7 Financial Habits of Successful Non-Profits

Successful non-profits are not an accident; they are the result of leadership that employs sound financial management practices. Developing the following seven financial habits will ensure your non-profit can successfully fulfill its mission and that it is being a good steward of donor funds. Equally important, developing these habits will enable you to lead with confidence and flexibility knowing your financial affairs are in order.

Make budgeting a number one priority. Successful non-profits do not just throw numbers on a page and call it a day. Instead, they carefully think through where funds are coming from and what they will be spending on programming to fulfill their mission. They follow a clearly defined process to ensure the requirements used to create their budgets are sound. The result is a budget that serves as the road map they use to guide decision-making through the year.

Know the cost of your programs. Successful non-profits know exactly how much their programs cost. Their accounting systems are set up to enable them to allocate expenses to specific programs so they can not only make informed decisions about how to operate more efficiently, but so they can also accurately report to donors how their funds are being spent.

Understand the importance of positive cash flow. Successful non-profits are not taken off guard by a lack of funds. They have a good idea of ​​how much cash will be on hand at any given moment to fund not only programming activities but operating expenses as well. They have ample cash reserves to get the organization through ebbs in working capital. When they tap their reserves, they have a plan for replenishing them by a specific date.

Reject the notification that 'overhead' is a dirty word. Successful non-profits challenge those who constantly suggest they cut overheard. Instead, they recognize that general operating expenses (competitive salaries, fringe benefits, rent, office supplies, technology, etc.) fund the infrastructure that enables the organization to do its best work. Unskilled labor, operating out of offices that are falling apart, without state of the art technology is a recipe for disaster. Successful non-profits recruit and hire the very best talent and provide them with the proper tools that need to do great work. They reject age-old thinking that non-profit means cheap.

Maintain an operating fund reserve. Successful non-profits have six months or more of operating reserves on hand at any given time. They are prepared for the unexpected loss of a major gift, or the unexpected need to invest additional resources to achieve a program goal. They have written guidelines for how large their operating reserves need to be, when they can be tapped and, if they are tapped, when and how they will be replenished.

Become financially literate. Successful non-profits make sure board members and staff are financially literate. While financial literacy does not have to rise to the CPA level, board and staff need to understand financial terminology and they need to know how to read and use financial reports to guide their decision-making.

Be good stewards of your donors' funds. Do not guess, know. Successful non-profits make decisions based on facts not hunches. How many times have we heard a staff member or board member say "I think we should do x" when what we would rather hear is "I surveyed our constituents and this is what I found: 93% are without x and lack the means to do y. Based on this information, I researched what it would cost for us to launch and sustain a program to meet this need. "

Earn Money

Earn Money at Home - Making Cosmetics & Cleaning Products is High Profit and Easy

It is a good business for every people who want to earn money from home. To produce high quality products in luxury cosmetics you need not have a degree in chemistry or have some laboratory experience. If you have the correct formulas for the required mixture, then it is very simple to produce good quality products. You have to set up a small laboratory in your home. To set up a laboratory you need not get tense, you can get these equipments in the super markets and in the hardware stores. You have to order raw ingredients; there are many suppliers in the market.

To exhibit your products and to keep the image of your products you have to choose the package for the products. There are number of suppliers in the market for such packings, if you want to pack your products in the bottle you can contact the bottle stores. If you want to pack the products in the tubes means then you have to contact the suitable supplier. You have to mix all the ingredients which you bought from the suppliers, according to the instructions. After mixing up all the ingredients you have to transfer the products either to bottles or in the tubes.

There are many ways to market the cosmetics by which you can distribute and deliver. You can either select the direct selling network or you can sell the products through your friends, relatives. You can also contact your nearby local people. You can have a separate sales team working on the commission basis; you can make profit on sitting in the home. You can offer your products to schools, clubs. You can earn money by producing the specialized products and aromas, for beauty hairs.If you are really interested in earning money from home by making cosmetics products. If you put some hard work and knowledge, than you can be successful in all your venture.

Economic Actions, Interest Rates, And Real Estate - Related Ramifications

It is unrealistic, silly and potentially, harmful, to your best interests, to look at, or consider real estate, in a vacuum. Many factors impact this market, on a broad basis, in addition to the many personal considerations, one should consider. This article will briefly, attempt to evaluate, consider, and discuss, some of these economic factors, including the economic ramifications, of market conditions, job - related, interest rates, etc. Failure to consider these risks wasting certain qualified buyers 'time, as well as sellers' potential price, and how long getting one's home sold, may take. This will attempt to consider these factors, in an easy - to - understand, manner.

1. Market conditions: Why is there, either, a buyer or sellers market, and will a particular trend continue, and for how long. The easiest explanation is often, supply and demand, but that does not explain, why these conditions exist. Is there something, in the national, or international economy, which is driving specific market conditions? Some considerations include the public's faith in the strength of the present economy, and whether they perceive, it will continue, and for how long. Another is the inflation rate, and perceptions of its impact.

2. Job - related: How strong and growing is the present job market? Are incomes rising, enough, to drive prices up? What price range and social group, does a particular area, appeal to? How close to transportation, how long a commute, and whether it's convenient, affect prices. Similarly, for many potential buyers, the most important consideration is the community's school system, and what it offers. Many factors go into determining pricing, within a local area.

3. Interest rates: Since, the vast majority of buyers, use a mortgage, monthly carrying costs, which includes principal repayment, mortgage interest, real estate taxes, and escrow, are major issues. Relatively, small increases, in the rate of interest, affect, both, the amount one qualifies for, as well as their monthly payment. It also makes a huge difference, in determining, whether to use a fixed, or adjustable, type.

Obviously, someone must look for, and purchase a home, which meets or exceeds their needs and dreams, while being affordable, and making one avoid the House - rich, home - trap. The better informed, educated, attentive, prepared, and realistic, a potential buyer, the better his usual results. Similarly, homeowners must understand their local market, and proceed with realistic expectations.

Advantages and Disadvantages Of Installing a Custom Rom On Your Android Phone

WHAT IS A ROM?

R-O-M stands for Read Only Memory. ROM is an operating system which runs your droid and is stored in the read only memory of your phone.

To classify there are two types of ROMs:

STOCK ROM:

Stock ROM is pre-loaded into a device by the manufacturer and is optimized according to the device configuration. It has a lot of restrictions for the user.

CUSTOM ROM:

Android is open source, so developers can take the code and customize it to their taste, add features to it and build a new operating system.It is a customized android operating system normally stored on the read-only memory of your mobile phone and replaces the manufacturer operating system.

BEFORE INSTALLING A CUSTOM ROM:

Before installing a custom ROM a device needs to be rooted. Rooting an android devices means lifting off restrictions enforced by the manufacturer. Rooting enables tons of customisations for your device.Rooting changes your privilege from guest user to a super user. It is considered as a protective measure but some people don't like them as it restricts them from some customization they want on their device. But keep in mind, rooting your device voids your warranty but some custom ROMs are worth it.

Installing a custom ROM has both advantages and disadvantages.

ADVANTAGES OF INSTALLING A CUSTOM ROM:

LATEST ANDROID VERSION:

One of the most common reason to install it is the updated android version. Users are able to install the latest version of android on their phone which makes their old phones look new. It does not only make them look new but also it provides the user with better performance as the newer version is more stable than the old.

PERSONALIZATION:

Another reason people choose to install it on their android phone is the tons of customisations available in them. Sexy and stunning themes can bring a new look to their devices. It enables the users to customize the UI (User Interface) to their taste.

OVERCLOCKING AND UNDERCLOCKING:

This is not really an advantage of installing a custom ROM, but instead it is associated with the custom kernel (a system file which is like a driver for the operating system) installed with that ROM. Well anyway, it allows a user to overclock or underclock their device. Overclock means to run the CPU processor or GPU of the device at higher speed than the one intended by the manufacturer. This provides you with higher performance but, I won't recommend it as it can cause damage to the device. Underclocking is the opposite. It is the modification of the system to run at a lower speed then intended. It does provides you with longer battery life but, in exchange for some performance. You can also install custom kernels.

REMOVAL OF BLOATWARE:

While rooting does enable the user to remove bloatware apps installed by the manufacturer but, still the user has to choose which app they want to use and which they do not and manually uninstall every single one that they don't want to use. While custom ROM developers remove these apps while they create these ROMs, they don't include them in their operating system, thus the user only has to install it and now his/her device is bloatware free.

CUSTOM MODS:

Tons of custom mods available for a custom ROM attract the users to install a it on their device. These custom mods vary from being really simple like increasing volume beyond the manufacturer limit to huge modification of the custom ROM like the multi-window mod or the pie controls mod.

PORTED USER-INTERFACE:

It enables a user to experience a wide range of UI and choose the one that suits them best. Like the Sense UI for the HTC phones which has been ported to many different phones enabling the users to experience a HTC phone without even buying a HTC phone. User can also choose to install the stock android on their phone which is faster than the customized one installed on phones like Samsung or HTC.

DISADVANTAGES OF INSTALLING A CUSTOM ROM:

BRICKING:

Another cause of user being hesitant of installing a custom ROM on their device is the fear of bricking which makes the device unusable and nothing more than block of brick. It is mostly feared because there is no way to recover a device from that state.

BATTERY LIFE PROBLEM:

These ROMs may not be fully optimized for your device which results in the battery life issues causing it to drain more, not charging properly or even damaging the battery.

HARDWARE ISSUES:

These ROMs may not support all the hardware on your device which may result in the non-fuctioning hardware or other issues, like the camera not working or taking picture at a lower quality.

BUGS:

These ROMs are not tested like the one pre-loaded by the manufacturer so this produces some bugs which produce instability, like applications force closing (which can be really annoying) or random reboots of the phone or the phone being stuck in a bootloop (really terrifying for a newbie).

CONCLUSION:

Well here are the pros and cons of installing a custom ROM, but you don't fully know whats going on until you try it out. I, myself use a custom ROM on my phone and I am happy with it. But, everyone has their choice so you may make your and also keep in mind that neither I am responsible nor the ROM developer for what happens to your device.

--------------------------------HAPPY FLASHING---------------------------------

How to Start a Soap Making Business With Nearly Nothing

Learn how to start a soap making business and you can make a serious part-time income. Problem is though that lots of other people have the same idea. Trick is most of those people aren't thinking about marketing. They just want to make soap and hope somebody buys it. Here's the deal.

Before you sell it, make it beautiful. Take the time to learn how to make really beautiful soap. It isn't hard to do, but it takes some practice. Get the right information and practice. You'll need the basic tools, but any hobby soap maker has the basics. Well, maybe there's one exception.

That's molds. Get some professional molds so you get a pro look to your soap. The right molds are easy to use and cheap too. That's what you want... easy and cheap.

Put time into developing unique soap. Why buy from you instead of the other thousands of soap makers? You can make your product special in many ways. You can offer wild colors. You can use only essential oils for scents. You can use organic ingredients. Make milk soap. Whatever it takes, set your soap apart.

Then how can you sell it. There are many ways. One of the easiest is to get in front of a lot of people who buy soap. Do that and you'll sell soap. The fastest way to do that is to get in a craft show or festival. That's probably the fastest way to get started.

Here's the trick. You can build a real business if you follow up with your customers. What's that mean? Simple. Keep a customer list. Mail a little catalog to some of your customers. If you have a good product, some of them will order. Based on our experience, a huge percentage may order, 10 to 20 percent. Think about that. You get orders without even leaving home. That's a worthy goal to shoot for.

Learn how to start a soap making business and you can build a solid part-time income. The trick is learning how to set your products apart from the sea of other people trying to sell soap. It can be done, but not by following what most other people do.

Mobile Application Development

Mobile Application Development is the process of building and developing software and application programs for mobile phones and smart gadgets. These application and software programs are either installed already during the mobile device's manufacturing or bought from software providers for mobile phones and then installed in the phone, or downloaded directly to the mobile phone through its web browser (via its HTTP functionality that uses client- and server-side processing). But since this is a very broad topic, this article will help you familiarize yourself with what mobile application development is all about.

Software and application programs for mobile phones are being designed, built and developed to run on the most well-known mobile device platforms and environments today. These are the Android OS, the Blackberry OS, the HP webOS, Windows Mobile, the Symbian OS and the Apple iOS. These implementation environments only support the codes and binaries that correspond to its operating system. But what is common among most mobile phones is that they use ARM processors. Through the commonly used ARM architecture, the codes and binaries of the mobile app are executed in machine format for reading by the device's processor. Development of mobile apps though, still have to be done using tools for specific mobile operating systems.

As a developer, it is always a must to determine and do an analysis of what platforms or environments to use for the development of mobile phone applications and programs. Doing mobile software development gives the programmer exposure to the tools of the trade, enabling him to write the code faster, test it, and later on deploy the mobile app for certain mobile phones and their operating systems. Some of the known development environments for mobile application development include the following: Adobe AIR, Android, Application Craft, Aqua, Battery Tech, Blackberry, Canappi, CloudPact, Corona SDK, iOS SDK, Java ME, Macromedia Flash Lite, Meme IDE ,. .NET Framework, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and the webOS.

After every development phase, the built and developed modules of the mobile application must undergo a series of tests to determine whether it functions according to the requirements set to it or not. The project team must assign one of its members to perform the testing and functionality checks. For mobile application development, here are the mobile application test environments that can be used for the Android, iPhone and Blackberry operating systems:

1. Google Android Emulator
2. Official Android SDK Emulator
3. MobiOne
4. iPhoney; and
5. Blackberry Stimulator.

Other tools include FoneMonkey, Robotium, Sikuli and MITE.

These are the things to keep in mind when setting out to develop software applications and programs for mobile phones and smart gadgets. It is quite difficult and time-consuming to undertake a project of developing mobile applications since there are a lot of requirements to consider and a lot of time is needed for analyzes, the concurrent development of different modules, and its integration into one fully-functioning application, and the testing phase that should be transported out meticulously. Mobile application software development is similar to system software development for computers, and web applications, and web site development - the product of the project undergoes the phases of the system development life cycle (SDLC). Therefore, the only difference is the development environments and the operating systems where the mobile applications are going to be deployed.

Make Money Online

Where ever you are and whatever you do, money is always needed to buy food, shelter and clothing as well as other important things that we need. For us to have money, we work hard to provide for ourselves as well as for our family. Some of us might engage into business to have extra income to support our daily needs.

But when it comes to business, there are hundreds of types of business that we can engage to and one of this is the online business. This is one of the most successful at the same time very competitive way of doing business.

Large companies as well as small businesses are now engaging into this business since they have found out that it is one of the most convenient at the same time less cost than the usual businesses. All you need to have is the product; own computer and internet connection and your business can run 24/7.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO plays a big part in online business. If you can drive traffic to your websites and convert prospect costumers to buy your products, it will be huge leap in your business career. Yes, everyone can start their own business as long as they have the money, but it is not everyone who comes out a winner in this business.

But creating this type of business may be simple and easy but without the basics and enough knowledge in this business, it is very complicated. Why? Online business involves a lot of techniques at the same time software to help you and your website get noticed. With a competition of up to a million, you will have a lot of problem getting noticed.

With the right tools and techniques used, you will get through the first hurdle of getting noticed. Fast Track Cash is one of the SEO tools that is used by thousands of online marketers who have been trying to get pass other websites and hopefully get noticed.

So before you start creating your websites and buy all the software you can get online, you first need to have the basic background in online business. This is not to scare you from having your own business, but this is to help you understand what really an online business is and be successful in making money online