Our God Sees Our Financial Struggles And Strains

Our God Sees Our Financial Struggles And Strains

Does it ever feel like God has disappeared? A trial comes into our lives unexpectedly, and suddenly, we no longer feel God's presence. In an effort to maintain our sanity, we begin trying lots and lots of different possible "fixes," hoping that one will result in a solution that we can live with.

The interesting thing about many of our solutions is that they often don't solve anything. Rather, they dig us deeper into the hole or they create a new problem. What should we do when hardships arise? Let's consider Jacob's example in Genesis 31:42.

Remember that you are not alone

While it may feel like God has disappeared, He really hasn't. Jacob knew that God was with him through every challenge that Laban sent his way.

When Joshua was afraid of being chosen to lead the Israelites across the Jordan, Moses reminded him, "The LORD Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." (Deuteronomy 31:8 NIV)

If we feel alone, it may be that we have pulled ourselves away from God's presence. We may have pushed God out of the driver's seat of our lives and tried to direct our own paths. But life is much too difficult to travel alone.

Be still

In addition to recognizing God's presence, we also have to be quiet enough to hear from Him. God cannot direct our paths if we are too noisy or too busy to listen for His direction.

Daily, we should spend time with God so that we can be in tune with His will for our lives. His direction may not be what we thought, hoped, or planned, but it is what is best for us.

Even if we find that we are off of His path, all hope is never lost. He can work with us in all of our mess. Romans 8:28 tells us that God works in all things for the good of those who love Him. He can turn it all around.

Allow God to fix it

If God never leaves us, then He has seen all that has happened to us. Nothing can be hidden from God. We don't have to worry about avenging those who have wronged us or our family. God wants to guide our lives, and He is definitely capable of fixing our issues.

Jacob didn't try to get even with Laban for all of the pain that he caused him over his 20-year employment. He took every challenge in stride, knowing that God would look after him.

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How to Deal With Market Corrections 10 Do's and Dont's

How to Deal With Market Corrections 10 Do's and Dont's

A correction is an event that will adjust the equity price of a stock to its actual value. This can cause a price to go change even after speculators respond in different ways to certain news stories or certain profit opportunities.

A correction might be useful because it will make the value of an investment easier to deal with. However, there are some risks that come with some of these events. It is true that you could get a good profit if you have a mutual fund that is impacted by a correction. However, there are also some problems that might cause issues with market corrections.

There are a few things to take a look at when it comes to corrections. You must think about these factors during any correction no matter how intense it might be.

First, you should look at your asset allocation to see that it fits in line with your goals. You should not try to reduce your equity allocation if you feel that stock values will fall. Timing the market is never a good idea because it hardly ever works.

The next tip is to think about what has happened in the past. Corrections have often resulted in great times to buy things. You should take a look at a diverse number of NYSE companies when their values decline. Try going when stocks are twenty percent under the 52-week highs.

You also have to avoid grabbing your cash from the past rally. You should be careful because you could potentially buy new issues in the future. There is no real way how you can predict what will happen at this point.

The fourth tip will be to see what could happen later on. You cannot easily figure out when a rally is going to take place let alone how long it might go on for. You have to find quality equities at the right times so you can earn more off of a rally. Getting things when they are down is always a good strategy.

Sometimes a correction might keep on going well after it starts. You will need to buy stocks slowly while waiting to completely secure a new position. The goal is to see what the declines might be like while also preparing for long declines just to be sure.

The use of cash has to be understood as well as possible. You have to be out of cash during the correction. You have to keep your cash flow from changing so the market value change will only be based your particular perception of what you see out of it.

Your working capital is a point that has to be factored into the process just as well. This is despite the ways how prices might fall. Your working capital should continue to grow at this point. You will have to check on the fundamentals and price of whatever you have and avoid trying to adjust the flow with your own ideas. You should check on your experiences but try not to force anything.

Identifying new opportunities to buy other stocks might be useful just as well. You can do this to figure out what stocks you want to deal with. This can be done regardless of what people on Wall Street might say. The key is to stick with value stocks so you can avoid the risk while also getting the most out of something.

You have to see how your portfolio is performing during a correction. This includes looking at it based on your asset allocation goals in mind and how interest rate cycles are going. You should never try to analyze your performance based on calendar quarters or years. Also, the Working Capital Model should be used when examining your portfolio because it lets you analyze your personal assets.

The final tip will be to talk with a broker about your portfolio. You might want to talk with that person if your portfolio has not increased in values in the last few years.

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Defining a Productive Marketing Strategy

Defining a Productive Marketing Strategy

Marketing is further defined by the American Marketing Association as an "organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders". This differs greatly for the principles of the 4P's, but nonetheless, they are inter-related. I would alter the diagram from figure 1.13 to figure 1.14 due to the recent changes and impact of digital media.

Consumers are more sophisticated today, they know what they want, information flows readily through all sorts of media, price points are well defined and the information pipeline is a wealth of data feeds. Our business environment today is driven by technology, digital media, and the information age; gone are the buzz words of old only to be replaced by click-through, webinars, electronic catalogs, downloads, social marketing, relationship marketing, demographic profiling, and email marketing. Your marketing program evaluation needs to focus on what digital components you are able to embrace and incorporate into your program.

Order pads have been replaced by iPads; a product catalog has been replaced by websites, electronic catalog and downloads; sales meetings have been replaced by webinars; physical offices have been replaced by virtual offices. The landscape of today's Business-to-Business realm has been complicated by the digital age and your company needs to embrace this philosophy. Certainly, this does not mitigate the presence of a strategic sales organization, nor does it replace the human touch of a customer centric or service organization; rather, the digital age opens new outlets and communication to potential buyers that must be part of your companies' marketing strategy and part of the Strategy for Sales Perfection.

Your company needs to put your business on your customers' computer screens as effectively as you do in making sales and product presentations to them in person. In evaluation your current marketing strategy, you must look beyond the basics of printed catalogs, literature, pricing and promotions. You must consider new and creative methods to deliver your message and spotlight your product, brand, or service. Digital media will not only provide your sales force with superior operational effectiveness, but will make a lasting impression on your customer as a leading edge supplier and/or partner.

Make sure you adequately research and implement all available options to your company to improve your marketing effectiveness through digital media; a review of the following areas will help to analyze your digital footprint:

• Make sure your website is clean and uncluttered, organized logically, easy to read and navigate. Research has proven that website design is paramount to customer satisfaction and browsing experience.

• Does your company use click-through advertising platforms to drive traffic to your website? The majority of your customers are finding you on-line not through the yellow pages.

• Yellow page advertising is gone, period.

• Utilizing demographic profiling and psychographic profiling.

• Email marketing and/or a newsletter promotion of your companies' products and services directly to your target market set you apart from the competitors.

• Do not forget email marketing to your customers' customer if possible. Pull through marketing is extremely effective and appreciated throughout the channel.

• Webinars - The use of webinars is an effective and time conscience method to train your customers on new products or services, make efficient sales presentations, and conduct highly effective meetings allowing the best use of resources and time management.

• Dealer incentive programs - does your company offer a customer loyalty or incentive program? Research has proven that customer loyalty, rewards and incentive programs will boost revenue and build customer loyalty insulating your company from competitive pressures. Incentive solutions provide proven and tested opportunities to attain the goal of building loyalty for your company.

• What digital or print methods does your company employ to spotlight your product, brand or service?

You need to provide your company the opportunity to transcend the traditional business-to-business role of a supplier or a vendor. You need to supplant this premise with non-traditional approaches to provide key interaction and communication tools to your customers. An evaluation of this practice is essential to move your company into the digital age. Some of these concepts and practices will be discussed in more detail in subsequent chapters.

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