Headlines
- Serbian Orthodox Church Regroups After Fire
- Iran Test-Fires Another Ballistic Missile
- China Continues to Prop Up Ailing Factories, Adding to Global Glut
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Growing Pains Structural Considerations for Growing Your Business
Ask any small-business owner what he sees as the major challenges to growing his business, and chances are he'll say: winning more sales. Ask any medium or large business owner what her major challenges have been, however, and she'll probably say: structural growing pains -- putting into place the necessary processes and structure to accommodate a higher volume of business. But aligning structural changes with sales growth is not simple. It is often more of an art than a science. The systems, processes, staff, and organization changes needed to grow are ongoing and dictated by myriad factors such as the nature of the business, its capital requirements and, ultimately, customer demands.
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The Markets
Reading Economic Portents Can Be Tricky
For example, do signs that economic growth is slowing - like last week's employment report, which was anemic relative to consensus forecasts,  and first quarter's gross domestic product (GDP) growth - mean the economy is headed for trouble? Or, does it mean the economy is going to continue to grow slowly?
It all depends on whom you ask.
Some see current lackluster economic data as a harbinger of trouble. Last week, Barron's cited an expert who was concerned about employment data. "...It could be a sign of trouble...Specifically, falling profit margins will put pressure to trim costs and head counts later this year and into 2017, which would slow consumer-spending growth."
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By the Numbers
Notes: S&P 500, Gold, DJ-UBS Commodity Index returns exclude reinvested dividends (gold does not pay a dividend) and the three-, five-, and 10-year returns are annualized ... more important disclosure mentions found here. (We urge you to read the entire disclosure statement.)
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