Monday Morning Mindfulness 08/23/2004

Welcome to Monday Morning Mindfulness . . . to my Clients, Colleagues and Friends. Join me every other Monday in getting motivated and inspired to act/think/feel something differently.

1. ON SPECIAL OFFERS AND INVITATIONS

Would you like to be paid to speak? Learn how to connect with your audience? Persuade people to act on what you say? You can get answers to these questions and more through my new feature, Approach the Coach. Go to this web page http://www.schrift.com/approach and ask me your number one question about speaking skills or speaking professionally. I will answer your questions by email and every few months will compile your questions (with answers) in a FAQ page for my MMM readers.

Complimentary teleclass Would you like to learn "How to be a Better Public Speaker Immediately?" I will show you how to do this on Thursday, August 26th, from 7:00-8:00pm eastern. This teleclass is being hosted by www.RebelBusiness.com, a web-based community where you find endless fresh ideas, support and connections with people doing radically cool things with their businesses. Register now, limited seating. http://www.schrift.com/teleclasses.htm

End of Summer Sizzle Sale! Want to cut your learning curve by 60% to become a well paid professional speaker? If you have the passion and the persistence to do this, I have the product for you. All of our most popular products are discounted for a limited time for our MMM subscribers. (all items are listed on the left)

All programs include PDF handouts and 20 minutes of coaching with me. Such a deal! http://www.schrift.com/summer_sizzle.htm to get details on products and your deep discounts.

2. ON POSSESSIONS

Are you possessed by your possessions? How many dresses, ties, homes, cars, jewelry, etc. are enough or too much? The ancient Latins called too many possessions "impedimenta" or what Julius Caesar, in crossing the Rubicon to take Rome, called "baggage." In kindergarten we were taught to eat our cookie, drink milk, take a nap in the afternoon, and flush. Just the simple needs in life; food, shelter and clothing. Saint Mark said, "What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?"

The Coach thinks . . . the true riches of life are still the adventure of the book, a walk on the beach, growing a flower, visits with friends, swimming in the ocean. What are the riches of your soul?

3. ON SPEAKING OF FAILURE

For motivational speakers, nothing succeeds like failure says the Wall Street Journal. The new motivation-speaking shifts are:

How I learned from big mistakes My darkest hour Candor Rebounds Mea Culpa Rocky Balboa Yes, a speaker still needs to inspire audiences to success, but the message is more significant when it includes some defeat and how to pick up and move on.

The Coach asks . . . are you willing to divulge your defeats?

4. ON JUMPING SHIP

Executive Coach, Randy Noe, revealed that a recent poll conducted by Yahoo indicates that 47 percent of U.S. workers are currently looking for another job or plan to look within the next twelve months and are ready to jump ship at the next opportunity. (CBS Marketwatch July 6, 2004). Another study cites that "millions of workers are unhappy with their present employment. At least 30 percent (maybe more) have already "checked out." They show up for work each day but are thinking about where their next job will be. The electronic job board, www.Monster.com, reports that 72 percent of survey respondents are unhappy with their present employment.

The Coach wonders. . . what does a balanced life of joyful work and leisure pursuits look like for you?

5. ON BEING ACCURATE 99.9% OF THE TIME

This is what would happen with a 0.1% margin of error:

The postal service would lose 17,660 pieces of mail every hour. Financial institutions would deduct $24.8 million from the wrong accounts every hour. Ten newborn babies would be dropped during delivery every day. More than 3,700 prescriptions would be filled incorrectly every day. Eighteen airplanes would crash every day. The Coach asks . . . where did this list come from?

6. ON USEFUL WEB SITES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

"Speak Like a Pro for Profit" Struggling to get clients? Want to have a full speaking calendar? This e-book contains proven tips and techniques to become a polished presenter to speak effectively to anyone, anywhere, with confidence. I wrote this for speakers, coaches, authors and business professionals who want to deliver masterful presentations and/or grow a profitable speaking business. Only $8.95. http://www.speaklikeaproforprofit.com for details.

Want to meet leading minds from the business world? Subscribe to a great newsletter, "Rebel Yell." http://www.RebelBusiness.com

Need some public speaking and writing tips? http://www.schrift.com/tips.com

Let's meet in Denver, Colorado, October 14 - 22; Quebec City, Canada , November 3-6; (ICF conference) or in San Diego at any other time.

Register for a free teleclass on "How To Be a Better Public Speaker Immediately"; Thursday, August 26, 2004 from 7-8 p.m. EST. Register by sending an email to: freeteleclass@schrift.com

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About Sandra Schrift

Sandra Schrift 13 year speaker bureau owner and now career coach to emerging and veteran public speakers who want to "grow" a profitable speaking business. I also work with business professionals and organizations who want to master their presentations.

Get more speaking skills at our "Summer Sizzle" webpage: http://www.schrift.com/summer_sizzle.htm

Join my free bi-weekly Monday Morning Mindfulness ezine http://www.schrift.com/monday.htm

sandra@schrift.com


And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Business Finance & Financing Decisions

The goal of corporate finance is to raise sufficient capital at the least cost for the level of risk that management is willing to live with. The risk is that a business will not be able to service the debt and be forced into bankruptcy.

Broadly speaking there are 5 main ways of funding a company's needs:

* Receive credit from suppliers
* Obtain lease financing
* Obtain bank loans
* Issue bonds
* Issue stock

Supplier credit

This is the easiest way that companies obtain funding. Companies buy goods and services and have anywhere from seven days till 6 months to pay for them; when companies need more credit from suppliers the financial controllers will negotiate longer credit terms or larger credit lines. The payment terms can also be stretched and this can work well because the creditors do not want the customer to go into bankruptcy taking their money with them.

Lease financing

Instead of buying equipment, many companies choose to lease equipment - this is a form of franchising.Cars,computers and heavy equipment can be financed for short periods or indeed longer periods.

If it is a short period it is referred to as an operating lease and at the end of the lease the property is still useful and is returned to the finance company.

Long term leases are, in substance, ways are ways of funding a purchase rather than buying the temporary services of a piece of equipment. These are often referred to as capital leases.

For capital leases the leased assets and the financing liability are recorded on the leasing company's books as though the company had bought the equipment outright.

Bank financing

The next level of financing involves banks. If a company has a credit line or revolver with a bank it draws down and pays back up to set limits of credit as cash is needed and generated by the business. The credit is often secured by assets of the firm however if a business runs into trouble it may not be able to pay the bank and go into bankruptcy

Bond Insurance

Bonds have fixed interest rate contractual payments and a principal maturity. The risk comes to the firm's owners if they cannot be serviced. The principle bond owners can then exchange them for ownership of the company and oust the owners.

The After-Tax cost of Borrowing

Interest payments for borrowing from vendors, bankers or bondholders are tax-deductible, while dividends to shareholders are not. The after-tax cost of borrowing is the interest cost less the tax benefit.

Stock Issues

Stock issues have non-contractual, non tax deductible dividend payments. Stock represents an ownership in the business and in all of its assets. If additional shares of stock are issued to raise cash, this is done at the at the expense of the current shareholders' ownership interest. New shareholders share their ownership interest equally on a per-share basis with the current shareholders - this is why analysts say that the new shareholders dilute the interest of existing shareholders.

Summary

In summarising, the higher the percentage of debt to total capital, the higher a company's value, to a point. At the point where the risk of bankruptcy becomes significant, values fall. The cost of financing decreases as a company adds lower-cost shielded debt to displace the higher returns required by equity investors.