Archives: 2010 February

Right now, because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, there is an incredible amount of money allocated to federal spending programs. That means that there are a lot of government contracts available to both small and large businesses, if you know how to find them.

Acquiring government contracts means going through a certain process. The government may have a lot of money to award right now, but they are only going to give it to the companies that understand the process and understand how to work within the system. This will show the agencies that you have done the work before and probably have a history of finishing the work on time and under budget.

When the government has a contract they are going to award to a company they release an Invitation to Bid, which will include the product descriptions, conditions for purchase, deadline for bid, quality control issues, and the necessary certifications (if there are any). You should only bid on those contracts that your company is positioned to handle.

Finding contracts can be difficult for many companies. The first step is to register with any or all appropriate databases – like the CCR (Central Contractor Registration). This is a good way for the federal agencies to check out your credentials quickly and easily and find out if you are really capable of delivering the products or services they need.

A good source for government contracts are your local agencies. These are actually a great way to build a reputation and develop the experience that will eventually impress the federal agencies so you can get the bigger contracts. There is a lot of competition for government jobs, and you need every advantage you can get.

Government contracts usually come in two types – fixed price contracts and cost type contracts. Most agencies prefer fixed contracts because cost type contracts (which pay the fixed fee plus all other costs) can run into a lot of money. So the first contracts that you find will likely be fixed cost, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be just as lucrative for you.

Not everyone chooses to invest in the currency trading market. This may be because many traders have become comfortable with a stock trade system. It’s also possible that they don’t know much about Forex to be confident enough to trade. It’s about time you realized though that there are many excellent reasons to turn your sights to this kind of investment.

#1- Leverage potential is amazingly huge.

Here, leverage is the name of the game. This is a technical term that simply means you can earn a huge amount of cash even if you only put in a small initial investment. Not all trading firms have the same conditions but it’s possible to shell out a thousand bucks and trade for millions. This is the main reason why this form of investment trading is attractive.

#2- Assets are quite liquid.

Liquidity follows leverage potential as an attractive quality of the Forex market. Liquidity here means that there are always traders who are willing to do business with you and you will always have an avenue to apply your Forex trading system. Liquidity also implies that you will always have ready access to your profits. The reason behind this amazing market quality is the size of the market itself. Forex is so huge that it is bigger than commodities and stocks markets combined. The good news about Forex is that it is unaffected by how the other investment markets move. There is therefore no chance that a falling stock market can pull the currencies market along with it.

#3- Volatility is always a present quality.

A volatile market tends to shift movement fast. At first glance, this may seem like a bad thing. You should however view this from the perspective of earning potential. A market that doesn’t move in any direction at all is far worse than a volatile one simply because there is no opportunity to either win or lose. In a stagnant market, assets simply sit where they are and you get absolutely nothing in return. Market movement is an indication of great market health.

Does water conservation pay off for consumers? “Apparently, Conserving Water Won’t Necessarily Save You Money.” This headline on a community radio website in Northern California last fall called attention to an interesting relationship in the water utility services industry. It seems that water utility customers in Sonoma County, CA, after endeavoring to save water during a conservation program, found themselves saddled with an 8% service rate increase.

The relationship between usage behavior and cost structure provides insight into how this happens. Typically, utility customers believe that if they conserve water or cut back on water use, they will save money on their water utility bill. Generally, if the bill is determined by a cost-per-gallon or cost per-unit rate, this may be true. Consumption of fewer units of whatever is being sold should result in a lower bill to the consumer.

Common thought then follows that should the water provider deliver fewer gallons of water to customers, the utility should enjoy lower costs for providing fewer units of service. This in the end should save the water utility money as well and all should be equitable, right?

Unfortunately, many utility costs are of the ‘fixed’ variety, meaning that they do not go up or down in proportion to the number of units produced. Fixed costs include expenses necessary for the utility to continue delivering the water and sewer service, and include things like payroll costs, equipment maintenance, insurance, debt service, and many other costs that won’t change if customers consume fewer gallons of water or produce a reduced volume of sewage or wastewater.

Water providers receive revenue from consumers based on the amount of water used or delivered. Revenue to the utility then is a simple function of price times cost per unit (gallons) of service. Users conserving water can trim their charges for service, but these reductions only lower the revenue enjoyed by the provider. And because utilities have significant expense obligations that are not tied to level of customer consumption, these utilities can find themselves struggling to meet existing and ongoing costs. Conservation programs then reduce – sometimes considerably – the revenue needed to continue delivering water service.