CAMDEN — The Camden Public Library’s Brown Bag Lunch series continues Friday, May 25 at noon with A Balanced Portfolio – How to Select Stocks to Suit Your Needs.
It’s the final presentation in the series and will be aimed at novice investors to plan investments and budgets. The series is supported by a grant from FINRA, the nation’s financial regulatory agency. The program will be presented by three members of the investment education group Better Investing: Pat Jones, Lowrie Sargent and Rosemary Weymouth.
The presentation will show why a balanced portfolio is important for financial health, explore the various components of a balanced portfolio, and help attendees understand how those components may change over time as needs and the markets change.
The FINRA grant also enables the library to offer a newsletter on financial planning, and to offer Quicken Premier software. The Quicken package will be made available to all participants in the Brown Bag Lunch Series for free. The goal of the library is to create a financially literate community and to make online financial tools more accessible to library and community members.
Courier Publications news staff can be reached by phone at 207-594-4401 or by email at news@courierpublicationsllc.com.
DTI Business Registration Grows 8% - Manila Bulleting Online
MANILA, Philippines — Business registration in 2011 was up 8 percent over the previous year indicating that more Filipinos are into the entrepreneurial mode this year.
Data from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) showed there were a total of 318,920 businesses registration in 2011 compared to 294,410 in 2010.
The significant increase in business name (BN) registrations last year was attributed to the DTI’s electronic Business Name Registration System or EBNRS which was launched in October 2010. The EBNRS automated the registration processes which led to a faster and more efficient handling of transactions.
“The EBNRS is one of the Department’s anti-red tape initiatives in line with the government’s policy of streamlining the bureaucratic processes and curbing corruption in the frontline agencies," said DTI Secretary Gregory L. Domingo.
Domingo has emphasized the government’s effort to improve the ease of doing business in the country by undertaking reforms such as automation of business registration processes to attract more investments in the country.
“We are continuously studying our processes to simplify business registration and license applications to improve the Philippine business environment. We are closely working with other government offices and the local government units or LGUs to make business easier in the country,” Domingo said.
The application through the EBNRS only takes 15 minutes, and only requires a one-page application form and one signature compared to the previous application scheme. This has drastically improved the process by cutting the length of time, the number of documents and signatures required to register a business name.
With EBNRS in place, entrepreneurs can get their DTI Business Name Registration Certificate in less than 30 minutes. “The automated system not only made the transactions easier for businesses but also for the Department,” said Domingo.
Registration of business name with DTI is only the first step for an entrepreneur to start a business. Other regulatory agencies require businesses to register, as well as the local government units (LGUs) to issue them permits and other licenses to operate. (BCM)
Rare Earth Stocks from the US Showing Promise,” Says New AbsoluteWealth.com Article - PRWeb
Rare Earth Riches AbsoluteWealth.com
Austin, TX (PRWEB) May 19, 2012
US rare earth stocks are turning out to be more valuable than anyone could have imagined, according to today’s AbsoluteWealth.com article. Even though China has dominated rare earth production for the last decade, one specific mine could be the key factor in loosening America’s and other country’s dependence on the Far East for these significantly important metals.
The mine in question is Mountain Pass, a 2,200-acre site in California, just 60 miles across the border from Las Vegas. Just a little over a decade ago, the article said that Mountain Pass was the largest rare earth-producing mine in the world.
Things shifted to the Eastern Hemisphere, as China began producing rare earths at breakneck speed and eventually began to provide the vast majority of the world’s supply. A rare earth stocks list rarely included a successful American company in the past ten years, said the Absolute Wealth article. The scenario is fully explained in Absolute Wealth’s Special Report “Rare Earth Riches: How to Cash In On China’s ‘Dirty’ Secret.”
China continued its head-of-the-line position for years, rendering the Mountain Pass mine nearly obsolete. The article said competition and low prices mixed with environmental concerns over the extraction and production process led Mountain Pass to shut down in 2002. For eight years, the mine sat empty and silent.
In July of 2010 the Mountain Pass mine was purchased by Molycorp, who vowed to revamp the production methods and make them far more environmentally conscious. Mining operations have presumed, and Molycorp stands at the starting gate of a race to meet global rare earth demands, said AbsoluteWealth.com.
From its discovery in the late 1940s, to its heyday of production from the 1960s to the 1980s, to its closure, and now its reopening, the Mountain Pass mine is a perfect representation of the rare earth story.
All this makes investing in rare earths a worthy endeavor, especially with the American companies emerging as major players, said the article. Molycorp can serve as an example, and the Mountain Pass reopening can serve as a blueprint for a winning rare earth production strategy.
Absolute Wealth is an expert team of real investors and advisors devoted to identifying winning strategies for exceptional returns. Members subscribe to the Independent Wealth Alliance for professional investment analysis and recommendations on the latest trends and progressions. For more information and subscription instructions, visit AbsoluteWealth.com.
Knowing what kind of investments hold the most potential is easier with “Rare Earth Riches,” which is why Absolute Wealth is releasing it to their subscribing members. The rare earth stocks in the US with the means and resources to affect the investment market are coming out from behind the curtain, and the Special Report explains why.
Valley business on the brink - Worcester Telegram & Gazette
The lack of a plan across communities hampers development and mires daily life with traffic hassles and long slogs between housing, shopping and work. Development that does come may be haphazard.
“There are so many infrastructure issues that are coming to light now. Developers can go to another town and have it all ready,” said Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jeannie Hebert, who spearheads economic development in the valley.
“What we're talking about here is (an opportunity for) development by choice, not by chance,” said Vera L. Kolias, principal planner for the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission, or CMRPC.
CMRPC launched a Blackstone Valley Prioritization Project this spring, focusing on identifying economic development, transportation, workforce and preservation priorities in eight of 11 towns in the Blackstone Valley. Grafton, Upton and Hopedale were included in a similar project CMRPC recently undertook with the 495/MetroWest Development Compact.
Lawrence B. Adams, CMRPC executive director, said that coordinated, regional plans for development would be most likely to get state and federal grants that can make or break a project. “The state's role is to identify where their investments will have the best return,” he said.
CMRPC staff and partners from the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce and the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor Commission are meeting over the next few weeks with planning boards and officials in Sutton, Mendon, Northbridge, Douglas, Uxbridge and Blackstone to target priority areas in their towns. More regional events, including a public forum to bring together the issues from each town, will be held in June.
While planners talk of traffic corridors, spot locations, expedited permitting and infrastructure — words that make the average citizen's eyes glaze over — it comes down to quality of life.
Job creation, for example, creates more travel and congestion if people don't have public transportation or housing nearby; and if you build housing, you have to provide for services that families who live in those houses need, explained Mr. Adams. At the same time, you don't want to harm the character of small towns.
These impacts of growth cross town lines.
Shopping is one of the regional needs both created by and affecting growth.
Cold Spring Brook Place, a mixed-use retail parcel that would include a grocery store and bank, has sat undeveloped along Route 146 in Sutton for a decade, an example of hurdles facing business development. Originally delayed by lack of water and sewer and the costly requirements for roadway improvements, and then a victim of the economy and the former developer's bankruptcy, the site may get a boost soon.
Two years ago, the state committed to funding $6 million to widen the road and improve traffic flow on that section of Route 146, removing one major headache from a new developer.
Jennifer S. Hager, planning director for Sutton, said a purchase and sale agreement was recently signed for Cold Spring Brook Place.
“It's basically about state funding,” Ms. Hager said about the benefits of looking at development from a regional perspective. “Now the developer doesn't have to shell out $6 million worth of improvements.
“The regional impact (of Cold Spring Brook Place) put it in line for funding, so the state gets the biggest bang for the buck. The (Blackstone Valley Prioritization) project will identify areas like that.”
Michael G. DeCaro, president and CEO of Classic Envelope Inc., has been counting on regional development support since he moved his business from the Whitinsville section of Northbridge across Route 146 to Douglas last month, a move that allowed him to add at least 25 new jobs. A crucial element to bringing in the infrastructure Classic Envelope requires, including natural gas, sewerage and larger water lines, is a plan to build a road between Gilboa Street, near his plant in the former Hayward-Schuster mill and Whitins Road in Sutton, across from the Sutton Industrial Park.
Once the road is built, “Then you get gas lines, sewer lines, you can bring in an industrial park and bring in jobs for people; hopefully transit, too,” Mr. DeCaro said.
The West Side Connector Road, as the plan is called, would open up 300 acres of industrial and office-zoned land in Douglas and Sutton, without changing the rural character of the towns. It has received preliminary approval from the Sutton, Douglas and Northbridge planning boards and conservation commissions, according to Douglas Town Engineer William Cundiff, but the towns are waiting for a cost estimate from consulting engineers. There are other pieces of putting together a multitown project that need to occur before grants can be sought, too, and the process, according to Mr. DeCaro, is frustratingly slow.
Craig L. Blais, president and CEO of Worcester Business Development Corporation, said his nonprofit organization has offered to work with the towns like it did with developing CenTech Park in Grafton and Shrewsbury. He said a project like this “needs someone to quarterback it, to get up everyday to pursue grants.
“That's one area that we could make a difference in.”
Mr. Blais said that having a regional development “roadmap” that is expected to come out of the Blackstone Valley Prioritization Project will be useful in grant requests to show that both private developers and local communities will benefit from a project.
“Coming into a community knowing that this process has occurred adds to predictability,” Ms. Kolias said. “Time is money.”
Ms. Hebert said, “This project is going to open doors to a lot of communities.”
CMRPC plans to conduct a similar project later this summer with 13 towns arcing around Worcester from Southbridge to Boylston.
A schedule of Blackstone Valley Prioritization Project public meetings can be found at www.cmrpc.org.
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Technology Business Management—CIO Resource Planning" Focus of Forum - PR-USA.net
Mr. Mori is senior account manager and Mr. Wanek is senior application development engineer at Apptio, Inc. Apptio is the leading independent provider of on-demand Technology Business Management (<a href='http://www.apptio.com/tbm/index.php'>TBM</a>) solutions for managing the business of IT.
The emergence of Cloud and SaaS options have shattered the IT monopoly, forcing CIOs to become a competitive service provider and prove their value to the business. Now more than ever, CIOs require a technology business management system to run the business of IT if they are to keep their seat at the table. This perfect storm brewing in todays IT environment makes this event ideal for CIOs, consultants, programmers, application developers, managers, analysts, software engineers, enterprise architects and information technology professionals, as well as educators, faculty, staff and students in IT project management and computer or information sciences.
Attendees of the no charge event will learn how Apptio can:
1. Increase Visibility into the cost and performance of your services and applications to provide a comprehensive view into your fully loaded costs.
2. Identify Cost Reduction Opportunities and quantify the financial impact (ROI) of IT investments.
3. Effectively communicate the value that IT brings the business by delivering a Bill of IT to each line of business that reflects the cost, usage and value of each IT Service they consume.
4. Automate and align the Budgeting and Forecasting Process to IT Services to gain real time visibility into your budget variances by IT Service, plan for future demand, and proactively reconcile variances with your General Ledger before they impact your Profit & Loss Statement.
Seating is limited. RSVP at www.HarrisburgU.edu/RSVP
Contact:
Steve Infanti
AVP Communications
326 Market Street
Harrisburg, PA 17101
717.901.5146
Sinfanti@HarrisburgU.edu
http://www.harrisburgu.edu/
Business Community Keen On TPP Plan - Manila Bulleting Online
MANILA, Philippines — The business community is keen on the country's plan for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is led by the US, and urged government to conduct more information campaign about this new trading bloc.
Ramon R. Del Rosario Jr., chairman of the Makati Business Club, told reporters at the sidelines of the Joint Membership Meeting of the MBC and the Management Association of the Philippines, they would like to see if participating in the TPP is in “our best interest.”
“My sense is that the government would not like to plunge into the TPP very early, but we need to know more about the TPP,” he said noting that in every trade deal there is always that give and take among members.
In his speech during the meeting where Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. Del Rosario was the guest speaker, the MBC chairman said the business community is interested in finding out if the Aquino administration has adopted a firm stance on TPP in the context of the looming full integration of ASEAN by 2015.
The business community was trying to get an assessment from Del Rosario if whether such international arrangements would be for the country’s interest.
“Moreover, the private sector would like to work with the administration toward tangibly contributing to strengthening our international standing and advocating genuine Philippine interests in the global stage,” he said.
Del Rosario noted that the TPP was discussed during the first ever 2+2 Ministerial Consultations between the US and the Philippines last April 30 this year.
During the meeting, US State Secretary Hillary Clinton has encouraged the Philippines to become part of the TPP.
At present, some ASEAN neighbors, particularly Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam are already negotiating to be part of this agreement.
“While there are a number of valid issues and concerns regarding our potential entry to the TPP, it nevertheless presents an opportunity to further promote investments into the Philippines and drive sustained economic growth,” Del Rosario said.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) had said that it has been the policy to join a trade grouping where the country's major trade partners are also participants. In the case of the TPP, the US, the country’s largest trading partner, is a leading member.
The only problem though is that the TPP demands high standards of commitments on issues like environment and intellectual property rights that the Philippines may not yet have the capability to comply with.
2 Dividend Stocks on Our Radar - Daily Finance
The following video is part of our nationally syndicated Motley Fool Money radio show, with host Chris Hill talkingwith Ron Gross, James Early, and Joe Magyer. In this segment the guys share the stocks on their radar, including companies in the banking, home-improvement, and environmental waste management industries.
For investors seeking dividend-paying stocks trading at bargain prices, check out The Motley Fool's free report "2 Dirt Cheap Stocks With HUGE Dividends." You can be among the first to get analysis of a market leader in payment systems and a high-yielding energy company by accessing this just-released report. Simply click here -- it's free.
Stocks Down for Third Week Amid Facebook Frenzy - Yahoo Finance
U.S. stocks were lower for the third straight week on Greece and European debt worries while Facebook’s (FB - News) highly anticipated IPO was a disappointment in the first day of trading Friday.
A social media ETF fell sharply on Friday amid the Facebook IPO. [Social Media ETF Down as Facebook Begins Trading]
Stepping back, U.S. stocks continue to move lower on speculation Greece will soon leave the euro. In Friday afternoon trading, the S&P 500 was down 4% for the week, the Dow slipped 3.4% and the Nasdaq Composite shed 4.8%.
Not surprisingly, the top ETF performers in the risk-off trade this week were volatility funds and Treasury bonds. The iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT - News) was set for a 4% weekly advance. [TLT Nears All-Time High as Yields Plunge]
Yields on the 10-year Treasury note are hovering near historic lows, suggesting investors are afraid of deflation and moving into safe havens.
There were also a few standouts in commodity ETFs this week with iPath Grains ETN (JJG) and U.S. Natural Gas (UNG) enjoying gains of more than 6%.
Conversely, other energy-related sector and country ETFs suffered the steepest declines this week. The worst performers included solar energy, uranium, coal, miners, Brazil and Russia.
The top three unleveraged ETFs this week were iPath Grains, PIMCO 25+ Year Zero Coupon Treasury (ZROZ) and U.S. Natural Gas.
The bottom three unleveraged ETFs this week were Guggenheim Solar Energy (TAN), Global X Uranium (URA) and Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap (BRF) with losses of more than 12%.
In next week’s economic data, look for reports on new and existing home sales, durable goods orders and consumer sentiment.
Xpress Money may use the UAE as trial market for transaction service - Zawya.com
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Gulf News
Dubai The UAE could be one of two trial markets as the UK-headquartered payment services company Xpress Money makes a move into the individual to business (or business to individual as the case may be) transaction space. Its home market could be the other test market with the trials expected to start post-summer.
“There are very few payments facilitators who are already offering such a service capability and those who are got into it quite recently,” said Sudhesh Giriyan, who heads the regional operations at Xpress Money. “By getting in ourselves at the earliest we expect to narrow any advantage the others may have.
“As of now, we are trying to feel the market out by talking to institutional clients.”
Sources at local remittance houses reckon this is the way forward for the industry. Having institutional clients readily translates into substantial funds flowing through the remittance pipeline and that can only be a good thing for all industry players.
Xpress Money — which came into being in 1999 — only services individual to individual payments, with the UAE — where it has 350 locations operated by various exchange houses — and the GCC being one of its top transactional markets globally. Last year it entered the US and more recently Australia. The plans are to extend coverage to Latin America.
Widely rated
That is why the company wants to get into payment settlements involving individual to business and vice-versa. This category is widely rated within the industry as the next big thing.
Such services could be utilised to make an airline booking, whereby a customer can do the needful at a physical location where the Xpress Money service is available, or for a business to send salary contributions to outstation employees.
“We are formulating the systems and will also require having in place strict compliance practices,” said Giriyan. “Also, future corporate clients would need to be assured that we can provide optimum coverage through physical locations and that’s being addressed. We will also need to maintain bank accounts.
“It’s different to the typical compliance requirements for individual to individual and quite exhaustive.”
Not that remittance volumes involving individuals are showing any signs of slacking off. The estimated volumes last year through the GCC corridor were estimated at $76 billion (Dh278.9 billion). Saudi Arabia alone would account for more than $25 billion, enough to place it among the Top Three worldwide.
“But it’s still the US that is the biggest remittance market by far and the recession does not seem to have had any impact,” said Giriyan. “Last year it was estimated at $51.6 billion and it’s not difficult to see why — the whole of Latin America depends on individual remittances coming out of the US and so are many markets in Asia.
“China, India and Mexico remain the biggest recipients of remittance transactions, which goes to show that customer to customer volumes are not saturated. But customer to business opens up a whole new stream of opportunities.”
By Manoj Nair?Associate Editor
© Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
Why Social Learning Benefits Your Business - Mashable.com
This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Classroom training isn’t dead, but it also isn’t the answer for every training need. Social tools are changing the game when it comes to employee learning. Organizations can create collaborative workplaces where employees can learn from each other instead of only learning in a formal setting or from the proverbial “company expert.”
For training programs to be effective, companies must use the right methods and medium for their training sessions and their audience. Given the popularity of social media, it only seems logical to explore how social media tools can have a positive impact on the learning experience.
What It Means
Tony Bingham, president and CEO of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), defines social learning as “learning that happens outside a formal structure or classroom and is really the way people have always learned from each other. Social learning centers on information sharing, collaboration and co-creation.”
While the practice of social learning has been around for ages, we need a better definition of it for today’s workplace. Most of us have a vision for what formal classroom training looks like, so here’s one way to view the basic difference between informal learning and social learning:
- Informal learning is a term used to describe anything not learned in a formal program or class. It can take place within groups or alone using activities such as reading or search.
- Social learning is learning with and from others. It happens at conferences, cafes or online — with or without social media tools.
In the book Social Media at Work, written by Arthur L. Jue, Jackie Alcalde Marr and Mary Ellen Kassotakis, the authors share case studies of companies using social and informal learning for business success. For example, Oracle uses a key tool called Connect to give employees the information they need at the moment they need it. The tool is about more than just answering questions -– it’s teaching people how to make smart decisions about the business.
One thing is certain about social learning: It’s not a replacement for traditional classroom training. “There will always be some kinds of training that must be done in a classroom setting because of the requirements of the training or skill mastery demands,” Bingham explains. “Examples include certification, compliance, and deep learning -– this is happening in the classroom.”
Social Learning Benefits
Surveys of CEOs continue to report that recruiting and developing talent are their top concerns. In addition, ASTD Research notes that by 2020, nearly half (46%) of all U.S. workers will be Millennials.
Organizations have to gain an understanding of how a new generation of workers likes to learn, how they use technology and their preferred means of communication. This will be essential in creating training curriculum, development programs and succession plans.
Bingham says it’s possible to calculate the return on social learning, but it’s not the traditional return-on-investment (ROI) formula: “It requires alignment to what’s important to the organization, and often that includes retaining institutional knowledge, solving complex problems collaboratively and attracting people to your organization.”
Maria Ogneva, director of community at Yammer, says, “If your goal is to increase customer satisfaction, perhaps the impact metric you are looking for is the increase of speed of a response to a customer, and how collaboration helps you do that. For any social effort to be successful, it has to tie to a business objective.”
Barriers to Social Learning
Business leaders need to realize that employees are already using social tools -– whether it’s approved or not. Instead of prohibiting the use of social media, savvy business leaders should harness its power to drive business results. Bingham notes, “It’s important to make the distinction between a management problem and a technology problem. Most often, problems that occur with the use of social media are management problems.”
Bingham adds that he sees a concern that the use of social media tools may compromise proprietary informaion, or that issues related to intellectual property, company secrets or business strategy may be divulged by a workforce given social media tools. His recommendation?
“Organizations should have an intellectual property policy in place that outlines clear expectations -– and consequences for inappropriate activity. This policy should consider the multitude of possibilities for the use of an organization’s intellectual property.”
Once guidelines are in place, clearly communicate those throughout the entire organization. The goal isn’t to create obstacles to learning but a respectful, effective means to using social tools.
Implementing Social Learning within Your Organization
Before rolling-out a social learning strategy, take a good look at your company culture. Determine if the company is ready to incorporate social learning into its training and development strategy. Adding social just because it sounds cool isn’t productive for the workforce.
Any time a company is testing the new territory, it’s beneficial to start small. Find a program or an initiative that would be well-served by employing social technologies and let the people involved with it experiment and find what works. “Social learning has an organic nature to it, it can’t be forced,” Bingham says.
After using a new technology, evaluate the success of the program. Get feedback on three levels:
- From the participants who used the social tool. How did it help or hinder the learning experience?
- From the administrators of the social tool. Was it easy or difficult to use, explain to others and get participant involvement?
- From the management team. What was their perception of the results gained from using a social tool within their work teams?
This feedback will help refine the best social learning methods to incorporate for future activities.
Social media platforms will continue to develop and evolve. More and more individuals will start using them for their personal brands and professional lives. Employees will demand simplicity and expect workplace training to incorporate the tools they use on a regular basis.
Would you like to see more social in your training programs? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
More Small Business Resources From OPEN Forum:
- Should Small Businesses Follow Everyone Back on Twitter?
- Are You Falling into the Pricing Trap?
- How to Take Your PR Pitches to the Next Level
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