10 Tips on How to Save Money on Translation

1. Deliver Your Files Electronically

The easiest method to deliver your files for translation is electronically - via electronic mail or FTP. Surely, it is possible to snail mail or fax a hard copy or even deliver it to a translator personally, and many translators would happily take hard copy for translation, but most of the time translation of these documents can cost you a lot more, considering that the translator might need to format the translated text so it matches the original. If you have to translate and certify your personal documents, the easiest way to deliver them is to scan and send the copy via email. When you fax your documents, anything could go wrong. To name just a few possible glitches - the recipient could be out of paper, the paper could get stuck, the fax could not print foreign characters correctly, the copy could not be readable, especially if you are faxing a copy of another fax. While scanning your document renders a perfect picture that looks just like the original.

2. Use Plain Language

Generally, the plainer the language you use, the easier it is to translate it. If you wrote your copy, try to examine it to see if you have used any words that can have several interpretations. Try to substitute these words by others that are not ambiguous. An exception to this recommendation would be a sophisticated advertising copy that has a punch line or a pun. However, translation of marketing collateral differs from mainstream translation, and is considered a creative adaptation. This may require considerable time and extra expenses, because translators might need to do a great deal of research in order to find a similar expression in the target language, or to produce an entirely new one.

3. Use Consistent Terminology

If you write a technical document designed to assist people in using a software product or an appliance, you need to use the terminology consistently throughout all your documents. Repetitive terms exclude any ambiguity and make a translator's task incredibly easier, and your expenses lower. The exception to this rule is fiction or poetry, where the livelier the language you use the more literary value your work could possibly have.

4. Use as Few Writers as Possible

Sometimes companies don't have technical writers on staff, and the writing is done by engineers, managers, coordinators or administrative personnel who have little if any training in writing. Which isn't an issue by itself - many people are perfectly competent at writing with no formal training. The real problem is when you have many people write your documents. People always have different opinions about correct means of conveying a message. So if you use several writers, you most likely realize that everyone has their unique style, their preferred terms, expressions, and so forth. If you have several writers, your documents are bound to be inconsistent, which can result in additional translation expenses, more inconsistency due to the translation, and, finally, to customer frustration. This is particularly important with customer-focused product literature. Technical writing is different from creative writing, where the use of colorful metaphors and juicy expressions is valued.

5. Use as Few Translators as Possible

To translate the same document or related documents, you should employ as few translators as possible for the very same reason - consistency. Like writers, every translator has a different way with words. Even if you were very consistent in your writing, if you assign the task to several translators, there will inevitably be inconsistency, as the translators might use different terms for the very same concept. Certainly, it can be fixed with the aid of one editor and/or proofreader, however, many sneaky errors always are able to crawl into important documents.

6. Send All Relevant Files and Glossaries

If you translate a portion of your documents in-house and outsource others, I cannot stress enough the importance of sending previously translated relevant documents. The translators will use them to ensure your translated document is consistent throughout. Sending any glossaries you could have created will also save them a lot of time and effort on research, clarifications and asking questions.

7. Always Send the Source Files

While it's possible to translate a printed document or a PDF file, if you need a quick, smooth translation you should send the source files. Recreating a document from scratch can be extremely time-consuming, and is a lot more costly. Send files in Indesign, FrameMaker, Quarxpress or whatever program was used to create it. Translators are quite tech savvy!

8. Always Send the Final Version of Your Document

Never translate documents that will be for sure changed or edited later! Going into a document to incorporate last minute changes is very time-consuming, costly and error prone.

9. Send Written Instructions

Unless you have dealt with this particular translator or company before, you should always jot down your instructions and any relevant information and background of the document. Translators might make their best guess as to what you might need, but that may very well be a wrong one.

10. Be Prepared to Respond To Questions

Be open to questions - translators ask questions because they want to do their best job, not out of mere curiosity. If something seems obvious to you, it could be because you have worked on that document for a long time and you could be unable to see all the information gaps it contains. Don't let the meaning get lost in translation!

http://www.breakthroughtranslations.com offers translation services in all major languages. We are experts in technical, medical, legal, marketing and business translations. You can get a free non-obligatory quote for you translation project here: http://www.breakthroughtranslations.com/contact-us/get-a-quote/

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Make Money as a Spanish Translator

There are lots of ways to earn a living in the world today. Sometimes we only seem to think that doctors, lawyers, or rocket scientists are the only ones who can make any money. However, if you're bilingual in Spanish and another language, you can be a Spanish translator and earn a good income.

What it takes to be a Spanish Translator

A lot of people think that anybody that speaks two languages can be a translator. This is not the case. A Spanish translator must be able to understand not only English and Spanish, but also has to know the culture of the people that speak the languages, and be able to write well. Also, in order to be a freelance Spanish translator, you need to have drive and determination to make your new business work.

Becoming a translator will not make you rich over night. In fact, I know very few translators that would classify themselves as rich. However, that doesn't mean that there isn't money in translation. You just have to know how to make some of it yours.

Using Spanish to Make Money

Once you decide that you'd like to be a translator, you have to realize that as with any other business you might start, people need to know about it in order for you to have any business. If you just say to yourself one day, "Great, I'm going to be a translator starting today," and then do nothing else, you won't be anywhere nearer your goal of making money as a Spanish translator.

You have to market yourself.

This is probably the most important step you have to take in order to become a successful translator. Some translators will probably scoff at me for saying this, but there are translators that aren't very good but get a lot of business because they are good marketers. On the other hand, there are very good translators that don't get any business because they are very bad marketers.

Marketing Your Translation Business

There are a lot of ways to market your newly formed translation business, and I'm not going to outline them all here right now. However, as I've talked to translators over the years, I've come to the conclusion that the hardest period for translators is right at the beginning of their careers. It's when they're just starting out that they have the most trouble finding work.

The way to beat that is simple: Tell everyone you know and meet that you are a Spanish translator and that you are open for business. Give everybody a couple of business cards and tell them to pass one on to someone else. This might seem intimidating at first, but you should be proud that you are bilingual and able to translate. There are a lot of people in the world that wish they had what you have.

By telling everyone you know that you are looking for translation work, they can keep their eyes and ears open for you. And once you get clients, it's a lot easier to have them keep coming back to you for all their needs than to go out and find another client.

There are a lot of Spanish translators in the world today, but if you take yourself seriously and start marketing yourself as outlined above, you'll be able to make a niche for yourself in the translation industry and make money as a Spanish translator.

Clint Tustison loves languages and has been translating for the past 10 years. Lately he's begun imparting his knowledge of the translation industry to help all those interested in becoming translators. These tips and suggestions can be found at http://www.spanish-translation-help.com.

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Save Money on Translation Services

Translation is generally paid per word, sometimes per page. The price per word depends on the difficulty of the text, the complexity of the layout and the deadline. Ultimately, the final price per word will depend on how many hours the translator or the translation company estimates he/she will have to work on the translation. Based on this, here are some tips for savings money on translation services.

· Use machine translator whenever possible: This may save you and/or your company a lot of money as this service is basically free. However, it should only be used for internal communication in the company, e.g. between members of a team to translate emails. All documents for official internal use and external use should be translated professionally by a human translator translating into his native language.

· Provide only the text you need to be translated: Try to stick to the point in your documents as much as possible. Avoid repetitions in your text or ask for a discount for repetition. All translation company will have software (e.g. Trados) to compute the number of words, repetitions and fuzzy matches (partial repetitions).

· Avoid complex layouts: Unless you want your document to be formatted by the translation company, provide the text to be translated in a Microsoft Word file with little or no formatting. For example, if you have both Word and PDF version of a document, send the Microsoft Word file, you may have to pay less than for the PDF document. The more you make the translator's job eay so that he can focus on the translation rather than the document layout, the cheaper you'll have to pay.

· Plan ahead: Try to get your document ready as soon as possible, so that you do not need to ask for the translation to be ready in a short time. Indeed, if you need to translate more than 2000 words a day, you may need to pay a rush charge. This will generally increase the price by 25 to 50%.

· Shop around: Try to find an affordable translation service you feel you can trust, by checking the yellow pages and searching on the internet.

· Test the translation service: Ask for a test or only give a small assignment the first time you use the translation company services. This will avoid taking the risk of having to retranslate a document, because the initial translation was not up to the required standard.

· Do not use the cheapest translators: Even though this may be tempting to use the cheapest translation service you can use, you may end up paying twice for your translation, if it needs to be redone. In many cases, very cheap translations are done by part-time freelancers and more often than not you may not receive the translation you ordered, the quality may be very poor or you may receive it after the deadline previously agreed. Of course, there may be exceptions, but you are without doubts taking unnecessary risks.

· Choose your payment mean: If you use a translation service in your own country or city, the cheapest ways to pay are cash or checks. However, if you work with a translation company in another country paying by cash will not be possible, paying by check will incur charges on both ends. In that case, from the customer point of view, credit card is the best way to pay, as all the fees will be borne by the translation company. If the company does not have this option yet, you may ask them if they would accept receiving payment thru online payment services such as paypal or moneybookers so that you can pay by credit card. If this is not possible then you would have to pay with a money transfer service, international bank transfer or check that will most of the time require the client to pay fees.

CNX Translation - http://www.cnx-translation.com - is a Hong Kong registered company offering translation and localization services in English, French, Thai and Chinese languages.

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Music Affiliate Programs Are Easy Money, Trust Me

Music is everything. If you have music traffic, you need a music product. There are 3 different musical industries with incredible potential; Music lessons and instruments, Mp3s and Cds, and Musical performances. All three of these industries have incredible affiliate programs, promise millions of queries, hundreds of thousands of sales and most important: The ability to create incredibly profitable relationships with your customers.

One customer could potentially do business with you forever! Customers collect music, lessons, instruments and more, promising a possible life long shopping spree. If you are going to promote musical products, the affiliate program should be maximized, meaning every customer becomes a repeat customer.

More than often, music affiliate programs are a one time, front end offer, and they do not generate any more sales once the transaction goes through. A good offer should have a back-end amount on the inside and/or continue to pay you after the person signs up.

People who download music will continue to buy music, so it is important for your merchant to have more to sell the customer later on, after the initial sale.

People who play music will need new equipment, instruments, lessons, tips, tricks, and then purchase tickets to shows and manufacture the music they make.

The average person spends hundreds of dollars a year on music CDs or Mp3s, and some studio musicians spend thousands a year on musical instruments, sounds, beats, software and more.

Sometimes a person or a band will have CDs made of their bands recording, and they will spend $5,000 or more on it! If you want to spend a lot of time as an affiliate promoting music affiliate programs, guess what? You have made a seriously good choice.

The first thing you need to do is have a look at the different keywords with the Google keyword tool. Try out terms like "musical instruments," "music store," "download mp3's" "music software," "instrumentals," "sounds," "music tickets," and so on. Take a look through all of the sub-keywords that you may find. Sometimes the smaller niches can convert like mad.

There are a few niches that are easy and affordable to promote, and these do get significant traffic. "rap beats" for one is affordable, high converting, and best of all it has maximum potential for repeat customers. There are a few music affiliate programs for hip hop beats and instrumentals where you will see high conversions, big payouts and a lot of traffic.

"Music production" is another big time seller. The people who purchase music production software or lessons, spend a lot of money every year on average. For instance, one buyer will purchase a membership to a website that re-bills every month and he will keep the membership for two years and pay them $680 total! This same guy will purchase $500 of sounds from another website, then purchase a $1600 keyboard from a music store online. Music is big business.

The name of the game is money when you are looking for an affiliate program. Simply give the merchant a call and find out what the average payout per customer is. What will you most likely average from them? Promote the music affiliate program that makes you the most money. It does not matter if the niche has a huge amount of traffic but low conversions, or if it has a large payout with less traffic. If it makes you the most money, promote it over the others. You can also take into account where the traffic is coming from, if you have a longer period of time with that niche or you trust a certain merchant more than another or they make your life easier as well.

Like other affiliate programs, a typical payout for a digital product is 50% to 70%. Physical products are around 7%. 10% would be great, especially if you are selling $20,000 products! Remember that re-billing can be great, but you need to make sure it's got a good conversion, because without the initial sale, there will be no one to re-bill!

If you have traffic that converts mp3 download sites with one payout, your probably doing it for the heavy amount of traffic. Sometimes a coupon deal can help you gain that edge over the competition, or have a bonus that the merchant has agreed to. Perhaps make a few sales first to show the merchant you mean business.

Here is the ultimate music affiliate program that features music downloads, music production software, rap beats and music lessons. The BigBillions stuff converts insanely, is targeted, and it won't cost you an arm & a leg to promote. I highly recommend heir stuff & I think every affiliate marketer should definitely give it a try for fantastic results.

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Make Money With Music - It's Possible If You're Willing to Work at It

Being An Independent Musician is Hard Work

Let's face facts for a moment... it's really not that easy to make money as a musician. About 10 years ago that statement was true but with the ease of digital music creation and the absolutely insane number of independent musicians trying to make it in this industry that statement is multiplied by the thousands.

So what does this mean for an independent artist like yourself? Well you could throw in the towel now but you really want to make it in this music business thing don't you? If you're not 100% certain of the answer to that last question you might want to really consider the towel thing. Realistically speaking there are an endless number of cats out there - just like you - who want to make this music thing happen bad. I mean really bad. So if you're heart isn't 100% in it then you're just wasting your time and you may as well pack it in now... Still with me? Good. Let's move on.

Now that you know for certain that no matter what happens, no matter how long it takes and no matter how persistently you have to try - you want in this music biz thing and there's nothing that's going to stop you - you can start developing your plan to sell your music.

You Need To Develop A Plan

Plan? I didn't know I had to have a plan. Of course you need a plan. The old adage still rings true. Those who fail to plan... well you know the rest. Do you plan on failing? My guess is if you've made it this far into this rant then you plan on being a success. Rock star life is for you! Pass the champagne the cigars and bring in the bikini clad girls. Speedo boys for the ladies...

Whoa! Not so fast Rock Gods and Goddesses. Who the heck is buying your music? How old are they? Where do they hang out? Are they part of the Emo crowd or are Hip Hop low rider pants their thing? Do they go to clubs or do they prefer to hang out with friends and watch videos at home? These factors need to be considered and included in your "Music Business Plan".

Who Are Your Fans?

So we're starting to touch on some important things here. Who are your fans? You really need to be very clear on this. Once you know who they are you can begin to focus on what makes them tick. What is going to motivate them to spend their money on your music? Is it sex, power, fame or drama?

Let's take a look at the pleasure aspect. Think about how soda pop is sold. Do they blast you with information on how much sugar is in it. How many calories? Of course not. They hit with you how good you'll feel on a hot day with their brand of soda slowly flowing down your throat. The cooling sensation of holding the can to your brow. These are the pleasure aspects of their products.

How about those feelings of power that we all crave. In its hey day, the automotive industry capitalized on the desires of North Americans to feel safer in their vehicles. Enter the SUV. They didn't sell you on how much it would cost on gas. They didn't tell you - even though their vehicles were built for off road and most of us lived in suburbia - that you didn't need huge mudder tires and 4 wheel drive capabilities on asphalt roads. They sold you on the feelings of power and prestige. You could afford to buy their monster vehicles and still pay for the astronomical amounts of gas necessary to run them and this made you powerful. Special even. Heck you could afford to buy their SUV's when most were living from paycheck to paycheck.

So let's consider how your band relates to the fancy pants salesmanship of our "friends" in the corporate world. I like to break down the process and simplify the most basic methods used to sell any product regardless of whether it be a service or a physical product like your CD's.

What Does It Take To Increase CD Sales?

In the world of sales, professionals like to use a system that practically guarantees a high return when used properly. It can be broken down into three specific methodologies any of which can bring you a return with their use but if you implement all three your odds of making a sale increase exponentially. I'll cover all three aspects of the sales system so you can begin to use them to increase the sales of your music almost overnight.

For our example let's take a look at my friend Aaron Davison's web copy...

Aaron is providing a very comprehensive course on how to get your music published in television, video games, and movies. He's succeeded in getting his own music published so the info he provides is worth every penny. Anyway, I'm not here to sell you on his product but to demonstrate how he goes about doing this with the power of his words and the three very effective methodologies we're going to discuss below.

The Features:

Take a look at the opening statement on Aaron's site. "You're About To Learn How To License Your Music In TV and Films and Generate A Substantial Income With Your Music. Get The Most Comprehensive Information Available Anywhere On The Topic Of Music Licensing."

Notice how he hits his potential customers with all the features of his products offerings.

Learn How To License Your Music
Generate A Substantial Income
Get Comprehensive Information on Music Licensing

As a musician these are the buttons needed to push the emotional triggers and get you to pay for his product. Think about how you can relate this technique to your website and how you go about selling your music with your words.

The Application:

The application is a little different. This touches on how you're going to go about using the product. With Aaron's product it's pretty straight forward. You'll listen to his audio and he'll guide you on how to get your music published step by step. But that's not how he "sells" you on the application of the product. That would be too boring. Let's look a little closer at some of the sales lingo he uses.

1 - Would You Like To Earn More Money With Your Music By Licensing Your Songs For Use In TV and Film?

Application: Use this product to make more money.

2 - Do You Have A Catalog Of Songs That YOU'RE NOT Earning Income From?

Application: Take your songs and begin earning money right away.

3 - Do You Think Your Music Is Good Enough To Compete In The Marketplace But Simply Aren't Sure Of How To Get It Out There?

Application: Discover the techniques used to get your music published on television and in movies.

4 - Are You Ready To Take Realistic Steps To Move Your Career Forward By Licensing Your Music While Making Money And Also Gaining More Exposure For Your Music At The Same Time?

Application: Gain more exposure for your music while giving your music career a boost at the same time.

Aaron's application questions tug at the hearts of musicians and answer the questions that you ask yourself when considering whether or not to purchase his course. How do I use this product to make me better and get me paid? Think about what your fans want from your music. Can they use it to be "cool". Will it make them popular with their friends? These are some of the triggers you need to pull when writing your sales copy for your CD. Answer these questions for your fans/customers and you're on your way.

The Benefits:

The benefits are extremely important to the buyer in all instances of the sale. This is what's in it for you. This is what really matters when it comes down to opening your wallet and parting with your hard earned money. Get these right for your customers/fans and your CD's will be flying out of your hands like cold beer on a hot day.

Let's touch on the benefits that Aaron provides for potential buyers. If you scroll down his sales page a little ways he lists a host of benefits for you. He makes it very easy to see what it is we are getting when we buy his course.

The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that once we've paid, we get instant access to this course. We don't have to wait for shipping or processing. The product is ours the moment we've paid for it.
He also lets us know that all topics involved in getting our music published will be covered in full. Everything from A to Z in the business of music publishing and licensing.
Once we're in we'll also have access to an industry insider interview with Michael Redman. It's like having your ear to the ground and hearing first-hand the ins and outs from someone who's been there.
We'll be able to listen to the songs he's used to get himself published. Songs he's already made some good money with in the music publishing business.
Aaron also includes a directory of music businesses that we can send our music to for publishing consideration and it includes lifetime updates.

Clearly there are numerous benefits to Aaron's course and he has done an excellent job in laying them out for us to see and feel. If you can do half as good a job at laying out the benefits of buying your music, you'll have no problem increasing your sales counts in no time.

What's important to realize is that what I've just covered here is the most basic sales formula in existence. The top gun salesman have been using the FAB (Features, Applications and Benefits) formula for years and it works to this day without fail. In recent years advertising agencies have tried to use fancy TV spots in order to win awards but sales consistently demonstrate that the FAB formula provides a better return than any fancy ad spots, gimmicks or graphic tricks. Words sell - and if you learn how to use them to fit your customers wants and needs, you'll end up selling more in the long run. Much more.

One thing that I need to mention as well is that this system can be used for any of your sales material. Think of ways you can use it in your flyers as well. You need to draw fans to the bars. Use the FAB formula to do it. There aren't any areas that you can't apply these techniques to increase attendance and sales.

As a marketer myself I implement some of these same techniques at TheMusicBizBuzz.com. Head on over to the music review section and check it out... Put this stuff to work and just take some kind of action today. It'll pay off for you in the long run so get out there and do it.

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Money in the Music

Everyday life is filled with music. We have radios in our homes and our cars, CD players and mp3 players. More portable than ever, music goes with us for everything we do. The music industry has ample opportunity to reach out to fans in a variety of ways. To the musicians, this might be about sharing their art, but in the music industry as a whole, it's about making money. Fans spend billions of dollars each year worldwide to support the industry. To support that money making machine, thousands of different roles are required to make the music we hear. With so many people involved in the process, how do they still make so much money? It makes money from a lot more than just album sales.

For a small beginner band, it might not seem like the industry has much to offer. Beginning bands struggle to get their foot in the door and make any money. That's because it is so vast, and so competitive. Fans have a variety of options to satisfy their music craving. As technology advances, the industry can reach more people, and saturate us with the music we love. All the music we hear comes at a price, though. Album sales are just the start. Album sales are probably the best known way that music industry makes their money. The money we spend to purchase music goes to record labels who own the rights to the music. Rights are another way the music industry makes money. Original music is copyrighted and owned by an entity. Whether it is a songwriter or a performer, someone owns the rights to that music. Often, when a label releases the music for a songwriter or musician, the rights are assigned to the record label in return for royalties. Any time that music is performed by someone else, they are required to get permission, and pay royalties for that right. That means the current owner of the music, as well as the original creator, make money from the reproduction of that music. Royalties and permission to perform are complicated, but it is another way the music industry makes money. Fans love to support and stay involved with their favorite artists. That's why millions are made every year in the sale of merchandise. T-shirts, hats, and any other item that carries the name of your favorite artist is a product of the music industry. The sales of those trademarked items bring in a large portion of the music industry's money.

In recent years, one technological development has begun to hurt sales for the industry. The ability to download music has become a major financial and legal problem for the industry. Because artists are entitled to royalties for the sale or reproduction of their work, downloading music for free on the internet is stealing their profits. Laws have been passed to make this practice illegal, and many individuals have paid the price for downloading free music. Music downloads, or pirated music is still a common practice the music industry will have to overcome, but they still have plenty of other ways to make their money.

The music industry has long been a major player in the entertainment sector of our society. Fans will pay big bucks to have their favorite music and to support their favorite bands. Over time, the industry will evolve even more to overcome it's challenges and provide the proper compensation for its artists. We may spend a lot of money with them, but fans agree, music is worth the price.

90s music hits can be found easily on top online music sites like 977music.com. Visit their online music site to choose from a practically limitless range of the most popular titles from U2 to Britney Spears -- and even discover new "old" favorites from the top http://977music.com.

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Hedge Fund Manager Didn’t Know You’re Not Supposed To Gamble And Lose Investor Money To Tobey Maguire, Paris Hilton’s Sex Tape Partner, Et Al

You’re a hedge fund manager running a Ponzi scheme in Los Angeles. You’re pretty into poker and attend bi-weekly games with various actors who, as it unfortunately turns out, aren’t half bad at cards. The buy-in’s $100,000 but you don’t have the cash. What do you do? If you’re Brad Ruderman you use some client funds to cover it, as well as the money you lose to Spiderman and Co.

An FBI investigation into Brad Ruderman, the CEO of Ruderman Capital Partners, uncovered how he lost $25 million of investor money in clandestine poker games held on a twice weekly basis in suites at the luxury Beverly Hills hotel, Four Seasons, and the Viper Room on Sunset Boulevard. Tinsel town A-listers Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon also played in the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em games which had a buy-in of $100,000, multiple members of the ring told Star. DiCaprio, Affleck and Damon are not being sued. Others who were part of the secret society and are facing hefty lawsuits include billionaire businessman Alex Gores, The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes, Welcome Back, Kotter star Gabe Kaplan, Paris Hilton’s infamous sex tape partner, Rick Salomon, record label owner Cody Leibel and Las Vegas nightlife entrepreneur and real-estate developer Andrew Sasson, among others.

The games were “exclusive events, by invitation only, and that there was a regular roster of players consisting of wealthy celebrities, entrepreneurs, attorneys and businessmen,” according to the lawsuit filed against Maguire in the United States Bankruptcy Court, in Los Angeles. Ruderman lost $311,300 to Maguire, including one losing hand of $110,000, on July 30, 2007, it’s claimed. The Ponzi mastermind used clients’ money to “pay for gambling losses at clandestine, high stakes poker games that were operated without any licenses or permits,” the suit said.

In their attempt to win back Ruderman’s losses, the trustee has claimed Maguire is “not entitled to receive the transfers from the Debtor, which transfers were compromised of improperly-diverted investor funds.” In a deposition of the alleged ringleader of the operation, which took in tens of millions of dollars beginning in 2006 through 2009, Maguire is described as a “very, very frequent player,” in the games, which ended in 2009. Maguire won as much as $1 million a month over a period of three years, one source told Star… “That means he could have made up to $30 to $40 million from these games,” the whistle-blowing card shark predicted.

Tobey Maguire Sued Over Multi-Million Dollar Illegal Poker Game; DiCaprio, Affleck & Damon Involved [Radar via FINalternatives]

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30 Easy Ways to Save Money (and No, you are not doing them all!)

Let’s keep this one simple and clean - just a bunch of relatively easy ways to save money. As you incorporate more and more of these tips into your life, the savings add up and it wouldn’t surprise me if you could save thousands over the course of a year.

It will take a little work on your part but those thousands of dollars in savings are what helped us get out of debt earlier, kept us out of debt for several years and will hopefully help us pay off our recent auto loan soon as well.

1. Cook at home often: If both the husband and wife work, this is likely to be very difficult. Start out with the habit of cooking at home once a week and slowly increase the frequency until you find a balance between saving money and getting stressed out.
   


2. Make your own coffee: Everyone seems to have heard of the latte factor. Even though the author may have overestimated the savings from skipping a latte at Starbucks, don’t underestimate the ding it puts in your pocket in the long run. You don’t have to entirely ban drinking coffee, but skip it as often as possible unless you make it at home.
   


3. Brown bag lunch at least a few days a week: Lunch times are great opportunities to network and make connections that could improve your career growth. So unless there is a common eating area for brown baggers, you may choose to limit brown bagging lunch to three days each week. Find a balance between saving some money and making the connection. In my case, I take my lunch with me 2-3 times a week and eat out the rest of the time.


4. Make a list before going shopping: They call it impulse buying for a reason. Humans simply have a very tough time resisting the temptation to purchase extras while shopping. Without a list you will buy items that you simply do not need. Even worse is when your forget to purchase the actual item you came to the store for in the first place. If you plan on cooking at home, pre-plan a rough menu and make a list before you go grocery shopping. Getting all that you need in one trip can help avoid another unnecessary trip and temptation.


5. Go grocery shopping while you are in a hurry: Maybe you need to go out in a couple of hours. Or your favorite show is going to be on TV after a couple of hours. Try to squeeze in the grocery trip in that intermediate time. Armed with your grocery list, you should be in-and-out very quickly with little time for meandering and getting tempted to buy things you don’t need.


6. Watch out for expiration dates on perishable goods: This one seems intuitive when you read it, but I am surprised at how many people do not pay attention to expiry dates. No point getting a gallon of milk if it is going to turn sour with a couple of days. Same goes for meat, eggs, yogurt, spreads, frozen items, deli/bakery items etc. Some people say you can use a few items a few days after expiry – but I personally value my health more than money and would rather avoid buying such items in the first place.


7. Buy in bulk whenever possible: When it comes to non-perishable items, buy in bulk whenever you find something on sale. The items I usually stock up on are, cereals, tinned goods, rice, beans, pasta, coke, toothpaste, body wash, shampoo, toilet paper etc. For such items, shopping at warehouse stores like Costco, Sam’s Club etc can save you quite a bit of money, provided you stick strictly to your shopping list when you shop at these places.


8. Buy generic products whenever possible: Does it really matter whether your cereal is made by Kellogg's or is the store brand? Does it matter if your milk is Oak Farms or the store brand? For a few things (like soda in particular), I prefer brand name products. For others, I do not mind generic store brands if they can save me money. Find what works for you and switch to generic brands for at least a part of your grocery list.


9. Use grocery store bags to line trash cans: This may not work if you use a massive trash can but we use a small sized one for which the grocery bags are a perfect fit. This not only helps us save some money, but reduces our environmental foot print and avoids the kitchen from stinking from a huge overflowing trash can.
   


10. Consolidate and pay off debt as soon as possible: If you carry any debt, focus on consolidating it to a lower interest and paying it off as soon as possible. Money paid in interest is money thrown away! Why spend your hard-earned cash to make the financial institutions rich?
    


11. Pay your bills on time and avoid late fees: Get organized about your regular bills. If possible, automate the payments. Most utilities and other recurring bills can be set to be charged to a credit card or deducted from a checking account these days. Also, many banks offer free bill pay programs. So there really is no excuse for forgetting to pay a bill on time and forking out the late fees. Say, by chance you do forget a bill, if you are a first time offender, call the company and request politely to waive the late fees, and more likely than not, they will oblige.
    


12. Be aware of your bank balance and avoid over draft fees: If you use your checking account often or have some bills that are paid automatically from your checking account, be aware of the balance and avoid overdraft fees.
    


13. Avoid ATM fees: Be aware of the ATM withdrawal fees charged by your bank. While some banks waive fees for all ATM transactions on any ATM machine, most don’t. So be sure to use only those ATM machines where your bank will not charge the fees, or withdraw directly at your bank.


14. Avoid credit cards with annual fee: Credit cards with their cash back bonuses and reward points are a great way to save some money. Just make sure that the card does not charge you any annual fees! There is no dearth of cards that offer fee-free reward plans, so there really is no reason to pay the annual fees.
    


15. Disconnect land line if possible: Unless you have small kids in the house or older people to take care of, it is more than likely that you will be able to survive with only the mobile phones and can get rid of the land line. We have survived without any problems for over 4 years now with out a land line. Our Internet comes via cable.


16. Instead of buying books, borrow books from the library: Whenever possible, borrow your books instead of buying them. The card to your public library is free and the libraries are generally well stocked. In my city, the chain of public libraries is connected and the available books can be checked online. If there is some book that I cannot find in my local branch, I can make a request online for it to be brought in from one of the other branches to mine which is very convenient.


17. If you have to buy books, check if you can buy it used: Used books do not quite give the same feeling as leafing through the crisp pages of a brand new book. But considering that you can get used books for almost as much as half the price of a new book, it is a small price to pay. My favorite place to buy used books is a local chain called “Half Price Book Store”. Check if you have something similar in your city. For text books, look online on bulletin boards, mailing lists etc, and price compare on websites like addall.com.


18. Price check before buying anything expensive: For other items that are expensive, do a price check before buying the item. If you can wait for a while you can track the prices and grab a great deal when it comes along. Frequently available online coupons make it even more easy to save some money. This is especially true while purchasing any electronics.


19. Avoid impulse buying: Make it a habit to avoid impulse buying. Many of the things you want to buy do not seem all that necessary, if you only you wait for a day or two. Also, waiting means you will be able to check prices and make an informed decision to buy it at the best possible price.


20. Bottle your own water: Drinking water is good for your health. I always make it a habit to keep some at my desk at all times. Bottled water is the most convenient since it can provide protection against accidental spills. That said, buy bottled water only once in a while, and then reuse that bottle to fill your own water. If you are not happy with tap water, invest in a Brita Filter – in the long run it can save a lot of money.


21. Avoid the vending machines: Almost everything that is dispensed via vending machines has a huge markup (and is rarely healthy). However, if you suffer from snack attacks at work, consider creating a secret stash of snacks. If you like drinking soda and have a fridge at the workplace, save a refrigerator pack in the fridge with a post-it with your name on it. If you have a long commute, consider a stash for the car as well and avoid a quick drive-thru visit.


22. Keep your car as long as possible: When possible, try to keep your car as long as possible. Find the balance between the money spent on repairs versus the monthly installment on another vehicle and choose to run your old car as long as the repair costs are low.


23. Do regular scheduled maintenance on your vehicles: Do not skimp on or forget to do regular oil changes. Remember to check the air in your tires often. And use the grade of fuel that the owner’s manual recommends. These small acts can significantly lengthen the life of your car, giving you years of use.
    


24. Avoid buying a new car: When you eventually buy a car, see if you can make do with a pre-owned vehicle. A new car depreciates significantly the moment you drive it out the dealership. Is the new car small really worth thousands of dollars? Pre-owned cars that are only a few years old with low mileage are the best bargains. Regardless of the purchase, learn to negotiate with car dealers.
    


25. Ride your bike or carpool whenever possible: In many of the cities in the US it is hard to get by without a car. That said, just because you have a car does not mean you have to use it every day. Whenever possible, ride your bike or share a ride with a colleague or spouse and save both on gas and reduce the environmental footprint.


26. If you watch a lot of DVDs, get an online DVD store membership: Membership to online movie stores like Netflix or Blockbuster Online can save you a lot of money compared to buying DVDs or renting it from a local store. You need to wait once you order the movie, but if you watch a lot of movies at home, then you can easily get into the habit of ordering ahead of time so you always have something at home. If you are patient and your library has the resources, check to see if they have a movie section. You won't get anything very new, but they are free.
    


27. If you like watching movies at the theater, go before 6:00 pm: This is one of our soft spots when it comes to spending. We really like watching movies in the theater with the big screen and the great sound effects. But instead of paying ~$10 a pop for the ticket, we usually go before 6:00pm when the tickets are a little less expensive. Also, for movies that we don’t absolutely want to watch right away, we just wait until it screens on the discount theater where the tickets are $2 a pop. We avoid the temptation to buy snacks, by usually going for a theater some time soon after our lunch or sometimes sneaking in our own snacks in the purse.
    


28. Regulate your electric use: When not in use, unplug electric appliances. Apparently, unplugging the TV instead of just switching it off can save a lot of electricity! When not in a room, switch off the lights and the fan. Use a programmable thermostat to control your A/C and heater usage. If that's too much, at least know what each appliance uses and unplug a few of them.
    


29. Plan vacations ahead of time: Vacations are a necessary part of saving our sanity in the busy lives that we lead. But vacations are also a huge drain on the family finances. You can cut the cost of a vacation significantly by planning and booking ahead of time. Bookmark travel sites for finding inexpensive airfare, hotel etc., and book at least two weeks in advance.


30. Finally, keep distance from lavish, high-roller friends: If you have lavish friends who buy a new car every other year (or worse still, lease it), have large screen TVs and every other conceivable electronics gadget, eat out at fancy restaurants every other night and just live way beyond their means, keep the distance. They may be nice people and mean you no harm, but hanging out with such people often can lead to a lot of unnecessary desires and discontent. What’s more important – your friends or your peace of mind?

Whoa, that article ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated. Hopefully, I haven’t put you to sleep! Despite the length though, it barely scratches the surface when it comes to ways to save money. Make it a sub-conscious habit to save money in things that you do every day, even if it is a few dollars. All that money saved can add up significantly and you can save it or spend it on things that really matter!

NOTE: I am not saying that you should follow *all* these tips. Trying to be too frugal can make both you and the people around you very miserable. So, pick out a few tips at a time that will work for you and make them a habit, before deciding if you can incorporate more money saving habits in your daily routine.

Written by Sam Baker of GradMoneyMatters.com - a site dedicated to providing students a choice of money making ideas so they can say no to debt. Republished 6/19/2011.

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Why Startups Should Raise Money at the Top End of Normal

This article originally appeared on TechCrunch.

2 preamble issues having read the comments on TC today:

1: I know that the prices of startup companies is much great in Silicon Valley than in smaller towns / less tech focused areas in the US and the US prices higher than many foreign markets. I acknowledged this in the article. You can be pissed off, but I don’t set prices. I’m just making the commentary.

2: As expected at least one person accused me of writing this post because I want to see lower valuations. That’s stupid. I can’t control the market. When prices are too high I just pass. Simple. I wrote this because over the last decade I’ve seen a destructive cycle where otherwise interesting companies have been screwed by raising too much money at too high of prices and gotten caught in a trap when the markets correct and they got ahead of themselves.

I said both in the article but felt compelled to provide a statement up front for the skimmers.

I have conversations with entrepreneurs and other VCs on a daily basis about fund raising, the prices of deals, how much companies should raise, etc. I’ve stopped talking about this as much publicly because it’s such a heated, emotional topic where the points-of-view are strictly subjective and for which the answers will only be revealed in the future.

I’ve decided to take all of my private conversations and subjective points-of-view on the topic and make them public in a keynote speech at the Founder Showcase in San Francisco on June 15th.

I thought I’d post on one of the topics before hand. It’s the one bit of advice I find myself giving most frequently these days, “raise money at the top end of normal.”

Huh?

Here’s what I mean. There is an inherent value that any company has. On a public stock market that is the value that investors place on future free cash flows of the business discounted to today’s date to account for the time value of money. The more mature the company and industry, the easier it is to predict its future. When investors are feeling confident about the future they tend to bid up the value of public companies due to an increased perception that the future cash generated by the company will appreciate. The price of public stocks change instantly in reaction to news that is perceived to affect the future value of that company.

Every day shareholders vote on the value of the company by buying or selling shares. There is no price movement without one person agreeing to sell the stock and other agreeing to buy it. Stocks that have a lot of people trading are said to have a lot of liquidity, which basically means it’s really easy to get into (buy) or get out of (sell) the stock.

Private markets for stocks are the opposite. They are pretty illiquid. If you invested in the first angel round of a startup company it is usually very hard to sell your stock – usually for many years if ever at all. So how exactly are prices determined?

There is no great science to it. The earlier you invest the higher the chances the company won’t work out and thus you pay a lower price than later-stage investors. As an investor you’re trying to pay the appropriate price for your perceived risks of the company succeeding and protect yourself in the event that it isn’t quite as valuable as you had hoped. As the risks below get eliminated the higher the valuation investors are prepared to pay.

Over time some “norms” have emerged in pricing based on investors risk / return profile. The obvious thing that investors think about is making a financial return on the investment they made in your company. Early-stage investors in technology startups are only looking for growth-oriented companies that can achieve an “exit” someday – either via selling your company to a larger company or via an IPO. The former is much more likely than the latter. So investors have to have some general sense of what companies that are similar to yours ultimately sell for in the private market place via an M&A transaction and they have to have some sense of valuations on public stock markets to be able to back into what their potential returns on your investment might be in the event of an IPO.

For example: If you were to invest $41 million into a company (and one could assume that you owned between 33-50%) then the company is worth $82-123 million at funding. As an early stage investor you’re often planning around 10x your investment at the time your write your first check so in this case you’d be going into your investment expecting an exit of $800 – $1.2 billion. Then you can do a little bit of research and find out that very few companies ever achieve this valuation in a trade sale so you’re clearly gunning for an IPO. You’re unlikely to want to make this sort of investment with the product or the market not yet validated. The risk wouldn’t be appropriate.

Ah, but you say that for a normal-sized angel check or A round check one shouldn’t worry about the ultimate exit because he or she is getting in really early and at a cheap enough price so who cares whether one pays $5 million pre-money or $15 million pre-money – you just have to make sure you back really big companies. Well, obviously if you knew that in advance it would be big of course that would be true. But the reality is that you’re faced with two problems: 1) the earlier the stage the riskier and thus more write-offs so you need to have enough ownership percentage in your winners to make up for the losers and 2) the earlier stage your check the more likely the company will need many more funding rounds behind you and thus you face dilution.

So rounds tend to be “range bound” where the top end of the valuation spectrum often being done in boom markets (i.e. 2007, 2011) and for the hottest of companies and in bad markets for fund raising (2003, 2008) prices test the bottom end of the range.

There is no such thing as a uniform price. It is highly dependent upon many factors: experience of the team, type of opportunity (a big biotech or semi-conductor A round is likely to look different from an Internet A round), geography, etc. So the ranges you would expect can be highly imprecise. But to help with the explanation I’d like to put down some markers of typical Internet pre-money valuations done in major US markets (San Fran, NY, LA, etc.) while acknowledging that San Fran deals are often higher valuations due to increased competition amongst investors.

There is no value judgment in my putting up these numbers nor am I negotiating with anybody. I’m just pointing out my gut feel for approximate ranges of deals that I’ve seen with Silicon Valley having the highest valuations, NY / LA / Boston / Boulder / Seattle having valuations in a slightly lower range but comparable and sometimes significantly lower prices in markets that don’t have a healthy venture market. These are not scientific, just anecdotal and just trying to provide some transparency for entrepreneurs on what I’ve seen the market. And of course there are always outliers.

Prices have definitely gone up in 2011 as depicted in the anecdotal chart below. Again, prices are expressed as pre-money valuations.

For me I think that investors have got to accept the new reality in pricing if they want to remain competitive in markets like we’re seeing now. As ever, prices still determined by: quality of team, quality of product / market and competitiveness of the deal.

So when I advise entrepreneurs on fund raising I often say that it’s OK to try and shoot for the “top end of normal” for the market conditions. So in 2011 as a startup company if you can generate lots of demand you can definitely raise an A round of capital (say $3 million) at a $7 or 8 million pre-money valuation or slightly higher whereas just two years ago you would have struggled. That’s fine. That’s the deal you get when you’re raising in a good market for startup financing.

What I caution entrepreneurs from doing is raising money at significantly ABOVE market valuations. I’m a VC so I have an obvious bias. But that’s not where this is coming from. I’ve been preaching the “don’t get ahead of your inherent valuation” message for nearly 10 years. I raised my A round at a $31.5 million post-money valuation with no revenue. It was early 2000. That was market. I saw this kind of pricing when I first entered the VC market in 2007. We had companies pitching us that had almost no revenue at all and they were raising $10-15 million in capital at a $40-50 million pre-money valuation. I should also point out that while they had built their products they had limited market traction.

We passed on all of these deals and often tried to discuss the possibility of more modest amounts of capital raised and at more realistic prices. It’s hard to stop a train. One company which was raising at $40 million pre-money wrote a comment about me in a public forum saying something along the lines of “Mark worked really hard to understand our business and was very detail-oriented. But he and his firm were just too cheap on valuation.” Fair enough. But he sold within 3 years for not a huge price after having raised more than $20 million. Another firm we saw tried to raise $15 million at a $60 million pre-money with similar metrics. They did an inside round, spent a bunch of money and then went through a fire sale of the business less than 2 years later.

Here’s the problem. If you haven’t figured out product / market fit and therefore still have a highly risky business you run great risks for getting too far ahead of yourself on valuation. If you raise at a $40 million pre-money on what would in normal times have been a $15 million valuation you’re fawked if the market corrects and you need another round. To any prospective investor you look like you’ve failed even before your first pitch. Even if you have an interesting story to tell most investors won’t want to go through the brain damage of doing a “down round,” which creates tension between them and early investors.

Finally, even if they could bring themselves to offer you a major down round, the more sophisticated investors know it’s fool’s gold. They get a cheaper price, they wipe out much founder stock value and they reissue you new options. You’ll take the money – what choice do you have? But 6 months later you’re not working past 10pm. 1 year in you stop catching early morning flights. Within 2 years your evenings & weekends are spent planning your next business. And the CEO they would hire to come in and run the business when you go would always be a mercenary.

So my advice: go ahead and ask for a valuation that 2 years ago wouldn’t have been likely. Use competition to make sure you get a fair price. Raise a slightly higher round than you would have previously but keep some amount as a strategic reserve. Make sure that when you need to raise your next round of funding that you are able to show an uptick in valuation that is important for new investor confidence and to maintain great relations with your early investors.

Increase price. But unless you’re already a well-known technology heavyweight be careful about raising above the range of prices that are normal for a bull market. If you’re hot, don’t raise above normal. Raise at the top end of normal.

Other topics I’m going to cover at the Founder Showcase on June 15th:

• Why I believe convertible debt with no cap is wrong for your investors


• Why convertible debt WITH a cap is wrong for you


• How much money should you raise?


• When should you start talking with investors?


• Why you shouldn’t stack too many brand names into a round


• Are we in a bubble?


• and more.

Hope to see you there.

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