AS QUOTED
“Price is a crazy and incalculable thing, while value is an intrinsic and indestructible thing.”

—G.K. Chesterton

SIGN OF THE TIMES
Out of Balance
ore than half (53%) of business executives had not achieved a satisfactory work/life balance, according to a survey by the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC). And in a sign that things may not get much better soon, 46% said their work/life balance worsened in the past five years.

A full 80% of executives said they would either turn down or seriously consider turning down a promotion that would hurt their work/life balance.

SURVEY SAVVY
Lawyers, Bankers Lose Out
While it should come as no surprise to CPAs, a recent survey found that the nation’s small business owners overwhelmingly favored their accountants—over their bankers or lawyers—for business advice.

Nearly 82% of respondents said they turned to their accountant for advice. Lawyers came in second with 14%, while only 4% chose bankers.

The survey, conducted in August, also asked the 550 small business owners which of the three advisers was most crucial to their business success. Accountants again beat out bankers and lawyers, with 75% of respondents citing accountants as the key contributor to success, 13% choosing bankers and 12% selecting lawyers.

Source: SurePayroll.

NUMEROLOGY
Need More ZZZs
Nearly 30% of working adults said they missed work or made errors at work because of problems sleeping. Seventy-five percent of all adults reported at least one symptom of a sleep problem, although most said they could live with it. Among adults with sleep partners, 77% said that person kept them awake, most often by snoring.

Source: National Sleep Foundation, “Sleep in America,” www.sleepfoundation.org.

SIGN OF THE TIMES
Hands-Off Investors
ar from being day traders, most participants in 401(k) plans are content to sit tight and leave their allocations alone, according to a Wharton School of Business study. Eighty percent made no trades in two years, and 10% made only a single trade, researchers found. The study analyzed retirement accounts managed by the Vanguard Group in 2003 and 2004.

TOP 10
Unlucky Investor Traps
1 | Affinity fraud. Con artists target members of religious, political or ethnic groups.

2 | Churning. Unethical securities professionals make unnecessary or excessive trades to generate commissions.

3 | Equity-indexed certificates of deposit. In a volatile market, these uninsured CDs pose liquidity problems and are not suitable for most seniors.

4 | Oil and gas investment fraud. Sales materials provide “official looking” surveyor maps touting the likelihood that the “managers” of the drilling enterprise will hit pay dirt.

5 | Personal information scams. In the guise of helping customers fill out forms to qualify for legitimate benefits, the scammer collects information about personal financial assets.

6 | Prime bank schemes. These schemes promise high-yield, tax-free returns often purported to result from “off-shore trades of bank debentures.”

7 | Pump and dump schemes. Unethical broker-dealers frequently “pump” up the value of low-priced securities that are traded on Nasdaq “pink sheets” and then “dump” the stock after naïve investors have bought in at the inflated prices.

8 | Recovery rooms. Scam artists buy and sell the names of victims who have lost money to “recovery room” operators who promise, in return for a fee that the victim must pay in advance, to recover the money lost in a worthless investment.

9 | Registered high-interest promissory notes publicly advertised. These high-risk notes are not suitable for retirement funds.

10 | Sale and leaseback contracts. Investors are sold a piece of equipment such as a payphone, ATM machine or Internet booth located at a remote venue, where the investor cannot service and maintain the equipment and must enter into a servicing agreement.

Source: North American Securities Administrators Association.

GOLDEN BUSINESS IDEA
Ways to Stay Client-Focused
Before you meet with a client, relax. Deep breathing or sitting still with eyes closed for 60 seconds is often effective.

Be prepared for client meetings and have an objective. Then be flexible enough to drop all plans. The point is to be ready to meet reality, not to try to control it.

Don’t multitask. When you’re with a client, turn off your mobile devices and don’t check e-mail. Sit with your back to glass doors or windows to avoid distractions.

Start all client interactions by checking the agenda. “Could we start with X and Y? Is there anything else we need to cover today?”

Listen, listen, listen. When clients are discussing something, first let them describe it in their own words.

Source: Trust-Based Selling: Using Customer Focus and Collaboration to Build Long-Term Relationships by Charles H. Green. McGraw-Hill, 2006.

SURVEY SAVVY
U.S. Lags Behind
lmost half (48%) of the top executives of U.S.-based multinationals said the country lost ground during the past five years in terms of its economic competitiveness with other countries and in educating its people to meet global business challenges (46%). Contributing to the United States’ poor showing were the heavy cost of worker health care and pensions (65%), the lag in manufacturing efficiency (38%) and the lack of available skilled workers (30%).

Many of the executives said their own companies or industries in particular were negatively affected by increased government regulation (63%), manufacturing’s shift to low-wage countries (51%), the availability of lower-priced goods from abroad (44%) and the greater education and skill levels of workers in other countries (42%).

Only 24% of the corporate leaders, however, pointed to underlying economic factors, such as the U.S. budget deficit and increased U.S. indebtedness to Far Eastern countries, as being responsible for setbacks in their companies or industries.

Source: “Management Barometer,” PricewaterhouseCoopers, www.barometersurveys.com, 2006.

BUSINESS TRENDS
Eye on Franchising
Franchising is more popular than ever before. During the previous three years, nearly 900 new franchising concepts were launched, 500 of them in 2005 alone, according to a study by FRANdata of Arlington, Va.

In fact, franchised businesses now account for nearly 10% of the nation’s private-sector economy and employ more than 18 million Americans, according to the International Franchise Association.

For operators, it can be a way to start with built-in brand marketing and name recognition, plus support from other franchisees and the franchiser.

SURVEY SAVVY
Information Security? Bank on It
onsumers trusted banks more than other institutions to protect their personal records, according to a July 2006 survey conducted by the American Bankers Association.

In fact, a full 60% of respondents identified banks as the most trustworthy with their personal information. Government agencies came in a distant second, receiving just 11% of the vote. They were followed by universities, at 10%, retailers with 3% and data brokers with 2%.

BUSINESS TRENDS
Family Biz Proliferates
Small businesses run by an individual or a family with no other paid employees made up a large chunk of U.S. companies and are growing in number, according to a recent U.S. Census Bureau study.

Such “nonemployer” businesses increased by more than 1 million between 2003 and 2004 to 19.5 million, or 70% of all companies.

Small businesses are becoming more varied, too, as the Internet opens up new opportunities. Internet service providers, in fact, were among the fastest-growing segments, increasing by 18.7%, and companies offering Internet-based consumer sales increased 12.7%.

GOLDEN BUSINESS IDEA
Global Networking Tips
Doing business in a foreign country can be tricky. One wrong move or mistranslation by you or your clients can poison vital relationships. Here are three points to remember:

1 | Know your business card etiquette. Exchanging business cards is an integral part of business relations in some cultures. For example, in Asia business cards are truly an extension of the individual and are treated with respect.

2 | Respect personal space. Americans typically engage in business conversations within a distance of 2 to 4 feet. In Southern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East, plan to stand or sit closer. In Asia, take a step back.

3 | Beware of slang. A phrase that means one thing in the United States might have no meaning—or a very different meaning—to a businessperson from another country.

Source: BNI International.