Case Study Management Services For People With Mental Illness

The strengths based perspective is as well established concept in case management services for people with mental illness (Saleeby, 1996). Many service agencies have procedures and policies which operate under the strengths based perspective or concept. The strengths based model intends to find the client’s strengths and resources in order to empower them to make improvements in their own life. It is at the core of a social workers code of ethics and values. Throughout this paper I will explore the strengths perspective and how it works within the assessment process and why it is important. I will also discuss how the strengths based model is limited with in the diagnostic process. I take the stand that the strengths based model is†¦show more content†¦A diagnosis is often given after about an hour is spent with the client during an intake session, obtaining information regarding their symptoms. Working from a strengths based model and then providing a DSM 5 d iagnosis almost seems somewhat hypocritical. One cannot have an in-depth conversation regarding strengths and resources and be able to give a diagnosis. The diagnosis comes from the presenting problems and complaints, the history of problems such as abuse, neglect, trauma, substance abuse, etc. The diagnosis comes from information regarding how one negatively impacts themselves and their environment through, anger, violence, aggression, mania, depression, and self-harm, among many other abnormalities. â€Å"The DSM 5 makes no provisions for recording the client strengths. Strengths oriented practice implies that practitioners should assess all clients in light of their capacities, talents, competencies, possibilities, visions, values and hopes. This perspective emphasizes human reliance- the skills, abilities, knowledge, and insight that people accumulate overtime as they struggle to surmount adversity and meet life challenges†(Corcoran Walsh, 2015). The DSM 5 provide s the criteria for all the billable mental disorders that can be chosen from. A diagnosis is a label or term that is applied to an individual or their circumstance. It provides a very short categorization based on specific criteria. They serve the purpose of providing a common language for

Lowering the Drinking Age - 1223 Words

â€Å"What we’re doing now to prevent underage drinking isn’t working; it’s time to try something else.† Although many people argue that the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1964, which lowed the drinking age from eighteen to twenty one, was a good idea. David J Hanson a professor in the State University of New York believed that something needs to be done to make the United States a safer place to live. Is it fair that people in the United States can serve in the military, vote in elections, serve in juries, get married, and enter into legal contracts at the age of eighteen, but not buy alcohol until they are twenty one years of age. Lowering the drinking age in the United States to eighteen will help young adults be more responsible, and†¦show more content†¦Lowering the drinking age to eighteen will encourage drinking in safer environments with supervision rather than secretly behind closed doors. Colleges will be a safer environment if th e government would allow eighteen year olds to consume alcoholic beverages and less incidents of hidden intoxication will occur. As a result of the drinking age at twenty-one, many teenagers binge drink in dangerous and unsupervised places. According to the NIAAA, almost 28 percent of eighteen to twenty-four year olds binge drink at least once a month. Binge drinking is a type of heavy episodic drinking with the primary intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time. Binge drinking is also associated with an increased risk of unplanned ad unprotected sex, unplanned pregnancies, and an increased risk of HIV infection. Many proponents of lowering the drinking age believe that â€Å"with higher alcohol age limits, young people in the United States find it harder to get alcohol and so binge-drink whey they do† (Debatepedia) As mentioned before, binge drinking can lead to alcohol poisoning which can have traumatic consequences. According to the CDC, Each year, excessive drinking and binge drinking cause 80,000 deaths across the country. Furthermore, binge drinki ng and any other kind of drinking â€Å"may have lasting harmful consequences, including greater risk for the development of alcohol dependence† (ICAP)Show MoreRelatedLowering the Drinking Age1523 Words   |  7 Pages According to Andrew Herman, â€Å"Each year, 14,000 die from drinking too much. 600,000 are victims of alcohol related physical assault and 17,000 are a result of drunken driving deaths, many being innocent bystanders† (470). These massive numbers bring about an important realization: alcohol is a huge issue in America today. Although the problem is evident in Americans of all ages, the biggest issue is present in young adults and teens. In fact, teens begin to feel the effects of alcohol twice asRead MoreNot Lowering the Drinking Age1642 Words   |  7 PagesBryan Blejski ENG 101-010 Ms. Abbott 28 July 2011 Not Lowering the Drinking Age Many teenage deaths in the United States are caused in some way by the influence of alcohol; however, many people still believe that the legal drinking age should be reduced to eighteen. This issue has been going on for years, but the law has not been changed since the change to twenty-one in 1980. States have become stricter about preventing under-age drinking, but teenagers have no problem getting alcohol. There areRead MoreNot Lowering The Drinking Age989 Words   |  4 PagesNot Lowering the Drinking Age There are many different views on drinking alcohol, especially underage drinking. Everyone has different views on the drinking age. Some think it should be lowered and others believe that it should be raised. Then some believe that it should remain the same at the age of twenty-one years old. Keeping the alcohol consumption age at twenty-one limits the dangers of not only those under twenty-one, but other people in the community. Lowering the drinking age will causeRead MoreLowering the Drinking Age1576 Words   |  7 PagesComposition I April 6, 2014 Why the Drinking Age Should Stay at Twenty-One The United States drinking age throughout all 50 states has been the same since 1984 when a law was put in place by the U.S. Congress punishing all states who did not abide by the legal age limit of 21. Since this law was put into place, it has become one of the most widely studied laws in history. While there are many arguments and new bills being created to reduce this age, especially among college universitiesRead MoreLowering The Drinking Age1336 Words   |  6 PagesStudies show that keeping the drinking age at twenty-one improves lives. When the United States raised the age limit to twenty-one in 1985, a shortage of drinking occurred at a whopping 40% by 1991. As a result, fewer students drop out of high school, less motor accidents occur, and suicides rates dropped significantly. However, lowering the drinking age to eighteen will bring serious consequences on young adults by reversing these statistics. Lowering the drinking age will cause significant healthRead MoreLow ering The Drinking Age Of The Age981 Words   |  4 PagesHowever, there are those who remain persistent in their requests to drop the drinking age to a slightly lower option. Opposition to the legal drinking age of twenty-one has shown to have some support from mostly younger groups of people, without much validation as to why a lowered drinking age would be beneficial to our country as a whole. Yet, there are still some interesting arguments for those in favor of dropping the age at which it is legal to drink to eighteen. Consider how many young adults chooseRead MoreLowering The Legal Drinking Age903 Words   |  4 Pageshelp myself get a better understanding about how others feel about lowering the legal drinking age in the United States and to better understand what role alcohol plays in people’s lives. The first question I asked for in my survey, was what the participant’s age was. I used this question to see if there was a difference on how different generations felt towards lowering the legal drinking age. I was expecting more people over the age of 25 to take the quiz because I didn’t know if younger adults wouldRead MoreLowering The Minimum Drinking Age1380 Words   |  6 PagesOnce a person reaches the age of 18, they are allowed to tattoo their bodies, smoke tobacco, gamble and even enlist if they wanted to! As an adult, they want to be treated as one but how can they feel like an adult if hanging around with their friends and drinking beer while watching TV is illegal ? Of course, that does not stop them, though. The United States is one of the few countries in which still have such a high minimum drinking age. Although most people think young adults (18-year olds) areRead MoreLowering The Minimum Drinking Age1429 Words   |  6 Pagesand Thailand are others – with a minimum drinking age over 18† (Griggs, 1). When Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984, its goal was to reduce less-mature adults from consuming alcohol and performing reckless acts (Cary, 1). However, despite the current drinking age, 17.5 percent of consumer spending for alcohol in 2013 was under the age of 21. It is estimated that â€Å"90 percent of underage drinking is consumed via binge drinking†¦with alcohol abuse becoming more prevalentRead MoreLowering The Legal Drinking Age857 Words   |  4 PagesAs we know, the United States has the highest drinking age in the world. By 1988 the entire U.S had adopted the Federal Unifor m Drinking Age Act, which set the drinking age to twenty-one. However, in 1920 the United States banned the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcohol. This era known as the Prohibition sparked the popularity of hidden underground bars and events. The Prohibition Era is a prime example of how people did anything to intake alcohol and eventually this led

Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective. Answer: Introduction: The report analyses the various aspects of mental health reforms in Australia. The last five years has witnessed a lot of changes and reforms in Australias mental health sector in order to improve the services and performance of the existing health system of Australia. The reforms include Federal Governments health reforms of 2010 and 2012, introduction of National Partnership Agreements and activity based financing. The national health and hospitals reform commission of the country supported all these. It has issued various packages to reform care for the mentally disordered patients, the increased mental diseases of ageing population and curtail health cost (Coleman, 2014). In order to cope up with the consumer demand, Australian government has utilized the benefits of technology and introduced a number of digitized health agencies. The report discusses the reforms in the mental health sector in Australia. The Australian government has announced much expected response to the review of national mental health commission on mental health services and programs. Following the advocacy activities and policies of Mental Health Australia over more than three years, its members, consumers and career have welcomed this change. To them, it is the initialization of needed systematic change in sector of mental health in the country. The report discusses the strategies of mental health reforms, its plans, policies and rights of the patients, scopes for improvement and the major challenges and issues that an executive faces at the time of implementation. The national mental health strategy of Australia aims to assist the mental health of the communities of Australia, prevention of mental disorder development, reduction of effect of mental disorders on family, community and individuals and finally assuring the rights of the mentally ill people. These strategies include various plans, policies and statement of responsibilities. These strategies outline the directions that the government followed in health reforms over the decade between 2010 and 2022. The Advisory Council of Australian Health Ministers (AHMAC) and Mental Health Drug and Alcohol Principal Committee (MHDAPC) have developed the Fifth National Mental Health Plan.To work together for improving the lives of the individuals suffering from mental illness and its effect on their families and communities, the Australian government has formed a working group with government of every states and territories. This working group is responsible for improving access to data of mental health and tracking the progress of the reform (www.health.gov.au, 2017). Australian government has announced the package of $194.5 million package to support and assistance to the individuals and families suffering from mental health issues. This will provide a great support to prevent the increasing threat of suicide attempt among the youth and enhance investment in using technologies in mental health centers. According to the reports of ABS (Australian Bureau of Statistics), which is nearly 80 per cent of suicide cases in Australia? The data collected from theemployee assistance programs shows that 33 per cent of suicide resulted from anxiety followed by 23 per cent for depression. The government has established trial sites for preventing suicides across the country. The targets are the high-risk groups of aged people, youth, veterans, people under economic pressure and those who have already attempted suicide previously (McGorry, Bates Birchwood, 2013). The government has identified the priority areas and allocated fund of $34 million accordingly. To prevent the tendency of suicide, new technologies have been introduced in the areas of research and treatment. The government has found many headspace services for the people living in remote areas cannot access the mental health services, may be benefitted with this service. For implementation, the government has restored the fund to Early Psychosis Youth Services of $115.6 million. Project Synergy has been engaged as online solution for care and funded with $ 32.4 million. This project provides IT-based solutions and develops mental health services and apps for young people. Lifeline Australia provides text service for supporting in crisis and prevention of suicide. The government has also funded the nurses college of mental health to provide direct benefit to the patients suffering from mental health. These nurses are appropriately trained to take primary and acute care (Kelaher et al., 2014). The reform has strengthened the role of National Mental Health Commission, which enables them to work independently which is to monitor proper implementation of the reforms and advise the government. The government has formed the digital gateway to maximize the utilization of digital technologies in curing mental health. It aims to provide service through multi-channel platforms like social media, telephone and web, so that the people can access the information regarding the disease, get proper advice and quality services (Nicholson, Marley Wells, 2012). This digital gateway has been an important approach by government for providing care for mental health. The consumers can be benefitted from the newly introduced digitalized payment system. This system aims to assist the government to deliver schemes like pharmaceutical benefit and Medicare in future. The government has formed an expert reference group for mental health services to advice and response to the reviews of mental health services and programs. The government has brought changes in private health insurances. The government has renovated the Prostheses Benefit List so that the benefits must be worthy of expenses and the savings are transferred to the consumers through less increment of annual premium (Britt et al., 2013). The government assists the eligible adults suffering from mental illness with a package. This package includes the services of mental health treatment, housing support and accommodation. The government has directed the Primary Care Networks to deliver services according to the needs of the individuals. Some challenges do not fit one-size-fits-all model therefore the care providers need to provide specific and appropriate mental health care to the local communities. In this project, the government has announced $350 million per annum. The funding is distributed through various Headspaces, Psychosis Prevention Intervention Centres, Mental Health Services in Remote and Rural Areas and various fragmented Suicide Prevention programs. The government has also taken initiatives to provide mental health education in schools (Paquette-Warren et al., 2014). This education aims to compile diverse existing services into a single service for the young people and children. This enables better promotion of mental health, early intervention and prevention of mental illness. The reforms also provides the staffs and the teachers needed trainings as well as resources so that they can create sympathetic and caring environment, reduce the impact of disorder before or when they emerge (Donato Segal, 2013). The centre and state and territory governments have launched programs to provide required opportunities to the people with mental disabilities to develop themselves and utilize their abilities in order to enjoy the full potential of social independence. This includes learning life skills development and recreation as well as holiday programs. The concept of managing health care is seen as a useful approach to improve the effectiveness and in health care issue around the globe. In order to define managed care, it can be said that it is broadly an attempt to affect the cost, a mode of delivering care and maintain the quality of health care. The Australian mental health lacks a clear system design. The system is also fragmented and therefore has insufficient coordination. These problems are compounded by the problems of payment system of support and social services. The working group of central and state governments, health insurers, the consumers and corporate sector are responsible for funding as well as expenditure (Collins, Rasmussen Beutel, 2015). 90 percent of this funding system is provided by the governments and balanced by the insurers, consumers, NGOs and other payers. The funding split for drug services and health and non-health payments cannot be determined. This diverse funding system and expenditure arrangement is increased due to absence of coordination within the healthcare system. The system is totally based on goodwill and care of the care providers therefore, the reform must assure recovery of coordination, and consistency of service (Rickwood et al., 2014). This fragmentation of the service system ma y lead to confusion and frustration among the service users, care providers and the patients. Despite the government has been investing in betterment of the situation, too many patients with severe mental illness are not being benefitted due to the cracks of the services. In this fragmented health care system, when the new reforms are introduced, without understandable pathways, the complexity has been increased for the mentally ill people (McLachlan, 2013). The new initiatives have diverted attention from the challenge of providing health services in cost-effective way. Another issue is that without any understandable system design, it has become impossible to assess the actual amount the government has been spending to meet required services on mental health. The private sector buys a range of health related services and goods for improvement of their workers and their families but the expenditure on mental health services except Employee Assistance Programs are not available. The government does not bear the cost of behavioral health related accidents and emergency services. The patient has to go for treatment on his own expenditure (Sturmberg, O'halloran Martin, 2012). Major challenges: For a manger of a mental health care organization, the recent health care reform of Australia has brought about some unavoidable challenges like- Challenges of patient care: The biggest organizational challenge is to collaboration and working with the external resources such as patient care and billing. As the organization works under multi-faceted system, the joint action and cooperation among care providers, billing services, insurance companies and clearinghouses has become painful experiences (Best et al., 2012). Challenges to keep up with the regulations: One of the hardest organizational challenges is to keep up with the regulation that the reform provides announced by the government of Australia (Mason, 2013). The behavioral and mental health care sector always been under pressure. The reason behind this is that both the federal and state governments have subjected it of regular intervention. This compels the organization to change its workflow to stay acquiescent. Administrative tasks: the recent reforms have increased difficulties in performing the administrative tasks and decision-making procedures. The functional duties of an executive include patient registration, filing claims and documentation. The scenario has now changed where these task have been performed by the care providers. The reform does not take care of the cultural related challenges that the organization faces. Cultural related frustrations vary from working with difficult people present both inner and outer structure of the organization (Bateman, Henderson Kezelman, 2013). Interpersonal conflicts creates problem in workplaces, which need to be governed. The government has also need to give more stress on creating awareness about the mental health, which is almost a common issue in all over the world. Public indifference in mental health care and importance of qualitative care has become challenge for a manger (Hall, 2015). Conclusion: Therefore, from the above discussion, it may be concluded that the Australian central government and federal or state governments have brought some changes in the existing regulations. Utmost importance is given to the digitization or services provided with the help of internet. Some opportunities are there to improve the health services. This involves improvement of the ways so that all the elements of the service system must work together and be collaborative and coordinative. The elements must interact with each other. In order to be successful, health interest teams or working groups including all the people of Australia need to take initiatives and mobilize together. Most important stakeholders are the consumers, who are the users enjoying the benefits if the system, must take responsibilities and care of themselves. The commissions set up and funded by the government must indulge in honest research and acquire feedbacks so that the opportunities or the scope for development tha t the recent reform has kept can be easily filled up. The people must share responsibilities to bridge the gap between supply and demand of the health care services in future. References: Bateman, J., Henderson, C., Kezelman, C. (2013). Trauma-informed care and practice: towards a cultural shift in policy reform across mental health and human services in Australia, a national strategic direction.Position paper, Mental Health Coordinating Council. Best, A., Greenhalgh, T., Lewis, S., Saul, J. E., Carroll, S., Bitz, J. (2012). Large?system transformation in health care: a realist review.The Milbank Quarterly,90(3), 421-456. Britt, H., Miller, G. C., Henderson, J., Bayram, C., Valenti, L., Harrison, C., ... O'Halloran, J. (2013).General Practice Activity in Australia 2012-13: BEACH: Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health(No. 33). Sydney University Press. Coleman, M. P. (2014). Cancer survival: global surveillance will stimulate health policy and improve equity.The Lancet,383(9916), 564-573. Collins, S. R., Rasmussen, P. W., Beutel, S. (2015). The rise in health care coverage and affordability since health reform took effect.Commonwealth Fund: Washington, DC. Donato, R., Segal, L. (2013). Does Australia have the appropriate health reform agenda to close the gap in Indigenous health?.Australian Health Review,37(2), 232-238. Hall, J. (2015). Australian health careThe challenge of reform in a fragmented system.New England Journal of Medicine,373(6), 493-497. Kelaher, M., Sabanovic, H., La Brooy, C., Lock, M., Lusher, D., Brown, L. (2014). Does more equitable governance lead to more equitable health care? A case study based on the implementation of health reform in Aboriginal health Australia.Social Science Medicine,123, 278-286. Mason, J. (2013). Review of Australian government health workforce programs. McGorry, P., Bates, T., Birchwood, M. (2013). Designing youth mental health services for the 21st century: examples from Australia, Ireland and the UK.The British Journal of Psychiatry,202(s54), s30-s35. McLachlan, R. (2013). Deep and Persistent Disadvantage in Australia-Productivity Commission Staff Working Paper. Nicholson, C., Marley, J. E., Wells, R. (2012). The Australian experiment: how primary health care organizations supported the evolution of a primary health care system.The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine,25(Suppl 1), S18-S26. Paquette-Warren, J., Roberts, S. E., Fournie, M., Tyler, M., Brown, J., Harris, S. (2014). Improving chronic care through continuing education of inter-professional primary healthcare teams: a process evaluation.Journal of interprofessional care,28(3), 232-238. Rickwood, D. J., Telford, N. R., Parker, A. G., Tanti, C. J., McGorry, P. D. (2014). headspaceAustralias innovation in youth mental health: who are the clients and why are they presenting?.The Medical Journal of Australia,200(2), 108-111. Sturmberg, J. P., O'halloran, D. M., Martin, C. M. (2012). Understanding health system reforma complex adaptive systems perspective.Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice,18(1), 202-208. www.health.gov.au. (2017).Department of Health - 2016-2017 MYEFO Drives Health Reform.Health.gov.au. Retrieved 20 October 2017, from https://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/health-mediarel-yr2016-leySL109.htm

Canadian Government Essay Example For Students

Canadian Government Essay Should the government of Canada continue to support the universality of socialservices by increasing the proportion of salaries given to income tax? Thisquestion hits a very touchy spot for all Canadians because some agree that ahigher portion of an individuals salary should go to income tax, so a betterstandard of living could be made by all Canadians, instead of just to thefinancially blessed class of society. They believe that by the Canadiangovernment doing so, it would limit the greed in our society, and make for abetter feel of equality. Then there are those Canadians who believe governmentshould not increase the proportion of their salaries given to income tax becausethey believe the government should help encourage Canadians to be moreindependent, instead of depending on the government for all of their basic needsand wants. They believe that when they go out and make their hard earned money,they should be able to keep it, instead of giving most of it away, so peoplethat sit a t home all day, even though fully capable of getting a good job, havethe same benefits as themselves. My position on this issue would have to be withthe Canadians who dont believe in the government increasing the proportion ofsalaries to income tax. I believe every man for himself. What an individualearns, he deserves, because he worked hard for his pay. Its not that I dontagree with government intervention, I do, I just believe it should be trying tohelp its people become more independent, instead of 100% dependant on itsgovernment. For almost sixty years the Swedish economy was looked upon andadmired for its high standard of living. Everything, you name it, they had it. They had a system called cradle-to-grave welfare system, and it promised almosteverybody employment. Everybody was guaranteed a free post secondary educationand the same went with health care and pension plans. People looking in on thecountry would be lead to believe Swedes didnt have a care in the world. Inorder for the Sweden economy to work as well as it did, Swedes had to pay 70% ofpersonal taxes, which was the highest rate for personal taxes in all of theindustrial worlds. What seemed to be a system with no flaws in it became evidentthat it was too good to be true, the Swedish government had pamperedits people so much, Swedes soon became dependant on its government and not onthemselves. Four out of ten workers were employed by the government, workers notbeing present for work were very high, low productivity was being experienced inthe export industries, vacations and other allowance benefits were very costly,economic slumps was reducing the base tax the social programs needed t o pay forand the government deficit was increasing. In the end, when the government triedto reduce, the government spending Swedes werent able to deal with their newgiven independence, and sure enough, high unemployment became one of many oftheir problems. Looking at Sweden as a case study, I think that is enough todiscourage the Canadian government from increasing the proportion of salariesgiven to income tax to support the universality of social services. If Canadawas to do so, it would only promote Canadians to be dependant on theirgovernment and not on themselves. Instead of increasing income tax to supportsocial services, the government should introduce programs to help Canadians tobudget their income to balance their wants and needs. Through the case study onSweden we learnt that by the government increasing the proportion of salariesgiven to income tax to support the universality of social services, which in thelong run it doesnt really benefit the citizens, but only sets the m back, andteaches them that they dont ever really have to face the responsibilities thatcome with adulthood. .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60 , .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60 .postImageUrl , .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60 , .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60:hover , .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60:visited , .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60:active { border:0!important; } .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60:active , .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60 .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uda96d8fd15ea43ebe57179eafeef2d60:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Daughters Of The American Revolution Essay ContestEconomics

Average National SAT Scores for 2013

Average National SAT Scores for 2013 More than a million high school students registered for the SAT for 2013. If youd like to know how your cohorts did, here are some results from the national SAT scores for 2013. Overall SAT Scores for 2013 These are the mean, or average, scores of all students who took the SAT from the fall of 2012 through June 2013, by section (they are identical to the the scores from the year before):   Here are the mean scores for all testers by section: Overall: 1498Critical Reading: 496Mathematics: 514Writing: 488 (subscores: multiple-choice: 48.1 / essay: 7.3) SAT Scores by Gender Here are the years scores separated by gender: Critical Reading:Males: 499Females: 494 Mathematics:Males: 531Females: 499 Writing:Males: 482Females: 493 SAT Scores by Reported Annual Income The results indicate consistently that students from wealthier families score higher on the SAT than kids from families with lower incomes. This doesnt mean that higher incomes produce smarter kids. Parents with more wealth might be more willing to purchase SAT prep  or retakes of the test. Here are the results: $0 - $20,000: 1326$20,000 - $40,000: 1402$40,000 - $60,000: 1461$60,000 - $80,000: 1497$80,000 - $100,000: 1535$100,000 - $120,000: 1569$120,000 - $140,000: 1581$140,000 - $160,000: 1604$160,000 - $200,000: 1625$200,000 and more: 1714 SAT Scores by Ethnicity There is no causal relationship between ethnicity and scores, but there are different results based on ethnicity: American Indian or Alaska Native: 1427Asian, Asian-American or Pacific Islander: 1645Black or African-American: 1278Mexican or Mexican-American: 1355Puerto Rican: 1354Other Hispanic, Latino, or Latin-American: 1354White: 1576Other: 1501No response: 1409 To spot trends, you may compare all the above data to the 2012 SAT results.   Other SAT Score Categories There are other categories of mean SAT scores, including the  average SAT scores for students entering the  top public schools  and the  scores for the top private schools.   2013 SAT Scores Summary These statistics represent the mean, but not the individual. Having nothing in common with the groups scoring the highest on the SAT doesnt mean that you cant secure a top-notch score. If you havent taken the SAT or are planning to retake it, there are  free SAT practice quizzes  and free SAT apps  you can use to help prepare yourself. Another authority suggests these additional ways of getting ready: Know the test structure.Write practice essays.Ensure that you have a calculator and spare batteries.Know when to guess on a question and when to skip it entirely.Get a good nights sleep.

NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR by GEORGE ORWELL essays

NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR by GEORGE ORWELL essays 1 First published in 1949, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, considered as a masterpiece of political satire, is a very compelling novel. The main protagonist, Winston Smith, experiences a number of bizarre and self-fulfilling events connected with his struggles while living under the watchful eye of "Big Brother," a metaphorical symbol used by Orwell to describe the fascist government that controls and sees all. In this society, privacy and freedom do not exist, and its citizens are constantly monitored by futuristic telescreens and subjected to an unending barrage of Winston Smith, a Party functionary, is humbly employed in one of the government agencies, and his job is quite simplehe must rewrite the past so that the Party, being "Big Brother," appears to be without flaw and the master of its domain. But Smith greatly despises the Party and what it stands for, and keeps his feelings about "Big Brother" to himself. One of the turning points in the novel occurs when Smith begins a heated love affair with Julia, a rebellious young girl who works in his agency and shares his dislike for the Party and its beliefs. Throughout the novel, Smith and Julia meet in secret and discuss their shared hatred for the Party. They then join a secret alliance called The Brotherhood, whose sole purpose is to bring an end to the Party, and through the literature of The Brotherhood, Smith and Julia learn about the inner workings of The Party and how it accomplishes its stronghold on the citizens trapped in this oppressive environment, where free thinking individuals are looked upon as dangerous and subversive. But Smith's secret world comes crashing down when he and Julia are arrested 2 Police," a faction of the government that deals with those who ...

Trade and multinational enterprises Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Trade and multinational enterprises - Coursework Example As at 2003, China had the third largest growth in the in FDI. There are clear indications that foreign direct investments are increasing steadily. This aspect is not surprising, as it is well known that the market size and opportunities that are available in China are favoring this growth. Again, the aspect of the open market policies that are followed by China in the course of the last two decades and the unending efforts (Adams, 2011). The efforts have lured more FDI has led to the increase in the FDI growth especially the Germany-based companies that accounts for the largest percentage of the foreign companies (Huang and Tang, 2011). This idea has resulted in an increase in the interest of many manufacturing companies to invest in China. Much of the China’s economic development depends on the policy making and extensive continuous FDI that facilitates and inward investment. Moreover, foreign development and investment of the manufacturing sector is critical in establishing the superstructure and infrastructure in the modern market policy. China has been the most attractive destinations for investment for many global players today. The reason behind for this trend is that the manufacturing industry in China forms one of the crucial investment avenues in the China’s economy and has a significant contribution to the total employment and the GDP (Adams, 2011). The other less important fact is that the country has relatively saturated markets in United States, Europe, and Japan who push for the big manufacturing other manufacturers to elsewhere and the China becomes an option as a prime destination for emerging industrialization. In 2009, China was the largest manufacturing country across the globe. The growth potential in the manufacturing industry in China in yet to be further developed more in many years to come. The likely trend is that the global manufacturers are going to shift their focus to the China markets

Environmental Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Environmental Analysis - Essay Example Marketing is the concluding approach used to endorse the selling strategy for products such as the iPhone 4s. Marketing has then been cleverly practiced at the company to encourage its business. With this understanding, this paper critically examines Apple Inc. and the application of PESTEL analysis. Introduction In any given business organization, management is something which should be done in the right manner possible, and this should be able to integrate all elements of management and functions as well. This becomes a defining application which has the capability of improving performance and ensuring that business goals have been realized within the shortest time possible. For instance, within any strategies of management, it should be appropriate to adopt a number of practices, theories and organizational adoptions which have the capability of improving performance of business organization. In this study, it would be necessary to understand the issue of leader and management and how they can be viewed and adopted towards ensuring that the greatest gains have been realized in the business organization. Different organizations have been able to come into terms with such approaches, and hence they have been in a position of realizing the greatest gains within their business operations. ... 38). This kind of leadership and organizational responsibility has been something very significant for the business, and as well has been able to bring a new wave of promotional engagement which has been seeing an improvement in the business engagement thus leading to the realization of business goals. Basically, Apple Corporation has been able to improve its business engagements, and hence becoming one of the best performing businesses in the economy of the country. There has also been an effective modality in decision making which has been vital towards the realization of business goals. Management and leadership ideologies have been adopted in the best manner thus leading to the realization of goals within the business (Wharam, 2009). In that sense, it should be worth noting that the best of gains in any business shall be only be in line with the kind of engagement of management and leadership which have been adopted in the business (Gill, 2006). It would thus be very appropriate to study the kind of engagements which have been adopted in this business and see how it has been able to become a perfect performer in the business. Management and Leadership: Apple Corporation At Apple, there has been the need of ensuring that all business engagements have been appropriately led and managed towards the realization of the best business goals. In that sense, it should be necessary to apply all management functions as this has the capability of ensuring that the best of gains have been realized in the operations of the business. However, there should be the need of understanding that there are a number of differences between management and leadership (Rost, 2004). In management, this is a wide conceptual

Chapter 8-9 SA Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Chapter 8-9 SA - Assignment Example This self assessment test 2 is used to evaluate the atmosphere for creativity. The evaluation is meant to single out various situations in an organization that encourage the employees to be more creative in work. The measure of the environment for creativity shows the level of support the management and organization gives the employees for inventiveness and innovation. The test value of cumulative numbers is then compared to the values of the continuum. A continuum is provided at the end of the assessment test with numbers indicating different values that indicate the level of support offered. A high score indicates that the organization is very supportive of the employees’ creativity and innovation. Therefore, our organization has an average support for employees’ creativity and innovation. These exercises help the students to relate their work surroundings to the ideas in ways that other people can gain from the experience they have (Lussier & Achua, 2010). This self assessment test 3 is used to evaluate the personal traits and teams that can affect the team work of an individual. The first personality profile reviewed can be; I enjoy being part of a team and working with others more than working alone. The scales given to this profile could be 1 to 7, with 7 illustrating strongly agreeing to the profile while 1 illustrating strongly disagreeing to the personality profile. The second profile reviewed is, I enjoy accomplishing team goals more than individual accomplishments, given scales from 1 to 7. 7 will illustrate strongly agreeing to this statement while 1 illustrates strongly disagreeing to the same statement. From these two statements, we can deduce that the stronger you agree with them the higher the probability of being a good team player. On the other hand, lower scores do not exactly mean that you are not a good team player. The Big Five personality dimensions and their related motive needs can influence your team

Examining The Corporate Culture And Values Of McDonalds Corporation

Examining The Corporate Culture And Values Of McDonalds Corporation Introduction McDonalds corporation is the worlds most recognised and largest provider of foodservice serving millions of customers daily around the world and operates more than 30,000 restaurants in more than 120 countries. It was initiated in 1940 with a restaurant opened by brothers Mac and Dick Donalds in California. After since its incorporation in 1955, McDonalds has sold more than 100 billion hamburgers. McDonalds team of experienced managers, high ranking operating system, global infrastructure and one of the well recognized brand names in the world. It is the biggest fast food retailer capturing the whole world. It has initiated Hamburger University where the assistant managers and the mangers are trained. McDonalds corporate culture is based on shared value system and maintains standardised quality process to ensure same quality and reduction in lead time. McDonalds has the vision to be the best employer in each community in the world. The restaurants are run either by franchise, or as c orporate itself. This paper attempts to define the organisational structure and shortcomings in its operations. The operational structure is the system of the operation of an organisation i.e. the values, beliefs and policies. There are some shortcomings which poise as a thread to achieve its goal and work effectively. The organisational problems of McDonalds have been disturbing the activities to be carried out by the organisation effectively. The policy of McDonalds is to promote an working environments which is free from unlawful discriminations. The study will include the causes underlying the problem and the alternatives available to the organisation along with the recommendation for the future. www.bized.com,mcdonalds/mcindex, Retrieved from : Business source complete database Corporate culture and values of McDonalds Corporation McDonalds corporate strategy is to do the right things and provide the best to the customers and community they serve, and the employees of the organisation. McDonalds has a strong corporate culture and supportive about the global youth employment. In McDonalds every procedure has a very particular rules and regulations of how it should be carried out. It tries to provide best support to its employees. It is dedicated to provide the customers unique level of quality, cleanliness, value and service. They are in the believe that well trained team will serve the best by working together and , so they are committed with people and encourages team building and team work. McDonalds sets out all aspects of business with integrity and honesty. They believe in celebrating the achievement and are strived for new higher goals and its accomplishments. They are highly committed to customers expectation and satisfaction. They are directed to convert awareness into action. The Goal of McDonalds is to have people within the organisation to work to better performance and living to reach their full potential. They have performance based rewards for the employees which provide a platform for the workers to deliver the best to the day to day activities. They believe in balance of work as higher burden of time and work pressure will deteriorate the performance of the employees. They have proper and specific roles and responsibly mentioned for each employees of the workforce. McDonalds have systematic Nick Hopkings,www.docstoc.com, organisational structure of McDonalds(2006) Retrieved from: improving customer focus through organisational structure rules to follow and are inclined towards good health. The following are experienced in the organisation:- Fast customer service. Free from error occurrence. Decision making is simple. Facilities are well maintained. The premises of the restaurants are clean. Well built teams and effective team work with specified work. Standards are based on value, quality and cleanliness. Full control on the every link of the supply chain Food safety is the important consideration of the company Performance based rewards and better scope for promotions on the basis of performance. Organisational problems and causes underlying the problems: McDonalds has also some organisational problems which led it to criticism in its operations. Organisational problems provide a thread to operate smoothly in its activities and poise a difficulty in maintaining quality and performances. The following are the organisational problems and the underlying causes www.mcdonalds.com/us, our story , our values ,Retrieved from : Business source complete database McDonalds is blamed for excessive packaging waste. The main cause of this is due to unplanned packaging design and in accurate way of handling it. Centralised authority is maintained in McDonalds. All the decisions are made by the higher level management and the lower level and crew members have to follow it which created a bridge of gap among various level of management. Strict procedure and employees must focus on how things to be carried out which discouraged many employees as they were unable to communicate their feedback and difficulties. The team lacks motivation to the performance due to strict rules and no feedback process. The team lacks ability as they are allowed to work under fixed guidelines as skills and capabilities all differs. McDonalds is often blamed for obesity and high in calories food. Horizontal division of labour as each task of the employees is specified and the more compliance on the final product which creates boredom among the employees which will lead to decrease in performance. Interiors and the look should be changed as it has been quite a long they have not uninitiated any new look. www.bized.com,mcdonalds/mcindex, Retrieved from : Business source complete database Alternatives and recommendations for the problems arising in the organisation Vertical decision making should be facilitate in the organization which will encourage communication among the various levels in the organisation Decentralised organisational structure should be maintained so that the lower level management should be able to communicate and express their ideas freely. The crew members will feel their importance to the organisation and will play a vital role in improving the performance. The organisation should follow work hard and play hard culture. This will lead to more employee participation through more involvement and decrement in risk taking. Increase in delegation of responsibility to subordinates must be initiated which will encourage higher performance by the employees Negative attention should be stopped to attract i.e. no hormones , no chemicals etc Should be more focused into customer care Should not be associated with globalisation and corporate greed Make the interiors more attractive by introducing more attractive uniforms for employees, new themes etc. Better and improvements in community relations should be started. Each restaurants should be allowed to adapt to its own local area which will encourage better selling and attractions from the locality Take more risk by adding new food items in the menu Rotation of employees works tasks so that they get trained in various sections like finance and accounting. Should try to go organic and provide more healthy food i.e. less in calories etc Conclusion McDonalds has strong corporate values and the industry where it is operating is highly competitive. To maintain the customer value and satisfaction it must improve on the products they are offering. McDonalds should initiate with new product line or new items in the menu so customers are not bored with same items and also maintain the quality of the products it has been serving. The interiors and design should be given a new look to attract new generation and new customers also the old customers feel the speciality about it.

Wealth Disparity in the United States :: essays research papers

Wealth in the United States has always been unequally dispersed among African Americans and whites, even dating back to the 1800’s. African Americans own less property, are less educated, and are in a lower socioeconomic class than whites. Policies since the 1960’s have been implemented in the United States, such as welfare, to help lessen the gap between the two, but the evidence suggests that these policies have not worked to their potential.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Furthermore, the question that the author is trying to answer is what can be done to help lessen the wealth gap between African Americans and whites. The author looks at affirmative action, business ownership among blacks, but overall focuses most of his attention on home and property ownership.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The author suggests that to achieve the goal of racial and class equality, a policy needs to rely on socioeconomic status, but especially take a person’s assets into account. Whites own substantially more property than blacks, which creates a large gap in assets between blacks and whites. While many blacks want to live in integrated neighborhoods, white neighborhoods do not want their property value declining, so therefore white flight ensues. The author proposes to have a policy that guarantees that black ownership in a neighborhood will not top 15 percent, so whites would be less likely to leave. Also, many incentives have been proposed to help the poor gain prosperity, such as a national wealth tax. This tax would make individuals review their assets and liabilities, and then individuals would be required to pay the government a percentage of that net worth.

Cupcake Shop

International University Vietnam Bachelor of Commerce Program ASSIGNMENT COVER PAGE Your assessment will not be accepted unless all fields below are completed Subject Code:| BUSM4092| Subject Name: | Applied Entrepreneurship| Location where you study:| RMIT Vietnam – SGS| Title of Assignment:| Feasibility Analysis| Student name:| Kim Koan DongPham Anh HoaNguyen Phu HaiPham Phuong Nghi| Student Number:| s3324450s3298342s3255278S3269894| Learning Facilitator in charge:| Ms. Agatha Heng| Assignment due date:| 07/09/2012|Date of Submission: | 07/09/2012| Late Submission Approval| | Number of pages including this one: (Please number your pages like this: page 1 of 7, page 2 of 7, etc)| 27| Word Count:(Main Content)| 5,558| EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Having noticed the business opportunity in food, especially in dessert in the Vietnam market, Ucake’s business idea is developed. The purpose of presenting this idea is to help customers embodying their precious message into cake, the req uisite item in every celebration.This can be regarded our business idea as the current market has not provide it. Investigation revealed that choosing young people 15 to 30 living in Ho Chi Minh City as potential targets in terms of increase in population, GDP and positive behavioral change towards cake. Moreover, market research found that there are competitors with strong brand name and reputation. However Ucake can survive among the opponents with service differentiation focus strategy in which Ucake’s core differentiated service is ‘customer’s self decorated cake’.Ucake provides plain base cake, hygiene environment with fresh and diverse topping, and then customers simply come to shop and decorate their cakes easily and fast with meaningful memory supported by professional advice by Ucake’s chefs. Otherwise, customers can choose cake design from hundreds of models that suit their event. Among the analysis, first five years’ financial stat ements, showing estimated establishment cost, revenue and expense, are included to verify that Ucake is able to break-even within 3 years. TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY2 I. The Business Idea4 1. Opportunity description:4 . Product / service description:4 3. Description of the entrepreneur team:5 II. The Industry and Market6 1. Current Industry Analysis6 2. Market potential Analysis7 3. Competitors Analysis (referred to Appendix 3)8 4. Target market/customers9 5. Market penetration (referred to Appendix 5)10 6. Stakeholder Analysis11 III. Business Model Analysis (referred to Appendix 6)13 1. Revenue sources13 2. Cost drivers13 3. Resource requirements / mapping13 4. Investment size14 5. Critical success factors15 6. Risk analysis and management16 IV. Future Action Plan17 1. Sources of start – up capital17 . Further information needed17 3. Support needed18 REFERENCES19 APPENDICES21 I. The Business Idea 1. Opportunity description: Currently, Vietnamese people are accustome d to Western culture, so they consider cakes not only as desserts or presents for birthday, but also indispensable items in special events such as Christmas or anniversary party. This trend leads to the rapid growth in demands of cakes, especially in holiday period like Christmas (Bao Moi Newspaper, 2009). Not stopping there, people also want to make their cake becomes more momentous to suit the purpose of parties or events.However, there are still no bakeries allowing customers to decorate cakes by themselves. As entrepreneurs, this is a good occasion for Ucake to develop a business idea to create more values and options for customers through its differentiated services. 2. Product / service description: Ucake bakery that has differentiated services will be opened to make customer feel convenient and comfortable, bring more benefit, and satisfy their needs. Two main services will be developed. Firstly, dissimilar cake designs will be updated for customer to choose, and then Ucakeâ €™s bakers will make cakes exactly based on design’s offer.Moreover, customers also can prefer their own design for Ucake to implement. Although the design of cakes is sometimes not favored some customers, they still have to buy it as they have fewer choices. This problem can be solved when customers come to Ucake’s store where they have various choices and they can even ask Ucake to make the cake based on their own suggestion. Here at Ucake bakery, it sells not only cakes designed by its’ store, but also cakes customers want to have. Another service is self – decoration, which there are spaces provided for customers, and all necessary equipments are to support them decorating cakes on their own.When using this service type, customers will pay for a plain base cake, toppings, and cream to design the cake; and what is more, they are allowed to try the taste of the cream, toppings before purchasing. To help client’s better understanding of the se rvices, Ucake’s bakers are there and willing to give advice for cake decorates. The cakes can become so consequential for the receiver if people decorate it by themselves. For example, parents will be very surprised and happy if their children decorate a cake as a gift for their wedding anniversary.However, most of Vietnamese people do not have enough necessary equipments or places to decorate a cake. This issue has been recognized, and Ucake wants to generate services that give its buyers chances not only to garnish this kind of desserts but to enjoy the fun and relaxation as well when they come to Ucake. 3. Description of the entrepreneur team: A group four undergraduate students who are taking bachelor degrees in RMIT University are recently having their family businesses run profitably in the Vietnam industry.Having followed different majors with background s of serving business, marketing, design, and especially in the hospitality streams, the team has ambition of launch ing a bakery locally which is called Ucake. On that account, the team seeks for potential opportunities with creative production to help solving customers’ problem, giving them more benefits, and also generating profits remarkably for their business. In addition, each member has developed a wide spread of professional relationship that would sustain their project in positive aspect and scale through their family’s network and friends.By employing some of members’ real working experiences from their family business and other service firms, the team is expecting use their conditions and supports to start up Ucake bakery successfully. II. The Industry and Market 1. Current Industry Analysis To improve Ucake’s strategies and support the awareness towards different features affecting its business, Porter’s five forces model is applied for analyzing risks that helps Ucake to control in higher progress in the Vietnam industry. According to Rice (2010), th is model contains five typical aspects. 1. 1.Bargaining power of suppliers – Low Within the bakery industry, raw materials are vital factors that contribute to the success of a business leading to high value of products and prestige. Usually, prices of materials like flour, sugar, milk†¦ are depended on the level of quality customers want to aim at. In Vietnam, sources of suppliers for those ingredients are relatively diverse that can be derived from local grocery stores or larger suppliers. Hence, Ucake will have more options choosing dealer that are appropriate for its budget and demand. 1. 2. Bargaining power of buyers – HighNowadays, the Vietnamese people are influenced by Western cultures and tend to go to cake shops as their hobbies, especially on holidays and other events. With many bakeries throughout the country, customers are advantageous to experience excellence and different prices of various bakery shops. Besides, many youths are also interested in ma king cakes by themselves; as a result, clients have more knowledge of selecting the right cakes which are suitable for their commandment. 1. 3. Threat of new entrants – High Since the regulations and procedures of starting up a bakery in Vietnam are not so complex (Vatgia. om, 2011), which even people with small capitals can also invest on this kind of business, barriers to enter the industry here are not high. Therefore, as a new comer, Ucake faces the threat of self – decoration service imitation from other components, including existing and approaching cake shops. 1. 4. Threat of substitutes – High The level of threat of substitutes that Ucake faces is pretty high as there are many different types of food and dessert services developing in Vietnam (VietnamBriefing, 2008), such as ice – cream, yogurt, fast food, Vietnamese sweet soup, etc.Thus, clients have various options of switching to other food once their demand of consuming cakes decreases. 1. 5. Rivalry among existing firms – High At the moment, only in Ho Chi Minh City, there are over 100 bakery stores located widely, and the competition of bakeries are getting more and more intense as many large and small local bakery stores exist in the market (Phan Le, 2012). Furthermore, the local bakeries also have to compete under pressures of investments from some famous foreign bakeries, which might affect customers’ perceptions and operations of local bakeries as well as Ucake. . Market potential Analysis Regarding this area, PEST model is used to examine the environmental part for executive strategies. 2. 6. Political Due to To Loan (2008), food hygiene and safety are some of the biggest issues in Vietnam, and this issue is much cared by the government. Research Center of Business Administration claims that HACCP is the highest international license required by the Vietnamese for a firm which wants to operate in food industry. So, Ucake must have HACCP  (Hazard An alysis and Critical Control Points) to meet the Food Safety Law. 2. 7. EconomicUcake will have to take moderate rental costs, so the store’s location does not have to be positioned in the center of Ho Chi Minh City. Due to Diaoconline. com (2012), the cost for a two – floored shop in district 5 is approximately 1,000USD. Cost of facility and equipment for a new venture are paid highly in the first year in terms of the good quality facilities and equipment in order to make customer feel comfortable. However, since they are fixed costs, the venture does not need to pay anymore in next few years, and maintenance costs will be paid less instead.According to VietnamBranding (2008), Vietnamese people refer Western fast food than Vietnamese. 2. 8. Social Dan Tri Newspaper (2012) states that Vietnamese people care and obverse more Western tradition and events (Christmas, mother’s day, Halloween†¦) and considers that cakes are commonly used in many parties and speci al events. This leads to high demand of cake, and especially during Christmas. Besides, in this century, people do not only want a delicious cake but increasingly care more about nutrition and health issue (Viet Bao Newspaper, 2005).So, if Ucake has HACCP for ensuring the safety of the cakes and researching some of new healthy ingredients, more and more customers will be more attracted. 2. 9. Technology As a small business, high technology is not really fundamental for Ucake. However, Ucake need to have fresh, safe and high quality ingredients. Hence, safe and clean process of making and decorating cakes are highly presented, also the bakery can cooperate with its supplier to do research and development to adjust the amount of sugar and please customers, especially that are fastidious. . Competitors Analysis (referred to Appendix 3) 3. 10. Direct competitors Regarding the direct competitive environment, generally, most of Ucake’s components are other bakeries in Vietnam, whic h are large local bakeries, small ‘cakes and cafe’ shops, and foreign bakeries. Some of Ucake’s particular competitors consist of Vietnamese ones like Brodard, Givral and Jous Les Jours bakery from overseas. Firstly, Brodard and Givral bakeries are two of most long time businesses in the Vietnam bakery industry that selling cakes and other breads.Overall, both of them supply cake orders from clients like Ucake; conversely, as their service regards to only takeaway cakes, they do not have self – decorated cake services for buyers. For Tous Les Jours which is a popular chained bakery from Korea that mainly offers clients fresh breads, cakes and other desserts, the chain presently has more than 8 stores allocated in Ho Chi Minh City. Similar to Ucake, Tous Les Jours accommodates consumers with cafe spaces, and also makes cakes through customers’ idea suggestion.Nonetheless, the Korean chain does not have self – decoration cakes and hardly to cha nge to this kind of service while their concept is consistent, and because of their large number of branches. 3. 11. Indirect competitors In this field, as Vietnam’s integration has been widely opened, different investors of foodservice gradually find opportunities in the Vietnam market. As a consequence, Ucake’s indirect competitors are both domestic and foreign foodservice businesses surrounded by the nation.Among those components, Baskin Robbins (ice –cream chains), Yogen Fruz (Yogurt chains) and Lotteria (fast – food chains) are selected to weight against Ucake’s potential. In general, all of those 3 businesses are serving consumption services apart from Ucake, and their statuses are reasonably strong compared to Ucake as a new comer. In addition, none of them contains mutually two kinds of services that Ucake has. For this reason, even though Ucake is totally new and less popular, its operation is not affected much by indirect challengers in t erms of this new differentiated variety of service. . Target market/customers (referred to Appendix 4) 4. 12. Geographic According to World Bank (2012), the GDP per capita has been increased significantly since the year of 2000. Among the provinces, Ho Chi Minh City’s population claimed the highest with almost 6,000 people in 2010. Moreover, people’s average income in the northern area is also high, which especially in Ho Chi Minh City’s was estimated the greatest with approximately 3,000 USD per year (Hoa Le, 2012) determining higher consumption compared to other regions.Hence, Ho Chi Minh is an ideal location for Ucake to plan for starting up the investment and seek to achieve good profits. 4. 13. Demographic Ucake’s targeted customers are aimed at the ages from 15 to 29 who are mainly teenagers and youths going to work as there are numerous young ages of under 30 that reach more than 50% of the Vietnam population (Nielsen, 2010). 4. 14. Behavioral Thos e groups of audience above are targeted not only because of their excess in the country population. Typically, a majority of them tends to adapt new updates of trend due to the international integration prospect and influence from other countries’ cultures.Thus, that is one of the reasons why many young Vietnamese people have interests in Western fast food and desserts by the appearance of investments regarding these kinds of food in the Vietnam market. Viet Bao Newspaper (2005) states the progressive encouragement of the Vietnamese of considering hygienic products as their vital priority for consumption in recent decades. For those points, Ucake finds it quite potential with great opportunities to set goals for achieving success through this targeted market. 4. Market penetration (referred to Appendix 5)Since the cake market is already at the maturity stage of the product life cycle, in order to enter the industry; Differentiation Focus Strategy is applied to Ucake. QuickMBA (n. d) says that Differentiation Focus Strategy can help the firm to narrow down to a specific group of customers, and give consumers the best and different services compared to its competitors resulting in retaining customer loyalty. However, there are some limitations with this tactic that Ucake’s service can be imitated or its targeted segment changes consumer needs.Guerilla marketing: Ucake has to do marketing activities strongly in the first year as it is a new and small firm in the market, and guerilla marketing is an ideal tool for new business which has limited marketing budget like Ucake. Some experts (Levinson, Levinson, & Levinson 2007) indicate that guerilla marketing is an easy and inexpensive marketing method for small business. Guerilla marketing strategy focuses on low cost, unconventional marketing tactics, and puts more time and effort to achieve maximum result. One week before the opening of the shop, some of refrigerated cabinets made by glass can be placed on public places such as parks or supermarkets. Then Ucake’s big designed cakes are displayed inside to catch people’s attention and trigger their curiosity. The slogan â€Å"Your Cake† will be put on cabinets to introduce Ucake’s business idea to clients. * Additionally, few days before the launching day, the banner of announcing the decoration contest will be also situated near refrigerated cabinets to invite people to participate. The contest will be held during the opening day.Customers can join and buy their cakes with half prices Advertising: advertisements of Ucake’s establishment day will be posted on magazines for youths and teenagers such as Tiep Thi va Gia Dinh and Hoa Hoc Tro. A Facebook page of Ucake will be created as well in order to expand the brand community. Facebook is an ideal place for us to reach large number of potential customers. Ucake’s products and other activities will be informed which are easy for consume rs to view wherever they are. This social media tool can draw customers’ interests and Ucake can receive advantages from this marketing effect. 5. Stakeholder AnalysisBeside the owners, people that influence the performance and success of Ucake’s business can consist of the customers, supplier and employees. Those important stakeholders are categorized and emphasized in 4 particular aspects in the table below. Stakeholder| Role| Level of effect| Expectation| Supposed risks| Investors| Devoting for the establishment of the business| Moderate| Making decisions in right investing and capitalizing for beneficial profits of the company| Lack of financial sources or bankruptcy would threaten the operation of the business| Customers| Consuming goods and service of the bakery| High| More usage of roducts and services from customers helping the business to gain status and revenue to compete with others| Bad comments from customers affecting the reputation of the business whethe r quality of goods or services do not satisfy them| Supplier| Supplying raw materials to the client bakery (i. e. flour, sugar, butter, milk, etc. | Moderate| Providing required quality and quantity of materials not only to enhance relationship with customers but also help generating profitable products for customers | Bad quality of raw materials supplied or late delivery time will cause unqualified products or delay in the plan of the business| Employees| Supporting and controlling the operation of the bakery| High| Adding efficient value to the business by applying their trained skills to the service and attending to customers in order to improve the bakery’s performance| Low capability, misbehavior to customers leading to decrease in turnover of the business|III. Business Model Analysis (referred to Appendix 6) 1. Revenue sources The revenue is mainly generated from two items which are customer’s ordered cake and self decorated cakes. Customer’s ordered cake is produced based on the design that customers choose from Ucake’s menu. Therefore, the price of each cake is the revenue varying due to the size and design from 300,000VND to 400,000VND. Customer’s self decorated cake is made through this process, in which Ucake provides a plain base cake and customers decorate the cake by adding toppings and creams according to their preference.The fixed revenue will be sale price of the base cake (150,000VND), and additional revenue is earned by the amount of toppings they supplement which costs 15,000VND per package of one kind of topping. Minimum of 100,000VND of toppings is expected to be just enough for decorating a whole cake nicely. Furthermore, revenue from self – decorated cakes is anticipated to be greater than from ordered cakes. Research result shows that there are no competitors providing this service at the present time. Other revenue is earned by the sale of soft drinks sold for customers in the shop, and one c an of the drink costs 15,000VND.As the price is relatively cheaper, it will not be considered as crucial revenue to ensure maintenance of business. 2. Cost drivers Number of consumers or sales of cakes will increase the raw material expense. Ucake only sells cakes, and the expense to satisfy customers’ demand will have the greatest impact on cost structures. Ingredients to bake plain base cake, such as eggs, sugar, butter, milk, salt, flour and cream, must be kept fresh so JIT (Just In Time) strategy will be utilized to decrease inventory costs.Being located nearby Ucake, the supplier (referred to ‘Resources requirements’ part) will conduct prompt delivery at lower costs in daily basis. 3. Resource requirements / mapping In order to offer satisfactory services to customers, raw materials and human resources are decisive in our business. The raw materials mentioned in ‘Cost drivers’ part above will be purchased from Tan Nhat Huong, the only local firm supplying cream, operating in Tan Binh district, Ho Chi Minh City. The quality is as high as other foreign companies’ products.As Ucake and the supplier’s locations are geographically close to each other, Ucake can decrease significant logistic costs. Ucake needs four people to run this business. One professional chef will bake the plain base cake and ordered cake. Two more amateur chefs will work as supportive assistants to help the main chef and to advise customers decorating cake. One person will be hired as receptionist. For this job, as there is no complex calculation involved, a person with no background of accounting can also be recruited.People will be hired from the online labor market (timviecnhanh. com), and Ucake will upload specific requirements of employees and interview the favorite candidates. 4. Investment size The first financial investment must be at least 100,000USD in order to start and operate Ucake for first year. Below is the cost analysis for the first five years after opening Ucake. * Fixed cost Ucake will be opened on Nguyen Trai Street, District 5 by renting a two – floored shop . The rental fee will be 1,000USD per month which will be totally cost 12,000USD for the first year of contract.Also, other costs to operate the business like electricity, water are calculated to be 167USD per month (2,000USD / first year). * Variable cost As the cakes are baked after receiving orders from customers, ingredients are considered as variable costs. All costs related to baking process such as electricity, labor, ingredients are regarded as 100,000VND per cake. Assuming that Ucake produces 3,720 cakes per year, including two types of products based on the revenue analysis, the variable cost will be 20,000USD per year. * Semi variable cost Semi variable costs comprise two expenses: wage and marketing.The wage is for the four employees. The wage amounts for main chef, supportive chefs and receptionist are 200USD, 150USD and 10 0USD, respectively. In the initial year, monthly wage will be 600USD which adds up to 7,200USD of wage expense for the first year. Ucake will conduct marketing vigorously in the first year to present the differentiated services and gain customers’ awareness. The annual cost is estimated to be 5,000USD. * Non recurring cost Equipments like baking ovens, furniture, and shop renovation costs will be spent before launching Ucake shop. All the equipment costs are calculated approximately 50,000USD.Sum of the first year’s costs are 96,000USD. However, in case of not covering expenses by the revenue, 4,000USD is needed as a back-up fund when Ucake meets unexpected costs. Hence, the first investment cost should be 100,000USD to cover the whole first year and half of second year’s expense. The first investment fund of 100,000USD will be recovered at the end of third quarter in year 2. Even though the price of cake is cheaper than other consumer products like electronic d evices or automobiles, huge profit margin of cake will allow the business to step up from survival to growth level. 5. Critical success factorsDuring the investment process, there are two main critical success factors of sustaining Ucake’s operations. First of all, one of the most vital elements for a bakery to accomplish is the role of the head baker. A head baker needs to have long time experience in baking and decorating cakes. Yet, this is still not enough. Cakes are quite attractive to many people, but customers have begun fussier about this kind of desserts over time due to changes of their perceptions about nutrition and safety of goods (Viet Bao Newspaper, 2005); thus, the head baker has to update consumer's behaviors and apply ethods that are adequate with their demands. For instance, he can use fresh cream instead of butter cream to reduce the fat of the cake’s topping cream for making buyers more secure as regards their health. In addition, he is in charge o f planning and estimating the number of sellable cakes per day to verify profits for the bakery also encourages products sold within 24 hours upon baking and avoids surplus of stock. Another critical success factor of Ucake is the quality of customer services.As a bakery providing self – decorated cakes, in order to serve the customer’s needs, it is significant to hire a group of staffs that meet the working standard for this new type of service. Basically, the staffs need to have limited knowledge about cake’s basis and skills of decorating cakes for instruction whether their buyers cannot garnish themselves or need assistants. Besides, they are to support customers in providing them options of cake toppings shapes for their self – decorated cakes, directing them to park vehicles, and make the shop atmosphere hygienic and convenient for them.With those points, Ucake can expect to match the criterions of services and keep its customers satisfied. 6. Risk analysis and management Among the risks, some distinguishing points strongly affect Ucake’s enlargement that need to be aware and administrated in terms of its business conception. The first threat that Ucake might face is that the idea of customer self – decoration services can be imitated by others which is estimated with high chance.As being appeared at the maturity stage, products of Ucake are common in the industry, except that its services are developed to a different standard and have never been applied by other competitors. Nevertheless, although self – decoration is new and unique compared to others, this concept does not require so many sophisticated progressions to implement the services; in consequence, other bakeries, including existing and potential ones, can easily reproduce Ucake or create similar serving styles even if Ucake tries to protect its company via Intellectual Property Rights registration.Copying service is an unavoidable problem to Uc ake; still, Ucake would be the pioneer in applying self – decorated cakes for clients in the market, so it is an extremely cautious period for Ucake to deliberate its growth as well as gaining customer loyalty by performing satisfactory products and services once it is first publicized. Additionally, the moderate possibility of employees’ misbehaviors to customers throughout their serving mission might occur. During the business, employees have high responsibilities in making clients feel worthy with what they pay for the services and want to return to Ucake again.On the other hand, employees are sometimes negative effects of discouraging customers of using services due to their slow serving or bad attitudes, and this would be very dangerous for the bakery because customers have diverse options of bakeries to prefer. As a consequence, Ucake needs to spend a period of time training the employees carefully with some particular rules of the bakery before the store’ s launch to look forward to attaining effective services satisfying its consumers.What is more, employees should be praised with rewards or other incentives whether they do their job well in order to increase their productivity in addition to Ucake’s efficient services. IV. Future Action Plan 1. Sources of start – up capital Ucake is a relatively small size in aspects of budget, establishment cost and labor wage. The business model analysis shows that Ucake requires at least 100,000USD as set up cost. There are three possible financial sources to raise the fund. * Angel investment: Ucake will open a business plan presentation to potential angel investors to persuade them that it is a feasible business.Angel investors will receive corresponding amount of return related to their investment size. * Loan from bank: Banks allow the Vietnamese to receive loan if credibility is guaranteed. Ucake will summit five years of financial budget and business plan to convince that Uca ke is a trustable business. 50,000USD is the amount Ucake plans to receive from the bank as a loan. * Financial supports from acquaintance: four owners of the business are running their own family business and being successful. Ucake can be financially supported by their families. . Further information needed Ucake lacks legal knowledge about food market. As a result, the future operation of the bakery must be checked and advised by a law firm called TopicLaw. TopicLaw will support by providing standard of food and necessary licenses for Ucake to run the bakery such as sanitation of bakery, safety of equipments. Also, as Ucake’s business idea is very easy to be copied, it should contact with consulting firm to protect the Intellectual Property Rights. The consultation will be about patent registration.The Target market analysis shows that the targeted market is quite potential. However, Ucake must implement further surveys before opening to identify what kind of toppings and decoration style that the target market prefers. It is vital to run regular survey on customers’ feedback and preference after setting up Ucake in order to maintain competitive advantages in such dynamic food market. 3. Support needed Due to the fact that parents of the four Ucake’s owners are successfully running family business overcoming economic crisis, they can be consultants of Ucake.External environments cannot be consistent as Ucake assume. Therefore, their parents may recommend direction of future operation and performance of Ucake. Excluding law firm and consulting firm which was mentioned in ‘further information needed’ section above, Ucake is looking forward to surviving and growing in the target market without further outside supports. REFERENCES Bao Moi 2009, ‘Nhon nhip thi truong banh chao don Giang sinh’, Baomoi, viewed 28 July 2012, ;lt;http://www. baomoi. com/Nhon-nhip-thi-truong-banh-chao-don-Giang-sinh/54/3636052. pi;gt; Da n Tri 2012, ‘Ngay cua me: Net dep van hoa phuong Tay di sau vao nep song Viet’, Dantri, 11 May, viewed 28 July 2012, ;lt;http://dantri. com. vn/c130/s130-594592/ngay-cua-me-net-dep-van-hoa-phuong-tay-di-sau-vao-nep-song-viet. htm;gt; Dia Oc Online 2012, homepage, DiaOcOnline, Ho Chi Minh City, viewed 29 August 2012, ;lt;http://www. diaoconline. vn/sieu-thi/loc/-tp_tphcm-quan_131-diaoc_15/;gt; Hoa Le 2012, ‘Thu hep khoang cach thu nhap giua cac tang lop dan cu’, TapChiTaiChinh, 24th April, viewed 12th August 2012, ;lt;http://www. tapchitaichinh. n/Qu%E1%BA%A3ntr%E1%BB%8Bn%E1%BB%99idung/ViewArticleDetail/tabid/56/Key/ViewArticleContent/ArticleId/7989/Default. aspx Levinson, JC, Levinson, J ;amp; Levinson, A 2007, ‘Guerilla marketing: easy and inexpensive strategies for making big profits from your small business’, 4th edn, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York. Nielsen 2010, ‘Khao sat tai chinh ca nhan 2010’, The Nielsen Company, viewed 10th August 2012, ;lt;http://www. google. com. vn/url? sa=t;amp;rct=j;amp;q=h%C6%A1n+50%25+ng%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Di+vi%E1%BB%87t+d%C6%B0%E1%BB%9Bi+30+tu%E1%BB%95i;amp;source=web;amp;cd=1;amp;ved=0CEUQFjAA;amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww. ielsen. com%2Fcontent%2Fdam%2Fcorporate%2Ft3%2Fvietnam%2Freports%2FNielsen_PFM%2520Presentation_VNese. pdf;amp;ei=YuYzUKGcIYWPiAfFx4CIAQ;amp;usg=AFQjCNHwF2lBNKGO2JYJGbVpA1pxBxo0tg;amp;cad=rja;gt; Phan Le 2012, ‘Bakery: Cuoc chien da len men’, DoanhNhanSaiGon, 11th May, viewed 5th August, ;lt;http://doanhnhansaigon. vn/online/kinh-doanh/chuyen-lam-an/2012/05/1064208/bakery-cuoc-chien-da-len-men/;gt; Quick MBA n. d, ‘Porter’s Generic Strategies’, Quick MBA, viewed 29 August 2012, ;lt;http://www. quickmba. com/strategy/generic. html;gt; Rice, JF 2010, ‘Adaption of Porter’s Five Forces Model to Risk Management’, A Publication of the Defense Acquisition University, July, viewed 10th August 2012, Proquest database. Tan Nhat Huong 2012, homepage, TanNhatHuong, Ho Chi Minh City, viewed 28 July 2012 ;lt;http://tannhathuong. com/Product/1/1/Kem-Trang-Tri-Banh;gt; To Loan 2008, ‘Ve sinh an toan thuc pham: Can hanh dong quyet liet voi che tai manh (Bai cuoi) Kinh nghiem cua the gioi’, KinhTeNongThon, 19 May, viewed 29 August 2012, ;lt;http://www. inhtenongthon. com. vn/Story/VandeSukien/2008/5/10853. html;gt; Topic Law 2012, homepage, Topic Law, Ho Chi Minh City, viewed 29 August 2012, ;lt;http://topiclaw. com/giay-phep-ve-sinh-an-toan-thuc-pham/;gt; Vatgia. com, 2009, homepage, Vatgia. com, Vietnam, viewed 12th August 2012, ;lt;http://www. vatgia. com/hoidap/4484/87326/thu-tuc-mo-1-tiem-banh. html;gt; Viet Bao 2005, ‘Kinh doanh banh tuoi: Thi truong lon, phat trien nhanh’, VietBao, 28th March, viewed 6th August 2012, ;lt;http://vietbao. n/Kinh-te/Kinh-doanh-banh-tuoi-Thi-truong-lon-phat-trien-nhanh/40072174/88/;gt; Vietnam Briefing 2008, ‘Vietnam’s Fast-Food Industry Continues to Attract Foreign Investment’, Vietnam Briefing, 12 November, viewed 5 April 2012, ;lt; http://www. vietnam-briefing. com/news/vietnams-fast-food-industry-continues-at tract-foreign-investment. html/;gt;. VietnamBranding 2008, ‘Fast food Viet – bao gio? ’, VietnamBranding, 25 June, viewed 20 April 2012, ;lt;http://www. vietnambranding. com/thong-tin/phong-su-thuong-hieu/4610/Fast-food-Viet—bao-gio> World Bank 2012, ‘Vietnam GPD per capita’, TradingEconomics, viewed 12th August 2012, http://www. radingeconomics. com/vietnam/gdp-per-capita APPENDICES Appendix 1: Service Prototypes 1. Cakes baked and cream frosted by Ucake’s chefs. 2. Ucake provides options of toppings for customers. 3. Customers choose favorite toppings and pay at the counter. 4. Cakes and toppings are brought at customers’ tables. 5. Customers decorate cakes on their own or with the assistance of Ucake’s staffs. Appendix 2: Uca ke staffs’ job description Staff| Function| Head chef| The person who has long time knowledge and experience of working in the bakery industry.Typically, he holds good recipes of cakes and manages every baking step to ensure the cakes look stunning and tasty. | Supportive chefs| These chefs can be amateur and to assist the head chef in doing the baking process and help instructing customers towards self – decoration services. They also direct customers in decorating cakes whether customers suggest. | Receptionist| Has a responsibility of managing the quantity of toppings, charging bills of customers and reporting the revenue daily to owners. | Appendix 3: Direct and Indirect competitors analysis 3. 1. Direct competitors

Critique Essay Write

Critique Essay Write Critique Essay Write Critique Essay Write: Useful Help If you have received a task to cope with critique essay write, you have to answer some definite questions in your critique essays writing in order o meet all the requirements you professor name you. If you exclude any of them from your critique essay write you are running the risk to get a lower grade than you have expected from your critique essay write. That is why it is recommended to be very attentive and not to miss a thing. However, all the answers you give should not be just simple common answers, which presuppose the answer of yes or no. All the answers you give in your critique essays should be of an extended character. Thus, here is a list of the questions you have to answer while your critique essay write assignment completing: whether the topic of the essay you have to discuss is an captivating one: whether the topic is relevant one whether the choice of the topic is well-grounded by the author whether the content and context coincides with the stated topic whether the essay is built up with the help of the existing structure whether the essay meet all the demands and requirements from it in whole whether it is evident or not whether it is furnished with some examples, anecdotes, proverbs, sayings, or quotes. whether the essay is cohesive and logically connected one All the above-mentioned questions are those to get the answers in the frames of your critique essay write. However, remember that all the answer should be built upon the rules of critic. If you manage to do it, you are going to win a prize, which is A+ grade. If you fail to do it, you will never get the grade you want to. Do You Need Professional Help? If you feel that you are in need of some additional critique essay write help, you are welcome to visit our custom essay writing service. There you are going to find everything you need in order to write successful critique essays, which are worth of the A+ grade. Just visit our site and all the questions you have will be professionally answered. We wish you good luck with your critique essay write and hope that the information we have presented in this very article is going to help you a great deal during the process of critique essays writing. Interesting posts: Writers of Term Papers Term Schools Papers about Gospel Music Term Papers Medieval Knights Term Papers Essays Term Paper Topics

How to Get a Student Loan Step-by-Step Guide

How to Get a Student Loan Step-by-Step Guide SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips For many students, loans are vital to being able to afford an education. The cost of a college education in the US is cost-prohibitive for many families, and loans help to close the gap between what school costs and what families can actually afford. As of last year, over 40 million Americans are working to pay off student debt. Learning how to get student loans sounds daunting and burdensome, but if you’re smart about how and where you get your loans, taking on debt can be a manageable option. Here, I’ll walk you through all the steps to getting student loans, including calculating your own need, finding loans, applying for loans, and managing repayment. First, though, I'll talk a little bit about how student loans work. How Loans Work This explanation is a bit simplified, but you should come away with a good general idea of how loans function. If you know how loans work, you'll be better able to find and apply for loans that are good fits for your needs. By definition, a loan is a sum of money that you (the borrower) is given by a person or entity (the lender) with the expectation that you'll pay it back with extra charges tacked on (the interest). When you repay student loans, you'll usually make monthly payments on the sum you borrowed (the principle) plus interest that has built up, or accrued. The bigger the principle, the higher the interest rate, and the longer you take to pay off your loan = more money that you have to pay back in interest. Details like length of repayment and interest rates will vary widely among loan options. Some loans come with extra perks (like the Direct Subsidized loan). There isn't anything particularly complicated about most loans, but some of the financial jargon can be confusing if you're new to it. If you're clear on the basics of how loans work, you can move on to the next step of getting a loan: calculating how much you need. How Much Do You Need? Before you actually apply for loans, you should have a general idea of how much funding you'll need. Follow these steps to get an estimate of how much loan money you should get to pay for college. Step 1: Determine How Much Your School Will Cost The total amount of money it costs to attend a particular school for one year is called its Cost of Attendance, or CoA. The CoA is an average (so your own unique cost might be more or less), and includes expenses like tuition, room, board, books, fees, transportation, and personal expenditures. You can check out a particular school’s CoA by Googlingâ€Å"[school name] cost of attendance.† You can get more info about college expenses and costs here. Step 2: Use Your Family's Financial Information to Determine What You Can Afford to Pay If there's a gap between your school's CoA and what your family can afford to pay,don’t panic! Not every school will be an affordable option for all students, federal and institutional grants and scholarships can really help fill that gap, especially for low income students. If a gap remains after grants and scholarships, you can then consider whether student loans are a good option for you. One way to "officially" calculate how much your family can afford is by using the FAFSA4caster. A major source of student aid is the federal government, and an important number that they use to calculate aid eligibility is called the Expected Family Contribution, or EFC. By using the FAFSA4caster, you can estimate your EFC, which schools will also use to award aid.You can get step-by-step instructions for calculating your EFC here. After you’ve completed the FAFSA4caster estimate, you’ll have an idea of your EFC. Additionally, you’ll know if you’re eligible for any federal grants, which will fill the gap between what you can afford and what your school costs. Finally, when you finish your estimate, you’ll know if you’re eligible for any Direct Subsidized or Direct Unsubsidized federal loans. Once you're informed about much money you may need to take out in loans, you can start searching for loans that are good fits for you and your family. Where to Get Student Loans There are so many options when it comes to student loan lenders. It would be impossible to provide an exhaustive list, but I'll outline a few great places to start. There are two main types of student loans - federal and private - and I'll discuss both. Student loan lenders are everywhere - the following tips will help you start finding your own student loans. Federal Loans Federal loans are loans backed by the federal government. Many federal loan programs are meant to assist low-income students and their families, although some don't require you to demonstrate any financial eligibility requirements to be considered eligible. Interest rates are generally competitive, and don't vary based on your or your parents' credit history. To get any federal aid, including loans, you need to meet basic federal eligibility requirements. Certain loans, like the Perkins and the Direct Subsidized, have other requirements as well. You can read more about basic federal eligibility requirements here. If you’re eligible for federal loans, they’ll be included in schools’ financial aid packages, along with any grants and scholarships. You get to decide what parts of the financial aid package you accept, and what parts you’ll reject;you don’t have to take on any loans if you have other ways of paying for school (e.g. an outside scholarship). Other federal loans worth checking out include Direct Unsubsidized, Stafford, and PLUS loans. Private Loans Quite a few banks offer private student loans, many of which require a cosigner (e.g. an adult with a solid credit history who signs the loan with you). If your parents are clients of a particular bank, you might start by looking for student loans at that institution. Make sure to shop around, though; check with other lenders to see if they offer you better terms, including lower interest rates. If your parents havea financial adviser, it would be ideal if you could check with him or herabout good student loan terms based on your family’s financial situation. How to Apply for Student Loans The loan application process and timeline will vary depending on what type of loans you plan on taking out. I'll talk generally about how to apply for both federal and private loans, although you should confirm the details with your lender, especially if you're taking out private loans; each lending institution will have its own protocols. Applying for Federal Student Loans You can apply for all federal financial aid, including student loans, by submitting one application: the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. You submit the FAFSA every year that you'd like to be considered for aid. The federal FAFSA deadline for the 2015-2016 academic year is June 30, 2016. Generally, it's wise to submit your FAFSA much earlier than the federal deadline so that you don't miss out on opportunities for funding that tends to run out (the Perkins loan, for example, usually has limited funds available). Students usually submit their FAFSAs in the early spring; you can even submit your application as early as January 1 for the upcoming academic year. To optimize your federal aid eligibility, you'll want to submit your FAFSA even before you hear back from schools if you're a first-year student - say, early spring. You'll then receive notice from schools regarding your acceptance. Schools will put together financial aid packages based on information generated from your FASFA. At that point, you would decide what parts of the financial aid package you would accept, and what parts you would reject. Applying for Private Student Loans Unlike for federal loans, there's no singular application for private student loans. You would have to submit a separate application at each institution (usually a bank) that offers a student loan you're interested in. Many private loans require a cosigner - someone who has more established credit (e.g. a parent) who signs the loan with you. This person is like your lender’s loan insurance - students typically have little to no income or credit history, so if you don’t make payments, this cosigner is held responsible. The better your credit history or your cosigner’s credit history, the better the loans that are available to you. If the financial aid package provided by your school doesn't offer enough in grants, scholarships, or federal loans, you would then consider applying to private loans. How to Get Your Loan Money Once you’ve found a loan that’s a good fit for you, you’ll sign a promissory note. This is a written promise that you’ll pay back the money you owe by a specific date (e.g. 10 years after your loan grace period ends). Federal loans will probably be disbursed, or paid out, to your school directly. The money will be applied to any charges on your school account. If there’s any left over, your school will provide it to you in the form of a refund. If you don't need that refund money, it’s smart to just use the refund to make a payment on the loan Private student loans are also often disbursed directly to your school. Same as with federal loans, you’ll be awarded a refund if there’s any money left over. Caveats: What to Look Out For Before you go ahead and sign that promissory note, there are a few things you should consider. Student debt can very very rarely be discharged in bankruptcy, unlike many other types of debt. If you take on student loans, you’re stuck with them forever. If someone cosigns on your student loans with you, they’re stuck with the debt if you can’t afford to make your minimum monthly payments. Basically, don't take out more in loans than you're comfortable with, if you can help it. Anticipate your realistic career trajectory and earning potential for the 10 years or so after you graduate - this will help you decide whether the debt is manageable. For special types of loans, like the Perkins, consider that you may be able to arrange for loan cancellation. When it comes to student debt, it's important that you don't bite off more than you can chew. If you find that you're uncomfortable with the amount of debt that you would need to take on in order to attend a particular school, there are a few things you can do. Try researching scholarship opportunities, and bring your concerns to the school's financial aid office. If you're still uncomfortable with the loan amounts, consider whether it would be a better financial decision to attend a less expensive school. How to Pay Off Your Loans So you've taken out student loans - you won't have to worry about paying that money back until after you've graduated, right? Although that's technically true, there are steps you can take while you're still in school to reduce your total loan payment amount. If you can, make payments during school/grace/deferment, especially if interest is accruing. You’ll save money in the long run. The following charts demonstrates the long-term financial outcomes of two hypothetical students - they've taken out the exact same loan, but one student makes payments on her interest while in school whereas the other doesn't. Their interest capitalizes, or is added to their principle, at graduation. Take a look: Student A Student B Principle $5,000 $5,000 Interest Rate 10% 10% Interest accrued during 4 years of school $2,000 $2,000 Interest paid during 4 years of school $2,000 $0 Balance due at graduation $5,000 $7,000 Monthly payment (for a standard 10-year repayment plan) $66.08 $92.51 Total amount paid $9,930 $,100 By paying off her interest while she was still in school, Student A saves almost $1,200 in the long run. You won't be obligated to make any payments as a student, but it doesn'thurt to throw some money at your loans every now and again if you have some to spare. Another strategy to make the repayment process a bit easier is to set up automatic payments to avoid late fees. If you're consistently making at least your minimum payments on time every month, you'll also give your credit score a boost. Speaking of payments: if you have multiple loans with different interest rates, make larger payments on your high-interest loans to pay them off first. As you might have deduced from taking a look at the chart above, the faster you kill interest, the more money you'll save in the long run. You won't always be expected to make monthly payments on your loans, however. If you go back to school and won’t have an income, you can often get your loan deferred. If you lose your job, or aren't able to make payments for some other reason, you can look into other repayment plan options, like income-based or graduated repayment plans. Above all, keep your loan servicer in the loop; they'd rather reduce interest or monthly payments than not get their money back at all, so it's in their best interest to work with you if you're struggling. What's Next? Want to get a head start on those loan interest payments? You might want to think about getting a job before you leave for college - read our guide on the best jobs for teens.If you're already in college, you should check out the federal work study program for job opportunities. If you're still knee-deep in student loan research, read our guides on the Direct Subsidized, Direct Unsubsidized, and Perkins loan programs. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: