Business Tips

Starting a business is 10% inspiration, 10% aspiration, and 80% perspiration. The first two, the motivational elements, are essential and need to be held within bounds, too little is a problem, too much disastrous.

Clearly there is no one-size-fits-all for business start-ups. A little thought throws up at least three possible scenarios:

1. The natural entrepreneur, the Richard Bransons, Henry Fords of this world, whose every bone is written through with the word 'entrepreneur' and has been since birth;

2. The professionals or tradesmen, the accountants, plumbers and builders who are naturally self-employed and for whom setting up a new business is a simple 'right of passage';

3. The middle-aged men or women who find themselves suddenly unemployable.

Each group is exposed to different risks. The first may go 'gung ho' at the whole business start-up, the second may suffer under the delusion that his basic skill - be it an accountant or a builder - equips him or her to be an entrepreneur, whilst the reluctant entrepreneur may be everlastingly looking over his shoulder for a more comfortable outcome.

The new entrepreneur must be a whole-hearted enthusiast for the project, but must serve up that enthusiasm with a significant dose of realism.

In every case the 'perspiration' has to be there from the start: save your 'castles in the sky' until after bed-time, every daylight hour has to be focused on hard reality. That doesn't mean that your start-up can not be fun: indeed it should be enjoyable. You will be confronted with issues you have probably never seriously considered before.

• How deep is your market? Will it support you and your family for the foreseeable future?

• How much money will you need to invest? When will you be able to start paying it off?

• What administration will you need? How much will it cost? How will you recover this 'overhead'?

The questions are many and variable and the answer to most is itself a question.

And as each answer is approached we need to maintain the magic balance: 10% inspiration, 10% aspiration, and 80% perspiration. We need to maintain our motivation but inspiration and aspiration on their own will never cut the mustard. We need hard facts and rational analysis to succeed; and we need them now, not in a few months when we have invested time, money and reputation and can see no way to retreat onto safer ground.

If it sounds like a battle, and looks like a battle, take it from me it almost certainly is a battle.

But the rewards of victory...

generic types of business models

The campus HPC centres mainly differ in their assumptions about the business environment and the way they capture value, how they finance themselves. There is a spectrum between two extremes: fully subsidised and fully sustained. On this spectrum, there are four prototypical business models of university HPC.

centres: library, shareholder, cost centre, and industry collaboration model.

These four generic models are described by outlining the basic idea, assumptions about the business environment, the financial model, and advantages and disadvantages of each.

1. Library model

The basic logic of this business model is similar to the one of a library: in a library a user can borrow a book from a basic collection without charge (if not yet used) in HPC service provisioning a user can consume an HPC service from a basic set of services without charge (if there is enough capacity).

2. Shareholder model

The basic idea of the shareholder model is that a group of ‘‘shareholders’’ who need computing power pool their money to finance a large common cluster. The HPC centre’s management or an IT portfolio manager conducts the acquisition, maintenance and operation of the system, which, in this model, is mostly a cluster

that can be scaled according to the needs of its ‘‘shareholders’’.

3. Cost centre model

Under this model an HPC centre is fully self-sustained and runs like an industrial cost centre with the need to compensate for all costs, including capital depreciation of the machines, staff costs, power, and energy. A researcher is charged a fee for an HPC service to cover all the costs, and whenever a researcher gets a grant, the money that he has been calculated for the facility goes straight to the HPC business unit.

4. Industry collaboration model

This model is based on a long-term collaboration: downstream, with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or upstream, by granting industrial partners access to the HPC infrastructure.

Binary options trading has recently become the most captivating form of trading. Nevertheless, it is relatively new in the field of trading and is heavily advertised as a quick way to earn huge sum of money, giving a feeling that whether it is a safe thing to undertake or not. Binary options trading is based on simple concept of all or nothing options. Due to the simplicity of trade, binary options trading has grabbed the attention of many traders. However, not to forget that there is no financial market that is free from the uncertainty Moreover, the gamblers are actively taking part in trading but they are highly impatient and have no idea about the complexity of the market. They invest blindly without spending time in understanding the techniques of making consistent money. But not all the traders are same and there are many who are well-informed and trading well.

The question arises about the safety of the binary options trading platform. Is it safe or not? The answer lies as to how to explain it. If a trader thinks that the binary options trading is free from any form of risk, then it is not true. Binary trading is subjected to some forms of risks. Just like any other business, the binary trading has some measured risks that are known to the traders. Even in the presence of the most extraordinary technique, the chances of risks cannot be removed. But the best thing is that all the risks are well determined and known to the traders. Thus, the answer of the question depends upon the trader and how he understands the trade.

Without determining the several types of risks involved in binary business, traders can make a big mistake to invest in it. It seems like gambling for the trader without considering the possible risks, and the end result would be a complete loss. It is rubbish to think that there is no involvement of risk and the trader has all the skills to deal with it without even acknowledging it.

The other part of the answer is the type of the broker that a trader has chosen for the binary options trade. The platform of binary trading has become famous in the international world of trading lately and it is the reason why all the brokers are not yet regulated. Some of the brokers are in the process of regulation and there are few who are not serious in making their platform regulated. Thus, always choose the broker wisely to make a safe and sound bet.

Learning how to trade the financial markets including some of the world's major indices like the Dow Jones, FTSE100, S&P500 and Dax and Forex markets such as the British Pound and US Dollar can to a newbie seem somewhat daunting and above all, risky.

The main reason for this is due to the popularity of products such as spread betting and futures which offer at least on paper the potential for huge returns. However in reality they are totally inappropriate for a new trader. If these products were cars for example and you were a new driver, it would be like you having to drive a high performance sports car immediately after your test. Although on paper it may be hugely enjoyable the risks of you losing control and crashing would be very high indeed. Likewise in trading, futures and spread betting are highly leveraged products which expose you in theory to an unlimited loss.

Of course there are stops that you can deploy to avoid disaster but even these can be vulnerable in highly volatile markets.

So what is suitable for a new trader?

Well simply there are some excellent products available under the names of Binary Trading (Binary bets - Binary options) and Financial Fixed Odds. These products have become more popular in recent years and really are an excellent choice for new traders and even those more experienced.

The reason why they are such an excellent choice is very simple. These products deal with a fixed amount won or lost which is known from the outset. This simply means that you will know from the start of your trade the absolute maximum you will lose if things go against you and the amount you will win.

These means protecting your account becomes much easier.

Here's how binary trading is the safer, better option:

Let's say you wish to day trade and you think that the market on this day is going to rise overall.

You open a binary bet / binary option and are quoted a price of 48 for the Wall Street (Dow Jones) market to close higher for that day, for example. You decide to risk $10 per point. Binary bets work on a price of 0 - 100 which means that if you win, you will earn 52 x $10 i.e. £520. This figure is the 100 points - 48 (cost of the bet) x the amount of your stake, (being £5).

Now let's instead say we opened a spread bet or futures trade and the market stands at 10200 and again you choose to risk $10 per point, expecting the market to rise. For every point the market moves up you gain $10 and for every point the market moves down you lose $10. Let's also say you place a stop at 10000, just in case the market should move down, against you.

With the binary bet you need not care how far the market moves one way or another. All you need is for the market to close higher by the end of the day to win.

With the binary bet you know your maximum win being 52 x $10 = $520 and your maximum loss is 48 x $10 = $480.

The spread bet is a different story; your whole level of profit or loss is totally dependent on how far the market moves during the day. If the market, for example, dropped in early trading and you hit your stop at 10000, that would be the end of your trade and you would have lost $2000 (i.e.: 200 point drop to your stop x $10 per point.)

Even if the market did close higher without hitting your stop first and closed at 10220 your win would still be less than the binary bet, as your win would be 20 x $10 being $200, whereas the binary bet would win $520.

So it's easy to see why Binary Trading with binary bets and binary options offer an excellent starting point for new traders.

Have you ever heard the phrase "the devil is in the details"? I always thought that this saying was a little strange...until I began to work in project management. The funny thing is that once I got into project management this phrase made so much sense.

Risk management
Risks are any events which can adversely affect the successful outcome of the project. I've worked on projects where some of the risks have included: staff lacking the technical skills to perform the work properly, hardware not being delivered on time, the control room being at risk of flooding in a major thunderstorm and many others. Risks will vary from project to project but it is important to identify the main risks to a project as soon as possible and to plan the actions necessary to avoid the risk, or, if the risk cannot be avoided, to at least mitigate the risk in order to lessen its impact if it does occur. This is what is known as risk management.

Risk Project
No contrive is e'er without risks, but it is the nature and complexness of the project that are belike to influence the upshot of the risks on the boilersuit success of the propel. But whether the design is teeny or jumbo, unsubdivided or difficult, an telling try direction strategy leave minify the fighting if, and when, the risks become. In request to manage the risks it is important tasks implicated in Try Direction are:

Venture Management is not only the responsibility of the Design Handler but also of the stakeholders as they person a vested pertain in the task existence successfully realised. So the stakeholders should also be aware of all the risks identified and the programme that is put in gauge to handle and mitigate them.

But the Risk Management Direction staleness also be adaptable enough to wood with those risks that could not mortal been predicted and so were not identified before they occurred. It is really often the strategy that is victimised to wad with these unhoped risks that determines the farthest success of a throw.

For all the risks that bed been identified either prior to the propose play or during the project the assign handler would typically know observed a solution. These risks can potentially reason delays to the schedule and prevent the livery of a chore but are relatively easily managed by an toughened propose trainer with suitable direction and act skills.
There are varied distance to move to a probability that has occurred but the most common slipway are:
Accept- the essay can be received, in which instance the throw administrator testament individual to work the customer that the schedule, budget or deliverables instrument not be met. The client give person to stomach such deviations if the impel is to be deemed a success.

Transfer- if the seek that has occurred is specified that a particular strain, attribute or office cannot be delivered then it could be transferred to a later project thereby deferring the essential to control with it in the acquaint. This activity would compel manipulation through a formal convert management outgrowth.

Mitigate- it may be practicable to provide an unimpeachable workaround that leave decrease or decimate the opening.
It is worth noting that risks can occasionally soul a formal import and can actually section to improvements or enhancements to the task that had not been advised at the outset.

The Probability Direction Contrive faculty also let prioritisation of the propel risks and senior them in relation to the budget, the assign schedule and the deliverables. The superior testament value that few ascribe risks could be good piece any are exceptionable and would tell a possible set.

Risks testament never be eliminated from a throw but it is workable to modify the upshot of risks by learning from the experiences of both your own projects and others. It is extremely rich to document the lessons scholarly from a assign to meliorate the growth of danger management on rising projects.

You can use project software, like Microsoft Office Project, to create the project plan, or for simple BPI efforts, you can simply use a spreadsheet. Include the same information in the spreadsheet that you would include in a software application, including the task name, duration, start/finish dates, predecessors, and resource names. Of course one downside to using a spreadsheet is that you have to calculate the duration for each task and its associated start/finish dates. Another downside is the inability to use a Gantt chart to show planned vs. actual timelines as the project progresses, and the Gantt chart is a good tool to use, to show progress in a graphical way. However, for simple BPI projects, a spreadsheet works fine.

how to Business Continuity Testing Starts with the Risks

The risk analysis and business impact analysis have identified risks to key business functions. All business continuity analysis should be risk based, and risk prioritised to deal with the important business risks first. This means that any risks to your business need to be identified, examined and dealt with.

There are 4 options for dealing with each risk:

1. Reduce the risk. Reducing the risk falls into 2 categories - reducing the likelihood of the problem occurring and reducing the impact of the problem if it does happen. A simple example is that by having a fire alarm you are reducing the likelihood of a fire spreading unseen and by installing a sprinkler system you are reducing the impact of fire.
Reducing the risk is often referred to as mitigation. For example, data backups are a form of mitigation. They reduce the impact if a problem occurs which affects the primary data source. Any mitigating actions require testing to provide assurance they work when required.

2. Transfer the risk. This is an interesting option which may be seen as a get-out, but which is a perfectly valid thing to do. By transferring a risk it becomes someone else's problem and you therefore have the risk covered. We are not talking about blaming someone else, or even transferring the risk to someone else in the company.
For example, there could be a risk that office space will not be available in the case of a disaster in the main location. Therefore the risk can be transferred to a third party company which organises office space for disaster recovery and keeps offices available for companies who need such a recovery service.

3. Accept the risk. By accepting the risk of a potential problem you are at least aware of its existence and can plan for it happening. If it is a risk that would have no impact for an acceptable period of time it should still be noted but you may decide to take no action until it occurs.
Almost by definition, accepting a risk is also reducing the impact of the risk as you are aware of the potential problem and can write it into your business continuity plan.

4. Ignore the risk. This option should never be selected. There is never a reason for ignoring a risk once it has been identified. A risk can be accepted (acknowledged) but must never be ignored.

Once the actions for each risk have been identified, then anything put in place to help cope with a risk needs testing. However, many companies either test nothing at all or try testing every facet of a business continuity plan. Both methods are doomed to failure. The answer is to adopt a risk based testing approach from two perspectives: the business continuity plan is fit for purpose and it will work when invoked.

A health check (testing the plan is fit for purpose) needs to be performed by someone other than the authors of the business continuity plan. Ideally it's performed by an independent third party that specialises in testing business continuity plans, but it could be a disinterested party from another part of the company. Independence is essential here for an objective assessment.

Testing the plan will work when invoked, must be viewed in a business context and the elements of the plan prioritised so that the risks with the most business impact and likelihood are tested first.