recession

Recession – Even Sperm And Eggs Are Not Safe Now

Recession, recession and recession, this word has created a huge cry amongst the people worldwide throwing the negative impacts of global depression. The severe economic crunch has forced people across the world to lead a miserable life. Countless people have left their jobs and are perplexed that how they will earn bread and butter for their family. Due to the negative impacts of global economic depression people are selling almost everything so that they can feed their family.

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How To Combat Recession – Some Inspirational Ideas For You

Recession is a term which is mainly used for general slow down of all the economic activities. During the course of business cycle sometimes you gain huge profits while at some point of time you also incur great losses. During recession people may become bankrupt and there is a marked decrease in the employment rate. House hold income, business spending, capacity utilization and employment are affected adversely during the recession period.

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Make Money On Every Child In School

Do you need more money during these tough times. The world's gone nuts and you need to protect yourself and your family.

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Is the Letter of Intent a Worthless Document?

By Karl Benson

A Letter of Intent (LOI) is a common way to express your intentions to purchase a property without having to write a formal, legal binding contract. The Letter of Intent is presented to a seller in the very preliminary stages of a project. The intentions of a buyer are spelled out clearly and simply so the seller knows exactly how the buyer wants to purchase the property, and under what terms. Essentially a Letter of Intent is to open a dialogue and create a framework for that dialogue between buyers and sellers.

Definition of a Letter of Intent

“A Letter of Intent is basically a written statement expressing the sender’s intention, should certain circumstances arise, to take or forgo some action, like entering into a future agreement with the recipient, or, more generally, carrying out business activities mentioned in the Letter of Intent.”

I often submit a LOI right after I have found a building, quickly analyzed the operating numbers and recognized that a deal could be created. This whole process might be as a short of a time as 30 minutes. I want the seller to recognize me as having a serious interest in the building and not just a ‘tire-kicker”. The sooner he knows he potentially has a viable sale of his property, the sooner he may stop fielding calls and inquiries from others. In other words, his attention will be focused on the dialogue with me.

The letter of intent in the offer process

This Letter of Intent is not a traditional letter. You do not write it and forget it. It is a living document that should be updated and added to on a regular basis throughout the offer process. In the offer and purchase process, the letter of intent tells the property seller that you are interested not only in submitting a proposal to purchase, but in response also receiving all LOI updates and modifications. The LOI is an agreement to agree in the future. Once the Investor and the seller have come to the meeting of the minds via the LOI, a formal Purchase Contract would be written.

If the letter of intent is accepted, then the due diligence period will begin. It will continue until the time agreed upon by both parties in which, at the end of the term, a binding contract is constructed. Terms may change during this time if certain aspects of a property, previously not disclosed, are discovered. For example, there may be soil contamination in which the buyer will not want to purchase the property and will safely option out of the non-binding contract. Or, perhaps the property is in a lot worse condition than originally thought, causing the buyer to negotiate a decreased purchase price.

If not binding is the letter of intent is a worthless document?

A letter of intent is not an offer or a contract. It doesn’t commit you or the seller to the project. In other words, it cannot be enforced. Often in the LOI there is often times, at the bottom or, in the body a paragraph stating and reinforcing the non-binding character of the LOI.

This should be a basic understanding of the nature of the LOI. This language is
usually just re-enforcement inserted to let all who may read that it is not a binding document, nor an agreement to agree in the future, unless specifically written.

The Specific details of due diligence, cash flow and the buyers’ needs, how those terms will be carried out with sellers. In most of the initial presentations, the accommodation of the seller’s financial needs is what is addressed. As a result the focus becomes more about the seller’s than the buyer’s needs.

For this reason, the dialogue is broken off, and the proposed purchase falls by the way side.

When the needs of the buyer and seller are addressed up front, it helps insure a movement to contract. s are spelled out in the . Buyers are often disappointed when their deals die at the LOI stage, with emotion aside, the understanding of the nature of the LOI, it is only a tool to open dialogue to see if an acceptable deal can be created. This allows the buyer to focus on the next viable deal. So in the regard the LOI is a very worthwhile document.

Writing the Letter of Intent

Use a formal letterhead and do not handwrite the letter of intent. A letter of intent must have five basic elements in its content:

1. The Seller’s or the Seller’s Agent’s name
2. The buyer’s name
3. The property address and description
4. Your offer details, which includes:
a. Purchase price
b. Down payment
c. Financing
d. Terms
e. Due diligence conditions
5. Time frame.

The body of the LOI would address the following items;

Terms: We should spell out the offering price, and the specific terms and contingencies of the financing, the down payment, where and what kind of financing to be obtained.

Conditions: We will often use this portion of the LOI to request documentation regarding the performance of the property, such as financials or other items that may aid us in our Due Diligence.

Due diligence time: specific time frame for consummation-typically about 90 to 120 days-or a so-called “drop dead” date by which the deal must be finished and the Buyer should have its due diligence completed, financing in place and ready to close escrow.

Closing Date: The specific date by which you can complete all of the due diligence and arrange for funding and any other clauses or provisions. When a formal contract will be written up if the LOI is approved if elected, a clause that makes the LOI non-binding. State to the seller that you are, interested in being kept informed about any modification related to this property, i.e. the LOI document itself, essentially an invitation for response.

Conclusion: Your signature and a place for the seller’s signature: close the letter formally with “sincerely” or a similar polite expression. Sign your name and title. Be sure to provide correct, complete contact and reference information for future correspondence. Remember to consult your lawyer, Tax advisor and other counsel for further information before entering into the formal contract.

Karl Benson has over 18 years or personal real estate investment experience. Karl has been teaching, training, instructing, speaking, coaching and mentoring real estate investment for over 10 years. Karl is recognized as a premier provider of real estate education. He has coaching certificates from Franklin Covey and Legacy Learning.

“In addition to walking away with checks from the closing table, I also walk away with experiences and lessons from the transaction. Those experience last a lot longer than the proceeds of those closings.” It is through those real life experiences combined with his training, Karl maintains a unique perspective of creating Win/Win results based on an understanding of the needs of both the buyer and the seller.

Karl’s specialties include creative transactions, cash flow, re-positioning, asset protection and building real estate business models. Also, general or specific Commercial and Investment services. Karl CAN help you with your real estate and investment career. For more information see http://www.mycoachmentor.com. Your source for relevancy in today’s market.

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Employee Retention – An Employer Hero in the Recession

By Ross Blake

Although the television networks bring more devastating news about the economy every night, we also need to be aware of employers and employees who are making beneficial, even heroic, efforts to help each other and the economy.
Here’s an outstanding effort by an employer which will motivate and retain good employees while reducing costly employee turnover.

Just this past December, 300 employees in Ashland, Ohio, were devastated when Archway Cookies, owned by a private equity firm, suddenly closed the plant, eliminating their jobs and health insurance. However, Lance, Inc., a Charlotte, North Carolina-based maker of snack foods, purchased Archway, reopened the plant, immediately hired back 60 employees, and reinstated their health insurance. More employees will be rehired as business improves.
So far, this would be a great story, but there’s more.

Lance gave all 300 of Archway’s former employees a $1,500 prepaid debit card to help with expenses. Rita Devan, an employee said, “What are these people doing? They don’t know me. They don’t know us. They don’t know any of the Archway people. And they are giving each and every one of us $1,500.” According to CNN (the source for this article), David Singer, CEO of Lance, Inc., said the gift cards were a way of letting employees and the community know the new owners are different. “We wouldn’t do it willy-nilly,” Singer said. “We do want to make money. But this is the pool of folks we intend to hire. We just wanted to let them know who we were.”

Many, if not most, managers and business executives would be critical of the company’s generous action.
However, just what has Lance likely received in return for its $450,000 investment?

1.     An enormous reservoir of goodwill from the employees who are back at work; the employees not yet back at work; local officials; and the community at large.
2.     A workforce that’s likely to do whatever it can to be certain that Lance not only recoups every penny of its investment, but makes lots of money and thrives.
Why is this? It’s human nature. How do most people respond when someone demonstrates their belief in them and makes a financial investment in them before they get anything in return?
Most of us would be determined to prove they made the right decision by doing as much as we can.
And, if there are some employees who don’t feel or act this way, the peer pressure on them will be substantial.
3.     A workforce likely to be highly cooperative when the company asks for help in reducing costs or waste, learning new skills, improving quality or productivity, working overtime, or cutting management some slack if it makes an error.
4.     Employees who value their employer and show it in small and large job actions on a day-to-day basis.
5.     High retention of skilled employees and low employee turnover costs. This is a company that’ll be spending its time and money on improving its internal operations, products, and customer service instead of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, orienting, and training new employees.
6.     Lower hiring costs; qualified employees will seek this company out as an employer; they’ll have a deep bench.
7.     Far fewer grievances and complaints, sloppy or incomplete work, bad attitudes, lateness, and absenteeism.
8.     Thousands of dollars worth of positive publicity in the consumer and business press, and in broadcast and print media.

In addition, I estimate Lance will get 3 to 4 times its dollar investment back!
Every organization wants talented, hardworking, cooperative employees and desires to reduce costly employee turnover. Notice that Lance, Inc., was willing to make a financial investment in advance to forge a strong, new employer-employee relationship.

Management often has to make the first move in such matters because it’s management’s responsibility to lead, and because it has the resources. While your organization may not need to take action similar to Lance’s, are there smaller, but similar things in principle that you could do? Remember that at some point the economy will turn around; how well you’ll retain valuable employees then has a lot to do with how you’re treating them now.

Ross Blake, the Employee Retention Manager, shows small to medium size businesses, employers, and HR professionals how to develop strategies to increase employee retention; save thousands of dollars by decreasing employee turnover; and reduce recruiting and hiring expenses.

He has developed How to Retain More New Hires and How to Develop An Employee Retention Blueprint for Your Organization.

Learn more; free special report, Five Employee Retention Strategies Outstanding Employers Use: http://www.EmployeeRetentionManager.com

Creating Your Own "Yellow Brick Road" to New Opportunities

By Cathleen Pratt

Regardless of where you live, spring heralds the promise of new growth, balmy breezes of fresh air, new beginnings and renewed hope. This spring also represents the grand finale of the first decade of the new millennium, holding the promise of the turning tide of refreshingly needed change, no matter what your political proclivities, as the new presidential term unfolds: amended economics, new health care initiatives and drastically modified perspectives of our place in the world.

Last year proved to be incredibly challenging for us all as the proverbial economic roller coaster ride seemed to crash to the ground, with the upheaval of what we had come to know as “normal” and the tremendous sense of loss in our portfolios, jobs and standards of living. Many of us suffered both materially and psychologically as our foundations seemed to crumble and life as we had come to know it during the economic boom melted away into a seeming puddle. This is not the first time in history that such drastic changes have occurred and it won’t be the last, but history has also proven that we as humans are incredibly resilient and adaptable on the pragmatic level, able to transcend, transform and thrive under the harshest of circumstances. It’s this intrinsic adaptability that has allowed us to maintain a sense of balance in the most dire of situations, enabling us to emerge from the winter of our discontent to the budding springtime of new beginnings and new opportunities.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt said during a similarly challenging time in the last century, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”. In that statement he pinpointed with laser-like clarity the root of all negativity: fear. When we succumb to fear, we feel weak and powerless. We feel as if the rug has been “pulled out from under us”. We feel imbalanced and out of kilter. We describe the feeling of having “a pit in our stomach” or feeling as if “the sky is falling down” to crush us. These phrases and descriptions all point to our anticipation that something even worse might or is going to happen. These thoughts and words lift us out of the present moment and whirl us like a tornado into a doomed future. They set off a cascade of physiological chemical reactions that result in unhealthy changes within our bodies, which have an even more negative effect on our minds. They set the stage for a self fulfilling prophecy that may very well come true, because we as human beings are more powerful than we give ourselves credit for.

It’s been scientifically proven that when we think negative thoughts, our adrenal glands respond with a powerful “fight or flight” release of adrenaline. This mechanism proved very convenient when we were fleeing from saber-toothed tigers in the jungle, but it creates havoc in our modern-day bodies when we feel this surge of hormones but have nowhere to run. When we allow our fear to initiate this downward spiral into negativity, we can literally create disease in our bodies.

Numerous books have been written about how our thoughts create our reality. Many people denigrate these “ideas” as being “New Age” and relegate them to what they consider to be “nonsense”. However, each of us has the power to create positive change from the nexus of our initial thoughts. Quantum physicists have described the power we have to change our patterning by changing our basic thoughts and creating new, healthier pathways throughout the vast highways that weave their way throughout our craniums. We’ve all heard of “positive affirmations”, but did you realize that by repeating a well-constructed affirmation ten times a day, for twenty one days, that you can physiologically change your brain, neuron by neuron, creating new chemical reactions that can lead to health and empowerment? That mechanism offers each of us the ability to counteract the negative effects of fearful thinking, to take control of our destinies rather than succumbing to what appears to be happening around us or “to” us, and to avail ourselves of the new opportunities that present themselves on a daily basis if we allow ourselves to be open to these possibilities for change, growth and expansion.

As we look for new ways of living in the world, it’s important to get to really know ourselves, to know who we really are, who we really want to become and what we need to do in order to allow our real selves to unfold. Many people have recently lost their jobs, yet have been able to turn what seems like disaster and loss into the most precious gift they’ve ever received: the time and opportunity to get to really know who they are at their core and how they want to express themselves in their work and in their daily lives going forward. Many of them are looking for guidance and help in figuring out their next steps, which may range from finding a new job, to creating and developing a new business, to reinventing themselves. Affirmations enable them to develop a deeper sense of who they are, what they really need and want and to put that knowledge and those clearly identified desires into an actionable process of creation and momentum.

This spring offers each and every one of us the opportunity to create the new beginnings we’ve been longing for and to develop our bright shining paths into the future. It’s an opportunity for each of us to create our own “Yellow Brick Road”.
_______________________________________________________________________________
(c) 2009 Cathleen R. Pratt

Cathleen Pratt is President & CEO of The Revenue Generators, a South Florida firm specializing in coaching, marketing, communication and negotiation for individuals, small businesses and corporations. She is the author of the soon to be released book “The Achievement Factor: Seven Strategies for Success in Weathering the Current Economic Storm”, which draws from her many years as a sales and marketing executive with ABC, CBS and Discovery Networks International, blending her corporate experience with humor and insights into the potential that all humans possess to create, achieve and transcend to whatever they intend in their lives. Cate can be reached at http://www.TheRevenueGenerators.com

Leveraging Banking Relationships For Your Growing Business – Strategies For Success

By Cathleen Pratt

Why is this so important?

Building and maintaining adequate cash flow is obviously essential to keeping your business running, enabling you to meet your financial obligations, meet your payroll, accounts payable and loan payments. You may decide that in order to do this, you need to obtain a business loan in order to insure that you are able to maintain a steady stream of cash flow. The Relationship Manager can be the key to helping unlock your access to many of the banking products that you are seeking to help grow your business, such as:

· Most efficiently obtaining loans, mortgages, and lines of credit to help you purchase equipment, expand facilities, finance space, and more.

· Helping you to establish “lines of credit” which can enable you to finance your short-term business needs, giving you access to cash for one time expenditures (acquiring new business assets or receivables, for example) or long-term finances (like permanent working capital or cash flow management).

· Guiding you in obtaining Small Business Administration (SBA) loans, which can offer you the credit you need with lower than average down payments, longer repayment terms, and lower monthly payments.

· Helping to guide you through the bank’s offerings for obtaining Business Credit Cards, free Business Checking, fee-free transactions, reduced maintenance fees as well as special equipment leasing offers.

· Providing you with a set of cash management tools designed to make managing your business finances easier and more convenient.

The benefits of having one individual coordinate your business’ entire financial portfolio can prove to be invaluable in opening the possibility for obtaining better pricing, whether it’s through loans or deposits, because of the totality of your relationship. They can work on your behalf to internally persuade loan officers and mortgage lending professionals look at your total banking relationship, pricing your relationship with the bank as a whole, rather than simply by isolated transactions. This can translate into a great deal more leverage and open the door to preferential pricing on loan rates and mortgages, preferential CD rates, based upon the cumulative dollars you have invested within the institution.

However, beyond the obvious lie many other benefits that you may be overlooking, which can also prove beneficial as you build and expand your business empire:

· The Relationship Manager can provide you with valuable advice; knowledge of your total financial picture will enable your professional to give you guidance regarding financial planning, as well as improving your business structure.

· They have a strong working knowledge of the local marketplace and have internal and external contacts for both expansion and/or eventual sale of your business.

· They can help you to consolidate all of your business accounts, making it easier for you to review your business finances and facilitate wrapping things up during tax season.

Adding your bank’s Relationship Manager and their colleagues to your team can instrumentally aid you in building a successful business, leveraging your relationship and profitability, thus ensuring your solid financial future!

© 2008 Cathleen R. Pratt. All Rights Reserved.

Cathleen R. Pratt is President & CEO of The Revenue Generators, a South Florida firm specializing in coaching, marketing, communication and negotiation. She is the author of the soon to be released book “The Achievement Factor: Seven Strategies for Success in Weathering the Current Economic Storm”, which draws from her many years as a sales and marketing executive with ABC, CBS and The Discovery Networks International. Cate can be reached at http://www.TheRevenueGenerators.com

The Art of the Business Debt Deal

By Ken Thomson

I have attended a lot of seminars on “how to get paid.” It’s always important to figure out the mindset and methodologies of collectors and attorneys and to keep up with developments.

It’s a mantra with attorneys at these events that, before they file suit in a debt action, they always do their “due diligence”. Most of them will say this up front. By this, they mean that they find out beforehand if it is going to be worth their client’s money to go after the defendant firm. After all, if the assets are all tied up and the defendant company is on its last legs, there’s not much point in filing suit.

Collection attorneys have a different take on this than other legal professionals. Some of them run high volume operations and can live on the income from doing so, but the real money is in the percentage of the cash collected. They deserve this, because they absorb some of the risk of collection, unlike your general legal practitioner, who gets paid on an hourly basis no matter what, and may be satisfied with a judgment. I know this because I’ve frequently taken on clients with exposed, collectible assets, but where uncollected judgments are shown on their D&B credit file. Collecting money – post-judgment – can be challenging and general legal counsel are not always very effective in this endeavor.

In their drive to collect a commission, collection attorneys can sometimes overlook the fact that a judgment will push the firm into bankruptcy. I question the fact that they always do the “due diligence” that they claim they do. As a recent example of this, a business owner called us in for emergency help. The firm was at the end of its tether and owed a substantial sum to a supplier, which had resulted in a lawsuit. The plaintiff and its attorney were unwilling to accept anything other than the full balance claimed. No cents-on-the-dollar deal and no payment schedule, despite a full account of the debtor firm’s true situation.

The defendant firm was heavily indebted and on a knife edge with its bank loans. We informed the supplier’s attorney that a judgment would put it over the edge. But our settlement proposal was turned down. The disheartened business owner did not want to prolong the agony by retaining counsel to delay the inevitable. A judgment was sustained and, as sadly predicted, the big SBA loan was called. The firm was forced out of business and the bank claimed all the assets, leaving the plaintiff with zero.

The supplier cried loudly that his attorney should have advised him to accept our deal, the inference being that he had not adequately done his “due diligence”.

The key to resolving disputes, especially in crucial game-over situations like this, is to communicate with the plaintiff’s counsel the true facts of the case. He or she has to know – if they have not done their much ballyhooed due diligence – why your firm does not have the ability to pay the sum claimed in full.

Ken Thomson
Biz911, Inc.

Ken Thomson is the CEO and founder of Biz911, Inc., a business debt management and turnaround firm based in Wilmington, Delaware. He is the author of “The Battle Scarred Guide to Small Business Debt Relief and Recovery”, available at http://www.amazon.com. To find out more about how to protect and grow your business, check out http://www.biz911.com.

Ten Techniques to Stay Confident During a Job Transition

By Alvah Parker

Your confidence can erode during a job transition. As you move from the known to the unknown you feel unsettled and off balance. It is easy to begin to doubt your own abilities. This can happen during any type of job transition. Whether you doing a job search, have accepted some new responsibilities added to your old job, or are starting a new job, transitions can be rough on your confidence level. Here are some exercises that will help you build and maintain your confidence.

1. Think about what success would look like for you. Write it down and review it regularly. It will help you to determine your path and help you to see the progress you are making.

2. Create a victory list. Include the things you have accomplished in your life on your list. Write your list on a small piece of paper or file card. Carry it around with you. Review it often in order to feel energized and confident.

3. Examine the negative beliefs you hold about yourself. Develop some positive truths to replace them. (A coach can be helpful in working with you on this.)

4. Talk to someone you trust about your fears. Get the support that you need by talking about your fears with the person and then brainstorm ideas about ways to address your fears.

5. Join a support or strategy group. Use the group for positive reinforcement and to generate new ideas to raise your confidence. This type of group can be very useful in a transition.

6. Examine worst case scenarios for strategy and planning purposes only. Focus on best case scenario with plans to overcome problems. Once worst case scenario has served its purpose, let it go. It is there only so you know what to do if something happens.

7. Use imagery to build confidence. Think of the good things sticking to you like Velcro and the bad sliding off you like Teflon. Continually visualize this image so that it gives you energy.

8. Recall past successful experiences. Think about times you took a risk and won. Remember times when through trial and error you solved a problem. Confidence comes from recalling past experiences in which you overcame an issue, problems or risks. This gives you mental energy and the exercise builds your confidence.

9. Take direct action to complete a task or make a decision. Schedule the task or the decision at a certain time in the future. Complete the task or decision on time to gain mental energy and feel success. Divide big projects into small pieces and schedule them to complete in the future. Celebrate the success!

10. Mindfulness builds mental energy. Stay in the moment. Pay attention to what you are doing. Don’t multitask. Do one thing well and feel good about it.

Alvah Parker is a Practice Advisor (The Attorneys’ Coach) and a Career Changers’ Coach as well as publisher of Parker’s Points, an email tip list and Road to Success, an e-zine. Subscribe now to these free monthly publications at her website http://www.asparker.com/samples.html

Parker’s Value Program© enables her clients to find their own way to work that is more fulfilling and profitable. Her clients are attorneys and people in transition who want to find work that is in line with their own life purpose. Alvah is found on the web at http://www.asparker.com She may also be reached at 781-598-0388.

Ten Great Strategies For Today’s Climate

By Ian D Smith

This is a challenging time to be in business but there lies the opportunity. I’ve listed 10 specific characteristics of downtimes and 10 positive strategies that embrace and capitalize on them.

1. More time to create a focused business: Use this slower paced market to revisit the business you are in – what defines you. This is the perfect time for repositioning, selling off non-core subsidiaries, sharpening up product road maps and value propositions.
2. Flight to price and quality: Now is the time to revisit your product mix and pricing strategies. Buying behavior changes dramatically in a recession. Lower priced versions of your product or subscription based business models may be relevant to ease customer cash flow pain.
3. Measuring the signals is vital:> Mistakes made in downtimes can prove fatal.
   Convert your Accounts Department into a Metrics Center. Trap and visualize your key performance indicators. Audit the signals and constantly interpret the significance to your strategies.
4. Acquisitions just got cheap: PE ratios of the majority of public companies are in single digits and the valuations of private companies are low. Consider a proactive approach to acquisitions by building a robust acquisition process that is proven to work.
5. The “C” level suite just got a free pass to visit their customers: Never has there been a better time for the inner cabinet to visit their customers to understand the specific issues challenging them. It’s not only productive, it’s essential for shaping strategy. Define your engagement strategy and get on site.
6. Value Propositions must improve a customer’s performance: Receiving a purchase order, confirming a big deal is very satisfying but it’s not enough. You need to be invested in the improved performance that will be achieved because your customer uses your product. Does your sales process achieve this?
7. Curiosity & Urgency of managers dramatically increased: Well it certainly should have. This new level of alertness (perhaps it’s fear) needs to be channeled to produce results. Difficult projects shelved in better times are prime candidates for this energy. Staff want to be effective and busy to get things moving again. Tap into this momentum.
8. People and tasks are mis-aligned: Now is the time to think like a start-up. The key –Define Performance Profiles that your company needs to be executed, not job specs but tasks that need to be done well. This will cause old jobs to be merged and new jobs to be created.
9. Silo Management is broken: Urgent initiatives will fail without cross-functional support. Company visions need to inspire and flow across functions. Build cross functional teams to execute top priorities.
10. Competition thins out: It might be difficult to create double digit growth but you can grab market share. The best companies don’t just survive bad times; they grow and develop into more robust and valuable businesses.

As an experienced business leader, Ian Smith is passionate about maximizing the potential of fast-growing companies. The Portfolio Partnership offers Corporate Development Services on an advisory, operational or investment model. Specifically we execute growth strategies by repositioning companies organically and/or by acquisition.

Ian was educated in Scotland, earning a BA degree from the University of Strathclyde and qualified as a Chartered Accountant of Scotland with Grant Thornton. Post qualification he joined Thomson the publishing giant and became one of their youngest divisional Finance Directors at 26 and was awarded the prestigious, UK Accountant of the Year ahead of many experienced FDs. From 1988 to 2000 he successfully built up two major boutique M&A advisory firms, Livingstone Guarantee and Capita Corporate Finance. During this period he completed over 40 acquisition, disposal or finance transactions, many cross border, many in the technology sector. He assisted dozens of entrepreneurs execute their vision.

In late 2001 he moved to the states to successfully reposition and grow Teamstudio, an IBM business partner with HQ in Beverly, MA and offices in the UK and Japan. During the next 5 years the top line was grown by over 45% and losses were turned into EBITDA of over $10m. high achiever, Ian expects the highest performance from his staff but always mixed with a Glaswegian sense of humor!

Ian lives in Wenham, Massachusetts with his wife and two teenage daughters. http://portfoliopartnership.com/index.html