Business News Online

If you have a business and your company is a little short on funds, you might want to consider visiting a business finance firm to see what options are there for you. A business finance firm is a company that lends money primarily, or sometimes exclusively, to businesses. There are many firms of this type, ready to accommodate any business entity that is in need of a little financial assistance.

However, before you go knocking on the door of a business finance firm nearest your location, you might want to first check them out to see if the services they offer could be of use to your company or not. This is because there are some business finance firms that cater only to a particular industry, while others only accommodate certain businesses having particular qualities. In order that your efforts would not be in vain, it is best if you first check out their offerings and see if your business qualifies.

Also known as business loans, commercial finance is a process by which one business entity, such as a bank or a commercial lender, provides loans to another company for their business expansion, product enhancement, marketing purposes, and many more.

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Did you miss any of Tim’s great posts from the last week? Never fear, we’ve got them listed out below. Click to your hearts content!

Ideas: Evolutionary Computing and Internet As Brain

Call it coincidence, serendipity, synchronicity, or just random, but last week I was accidentally exposed to two seemingly unrelated ideas that ended up seeming very related to me. And they gave me a fascinating whack on the side of the head. I thought artificial intelligence had run its course, but computers that learn could be much more important.

5 Questions About Power vs. Control vs. Results

Have you ever looked at the difference between power and control in leadership and management? Here’s what I’m guessing.Power and control are quite different and sometimes in conflict. The more control you have, the less power. Does that make sense? I’m just guessing here, not studying the literature.

When Your Gut Screws Up Your Analysis, Shut Up and Listen

True story: my wife and I wanted to move but we weren’t sure where. In true MBA

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A significant cost of starting or expanding a business is the cost of scheduling and attending meetings with customers and colleges. What’s more, with the vast amount of travel required to attend all these events, specifically those held abroad, it is difficult for companies to meet the growing demands to minimize their negative impact on the environment. However, Video conferencing UK is necessary for effective meetings as an essential element of running any successful business.

Effective conferences and meetings are costly and time consuming. As a new company with a relatively variable or inconsistent turnover, finding the time and money to invest in these events is a challenge that is not easy to overcome. Considering the costs of accommodation, flights and food for employees sent to all events, or understaffing caused by people with outside the office for days, the overall impact of attending a conference can be terrific to a new company.

However, the modern technology of videoconferencing makes the things simpler. Read more…

Producer price inflation for domestic output spiked 7.4% in June 2011 from the comparable period in 2010, Statistics South Africa announced on Thursday.

The increase was due to an annual surge in PPI in the electricity, mining and quarrying, and food manufacturing sectors in June 2011 from May 2011.

This was counteracted by a decrease in annual PPI for agriculture and basic metals for the same period.

The biggest change in PPI during this time was in the mining and quarrying and basic metals sectors, which increased 3% and decreased 8.7% respectively.

Month-to-month, domestic output PPI increased 4.4% from May 2011 to June 2011.

Inflation pressures
The figures indicate a moderate increase in the cost of producing goods domestically; however an economist felt the increase not to be a great threat to inflation or to provide impetus for a repo rate increase by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB).

“It paints a very bearish view for inflation which we see remaining above the reserve bank’s target band of 3% to 6% throughout 2012,” Monale Ratsoma, chief economist at Thebe Securities, told the Mail & Guardian.

The SARB’s monetary policy committee has left rates unchanged at 5.5% at its last four policy meetings, following a two-year cycle of lowering which led to 6.5% being lopped off the figure.

The level is the lowest since 1962.

Although inflation is seen to be in an upward cycle moving towards SARB’s target ceiling of 6%, Ratsoma was candid about the possibility of an imminent repo rate increase by SARB.

“If inflation remains below 7% I would not imagine a rise in interest rates before the middle of next year,” he said. Read more…

On a ten point scale representing how much a respondent respects a particular institution, Canadian small businesses scored 8.2. Only farming scored higher, at 8.7 and ironically, most of those are small businesses.

The Canadian public clearly has more respect for small businesses than for the education system/schools and the health care system (both scored 7), large companies and banks (5.6), government (5.3) or labour unions (5.1), which came in last.

Even more telling, the research report by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) goes on to say, “An overwhelming 94 percent (of those surveyed) said they admire entrepreneurs, while 92 per cent would approve of their child or immediate family member starting their own business.”

So if there’s all that respect for entrepreneurs out there, why aren’t more Canadians starting their own small businesses?

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South Africa is aiming to increase the number of foreign tourist arrivals from seven-million in 2009 to 15-million by 2020, said Minister of Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk in a speech prepared for delivery on Monday at the South African Association for the Conference Industry meeting in Somerset West near Cape Town.

He added that it was also his department’s intention to lift tourism’s total contribution to the economy from R189-billion in 2009 to R499-billion by 2020 and the number of domestic tourists from 14.6-million in 2009 to 18-million by 2020 and to create 225 000 new jobs by 2020.

“SA’s status as a premier global leisure tourism destination is now firmly entrenched.

“The year 2010 was, in this regard, an exceptionally good one. On the back of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, our global visibility reached unprecedented levels. We have demonstrated that we have the capabilities; the welcoming culture; and the authentic offerings that the world’s ever more discerning travellers demand. Read more…