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Jerusalem, Israel David Rosenberg and Benja – Israel’s housing shortage and the skyrocketing prices that it has created are unlikely to be solved by the government’s latest measures because the industry faces critical shortages of labor and bureaucratic obstacles to building, industry leaders said.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Atias Monday unveiled steps aimed at tackling rising home prices and making it easier for young couples to purchase their first apartment. But the measures will takes months to bear fruit and aren’t likely to significantly reduce the growing gap between supply and demand for housing.

“The planning approval process is very long. Then, there is the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) which controls 94 percent of the country’s land, and those responsible move very slowly,” said Yossi Gordon, managing director of the Association of Contractors and Builders. “It’s a governmental body that works at its own pace and doesn’t respond to government targets to speed up the process and increase supply.”

In an otherwise thriving economy, housing has become the chief cause of concern for Israeli policymakers. They have voiced concern that soaring prices will kindle inflation and risk, leading Israel into the kind of housing speculation that laid low the U.S. and some European countries. Indeed, Netanyahu took time off this week from urgent negotiations with Washington over a settlement freeze and peace talks to address the housing crisis.

For the last five or six years, housing demand has exceeded the supply, with about 40,000 families entering the market annually to compete for about 32,000 new units added to the country’s stock. The overhang of a home-construction surge a decade earlier kept supply and demand in balance, but the inventory has since evaporated and the supply hasn’t expanded to compensate.

“The toughest part is to get all the regulations and the permits. In Israel, you’re always trying to get more square meters, and land is so expensive,” Inbar Krasny, president of Y. Krasny Building Construction Co., told The Media Line. “If you are applying for a zoning change, it can take two years. These days, it can even take more than that.”

With the market so out of balance, prices of new and second-hand apartments went up by 19 percent in the 12 months to August, according to the Bank of Israel. Over the last two years, the cost of a home has surged 40 percent.

Israel isn’t seeing the kind of speculative wave that pushed America into a mortgage frenzy and left banks and the economy weighed down by massive debt and overvalued homes. Israeli banks are conservative lenders and demand for housing is real, but the Bank of Israel concedes that the record low interest rates that prevailed in 2009 did encourage speculative investors into the market. It has taken measures to discourage borrowing to buy homes.

The measures announced by Netanyahu this week call for a 15 percent rebate on the purchase of land in ILA tenders and a one-time reduction in the land improvement tax to 20 percent from 45 percent next year. Both measures are contingent on the contractor completing construction of at least 80 percent of apartments on the property within 30 months.

In addition, cities and other local authorities will be allowed to collect fees for public institutions and public areas needed for new neighborhoods directly from contractors.

“The root of the problem is a lack of supply in the housing market,” Netanyahu told reporters. “The purpose of the steps we propose today is to bring some relief for those young couples seeking to buy their first apartments in the near term.”

Krasny said he was encouraged by the plan to give municipalities more authority. But Gordon said the government’s measures don’t address the shortage of skilled labor, nor are they likely to circumvent most of the red tape. With the constraints on construction, most builders won’t be able to complete a project in the 30 months set by the new program, he said.

The country’s building industry employs about 150,000 Israelis, but there is a critical labor bottleneck in the trades specializing in constructing buildings’ superstructure, Gordon said. That work, which entails heavy physical labor and working outdoors year round, doesn’t attract Israelis and is left to increasingly small numbers of West Bank Palestinians and foreign guest workers, he said.

The number of legal foreign workers in the building industry today is about 6,200, down from a peak of 80,000 a decade or more ago.

Red tape is another barrier to more building. According to the World Bank’s 2010 Doing Business rankings, Israel placed 121st out of 183 countries in the time and trouble it takes to get a construction permit and placed 147th in the time it takes to register a property. Using the construction of a warehouse as its benchmark, Doing Business said it takes 235 days and 20 bureaucratic procedures to get a permit in Israel. By comparison, among developed countries, the time was 166 days and the number of procedures fewer than 16.

Krasny said contractors and property officials are moving more slowly and cautiously than ever in the wake of a police investigation into bribery and corruption in approvals for Jerusalem’s Holy Land building project.

Gordon rejects criticism that the industry is also hobbled by backward building technology. It is true that for small-residential construction, most contractors are using primitive methods, but for buildings of four floors or more, the industry is much more advanced. He estimated that 60 percent of all building in Israel meets that standard.

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Jerusalem, Israel David Rosenberg and Benja – Israel’s housing shortage and the skyrocketing prices that it has created are unlikely to be solved by the government’s latest measures because the industry faces critical shortages of labor and bureaucratic obstacles to building, industry leaders said.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Atias Monday unveiled steps aimed at tackling rising home prices and making it easier for young couples to purchase their first apartment. But the measures will takes months to bear fruit and aren’t likely to significantly reduce the growing gap between supply and demand for housing.

“The planning approval process is very long. Then, there is the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) which controls 94 percent of the country’s land, and those responsible move very slowly,” said Yossi Gordon, managing director of the Association of Contractors and Builders. “It’s a governmental body that works at its own pace and doesn’t respond to government targets to speed up the process and increase supply.”

In an otherwise thriving economy, housing has become the chief cause of concern for Israeli policymakers. They have voiced concern that soaring prices will kindle inflation and risk, leading Israel into the kind of housing speculation that laid low the U.S. and some European countries. Indeed, Netanyahu took time off this week from urgent negotiations with Washington over a settlement freeze and peace talks to address the housing crisis.

For the last five or six years, housing demand has exceeded the supply, with about 40,000 families entering the market annually to compete for about 32,000 new units added to the country’s stock. The overhang of a home-construction surge a decade earlier kept supply and demand in balance, but the inventory has since evaporated and the supply hasn’t expanded to compensate.

“The toughest part is to get all the regulations and the permits. In Israel, you’re always trying to get more square meters, and land is so expensive,” Inbar Krasny, president of Y. Krasny Building Construction Co., told The Media Line. “If you are applying for a zoning change, it can take two years. These days, it can even take more than that.”

With the market so out of balance, prices of new and second-hand apartments went up by 19 percent in the 12 months to August, according to the Bank of Israel. Over the last two years, the cost of a home has surged 40 percent.

Israel isn’t seeing the kind of speculative wave that pushed America into a mortgage frenzy and left banks and the economy weighed down by massive debt and overvalued homes. Israeli banks are conservative lenders and demand for housing is real, but the Bank of Israel concedes that the record low interest rates that prevailed in 2009 did encourage speculative investors into the market. It has taken measures to discourage borrowing to buy homes.

The measures announced by Netanyahu this week call for a 15 percent rebate on the purchase of land in ILA tenders and a one-time reduction in the land improvement tax to 20 percent from 45 percent next year. Both measures are contingent on the contractor completing construction of at least 80 percent of apartments on the property within 30 months.

In addition, cities and other local authorities will be allowed to collect fees for public institutions and public areas needed for new neighborhoods directly from contractors.

“The root of the problem is a lack of supply in the housing market,” Netanyahu told reporters. “The purpose of the steps we propose today is to bring some relief for those young couples seeking to buy their first apartments in the near term.”

Krasny said he was encouraged by the plan to give municipalities more authority. But Gordon said the government’s measures don’t address the shortage of skilled labor, nor are they likely to circumvent most of the red tape. With the constraints on construction, most builders won’t be able to complete a project in the 30 months set by the new program, he said.

The country’s building industry employs about 150,000 Israelis, but there is a critical labor bottleneck in the trades specializing in constructing buildings’ superstructure, Gordon said. That work, which entails heavy physical labor and working outdoors year round, doesn’t attract Israelis and is left to increasingly small numbers of West Bank Palestinians and foreign guest workers, he said.

The number of legal foreign workers in the building industry today is about 6,200, down from a peak of 80,000 a decade or more ago.

Red tape is another barrier to more building. According to the World Bank’s 2010 Doing Business rankings, Israel placed 121st out of 183 countries in the time and trouble it takes to get a construction permit and placed 147th in the time it takes to register a property. Using the construction of a warehouse as its benchmark, Doing Business said it takes 235 days and 20 bureaucratic procedures to get a permit in Israel. By comparison, among developed countries, the time was 166 days and the number of procedures fewer than 16.

Krasny said contractors and property officials are moving more slowly and cautiously than ever in the wake of a police investigation into bribery and corruption in approvals for Jerusalem’s Holy Land building project.

Gordon rejects criticism that the industry is also hobbled by backward building technology. It is true that for small-residential construction, most contractors are using primitive methods, but for buildings of four floors or more, the industry is much more advanced. He estimated that 60 percent of all building in Israel meets that standard.

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Bangalore, India (AHN) – Two leading business solutions companies are collaborating in an initiative to jointly deliver a warranty management and analytics solution for industrial manufacturing, automotive and high tech industries.

The collaboration of Wipro Technologies and Oracle aims to help reduce warranty expenses and fraudulent claims in the warranty sector.

“Around 4 percent of warranty claims are fraudulent, making it one of the biggest challenges the industry is facing today,” John Barcus, vice president for Oracle’s manufacturing industry business unit, said in a statement.

“We believe there is an immense opportunity to reduce the losses and an effective product warranty management solution is pivotal in helping reduce fraud-related losses,” he said.

The combined solution will leverage Wipro’s industry expertise and Oracle’s Siebel customer relationship management applications to help streamline warranty management for original equipment manufacturers and their suppliers, dealer service providers and contract manufacturers.

“We believe that a streamlined warranty process and analytics will allow customers to better predict their warranty exposure and better manage their warranty reserves,” stressed N.S. Bala, senior vice president for Wipro’s manufacturing industry SBU.

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This is where hard money loans for real estate come in. Hard money loans are a convenient form of financing. Its lenders may be individuals or private institutions who like you, are also searching for ways to invest their money in. Hard money lenders do not put high inconsideration into your repayment capability but on the investment potential of your property. For quite a long time, hard money loans for real estate were considered to be loans of last resort. Investors’ biggest issues were the skyrocketing interest rates. These loans do not only double the rates offered by traditional lenders. Sometimes, they even triple the fees.

But, fast forward to the current situation that besets real estate and America’s economy, many property investors have started to not mind the high interest rates. As mentioned, the competition in the industry has just gotten tougher and whoever finishes fast wins.

Hard money loans for real estate are quicker to close as compared to loans from banks. With banks, the whole approval process usually takes a month. With hard money lenders, you can secure your financing in less than 72 hours. Hard money lenders are also laxer when it comes to requirements. Borrowers are no longer required to submit a wide range of financial documents. To secure financing quickly, all that you need to do is to find a lender in your area.

Because of the convenience and fast approval process that hard money loans for real estate offer investors, many are saying that hard loans will no longer be the loan of last resort. In a market where everybody wants to act quickly to get ahead of competition, fast loans will be the most sought-after form of financing.

For a list of hard money lenders in your area, go to www.rehabhardmoney.com.

Recently, a company in the building industry approached us to raise A$5m capital for them. They were well established and profitable and had the opportunity to expand overseas and required the funding to finance their expansion.

After a short period of due diligence, it was apparent to us that they were far from being ‘investor ready’. We prepared the following check list for them and are now working with them to implement it before we approach any investors.

The check list covers the major issues that an experienced investor will look for (and expect) in an investee company:-

• Experienced and stable management team not only knowledgeable as regards to the industry and product, but capable of successfully implementing the business plan and managing the company’s operations. Investors invest in management who are committed long term to the business

• Sound understanding of the industry the business is in,

• Realistic investor ready business plan (featuring a detailed and realistic business strategy of current and future plans).

• Realistic achievable financial forecasts and potential for high returns on investment (ROI).

• Excellent business growth potential with rapidly growing markets.

• A willingness to include, if required, the Investor in the management of the business

• A comprehensive understanding of the customer (target market), including market size, demographics, trends , pricing strategies, accessibility, growth potential, demand for products and services ,and commitment to business development.

• A clear idea of the valuation of the business, the equity available for the investor and a strategy for the exit of the investor.

• Efficient internal accounting and financial systems and signed off Accountants reports are a must.

• An easy to follow and manageable growth product/business strategy, combined with planned financial manageability over the period.

• Ability to explain how the investment capital will be used.

• Point of difference – in product, distribution, profit, returns, management, location, contacts, technology, barriers to entry, patents or other unique competitive advantages.

• An understanding that attracting the right investor can take time – usually up to six months.

Approaching investors unprepared is probably the single most common reason why entrepreneurs fail to attract capital. Some investors see 10 or 20 deals a week. If your proposal does not include all of the above, chances are you won’t get past first base and they are immediately onto the next deal.

However once you learn how to make your business ‘investor ready’ and you succeed in attracting an investor the first time, going for subsequent rounds of funding, or funding a new venture becomes much easier. Hence if you want to become a successful entrepreneur, it’s worth spending the time and effort to learn how to make your company ‘investor ready’.

© Copyright Len McDowall, Integral Capital Group 18th September 2007

Whether an investment yields financial rewards depends on the delicate balance of innovation, market conditions, leadership strategy and countless other uncertainties. In making the complex calculation of whether to invest in a promising new venture, many venture capitalists often overlook one critical factor the human capital component. After an investor invests capital behind a concept, it takes the right management team to get a company off the ground and execute the companys strategy.

Raj Pai, a principal at CID Capital, a 26 year old Midwest based venture investment firm that manages over $300 million of investment capital and specializes in life sciences, information technology and business services, says he has seen human capital make or break investment deals.

Pai remembers an investment his firm made in a technology company that fell apart because the right management team wasnt in place. Pai says the companys founder had problems with communication and delegation that didnt come to the surface until after CID Capital made the investment. Even though the technology was innovative and the market was ready to receive it, Pai says the company couldnt survive without the right leadership.

You can go from everythings okay, to all hell is breaking loose in one month, and thats what happened with this company. We had to shut the whole company down, and lay everyone off.

Pai says that identifying the best management talent takes more than just sifting through stacks of resumes. Innovative leadership the kind it takes to turn a bright idea into a profitable company depends on all kinds of intangible factors, such as how an executive copes with stress or how she or he interacts with the board of directors.

Many of the most successful venture capital and private equity firms partner with a top executive search firm to help ensure the success of their portfolio companies. In addition to recruiting senior executives to serve as management team and board members, an executive search firm can play a critical role in vetting a prospective investment. We know our strengths and weaknesses, Pai says. Sometimes venture firms know its best to look for outside help.

A top executive search firm can also play a critical role in helping investors source attractive investment opportunities. Due to the many privileged relationships that we share with leaders of industry and sources of private equity and venture capital, we find ourselves at the intersection of human capital and investment capital. Because of the limited number of quality deals that are truly worthy of investment backing, venture capital and private equity firms rely on being introduced to titans of industry with the next big idea, says Donald Law, Managing Director of nationally recognized executive search firm Venerable Partners.

Pai says CID Capital recognizes the critical value of human capital, so now the firm hires an executive search firm like Venerable Partners to assist with nearly 70 percent of its investment deals. One of those successful investments was in Red Sky Technologies, a Chicago-based company that provides emergency response telecommunications services.

Pai says his firm hired executive search firm Venerable Partners to make sure Red Sky had the human capital to thrive.

Pai says executive search firm Venerable Partners was able to identify several seasoned industry leaders who might be interested in contributing to Red Sky. In the end, executive search firm Venerable Partners recruited a high-ranking Fortune 50 executive to serve as a board member to advise the companys management team. What we need to hear from them is the big macro shifts that are occurring in the industry, and you cant buy that talent, Pai says.

Pai says CID Capital would not have been able to recruit an executive with such a high level of expertise on its own had it not been for partnering with a top executive search firm like Venerable Partners.

I dont think we would have been able to tap a person like this to help. But somebodys got to bring the horse to the water. This particular executive got involved because he bought into the idea, but it was executive search firm Venerable Partners who brought this industry veteran to the water says Pai.

Form more information please visit http://www.venerablepartners.com

Author: Mark Kupry
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty

Your ticket to industry leadership

Be grateful to those who cause you difficulty, they offer the greatest opportunity for learning. - The Dalai Lama, Ethics for the New Millennium

We’re not talking about the customers from hell, the ones who are never satisfied no matter what you do.  The best advice I’ve heard for dealing with these customers is “Refer them to your competitors!”

Instead, let’s look at good customers who exhibit annoying behaviors, things that make your life difficult and cost you money.  These behaviors could be slow pay, unusually high returns or delays in providing information you need.  Whatever the source of your frustration, these behaviors offer an opportunity to eliminate headaches for yourself and your customers.  Here’s how it works.

Balancing the Scales

We live in a reciprocal world.  If you treat me nicely, I’m going to treat you well.  If you treat me poorly, I’m going to find a way to balance the scales.  When you see annoying customer behavior, you’re seeing your customers balancing the scales.  You’re doing something they don’t like.  Doing something to your detriment is their way of expressing their displeasure.

Eliminate the source of their dissatisfaction and you’ll:

• Eliminate your problem

• Eliminate your customer’s problem

• Build customer loyalty

• Distinguish yourself from your competitors

• Attract new customers

Example

One of my clients was experiencing slow pay from otherwise good customers.  What we discovered is that 80% of these delinquencies resulted from the same situation.  The customer’s field superintendent would request changes to the work, but refused to sign a change order.  That left my client with a dilemma.  Do they pack up all the equipment and a ten-person crew and moving to another site, assuming one was available, or make the changes and hope that they would be paid?  They chose the latter.

Of course, the people at the customer’s headquarters were surprised by the bill.  It didn’t coincide with the contract and there were no change orders to support the additional work.  The result was a lot of time lost to negotiations which resulted in neither party being completely happy with the experience.  How did we solve this problem?

When a customer’s field superintendent requested a change, my client:

• Had our foreman contact our estimator with the requested changes
• Had our estimator type a two paragraph memo listing the changes requested, the cost of these changes and a sentence stating “we will proceed with these changes unless you stop us”
• Then faxed the memo to the customer’s corporate headquarters

This approach not only eliminated the slow pay problem, it’s afforded my clients other significant advantages.

Multiple Benefits

My client’s original approach was the industry practice; changing to the new procedure helped them:

• Differentiate themselves from their competitors

• Set a new standard for customer service, one that has not yet been adopted by their competitors

• Discover solutions to other frustrations the customer was experiencing

• Attract new customers

All of these benefits have positioned my client to become the leader in their industry.  A migration from their competitors has already begun and is gaining momentum.  In addition, my client’s reputation is also attracting a higher caliber worker which will enhance their ability to provide even greater service in the future.

If you want to gain industry leadership you need look no further than your customers’ annoying behaviors.

Copyright © 2006, Dale Furtwengler, all rights reserved

Dale Furtwengler is a professional speaker, internationally-acclaimed author and a business consultant who uses counter-intuitive thinking to help his clients increase profits without adding resources. For more information on how counter-intuitive thinking can work for you visit www.furtwengler.com/theinvaluableleader/.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/strategic-planning-articles/annoying-customer-behavior-1360657.html

Expert Overview

To start off, get a general sense of the cost categories for a startup business in your industry. To do this you should do some online research on websites for your sector which go over the expense categories. Then try to speak to experts. An entrepreneur in a non-competing market who started a similar business or someone at an industry association could be a great help in this regard. From this person you should be more interested in the range of startup costs they incurred and the general categories, rather than in their precise budget. You will have to customize your budget for your business and the market you are operating within anyway.

Example Categories

Some of the example categories for startup expenses you might encounter are licensing, insurance, and legal fees, leasehold improvements on a rental space, equipment purchases, initial inventory of products, training and education fees, and a pre-launch marketing campaign. Other categories will be specific to your type of business. For example, if you are starting a franchise, paying the franchise fee will be a significant category. Outline all of these categories on a spreadsheet to prepare to fill in estimated costs for your business.

Filling In The Details

Next you must research these expenses one by one through online searches for vendors and suppliers, as well as phone conversations when prices are not offered online. For items you will purchase repeatedly or will cost thousands of dollars, make sure to check a few sources for the right combination of price, quality, and service for you. Keep all of the details on the information you find about the services offered by companies and individuals you contact. You can use this process to gather much more than pricing information and therefore better prepare for your launch. While time consuming, there is no better way to find out the costs you will incur than speaking directly with providers you may actually use.

Eric Powers is associated with Growthink, a business plan consulting firm. Since 1999, Growthink has provided business plan writing services to more than 2,000 entrepreneurs and business owners who have raised more than $1 billion in growth capital. Call 800-506-5728 today for a free consultation with a professional business plan writer.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/strategic-planning-articles/business-plan-budget-your-startup-expenses-1345192.html

Email marketing allows you to promote goods and services to prospected clients in a more direct fashion. This strategy builds a trusted relationship between you and your customers. The “trusted” part implies its difference from spamming.

Although email marketing involves sending newsletters, alerts, ads, and etc. to email inboxes, it is not spamming as this strategy is permission based. The list is often obtained from sign-ups or registry information for membership.

If you have noticed, some sites requiring you to join their community if you wanted to acquire more details about a post or if you want to comment on it. Once you’ve agreed to their terms and condition, that’s an automatic agreement to receive their mails. Others offer subscription to their newsletters through opt-in boxes.

Why do email marketing?

In today’s world, advertising has blossomed into a giant industry seen and felt almost everywhere. The threat of spam, efficiency of feeds, instant messengers and etc. has brought doubt to some to use email as a marketing vehicle. As it is said, email marketing is dead.

But that’s just myth because stats say otherwise. 2007 reports inscribed that companies have gained at least $40 per dollar spent on email marketing.

A survey (2008) by MarketingSherpa found that the pay-per-click search ads ranked top for ROI followed by email marketing to house lists.

Marketing service, Epsilon, stated that clients were getting $0.14 revenue for each email delivered during the third quarter last 2008.

These are just three of the studies related to email marketing and list building efficiency. In spite of the recession, this convenient strategy gushed forth to the top earners list.

And who can deny its effectiveness? It allows targeting, direct sales and sales through other channels compared to conventional marketing strategies. Email marketing builds relationship, loyalty and trust.

Plus, it is data driven which gives the clients the information they could use before purchasing anything. That’s why you have to be creative, catchy and informative designing your postcards or newsletters.

However, this strategy is useless, no matter how efficient it may be, if you’re unable to arrange a powerhouse list. You’ll know you have a strong mailing list if your clients are actively participating in your site. The number of hits will be your witness.

There are email lists for sale or rent which saves your butt from the time consuming process of email list building but its accuracy remains questionable. There’s no assurance that the owners of these addresses are interested in your products/services or your line of business. Or worse, you might be reported as a spammer and get blocked.

Email list building is one of the effective ways to drive your business to the top. Just make sure you follow and aced every step first so that you’ll achieve desired results.

Stephan Weigandt is a business owner, entrepreneur and loves the Internet Marketing. His expertise is in Data Mining, creating analytical Datamarts, as well as Internet marketing, SEO optimizing and traffic generation.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/strategic-planning-articles/email-marketing-how-email-list-building-helps-your-business-1337625.html