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KNOW WHEN TO WALK AWAY FROM A DEAL
 by Guest Author Dave Lorenzo
There are times in business when you need to walk away from a deal.
This is a tough thing to do. I hate doing it. It takes money out of people’s pockets and it makes me sick to my stomach – but sometimes you have to do it to be successful. Here are three times when it may be best to walk away from a piece of business:
When it compromises your integrity. If you have to do something that will make you feel dishonest, unethical or immoral to get the business or to fulfill you agreement, you should walk away. In the end a person’s character is demonstrated by what he does when nobody is looking. If you don’t feel good about it, you should not do it.
When you sacrifice the long-term potential for a short-term gain. If you need to mortgage your future for the instant gratification of an immediate deal, you should walk away. Business strategy is about playing the “long game” that is developing relationships that last. A short-term solution that damages a long-term relationship is bad business.
When you question the intentions of the other party involved in the deal. If you think the other party is “up to no good” or setting you up for failure you should walk away. If you know that the other party is out to harm you and you move forward, you are asking for trouble.
Walking away from business is horrible. It is a rare thing. The best thing you can do is set your guiding principles (things that you won’t compromise, such as the items above) and stick to them.
About The Author
David Lorenzo has more than 20 years of business experience as a successful corporate executive, entrepreneur, strategist, author, and speaker. He has worked with and mentored some of the world’s most successful businesspeople while helping lead many large organizations to unprecedented success. His latest book is titled: Career Intensity: Business Strategy for Workplace Warriors and Entrepreneurs
Mr. Lorenzo’s experience in starting new business enterprises and repositioning under-performing business units, along with his ability to implement innovative performance improvement solutions, makes him one of today’s most sought-after trusted advisors.
Dave's blog is http://www.careerintensity.com/blog
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| Business
Opportunities PART VII: - A SMALL-SCALE POLYCULTURE OPERATION TO BREEDING CATFISH AND TILAPIA
There are different methods of establishing ponds to breeding fish and particularly catfish and tilapia. The one to use depending on many factors and particularly on the financial means available to the entrepreneur.
Let us consider a small-scale polyculture operation to breed catfish and mixed-sex tilapia to food market size in 10 ponds of 2000 sq. meter each. Assuming an integrated vertical operation in which fingerlings are produced as here explained and then fattened on the farm and sold as food-size fresh fish.
Considering a initial stocking density (catfish plus mixed-sex tilapia) equals to 8 per one sq. meter, the total number of fingerlings to fatten during 10 months will be: [2000 x 8 x 10] = 160.000 (30% catfish; 70% tilapia); remaining 400,000 fingerlings would be sold to breeders outside the operation.
Based on these operating assumptions and considering all said in previous deliveries [78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84] we have the following Table that summarizes the operation's economics:
|
US$ |
|
INVESTMENTS
|
Total investment |
142,000 |
|
OPERATING COSTS
|
Operating Expenses: to producing 560,000 fingerlings and 160,000 mature food-size fish (30% catfish and 70% tilapia) per year as per assumptions and data exposed here |
75,000 |
| PRODUCTION COSTS |
| (per 1,000 fingerlings) = 36,900 US$ divided by 560 = |
66 |
| 48,000 mature catfish that weight each 350 gr. in average. That is 16,800 kg. in total for 14,000 US$ production costs. That gives a production cost per kg. of catfish = |
1.2 |
| 112,000 mature tilapia that weight each 150 gr. in average. That is 16,800 kg. in total for 24,100 US$ production costs. That gives a production cost per kg. of tilapia = |
1.4 |
| GENERATED REVENUES |
| Catfish: 16,800 x 1,8* US$ = |
30,240 |
| Tilapia: 16,800 x 1,6* US$ = |
26,880 |
| Fingerlings: 400,000 x 0,10* US$ = |
97,120 |
| GROSS PROFIT |
| GROSS PROFIT |
22,120 |
One should not forget that Tilapia matures fast and is prolific. Thus operators should closely supervise fattening ponds' population to anticipate the sales of Tilapia. In table above, a margin of 50% had been applied to the selling price of catfish, 40% to tilapia and 51% to fingerling - over respective production costs.
One sees, that it would be better to fatten more fingerlings to food size fish instead of selling fingerlings to other breeders outside the operation. Anyway, the vertical operation would generate profit and be safe from catastrophic loss of production if operators use a computerized supervising system such as Pond Decision Support Systems to closely watch all aspects of the breeding operation.
Control Your Desktop
HOW TO FIGHT AGAINST INTRUDERS? CURE AFTER ATTACK OR STOP THE INTRUDERS AT THE ENTRANCE GATE?
Africabiz Online, in several previous deliveries gave tips and hints about how to get protected against malicious attacks when surfing the Net: [16, 24, 27, 43, 44, 55, 71, 83.]
We invite you to review again delivery 44 that, at the time of release on December 15, 2002 provided information, which are useful and still relevant.
Since the date said delivery was posted on Africabiz Online website, the problem of malicious attacks had worsen as now one is speaking of Rootkits.
It is better not to let Rootkits inside your system. Because, they are undetectable by some if not all firewalls and anti-virus scanners. One has to stop them at the entrance get.
First, you should strengthen your favorite browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape or Firefox) to controlling entrance ports and avoid to be bombed with nasty javascripts applets when visiting "rogue websites". One of the best client to do so is SpywareBlaster from http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/ (Make sure you download SpywareBlaster from javacoolsofware.com!).
Second, most of existing Rootkits are reported on www.rootkit.com. You may use following client to scan your computer and see if any is hidden inside your system. RootkitRevealer can successfully detect all persistent rootkits published at www.rootkit.com, including Vanquish, AFX and HackerDefender (note: RootkitRevealer is not intended to detect rootkits like Fu that don't attempt to hide their files or registry keys). Rootkit Hook Analyser will tell you what kernel hooks are active on your system. It displays all kernel system services along with their base addresses, responsible modules as well as product names companies and module descriptions.
The only problem is there are intelligent Rootkits associated with malware such as Persistent Rootkits that activate each time the system boots. Because such malware contain code that must be executed automatically each system start; or Memory-Based Rootkits that hid into the system's RootkitRevealer can successfully detect all persistent rootkits published at www.rootkit.com, including Vanquish, AFX and HackerDefender (note: RootkitRevealer is not intended to detect rootkits like Fu that don't attempt to hide their files or registry keys).
The only problem is there are intelligent Rootkits associated with the system memory.
Therefore, the best utility to install alongside strong and performing Firewall and Anti-Virus scanner is a client that acts as gatekeeper. One of the best is AntiHook from infoprocess.com.au
AntiHook is a unique desktop-based Host Intrusion Prevention (HIP) product. AntiHook dynamically protects your privacy, operating system and applications from malicious software, such as Spyware, Rootkits, Keyloggers, Code Injection, and Trojans. No Updates Required - AntiHook works as a standalone module, relying on its local database only and not requiring an update of data definitions.
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