Video Pandora

You who read this, may be an engineer, a mechanic, an inventor, a student, or even someone without an engineering background. My observation is that the general public has little knowledge of basic science and even engineers and other professionals often lack in basic insights, in spite of being advanced in their specific fields. This often leads to unfeasible projects and wrong choices, based on wrong assumptions, that no computer can correct.

I myself am a graduated engineer on B.Sc level in both mechanics and electrics. Nevertheless, most of what I know worth knowing as an engineer today, I learned from practical experience and backing it up with own theoretical studies afterwards. It forced me to focus on basics. When you have the basics right, the rest is just methodology, where the computer can be very helpful, but don’t let it “think” for you!

If you have no engineering background, why would you need to have some basic knowledge of all this, you may ask? Well, we live in a technological society and so we are confronted with technological matters and products, that we need to understand the basics of to make proper choices. Ever bought expensive “energy-saving” lamps, while in the same time needing to heat your home? Do you think hydrogen and/or fuel cells are energy sources? Do you think energy can be produced and consumed? Would you invest money in solar panels, or other renewable energy technology for your home? The more these kinds of things apply on you, the more you need to read this article.

The Laws of Newton

The metric, or SI system of units is based on the laws of Newton and so is most of modern mechanics and dynamics. They are essential for basic understanding:

• 1. A mass object persists in its momentary motion to speed and direction, unless it is forced to change it by external forces working on it.
• 2. The acceleration of an object is proportional with the force F working on it and inverse proportional with its mass m. Hence, the acting force is given by: F = m.a
• 3. A force acting on an object, will yield a counter force of the same strength in the opposite direction: action = reaction.

Although these laws sound simple, they are often wrongly applied, or overlooked. Especially the third law appears to be the most fundamental one, still not fully understood by Science and subject for discussions on the highest levels (how can you move a table for example, as it pushes back with the same force?).

Power and Energy.

Power and energy are very often mixed up. For example a lightning, causing a tree to split into half, is very powerful, but it has very little energy, because it lasted only a fraction of a second. Energy is the range of power and time. Power is expressed in Watt and energy in Joule - 1 Watt thus is 1 Joule per second, inversely 1 J = 1 Ws (Watt second). If you during one hour would apply a power of 1000 Watt (1 kW = 1 kJ/s), which approximately is what a flat iron takes, the energy involved is 1 kWh and this is thus equal to 3600 kJ. If you instead would develop that energy in one second, the power becomes 3600 kW, or 3.6 MW - a small power plant! If thus a lightning would have a power of say 10 GW and lasted 1 millisecond (it looks much longer, because of the glowing air around it), it contained an amount of energy of just 10 MJ = 10,000 kJ, not more than 2.8 kWh, or to power a flat iron for around three hours! If you in brochures would read dimensions like kilowatt per hour, or horsepower per hour, you can know that the author has no idea what he/she is talking about.

Energy is also the range of force and traveled way. If you lift up a mass of 1 kg to a height of 1 meter, the force needed for that is the range of mass and gravity acceleration, as per Newton’s second law. On Earth, gravity acceleration is 9.8 meter per second square, which we can round to 10. The lifting force then becomes 10 kilogram meter per second square, which is called the Newton (N) and the work done is then 10 Nm (Newton meter), which is 10 Joule: 1 J = 1 Nm.

The same confusing exists around temperature and energy. What would you rather have in your hand, a 1 inch red glowing sewing needle, or a 4 inch red glowing bolt? Though both have the same temperature, the needle will just cause you a blister, whereas with the bolt, you won’t have a hand any more. The bolt contains much more energy (more mass) than the needle and that makes the difference, not the temperature.

If you would be interested in a solar panel to heat water in your home, the temperature it can yield is therefore not that important. You pay for energy instead and that is what you want to save on. Ideally, a solar water heater should work on a low temperature, so it doesn’t loose too much heat through its insulation and produce a larger water flow instead. You then save more energy = money, because of the higher efficiency on which your solar panel works. To reach your desired water temperature in the kitchen and bathroom, you can heat additionally with say an electrical heater. Combination with a heat pump, also taking up heat from your warm waste water, would give the absolute best results (but high installation costs). Read more about that at the end of this article.

However, manufacturers of solar panels optimize on temperature, which is a good selling argument for the energy-unaware public. At higher temperatures, the size and thus the costs of the whole installation, including storage tank, become lower, which also sells better. They don’t talk very much, or at all about efficiency, being the relationship between how much solar energy hits the solar panel and how much of that you can use in the end. They talk about capacity instead - solar energy is “free”!

Next to consider is Pressure. Usually it is that of a fluid, like a gas. It is expressed in Pascal (Pa) which is force (N) per unit of area and thus 1 Pa = 1 N/sqm (Newton per square meter). Atmospheric pressure at sea level is roughly 100 kPa, thus 100,000 N/sqm. In technical descriptions it is also often called the bar - 1 bar is thus atmospheric pressure. Pressure can also be seen as stress in materials, tension. In the SI system of units, pressure and tension are thus both expressed in Pascal.

Then there is contact-pressure. This is what makes a knife work. The sharper a knife, the smaller its edge area (A) is and for a given force (F), the contact-pressure (F/A) becomes larger, also expressed in Pascal. With this, all units in the SI-system are given. It has only three basic units, the kg for mass, the meter for length/distance and the second for time. No conversions are needed

Circular Motions.

From Newton’s third law follows the perception that on an object in mechanical rotation, two forces are working, a centripetal one, pulling the objects towards the center of rotation, and a centrifugal one, tending to push it out radially away from that center. If the mechanical contact with the center of rotation suddenly is broken, in that very moment no forces are working on the object any longer and thus it will move as per Newton’s first law, meaning it keeps its speed in the direction it had in the moment just before losing contact. That speed was directed tangentially and thus the object will “fly out” in the tangential direction, not radially. In fact, centrifugal forces do not exist, because then there would be no resulting force to keep an object in its circular path - only the centripetal force exists. This is a hot discussion point in Science - Newton’s third law.

Hence, when you are in a car that makes a sharp curve, your body does not push against the inside of the car (centrifugal), but the inside of the car pushes your body into the curve (centripetal). As per Newton’s first law, your body wants to keep its direction of motion, straight ahead, just before entering the curve - it’s called inertia. There is only one force, the centripetal one (free motions in gravitational fields, such as orbits of planets and satellites, are described in General Relativity, which we won’t discuss here).

From this follows the notion of “inertial” systems, which are frames of reference in which Newton’s laws are valid. An accelerated system is thus not an inertial system, because motions described in it, would not follow Newtonian laws. This causes a severe point of confusion, as follows:

If you are an inventor of “fantastic” mechanical machines, your really should understand the implements of impulse. Impulse (p) is the amount of motion, being the range of speed (v) and mass (m), which is equal to the range of working force (F) and the working time (t): F.t = m.v = p. An impulse has a direction, which (kinetic) energy has not and therefore impulses can have a positive or a negative sign between opposite directions of motion. Because impulse is a function of force (the time-derivative of it), Newton’s third law requires that the sum of all impulses of moving components within a system (machine) must be zero. However, many inventors, not being aware of this, “create” a resulting impulse, that accelerates the system.

What they do is mixing up reference systems and impulse with energy. If you consider a mechanical system (machine), that has a certain total mass, but also internally moving parts, the resulting impulse of those parts, the sum of all impulses, will be zero relative the system’s center of gravity, but not necessarily relative a resting frame of reference (an observer) in which the whole system (machine) may be moving (at constant speed). The sum of kinetic energy of all the internally moving parts, is of course a positive value (negative energy is less than nothing). This value is the system’s internal (kinetic) energy. Since this internal energy is needed to keep the internal parts moving, there cannot be any energy left to accelerate the system (machine) as a whole. On the contrary, energy must be applied all the time to overcome the friction that the internally moving parts are subjected to, otherwise they would come to a halt. This applied energy converts to heat.

Sadly, there are several patents on according designs, claiming to be “inertial drives” for space-ships or whatever. Their inventors, some of which may have ruined their private economies on this, were not confident with the basics of dynamics, as outlined above. See some of those unfortunate examples here: http://jnaudin.free.fr/html/IPEmain.htm

Mechanical Engineering Concepts

Now, imagine you had a ball that is perfectly spherical and a table that is perfectly smooth, so when the ball is placed on the table, the contact area becomes a dimensionless point - zero whatever. Then the contact-pressure F/0 becomes infinite, regardless how light the ball is - something must break. No material could withstand an infinite contact-pressure and from this follows that not even with the most fantastic materials, yet to be developed, a frictionless machine could ever be built (that would require ideal point and line contacts).

Some inventors have a problem with that, like a patent I once saw, where a 15 cm (6 inch) diameter cylinder was rotating at 1500 rpm in a somewhat larger cylinder, supported by a number of smaller rollers in the size of just a few millimeters - it looked like a ball-bearing in cross section. These rollers would rotate at roughly 50,000 rpm. You look in any bearing table what the admissible speeds are and you would see that this design exceeds the limits by far; self-destruct through friction!

Another problem that many inventors have is judging leakage potential. Leakage is a function of pressure ratio, not of pressure difference and it varies to the third power with the clearance gap between the boundaries. It means that the same sealing device, that would leak in an however deep submerged submarine, would leak more in a space craft, because there the pressure ratio to vacuum is infinite - many don’t seem to know that. In addition, even less known, is that the best sealing is obtained with a single, unbroken sealing line, ideally a circle.

Therefore, the reciprocating circular piston machine will always prevail over any rotational displacement concept, that contains several broken (discontinuous) sealing lines. These rotational concepts can be used and are used in low-duty applications, where they have their advantages, such as in air-driven hand tools, industrial compressors, etc, but not in heavy-duty combustion engines. This is why the Wankel never became commercial, except a few years in cars from German NSU, that went bankrupt on it in the 1970-ies.

One can see the most ‘horrible’ designs in various patents, the worst I saw being an engine, consisting of a torus shaped tube, with a slot over its inner length to let through a piston rod, attached to a circular piston moving in that torus, while flat plates were sliding radially in and out the torus to form alternate compression and expansion chambers - at best a good cream-wiper (but it got a gold medal in an inventors contest - its glorious funeral)!

Many inventors have tried to find a linear transmission, that can replace the pendulous crankshaft. It has various disadvantages, such as causing vibrations of higher order, but most of all causing side-forces on the pistons, resulting in excessive wear and leakage there. I once read a statement from a development manager at Volkswagen in Germany, that the crank mechanism alone stands for 20% of the fuel consumption. All alternative designs I have seen, indeed convert the linear piston motion into a rotating one on the shaft and without causing side forces on the piston, but instead they generate the same or higher side forces on sliding parts elsewhere in the design, causing excessive friction and wear there - definitely no fuel savings. I have found a design that does not contain any sliding parts, but consists of rotating components only (I got the idea, when I was with my kids in a merry-go-round). Had I only come up with this a good 100 years ago, I could have made it, but now the pendulous crankshaft is so well established in automated production lines, that it can’t be changed any more. I almost hade it made with Compair-Reavel in the UK, around 20 years ago, but also they found it in the end too costly too change their production line - my bad luck!

Thermodynamics

Another basic thing, often misunderstood, is that energy can’t be “used up”. Surely, the gasoline you put in your car is used up, but the energy it developed is still there, to stay around for all eternity. All the chemical energy that was stored in the original fuel, is converted to heat. Firstly at high temperatures in the car’s engine, but then decaying to heat at ambient temperature. The rest is also converted to heat by friction, the tires on the road, the transmission, air resistance, etc. All energy that we “use” with our technology, finally decays to heat at ambient temperature, even the light from your lamps at home does that.

So is there the term “waste heat”, as opposed to “useful heat”.What is useful? Take “energy-saving” lamps for example. If you live in a cold climate, where you have to heat your home, a normal cheap hot glowing light bulb actually delivers 100% useful energy, 5% of which is light, the rest is heat, that helps heating your home, but this is not what you are told. Only the 5% light is brought forward as “useful” and you are told that you are “wasting” 95% with a normal glow bulb. Only in warm climates, especially third-world countries with very expensive electricity, or in cooled rooms, the use of energy-saving lamps makes sense!

The misconception by the public is that useful energy is “consumed” and waste energy is not. The real situation is that the useful energy is just used, but not “consumed” and is wasted after usage just the same. That’s why your energy bill comes back every month - nothing of what you used, is left. Therefore you read everywhere about “energy production” and “energy consumption”, not in the least used by decision makers in energy politics! It indicates that there is no basic understanding in public society, what energy is about and so unfeasible projects are initiated, wasting time and (your tax) money.

The First Law of Thermodynamics says that energy cannot be created (produced), nor destroyed (consumed). We can only convert energy from one form to an other and the Second Law of Thermodynamics says that it all finally must decay to heat at ambient temperature and so it does. Even though many know this, that is end of story for them, as far as the First Law is concerned. However, the scientific definition of the First Law says that if you add energy to a system to bring it in an other condition, you must remove the same amount of energy to bring it back in the original condition. Naturally, because if we could remove more, energy would be created from nothing and if less, energy would disappear into nothing. This formulation has great consequences, as follows:

Let’s consider an ideal hydrogen (water) engine, by which we pour water in it on one side and the same water AND useful mechanical energy comes out on the other side. Because the engine returns the same water as was applied (firstly as steam, but than condensing to water at ambient temperature), there cannot be a net output from the engine - it would have been created from nothing. If there is an output anyway, this means that the according energy had to be applied as well, not only the water. Indeed, we must apply energy to split the water in hydrogen and oxygen. If that could be done at an efficiency of 100% (electrolysis has only 60%), then that energy could appear as mechanical work on the shaft. This then means that the hydrogen only was an energy converter, definitely not an energy source!

Hydrogen does not occur in free form on Earth, like fossil fuels do and therefore hydrogen can never be an energy source. Give me a dollar for every article that says different and I will be well off!If there would be a method to obtain free hydrogen at considerably less energy input than what combustion with oxygen gives in output, yes, then it would become an energy source, but such a method has not yet been found.

Instead of splitting water, hydrogen can be obtained from natural gases, such as methane. It shows however that the overall efficiency of such a hydrogen loop in a combustion engine would have a somewhat lower overall efficiency than using the natural gas (or bio-gas) directly in a combustion engine. Moreover, hydrogen is a very tricky gas to store and to handle. Not only is it very explosive, but it tends to exude through most metals as well. It is very voluminous, around ten times more than air and thus needs to be brought on high pressures to keep the volume down and that takes a lot of compression energy. Liquefying it would even take more energy, plus a temperature problem for storage as well. There are materials that can absorb hydrogen gas at a lower temperature and give it off again at a higher temperature, surely the better way, but also not very cheap and practical in a distribution system. All together, there is no economy in hydrogen engines, but it may have an environmental advantage - the only viable argument for using it, provided the consumer wants to pay the higher costs, do you?

The same can be said from fuel cells, working on hydrogen - they produce water (steam) and need a steady supply offresh hydrogen and oxygen to work continuously- whereto get how? Yes, the energy that fuel cells are supposed to “produce”, originally came from fossil fuels to manufacture the input hydrogen. Can we call that “non-pollutant” energy? A fuel cell is NOT an energy source, just an energy converter.

The importance of using spontaneity in physical processes is largely unknown, because it has to do with entropy, something not explained very well in schools. So I had to learn in practice, by trial and error, that if you want to separate fluids from each other, you must try to find a design by which this happens as spontaneously as possible, for example with “smart” piping, rather than using filters. The more you try to force it about with various design details, the more you will lose in efficiency - you “produce” entropy as it wrongly is called. The more you force about a process (introduce “irreversibilities”, as it is called correctly), the greater the change of entropy is, the lower the efficiency becomes. Entropy is an essential part of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, not to say the whole of it, but yet there is no general agreement among scientists, what entropy actually is - very confusing.

The Second Law is actually not a “real” law, because it is based on observations only, not on any physical principle. This means that if the observations would change, the Second Law would have to change too, but this hasn’t happened yet, which makes it a law. In everyday life we experience that most things don’t happen spontaneously, only accidents, or coincidences in general, do (”Murphy’s Law”). If we want things to happen, we usually have to do work for it. Hence we could formulate the Second Law as: “for free only the Sun goes up”. On the internet, this formulation of the Second Law is widely violated by millions of web sites, trying to let you believe that for a small investment, you can become rich very soon. But that is not engineering (rather “religion”), so I leave you with that.

In engineering, especially when it comes to renewable energy sources, the Second Law is also widely violated, or rather ignored. Oh yes, solar energy is free, but you can’t use it for free, why not? Because it is widely spread in Nature and thus the effort to collect it into one point of usage and to present it in a usable form, is very large and you have to pay for that effort. Using fossil fuels is cheaper and easier and that’s what we do instead. The same would be valid for nuclear power, but there the “environmentalists” have been successful to obstruct it - with thanks from the Arab oil sheiks.

Renewable energy is something the Second Law is very much against, because it wants to spread it out in the environment, not to collect it for our use. Therefore these renewable energy sources are high-entropy ones, meaning you must do a lot of work to make use of them (low efficiency). There is one exception though and that is hydro-electric power. The forces of nature actually do all the work for us, by collecting rain water in high situated reservoirs, ready for us to use; they are low-entropy sources. But also here the “environmentalists” choose to favor the oil sheikhs instead.

Next would be heat pumps, which are inverted refrigerators. A heat pump absorbs heat from the environment, usually from the ambient air, by generating a cold surface there. This surface is small, but it actually collects heat from large, remote areas, brought by the wind. Also here, the forces of nature do the collecting work for us, a second exception on the rule (compare with a storm blowing aside of your wind propeller, without affecting it, or the Sun burning a hole in the ground next to your solar panel, also without affecting it).

The heat pump, as the name says, pumps up the ambient heat to a higher temperature that we can use, for example to heat water. Also its drive power is given off as heat at usage temperature, is thus no loss (where it is in a refrigerator) and so a heat pump can give off between 3 and 4 times more energy than what it takes to run it. If all the billions of dollars that to date and ongoing are wasted on wind propellers and solar collectors of various kinds, would have been used to provide all households with heat pumps, many power plants could have been shut down by now and no more oil would be burned in homes for heating. This however is a truth with modification. A huge polluting industry, likely using fossil fuels, would be behind all those heat pumps, but that would be the same also for wind propellers, solar panels and the production of hydrogen and fuel cells, all having to be financed by the consumers and making profit as well - the Second Law all right:”For free, only the Sun goes up”

Rudolph N. J. Draaisma
CONSULTING ENGINEER
Online expert advice for your best solutions, against a small fee for short-term issues.
Expert on Energy Conversion & Recovery Systems
also providing: CAD drawings, Techn. Documentations, Calculations, Translations, R&D projects
The Alternative Energy and Engineering Site

We are living in interesting times. Higher tier or bank to bank money is tight. In essence, that means after the trickle-down effect borrowing money is tough for the average Joe. The U.S. had gotten smacked by a couple of devastating hurricanes over the last few years and we’re still suffering from the ramifications.

On the one hand, these natural disasters have displaced so many people and it is sad to see this happen. On the other hand, it’s created work for demolition, contractors and clean-up crews.

Have you thought about starting a hurricane clean-up business, but hesitate because you think you may not qualify to get the equipment you need? If this sounds like you, there is awesome news.

By buying off lease equipment, you more easily qualify to get a dump truck (or any other equipment you may need like backhoes, excavators, loaders, crawlers, dozers, big rigs, dump trailers, etc.)

How do they make it easier? That’s easy, because some lenders won’t even lend money right now to buy dump trucks. Enough of the digression, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. If you:

” Have a qualifying credit score above 600, you may easily qualify for the dump truck
” If you have a bankruptcy that was recently discharged, but have a 600 credit score you still may easily qualify
” If you are new in business and don’t have an established track record, you still may easily qualify
” If you don’t have a down payment, but can scrape up your first payment you may easily qualify
” If you have not officially started your business (no bank account, no Corp. or LLC, no name, no business plan, etc.), you still may easily qualify

The key with this program is that the banks have opened their minds a bit and have opened their credit windows IF you open your mind and help move some of their off lease equipment out of their inventory. After all is said and done, you still may be able to get the equipment you need to start a better life for yourself. Check it out!

Copyright (c) 2008, Vitality Finance Group

For more info about our Special Programs to Buy A Dump Truck go to VitalityFinanceGroup.com or Call (877) 834-3247

“Use of this article is authorized provided it is reproduced in full, and all web URLS are active hyperlinks directed to the author”

It is hard work to become a millionaire. This is especially true if you do it the hard way by starting at zero. There are a few secrets about how to get there that you need to know.

The first big secret, although it is not that big of a secret, is that you are going to have to go out there and take some kind of jump to do it. I was tempted to say risk, but that is not quite the right term. Taking a job has risk. You never know exactly how long you are going to have that job and no job is safe.

Having a job alone is not going to cut it. There are those jobs that will get you there there, but they are doctors, lawyers who bill out at $250 per hour and commercial real estate brokers who do $10M deals. These people are the exceptions. The rest of us need another way.

We all know someone who has been laid off. I live in Houston and can remember when Enron went under. There were a lot of smart people who had nothing to do with the scandal there. There were programmers, office assistants, IT people, and accountants who thought they were on a good place. All of a sudden they saw their retirement accounts go to nothing and were looking for work. This was the big one that caught headlines. How many other cases where a series of circumstances dried up all the cash of a company that had been in business for 50 years? How many times was a new executive get hired that made some ill-calculated decisions that cost millions of dollars where the company responses eventually lead to a “reduction in force”?

You need a job, but never become comfortable with the idea that this is what is going to carry you over to a financial threshold. Even if you worked your life there and put in you maximum amount into your 401K, you are still not looking at millionaire status until many years down the road. What will be the value of a million dollars then? Relying on savings and 401K money also means you have to survive the inevitable market corrections. Nothing is more discouraging than to see eight years of savings vanish because of “irrational exuberance” in the stock market.

All that being the case, you need to take some type of action to ensure your own financial security. The big question becomes what should that jump be and can you actually do it? Eventually you need to put down the copies of the “how to get rich” books and spend your time putting the plan into action.

For those who know what the target path is, it good for you. It is now time to start working. Others have a few ideas and probably more questions about the viability of our ideas than facts. For these people, the best course of action is to take the smallest and least risk components you can and start there.

A good example of low risk item to do - take you existing house, move out and lease it. This is more work and hours on your part, but it takes on less risk. Odds are if you bought a house, you have lived there for a couple of years. The market value is higher than what you paid and the note is at a lower amount than what you can get if you were to get a note for an investment property on the open market right now. Another way of saying all this, the cheapest way of buying a house is to get it for yourself.

Finding another house and packing up the kids stuff is no treat, but you now can now start building equity in two places and earning some cash on the side. When the market values go up, and they will, you gain twice as much as before. I have done this rotation several times and a significant piece of my wealth comes from this. Most people have a significant amount of their wealth tied up in their houses. Why not take advantage of that to its fullest.

One can only add additional rentals every few years. The in-between times are spent saving enough for the next down payment. In other words, there is time on your hands where you can do more. It is not just about doing one thing. To create wealth, we have to constantly look for new opportunities. If we get involved in something that becomes a full time effort, by all means we should focus all of our energy there. But for the new entrepreneur, some experimentation is most likely needed to find your true money making calling.

Take inventory about what you are truly gifted at. Do you mind going up to complete strangers in book stores and coffee shops and engaging them in meaningful conversations? If yes, you need to be in a multi-level-marketing business. I cannot do that and do not want to do that so I have to look elsewhere. I only found this out after failing at a multi-level-marketing. Do you have a specific interest in something and enjoy hunting down suppliers of that? If yes, then consider opening an online store or finding an online channel to sell through.

I have always been a big sports fan. I even went through a period where a friend and I traveled a few parts of the country to visit some of the baseball stadiums. I really enjoy learning about the park history and some of the nuanced statistics of the game. One of the businesses I got into was buying and selling baseball tickets. This lead to buying and selling tickets to other sporting and concert events. This very quickly became a lucrative business for me. I now hire other people to take care of certain aspects of the business. Not only am I making money from doing it, I turned it into another business by teaching people how to do it.

The ticket-selling business was not the first or only other business I had started. Many others flat out did not work or I lost interest. The fact I lost interest proved to me that it was a not a good choice to begin with. When I did have interest in the business, sometimes not matter how much interest you have, if there is not a market, you cannot do anything about it. Buying and selling tickets solved both of these for me.

For me it was buying and selling tickets, for someone else it could be hair care products of children’s toys. The point it is to find an interest you have and discover the ways to formulate a business plan around it.

Start small. Keep the risks to a minimum and most important of all do something.

Greg Cox is a classic entrepreneur. He has combined some education, street smarts and some hard work to build several successful companies. One of his companies is a ticket brokering company. He also teaches other how to be ticket brokers and provides them with the tools they need to succeed. Learn more about the business at http://www.MyTicketBiz.com

To maintain the accounts of any company is a very hectic job. An individual tax mistakes be very much cautious in entering data. A minute mistake may prove fatal. While hiring any accountant, the company studies the capability of the person. Today, many big and small companies prefer offshore accounting because it gives an error free work. Another method of maintaining all the money related affairs of the company is web based accounting. All companies are finding the method very useful. The owner of the company is finding the system beneficent because despite sitting anywhere he can get the entire picture of his company. He gets taxes know all the dealings of his company. Profit and loss of his company is now before his eye.

Web based accounting is a system that resides on a web server. Anybody from any part of the world can access that accounting system with a simple browser, which is required to set up. It helps in running the company. The company need tax mistakes have to pay a large sum of money for the hardware and software. The user only needs to pay a small monthly rental fee. The concept is very much interesting and many companies are implementing it. The advantages of web based accounting are-(1) The administration cost is low, (2) You just need a browser, (3) Cost is low, (4) One can work from home, (5) No back up worries and (6) Applications are up-to-date. The system is a blessing for all the big and small companies. A company can prosper only when the finance of the company is properly maintained.

This performs cash-flow management, customer relation management, inventory control and marketing. It can be operated from any parts of the world. The monthly charge is also very low. It is very easy to implement this system. Firstly, you need to set up a system network. Secondly, you have to select and subscribe to the software. Thirdly, you have to customize the accounting system and lastly, you need to prepare system documentation. This system is a blessing for the small companies because it cut the cost of keeping an accountant. Now, the owner need not have to worry for the accounts of his company because sitting anywhere, he can see how the account of his company is maintained. There is less possibility of any sorts of mistakes.

With the advent of the web based accounting in 1998, the complete process of maintaining account has undergone a massive change. Before implementing it, the companies have to study its pros and cons. Before adopting the system, one should check whether this process would be helpful for his company or not. If it is not useful then he should not adopt the system. Maintaining balance sheet and keeping a record of the profit and loss of the company is a very tough job. If a wrong number is inserted on the balance sheet then the company has to suffer the consequence. Maintain accounting through web is a very easy process and involves less chance of mistake. The user should be very little careful in inserting numbers.

Michelle Barkley is a CPA who advises people on tax preparation and tax calculation.She specializes in bookkeeping outsourcing,Tax return preparation,back office outsourcing and Outsourced Accounting.To know more about Accounting outsourcing services, Web based accounting and to use the services visit http://www.ifrworld.com.

How to Increase Cash Flow Without Borrowing

Cash flow is one of the main reasons businesses fail. At one time or another, every business, even successful ones, have finance poor cash flow. Cash flow does not have to be a problem any more. Do not be fooled — banks are not the only places you can get funding. Other solutions are available and you do not have to borrow.

What is Factoring?

One solution is called factoring. Factoring is the process of selling accounts receivable to an investor rather than waiting to collect the money from the customer.

Oh, the Irony…

Factoring has an ironic distinction: It is the financial backbone of many of America’s most successful businesses. Why is this ironic? Because factoring is not taught in business colleges, is seldom mentioned in business plans and is relatively unknown to the majority of American business people. Yet it is a financial process that frees up billions of dollars every year, enabling thousands of businesses to grow and prosper.

Factoring has been around for thousands of years. Factors are investors who pay cash for the right to receive the future payments on your invoices.

An unpaid receivable or invoice has value. It is a debt your customer has agreed to pay in the near future.

Factoring Principals

Although factoring deals exclusively with business-to-business transactions, a large percentage of the retail business uses a factoring principal. MasterCard, Visa, and American Express all use a form of factoring in their retail transactions. Using the purest definition of the word, these large consumer finance companies are really just large factors of consumer paper.

Think about it: You make a purchase at Sears and charge it to your MasterCard. The store gets paid almost immediately, even though you do not make payment until you are ready. For this service, the credit card company charges Sears a fee (typical fees range from two to four percent of the sale).

The Benefits

Factoring can offer many benefits to cash-hungry companies. Rather than wait 30, 60, 90 days or longer for payment on a product or service that has already been delivered, a business can factor (sell) its receivables for cash at a small discount off the amount of the invoice.

Payroll, marketing efforts, and working capital are just a few of the business needs that can be met with this instant cash.

Factoring provides the means for a manufacturer to replenish inventory and make more products to sell: There is no longer a need to wait for earlier sales to be paid. Factoring is not just a cash management tool for manufacturers: Almost any type of business can benefit from factoring.

Generally, a business that extends credit will have 10 to 20 percent of its annual sales tied up in accounts receivable at any given time. Think for a moment about how much money is tied up in 60 days’ worth of invoices: You cannot pay the power bill or this week’s payroll with a customer’s invoice, but you can sell that invoice for the cash to meet those obligations.

Factoring is a fast and easy process. The factor buys the invoice at a discount, usually a few percentage points less than the face value of the invoice.

The Drawbacks

People consider the discount a small cost of doing business. A four-percent discount for a 30-day invoice is common. Compared with the problem of not having cash when you need it to operate, the four-percent discount is negligible. Look at the factor’s discount as though your business had offered the customer a discount for paying cash. It works out the same.

Companies consider the discount the same way they treat a sales price: It is simply the cost of generating cash flow, much like discounting merchandise is the cost of generating sales.

Factoring is a cash flow tool used by a variety of businesses, not just those who are small or struggling. Many companies factor to reduce the overhead of their own accounting department. Others use factoring to generate cash, which can be used to expand marketing efforts and increase production.

Why Factoring Appeals to the Start-Up

Factoring is especially appealing to young and rapidly growing companies. Since the process shortens their business cycle, these businesses can grow faster. The ability to make more products to sell while waiting for invoices to be paid is largely eliminated. Such businesses usually net much more profit with factoring than without, even when the discount is considered.

Factoring vs. Bank Loans

So, why not simply go over to the friendly banker for a loan to alleviate cash flow problems? A loan can be difficult if not impossible to receive, especially for a young, high-growth operation, because bankers are not expected to decrease lending restrictions soon. The relationships between businesses and their bankers are not as strong or as dependable as they used to be.

The impact of a loan is much different than that of the factoring process on a business. A loan places a debt on your business balance sheet, which costs you interest. By contrast, factoring puts money in the bank without the creation of any obligation. Frequently, the factoring discount will be less than the current loan interest rate.

Loans are largely dependent on the borrower’s financial soundness, whereas factoring is more interested in the soundness of the client’s customers and not the client’s business itself. This is a real plus for new businesses without established track records.

There are many situations where factoring can help a business meet its cash flow needs. It provides a continuing source of operating capital without incurring debt, which can result in growth opportunities that dramatically increase the bottom line. Virtually any business can benefit from factoring as part of its overall operating philosophy.

Every good businessperson must understand the concept and benefits of factoring in order to operate as profitably as possible. The following chart can help you understand the differences between factoring and other sources of funding.

For more information on factoring and other non-traditional ways to obtain funding, contact Fred Coutts at (206) 364-9613 or Fred@FredCoutts.com.
Please visit my website
at http://www.fredcoutts.com/index3.htm for more information on
powerful funding programs without going through a bank

Fred Coutts, CPA, CMA. All Rights Reserved.

Since 1980, Fred Coutts has been crafting powerful cash flow solutions for businesses and individuals alike, from entreptreneurs to “Fortune 500″ companies. He has built a solid foundation of financial and operational experience through many executive roles, including those as CFO and Controller. Fred is well versed and experienced in finance, accounting, and business operations.

Over the years Fred has developed relationships with funding connections nationwide, both traditional and non-traditional sources to help you meet your cash flow needs.

Professional Certifications:

—Certified in Public Accounting(CPA)

—Certified in Management Accounting(CMA)

The realization that accountants are the core of any business establishment dawns on a business head sooner or later. And also the fact that web-based software packages in combination with the time-tested skills of the accounting professionals can transform the very face of business. Hiring thus the certified professionals to help you in web-based accounting functions like accounting, cash-flow management (CRM), inventory control and marketing can prove to be extremely beneficial. A business head can view and manage besides the usual employee compensation other important issues like personal information, income tax withholdings, retirement plans and subsequently the vacation days. Today, web-based software has leveled the playing field to a great extent with most of the organizations doing away with the traditional methods. These traditional methods included tracking the orders from dealers with pen, paper and hours of guesswork noticeably increasing the wastage of time.

Taking the assistance of information technology is necessary to stay ahead in the tax Web-based accounting thereby demands the setting up of a computer network with whose help one can share the information on an increased basis. But the training part of the whole process does the talking as many of the professionals taxes that they aren’t aware of latest information techniques. This type of situation demands experts who are proficient with the latest in software apart form their perfect hold on the accounting skills. Besides these functions, a business head is required to set up a system network for sharing the information and resources with Ethernet as the preferred choice. This particular software system is able to strike a good balance between the cost and speed and with its help small businesses strike a satisfactory network performance. So, with the help of web-based accounting the specialized functions are duly cared for with a provision for a proper maintenance of financial records.

Besides these technical aspects, a business head should take care to hire professionals who are quite apt to handle the crucial projects. This is important because it has been observed that despite a huge potential to become successful, the ventures couldn’t take off due to the wrong choices made by them. This explains the need of doing a proper background search about the kind of professionals you are going to hire so that you don’t lose on the chances of success. One thing is clear though! Web-based accounting packages are here to stay and can be customized according to the required features in a business. In a matter of few hours, any business establishment can customize it while working from the predefined chart of accounts, forms and reports etc.

For the upcoming business establishments, it is a good suggestion to develop a technology plan in the beginning. The plan should specify the goals quite clearly and then prioritize them according to the company’s budget. To speedily execute the process, the business establishment should be flexible enough to consider each available option in the market. The purchasing bit can however, prove to be overwhelming because of the whole host of choices, but categorizing the products simplifies the overall process. But with the help of web-based accounting, one can prepare the system documentation for the benefit of new staff hired for this purpose. System documentation involves detailed procedures, apart from the system activation and deactivation sales and purchase cycle, tax mistakes disbursements etc. This particular system should be easy to read so that the users are able to locate the relevant information quite easily.

Michelle Barkley is a CPA who advises people on tax preparation and tax calculation. She specializes in bookkeeping outsourcing and outsourced accounting. To know more about Finance Accounting Outsourcing, Bookkeeping Outsourcing, Tax Returns, Web-Based Accounting and Accounting outsourcing services visit http://www.ifrworld.com

What is the sub-prime mortgage crisis? Lenders and their mortgage originators steered borrowers who were short-sighted, gullible, unqualified, greedy or all of the above into adjustable rate loans which had extremely low starting interest rates. The problem or crisis is that the loans were designed to adjust to above market interest rates after a short period of time. The loans were attractive to borrowers who were looking for the lowest starting interest rate, to buyers who really could not afford the house they wanted to buy, to lenders who stacked extra closing costs and points into the loans and to investors who bought the loans knowing the low interest rates were only temporary. They all forgot that when something seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.

When the interest rate on the loans adjusted upward, many homeowners saw their monthly payments increase by twenty, forty, or sixty percent and some extreme cases more than double. Coupled with a weak economy (or the perception that the economy is weak) in some parts of the country the rate adjustments led to a wave of mortgage foreclosures when borrowers couldn’t make the higher payments. Lenders found themselves owning houses rather than the loans on them and investors in mortgage backed securities found that their investment turned out to be not very good.

So the crisis is real for people who are losing their homes, lenders who have an increasingly large inventory of homes to resell and to investors who lost money. It is a little hard to feel sorry for anyone involved in the crisis except for the homeowners or former homeowners who were mislead by the mortgage originators and did not have the proper advice or foresight to understand what their loans were going to do. The lenders, originators and investors were all sophisticated business people who made money, sometimes a lot of money, in the short term.

Why is this situation a crisis for a first time home buyer? The simple answer is that it is not a crisis. For people looking to buy their first home it can be an opportunity. The perception that the United States economy is weak is simply not true for many parts of the country. The basic rule of real estate: “location, location, location” definitely applies here. Even where the economy is troubled, many people have solid jobs and the inventory of foreclosed or about to be foreclosed homes is high.

The other main rule of real estate, supply and demand, means that the price of such homes is likely to be lower than comparable home in another area. Foreclosed homes are often not in the condition and lenders tend not to put the time and money into repairing them that a normal seller would. Most lenders and investors are no longer interested in making or owning sub-prime loans and even if some are, government regulators are watching closely so you probably do not have worry about being led into a bad loan.

Buying a home at a foreclosure auction is probably too much to take on for a first time home buyer (the topic of mortgage foreclosure is an article in and of itself), but buying a foreclosed home from a lender can be a much simpler process than going through the normal purchase procedure. A lender with many or even just a few foreclosed homes is anxious to get rid of them. The homes are not generating interest payments, which is how most lenders make their money, and are piling up expenses like real estate taxes, repairs and management or security costs. Most lenders are happy to accept a below market price and are often willing to offer attractive financing packages to make a deal work quickly.

Many lenders have special REO (real estate owned) departments and arrangements with local real estate brokers to deal with caring for and selling off foreclosed properties. Just as one man’s ceiling is another woman’s floor, the so called sub-prime mortgage crisis can turn into an attractive way for a first time home buyer to get into a first home. You have to do your homework including hiring your own inspector, attorney and contractor to advise and guide you through a purchase process that can turn out to be a real bargain. Be sure to read and understand your loan documents.

Paul Anderberg
http://www.first-time-home-buying.net

Erik Anderberg
http://www.eanderberg-law-ma.com

Erik and Paul are the authors of many helpful articles about home buying. Visit their websites to read more. Several other articles of theirs are also available on this site.

In the past year, one out of three real estate agents worked with at least one international buyer, according to the National Association of Realtors. Savvy buyers are coming from everywhere to take advantage of California’s real estate investment opportunities - Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, China, South Korea, and all points in between.

Why do foreign investors find California real estate so appealing? Several factors make our real estate appealing to buyers from points near and far.

Location, Location, Location.

Resort areas are popular with foreign nationals. Property in resort areas hold their value, and attract a steady stream of renters looking for somewhere to stay while on vacation. California’s diverse geography has something to suit just about any appetite. Want to own property in a ski resort? California has it. The same holds true for beach front property, wine country property, lake or mountain property.

Secure Ownership Rights

U.S. real estate has, arguably, the most dependable property ownership system in the world. Transparency in ownership and title means that any foreign investor purchasing property in California can rest assured that he or she is purchasing property from the rightful owner. Foreign nationals also know their investments are protected by our system of stable individual property rights.

Access to Financing

Even in the current housing market, the United States offers flexible mortgage options for foreign nationals. Applying for a US mortgage is a straightforward process, and there are a variety of foreign national mortgage programs available.

Affordable Inventory

Thanks to current exchange rates and the housing market, California real estate is more affordable than it has been in years. Let’s take the pound, for example. In today’s market, the GPB (pound) is currently trading at approximately 2 dollars to 1. Any down payment an investor from the United Kingdom has to pay for a California property is at a 50% discount. Any reserves a UK investor has to deposit in a US bank is also at a 50% discount.

Great Long-Term Investment

Homes in California hold their value over time. This makes California real estate a solid part of any long-term investment portfolio.

Affordable housing prices, attractive exchange rates, flexible mortgage options, and a stable market make California real estate an attractive investment for foreign nationals looking for retirement, second home or vacation property.

For additional information about foreign national mortgage loans, visit http://www.preferredrealtypartners.com/foreign_national_mortgages.html

Julie Cline’s network of professionals provides one-stop, all-inclusive services for foreign nationals investing in California real estate. Her network includes mortgage financing, real estate, and property management professionals experienced in the foreign investor market. Julie has 18 years of financial services expertise and is a member of the National Ethics Bureau. For information, call (866) 599-8480 or visit http://www.preferredrealtypartners.com

Hydrogen fuel cell used in the car can help increase your mileage and also help the environment in the process. Thousands of people have already found alternate ways to convert their cars.

A savvy automobile owner has come up with a very simple yet incredibly efficient way of boosting his old car’s gas mileage by up to 100% - that means several thousands of dollars economy every year.

The inventor says that his product will change water into HHO Two hydrogens combine with one oxygen. Hydroxy, better known as Brown’s gas burns better than regular gas at our fuel pumps and is more energetically efficient. Hydrogen Fuel Cell conversion is what this process is generally called.

Price of gas is continuously rising and the fuel economy issue is beginning to get rather grim. Hybrid cars are more popular all over the globe, concepts of electric cars and Hydrogen fuel cell cars are developed in almost any country and finally there is a way for you to add a little something to fuel efficient revolution.

Owners of cars sometimes forget (or perhaps ignore) a very real gas-mileage-saving option, which would be to change how they drive. In order to save money on gas, it is not necessary to purchase a hideous and slow prototype. You can also boost the mileage of your V8 truck! If you want to get more miles for your gas, you need only do these things.

Speed up smoothly. The gas that is used by this will be less.

Maintain an adequate distance so you don’t have to stop and accelerate repeatedly.

There are two things that can be done to enable your vehicle to get better gas mileage, one being to drive slower and the other is to take your car to a mechanic; a simple air filter change or spark plugs replacement could greatly increase gas mileage. Driving at a speed greater than 120kph uses a lot more fuel.

Many people have never driven a standard transmission car on the hills of Colorado, and do not know that you need to change gears as soon as possible when you reach the top or bottom or a hill, as the low gears use up to 30% more fuel than needed.

The motors in our cars have been so poorly built that 80% of the fuel is wasted as heat and unburned gas - only 20% or so actually burns as fuel. pollution. Actually if you used money valued at $3 per gallon then then the vehicle you drive is really only using 60 cents. second 40 bucks were totally wasted. When you make your car able to be operated by water, you create a gas which helps burning the fuel in a better proportion.

Instructions on how to convert car to run on water are also available for sale on the Internet. Skeptics change their mind after finding out that the instructions come with 2 month full satisfaction money back guarantee.

Converting your car to run on water not only saves money and decreases pollution, it also increases your car’s engine longevity. The system allows you to burn gas more efficiently - which decreases the noise of the engine and the wear and tear of the motor’s parts.

The system is composed by simple parts that are basically bolted on the engine. It can be accomplished with practically no money. With any person to any automobile. You cannot find the system if it is disconnected from the motor.

Picture yourself only needing to buy half the gas you are now! Wouldn’t it be great to have a couple thousand dollars to spend on your Christmas shopping? In order to get a vacation? Why not try raising money for a down payment on a new car in a unique way, such as having a bake sale or a car wash?

It is my wish that this information has been helpful enough to convince you to change your vehicle into one that runs on water. You are on your way to being able to build hydrogen fuel cell.

Discover how to build hydrogen fuel cell and save thousands on fuel bills.

Manufacturing used to be as American as apple pie and baseball.

In business 1980s, this began to change. In order for large U.S. original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, to remain competitive in price-sensitive global markets, they were forced to reduce their costs.

One initiative was the move to outsourcing to take advantage of lower labor rates. At first these foreign countries did not have the ability to fully service the needs of large OEMs. They didn’t have factories, so they built them — state-of-the-art factories using the latest in manufacturing and information technology.

They didn’t have the quality levels required, so they learned from us. Now, lower labor rates are not the only driver moving OEMs to low-cost regions. We are being beaten at our own game.

Global competition now is right on the doorstep of even the smallest U.S. companies, and many are not prepared for the challenge.

In my previous corporate position as a commodity manager in the sourcing group of a major U.S. OEM, my job was to manage suppliers and reduce commodity costs. Unfortunately, this usually was achieved by moving our supply base off-shore.

Other commodity managers I know at large OEMs don’t enjoy moving business out of our country, but often say they have no choice because of the resistance they get from U.S. manufacturers in implementing cost-saving changes and state of the art technology and processes.

The average cost savings produced by moving suppliers to foreign countries is about 40 percent. So, how do we compete?

To stay in the game we need to reduce this gap to between 20 percent and 30 percent to make the total landed cost of transition less appealing to our customers. U.S. manufacturing companies can be competitive with companies in lower-cost regions, but it’s going to require effort, passion and most importantly, changes in the way we are doing business. If you are still doing business the same way you did 20 or 30 years ago, your company is in extreme danger.

Is your company in fighting form? Here are four areas to evaluate within your own firm:

*Do you have a strategic supply chain process that includes formal contracts with your suppliers and continuous raw market, commodity spend, and inventory analysis? business Strike one!

*Do you have an automated enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology system that integrates activities from the production floor, purchasing, inventory control, product distribution and order tracking that drives the manufacturing flow? No? Strike two!

*Do you use lean manufacturing and Six Sigma-based processes on your production floor? No? Strike three!

*Have you developed a Global Footprint by either partnering with or building your own manufacturing facility in a Low Cost Region? No? You’re OUT!

Just as in baseball, three strikes and you’re out. If you are not currently adding or developing all four of these strategies, you are out of time. Speed and agility are the name of the game. While we are moving forward slowly — our competition is moving very quickly. The technologies exist that can make companies more effective and efficient, and our offshore competitors are using them. Why aren’t we?

I have been in factories in China, Hong Kong and Mexico, and I was impressed. The U.S. manufacturing industry typically has exhibited a reluctance to change (remember the auto industry?), and while the majority of company owners know the wolf is at their door, many are still using either a “wait-and-see” attitude or are in complete denial that they are in the ninth inning and there will be no overtime.

This resistance to change may be driven by denial, fear, time or money crunch, or just lack of education on how efficiently they could be performing using tools that are easily available today. But if improvements in the four crucial areas noted above are not made an immediate priority, I believe within a few short years the road of U.S. manufacturing will be lined with the carcasses of companies that began making changes too late.

Companies that are willing to rise to the challenge and embrace the changes required are being rewarded for their efforts. Depending on the level of efficiency a company currently is operating, most companies that implement these strategic processes will gain an immediate savings of at least 15 percent to 30 percent.

It will be enough to level the playing field and keep more business here at home.

U.S. manufacturers can sit in the dugout and hope outsourcing goes away, or we can do what Americans do best: Get back in the game. So, are YOU ready to play ball?

Joanne Rainey, C.P.M.

The Supply Chain Gal

Southwest Outsource Purchasing, LLC is dedicated to helping small to mid-sized companies improve their Supply Chain and Production Operations processes through Strategic Consulting and Program Management. We offer a partnership monthly retainer program that allows your company immediate access to consulting and project management services with highly skilled professionals in the industry for an affordable price. Let us help you stay in the game!

http://www.swpurchasing.com