On this note, let’s touch base with the main types of Life Insurance Policies in the market:o Term Life
o Whole Life
o Universal Life
o Variable LifeIt should be pointed out that these are only the main types of life insurance policies where there are also many others as well as the variations of these policies available in the market. Nevertheless, in order to decide which one of these policies is more suitable for your personal needs requires broad knowledge and here are just a few important topics that you need to be aware of; how these policies develop cash value, how dividends get distributed, the time period you have to pay into your policy, how premiums are calculated, any premium changes after a certain time period, is it participating or non-participating, etc.Of course as a third step, you also have to calculate the amount of life insurance you need as well. This indeed is separate topic and the methods of calculations can be put in a nut shell as follows:o Multiples of Income Approach
o Financial Needs Analysis Method
o Capital Needs Analysis Approach
o Some other methods that various insurance companies developed themselvesIn summary, following is the list of the key steps of purchasing the right life insurance for your personal needs;o Deciding why you are buying the policy. In other words, what’s the purpose of your life policy?
o Knowing the type of policy that suits the best for your personal situation. Is it Term, Whole Life, Variable Life, Universal Life, or combination of any of these policies?
o Calculating the amount of your policy based on your purposeOne way or another, getting a life insurance is not just buying the least expensive policy, it is indeed a series of decisions and calculations that requires considerable amount of knowledge. The process can be quite tedious, depending on your situation, and it is best to consult an insurance professional to have it done right.

Obtaining Small Business Loans

Obtaining small business loans is tricky unless you are well prepared. Whether you are applying for a loan from your local bank, credit union, or some other source, you need to do your homework first to ensure that your loan application is successful. Most banks and other creditors consider small business loans risky especially in the initial years of the business. So, you have to work doubly hard to convince them that your business idea will succeed, you have a good business plan, that you are willing to invest your time and money in the venture, and that the venture will have sufficient cash flow to service the loan.When looking at small business financing, most bankers check if the entrepreneur has also invested in the venture. They expect you to bring in between 25 and 50 per cent of the money needed for the start-up. The banker sees no reason to risk their money unless you are willing to risk some of your cash by way of capital.Another reason why many start ups are denied small business credit is the lack of a convincing business plan. Before you go to meet potential lenders, you need to firm up your business plan. You need to show the lender exactly what their money will be used for and how you plan to repay the loan.If you are a merchant, you can apply for a merchant cash advance, where the money borrowed can be used at your discretion. However, you do need to show regular sales and the potential to increase sales after the borrowings.When in need of small business loans try approaching the Small Business Administration for help first. If they are willing to underwrite your loan amount, banks and other small business lending institutions will be more willing to lend to you. This is because their risk is lower. You can even try negotiating for a lower rate of interest.When you need business credit line for operating expenses or to expand your business by purchasing more stock, it helps if you can offer the lender some collateral. If your business has tangible assets such as real estate or machinery, now is the time to use them to get credit at a lower rate of interest.When applying for small business loans it is important to keep in mind that the primary concern of the lender is your ability to repay the loan. If you are able to convince potential lenders on this point by presenting a sound business plan and a repayment schedule you are more likely to obtain the loan. Yet another thing that bankers and lenders check is the personal credit rating of the borrowing entrepreneur. If you have not done so yet, get your credit rating reports and ensure that they reflect positively on your willingness to repay loans. By taking these very essential steps, it will be easy for any entrepreneur to obtain loans for their business needs.