College Days :: Personal Narrative, Autobiographical Essay

A year has past and now we stand on the brink of returning to a world where we are surrounded by the paradox of everything, and yet nothing being the same. Â   In days we will reluctantly give our hugs and, fighting the tears, say goodbye to people who were once just names on a sheet of paper to return to people that we hugged and fought tears to say goodbye to before we ever left. We will leave our best friends to return to our best friends. Â   We will go back to the places we came from and go back to the same things we did last summer and every summer before that. We will come into town on the same familiar road, and even though it has been months, it will seem like only yesterday. As you walk into your old bedroom, every emotion will pass through you as you reflect on the way your life has changed and the person you have become. You suddenly realize that the things that were most important to you a year ago don't seem to matter so much anymore, and the things you hold highest now, no one at home will completely understand. Â   The memories and the stories from school won't mean anything to anyone at home and yet you resent them for that, that they can't share that happiness with you. Â   Who will you call first? What will you do your first weekend home with your friends? How long before you actually start missing people barging in without calling or knocking? Who will get pizza at three in the morning with you now? How long until you adjust to sleeping alone in a room again? Â   Then you start to realize how much things have changed, and you realize the hardest part of college is balancing the two completely different worlds you now live in, trying desperately to hold on to everything all the while trying to figure out what you have to leave behind. In the matter of one day's traveling time, we will leave our world of living next door to our best friends, walking across campus to eat, instant messenger, 8:00am classes, and the perpetual procrastination to a world that will seem foreign to us despite the fact that we lived in it for eighteen years. Â   But it is different now.

Intangible and Tangible Assets

The value of intangible assets can be much more variable than tangible assets. This variability increases the likelihood of a discrepancy between book and market values. Learn about how investors deal with the differences between the book and market values of tangible and intangible assets. Tangible vs. Intangible Assets Financial statements are historical documents that show what a company was worth at one point in time. Because of standard accounting practices, an asset must be recorded at the value for which it was purchased.Changes in markets, currency, and economic conditions all contribute to discrepancies between book and market values. The longer an asset is held by a company, the greater the chance that discrepancies exist. One factor that affects the market value of an asset is intangibility. An intangible asset is one that does not have a physical form but provides value to the firm nevertheless. Examples of intangible assets include contracts and patents, i. e. assets tha t cost money to acquire but do not have easily-accessible markets through which to buy and sell them.Unlike tangible assets like machinery and automobiles, the lack of secondary markets increases the risk that the intangible asset can not be liquidated at a reasonable price. Assets that are not very liquid, such as plants and proprietary equipment, have secondary markets in which used assets can be sold. These assets typically suffer from low liquidity because there are costs, sometimes high costs, associated with their disposal in secondary markets. Liquidity is based on the ability to sell an item for cash if the need or desire arises.Definition of intangibles www. iprplaza. com Definitions of intangible assets from various perspectives Ads by Google An Example of the Value of an Intangible Asset Suppose a company purchases a patent from another company and for many years enjoys the right to build a product without any competition based on the design specified in the patent. Over time, the value of the patent diminishes because of changes in markets, technology, and processes. The cost of the patent as an intangible asset remains on the books at the cost that was paid for the patent.Throughout the life of the patent, this intangible asset became more valuable because it blocked competitors from developing the same product. However, near the end of the patent’s useful life, its market value falls to nearly zero. Throughout this rise and fall of the patent’s market value, its book value remained unchanged. See the complete Bright Hub Guide to Balance Sheet Basics  » Unlike automobiles which are depreciated using a regular schedule to estimate the asset’s worth, there is no real way to determine the actual worth of an intangible asset that companies investing in tangible assets enjoy.The variability and uncertainty as to whether a company can make valuable use of an intangible asset is what gives rise to discrepancies and the inability to determine the difference between their book and market values. Investors who ignore the value of intangible assets are removing from the valuation process important pieces of information that directly contribute to a company’s value. Unfortunately, valuing intangible assets is not an exact science.One of the best methods of valuing such as asset is to analyze what the company would look like if the asset were not owned by the company and the incremental increase in value by owning it is a reasonable estimate. However, this assumes that the company is using the intangible asset to its maximum potential. Other managers may have been able to exploit it for much more value. Identification o Tangible benefits are quantifiable: A precise amount can be placed on the benefit as a way to weigh its value. This value is almost always fiduciary.The value of the benefit depends on a person’s skill set. For instance, doctors get higher tangible benefits than a fast-food worker. On the other hand, intangible benefits are much harder to measure because of their subjectivity. Intangible benefits derive from how a person feels about their work. Job satisfaction is a main bench marker of an intangible benefit. 3 Tangible: Financial Pay and Benefits o Tangible benefits are those listed by the company in a quantifiable form. Such benefits are usually contractual in nature: Days off, insurance costs, salary and profit sharing are a few.Performing calculations and comparing these benefits with another business tend to be straight forward. When people first start looking for a job, they usually have a better idea of these tangible benefits than they do of the work’s intangible benefits. Steve Pogorzelski, author of the book, â€Å"Finding Keepers: The Monster Guide to Hiring and Holding the World’s Best Employees† also advises for corporations to tout tangible benefits such as gym partnerships to attract quality candidates. o Sponsored Links ? Trad emark Registration Efficient trademark registration services worldwide. www. egistertrademarks. net 4 Intangible: Job Satisfaction o Intangible benefits include all of the qualitative advantages of working for an organization. For instance, friendly coworkers, flexibility and a position that matches the worker’s skill set are intangible benefits. Johanna Schlegel, editor-in-chief of Salary. com advises workers to assess how they feel about the work they performed at the end of the day. Measuring the degree of commitment and agreement with corporate culture are additional ways Schlegel recommends gauging the intangible benefits derived from the job. 5 Considerations Some workers value tangible benefits over intangible benefits and vice versa. Decisions regarding employment typically depend on a worker’s situation. A father who wishes to stay at home with his children and telecommute places a premium on intangible benefits and may be willing to forego a higher salary. An other distinction of these two benefits is that intangible benefits may increase or decrease over time, whereas tangible benefits of a job tend not to fluctuate as much. If a worker tires of performing the same task repeatedly and sees no sign of advancement, her intangible benefits decrease.A business owner or manager incurs costs with nearly every decision. Tangible costs are calculated up front. They are the expected and quantifiable costs of running a business. Tangible costs typically include things a business can buy directly for specific costs, such as labor, materials and space. Other costs, called intangible costs, are harder to measure, but are nonetheless real and could be crucial to a business's success or failure. Such things as lost productivity, a drop in employee morale or a loss of goodwill in the community might count as intangible costs. Sponsored LinkDefinition of intangibles Definitions of intangible assets from various perspectives www. iprplaza. com Tangible C osts Tangible costs include the types of things a business writes checks for: salaries and wages, leases, operational inputs, employee medical benefits, transportation and commercial insurance. These costs have a clear place in the general ledger. The company cannot conduct business or produce a quality product without spending on tangible costs. They are also easy to quantify, so management tends to focus on the manipulation of tangible costs. Sources of Tangible CostsTangible costs consume much of a typical business's accounting efforts. The sources of tangible costs are documented with receipts, contracts or policies. The accounting department assigns tangible costs to specific cost categories, such as the cost of goods sold or overhead costs. Some tangible costs produce obvious benefits, such as the production of the company's product. Others, such as safety training or environmental controls, may produce benefits that are less easily measured, but the costs themselves are concr ete in the sense that they come straight out of the company's bottom line. Addressing Tangible CostsCompanies manage tangible costs by negotiating contracts for services and by getting multiple quotes for inputs and supplies. The purchasing department compares costs of buying or leasing equipment. A large corporation with multiple sites can transfer some pieces of equipment from one site to another. This prevents redundant spending on equipment such as scissor lifts or pressure washers that are only used occasionally. Some companies offer a bonus to department managers who reduce their department's spending. Companies may entice employees to cut costs by offering incentives and recognition to employees who have money-saving ideas.Intangible Costs Intangible costs are less easily measured. Some key and common intangible costs might include a drop in employee morale, dissatisfaction with working conditions or customer disappointment with a decline in service or product quality. Intang ible costs result from an identifiable source, but the costs are often not predicted. They may occur after a new practice or policy is put into effect, such as a cut in staffing levels or in employee benefits. Managers can try to estimate intangible costs as soon as they see a pattern of loss.This estimate will be the basis of a decision to either change or continue a practice that frustrates employees or customers. If a new procedure has injured an employee, the company may need to act quickly to avoid government fines and inspections. Sources of Intangible Costs Intangible costs are not always foreseen. For example, when corporate management puts a new program or policy into place that is not appropriate for a given location, unintended intangible costs may ensue because what works well at a work site in one part of the country may clash with the employee work culture at another location.For example, managed labor systems, which measure productivity automatically and chart it acco rding to a preset standard, may improve productivity at one facility but harm performance at another. A site where the employees take extended lunches and unauthorized breaks could benefit from this type of automated monitoring. The new system could actually improve the morale among conscientious employees who resent their co-workers' lack of effort. The same managed labor system could be a disaster at a site where employees work as a team and already watch their departments' speed and productivity.Workers may become anxious and confused over the new system and how it will affect their pay raises or continued employment. They may refuse to assist their co-workers, afraid that being off task will hurt their own productivity numbers. Addressing Intangible Costs After intangible costs are incurred, management must decide how to address the costs. In general, the company will either decide to absorb the cost or act to eliminate its source. This decision will be based on the best estimat e of the intangible cost management can come up with.The cost of training new employees after long-time employees have left for other opportunities is one variable used to estimate intangible costs. If a company decides to continue an unpopular policy, it may invite employees to informational meetings to reduce employee confusion and discontent. A change that has lowered the quality of customer service may require a public relations outreach to keep customer goodwill, or it may require the company to come up with some other customer benefit to replace what was lost. Sursa: http://smallbusiness. chron. com/tangible-costs-intangible-costs-51412. html Making Intangible Assets  TangiblePosted on December 24, 2011 by swaltersky In 2008, Paul D’Antilio, CEO of Future Point Systems  called to see if I would be interested in   consulting with his company about visual analytics. He had recently become the CEO and knew that we’d been successful commercializing a visual ana lytics product in Attenex Patterns (acquired by FTI Consulting). As it turned out when he called I was in Palo Alto, helping my daughter Elizabeth move to Stanford University to start her post doctoral research in cognitive psychology. We agreed to meet on a hot Bay Area Saturday morning at the Future Point offices in San Mateo, CA.As our discussion ensued it turns out he’d had a very successful career in software product development and was part of the development team at State Street Bank that had developed the mortgage backed securities and received one of the first software patents. As I presented the Attenex Patterns story and did a brief demo and shared how we’d used the tool in electronic discovery and patent analytics, Paul suddenly stood up and said â€Å"this is really interesting. When we did the mortgage backed securities at State Street Bank we were essentially taking a tangible asset and making it intangible and then trading it.What you are talking about is taking intangible assets like patents and making them tangible enough so that they can be traded. It’s the mirror image of what I’ve spent my career working on. † I stared at Paul for a moment as the thought of making intangible things tangible rolled around in my brain. I jumped up and exclaimed â€Å"You have the other half of the knowledge I didn’t know I’d been looking for the last ten years. You understand the valuing transforms back and forth between tangible and intangible assets. † We both knew in that moment that we’d discovered something important, but we didn’t know what to do with it.Paul realized that while it was a potentially big idea he had more urgent topics to deal with. So I agreed to consult with him at Future Point and see what we could do with the PNNL Starlight technology. After a few months we realized that there was not enough capital at Future Point to generate new product lines so we parted ways. H owever, the notion of making the intangible tangible enough to be identified, valued, monetized and traded is ever present in my thoughts. Over the last two hundred years, great wealth resulted from the systematic identification and monetization of new asset classes.The financial services industry has profited from taking tangible assets like mortgages and turning them into intangible assets that can be traded. In the music industry, David Bowie was the first artist to bundle together his future â€Å"hits† into a monetizable asset. In the wine industry, Joe Ciatti put together a REIT to invest in winemaking properties that raised a large fund, but ultimately failed at the execution level. In a different arena, Intellectual Ventures had raised billions of dollars to monetize patents rather than go through the long process of litigation.At the micro level, fine wineries are having difficulty monetizing their customer assets due to the difficulty of marketing their authentic di fferences and their lack of better business models and processes. Inventors face the same difficulties of matching their inventions to customers (enterprises or consumers) who could monetize their ideas. In the electronic discovery market, no lawyers, developers or suppliers view the problem as identifying the few â€Å"assets† in the millions of documents that will prove or disprove their case.Yet, each large scale complex matter is an exercise in systematically identifying the key document assets and then â€Å"monetizing† them by winning the case. The central observations about large scale customer problems are: †¢ The difficulty of recognizing a new asset class soon enough to create a market for it †¢ The focus of asset developers are to create an asset rather than on how that asset can be marketed and sold †¢ Few industries create â€Å"brokers† to trade bundles of assets until the industry matures.The experiences of using clustering and clas sifying mathematics in problems as diverse as mortgage backed securities, legal electronic discovery, patent brokering and licensing, and creating customers for life with biodynamic wineries suggests that there is a common solution to a diverse range of market problems that asset class monetization technology proposes to solve. The following diagram captures my current thinking on Asset Class Monetization. [pic] Asset Class IdentificationAt the core of the model is identifying new asset classes that are not yet recognized as being tradable and for which no â€Å"market† exists and no transparent information about the market exists. Clues to these asset classes are the difficulty in selling the asset or placing a value on the asset. Broad examples of difficult asset classes to value and sell are:   patents, enterprise software from new startups, and the selling of a startup for an exit opportunity. An example is the valuation and selling rocess for a biodynamic winery. Recen tly, a Southern Oregon Winery went through an assessment process to value their holdings after four years as a precursor to taking investment for expansion or sale. They required four different types of assessors (property, equipment valuation, agricultural value assessment, and quality and volume of the wine inventory) and financial experts. This assessment was time consuming (six months from start to finish), expensive, and not very accurate.The above assessment is further complicated by trying to assess the value add (or lack thereof) of the certified biodynamic component of the property. Is this a short term cachet or with the advent of a growing appreciation for authentic fine wine growing that represents the specificity of the place (terroir) and the accompanying slow food movement is this a long term trend? While a little more advanced in its evolution, the patent market appears to be moving from a very difficult arena to monetize using litigation or the very expensive sale p rocess of licensing to the attempt to create a market.Intellectual Ventures and Ocean Tomo are at the forefront of trying to create a market, but their efforts have been primarily aimed at acquiring patent assets or creating an auction for those assets. Little effort is spent at understanding how to value the assets and create a transparent information structure around those assets (like a Morningstar for patents). As a result, Intellectual Ventures is having a far harder time in licensing their patents than in acquiring them. Classification, Clustering, Segmentation and MatchingOnce an asset class is identified, sense must be made of the collection of assets. In most cases with complex assets, this process is expensive and highly dependent on experts. With the large scale adoption of the Internet, this process is now becoming routine, mathematical, automatic and highly scalable. Google Adwords and Adsense are great examples of both the power of the mathematics and on the ability to monetize the mathematics. Wired Magazine had an excellent article on â€Å"Googlenomics† showing how Google monetizes content through massive mathematics. [pic]Recent book length treatments of the processes, techniques and tools for classification, clustering, segmentation and matching are: †¢ Malcolm Gladwell, Tipping Point †¢ Winslow Farrell, How Hits Happen:   Forecasting Predictability in a Chaotic Marketplace †¢ Steven Levitt, Freakonomics:   A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything †¢ John Battelle, Search:   How Google and Its Rivals Rwearote the Rules of Business and Transformed our Culture †¢ Ian Ayres, Super Crunchers:   Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to be Smart †¢ Stephen Baker,   The Numerati Bill Tancer, Click:   What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why it Matters †¢ Jeff Hawkins, On Intelligence o Numenta is creating a new type of computing technology modeled on the structure and op eration of the neocortex. The technology is called Hierarchical Temporal Memory, or HTM, and is applicable to a broad class of problems from machine vision, to fraud detection, to semantic analysis of text. HTM is based on a theory of neocortex first described in the book On Intelligence by Numenta co-founder Jeff Hawkins, and subsequently turned into a mathematical form by Numenta co-founder Dileep George. HTM technology has the potential to solve many difficult problems in machine learning, inference, and prediction. Some of the application areas Numenta is exploring with their customers include recognizing objects in images, recognizing behaviors in videos, identifying the gender of a speaker, predicting traffic patterns, doing optical character recognition on messy text, evaluating medical images, and predicting click through patterns on the web. The world is becoming awash with data of all types, whether numeric, video, text, images or audio, making it challenging for humans to sort through it and find what’s important.HTM technology offers the promise of making sense of all that data. o Thomas Redman, Data Driven:   Profiting from Your Most Important Business Asset Redman describes the power of being data driven: â€Å"I find looking at an organization through the data and information lens to be extremely powerful. To do so, one examines the movement and management of data and information as they wind their way across the organization. The lens reveals who touches them, how people and processes use them to add value, how they change, the politics surrounding seemingly mundane issues uch as data sharing, how the data come to be fouled up, what happens when they are wrong and so forth. † â€Å"Data and information are most valuable when they are flying from place to place. † Ayres described how he used Google’s Adwords to come up with the book title Super Crunchers. For a fee of $100 in Adwords he saved himself the $50,000 of consulting fees to name the book: [pic] Connections The value of an asset grows as there are more connections to that asset.Whether we are talking about a product with a high sales volume, or a webpage on the Internet (Google Page Rank algorithm), the number of connections to an asset grows the value of that asset exponentially (see Metcalfe’s Law  as described in  Unleashing the Killer App:   Digital Strategies for Market Dominance by Larry Downes and Chunka Mui). 1. Introduction: In present scenario, despite the global change, Human Resource Accounting is major issue for research & analysis in management. Human resource has always been taken as a ‘soft & light issue’ whose contribution generally can not be measured in monetary terms.There is no role of recording investments, benefits rendered by employees, valuation & accounting of human resource in conventional financial accounting. human resources is not considered in the different balance sheet models, and only in the profit and loss statement    human resource costs / expenditure are taken in account, such as salaries and staff welfare expenses (including pensions). The number of employees classified in categories is mentioned only in the explanatory report, the same as the board of directors' payment.Recent literature has focused on a broader measurement, namely that of â€Å"intellectual capital. † Despite those who consider intellectual capital a new approach, it is really an extension of HR accounting since without the underlying concept of HR investment there can be no intellectual capital development. As human resource is being taken as intellectual asset of the organization and worth three or four times the tangible book value. Human capital also provides expert services such as consulting, financial planning nd assurance services, which are valuable, and very much in demand. As it is the combination of HR & Accounting, joint efforts of behavioral scientists, acc ountants and managements are needed for the working and development of HRA. Figure 1. 1 [pic] There are two reasons for including human resources in accounting [Ripoll and Labatut, 1994]. First, people are a valuable resource to a firm so long as they perform services that can be quantified. Second, the value of a person as a resource depends on how he is employed. So management†¦ [continues]

Benjamin D. Powell

Benjamin D. Powell makes an argument in his paper â€Å"Exploring Mirror Neurons: Rethinking Performance and Communicative Processes† that will make every self-avowed video game dork ecstatic. The concept that by observing an action repeatedly our mirror neurons learn to perform the action will appeal to thousands or even millions who spend their days in front of a television or video screen rather than out experiencing life. Powell adds the caveat that without practicing the action, the body will not be able to perform it with the skill of a trained athlete, but argues that the presence of mirror neurons explains why he was not more injured when hit by a car. The paper claims that the presence of mirror neurons may indicate that more study is needed regarding how our bodies develop skills and what effect activities like playing video games have on our neurological development. At worst, Powell’s theory is an interesting pipe dream. At best, it is hope for the people who spend too much time playing â€Å"World of Warcraft†. Unfortunately, the reality is it seems to be something of a pipe dream. It is much more likely that he simply got lucky when the car hit him and instinctively tucked and rolled. And, the car, which he described as barreling toward him, probably was not moving with the speed he believed it to be.   Writing for the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Kathleen Wilkes seems to echo parts of Powell’s basic thesis. (Wilkes 111). She argues that the possibility exists that people are capable of learning simply through observation, but there is no hard science to defend either her statement or Powell’s. The reality is that this is some odd combination of philosophy and science, with people speculating on something that science has yet to be able to measure or prove. In the end, while the philosophy of a mind-body link so deep that the mind can control the body’s actions after merely observing an action seems plausible there is no science to back it up. Powell’s evidence is merely a corollary, coincidental and not direct proof of a tie. To actually prove Powell’s theory would be difficult and complicated. One would have to prove that there was simply no other way, short of mirror neurons that the test subject could have learned to complete a specific action. And, the researcher would have to be able to determine how much of the action and the response to it is based on intellectual knowledge versus muscle knowledge. In short, the researcher would have to prove that simply watching someone swing a bat repeatedly would equate to the ability to do it and that the ability is more than the intellectual knowledge of where to place one’s hands on the bat. He would have to prove that Powell’s escape from injury was more related to his ability to tuck and roll than his knowledge that tuck and roll was the right way to minimize the force of impact of an oncoming car. Ultimately, Powell’s problem becomes in determining what actions are effective because of the mental processes telling us how to do them and which ones are effective because of the muscle knowledge of when to flex or release. Even making the differentiation there could take years. WORKS CITED Powell, Benjamin D. â€Å"Exploring Mirror Neurons: Rethinking Performance and Communicative Processes.† Wilkes, Kathleen V. â€Å"Brain States†Ã‚   The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 31, No.2. June, 1980. pp. 111-129.   

To Build or Buy a Small Business

402 Small Business Professor, Ricardo Toye| To Build or Buy | Week 4 Assignment 1| Cornelius Gaskins 1/22/2013 | Craft a brief (1-2 pages) strategy for a business concept that would directly compete with the small business you selected. Explain the rationale for the strategy in detail. â€Å"It Bakes Good,† with a delicious flavor that is sure to please. Watching customer’s satisfaction is the goal. Developing a Bakery as a counter business with a competitive strategy to navigate through barriers set up by existing Bakeries is the plan at hand. The initial bakery is deals with astries, breads, croissants and coffee, teas and other beverages. Also you can read  Business Ethics Comprises This new business strategy involves a similar menu with other cooked foods served at breakfast, lunch and dinner from soups, salads, potato dishes, sea foods and beef dishes. The floor plan will include a rail like leader to guide the people through the food ordering line. The pickup counter will be positioned away from the ordering line to give customers quick access to sitting if they have not already chosen their seating. The food menu will sit on the wall above the ordering counter in big letters easy to read among picturesque background to add a serene touch of comfort while the customers enjoy their meals. The beverage counter will be located in an area away from eating customers yet close by to allow access to water, coffee and other drinks. The location of the business will be in the inner city in a high density area, well lighted, with street parking and clean sidewalks. The building exterior will be freshly painted with freshly installed windows allowing both customers on t he inside to see out and people passing by the clear view of seeing within. Large colorful neon lights will advertise the business at night and day.The Bakery will operate as a Partnership. Three Partners will initially start the business although others may join at a later time. It is projected that the initial investment of the partners will be enough to start and operate the business for at least six months while additional investment capital can be sought after and obtained. This plan is looking to find a niche in the current business district to both serve eat and go customers while providing doggie bags for the same and catering to those customers who want to take their purchases home. I will be open to the possibility of selling ingredients for those ustomers who may be interested. The rationale behind this new business is to appeal to the customer base having cooked food on the menu that is freshly cooked served on china and eaten with silverware. The aim is to provide an at home environment with a touch of fast food convenience. Determine if it would make more sense to open the new business you describe or to purchase the existing business you selected. Explain your reasoning. The option of buying the existing business has the appeal of adding the menu additions and the dinning room modifications to this business.Would the temporary modifications lose money for the new owners while the remodeling is done or could regular operations continue? Would the business changing from the existing business to a Partnership have an impact on the bottom line? Or would it be necessary to change the current form of ownership? Could buying the existing business be converted to the new dinning floor plan while still meeting any fire codes for customer access to safety in the invent of a fire? Considering that both businesses would exist in similarly constructed structures it is believed that the first requirement ould be met. The usage of the current customers has an appeal since the current business operations has been consistent on the profit where the purchasing of inventory and the cash register receipts have indicated. The lack of similar Bakery businesses in the general area continue to be a plus for the location and buying the existing Bakery would limit competition for awhile. Considering remodeling cost, purchase price as opposed to starting a new business cost buying the existing business appears to be a better financial bargain. For the existing usiness the baking and dishwashing equipment are in satisfactory working order. The purchasing a grill to prepare food has a reasonable cost and the food prep area is already in place. The dinning area will require the purchase of tables and chairs that would have to be bolted to the floor during remodeling. Comparing the requirements for initiating a new business as opposed to buying an existing business, the buying of the existing business has the better appeal based on how the later is up a nd running. While the new business has some hurdles may exist as far as the condition of the uilding foundation, plumbing, electrical systems and the roofing condition and whether the business is responsible for repairs or the building owner. It is important to note that the existing business could have problems that cannot be seen but has to be investigated to be discovered. Problems such as ill-will between the suppliers and a customer as well with other neighboring businesses. â€Å"Jump starting the cash flow will have better potential due to existing operational elements such as customers, inventory and equipment already in place. † (http://www. sba. gov/content/buying-existing-business)Discuss the most appropriate form of ownership for your new business (assuming your current financial situation). Considering the new business Partnership as the form of ownership and considering the current form of ownership used buy the owner of the existing business, both really has no thing to do with what form one owner prefers over what form another owner prefers. Each form has both advantages and disadvantages. The most noticeable concern over owner a business is liability responsibility, what can be taken from the owners to cover liabilities and cannot which taxes hould be a major concern. â€Å"You report and pay taxes on a partnership like you would in a sole proprietorship; you and your partner pay income taxes on individual shares of the profits, but no tax is paid on the partnership. You report your share of the profit earned during the tax period that ends within the year being reported (by December 31or June 30). This is done whether or not profits are actually distributed. The rate of tax is the same as for the individual, and the income is reported on an individual 1040 form (Schedule E). A partnership return has to be filed with the IRS for nformation purposes only (Form 1065). You and your partner are personally liable, including personal assets, for debts and judgments. Creditors can collect from either you or your partner — even if you did not necessarily contract the debt. † (CIS/0939/pdf) â€Å"Sole proprietorships and partnerships are easy to set up — you don't have to file any special forms or pay any fees to start your business. Plus, you don't have to follow any special operating rules. LLCs and corporations, on the other hand, are almost always more expensive to create and more difficult to maintain.To form an LLC or corporation, you must file a document with the state and pay a fee, which ranges from about $40 to $800, depending on the state where you form your business. In addition, owners of corporations and LLCs must elect officers (usually, a president, vice president, and secretary) to run the company. They also have to keep records of important business decisions and follow other formalities. If you're starting your business on a shoestring, it might make the sense to form the simplest ty pe Of business — a sole proprietorship (for one-owner businesses) or a partnership (for businesses with more than one owner). One note has to be included regarding the Partnership which is the dissolution procedure following the quitting or death of a Partner. Following the attempted sale of the quitting partners share of the business or attempted sale to the current partners who may or may not be able to afford the price, the initial Partnership business has to be dissolved and a new Partnership established with the exclusion of the previous partner that left the partnership. Thus both buying an existing business as well as forming the rigt form of ownership both present issues that has to be considered by the new owners.Considering the Partnership dissolution aspect a Partnership still can be entered into with each original pertners with ca n agreement on how any quitting partners share is dispursed. Outline a business plan for your business. Visit http://www. sba. gov for tools and templates. The initial feasibility test for the business seems to have passed certain test through the current numbers produce by the existing Bakery. The location is good, customer interest in the product is proven while competition for Bakery goods comes from large retailer in limited quantities unlike he freshly baked items or freshly cooked menu dishes. It is estimated the initial investment cost less the estimated earnings would yield between a 7 to 9 percent return. Each member of the partnership has a hand in the formulating of the business plan. The initial outline of the business plan will include the following elements: Simple business plan outline Executive Summary: The Bakery is designed to provide customers with freshly baked goods while also giving them the opportunity to have a sit-down meal or just grab a cup of coffee with a pastry.Having conducted a feasibility study on the success potential of this business in the location chosen it was found that potent ial customers enjoyed the products sold by the previous bakery and enjoy the option of lounging while eating a restaurant style meal. The objective is to provide customers with a competitive products located their homes. To earn a 7 to 9 percent return on the initial investment during the first year. The mission of the Bakery is to provide customers with freshly baked goods that they enjoy eating minus the plastic wrapped brands sold in the big box retail outlets. Company Description:The store location is neatly situated in a business district catering to a wide range of business on a busy thorough fare moments from the residential area in every direction from the Bakery. This location is already familiar to most of the customers from the previously owned bakery. The operation of the Bakery is from 6am to 10pm. Orders can be called in on the phone or placed on the internet site at www. It Bakes Good. net The store policy for payment of gods is cash and credit card only. Product or S ervice: The main products of this Bakery are freshly baked pastries, croissants, donuts, breads and cakes.On the menu freshly prepared menu foods includes sea food dishes, soups, sandwiches, Beef , chicken and pork dishes. The main benefits customers receive from the store is freshly baked goods, the option to place orders ahead of time by phone or on the internet or within the store. Market Analysis: The location has proven to be profitable for the previous bakery. Its customer base remained loyal to returning to purchase goods as well as using the bakery to prepare special occasion dishes for birthday parties, anniversaries, and other customer defined events.Strategy and Implementation: Be specific. Include management responsibilities with dates and budgets. Make sure you can track results. Web Plan Summary: For e-commerce, include discussion of website, development costs, operations, sales and marketing strategies. Management Team: Describe the organization and the key management team members. Financial Analysis: Make sure to include at the very least your projected Profit and Loss and Cash Flow tables. Strategy and Implementation Summary SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities ThreatsCompetitive Edge Marketing Strategy Sales Strategy Sales Forecast Management Summary Personal Plan Financial Plan Important Assumptions Breakeven Analysis Projected Profit and Loss Projected Cash Flow Projected Balance Sheet Business Ratios Considering this is just an outline a few of the elements were addressed to give an idea of what the plan entails. Of course there are the remaining elements that have to be explained. (http://www. cals. uidaho. edu/edcomm/pdf/CIS/CIS0939. pdf) http://www. sba. gov/content/buying-existing-business

Outline the polices that enable older people to remain at home as much Essay

Outline the polices that enable older people to remain at home as much is posible - Essay Example The objective of dignity to elders can be achieved only if the policies emphasise the concept of enabling older people to remain in a homely environment as much as possible, to usher in the safety and general welfare of senior citizens. The UK has been a pioneer in drafting many such policies that seek better avenues to channelize appropriate alternatives and resources for the elderly people, as discussed below. Though the concept of taking care of the elderly has existed even in the earlier civilizations, in the form of shelter for the old and community care centres, the idea of specific policies and laws to govern them began to manifest their presence from the beginning of the 19th century. The succeeding years after Second World War (WWII) saw the advent of demographic changes with a sharp rise in life expectancy and fall of fertility rates, with an unprecedented increase in the population of older people. The modern welfare state carried forward the policies and laws for the old and aged and institutionalized them. The prevailing â€Å"Poor Law† (Public Assistance following Local Government Act, 1929) (Thane 2009) where power was designated to public assistance committees of local council has given way in the 70s, 80s and subsequent years to the present policies, the focus shifting to enabling elderly peope to remain and be cared for at their homes. The spotlight being on the need for older people to stay at home for as long as possible (Department of Health, 1989), the White Paper on Community Care (1989) discussed about the society deliberating to see the roles of State, community, families and individuals in the rehabilitation and development of â€Å"independence, self fulfilment and participation (of elder) with assurance of care and dignity of who are most frail and vulnerable† (Leeson 2003). The resultant NHS and Community Care act-1990 has encouraged the development of community care provisions and implementation where present policies for older and disabled people should promote healthy independence, more carers, modernize and integrate service, provision of individual needs centred services, a feeling of belonging in the community, and a sense of money value. â€Å"Such policies rely high on availability of unpaid, informal typical family care from inside the community† (Harper and Leeson, 2002) and â€Å"current service models of distribution of specific factors in existing family care† (Leeson, 2004). Since the 90s, these policies and laws have undergone a sea change, with revisions and modifications of existing policies and besides implementing to new measures seeking to help community care, like â€Å"Disability Living Allowance from 1992’; the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act, 1995; the Mental Health (Patients in the Community) Act, 1995; the Disability Discrimination Act, 1995; the Community Care (Direct Payments) Act, 1996† (House of Commons Health Committee: Social Care 2008-09) etc which have enabled the local authorities to make payments to disabled people to assist them in buying community services according to their needs. The

Newspaper report on the conditions in the factories and mining areas Essay

Newspaper report on the conditions in the factories and mining areas of Industrial England - Essay Example It is a fighting that has no productive end, in the same way that â€Å"intellectual pride† does not accomplish anything meaningful for its practitioners. Flannery O'Connor provides another exploration of â€Å"intellectual pride.† â€Å"Intellectual pride† relies on egocentric and illogical beliefs of one’s intellect, because it is characterized by the resistance to acknowledging one’s mistakes, strong belief in one’s ability to â€Å"read people,† and assertion of one’s intellectual superiority. â€Å"Intellectual pride† refers to that permanent resistance to admitting one’s mistakes. Mrs. Hopewell believes that she did not make a mistake in hiring the Freemans or in choosing Pointer as a potential boyfriend for Joy. Still, she suffers from Mrs. Freeman’s insistent presence during meals, and Pointer happens to be one of the greatest shams in her world of â€Å"Good Country People.† The grandmother a lso does not want to divulge to her son Bailey that she made a mistake in giving directions. Even at the point of impending death, she resists acknowledging that she indirectly killed her own family, because of her vain attachment to an illusory past. People with â€Å"intellectual pride† also insist that they know how to â€Å"read† people. Mrs. Hopewell thinks she knows who good country people are.

Animal Cruelty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Animal Cruelty - Essay Example While the focus of this paper is animal cruelty in the United States, it is important to note that it is a worldwide issue. Each form of animal cruelty simply contributes to the larger problem, the existence of the issue itself. Although animals are not cognizant like humans, their mistreatment is just as serious an issue which needs to be given the proper attention so that it can be stopped. Sadly, the history of animal cruelty dates very far back. Animal fighting, for example, has dated been dated back to the 43 A.D., when Britain was at war with the Romans. â€Å"The British, though they lost the war, delighted in the tenacity and endurance of their dogs, and began exporting them for use in pit fights against larger animals like wild boar and bulls†¦ At this point, dog-on-dog combat became the cheaper, legal alternative and the fighting dogs, as well as the taste for the brutal blood sport was exported to other countries including the United States (Villavicencio 2007),† (Animal Cruelty). Another form of animal cruelty, factory farming, became prevalent in the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution left many family owned farms competing with large corporations to sell product. â€Å"As factory farms became the norm, so, unfortunately did the systematic and prolonged abuse of animals raised for human consumption,† (Animal Cruelty). ... It is a well known fact that a variety of products are tested on animals. Usually, when you think of animal testing, you think of scientists in lab coats poking and prodding at mice. However, mice aren’t the only animals subject to animal testing. Each year, hundreds of thousands of rodents, cats, dogs, birds, and primates are put through painful treatments in inhumane conditions to satisfy the curiosity of scientist who could otherwise their hypotheses. These treatments include but are not limited to being poisoned, blinded, forced to inhale toxic fumes, force-fed pesticides, and having corrosive chemicals rubbed into their eyes. The Animal Cruelty Act, passed in 1966, was created to combat complaints about the treatment of animals during scientific testing. As the Department of Agriculture website points out, â€Å"It is the only Federal law in the United States that regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition, transport, and by dealers,† (Animal Welfar e Act). In the years since 1966, it has become clear that this act is not enough. â€Å"More than 100 million animals every year suffer and die in cruel chemical, drug, food and cosmetic tests, biology lessons, medical training exercises, and curiosity-driven medical experiments. Exact numbers aren't available because mice, rats, birds and cold-blooded animals—who make up more than 95 percent of animals used in experiments—are not covered by even the minimal protections of the Animal Welfare Act and therefore go uncounted,† (Animals Used for Experimentation). Although there are many organizations fighting against animal testing, it has yet to be stopped. Without ceasing to test on animals, it is impossible to end animal cruelty. Another factor contributing to the overall