Microfinance Up on Agriculture Advance

The growth of agriculture is boosting the rise of loans and deposits at microfinance institutions. The decrease of non-performing loans led to financial sustainability of the institutions. Total lending and deposits increased while the non-performing loans (NPL) decreased.

Sathapana MFI’s total lending of US$51 million to 4,900 borrowers and the NPL rate decreased to 0.7% from 0.9% at the end of 2010, the firm’s deposit increased by 10% to US$10 million by the end of June. Hattha Kaksekar’s loans and deposits increased by 35% to US$56 million and 60% to US$9 million over the first six months of 2011 respectively.

In addition, Prasac MFI has seen the increase in loan portfolio by 63% to US$122 million while the NPL dropped to 0.8% from 1.44%. Microfinance largely contributed to macroeconomic stability by increasing rural income via lending, said Cambodian Economic Association President Chan Sophal.

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What is Brand Name?

By: Collis Ta’eed, Creator of Envato and Tuts+

A brand is a collection of elements that help define what your product is. For a blog, a brand will include the blog’s name, its logo, the tone of voice and style of writing, the types of articles, the look of the website, the imagery it uses, the way it markets itself, and even the style of headlines!

When you create a brand for a blog it helps readers remember who you are, what you stand for, and how to find you. If the brand is representing a great product - like a blog readers enjoy - then the brand provides the handle to recommend the blog to friends, to link to from other sites, and provides leverage that you can then use to create other products and services.

People naturally categorize their experiences of the world, and a brand is a label that they can attach to something when doing so. Strong brands representing good experiences are very powerful, particularly as they can be applied to new products and still carry all the connotations of the brand.

That’s why Apple can release a new product and have everyone excited about it, even if they’ve never used or experienced the product first-hand. Take for example the prominent tech blog brand Tech Crunch. After starting out in 2005, founder Michael Arrington has slowly built a company and leveraged the brand to create other blogs such as Crunch Gear and Mobile Crunch, events like the Tech Crunch 50 and the Crunchiest, services like startup wiki Crunch Base and job site Crunch Board. They’ve even started venturing into products with a short-lived tablet PC called the Crunch Pad, and research papers from Tech Crunch Research.

Why would anyone use all these products and services, or go to those events or read those blogs? Because they’ve already connected with the Tech Crunch brand and come to trust and know it. Make no mistake, branding can be very powerful, and it’s important to take it seriously early on so you can build on your business later.

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Business Administration

In business, administration consists of the performance or management of business operations and thus the making or implementing of major decisions. Administration can be defined as the universal process of organizing people and resources efficiently so as to direct activities toward common goals and objectives.

The word is derived from the Middle English word administracioun, which is in turn derived from the French administration, itself derived from the Latin administratio — a compounding of ad ("to") and ministratio ("give service").

Administrator can serve as the title of the general manager or company secretary who reports to a corporate board of directors. This title is archaic, but, in many enterprises, this function, together with its associated Finance, Personnel and management information systems services, is what is intended when the term "the administration" is used.

In some organizational analyses, management is viewed as a subset of administration, specifically associated with the technical and mundane elements within an organization's operation. It stands distinct from executive or strategic work.

In other organizational analyses, administration can refer to the bureaucratic or operational performance of mundane office tasks, usually internally oriented and reactive rather than proactive.

The world's first business school, the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris, France, was established in 1819. The first business school in the United States, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, was founded in 1881. Anecdotically, top French business school HEC was also created in 1881, while Harvard Business School, founded in 1908, was born just one year after France's prestigious ESSEC Business School.

Administrative functions

Administrators, broadly speaking, engage in a common set of functions to meet the organization's goals. These "functions" of the administrator were described by Henri Fayol.

Planning is deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and who should do it. It maps the path from where the organization is to where it wants to be. The planning function involves establishing goals and arranging them in logical order. Administrators engage in both short-range and long-range planning.

Organizing involves identifying responsibilities to be performed, grouping responsibilities into departments or divisions, and specifying organizational relationships. The purpose is to achieve coordinated effort among all the elements in the organization. Organizing must take into account delegation of authority and responsibility and span of control within supervisory units.

Staffing means filling job positions with the right people at the right time. It involves determining staffing needs, writing job descriptions, recruiting and screening people to fill the positions.

Directing is leading people in a manner that achieves the goals of the organization. This involves proper allocation of resources and providing an effective support system. Directing requires exceptional interpersonal skills and the ability to motivate people. One of the crucial issues in directing is to find the correct balance between emphasis on staff needs and emphasis on economic production.

Controlling is the function that evaluates quality in all areas and detects potential or actual deviations from the organization's plan. This ensures high-quality performance and satisfactory results while maintaining an orderly and problem-free environment. Controlling includes information management, measurement of performance, and institution of corrective actions.

Budgeting, exempted from the list above, incorporates most of the administrative functions, beginning with the implementation of a budget plan through the application of budget controls.

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10 Tactics For Finding New Business Ideas

There are some tips for your own business ideas.

1. Expect to have ideas. If you believe you’re incapable of coming up with ideas then you won’t come up with any. Put aside any negativity about yourself or you creativity and expect to have ideas.

2. Keep and open mind. Ideas can come from anywhere and some of the best ideas will seem daft or impossible based on your current knowledge, experience and assumptions. Try to be prepared to explore new ideas and to change your view of the world.

3. Keep a written record of your ideas, ideas that inspire you or ideas that are new to you - When you write things down you are more likely to remember them and if you don’t you’ve got a record to refer back to. I keep a record of all the ideas I see, read/hear about or have and I review it regularly. My written record has also evolved into this blog full of ideas.

4. Try to learn something new every day. Talk to other business people, talk to your friends and neighbours, talk to anyone that looks interesting and will talk to you. Read websites, magazines, books whatever medium you prefer try to read something that will expand your knowledge everyday. I enjoy business/entrepreneurs biographies and histories especially those that explain where the business or idea for it came from.

5. Talk about your ideas. Talk about your ideas to anyone who will listen, more often that not it’s my wife who has to listen to my ideas, if she’s not around however I’ll talk to myself! Failing that write down what you’d say to someone to explain the idea. The point is that in explaining the idea you’ll usually spot flaws or areas for improvement thus making the idea better.

6. Ask questions and listen to peoples problems, hopes, dreams and aspirations. As a small business consultant I always ask people what problems, issues or challenges they face in their business (or job), there are often good business opportunities in solving those problems. Peoples hopes, dreams and aspirations can provide ideas for example a business like Red Letter Days helps people fulfil their dreams by providing experiences such as driving a supercar or flying a plane. Weight Watchers appeals to those hoping to loose weight.

7. Research see what else is out there that is similar. Evaluate potential competition and keep notes on what you find. Use the search engines to look for similar ideas, businesses or products and take notes on them.

8. Draw a mind map. A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.

9. Synthesise ideas. Put two or more unrelated ideas together. One way to do this is to brainstorm with your team. You’ll get the best results if you’ve followed steps 1 - 6 first as you’ll have a larger pool of ideas to combine.

10. Sleep on it. Go away for a while and think of something else, often your subconscious mind will continue to work on the problem and will come up with new ideas or refinements on the ideas you already have.

Read more in:Fundamental of Management "What Is Manager Do? 

What is supervisor do? 

Problem Solving and Decision Making 

Approach to Risk Management  

Planning

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