Business Finance Tips

Credit cards are attractive. They allow you to make purchases today and pay for them later. And like loans, using credit cards helps you build your credit history. Applying for a credit card is somewhat like applying for a loan; some thought needs to be given to the process to make sure you get the best deal that meets your needs before you jump in. Remember to consider the following before you apply: It affects your credit score.

Whenever you apply for a credit card an inquiry appears on your credit report. Too many inquiries in a short period of time can bring down your score by as much as 10 to 20 points depending on your particular credit history. It might cost you. If you apply for credit cards without doing your homework, it can cost you a pretty penny. For example, say you apply for a credit card with a processing fee of $99 and an annual fee of $50. Just by applying and being accepted for that card, you’re paying almost $150 without even having made any purchases!

What will you use the credit card for? Make sure you know how you will use your credit card and what you will purchase with it before you apply. Keep in mind that every time you use the card, you incur debt that you will have to repay, with interest. You need to shop around. Before you apply for a card, ask what interest rates and credit limit you qualify for and shop around for the best possible deal. You want to look for the best option before committing yourself to any certain card.

Make sure you understand the terms. Before applying for and accepting a card, make sure you understand the terms and conditions of the plan. Read the fine print. Ask yourself whether you are able to afford the card. What are the rules for the card and are there frees for breaking these rules. Pre-approved credit cards can be tricky. Pre-approved offers tell you that the credit card company has looked at your credit report and determined that you might qualify for the interest rates and credit limit being offered. However, whether you will really get the best rates depends on your income, employment, and credit history. It is therefore important that you read the credit agreement carefully before you sign on the dotted line – there may be limitations or conditions that are not obvious in the advertisement.

TIP: Before you apply for credit, get a copy of your credit reports at http://www.annualcreditreport.com. Look them over carefully. Mistakes are common on credit repots, and it can take only one mistake to cause a credit card or loan rejection. If you do find an error, take the steps necessary to have it removed. For more information on how to dispute errors visit www.yourmoney.accion.org [http://www.yourmoney.accion.org/].

The global financial meltdown and resulting chaos has caused a predictable negative downturn in the job market in nearly all economic sectors, but some industries have proven completely recession-proof. Laboratory sales jobs, for example, have been able to weather the economic storm.

As worldwide credit markets plunged, businesses and consumers were unable to obtain business, housing and other loans causing slumps in consumption and business expansion. The shock waves rippled throughout the world’s economies as businesses began laying off workers and freezing new hiring of employees. For those planning a career, or looking to change careers, selecting the right job can be a daunting task in the current economic climate.

However, history has shown that some industries tend to weather even the deepest recessions as they offer services or products that are necessary in any type of weconomy. Health services are an excellent example of a recession-proof industry. No matter how deep the economy dives, people will still get sick. The current recession is no exception to this rule. Official government statistics from most developed countries show that many of the fastest-growing career fields are in the health industry, and that this will remain the case throughout periods covered in their forecasts.

In the US, the United Kingdom and the European Union, the medical technology field is growing rapidly due in large part to expansion of the elderly population and the growing need for less invasive medical procedures. In the United States, the expected shift by the Obama administration to electronic records is expected to free up large amounts of capital for health care research. The U.K. Government has funds for medical research lasting until 2014. In most developed countries, we see the same factors pushing the health care industry toward growth with the most salient impulse coming from the rapid growth in the aging population.

The recession has caused downsizing, if not complete collapse that we can witness in other sectors like, for example, the housing, automobile and banking industries. The headline news coverage is replete with stories of shuttered factories and storefronts. However, in the health care industry, we see the continued expansion of new hospital projects and medical research facilities.

Indeed, Laboratory Sales jobs are in demand today as not enough trained job seekers are available to meet the current and foreseeable demand in the job market. Laboratory sales jobs, in particular, are in high demand.

A Laboratory Sales Representative sells equipment and supplies used in medical and research laboratories. Not any salesperson is ideally qualified for this type of position. Recruiting agencies are having a difficult time filling vacancies for Laboratory Sales Jobs because of the lack of people who meet the ideal qualifications requested by employers.

The candidate should have experience both as a laboratory scientist or technican, and a salesperson to qualify for Laboratory Sales Jobs. Finding job seekers with experience either as a lab scientist or a salesperson is not difficult, but candidates possessing both types of experience are in high demand. An experienced Laboratory Sales Representative will have medical sales experience and complete familiarity with medical terminology.

Ideally, the representative will have worked in a medical lab and therefor is experienced with the chemicals and equipment used in the medical sales industry. The candidate should have excellent interpersonal skills and a proven sales approach.

Laboratory Sales Jobs require individuals who can both maintain good relations with existing customers and also effectively expand the client base. A Laboratory Sales Representative might also directly promote new products to physicians and others in the medical field.

Those planning their career path can choose to acquire a specific specialty in the field for a more specific job search. For example, you could acquire experience specifically in molecular biology labs, or in labs involved in cancer research. Many job listings request applicants to have experience in specific types of laboratory environments, so this approach could be fruitful. Examples of fast-growing fields in the health industry are, for example, related to cardiovascular and respiratory care. By monitoring news reports, you can keep up with the latest developments in the industry.

Those interested in Laboratory Sales Jobs should find a career field with an abundance of job openings for the foreseeable future. This career offers rewarding salaries, challenges and the satisfaction of working in a care-giving industry. Current government economic forecasts do not show the recession, no matter how serious it might become, has having a negative impact on this career field. Indeed, the growth in the aging population, the increase in medical research, and the overall restructuring of the health care industry promise a bright future for those interested in pursuing this career path.

Business inventory management software with source code provides the highest flexibility to software developer when comes to customization and integration. Although there are many different powerful business inventory management software around, but it takes more time to integrate and customize, and the solution provider needs to purchase each license from the vendor, greatly lowered the profit margin.

If given a choice to integrate inventory tracking software with the minimum effort and resources, the source code based system will be the one! Passing inventory data is the easiest part in integration, but what if developer need some special modification or enhancement to the inventory software? They can only create a separate entry screen without touching the original system! And my opinion, this is ugly…

The source code based system is gaining popularity over the years, although there are many people turn to open source solution, but the commercial source code based system still gets the highest credit when it comes to support and competitive advantages!

Commercial source code based system received better support, bug fixes and provides higher quality coding with RAD tools! RAD stands for Rapid Application Development. These are powerful tools that allows developer to “draw” their application in the visual way, instead of coding the software through the development life cycle.

Another great feature from commercial source code – Object oriented program in visual way! Object oriented programming is well known, but many business software developers didn’t know the power of visual inheritance! They can define the shared component in the parent and the vary components in the child, by just using RAD tools to “draw” their code!

Back to the inventory features. A good inventory tracking software should support these features:

Feature #1 – Tracking inventory by multiple warehouses.

Feature #2 – Allow adjustment and stock take updates.

Feature #3 – Allow remote query with web interface or windows thin client.

Feature #4 – Allow at a glance view of all warehouse / outlets inventories.

Feature #5 – Fast processing of month end closing.

Feature #6 – Auto distributed multiple outlet stock.

Feature #7 – Auto double entry on outlets stock transfer. (Even with Delivery Order Out at one store and Receiving in at another store, all automated without the needs to double entry!)

All these features are just the tips of the iceberg, and different business inventory management software has different features and emphasis, but all down to the customer’s needs, and only the source code based system can provide such a flexibility for developer to customize their own needs.

Copyright

Dissolving a business partnership can be painful, both emotionally and financially, especially if you are dissolving an unprofitable venture and one in which you have invested a great deal of time, money and effort.

The key is to remain as detached as possible during these difficulties and remember you are doing what are doing to improve your own situation. A business relationship with another person is a close and personal one, a relationship developed over a given time in which you learn the other person’s weaknesses and strengths. At the moment you decide to start termination proceedings, that relationship changes forever.

The end of a business association can be as painful as divorce and is similar in so many ways. There are other colleagues to consider and sometimes loyalties must be tested in ways that are decidedly unfair to all the parties involved. Finances must be split and company assets divided, fairly or otherwise, so that each partner may salvage something from the wreckage.

Such processes might spark resentments on both sides and it is rare in such instances for friendship to survive the shut down of business activities, especially if the company is a small concern. It is such a pity that business partners, when they begin their venture do not, in most cases, sign a pre-termination agreement to ensure their personal relationship weathers the storm in the event of having to cease trading. Rather like the commercial version of a pre-nuptial contract!

The trick is to stay calm, focused and determined to be as fair as possible to all parties concerned. Then, walk away and wait for the sun to come out as it always does.

Human Technosphere – Fast Passenger Ferries and freighters

Everything about human life revolves around the world of biosphere or environement we inherited and the technosphere we build out of pressure , demand , facilitation and quest for hapiness , speed, comfort– under technosphere, I will discuss about transportation of people by water and of course environmental issue that surround it which i will discuss later are very important and it involve hot issues surounded by tough regulation — why ? Because human life is important from the perspective of fact that the creation of human itself is a big thing and we must not take chance to loose life nor render one into lost- and also , mankind, being God~s ambasador on the planet , must equally take care of other things that has been existing on earthbefore we inherited it . Lets have a look at passenger ferries!!

Early vessels qualified to be called fast ferries if they exceeded 25 knots. International Maritime Organization(IMO) mandate that PASSENGER vessel carrying more than 12 passengers on international voyages to comply with IMO regulations.

Trend-Early ferries and development

-Fast ferries have started seeing years of glamour since 1950 . In 1960 the early craft being mainly surface piercing hydrofoils and hovercraft.

-The modern catamaran passenger ferry first appeared in Norway 1970 .

-Early vessels qualified to be called fast ferries if they exceeded 25 knots with a goal of achieving, perhaps, 30 knots. Speeds quickly rose to 30 knots, but 40 knots seemed to present a natural barrier .

-The market continues to be dominated by Catamaran development , as a vessel which could give high speeds, coupled with stability, good sea keeping and simplicity.

-Car and Passenger Ferries Very fast car ferries have been with us since 30 years ago when British Hovercraft Corporation introduced 50 knot onto the English Channel.Although, still in operation, high manufacturing costs have limited further applications of this technology.

-A recent design study examined the carriage of cars and passengers from Scotland directly to the European continent thus bypassing the congested English motorway network .The route length is approximately 400 miles and this can be achieved in 10 hours at a cruising speed of 40 knots.Vessels of this type would certainly have to meet the requirements of the IMO High Speed Craft Code which preclude the use of closed cabin accommodation.

Passengers would have to be accommodated in aircraft style seating.bellow is Stella Queen- one of early modern ferries.

Trend continue

- there was change in design and speed revolution Throughout 80’s most new passenger ferries were built for speeds in the range 35-40 knots .

-The 90’s have brought a resurgence in the quest for higher speeds with the title “Fastest Ferry in the World” changing hands several times a year! Previously unheard of speeds are now being seriously contemplated.

-In this Millennium, there is a real acceptance by operators that radical changes are possible and desirable. Exemple of new generation fast ferries pentamaran is shown below:

Pentamaran

-There is strong and continuing market for fast vehicle and passenger ferries. There is currently a market for 30 vessels per year having an average value of US$50 million representing a total annual sales potential of US$1.5 billion.

-90% of these vessels are currently built by only 6 shipyards, mainly in Australia and Europe, but recently joined by Catamaran Ferries International in Canada.

-Today, 650 catamaran vessels have been built and annual deliveries have stabilised at around 40 vessels per year. Total high speed passenger vessels of all hull forms now operating exceed 1300 .Now there are very large examples in operation including the Stena in Europe.

-Speeds have increased to a staggering 60 knots achieved by Luciano Frederico L operated by Buquebus.

lets look at some of the modern fast ferries design and technology:

1-Patricia Olivia sea trial at 55 knot

-The fastest passenger only carrying vessel in the world is the Patricia Olivia II, owned by South-American operator Buquebus and built by Derecktor Shipyards in New York state.

-The vessel on trials in December 1998, when it achieved a maximum speed of 57 knots and a fully loaded speed of 53 knots. The speeds were achieved safely and comfortably and with noise levels in the main passenger saloon of around 70dB(A).

-The vessel is in daily service on the River Plate between Argentina and Uruguay. This high top speed will certainly be eclipsed in the near future by vessels exceeding 60 knots as operators demand higher speeds on longer haul routes to compete with local airlines.

2-passenger ferries-Pentameran

-Pentamaran is a long slender monohull stabilised by sponsons port and starboard. The vessel is essentially a single catamaran hull stabilised by the low drag slender sponsons.

-The hull form solves the problem of the high wave-making drag encountered by shorter, fatter monohulls and significantly reduces the frictional drag suffered by twin hull catamarans.

-The very high efficiency of this hull form allows this vessel to be built in steel and propelled by medium speed diesels and still compete with lightweight aluminium catamarans and monohulls propelled by high speed diesels or perhaps gas turbinessee typical general arangemen bellow.

A particular variant of this hull form is the ultra high speed passenger vessel and one of these has been developed for SeaConn of the United States .This vessel is designed to carry commuters from Long island Sound into Manhattan .The question arises as to whether the travelling public will be prepared to spend 10 hours, on day or overnight crossings with only a seat (albeit a very comfortable one) and not a bunk and cabin

3-High speed freighter-Fast ship

-The increase in speed of the sea freight to 40 knots represents only 4% of the speed increase by sending cargo by air freight It seems unlikely that a 200-300% in freight rate could be justified.

-International container operator Norasia of Switzerland has determined a set of requirements for a high speed freighter which could trade profitably within current freight rate structures.super feeder/fast liner container ships building for Norasia in Germany and China. -The first 5 ships are in operation and the first of class completed its maiden voyage from Zebrugge in Belgium to Montreal in Canada at a record speed for the route, averaging 26.15 knots.

4-Transatlantic ultra high-speed freighter

Halter Marine invested in R&D to explore 60 knot, 4000 tonne transatlantic freighter There are obvious applications for this type of craft for military sealift commands both in America and Europe.

Transtlantic ultra high speed freighter

The future ship of 12000 tonnes of containerised cargo at 40 knots vessel can use medium speed diesel engines burning low cost heavy fuel –With fuel economy trade off. specialised cargoes like Vehicles, electronics, pharmaceuticals, Fedex packages etc would benefit from a higher speed freight service .

More on future

Because of good speed, trends in recent days have seen enquiries from owners for passenger and car ferries capable of speeds between 75 and 100 knots are increasing in frequency.

-The technology for such ferries certainly exists and the limiting factors will be safety, economy and comfort.

-Beyond 100 knots becomes more difficult to forecast, since at these speeds the possibilities for aerodynamic lift is such that “marine” vessels will undoubtedly be lifted far enough out of the water/air interface to be considered as true marine/aero hybrids.

-Where will these development go in the future? If a 75 knot ship is at the design stage, why not 100 knots?

-As speeds approach 100 knots designers will have to pay far more attention to the aerodynamics of the structures they are designing. Aerodynamic drag and noise will become very important and designs will have to be routinely wind tunnel tested.

-The possibilities for aerodynamic lift at these speeds are significant and multi-hull vessels operating at 100 knots will undoubtedly be able to benefit from surface effect and will probably become a hybrid between a semiplaning multi-hull and a low flying wing-in-ground (WIG) effect machine.

-Fast ferries are more profitable than their slower steel predecessorss true that fuel costs are very much higher for fast vessels the total operational costs are still lower. below is exemple of pentamaran container ship in the making .

-This, coupled with the fact that an operator may be able to charge a small premium for the high speed transit makes high speed ferries much more profitable than their slower steel predecessors.Top speed of 70 knots and a cruising speed of 65 knots. Tank tests have established the feasibility of achieving this economically and comfortably.

-Whilst it is true that fuel costs are very much higher for fast vessels the total operational costs are still lower.

-10 years ago the suggestion that car ferries would have top speeds exceeding 60 knots would surely have been disbelieved. However, the 1990`s have seen 60 knot car ferry is a reality, and some 50 other car ferries are capable of speeds in excess of 40 knots.

-Isn’t it true that only 10 years ago, the suggestion that there would be 40 knot ferries carrying not only passengers but also cars would have been treated with derision.

-Nearly 1000 Ro-pax vessels world wide could be replaced with fast car ferries , but operators are resistant to the new technology because of concerns over materials, machinery and safety. Designs which can address these fears are likely to be the more successful in the coming decade.

-The modern car and passenger ferry was introduced by International Catamarans in 1990.

-There are now in excess of 100 large fast car carrying vessels in operation and a large number on order.Sizes and speeds of vessels have steadily increased since 1990.

-The trend aslo proved the fact that vessel can undertake relatively long voyages at high speed.

-There has been proposals and predictions for future fast freight vessels and services.No significant new fast freight operation has been established.

-?market could be led by the supply side at least in the short term. The argument from the design and build community is that coastal and short sea freight routes could be served by modifications .

-There is suggestion regarding modifying existing high speed car and passenger ferries and removing of passenger saloons and car decks (and all their safety and comfort features) could provide a good platform for carriage of pure freight.

lets look at main driving factors:

-Economic factors

-fast car market are very different from those in the short sea freight market, platform costs for the small freight carrier are greater than their simple slow conventional counterparts which is the opposite of the situation with the fast car ferries, although fuel costs are up crew costs remain approximately constant.

-For high speed freighter,The increase in speed of the sea freight to 40 knots represents only 4% of the speed increase by sending cargo by air freight It seems unlikely that a 200-300% in freight rate could be justified. Let shave alook at some of the impact areas. See ecoonomics sumMary bellow.

The above figure show a decade wide projection for demand and possible solution

- Efficiency

-It is also clear that a transport efficiency 3-4 times that offered by current designs is required and a fuel cost efficiency of 6-10 times that currently proposed. Bellow is a result of efficiency analsyis.

This figure show the red line show efficiency line of now, what efficiency can be attained with putting pentamaran in service.

-Freight rate

These vessels are more costly than conventional freight vessels in a business where freight rates are extremely low Freight rates for containerised or palletised cargo are only a fraction of those chargeable to passengers/cars and their occupants.

-For short sea freight, rates would need to rise by a factor of between 2 and 3 for a 40-45 knot vessel to be economically viable.

-Freight rate could be justified on the basis of the higher speed offered and the very high cost of air freight at about 10 x existing sea freight. Bellow is sumary of freught analysis.

This shoe freight comparation with air travel

FuelCost

-Fuel costs, because it drive maning issues in movin gthe ship , fuel cost per tonne of cargo carried are approximately one sixth of those of Fastship and construction costs for this vessel have been estimated by European shipyards as approximately US$75 million which is one third of the published cost of Fastship.

Future market

-Current fast vessel market demand and finance are available for significant advances over a wide range of vessel sizes.

-The challenge to the design and build community is to produce economic, safe and comfortable vessels which can meet these market requirements.

-One of several solutions to this design problem is the Pentamaran car ferry.

Routing

-Examination of the route shown has indicated that at a sustained speed of 40 knots is easily possible and that comfort standards comparable with highway luxury coaches can be achieved on almost all occasions.

-Fast car/passenger ferry will be weight limited and not volume limited and so passenger accommodation can and will be very spacious. A

-ll passengers can be offered at least “Club Class” seat spacing and the ability to move to restaurants, bars or promenade.bellow is result of routing analysis performed.

Well, are people oing to be comfortable with new high speed any other factors- of even enclosed ship . The red and blue lines show , the boundaries from test drives.

Market Driven Force

-The long track record of over 1000 vessels built for what are now regarded as relatively modest top speeds in the region of 35 knots, has indicated that fast ferries are safe and very much in demand.

- This solid base of an established industry has encouraged leading operators to pursue higher speeds.

-A strong existing market has encouraged manufacturers, particularly for machinery and propulsions to produce ever more compact and efficient packages capable of delivery the power to weight ratios needed to push speeds up. This is particularly evident in the recent widespread application of gas turbines, to passenger and Ro-pax vessels.

-Vessels are general getting bigger as the technology matures. So far , The economic top speed of larger ferries is higher than for smaller vessels.

As you can see, trends shown that fast ferry growing speed can be sustained in proportion and compensation with length of the route.The passenger ferry market is dominated by catamarans. Since 1960, vessel sizes and speeds have steadily increased.Fast ferries are trying to compete with other forms of transport, notably short haul aircraft.For the very strong reason that these high speed Ro-pax vessels are actually cheaper to operate than their conventional counterparts. This is because vessel purchase costs for a given work capacity are lower than for conventional vessels and crew costs are a fraction of those for the larger slower vessels with their high hotel and catering requirements.Dramatically increased ferry top speeds and a steady increase in vessel size. Large vessels moving at very high speeds raise further issues of safety, environmental impact, comfort and powering which must be carefully addressed as the industry progresses into the future.

Precise predictions are always dangerous. In 1960 a long and illustrious future for hydrofoils and hovercraft was predicted. In the 80’s a speed limit of 40 knots was widely accepted. More recently the widespread introduction of gas turbines to marine vehicles was believed very unlikely. All of these predictions have beenproved wrong and it would be a brave person who would try and pick precise solutions for the next 10 years. One thing, however, seems certain; the demand for higher speed vessels carrying more payload on longer routes will increase and the winners will be those who can achieve this with economy, safety and comfort.

I believes that these potential limits will certainly not stop developments and that 70-75 knot ferries will be in operation and speeds up to 100 knots during the next decade. Such vessels will have most of the benefits of the low drag experienced by Wing In Ground (WIG) vessel, but with the advantage of being able to use marine propulsion engine and having the enhanced control ability implied by having control surface and propeler elements permanently in the water. The million dolar questionis that speed is about safety. Can these vessel meet safety requirement for stoping and maneuvering in port , even at high sea.However on a more ffrank note , shipping industry is the most regulated industry and many proceedure has been in place towards acheiveing their motion of SAFER SEA, CLEANER OCEAN. In addition to all these because of issue of green house gases and other environmental calculous isssue that iscurrenty nurning , there is likely to be need for use of fast freeries and freighter-we wil be discuss focus are on this another time.

My question- do you think ship can compete with aircraft in the near future? How near ?What do you think about safety? Do you think it will be econimical for all and make the world transportation revolutionary better?

And remeber that “The aim of education is the knowledge not of fact, but of values” Dean William R. Inge