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Business Transfer Agents Time The Government Cracked Down On Rogue Operators Who Demand Money For N

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Hit by the recession or maybe just retiring or moving on, there are countless owners of small businesses whod like to sell up.

Business transfer agents are supposedly there to help them find a buyer.
But today I lift the lid on a string of them who demand huge fees even when they fail to get a sale, and then sue clients who refuse to pay up.
Rip-off 1: Judge backs family over firms one-sided contractVerdicts on business transfer agents dont often come much more damning than this.

The case involves one of the most notorious firms in this field, RTA Business Consultants.
It failed to find a buyer for a family-run car parts firm but still demanded payment.
When the owner, 70 Celine Pas Cher (http://www.sweio.net/celine/category/sac-celine-pas-cher) -year-old Andrew Rothery, refused to cough up, RTA sued.
And lost spectacularly.
Its rep Jen Leary bragged she could value a business to the penny but got the price of Mr Rotherys firm wrong by 700,000, Halifax County Court was told.
She lied that she could sell West Yorks firm Holmfield Auto Spares for 1.3m and persuaded Mr Rothery to sign a contract to pay 5,000 plus VAT for marketing, followed by commission on sale.

Suspicious of the high price put on his firm, Mr Rothery had two reputable business sales agents value it and they came up with a figure of 600,000.
So he refused to pay RTA, which sued him for 10,000 in supposed unpaid fees and lost commission.
Deputy District Judge Keith Nightingale threw out the case and was scathing about RTAs terms.
He said: The contract, it seems to the court, has clauses which are wholly one-sided and quite frankly it is a document that does not seem fair or balanced whatsoever.

Mr Rothery and his son Gavin were delighted.
It was the ignorant bad-mannered attitude of the people at RTA which made me determined not to give them money when they had not earned it, he told me after the case.
Ive been in business for 42 years and have dealt with lots of people who want to take money for doing very little.
RTA is one of them.
And Mr Rothery is not the only one to think so.
Andy Stenning / Daily Mirror Trubunal: Paul O’Reilly of RTA

An extraordinary insight to RTA came at an employment tribunal this month.
Former senior salesman Howard Rowlands told the hearing that the boss, Paul OReilly, threatened to punch him in the f***ing face in a row over the firms ethics.
Mr Rowlands said Mr OReilly was ranting and raving.
He said: I spun around and left the office as quickly as possible, I just wanted to get out of there. I felt threatened, seriously threatened.
Mr Rowlands also told the tribunal in Manchester that sales director Paul Mitchell explained how they would make money from a typical business seller, revealing: We want to stitch him up with the withdrawal fee.

Mr Rowlands said: I didnt do fraudulent contracts, thats what caused the animosity. I questioned the ethos and morality.
He explained that clients were unwittingly committing themselves to paying 1,500 even if no sale of their business was achieved.
He said: The withdrawal fee is on that contract for life, with instructions from Paul Mitchell and Paul OReilly not to inform people its there for life.
I raised it at sales meetings, that it was abhorrent. The withdrawal fee is like an anchor. If owners sell it themselves, RTA wants 1,500. If they take it off the market, RTA wants 1,500.

RTA disputed the account of its former sales star, saying it was made up because Mr Rowlands was facing disciplinary action over alleged racist language.
Mr OReilly also claimed that the Mirror had been ordered by the Press Complaints Commission to print a retraction for one of my previous stories about his company.
He was asked to produce this retraction, forcing him to admit: I dont have a copy of it.
Thats because it doesnt exist.

The tribunal ruling was postponed.
Fee free: The Turner Butler ‘guarantee’
Rip-off 2: 50,000 for web advertisingIf Turner Butler failed to sell his building business, Constructive Care, Steve Archer assumed he wouldnt owe a penny.
After all, hed been given a Full No Sale No Fee Guarantee. He said: This was included with every letter they sent out to me initially.
His firm folded after no buyer was found and Turner Butler are now suing him in Hertford county court for 50,000.

Even if they had sold his business at his suggested price of 288,000, Turner Butlers 7% commission would come to barely 24,000.
But there was no sale and Turner Butler, said Mr Archer, expects this huge sum for simply advertising my now liquidated company on free insertion websites, for something I could have done myself.
Rupert Cattell, of Turner Butler, said: We asked Mr Archer for an explanation of what happened to all of Constructive Cares assets while under contract to Turner Butler and he has declined to respond, or to provide evidence as to what happened to those assets.

Rip-off 3: Carol rises to Phoenix feeHoping to sell her gift shop in Bristol, Carol Budd put it on the market with one business transfer agent, and then a second. It was sold to a buyer who was introduced by the first company, she says.
Which has not stopped the second one, Phoenix Business Agents, threatening to bankrupt her if she doesnt pay them 8,600.
Their director Zulf Hamid gave me a big song and dance about how valuable my business was, and wanted to value it at 75,000 but I said that it wouldnt sell for that so he reduced it to 50,000, she said.

Eventually it sold for 28,000 to a buyer who had been introduced by the other company.
If Phoenix had found a buyer for me I would have paid them but Im not going to pay them for a customer that was procured by another company.
These people are targeting hard-working, honest folk.
A spokesman for Phoenix did not dispute Mrs Budds account of its initial enormous over-valuation of her shop or explain why it expects a fee thats almost a third of the sale price, but it insists that the buyer was registered with them.

Phoenix is a reputable business transfer agency, said a spokesman, saying the company hoped to resolve the matter through open and frank dialogue.
Couple: Barrie Hooton and Martin Marshall
Rip-off 4: 400k debts, but firm has shifted assets over to ex-directorLast week I told how Preferred Commercial demanded 5,000 from one poor client whose pub it had failed to sell, sending no prospective buyers apart from one time-waster.
Preferred Commercial is in liquidation with debts of almost 400,000 that it cannot pay. Which does not mean the end of the people behind this company.

If you click on website youre re-directed to an almost identical website for a firm called Vendor Direct.
This even uses the same old Preferred Commercial phone number.
Thats because its assets, including any unpaid bills allegedly owed by ex-clients, have been sold to Vendor Direct, whose director is Barrie Hooton.
Hes an ex-director of Preferred Commercial and partner – both in the business and civil ceremony sense – of another Preferred Commercial director, Martin Marshall.

Rip-off 5: No sale? It still costsNo sale, no fee. That was the crucial phrase in the sales pitch that persuaded Carl Bowman to put his hardware store in Leeds on the market with Ernest Wilson & Co Ltd.
Now he says ruefully: With hindsight I was possibly a little naive to accept the word of their sales rep and not query the terms of business further.
His store didnt sell and now Ernest Wilson is suing him for 4,765.
It was marketed at 205,000 without success, even though Mr Bowman says that he had been told before signing the contract that potential buyers were very keen.

He heard little until Ernest Wilson told him to cut the price to 160,000 and accept liability for their marketing fees.
When he refused, Ernest Wilson took it off the market and issued its court claim.
The firm insists that its terms and conditions are sent to every client and include the clause: Advertising and marketing sac celine (sweio.net) costs are payable upon withdrawal.
Director Stuart Moorhouse said: We were left with no option but to issue court proceedings.

He pointed out that Mr Bowmans complaint to The Property Ombudsman had been rejected.
Mr Bowman responded by reminding Ernest Wilson that they were fined in 2012 by The National Federation of Property Professionals.
Its tribunal ruling began: We are disappointed that we have heard three further cases connected with Ernest Wilson, especially as there have been two previous cases, one in 2007 and another in 2011.
The latest case, which resulted in three 750 fines, concerned the giving to a seller client a copy of the agency agreement document for the sale of their business that is not identical to the version the client has signed.

Campaign group fights the roguesTales like the ones here prompted the establishment of the Campaign for Ethics in Business Transfer Agents , a free advice website.
Its spokeswoman said some small firms risk going bust if they pay agents who fail to find them buyers but still demand huge fees.
There are no laws to stop the business marketing agents from producing unfair contracts and then suing in the small claims courts, she said.
We encourage people who have successfully beaten them to help by providing witness statements, copy judgments and transcripts for the next person due in court.

You can find it at website
Read more from Andrew Penman hereBeen ripped off? Contact Andrew Penman by emailing [emailprotected] or writing to Penman Investigates, Daily Mirror, One Canada Square, London E14 5AP

Secrets Of Strip Club Seduction – How To Pick Up Strippers

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Here’s a cool tip for you to use the next time you’re hanging out at a strip club, and you want to seduce a hot stripper and see her outside of the club…

I’ve read a lot of books about marketing, and it’s remarkable how many similarities there are between trying to close a sale with a customer — and trying to close the deal with a woman and get what you want from her. (This could mean acquiring her phone number, setting up a date with her, or bringing her home for sex.)

The bottom line is, if you’re going to seduce women you’ve got to be a good salesman. The product you are selling is YOURSELF.

First, you’ve got to believe in the product you are selling. If you think that you are a valuable asset that any girl would be lucky to have, it’s going to be much easier for you to convince women to go for you.

You could say it’s like the difference between going to a Ferrari dealership, and a car lot that sells junky used cars.

The salesman on the Ferarri lot knows he’s got “the goods.” Every guy wants a Ferarri, right? These salesmen tend to be very smooth and polished, and they don’t NEED to go for the “hard sell.” The salesman is more interested in finding out whether YOU are capable of buying one of his pricey vehicles. He doesn’t need to try to coerce you to buy a vehicle. If you’re at the Ferarri dealership, it’s obvious that you’d like to have one! The question in the salesman’s mind is, do YOU have the resources to buy a Ferrari?

Compare this to the “hustler” who works at the junky used car lot. He knows his vehicles are crap. If you buy one, it might even break down before you get it back to your house! The low quality of his products are evident by the way he makes his sales pitch. He is pushy and too eager to make the sale. He knows his products do not speak for themselves; he needs to try to convince you that “this is what you need.”

Obviously, you want to be the Ferrari guy when you’re flirting with women…and especially with hot strippers. The question in your mind should be, is this girl WORTHY of your product? Because, not EVERY girl deserves you…

This mindset is essential for seducing the hottest strippers, because they’re used to dealing with customers who are AWED by their beauty and sexuality — but they don’t have the confidence that is necessary to make a hot woman feel genuine interest and attraction.

So, more than anything else, you’ve got to be FUN and PLAYFUL. Don’t take these strip club interactions too seriously. Act like flirting with a hot stripper is a perfectly normal part of your lifestyle.

When she asks you “do you want a dance,” you pretend like she wants a dance from YOU. You say…

“Do I want to dance? For you? Well I guess I could, but I charge a hundred bucks for three songs, and keep your hands to yourself…”

If a hot stripper says to you, “Can you buy me a drink?”, you can reply…

“Well, I COULD, but then we’re going to need the next ten minutes talking, and I need to make sure you can carry on a cool conversation. So tell me something about yourself that no customer in this place would ever guess about you.”

Here’s a humorous one that I use at strip clubs. When a stripper introduces herself to me by her stage name (i.e. “Hi, I’m Destiny”), I create a stage name for myself:

“Well, since we’re giving stage names, you can call me Hercules. I dance at the club down the road on Tuesday Ladies’ Nights. We can probably share some tips with each other, huh?”

My “Secrets Of Strip Club Seduction” program gives dozens of tactics and techniques for flirting with strippers and building real connections with them. There’s a lot of funny, clever, cocky stuff in this program that is going to take strippers by surprise…and make them very curious to know more about you.

Then, you are going to master the “closing” tactics that enable you to take things out of the club…and eventually, into your bed 😉

If you enjoy visiting strip clubs sometimes (as I do), why be another “chump customer” and blow money on nothing? Why not discover how to take control and make hot strippers play this game by YOUR rules.

The information in “Secrets Of Strip Clubs Seduction” is extremely powerful. Some of these tactics affect strippers on a subconscious level and flip their “attraction switches” without them even knowing it! And even better, once you know how to pick up strippers, closing the deal with “regular” women in other environments begins to feel almost TOO easy! Learn these tactics and start dominating the strip clubs tonight.

Lap Tapping Is An Unusual Style Of Acoustic Guitar Playing

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Lap tapping is a unique guitar technique whereby the acoustic guitarist holds the instrument flat on his lap while tapping the guitar body and strings percussively while playing the melody.

A small number of technically gifted acoustic guitarists have helped develop this form of guitar playing over the years. Talented guitarists such as Ben Konstantinovic, Tony Haven and Ben Howard have very individual styles and can be seen in action on You Tube. Perhaps the best known of all is Canadian guitarist Erik Mongrain whose songs like Airtap! has enjoyed widespread coverage and racked up millions of views on You Tube. Erik Mongrain uses a unique two handed flat guitar technique which simultaneously combines percussive tapping of the guitar body and chords.

Another up and coming lap tapping guitarist is singer, songwriter Liam Iliffe from Bournemouth, UK. Liam is only 15 years old but has been playing guitar for over 8 years. Although his two handed technique is similar to Erik Mongrain, a key difference is that he tends to favour simpler melodies in his own songs given he also sings at the same time. Liam uses lap tapping primarily as a way to inject more raw emotion and drama into his acoustic compositions.

In 2012, Liam entered Live and Unsigned the UKs biggest talent competition for unsigned artists. After sailing through the auditions, Liam impressed at the Regional finals in Portsmouth and was voted through to the Southern England area finals in May 2012. He was also selected by the Live and Unsigned judges to showcase his lap tapping guitar playing at the Southampton Music festival that will be held in October 2012.

The Live and Unsigned competition also coincides with the launch of Liams debut Album Slap tapping, now available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and other major online distributors. Alongside his original songs like Our Bridge and Intervention, the album also features his unusual cover versions of Sweet Dreams by the Eurythmics and the dubstep classic Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites by Skrillex.

Tapping usually incorporates pull-offs or hammer-ons as well, where the fingers of the right hand and, in the motion of removing that finger, pluck the same string already fretted at the eighth fret by the little finger of his/her left hand. It is an extended technique, executed by using one hand to ‘tap’ the strings against the fingerboard, thus producing legato notes. Tapping may be performed either one-handed or two-handed.

Why Is Ecommerce So Popular

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E-commerce gives you the opportunity to own a shop online and have the ability to reach countries all around the world 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Some of the biggest advantages is that you can avoid the problems of keeping physical inventory and hiring staff. When you have an eCommerce site for your product or service you can keep track of all the customers that come to your website looking for your product or service.

No worries in wondering if you need to have experience in creating websites for your eCommerce website, since there are many web packages available that come complete with everything you need to launch your website immediately. The only thing you need to do is start promoting your website and advertising as much as possible.

If you’re thinking that you need to be a web site designer for your website, you don’t. There is a wide variety of eCommerce packages available. These websites contain everything you need to quickly establish yourself as an Internet Marketer and immediately have an online presence. Some packages even come with links where you can advertise your website for free.

One important item to remember about any Affiliate Marketing program is to read all the fine print. There are several great Affiliate Marketing programs out there, however, for each good program there are many less reputable programs. Be sure you know exactly how the pay out structure works as well as a little about the company that sponsors the program.

Another advantage to owning an eCommerce website is that you can add or eliminate any feature. For example, if your website has the feature of tracking inventory and you find after awhile you don’t need this feature you can simply go into the dashboard and disable that feature. The most important thing to remember is if you are selling products that your website always has sufficient inventory to cover the increase in traffic your website will receive.

When writing the sales copy for your site, be sure to make a sincere impression to anyone visiting your website. The sales copy promoting your product or service must give just the right amount of information to satisfy your visitors curiosity and create the comfort level needed for that visitor to become a customer. Be sure not to write overly detailed sales copy or you will run the chance of that visitor become overwhelmed and moving on past your website.

Once you have successful sales copy written, the next step is finding a target audience. A target audience are visitors that are interested in your product or service. If you don’t establish a target audience and just advertise to a general audience, you could be wasting your time and possible letting potential customers get away. There are several ways to establish your target audience, however, once of the easiest ways is to have another website linked to your eCommerce website. These websites are called “portal” websites and are used specifically to gather customer information and to have placement for the link to your website.

When looking for an Affiliate Marketing program be sure to read all the fine print. There are many successful programs on the Internet that when combined with an eCommerce website will generate a substantial annual income. Be sure to read all about the company that has the Affiliate Marketing program as well as understanding the “payout” structure for the program. Many programs that requirements that need to be met before receiving any residual income.

Tips For Successful Selling On Amazon

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Steps to Successful Selling on amazon.

So you want to be a successful seller with your own amazon business, do you? Here’s a simple, ten-step path to amazon enlightenment.

1: Identify your market. Take a while to sit and watch for what sells and what doesn’t out of the items you’re interested in. Any market research data you can collect will be very useful to you later on. You’ll probably see the ‘sweet spots’ quite quickly – those one or two items that always seem to sell for a good price.

2: Watch the competition. Before you invest any money, see what the other sellers in your category are up to, and what their strategies are. Pay special attention to any flaws their auctions might have, because this is where you can move in and beat them at their own game.

3: Find a product: Get hold of a supplier for whatever it is you want to sell, and see what the best rates you can get are – don’t be afraid to ring round quite a few to get the best deal. If the amazon prices you’ve seen are higher than the supplier’s, then you’re set.

4: Start small: Don’t throw thousands at your idea straight away – get started slowly, see what works and what doesn’t, and learn as you go. Remember that it’s very cheap to try out even the craziest ideas on amazon, and who knows, they might just work!

5: Test and repeat. Keep trying different strategies until you find something that works, and then don’t be ashamed to keep doing it, again and again. The chances are that you’ve just found a good niche.

6: Work out a business plan: A business plan doesn’t need to be anything formal, just a few pages that outline the market opportunity you’ve spotted, your strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a brief budget. This is more for you than it is for anyone else.

7: Invest and expand: This is the time to throw money at the problem. Buy inventory, and start spending more time on your business. Set a goal number of sales each week, increasing it each time.

8: Make it official: Once you’ve made a few thousand dollars worth of sales, you should really register yourself as a business. Don’t worry, it’s not expensive or hard to do – a lawyer is the best person to help you through the process.

9: Automate: You’ll probably find that you’re writing the same things again and again in emails or item descriptions. This is the time to give up on the manual method and turn to automated software that can create listings for you, and respond to completed auctions and payments with whatever message you provide.

10: Never give up: Even when it looks like it’s all going wrong, don’t stop trying until you succeed. If you keep working at it then you’ll almost always find that you make a real breakthrough just when things are starting to look desperate.

Once you get into the swing of things, you might start thinking that you should quit your job and take up amazon selling part time. But it’s not always as easy as that – there are all sorts of factors that you need to consider. The next email will weigh up the case for and against taking up amazon full-time.