Importance of Trading Market Free-Samples for Students-Myassignment

Question: You are required to deliver an Essay on Use of Statistics. Answer: Presentation There are numerous manners by which we can see that exchanging ventures develop or de develop, there are numerous components answerable for the equivalent anyway with regards to significantly affecting components they are two the fares and imports. At the point when we talk about fares we are really looking at sending our item to the purchasers and when we talk about imports we are really looking at getting their items. In straightforward words trades speak to autonomy and benefits of any nation or business. In any case, imports dont speak to misfortunes or reliance in certainty they speak to the enthusiasm of in general client base and urge to grow additional opportunities of in house creation of that specific item or class of items. Measurements Today the measurements are in favor yet not that much there are numerous reasons of a similar which affected the market and caused it to win the excess of just 1.3 billion (Morien, D. 2007). According to insights in January sends out have fallen by 3% and the imports have ascended by 4% which brought about creation Australian exchange drop to a normal of 2.1 billion per month. It shows that there are numerous items in Australian exchanging industry for which requests are not meeting the provisions (Wegner, T. 2010). There is one increasingly side of the coin and that is the organizations can't give the in house choices of the imported items. Likewise, there is one increasingly concealed perspective and that is the tax assessment on created incomes which contrasts from classification to class. There are numerous in house associations which share the increases through high profit installments so this was a gigantic bonus for them and the administration. Be that as it may, if an excepti onally burdened classification is creating incomes regardless of making great benefits, it probably won't produce the development in a way wherein a low burdened class may do. Fall in trades Coal Iron mineral and Gold and silver these are the spines of any exchange industry. There is literally nothing on the planet which stays unaffected when these ventures change their conduct. January was a month of astonishments for non-money related gold it indicated a de development of 39%. If you don't mind recall this is a little however an exceptionally choosing part of Australian Market. Coal and Iron Ore sends out were low however fortunately its terrible impacts were somewhat killed with rustic merchandise industry. Country products industry was delivering high numbers for each of the three months which helped in making the exchanging market development diagram adjusted. Administration sends out likewise did well in the period of Jan and contributed by its not too bad development of 1% (College Board. 2012).There are many concealed factors behind these numbers, Iron Ore and Gold ventures are the ones which can contribute with higher numbers on the off chance that legitimate cr eation and cleansing of metal stays set up. The misfortunes show plainly that Coal business is inadequate as far as quality or the usage of creation units isn't being done up without limit, absence of labor to crush the assets can likewise be one reason. There are numerous manners by which these issues can be vanquished, by expanding the creation and labor. Ascend in Imports Every single general class were demonstrating a blowing up import diagram, anyway customer products classification was indicating the most elevated level of 7% expansion (Mathworld, W. 2012). Capital merchandise were additionally up by 3.2% in the long stretch of Jan and 13.6% over all. Another name is of Intermediate merchandise which rose to 3.8% these are the products which ventures use as a creation component. This is the way the general exchange advertise details are; luckily there are numerous creations which are progressing nicely Significance of wares speculations It is seen that todays world is progressively centered around banking and fiscal ventures anyway an enormous degree of monetary speculations rely on creation of different bug and independent ventures. Kindly recall that putting resources into items implies putting resources into creation and after all it is the creation which works with everything. In the event that you examine intently its the creation which produces income to guarantee that financial segment gets assets to contribute. This is the way it is progressively productive to put resources into wares (Enudu, O. T. 2004). Likewise there are various classifications and speculation alternatives accessible which whenever clarified unmistakably will without a doubt draw in the financial specialists. Ventures made in wares will urge the associations to grow further bringing about expanded benefits and more creation than imports. Potential Solutions Since there is no established tone of the market development there are no set recipes either, however we can unquestionably address the self-evident. As a matter of first importance when any association imports essential buyer merchandise it unmistakably reflects two idealistic components of the market. One, the nation is monetarily stable enough to bear the cost of the equivalent and besides there is an expanding request of similar items (Creswell, J. 2003). Presently since they are essential customer merchandise they can be made effectively with in the nation also. Not just it will expand the proportion of creation in the nation itself yet additionally will give better approaches for expanded work which brings about a higher level of removal pay coasting in exchanging market (Oyeka ,C .A. 2002). That is the means by which a protected market is sorted out. Investigating the market drifts and expanding the creation rate is additionally similarly significant and there are times when b ringing in capital products become a need (Kothari, C. R. 2004). This reality legitimizes the real imports made by various associations. Iron mineral and coal mining are interrelated and the absence of fare of their items unmistakably mirrors that there are issues with respect to the usage of assets. With regards to utilizing item exchange I think the appropriate response lies in expanding the advertising of venture plans of products (Stathopoulos, V. 2012). This will help in making the occupants increasingly more mindful in regards to speculations and will urge them to put resources into them. There are numerous manners by which even an ordinary working proficient can pick up while putting resources into the equivalent. Be that as it may, incorporation of some new plans can demonstrate extremely reassuring. End There are numerous positive signs accessible in the figures given above; increase in imports plainly mirrors that the market is prepared for a development. There are numerous manners by which ware exchange can contribute anyway the venture advertise necessities to guarantee that they are tapping the correct customer base (Gray, J. J. 2012). Additionally, with regards to things like fundamental customer products it will be superior to the best to do a point by point examination of imported classes and building up those organizations in-house. References: Morien, D. (2007). Business Statistics, Thomson Learning Nelson. ISBN 978-0-17-013147-6. Wegner, T. (2010). Applied Business Statistics: Juta Academic, Methods and Excel-Based Applications,. Creswell, J. (2003). Exploration plan: Qualitative, quantitative and blended techniques approach. (second ed.), Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Kothari, C. R. (2004). Examination Methodology: Methods and Techniques. (second Ed.), New Delhi: New Age International Limited. Enudu, O. T. (2004). Prologue to Business Management: Enugu Willy and Johnkens Publications, Oyeka ,C .A. (2002). Components of Applied Statistics, Cidac Publications, Enugu. Mathworld, W. (2012). e. Wolfram Mathword. 07 16. Gotten to 07 16, 2012. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/e.html Stathopoulos, V. (2012). Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster. Aerospace Guide. 06 02. Gotten to 07 22, 2012. https://www.aerospaceguide.net/spaceshuttle/challenger_disaster.html Dark, J. J. (2012). Carl Friedrich Gauss. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Gotten to 08 11, 2012. https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/theme/227204/Carl-Friedrich-Gauss. School Board. 2012. How the SAT Is Scored. College Board SAT. Gotten to 07 22, 2012. https://sat.collegeboard.org/scores/how-sat-is-scored

What Ministerial Ordination Means to Me Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

What Ministerial Ordination Means to Me - Essay Example Everybody can get to it yet not every person decides to concentrate on it, or underlines it in day by day living or praises it first. Being appointed implies that I do. The individuals who don't comprehend have tested me with the charge that being non-denominational methods rehearsing a mess of odds and ends that don't descend from a direct scriptural heredity. In my service, I practice Integrated Energy Therapy (IET), which includes discharging the vitality designs from an earlier time, which limit one’s limit with regards to power and satisfaction. The result of this recuperating methodology is that the individual gets enabled and adjusted. So as to accomplish this work, I too should permit any vitality designs from the past to be discharged, with the goal that I excessively engaged and adjusted. Just from this spot would i be able to help other people. I make myself accessible for correspondence with heavenly attendants. I utilize the violet vitality beam, with the assistan ce of recuperating heavenly attendants, to work legitimately with the client’s 12 strand DNA. ... Vitality moves through me and is acknowledged by the customer, applied to any place it is required. My aim is just to make my body and soul accessible for this vitality to move through, without impediment. Being appointed is a stamping of this understanding it isn't me, not my motivation, not my capacity, however is all inclusive vitality moving however me. Being appointed is a presentation of accessibility. Being appointed methods keeping myself in a positive enthusiastic space, however much as could reasonably be expected, with the goal that I can display and welcome positive impact to help my customers. It implies that I reliably consider what is acceptable and helpful, in light of the fact that the Law of Attraction trains that like draws in like. Concentrating on dull contemplations will welcome murkiness, however concentrating on positive musings welcomes the Light. I have gotten the point of view communicated that a clergyman is called by God, that being appointed is a positiv e answer to that call. To me, being appointed is a seal on my duty to myself, the diverting of infinite vitality and to my locale. It is a proper response to the astronomical call I have heard with my most profound being. This call is a challenge to assume on liability to arrange my life service, to serve others, to give a case of living where each demonstration is sacrosanct. I am human and along these lines I have obliviousness, desire, vanity, weakness, dread, avarice, and different checks of the Light. How might I lead? I am, simultaneously, honored with sympathy, compassion, an open heart, gratefulness, seeing supernatural occurrences, and different endowments that advance contact with the Light. Through beauty, I go after Light, and I help other people who long for it, as I do. Be that as it may, what is my convention and what are its limits? Appointment implies being associated with a

How can web hosting affect SEO

How can web hosting affect SEO Make Money Online Queries? Struggling To Get Traffic To Your Blog? Sign Up On (HBB) Forum Now!How can web hosting affect SEOUpdated On 06/03/2020Author : Ram kumarTopic : Web HostingShort URL : https://hbb.me/2KU2LRG CONNECT WITH HBB ON SOCIAL MEDIA Follow @HellBoundBlogWith SEO being an ever-changing philosophy of its own, there are many things you need to know if you want your website to be well ranked. One of those things on your checklist should be the choice of your hosting provider. Although it is usually the thing we think about the last, it can have a substantial impact on your website’s SEO.The list of things that can have a strong impact on your website’s ranking can usually be directly connected to your hosting provider. We can roughly say that they are: website speed, availability, security, server location and neighborhood.Website speed is one of the most important factors of your website, not just the SEO part. Don’t let people wait for your website to load, and be sure to test your loading speed. Good website speed and response can lead to more conversions because happy visitors are returning visitors.Speed and uptimeBear in mind that Google crawlers will try to visit your website a couple of times every day. Their mission is to access all the available information on the website and match them with corresponding queries. If they wait too long, they will just move to the next website. If this tends to happen several times your website will be flagged as inaccessible, and your content won’t find its way to people who are searching for it. Search engines avoid unreliable websites in their results because it is not good for them if someone clicks on the suggested link and cannot access the site.It is similar to uptime and downtime. Whatever you do, you want your website to be available, because you can have visitors from around the globe. Google crawlers don’t sleep either. Like with loading time, if your website is down often, don’t h ope for the good search engine rankings. This is why choosing the best web hosting sites is so important.  This is where a good hosting provider can change things to your favour. Choose the type of your hosting wisely, and always look for the option for an easy upgrade. In case you get much more visitors than you expected, be prepared to allocate more resources, and upgrade your plan to address your needs. When it comes to uptime, always look for guaranteed uptime, and one with lots of nines in it too. Some downtime is inevitable but you should try to keep it as less as possible, and your rankings will benefit.READ000Webhost Review: Looking for a Free Domain Hosting?SecurityThere is no way around it, security is the crucial aspect for every website. Without proper protection, websites are exposed to malicious hackers that can bring the website down, delete your data, or add/change links on your pages. When your website is down, or have irrelevant links in the content, you can have p enalties that will affect your website rankings. Many hosting providers include SSL as a standard option within their plans, as well as DDOS protection, regular backup, and many other tools that can help you maintain your website’s integrity.Server location and neighborhoodServer location is an important factor that can increase your loading speed, and indirectly your SEO rankings. It’s simple physics. If you are targeting a local audience, your server should be local. This way you will eliminate the lag between server and visitors and keep the loading speed high. Also, the geo-IP location of your server is one of the factors Google uses for search results rankings. With server close to the target audience, your position in search results will be better. If your audience is Norway, pick a host with servers in that country.Server neighborhood is similar to your neighbors. Like you wouldn’t like to live close to criminals and gamblers, your website should not be hosted on the sa me shared server with unwanted website neighbors. If you are hosting educational content or online store, and other websites on the same server are gambling and pornography oriented, this can not be good for your SEO. When crawlers go through your website and see that it shares the same IP with above-mentioned websites, what do you think, how will that affect your rankings and promotional activities?Don’t underestimate your website host. It can affect your SEO directly and indirectly, and the experience you provide to your visitors. But, don’t focus only on SEO. The good hosting provider will offer a lot of things, from good customer support and resources to regular backup and a lot of additional features. Pick a hosting provider that will allow you to grow, as your visitors start to rise. And remember, good hosting can help you with your search engine optimization, but it will not do it for you. You still need to implement SEO basics and optimize your website for the best resul ts, and good hosting is a great place to start.

International Statistical Classification Of Diseases And...

In today’s technological world patients are choosing where they receive their care based on research and public access to hospitals quality of care numbers. Hospitals are competing with other hospitals for patients. In order to attract patients hospitals are improving their quality of care by providing safe and efficient care. Advancements in Medical Technology has made it possible for Health care providers to better diagnose and treat their patients, one of those medical advancements is conversion of International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 9th edition (ICD-9) to International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th edition (ICD-10). ICD-10 a medical classification list went live on October 1, 2015 for U.S healthcare industry after experiencing many lengthy. The adoption of ICD-10 codes offer many more relegation options compared to ICD-9 (Rouse, 2015). With ICD-10 codes, healthcare officials properly document diseases on patient’s charts, government agencies track epidemiology trends, and insurance carriers assist in medical reimbursement decisions. ICD-10 codes are developed by The World Health Organization (WHO) and are adopted by the rest of the healthcare system in the United States. ICD-9 was introduced in 1979. With the advancement in medicine and the direction healthcare has gone into a new set of coding was needed that supported advances in modern technology and medical devices.ICD-10 isShow MoreRelatedHealth Information Management Essay896 Words   |  4 PagesHealth Information Management Health information management involves the practice of maintaining and taking care of health records in hospitals, health insurance companies and other health institutions, by the use of electronic means (McWay 176). 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In the course of time the vocabulary had been enhanced by word such as circular madness, paranoia etc. However, the first classification system with real scientific profile was provided by Emil Kreapelin (1856-1926). Nowadays, the World Health Organization ´s International Classification of Diseases 10 ( ICD -10) and the American Psychiatric Association ´s Diagnostic and Statistical ManualRead MoreThe National Institute Of Mental Health1200 Words   |  5 PagesIn 2013, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) broadly launched the Research Domain Criteria project (RDoC). The purpose of RDoC is to provide a working framework to advance dimensional approaches of classifying psychopathology on the basis of observable behaviors and neurobiological measures (National Institute of Mental Health, 2013). Reflecting on the last thirty years, incredible progress has been made in understanding brain-behavior relationships in numerous mental disorders. The continued

Sterotyping in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Essay

Topic 1: Stereotyping. The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is based on the experiences of one girl, Scout, growing up in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. The novel explains some conflicts in Scout’s life. Scout, the main character, learns that things are not always morally correct and is confronted with the reality of prejudice and stereotyping. Scout struggles with understanding the prejudice and stereotyping she witnesses. Atticus Finch, Scouts father, with his strongly held convictions, wisdom, and empathy, Atticus functions as the novels moral backbone. (2). Atticus tries to raise his children to be fair and nonjudgmental. It is through the lessons of Atticus and Scouts experiences with discrimination that the reader sees†¦show more content†¦Regardless of the lack of evidence, the jury and town are reluctant to take the word of a black man over two white accusers. Atticus strongly pleads for the jury to look past race and stereotypes and serve true justice, They were confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption- the evil assumption- that all Negros lie, and that all Negros are basically immoral beings.† †¦ â€Å"I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this defendant to his family. In the name of God, do your duty. (1). Throughout this trial Scout not only witnesses prejudice and stereotyping, she becomes the victim of several people throughout the book. When Scout arrives for her first day of school, she meets Miss Caroline, a teacher from the north. Miss Caroline has predetermined thoughts as to how the class should be taught and how the children should learn. When Scout tells the teacher she can read and write, she is punished and told she should not learn outside of school and that she is too young to be able to read and write. Scout was mad with Miss Carolines refusal to accept any other teaching method but her own. This shows how Scout was stereotyped because she was from rural Alabama and the teacher stereotyped everyone to be dumber than herself. When Scout is verbally abused because her father is defending Tom Robinson, she becomes

Euthanasia Should Not Be Legalized - 2177 Words

The thought of losing a loved one can be extremely devastating. Deciding whether someone who is trying to fight out the pain has to die, or even if they do wish to die is even more devastating. Euthanasia shouldn’t be legalized because the assumption that patients should have a right to die would impose on doctors a duty to kill, there’s no right to be killed but there are danger of being killed. We could never control it because of the different ways people think and the way they view what’s right or wrong. Euthanasia is the intentional killing by actually killing the person or leaving the person alone without treatment till he or she dies on their own. Also known as â€Å"mercy killing† .There are two types of euthanasia, active and passive. Passive Euthanasia being the ending of someone’s life by deliberate withholding of drugs or other life-sustaining treatment. Active Euthanasia is the act of ending a life in which is to cause the patient’s death in a single act. Some places use this on patients who have being diagnosed with a terminal illness for a long time and show no improvement in health, the patient may experience sever amount of pain. Two way that people who view this situation is on one side they would think that since there were no signs of getting better they would attempt to relieve their pain by killing. Other would want the patient to keep being treated I hope of improvement. If the patient had the right to die for some people it would become a duty to die byShow MoreRelatedShould Euthanasia Be Legalized?1360 Words   |  6 PagesAbout 55% of terminally ill patients die in atrocious pain. Euthanasia is a practice that hasn’t been legalized in many places, and is usually performed by lethal injection. In the United States euthanasia is only legalized in Oregon, Washington, Montana, and certain areas of Texas. Some citizens feel that euthanasia should be legalized because they should have the sole right to their life. Others feel that God is the one that has the authority over a person’s life. There have been many cases whereRead MoreShould Euthanasia Be Legalized?864 Words   |  4 Pagescontroversy over euthanasia. Because there is a sharp conflict on the issue, some countries accept mercy killing lawful while others do not. The main arguments about the issue are whether the deliberate intervention on one’s life to the end is morally right or wrong. Some say euthanasia should be legalized because it is the only way to relieve harsh pain and meet ‘real happiness’ for the patients who are not expected to maintain their lives more. They also argue that people should respect the patients’Read MoreShould Euthanasia Be Legalized?971 Words   |  4 Pages Legalization of euthanasia in China Youyou Zhuang English Language Center, University of Victoria Youyou Zhuang, a student in English language center of University of Victoria. zhuangyoyo@gmail.com Legalization of euthanasia in China The hospital is a place where to cure the sickness and to save the patients. Have you ever thought a kind of â€Å"killing† could happen in the hospital? It is the â€Å"mercy killing†, also called euthanasia. Till now, euthanasia is legal in Netherlands, BelgiumRead MoreShould Euthanasia Be Legalized?1413 Words   |  6 Pagesstatement: euthanasia should be legalized. There exist numerous topics that are controversial within the criminal justice system. Euthanasia, the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relive pain and suffering, is one that has been around for a long time. Many people believe that it should continue being illegal due to certain moral values. However, some people argue that euthanasia should be decriminalized because people should have the right to die when they want to. Euthanasia hasRead MoreShould Euthanasia Be Legalized?907 Words   |  4 Pagesactive euthanasia, which is a highly contentious issue in the United States. Voluntary active euthanasia is currently illegal in the United States. However, I believe that patients with terminal illnesses experiencing a lot of pain and misery should have the right to die the way they choose, with dignity, instead of being subjected to agony. People should be able to choose voluntary active euthanasia, if ever need be, which is why I believe that despite current policy, voluntary active euthanasia shouldRead MoreShould Euthanasia Be Legalized?1050 Words   |  5 Pagesend quickly, but knew it was not going to happen. If euthanasia and/or assisted suicide was legalized, perhaps his wish could have been true. Unfortunately, euthanasia is only legal in the states of Oregon and Washington at the current time. Euthanasia is considered immoral and wrong for contradicting a doctor’s job. However, it save s families the horrible sight of their loved ones dying, safeguards being up to protect any abuse towards euthanasia, and ultimate choice of being euthanized is upon theRead MoreShould Euthanasia Be Legalized?1272 Words   |  6 Pagesthe natural body is able to heal itself and grow. Not only is it human nature to survive and prosper, it is also instinct to be frightened of death and suffering. Euthanasia has been a topic of debate ever since the Roman and Greek physicians have started to poison terminally ill patients with their consent. Today’s definition of euthanasia is â€Å"the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless wayRead MoreShould Euthanasia Be Legalized?1220 Words   |  5 Pagesincurable patients, it is rarely known that Euthanasia, a termination of one’s life with his/her self-willingness, is a release of permanent pain. On the other hand, it is committed by the doctors. Among Voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary Euthanasia, only is Voluntary Euthanasia being universally concerned by human beings. Various fascinating facts, Australia has already approved this act and many people from other countries have also committed Euthanasia. Regarding this topic, people have beenRead MoreShould Euthanasia Be Legalized?1210 Words   |  5 Pagesconcerns is dying with dignity and not left to suffer a long and drawn out death. Euthanasia, also known as mercy killing, is a sensitive and very controversial subject. Several people believe, doctors should not participate in any action that ends a person’s life due to the Hippocratic Oath stating that doctors are obligated to save lives. Although, euthanasia is considered to be immoral and even murder, it should be legalized when a person’s quality of life, due to an incurable illness, is gradually goingRead MoreShould Euthanasia Be Legalized?1490 Words   |  6 Pagesj ust like you are in pain. What would you do? Euthanasia is and act where a person assist the death of other person and relieves him/her from pain. It is also called as mercy killing. It is controversial because, some may thing it is immoral and some may think it is against their religious values. But, the fact is, the person who suffers with pain knows the pain better than anybody. It is the person’s decision to make. Euthanasia should be legalized with the involvements of legal documents based

Cost of Equity and Capital Structure free essay sample

In January 2007 the UK adopted the globally successful real estate investment trust (REIT) regime, allowing real estate firms to adopt the REIT status with the benefit of immediate exemption from corporate tax. This study observes 14 UK REITs and 18 comparable conventional UK real estate firms during the years 2001-2011 to scrutinize in how far the corporate tax exemption affects cost of debt and equity and eventually capital structure itself. I employ a difference-in-differences (DiD) analysis, whereby I contrast changes in several variables of REITs and Non-REITs in the pre- and post-treatment phase. This setup enables me to establish empirical results of the given relationship in the absence of changes in exogenous determinants. I find that the cost of debt of REITs rises by just above 30 percent compared to that of Non-REITs. Moreover, the results show that whereas REITs financed a 21 percent increase in total assets with an almost 50/50 debt to equity ratio, Non-REITs financed a 41 percent increase in total assets with 70/30 debt to equity. This confirms the expectation that REITs use relatively less debt because of the missing tax incentive and higher implied costs of debt. However, I do not obtain significant results from the DiD analysis, that this is caused by this treatment. Key words: REITs, corporate tax exemption, security issuance decision Research theme: Cost of debt, cost of equity and capital structure Supervisor: Dr. Henk von Eije 1. Introduction Capital structure theory plays a decisive role in the corporate and financial world, and although it has been subject to a great amount of academic research, the relationship of cost of capital and capital structure remains an unsolved puzzle for financial economists (Howe, Shilling (1988), Maris, Elayan (1990)). Furthermore, most of the existing research results in abstract theories and concepts with empirical proof lagging behind the theoretical research, as the included variables are often difficult to isolate and to observe. (Titman and Wessels, 1988) This study aims to shed light on the impact of the exemption of corporate tax on the cost of debt relative to the cost of equity and eventually on capital structure by analyzing and comparing REITs to conventional real estate firms. REITs are chosen as the center of this study, as they allow a type of natural experiment. The essential aspect to this set-up is that once conventional real estate firms start to function under the REIT regime, they become tax-exempt, which is expected to cause a sudden increase of their cost of debt component due to the now missing tax shield, previously imposed by the debt. This is derived from the calculation for the weighted cost of capital (WACC). That is the sum of the cost of equity (Re) multiplied with total equity (E) over total assets (A) plus the cost of debt (Rd) multiplied with one minus the corporate tax rate (T) and the ratio total debt (D) over total assets. This study aims to examine whether and by how much the cost of debt and equity change after tax exemption and if so how this affects in turn the capital structure of a firm. This leads to the following research questions: 1. Does tax exemption affect the cost of debt and equity and if so, by how much? 2. Does the capital structure change due to a rise in the cost of debt relative to the cost of equity? As I elaborate in the literature review, I expect that the cost of debt of REITs rises by the size of the tax shield, whereas the cost of equity remains constant. Furthermore, I expect that REITs use relatively less debt for financing, because of the relatively higher cost of debt. Already in 1958, Modigliani and Miller have pointed the discussion of capital structure towards the cost of debt and equity. According to their first proposition, in a world of no corporate taxes and with perfect markets, financial leverage has no effect on a firm’s value. In their second proposition, they state that the cost of equity equals a linear function defined by the required return on assets and the cost of debt (Modigliani and Miller, 1958). As negative aspects of debt, e. g. ersonal tax loss and bankruptcy costs however do exist in reality, Miller (1977) elaborates that leverage will either have no or a negative effect on the firm’s value, hence untaxed firms should favor equity. Nevertheless, firms have used leverage even before corporate taxes have been introduced (Maris and Elayan, 1990). This implies the existence of some market imperfec tions, which benefit the use of debt financing, thus enable a trade-off of the cost and benefits of debt resulting in an optimal capital structure, where marginal cost equal marginal benefits. In general, the majority of existing research is set up by taking the ecurity issuance choice as the dependent variable and then tests empirically for determinants based on data from one type of companies. It needs to be taken into consideration that security issue decision and capital structure are not the same, but that the latter is the result of all previous security issue decisions. This study differs in two major ways from the existing research. First, by investigating the changes in capital structure, this study aims at explaining long-term changes imposed by a sustained change in the independent variable of capital structure. This contrasts to other studies that connect each individual security issuance to the relative conditions and determinants. Secondly, the study centers the analysis on the comparison of REITs to conventional, non-REIT real estate companies. Given the uncertainty of the impact of the various variables on capital structure, contrasting these two data sets with the only distinctive difference of having different relative costs of debt and equity, enables one to investigate the impact of the independent variable while excluding other exogenous factors. The sample includes two groups of companies with observations from 2001 until 2012. Group 1, the treatment group, consists of 19 REITs in England and group 2, the control group consists of 31 conventional real estate firms. The REIT regime was introduced in 2007, thus the observations consist of six years without and six years with the REIT status for group 1 and twelve years without the REIT status for group 2. With their almost unique characteristics of being tax-exempt as well as having to distribute at least 90% of their operating gains, REITs experience significantly different conditions concerning capital structure compared to their industrial counterparts. The regulatory structures impact the security issue decisions in two related and important ways. The tax incentive of issuing debt is eliminated, which increases the cost of debt, thus lowers the REITs access to cheap funds. Moreover, REITs actually depend more on raising funds via external markets, as they have to distribute 90 percent of internally generated funds. The remainder of this study is structured as follows. In the next section, I elaborate on the structural differences of REITs in comparison to conventional firms, which are seen as relevant for this study. The literature review providing a detailed overview of previous research on capital structure and the impact of cost of debt and equity follows. Subsequently, I will describe the applied difference-in-differences method, my sample as well as the data collection and the regression models. The results are discussed in the fifth section. The final section summarizes and concludes. 2. REITs The UK REIT regime was launched on January 1st, 2007 and is set out in Part 4 of the Finance Act 2006. REITs are globally known and understood as having highly tax efficient structures for investment in real estate. At the moment, 24 companies qualify as and have elected the REIT status in the UK. Due to the need to have a complete set of data for the range of 2000 until 2012 and especially six years of data as a REIT, only 14 out of the 24 companies are selected in this study. This section serves to review the for this study relevant structural characteristics of REITs. In general, the UK REIT regime consists of listed property rental companies that own and manage a portfolio of commercial and retail real estate with the goal to earn a profit for shareholders. Two important tests to assure this guideline are the profit and asset test. According to the profit test, at least 75 percent of total profits must arise from the tax-exempt business, the rent income from its properties. Total profits here is gross profit before taxes,excluding any gains and losses on disposal of assets outside of the ordinary REIT business. Furthermore, the value of this tax-exempt business needs to account for at least 75 percent of the firm’s total assets to fulfill the asset test. Several formal requirements exist and demand a firm to be solely resident in the UK for tax purposes, be neither an open-ended investment nor close company, have a listing on a recognized stock exchange and have no shareholder own more than 10 percent of shares. The ‘close company’ condition prevents companies with less than five different owners to become REITs, whereas the open-ended investment company simply possesses a different corporate structure (Deloitte, 2012). After a real estate firm officially adopts the REIT status, several effects come into place. The most important effect is that REITs are tax-exempt but have to distribute at least 90 percent of their income as calculated for tax purposes within 12 months after the end of the accounting period. This reduces the ability of financing via internal funds significantly. The intention of tax-exemption is to replicate the tax treatment of direct investment in property and eliminate double taxation, both on corporate and shareholder level. Moreover, REITs are only allowed to dispose of up to 50 percent of existing assets within a five year time frame, which further restricts financing possibilities. Whereas requirements for a maximum debt-to-equity ratio exist in several other countries to disable extreme leveraging, the UK REIT regime commands REITs to have a gross profit-financing costs ratio of at least 1. 25, assuring overall positive operating profits. This shall prevent situations, where REITs distribute almost no taxable dividends because their operational profits are considerably reduced by high financing costs. However, breaching this requirement does not remove the REIT status but rather creates a tax charge on the relevant amount of debt to secure tax income for the government (Deloitte, 2012). In 2012, several changes to the REIT regime have been passed including the elimination of the entry charge, easing the profit-financing costs ratio as well as allowing the listing on more exchanges including AIM and Plus. Nevertheless, these changes came into effect after the last data observation and do not influence the current research. . Literature Review The aim of this study is to scrutinize the effect of tax exemption on the cost of debt and equity and in turn on capital structure. This section serves to provide a concise overview of the existing findings on capital structure, which are relevant for the comparison of REITs and their industrial counterparts. Eventually, I will demonstrate that despite the extensive amount of research, there is still a clear present need for empirical proof of the impact of cost of debt and equity on capital structure. This need results from the fact that REITs themselves and other tax-exempt corporation forms are still fairly new and hence under-researched. In addition, the unique setting of a sudden and drastic change in one determinant of capital structure allows a pre- and post-analysis of the significance of that variable that can offer new insights and can serve to confirm or reject existing models. The literature review is divided into two sections. First, the capital structure irrelevance introduced by Modigliani and Miller is discussed, as well as early research of Howe et al. (1988) and Maris et al. 1990), as both find that REITs are still highly leveraged contrary to their expectations. In the second part I will discuss the presently dominating theories describing the relevant determinants, the security issuance decision and their implications for the usage of debt by REITs. 3. 1 Capital Structure Irrelevance The first and second propositions from Modigliani and Miller are included into this analysis, because they form the basis of modern capital structure theory and are especially interesting as this study focuses on tax-exempt corporations, which is an essential aspect of their work. In general, Modigliani and Miller (1958) state that in a world of efficient markets with no taxes, bankruptcy costs, agency costs and asymmetric information, companies would experience capital structure irrelevance, implying that the value of the firm is not affected by the ratio of debt to equity. Examining REITs and their counterparts solely based on this work, one would expect a much lower leverage ratio for REITs, because the only difference appears to be the missing tax break. As demonstrated by Howe and Shilling (1988) and Maris and Elayan (1990), this is however not the case implying the existence of market imperfections beneficial to the use of debt. Howe and Shilling (1988) examine stock price reactions after announcements of new security issues. Whereas they expect a negative price reaction after debt issuance because of a net tax loss of corporate borrowing for untaxed firms, they find a positive, significant effect. Their conclusion is that signaling effects due to asymmetric information between managers and outsiders dominate over other determinants. The underlying idea is that information asymmetries exist between managers and outside market participants about the company’s prospects, which make it costly to issue equity. Overall, their findings suggest that relatively higher costs of debt do not necessarily hinder debt issuance. Maris and Elayan (1990) address the question of capital structure from a different perspective and scrutinize the effect of debt financing on a REIT’s cost of capital. Similar to Howe and Shilling (1988) they expect disadvantages in the use of debt due to personal taxes and the cost of financial distress. Nevertheless, they find that many REITs are highly leveraged. The authors argue that both agency costs and the leverage clientele effect might be reasons, but do not find significant results. The leverage clientele effect proposes that some firms use extreme leverage ratios to appeal to either highly risk-averse or risk-seeking investors and fully ignore the trade-off between the costs and benefits of debt. The effect will be addressed in the methodology again, because if it holds, the levels of cost of debt and equity are fully neglected and my assumptions will then not hold. The concept of agency costs, which is not solely a topic in corporate finance, was defined by Jensen and Meckling (1976). Agency costs occur due to an incomplete alignment of the agent’s and owner’s interest, in this case that of equity and bond holders. The authors argue that any firm that uses external finances will have an optimal capital structure with minimized agency costs. Maris and Elayan (1990) argue based on Jensen and Meckling’s findings, that there should be one optimal capital structure for REITs or other firms that are highly similar. 3. 2 Present Models Whenever a company is in need of financing, several decisions have to be made. In the following section, I will discuss the dominant theories influencing the security issuance decision, which are relevant for the comparison of REITs to their industrial counterparts. The trade-off theory introduces a very basic relation between bankruptcy costs and tax saving benefits. Kraus and Litzenberger (1972) explain that firms are financed via debt and equity. As the marginal costs of debt increase with higher debt levels, they suggest an optimal debt level where marginal benefit equals marginal costs. If this theory is valid, REITs will use far less leverage because the tax exemption significantly reduces the benefits of debt, whereas bankruptcy costs and hence the marginal costs of debt will remain at the previous level. The established pecking order model by Myers and Majluf (1984) describes that the costs of financing rise with increasing information asymmetries of in- and outsiders. Hence, internal financing is favored over debt, with equity financing only as a means of last resort. The pecking order model incorporates the essential characteristics of debt and equity. Whereas debt-holders have the right to money-fixed claims, equity holders only possess the right to a pro-rata share in the uncertain future of the company, hence they will require a risk premium compared to debt, implying that the cost of equity (Re) will always exceed the cost of debt (Rd). Several implications for REITs arise. First of all, internal financing is almost no option as REITs have to redistribute almost 90 percent of their operating income, which demands them to turn to external financing much more frequently. And although the cost of debt of REITs has risen, the pecking order model states that Rd will always be lower than Re, hence the use of debt might actually not change for REITs. Baker and Wurgler (2002) established the market timing hypothesis stating that capital structure is the result of continuous attempts by management to time the market. Companies would issue equity if market valuation of equity is high relative to book valuation and issue debt otherwise. This theory contradicts to some extent the general belief that an optimal capital structure exists per firm or at least per industry. According to Baker and Wurgler (2002) capital structure is simply driven by historic valuation and a firms’ market timing behavior, as firms merely seek the maximum market value possible from financing. Howton et al. (2003) find that the market timing model is far less evident for the case of REITs though, since the missing internal financing opportunities do not provide the luxury of being able to time the market. 4. Data and Methodology This study builds on contrasting REITs to conventional real estate firms in order to analyze the treatment effect in the absence of other variables by using the difference-in-differences method (DiD). DiD enables the researcher to estimate the difference between the pre-post, within-subject differences of the treatment and control group caused by the treatment. However, this is only possible if the treatment resembles the only different cause of change throughout the period, hence the groups need to be otherwise highly similar. On top of that, the group composition needs to stay constant. All empirical data was collected via Thomson Reuters Datastream. The data sample is constrained to the UK because of two reasons. First, there is no global standard for the REIT regime. Although they all function in the same way, there are still differences in the structural characteristics. As the parallel trend assumption is essential for a DiD analysis, it is therefore not possible to compare firms of different countries in one analysis. Moreover, the level of corporate taxation varies significantly between countries, which would complicate a precise analysis. The UK was chosen for practical reasons. On the one hand, the real estate market needs to be sizeable enough in order to have sufficient firms in both groups to obtain statistical significance. On the other hand, the treatment needs to be in a time range for which all data are is available. The original sample from the UK consists of 19 REITs and 31 conventional firms. However, because of missing and flawed data, the sample was reduced to 14 REITs and 18 conventional firms. Table 1 summarizes the original sample as well as the reasons for eliminating various firms from the sample. In order to have complete data, I only include the years 2001 until 2011. 4. 1 Regression This study strives to find the effect of the given treatment, exemption of corporate taxes, on several variables. If TB and TA are the average values of a dependent variable of the treatment group before and after the treatment and CB and CA the values for the control group respectively, I can estimate the difference as: (TA TB) – (CA – CB) | Treatment group| Control Group| Before| TB| CB| After| TA| CA| Table 3: Difference Estimator However, this estimator is not precise, as differences between the groups are not cancelled out. In order to achieve this, I set up a regression model with the two dummy variables ‘Treat’ and ‘Time’. Before Treatment After Treatment If in Treatment Group If in Control Group With the dummies: Hence, the difference estimator is: Table 4: Difference in Difference Model | Treatment Group| Control Group| Difference| Before| c + ? 1| c| ? 1| After| c + ? 1 + ? 2 + ? 3| c + ? 2| ? 1 + ? 3| Difference| ? 2 + ? 3| ? 2| ? 3| Here, it is visible that ? 3 is the difference estimator. There are ten variables used in this study. Table 2 provides an overview of these variables along with definitions. The focus of this study lies on the Re, Rdt2, Re/Rdt2 and D/E. Rdt2 is chosen to scrutinize whether the treatment actually increases the cost of debt by the size of the tax shield. Re is included to examine whether the cost of equity also changes, which would be contrary to my expectations. Re/Rdt2 and D/E are chosen to examine whether the capital structure of REITs changes due to the treatment. The remaining variables are in parts highly similar and are included to investigate if there are eventually other or higher correlations, which might help to explain certain outcomes. For that reason, I chose Rdt1 and Rdt2 as two estimators of the cost of debt. Rdt2 can be seen as the most basic estimator, as it is simply the total interest expense of outstanding debt over total debt. Next to this basic estimator, I use Rdt1, which includes the valuation gains and losses of derivatives used for interest hedging in accordance to IFRS 9. According to this regulation, each hedging instrument is directly connected to a particular debt and hence, it should be included in the costs of debt (KPMG, 2012). It is not generally defined, whether Rdt1 or Rdt2 is the better estimator of the cost of debt. The results differ in fact significantly and will be discussed later on. Furthermore, I use the ratio D/A as an alternative expression of the leverage ratio. It is necessary to state that I use book values obtained via Thomson Reuters Datastream for debt and equity because of the complexity of using market rates. Whereas the impact of book values for debt will be insignificant, the impact of book values for equity should be seen more critically (Maris and Elayan, 1990). The cost of equity (Re) was calculated according to the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and is explained in table 2 in the appendix. Next to the weekly return data of all companies, I chose the FTSE 350 and the UK Interbank 3-month rate as estimators of the market return and risk free rate respectively. The FTSE 350 combines the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 and provides an industry-spanning overview of the British market. The corporation tax rates were obtained from HM Revenue amp; Customs, the UK tax authority. From 2000 onwards, the corporation tax rate in England was 30 percent. From 2008 until 2010 it was 28 percent, in 2011 26 percent and in 2012 24 percent. There are some problems associated with a DiD analysis, which need to be discussed. First of all, the composition of the treatment group needs to be random. That means in the context of this study, that out of the entire population of real estate firms eligible for the REIT status, those firms who actually elected the REIT status cannot have previously possessed a certain criterion that the firms in the control group did not have. Otherwise, the treatment effect cannot be attributed to the treatment only, but this criterion as well. The research did not reveal any aspect how REITs and conventional firms may have been different in advance to the REIT regime, hence this condition is not hurt. Moreover, the parallel trend assumption is the cornerstone of the DiD analysis. Titman and Wessels (1988) examined eight attributes towards their impact on the costs and benefits associated with debt and equity financing. Only the four determinants uniqueness, industry classification, size and profitability are found to have a significant effect. Size may be of an issue here, because several authors suggest that bankruptcy costs increase as size decreases. The REIT group has a far bigger average size than the Non-REITs. Nevertheless, as the cost of debt of Non-REITs actually decreases, it is not expected to have an impact in this sample. The remaining three determinants are considered to be the same for both groups and are not assumed to be affected by a company’s election of the REIT status. 5. Findings and Discussion The following table provides an overview of the averages of all included variables for the time ranges before and after 2007. The variables are explained in table 2 in the appendix. Table 5: Averages pre- and post-treatment REITs Non-REITs | N| 2001-2006| 2007-2011| % -Change| Â  | N| 2001-2006| 2007-2011| % -Change| | | | | | | | | | | T| | 0. 3| 0| | | | 0. 3| 0. 2733| | Re| 154| 0. 0401| 0. 0542| 34. 99| | 198| 0. 388| 0. 0464| 19. 52| Rdt1| 154| 0. 0384| 0. 0561| 46. 24| | 197| 0. 0383| 0. 0394| 2. 92| Rdt2| 154| 0. 0385| 0. 0471| 22. 31| | 197| 0. 0384| 0. 0333| -13. 28| Re/Rdt1| 154| 1. 1742| 1. 1232| -4. 34| | 197| 1. 1280| 1. 4664| 29. 99| Re/Rdt2| 154| 1. 1053| 1. 2100| 9. 48| | 197| 1. 1212| 1. 6444| 46. 66| | | | | | | | | | | A| 154| 2,944,589| 3,635,561| 23. 47| | 197| 416,083| 577 ,974| 38. 91| E| 154| 1,568,056| 1,911,587| 21. 91| | 197| 192,164| 232,028| 20. 74| D| 154| 1,376,533| 1,723,974| 25. 24| | 197| 223,919| 345,946| 54. 50| D/A| 154| 0. 4552| 0. 4627| 1. 66| | 197| 0. 4643| 0. 4982| 7. 8| D/E| 154| 0. 9046| 0. 9920| 9. 66| Â  | 197| 1. 1154| 1. 5509| 39. 04| This table supports a number of interesting findings. First of all, the debt shield seems to have the expected effect on cost of debt. Both Rdt1 and Rdt2 of REITs rose by more than 30 percent relative to those of Non-REITs. Rdt1 of REITs almost doubled with a 46. 2 percent increase, while that of Non-REITs stayed almost constant with a 2. 9 percent increase. And although Rdt2 of REITs increased by only 22. 3 percent, the Rdt2 of Non-REITs fell by 13. 3 percent, thus resulting in a 36. 6 difference in their relative development. Interestingly Rdt1 has risen in relation to Rdt2 for both groups. This can be explained by the rather low 3-month interbank rates, which have experienced a significant drop in the last quarter of 2008 after the beginning of the financial crisis, and have stayed at that level until now. This has led to devaluations of the derivatives used for hedge accounting in accordance to IFRS 9. Moreover, the descriptive statistics of Rdt1 and Rdt2 in table 7 show, that Rdt2 is the more reliable variable. Rdt1 has more than twice the standard deviation as well as negative values, which do not portray useful information. Overall, Rdt1, as a value for cost of debt, may be the more precise value to use from a theoretic point of view, as it includes the costs of hedging, however it turns out to produce inconclusive results. This is due to the fact that high valuation gains or losses distort the total interest expense for that year, showing even negative values in some cases. Moreover, the correlation between Rdt1 and the leverage ratios is weaker than the correlation between Rdt2 and the same. A reason for this might be, that management considers hedging choices only after a security has been selected and not beforehand. Rather unexpected is the raise of Re for both groups. The 16 percent increase in Re for Non-REITs is in accordance to the literature as it may result from the 32. 1 percent increase in financial leverage. The higher amount of debt implies higher betas which in turn increase the Re. However, the Re of REITs rose by 29. 2 percent, whereas there was only an 8 percent rise in financial leverage. This study does not find any evidence how the REIT status may have caused this significant increase in Re. Both REITs and Non-REITs have experienced rises in total assets accompanied by rises in total equity and debt. The expectation that REITs use less debt for financing growth than Non-REITs is confirmed by the results. In detail, the total assets of REITs increased by 23. 5 percent with a 21. 9 percent increase of equity and a 25. 2 percent increase of debt. Non-REITs financed a 38. 9 percent increase of total assets with 20. 7 percent increase in equity and 54. 5 percent increase in debt. Moreover, the D/E ratio of Non-REITs rose by 39 percent whereas the D/E ratio of REIT rose by less than 10 percent. This is seen to be in accordance with the literature, especially with the trade-off and pecking order model. REITs did not become less leveraged in the post-treatment phase compared to the previous state, however they did use far less leverage than Non-REITs. The fact that they are not less leveraged is likely explained by the favorable debt conditions of the general economy as a response to the financial crisis. The regression model confirms some but not all of these results. Table 6 provides an overview of the c, ? 1, ? 2 and the difference estimator ? 3 for all dependent variables. The values in parentheses are the corresponding t-values, marked with an * if significant at the 1 percent level and ** at the 5 percent level. This could be examined by further research. The ratios Re/Rdt1 and Re/Rdt2 are also essential as they demonstrate that cost of debt has become much more expensive relative to cost of equity for REITs in comparison to Non-REITs, which confirms my expectations. The results for the remaining five variables are all insignificant, hence I cannot provide conclusive results to answer the second research question of whether capital structure changes due to a significant rise in the cost of debt relative to the cost of equity. Table 6 is in accordance with my expectations and the changes indicated by the descriptive statistics. The ? 3 value for both variables D/A and D/E is negative. This means that the leverage ratios of REITs decreased in comparison to those of Non-REITs. However, I do not obtain significant results to demonstrate that this has been caused by the treatment. In order to analyze whether a rise in the cost of debt relative to the cost of equity causes capital structure to change, I would have to run a subsequent regression model with Re/Rdt2 as the independent and D/A or D/E as the dependent variable. Unfortunately however, this is not possible with my statistical means, since the independent variable would be influenced by the treatment for the REIT group and has a time shift at 2006/2007, hurting the underlying statistical assumptions. Nevertheless, I can build a regression for the control group to examine the relationship of Re/Rdt2 and the leverage ratios for that group in order to derive some insights. Although I recognize that the explanatory power of this approach is highly limited, since I use a far smaller sample and neglect the entire treatment group, this approach can still trigger some first insights and hence timulate further research. The following regression model was used: I used the percentage change of absolute values for Yi and Xi, indicated via the denotation ‘CH’ in table 8 in the appendix. Other than for Rdt1, all expected relationships can be observed at a high significance level. There is a strong positive correlation between the cost of equity and the leverage ratios. Higher cost of equity favors the use of debt, hence the leverage ratios rise. Vice versa, there is a negative correlation of cost of debt and the leverage ratios. In general, the effects on the independent variables are higher for the leverage ratio D/E, which is similar to the previous results. 6. Conclusion As the literature review depicted, there are at best mixed results on how a significant rise in the cost of debt relative to the cost of equity will impact the capital structure in the long run. The pecking order model proposes that the cost of debt will still be lower than the cost of equity despite any increase from the missing tax shield, and thus there will still be similar benefits to the use of debt as before becoming a REIT. This study finds, that companies, who select the REIT status and thus become exempt from corporate taxes, experience a rise in their cost of debt, which almost equals the size of the tax shield. Both the descriptive statistics as well as the regression model confirm this. I cannot find significant results that the leverage ratio is affected by the treatment. The descriptive statistics do confirm my expectations, as well as the second regression model run for the control group. The coefficients from the difference in difference analysis are also in accordance with my expectations, however I do not obtain significant values.

Personal Marketing Plan Essay Example

Personal Marketing Plan Paper OBJECTIVES Combining business school education, professional/personal development training, self education along with life experiences directed me toward beginning a career as an entrepreneur. Many years have been spent taking classes and exploring various business opportunities. I started my college career as a business major. During that time, I also studied various art mediums to explore creative talents. In my junior year, I decided to combine those strengths and interests into my career path. Now that graduation is closer it is time to formulate and began executing a plan for the next 5 to 10 years of my life. Short Term Goals I have five main short-term goals, which include goals before graduation, educational career and professional goals. Before graduation, I aim to increase my grade point average to a 3. 0 minimum. Improving my resume and working knowledge through VCU’s small business mentorship program. And starting a part time personal home inventory service business while in school will enable me to apply previous knowledge, and use the many resources and services that are available. Start up cost for this venture is moderate compared to other businesses. My plan is to invest the minimum, $3000 during start up. Also I have employed the services of a professional coach to assist with personal and professional development. After graduation, (May 2008), my career goal is to expand my home inventory business, â€Å"Professional Home Inventory Services† from part time to full time operation. I plan on continuing education at Virginia Commonwealth University or the University of Maryland. Here, the goal is to earn a certificate in International Management. With a personal interest in the African culture (African Art and History), I plan to begin my travels to Africa through a Study Abroad Program. We will write a custom essay sample on Personal Marketing Plan specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Personal Marketing Plan specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Personal Marketing Plan specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer I intend on completing the certificate program in 2011. My personal interest in Africa will be a lifelong study. This certification and additional coursework will help my career by opening up the passageway to a new business venture, security and most of all spiritual growth in knowing more of my African heritage. I have and investment goal to save 15% of my annual income in addition to current savings, for a second business, which will be a combination of Importing African Art for resale online and business consulting. Long Term Goals My long-term goals include the continuation of my career, personal and investment objectives. I plan to be operating the consulting firm, â€Å"Robinson Business to Business Consulting† by 2013. I anticipate opening my import business,† Africa All Around â€Å"by 2015. I have estimated that it will take a minimum of 25,000 to 35,000 to start; therefore the money I have saved in addition to profits gained from the inventory service business will be used to help finance this venture. I want to continue to save a percentage of my income for future investments. Situation Analysis SWOT In order to understand what strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that I might encounter, I performed a SWOT analysis. As for my strengths, I am a highly creative and friendly person, I possess strong analytical skills, and I enjoy working alone and with small groups. I also have strong interpersonal skills. Patience and attention to detail are definitely virtues in the home inventory business. My main weakness is communicating in large groups. Improvement is needed in the areas of personal and professional development, writing and communication skills. At times, multitasking can be a challenge. I could be more effective with improvements in focusing, and time management. And I lack advanced training in computer software programs such as Microsoft Office. Also, a fair understanding and working observation of product values and knowledge of market values are needed for the inventory industry. That additional understanding will come with experience. There are several opportunities in front of me at this time. The first is the great need for small businesses for future economic growth, locally and internationally. There is a tremendous need for small business to keep up with technological advances and environmental changes. Small business can innovate and create new jobs at a faster rate than their larger competitors. Unfortunately, living in times of high crime, recurrent natural disasters and, bad weather conditions all in the mist of being extremely busy due to work and family demands is where I find opportunities to provide a service that is in demand . Owning a small business can be very challenging but with planning and organizing, allotted time will allow for personal interest endeavors such as travel and art. Finally, the threats I have include average competition, which is expected with a low cost high profit margin start up venture. Through research, I have found two companies in the Richmond Virginia area. There are companies on the internet that market home inventory software and not the bells and whistles of technology nor the personalized service aspect of the business like I will offer. But, the homeowner himself can accomplish this task if they choose to invest the time and effort. Another consideration is the rate of expansion, which is lower on average, than other businesses but once again, this business has high profit margins, on average than other businesses. Personal Marketing Strategy Target Market When targeting my market I will directly seek middle to upper class homeowners, current homebuyers and sellers (movers) in the market. Estate owners or their deceased relatives’ estates are good targets for asset documentation and estate sale planning and management. Demographically, services will be offered in Richmond VA. and surrounding counties and Northern VA. Marketing Mix –The 4 P’s There are many factors to consider in why I (my company) should be hired. In order to improve my chances for consideration I must present myself as a product, promote myself, set my price and finally determine my place. Product: Since I am the product I am a marketable asset. I have several important skills that will make me a successful business owner. I have excellent customer service skills. I posses a since of business practices, and product knowledge. As mentioned in my SWOT analysis, I have patience and strong attention for detail. Change in external environmental conditions; weather, crime and consumer behavior leads to new marketing opportunities that may call for internal environmental changes. Staying current with the industry connective components over the industry span such as; insurance company practices, homeowner’s insurance policies, new real-estate developments, market value, safety and security, will be critical at all stages. Being able to deliver this information will add value to my product while marketing and adapting to changes. Promotion: Now that there is a product, it needs to be successfully promoted. There are several possible ways to do this. The first is networking; developing business contacts with insurance companies, real estate agents, close friends and relatives. Social functions, and community events are other ways offering information about myself and my work. Being affiliated with non profit organizations that assist with business ventures will be a romoting factor. I will treat every opportunity as if I was on an interview I will position myself as a serious career professional and not just a college student. Always taking advantage of every opportunity that may arise. Price: The earning of an inventory specialist varies depending on the size of the home. For example, a 1200sq. ft. home could cost $300 to $350 for about a 4 hour job. Following graduation, I expect to be earning between $35,000 and 45,000 a year. These numbers are based on demographics, the experience that I will have, and salary based on he industry. I will be willing to negotiate and discount services, providing that multiple services are purchased or if a business contract is landed thru a referral. Place: There are two cities in which I would want to live, Northern Va or Maryland. When considering where I want to live, several factors came into play. First, I weighed the average salary, cost of living, cultural activities. Demand and competition in this industry was also evaluated. Either of these areas could offer great opportunities for this field. I could pursue the same class of target customers. An informal network with current contacts of friends and family homeowners and organizations would be a channel for promoting and advertising. Also low cost mailings online advertising would be appropriate distribution method. Conclusion: The purpose of this personal marketing plan was to identify and evaluate my short and long term goals, determine my strengths and weaknesses, examine opportunities and threats that I face to create a action plan to determine my marketability as a entrepreneur. I will be able to target specific markets in which I want to work through specific methods of research geared to segmented markets. I will be able to choose and determine specific locations, salaries, organizational cultures which I believe I will be the most functional in. My conversation with professionals currently in the field have given me a better perspective and have caused me to think more about both the pros and cons of being a entrepreneur in the inventory management field. With the completion of this project I feel more prepared and focused towards what I need to accomplish in order to reach my ultimate goal in life.

Benchmarking and Paradigm Blindness Essays

Benchmarking and Paradigm Blindness Essays Benchmarking and Paradigm Blindness Paper Benchmarking and Paradigm Blindness Paper Essay Topic: Blindness Benchmarking Paradigm blindness Is a dangerous pitfall that any business can fall into. It effectively causes the business to become stagnant with lax management and a lack of fresh Ideas and Input by settling over business and lulling It with the thought of comfort In the routine. Paradigm blindness can be summarized Into something that is done best in a certain way, but the reasoning is for this is because it has always been done this way, not because it is the most efficient way to do it. To avoid paradigm blindness many businesses actively practice benchmarking. Benchmarking s a potent tool for company management, pushing them to explore new ways to organism the business and challenging previously set standards. The process of benchmarking was first utilized in the asses by Xerox. In an attempt to regain lost market share they actively compared themselves to rival companies in order to find some way in which to Improve their operations (Lempel and Catwalk, 1997). Benchmarking can be used both in short term and long term management, but finds particular value In strategic management where management can decide how best the business should be run. Although benchmarking may not be a constant management tool It Is a continual one with which organizations can fine tune their operations to suit market and environmental fluctuations. To date there has been no benchmarking method that has become universally adopted, the fact that different businesses require different approaches being one reason to this. However one of the first utilized was developed by Robert Camp, the core principles revolving around a twelve step methodology. 1 . Select subject ahead 2. Define the process 3. Identify potential partners 4. Identify data sources 5. Collect data and select partners 6. Determine the gap 7. Establish process differences 8. Target future performance 9. Communicate 10. Adjust goal 11. Implement 12. Review/recalibrate. (Camp, 1998). The general Idea behind the twelve step Camp method Is to focus on a specific area of the business, decide what sort of and how to collect data, analyze the results and then determine different processes that could be used to achieve the same task. As well as there being several different methodologies for benchmarking there are also several different types of benchmarking, this being the main reason that no one ethnology NAS Eden unalterably opiate I nee Deterrent types AT Demarcating are difficult to embrace through one method. The different types of benchmarking include process, financial, performance, product, strategic, and functional benchmarking. Businesses can implement several of these benchmarking types to help improve their productivity, although due to the costs of benchmarking smaller businesses may be limited to a few or one type of benchmarking. Process benchmarking involves the organization centering their examination and study of internal protocols. They will cross examine their results with observations with those room other benchmarking firms if possible, but otherwise conclusions can be drawn from purely internal results on activity in relations to cost and efficiency. The Camp methodology can fall under the category of process benchmarking; a real life application of it can be seen in fast food chains. Employees are pushed to consistently serve customers within a certain time frame and their performance is recorded. This allows the organization to cross reference their performance with environment and procedure factors, allowing the organization to trial different procedures and conclude which is the most efficient for different conditions. Financial benchmarking is more simplistic in nature in comparison to process benchmarking. Financial benchmarking involves making a financial analysis of the business and then making a comparison to the results of competitors to assess the business competitiveness in the market. This is generally achieved by using ratios such as acid tests, liquidity ratios and the like to determine the different financial capabilities of the business in comparison to competitors. In contrast to process benchmarking, which can be costly to perform due to needing specific equipment and personnel to collect otherwise irrelevant data. The data required for most if not all of financial benchmarking analysis can be found in the business financial reports and overviews. An example of financial benchmarking can be seen in the 2007 Games Workshop financial report. The company noted that they had been consistently posting lower profit margins over the last few quarters, and upon review had lost a fair portion of their market share to competitors such as Privateer Press miniatures. In reflection the following was printed in their 2007 financial report: We grew fat and lazy on the back of easy success. We forgot about customer service ND forgot that hard work is and always has been the route to success. We forgot that we are a company which pursues profit and likes paying surplus cash to its owners. (Kirby, 2007) Games Workshop acquired licenses from with New Line Cinema in to produce miniatures based upon the Lord of the Rings movies in 2001. During the period the movies ran, these were highly successful, but after they finished their sales rapidly fell. As chairman Tom Kirby states, the company fell into the trap of paradigm blindness by ignoring what was happening around them and continuing on with unchanged business operations. In response to this the normally slow moving company has picked up pace and released several expansions to their main game systems in a comparatively short amount of time, boosted advertising, and reorganized their management structure. Whether or not this has been successful remains to be seen. Performance benchmarking is used by businesses to assess their competitiveness in comparison to other businesses by comparison of their products and services. This can be done both internally and externally. An example AT external performance Demarcating can De Tuna In supermarket chains. Its not uncommon to see employees from rival chains wandering the aisles of their competitors and recording daily price changes and stocked goods, allowing them to decide whether or not to mark prices up or down in their own stores as well as an idea of what products are selling overall. An example of internal performance benchmarking can be found in fast food chains, such as McDonalds. McDonalds records employee service response times of each order placed and records them. By taking an average, the efficiency of an entire store is established and is compared to other stores within the franchise. The results of this are made known at employee meetings, and plans are made to improve the response times of those that are comparatively slow. This may include implementing further process benchmarking. One particular value of an established system like this is that employees can monitor themselves as they work through a display board playing an import part in performance quality improvement (Sinclair and Mohammed, 1995). Product benchmarking is somewhat similar to performance benchmarking except its less focused on competing goods and prices, and more on the actual goods and services homeless. It may go as far as reverse engineering, where the company pulls apart competing products and services and decides how best to emulate it themselves. As a real life example, this can often be seen in professional sporting teams. The team management will almost certainly examine and dissect the game play of leading teams, using them as a benchmark to improve the performance of their own team. However, product benchmarking can be taken too far to the point where it infringes copyrights and intellectual property laws. One such example is Smith Wesson. Using the highly successful Clock 17 series and its subsequent derivatives as a benchmark they released their own semi automatic handgun, the Sigma series. However the Sigma series bore so much resemblance to the Clock ass to the point where many parts were interchangeable, quickly earning them the moniker Shocks as well as a patent infringement lawsuit from Clock in 1994. Smith Wesson ended up paying an undisclosed sum of money out of court as well as making several modifications to the Sigma series. Strategic benchmarking is similar to product benchmarking in the fact that it involves observing how other companies compete. It isnt, however, limited to industry specific companies and usually involves observation of unrelated businesses to analyze whether or not any business practices can be adapted for use. Functional benchmarking can be considered extremely similar to process and performance benchmarking, however it differs by solely focusing on a single business function. The reason for this is that some parts of businesses such as Human Resources and Information Technology arent directly comparable in relation to efficiency, and thus isolating them for the purposes of observation improves focus pony problem areas. Examples of this can once again be found in fast food franchises, such as McDonalds. To allow management to isolate where problems are occurring separate response times for front counter staff and grill staff are kept. If a drinks machine is badly placed and causing congestion amongst employees behind the front counter, management will be become more aware of this because it wont be affecting grill staff response times, as they arent responsible for filling drinks. Benchmarking is an extremely valuable management tool for companies; it isnt intolerantly always a straightforward or easy task to unaware e I nee Key touching is performance measurement of the business no matter which part it is, or even whether it internal or external. The key to improving the business is measuring it so a benchmark can be ascertained (Bringing, 1992). The problem that arises from this is that businesses are extremely complex with hundreds of different factors and inputs. It becomes a question of exactly what to measure and how to measure it. The problem for managers is that they do not know exactly what inefficiencies they need o remove, and thus their chosen method of collecting data benchmarking may not reveal the problem. For example if the manager of a fast food chain competing with McDonalds decides to benchmark his businesses, he might choose to try and benchmark the business by comparing financial results and seeing how many sales he made in comparison to other fast food chains. Although this is a valid form of benchmarking, it doesnt reveal any specific problems if he finds himself underperforming in comparison. This is because hes allowed too many variables into the equation. The burgers could taste bad, the business could be in a bad location, another business might be selling their burgers cheaper, the grill staff might be inefficient or afore mentioned drinks machine could be placed extremely badly. Perhaps there might even be a combination of problems. Quite often benchmarking processes will identify that there is a problem(s) within the business but they wont identify what it is. Thus it may take the manager some time to trial several benchmarking methods to simply narrow down the field so he can draw conclusions from there and initiate responses. Because of the large amount of potential variables that increase even further with the size of the business, larger organizations often hire specific benchmarking firms who have a great deal of experience and knowledge stored in databases to perform benchmarking for them. The other problem associated with benchmarking is that its both costly and time consuming. Because of the amount of data that needs to be collated and analyzed, benchmarking is by no means an overnight process. It may require several employees to perform, taking them away from regular duties and forcing more employees to be hired. Or it could come to the point where using existing employees is so inefficient that a benchmarking firm is hired to carry out the process. In conclusion, while benchmarking is an extremely potent management tool it is by no means simple to use or fool proof.

Freedom and Equaity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Freedom and Equaity - Essay Example That means everyone must have the right to live their life employing their capital and labor as per their liking. Locke is considered one of the proponents of classical liberalism. In the Second Treatise of Civil Government, Locke argues that ruler derives power from the people. All individuals have a birth right to possess property and if government or ruler deprives them from this natural right, the people have all right to force ruler to leave. Locke also speaks about equality for everyone. He states liberty does not mean that anyone is given liberty of destroying oneself or for that matter anyone else's property, health, life or freedom. No one can encroach on other's rights or inflict destruction. Simply the law of nature must prevail that speaks about peace and preservation for fellow citizens. Locke lends a special emphasis on having a freedom to possess earned property. Whatever has been acquired through one's labor and hard work will, in all case, belong to that person and n o one else will have right on that possession. Locke is categorical in stating that human being is born with a perfect freedom and full rights of enjoyment with what has been provided by nature. And to this extent everyone is equal. Thus, for Locke, freedom is compatible with equality as far as it is derived from the nature and its gifts to mankind – no discrimination of any kind can be allowed. ... Social contract deals with people's freedom and rights albeit in a political sense. Everyone is free in this social contract and laws that are essentially to safeguard and regulate each individual. He also asserts that freedom of each person is the chief element to be preserved; however, they still need to follow social contract for their own survival. As per Rousseau, equality and freedom are two political ends and they are correlated such that the equality is a necessary condition to restore freedom. With the advent of industrial revolution in Europe, a new kind of thought process emerged, especially from Marx and Angles as they believed that a great dividing line existed between haves and have-nots. According to them, there is no true equality among the people and the root cause behind inequality is the capitalist nature of the society. According to them, a true freedom is acquired when everyone is free from oppression and exploitation by any section of the society. They strongly believe that a large section of the labor class in the society does not enjoy true freedom or equality. That was the time when Europe had already ushered into a great industrial revolution in the nineteenth century and large scale labor transition to the industries took place. For them, economic equality is of a great importance for the society and since that due to its absence labor class does not enjoy the true freedom. In other sense, they emphasize that freedom and equality are not compatible and individual freedom to generate wealth must be taken away to restore equality among the people. In their Manifesto, they depict, "Masses of laborers, crowded into the factor, are organized like soldiers. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and the bourgeois state,

Implementation of Patient Centered Concepts to Improve Quality Essay

Implementation of Patient Centered Concepts to Improve Quality Outcomes and Control Cost - Essay Example The model aims at soliciting the input of patients on the support and education they need to make decisions and participate in their individual care. It is therefore an innovative approach used to healthcare planning, delivery and evaluation. The concept can be implemented in any healthcare setting. However, its implementation in the current healthcare system has a lot of potential impacts and many healthcare providers struggle with how to actualize the concept into the daily business of caring for patients and their families. Potential impact of Patient-Centered Concept on the current health system’s finances According to Lorig (2002), the concept of patient-Centered care can impact positively on the business metrics of the current health system like finances, safety, satisfaction, quality and market share. Overall, the model reduces the costs of providing patient care and it is associated with increased efficiency of care. This is mainly seen in terms of reduced number of re ferrals and reduced diagnostic tests. Increased patient participation during visits by healthcare providers reduces their anxiety and perceived need for investigations/diagnostic tests and referrals. However, there could also be a need to increase the financial resources in some hospitals and increased their levels of staffing to match with the level of staffing required to provide continuity of care. Despite these costs of education, support and other interventions, there is usually a general resource utilization leading to a positive financial result. Generally, the model is associated with improved patient satisfaction and improved health status and this has the potential of increasing the demand for services offered by the heath system (Stewart et al, 2000). This can be equated with high sales because of increased market share and the end result of this is increased profits. The model is not about technological innovations or renovations and the acquisition of new equipment. Ins tead, it is mainly about kindness, compassion, empathy and attitude all of which are completely free and their provision require the hiring of new staff. It entails a maximization of the interactions with patients at the current staffing levels present in the current health system. The exact areas of the budget that may be impacted There are two main areas of the health system budget that are impacted by patient-centered care are expenses for referrals and diagnostic tests. As noted above, increased patient participation during visits by healthcare providers reduces their anxiety and perceived need for investigations/diagnostic tests and referrals. Reduced referrals and diagnostic tests mean reduced costs per unit for the health system. For example, it is cheaper both for the family and the health system to attend to a patient at home than maintaining the same patient in hospital. Cost/benefit analysis that would be helpful in assessing this trend One of the ways to achieve a cost/b enefit analysis for assessing this trend is assessing the overall costs of managing long-term illnesses verses patient outcomes. For example, if the costs of managing such long-term diseases have reduced while at the same time, the survival rates have been increased and mortality rates reduced, then is the model is good. Impact on the structure of health systems and organizational dynamics Effective patient-centered care requires a shift of the current healt

A History of Autism Developments

A History of Autism Developments In Autistic Space Temple Grandin is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, and consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior. She completed her PhD in Animal Science at the University of Illinois in Urbana and invented the hug box, a device to calm those on the autism spectrum. She is one of the first individuals on the autism spectrum to publicly share insights from her personal experience of autism. Grandin was diagnosed with brain damage when she was two. She could not speak until age three and struggled with severe behavioral issues through her teens. She thanked her mother who never lost faith in her and fought many battles to ensure that she got an education, and her high school science teacher, William Carlock, who built up her confidence and channeled her teenage fascination with cows into a career in animal science. At the University, she came to see her profound emotional connection with animals as autistic, and crucial for her work. In May 1989, she moderated a round table discussion at the conference of autism professionals and educators in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Her presentation prompted Rimland to introduce her 1986 memoir, Emergence, as the first book written by a recovered autistic individual. By then, she was on her way to becoming the most recognized autistic people on earth. In his 1995 book An Anthropologist on Mars, neurologist Oliver Sacks depicted Grandin as a mature autistic person with a complex inner life. The title of his book was inspired by Grandin when she said all her life she felt like an anthropologist observing human interactions from a distance. But by now, Grandin wouldnt consider herself as a recovered autistic. Autism is part of who I am, she told Sacks, If I could snap my fingers and be non-autistic, I would not, because then I wouldnt be me. But Grandins perspective did not take root among the advocacy organizations. When parent-run advocacy organizations get online in the 1990s, they continued to feature images of children on their websites, as if autistic adults didnt exist. The presentation at conferences dwelled on the usual deficits and impairments, rather than on exploring the atypical gifts that Grandin found so useful in her work. Jim Sinclair, a young man in the audience, determined to change that. Besides being on the spectrum, Sinclair was born with the physical characteristics of both genders. His parents had raised him as female on the advice of their doctor, but he had never felt female. He was speaking in echolalia until he was twelve. The complex rules of the social world seemed incomprehensible to him when he was a teenager. By the time he was in graduate school, his efforts to pass as non-autistic fell apart. When Sinclair saw Portrait of an Autistic Young Man, he had a profound sense of recognition. He could see what the experts in the film could not see: that Joseph was trying to communicate through his behavior. He wanted to connect with other autistic people, so he subscribed to a quarterly publication called the MAAP (for more able autistic people) and submitted poems and letters to the editor hoping his peers would contact him. One of Sinclairs poems attracted Gary Mesibovs attention. Mesibov, a cofounder of TEACCH, offered Sinclair a scholarship to attend the Chapel Hill conference and write an essay about his experience. Sinclairs essay on the conference appeared in a TEACCH anthology along with contributions from Lorna Wing and Catherine Lord. A year later, Sinclair was invited to sit on a panel in California by the Autism Society of America. He felt like a self-narrating zoo exhibit. Rather than being the token autistic on a panel at a conference in Indianapolis, Sinclair conspired with other members of the MAAP list to make their presence visible throughout the proceedings. Each of them would make a point of raising their hands during the QA sessions, identifying themselves as autistic people, and then asked questions or make a relevant comment so that people would notice they were there. *** In 1992, Sinclair launched the first autistic-run organization in history, called Autism Network International (ANI), with Donna Williams and Kathy Lissner. ANI would stand up for the civil rights and self-determination of people all across the spectrum. ANI organized its first Autreat at Camp Bristol Hills in Canandaigua, New York, in July 1996. The theme of the conference was Celebrating Autistic Culture. Autreat became an annual event and provided a template for similar conferences in other countries. *** A new idea was brewing in the autistic community. It turned out to be an old idea from Asperger that people with the traits of his syndrome have always been part of the human community, standing apart, making the world a better place. In the late 1990s, Judy Singer, an autistic student of anthropology and sociology in Australia called it neurodiversity. After her daughters diagnosis of Asperger syndrome at age nine, Singer recognized autistic traits in herself. She joined a mailing list called Independent Living on the Autism Spectrum (InLv). People with dyslexia, ADHD, and other conditions were also welcome to join the list. It was in telephone conversations with Harvey Blume, a list member and writer in the New York Times, that Singer came up with the term neurodiversity. *** In 2004, two teenagers named Alex Plank and Dan Grover launched Wrong Planet, one of the first autistic spaces in the internet. They were both digital natives with Asperger syndrome. The community grew slowly and steadily at first, and then it went viral with Planks interview with Bram Cohen, the autistic creator of BitTorrent. *** In December 2007, a series of billboards appeared on street corners in Manhattan. One ad read, We have your son. We will make sure he will not be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives. This is only the beginning. These ads were sponsored by the Child Study Center (CSC) of New York University to alert the public to the silent public health epidemic of childhood mental illness. Then from out of nowhere, an organization called the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN) along with outraged parents and prominent disability rights groups launched a storm of e-mails and blogs in NYUs direction objecting to the demeaning wording of the ads. This is the first time in history that autistics were challenging the mainstream media without the help of a parent-run organization. The architect of the protest was a nineteen-year-old cofounder of the ASAN named Ari Neeman. Neeman was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome when he was twelve years old. On December 6, the day after the CSCs ad campaign, Neeman called the CSC expressing his concerns and left phone messages, but got no reply. Two days later, ASAN blasted out an action alert. The next day when the major media outlets were running stories on the controversy, the CSC agreed to pull the ads. In 2010, President Obama nominated Neeman to the National Council on Disability (NCS). In recent years, the ASAN had played a significant role in formulating the federal disability policy. *** For parents like Craig and Shannon Rosa, the neurodiversity movement has offered ways of fighting for a better future for their children that dont depend on hopes of recovery. One of the most important lessons they had learned on their journey with Leo is patience. They have to accept that he is unfolding at his own pace. Shannon and her circle of friends launched a website called Thinking Persons Guide to Autism for parents just starting out on the journey so that they dont have to go through the ordeal that the Rosas did.