5 Ways to Boost Profits

Brad Sugars: Startup Basics
25, 2008 5 Ways to Boost Profits No matter how many sales you make, your business will struggle if you don't watch your margins.

One of the biggest mistakes made by startups is to confuse making sales with making money. New business owners seem to think that business is about busy-ness--that is, how many times the cash register rings. They fail to take even simple steps to ensure they earn enough to cover their costs as well as take home a healthy paycheck. Without that, you may as well be working for someone else

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Bombay or Mumbai?

Political parties and Political leaders resort to the Son-of-the-Soil theory whenever they find it convenient. Recently, Mumbai (formerly Bombay) has seen the ugly dance of Mr. Raj Thackery who is trying his level best to use the Marathi-Manoos (Marathi-Person) plank to threaten all outsiders (those from other states and those who have yet to adopt Marathi as their language of choice) to leave Mumbai.

Earlier, his uncle, the Shiv Sena Supremo Balasaheb Thackerey, used the very same plank to further his own political cause. Also, Balasaheb has successfully targetted various specific communities and allegedly extracted a huge fees from those threatened to look the other way.

With elections around the corner, every political party in Maharashtra is trying to shore up its vote bank. Shiv Sena workers have now gone on a rampage and are defacing names where ever Bombay appears. They have already done this to Bombay Scottish and have destroyed the sign boards in front of Bombay Dyeing Showrooms.

They may next target Times of India which has a supplement named Bombay Times. What about targetting the Bombay High Court which continues to use the name Bombay instead of Mumbai?

Everyone on the street knows that Mumbai has not really improved just because its name was changed from Bombay to Mumbai, similarly Bangalore has not improved because it is now called Bengalaru. After 60 years of independence, Political leaders still feel they can fool all the people all the time!

It is time people from all walks of life boycotted such politicians that attempt to divide us on the basis of caste, creed, religion, language and state.

How to check whether your flat in on forest land

There is huge confusion about the Forest Land Issue in Mumbai, where flat owners have been left with little or no information about the legality of their flats.

The state has failed to provide information about the plot numbers to the public at large. However, the state has provided this information to the Registrar's office. Thus when you go to register your flat, the registrar will check your flat details and may refuse to register the flat if it is on an affected plot.

Prospective flat buyers can call the following numbers 022-22634567, 022-26891161, 022-22630742 or visit their nearest collectors office (of the place where they intend to buy the flat) to find out whether they are buying flats that are located on forest land or not.

Buyers are cautioned that there exists two lists of plots, one official and other being circulated by conniving real estate agents and builders to hoodwink the buyers into buying flats that are actually on forest land. Extreme caution is advised in buying flats in these areas. As a thumb rule if you buying a flat that lies on the east of the Western Express Highway, Ghodbunder Road or West of the LBS Marg, there are chances that the plots may be in forest land and may best be avoided.

Flat Buyers Unite...

Today a report in Times of India talks about Builders uniting and forming a cartel to keep real estate prices artificially inflated till Diwali. The reason being citied for such a move is that the builders have purchased their land at very high prices and will suffer losses if they chose to reduce prices.

What a lot of horse shit! Who told them to go and buy land at such prices? Property prices have risen by 300% all over the city making it extremely difficult for a middle class family to own a house. Coupled with very high interest rates ranging between 11.5 to 12.5% per annum, the middle class can only dream of owning a house.

A 800 square feet flat costs 24,00,000 in distant Mira Road. On top of this the stamp duty and registration charges further inflate the price. Builders are illegally selling open and covered parking spaces too! For a final price of 27,00,000 you will get a loan of 23,00,000 and at 1200/- per lac per month the installment would come to 27,600/- This should be 40% of your take home salary, meaning that you should have a salary of 45,000 per month. You have to pay this installment for 20 years and if you opt for floating rate of interest, it would mean that the 20 years can easily stretch to 23 or 25 years.

It is therefore time for the buyers to unite and boycott purchase of any property that is expensive.

How do you decide what is expensive? Typically the best of construction costs 1200/- per square feet. Given the variable of land cost and allowing decent profit of 30% a 800 square feet flat in Mira Road should cost about 2300/- per square feet. Therefore a fair price for such a flat should be around 18,40,000 and not more. Please be aware construction costs vary between 550/- per square feet to 1200/- per square feet, therefore for a unscrupulous builder there is still a very big margin to play with.

Buyers should decide to wait out the sellers and only purchase flats when prices become reasonable. For example a flat is Vadodara is being sold @ 1275/- per square feet. Obviously the seller there too is making money! Why such high costs in Mumbai? Reason being greed of the builders who have bought land left-right and center in the hope of selling the same at a hefty profit but now their plans are coming undone. It will be very interesting to watch as the situation develops.