Category: Business Management

Exporting in Malaysia is subjected to the “First Schedule to the Customs Duties of 1988” that lays down the procedure for charging export duty that is applicable to particular types of goods. The goods meant for exporting in Malaysia, whether by air, sea, rail, road or pipeline, are subjected to pay duty or duty free, must be presented for examination at the place of export or at any other place that is considered appropriate by the custom authorities. It is necessary to lodge an export declaration in order to get the permission for a particular export. The Export Declaration Form can be filled by the owner of the firm, the exporter or agent that is approved by the custom authorities and is authorized by the exporter or the owner.

The goods meant for exporting in Malaysia should also be accompanied by certain documents like commercial or export invoices, documents ascertaining the origin of the goods, relevant bank documents, necessary export license, especially if the goods are restricted and prohibited by the Customs, packing list and KPWX form for Foreign Exchange Control if the worth of goods exported is equal to or exceeds RM 100,000.

There are certain goods that are absolutely banned for export in Malaysia. The list includes turtle eggs, rattan, petroleum and related products, arms, weapons, ammunition, military equipments including vehicles and spare parts, and equipment for police. The goods prohibited from exporting in Malaysia, unless accompanied by relevant export license include sugar, rice and paddy, eggs, meat, live animals, cockles, skin and parts of birds, minerals and ores, plants, coral, live fish, oil palms, milk and related products, rubber seeds, waste paper, logs and timber, scraps of iron, copper, tin and other metals, palm seeds and all goods to Israel.

In a current scenario, those involved with exporting in Malaysia are expected to experience negative growth because of the global recession. However, as per the report released in 2008 by Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Malaysian exports will continue to gain significantly because of the increasing demand of its goods in countries like United States, Japan and those belonging to European Union.

Electrical and electronic goods, chemicals and chemical related products, machine and related products, appliances and related parts will remain the major items that are exported from Malaysia during 2009. Major regional markets for Malaysian goods including ASEAN countries, Africa and West Asia are likely to maintain their requirement for the goods exported from Malaysia in the year 2009. Furthermore, the manufacturing sector will remain the main leading export sector in 2009 as it was in 2008. Electrical and electronic goods are expected to be the main products that will lead the export sector in Malaysia in 2009. Other major exports that are expected to be mainstay of the exporting business in Malaysia in the year 2009 include petroleum and related products, crude rubber, palm oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Exporting in Malaysia has improved during the recent months as in comparison to the first quarter of 2009 mainly because of the rise in demand for Malaysian goods in China and ASEAN countries. The exports in Malaysia are expected to grow further with the recovery of the major world economies.

Every business owner knows that his firm needs to put a lot of efforts than manufacturing goods and services for the customers. The administration department alone cannot take hold of other sections like advertising, marketing, development, accounting and production. They need a complete solution that can monitor all the departments and keeps a track record of the entire processing system. To gain more success in business, it is important for the association to work upon itself. By this way they can organize it in an accurate manner with increased productivity and sales. They should use the latest techniques including some specific types of software that are very useful in managing the entire system.

Such software’s are called as the BMS – Business Management Software. These are generally designed to improve the trade functions in different small and large organizations. It’s an exceptional application that is responsible for transforming the associations. Such programs provide distinct web-based way out that aids in boosting diverse factors related to the company operations.

A distinctive BMS can be particularly developed to hold a specific phase of procedures in a corporate setting. It can be available in the form of ERP-a term that refers to Enterprise Resource Planning application. This meticulous application is designed to develop a better dealing plan from the grassroots. The application can also be available in form of CRM- a term that refers to the Customer Relationship Management application. This version is deliberated to improve company’s association with its clients on a daily basis. Besides this, the running software can again be accessible in the type of E-commerce applications and Professional Services Automation. These both equally improve some particular aspects of marketable operations.

There are some unique advantages that are associated with the several versions of Business Management Software. Firstly, the programs help to empower the organizations to capitalize on their procedural capacities. They also aid businesses in building the most out of their available resources. They convert diverse operational phases with great ease. Moreover, the firms that make use of such administrative programs finish up dropping the charges of operating latest information technology skills in their functions. They also perk up their monthly and annual results. This directly increases the level of their yearly financial gains. They also decrease the charges incurred in hiring the employees.

These days it is not difficult to purchase this software as it is easily available on the leading stores. And in case you want an easy way out then you can browse the internet. There are so many websites that deal with the applications that can help you association to grow and spread its wings.

These even don’t cost much and can be easily downloaded and installed in your system after being delivered at your place. They come with exceptional customer support and many other outstanding features perfectly designed to take the corporation to new heights. But before you make the purchase, ensure that you are dealing with a reliable source else you may have to regret for your carelessness.

There is a better than average probability you are employed by one of the three million family operated businesses spanning North America who are not less than twenty years old or older as either an owner, an heir, or possibly a manager.

Your economic long term future and that of your family, together with the business itself, is going to be dependant upon how successfully the company incorporates business management training at each level, to be able to succeed in the management and ownership passage from today’s management to another generation of leaders.

A lot of these productive companies, and they are successful companies because they are still in business long after others who were formed when they were, are now facing maybe their most significant challenge. Business management training at every level of the organization helps them beat the lengthy odds again and get through the transition to the next generation of owners.

One of the popular practical business management training programs is one that connects business owners, successors, and senior level supervisors with their peers in several similar businesses. When these kinds of people meet regularly to share management insights and experiences, everyone attending benefits.

Business history indicates that succeeding from one generation to the next is determined by how well one group consents to transfer management responsibilities to the next. In fact only about one-third of successful businesses achieve this transition. This is, I’m sure, where business management training is very useful.

Usually the company founding fathers were successful simply because they were sufficiently good at management making more right decisions than wrong ones and were sufficiently good at management to handle things that worked more often that the things that didn’t. For the senior generation owners to get the financial rewards of a lifetime of labor, the business must continue to grow and be successful, usually under the management of the next generation successors.

Accordingly, for the majority of companies, its time for business management training to systematically and logically teach the next generation of owners and managers everything they need to know to truly manage the business at some point. It supplies the details of where to start and how to complete the work, with a vision for the long term future that resonates with everyone close to the company. The successors in the typical family business are at least twenty years younger than the owner or whoever is in charge today.

It is also correct that virtually every twenty year old business with ten or over employees has at the least 2-3 key players who’re within ten years of the age of today’s older generation. These people were the followers who bet their future on the leader twenty or so years ago.

These essential supervisors are essential for the operation of the business both today and in the future. Business management training supplies a bridge from one generation to another because it empowers one generation as it supplies the other generation with the feeling of security that arises from trusting the management capabilities of the people they are leaving in charge.

Business management training for the senior generation leaders together with these key managers along with the members from the successor generation’s ownership-management team participating together can provide a seamless management transition, one that can be seamless, painless, and cost-effective for everyone.

Should you be seriously interested in developing business management training in your organization I urge you to click the link below and find out how a peer to peer business management mastermind group will help you and your organization accomplish its objectives.

When deciding on your business hosting first you must decide whether you would like to host the site yourself or outsource it to an established hosting company. There are advantages and disadvantages to both of these options.

Advantages of hosting your own website

Those who decide to host their website themselves are those who want complete control over their hosting. This can be a major advantage to some, especially those who would like to constantly monitor everything about their website and their web hosting. Those who would like to make regular changes to the hosting setup (and want to do it themselves) will benefit from hosting their own site. In some circumstances it can be cost effective to host your own site but only if you have the requirements to have your own server. This is because you wont have to pay another company to do it for you. There is also the potential for an extra income stream, because if you are hosting your own website you may have the equipment and expertise to host websites on behalf of others as well.

Disadvantages of hosting your own website

Although in some circumstances it can be cheaper, the majority of the time it is more expensive to host your website yourself. You may have to hire staff just for this purpose, and the relevant expertise can be costly. You will also have to have you own server and other equipment, and if you dont have the requirements to use this to its capacity you will still be paying for it. If you dont have the necessary expertise it can pose obvious problems, especially if something goes wrong. It is also another area you have to worry about, and can distract you from the rest of your business.

Advantages of outsourcing your hosting

The main benefit of outsourcing your hosting is that you are leaving it in the hands of experts. You therefore should be able to forget about it, which allows you to focus on your core business. Most hosting companies offer 24/7 support, something you are unlikely to be able to manage if you are hosting your own site, unless you have a large team employed for this purpose. This support means your site is being watched around the clock which gives you peace of mind. For some sites this can be extremely important. If shared hosting is adequate then you can share servers with the hosting companys other customers which will be cheaper than having your own server. Colocation can also take away one of the disadvantages of outsourcing: that you have no control. With Colocation you own and maintain your own server but rent rack space at a Colocation centre which will cost less than hosting it yourself as you are sharing bandwidth and other variable with other customers. With outsourcing you can purchase Managed Hosting. Managed Hosting means all your hosting is completely managed for you. This should take the worry completely away from you.

Disadvantages of outsourcing your hosting

As already mentioned, you dont have the same control if you are outsourcing. To an extent things are dictated to you by the limitation of the hosting package you choose and the operations of the hosting company. If something goes wrong with the hosting company, for example if they go out of business or make a mistake, you could have a problem. There could also be a potential security risk if confidentiality is a major issue.

For the majority of businesses, outsourcing is the better option. Most do not have the expertise to host their own website, and can make use of the support an established hosting company can offer. In the end it all comes down to the hosting needs and hosting knowledge of each individual business.

Andrew Marshall (c)

Successful Construction Companies Use Business Management Software to Manage Equipment and Ultimately Reduce Expenses, Improve Utilization, and Minimize Downtime.

Effectively managing heavy equipment can make the difference between a profitable company and an unprofitable one. Successful construction companies are always looking for ways to increase profits, reduce maintenance and operating expenses, optimize utilization, and minimize downtime. This can be achieved through better equipment asset management.

Equipment Asset Management provides information to make decisions about rebuilding or replacing machines, balancing fleet average age, and adjusting fleet size and composition to meet changing company demands. In practical terms, this means getting as much production as possible from the equipment, at the lowest per hour cost, over the longest period of time, while obtaining the highest sales value at the end of life. This is achieved through the use of business management software to effectively manage equipment.

The equipment asset in a heavy construction company accounts for about one-third of total corporate assets, and the cost of owning and operating the fleet is frequently larger than any other expense. This makes it the largest expense in a construction project, more than labor and materials costs. This makes effectively managing heavy equipment even a more critical factor for project profitability. Equipment must be at the right place at the right time; it must achieve stated levels of reliability and uptime; and total owning and operating costs must be kept to a minimum, thereby giving the contractor a competitive advantage.

Common Challenges Before Using Software for Equipment Management

Prior to adopting software, most companies do not know what the hourly cost of a piece of equipment charged to a job really is. Therefore, they do not know if they are recapturing the cost of each individual equipment piece, which makes it difficult to make well-informed business decisions about investing in software to manage that aspect of the business.

Very small companies with only a few pieces of equipment might be able to get away with not knowing their equipment cost, fuel cost, and utilization information. But as a company grows, they have to use the best practices available to ensure they make money. One of the problems is that a job may be showing a profit due to incorrect equipment costing and rates, but this can negatively impact the bottom line.

Typically, companies that can benefit from the use of equipment management capabilities of business management software share similar conditions. These often include:

– Do not know if an individual piece of equipment is profitable or not and lack information to make repair-replace decisions.

– If software is being used to manage equipment, it’s not integrated with job cost information or the accounting system.

– There is no preventive maintenance scheduling or it is done manually.

– No ability to track parts inventory.

– Do not create purchase orders or they are written by hand, which inhibits workflow and accuracy of procurement, scheduling, A/P, and A/R.

– No tracking of utilization or equipment hours.

– It takes much time and effort to product reports for owners because it requires gathering information from various places and then more analysis to tabulate what’s needed. Equipment rates are set for a machine based on someone else’s price.

– Projects are charged the same no matter which equipment is used or brought to the job.

– Don’t track fuel used or burn rates for equipment or per projects.

Benefits of Using Software to Manage Equipment

Construction business owners interested in improving profitability by using software for better equipment management can anticipate positive improvements in a variety of areas. When evaluating software options, consider and compare these capabilities that your solution should include for optimum benefit:

Equipment Utilization

Nothing impacts the economics of equipment ownership more than utilization. The number of hours a machine works in a year determines the rate at which fixed annual costs are recovered. Underutilized equipment does not have costs accurately reflected in Job Cost while greater utilization increases revenue.

Invest in software that continually monitors the utilization of each piece of equipment and puts the equipment manager in a position to measure the impact of low utilization and to develop strategies to control and correct it.

Equipment Downtime

Equipment downtime is one of the most significant problems faced by construction companies that specialize in heavy and highway jobs. When a piece of equipment unexpectedly breaks down, not only is the project schedule disrupted and costing money, but multiple employees’ schedules are interrupted since everyone is in crisis mode. The company has to scramble to get mechanics on the job site and get parts delivered to fix the breakdown. An unexpected repair is much more expensive to perform than to monitor and schedule maintenance.

Identifying and predicting necessary maintenance is critically important for any equipment software solution. Invest in software that will provide the equipment manager with information to predict repairs, which helps avoid equipment breakdown and thus saves cost and ensures reliability.

Repair – Replace – Rebuild

The process of reviewing the equipment fleet; deciding which units to sell, replace, or rebuild; and developing a capital expenditure plan are the most important tasks an equipment manager performs. Frequently it takes days to gather the required information (from multiple places) to make decisions about Accounts Payable, Finance, Payroll, and so on.

Invest in software that automatically synchronizes the operational, financial, and mechanical history of each piece of equipment and makes the data easily available in one place, with the ability to drill down to the lowest level of detail. You will be confident that the information is always up-to-date and at the equipment manager’s fingertips, allowing intelligent and timely decisions.

Preventive Maintenance

Some companies view preventive maintenance as an investment as opposed to a cost. Effective preventive maintenance improves reliability and reduces future repair costs.

Be sure that your software choice includes preventive maintenance scheduling and you’ll be equipped to improve quality and consistency on every job.

Warranty Tracking

Many times a mechanic will unknowingly replace or repair a part that is still under warranty. Today’s software helps you track parts under warranty, which allows you to recoup repair costs and not spend money unnecessarily.

Fuel Tracking

The ability to analyze equipment fuel use can reduce fuel losses, resulting in major savings. This equipment management feature should be a component of your business management software.

Improve Profitability With Better Equipment Management

In conclusion, effective equipment management can dramatically improve the profitability of any construction company. With the increasingly competitive business environment, contractors must look at every opportunity to reduce expenses, optimize utilization, and minimize downtime. Software for equipment management has proven to be a valuable tool that can make the difference between being a profitable business or taking a hard financial loss.