Custom printed apparel is a very popular way of advertising your business. Clothing is one of our basic necessities. We cannot go out into the world wearing nothing on right? Similarly, a marketing strategy is not complete without promotional apparel. They really do score you big publicity points.It is said that the early men and women who walked the earth used leaves, grass, fur and leather as clothing materials. They basically just enveloped in it their body to protect themselves from the elements. It is not yet confirmed when humans first started wearing clothes but scientists theorized that it was probably during the time when people traveled from Africa to other parts of the world. It is important to note, however, that style, appearance, and form of clothes are based on many factors like gender, race, religion and social status. Apparel is another term for clothing.Presently, humans wear a variety of apparel. Men wear polo shirts, slacks, pants and shorts. Women usually don dresses, skirts, blouses as polo shirts as well. Children wear basically similar items but may differ in style and size. Corporate apparel may also include sweat shirts, jacket, and even windbreakers. Accessories like footwear, scarves, towels, and caps may also be considered as apparel.The advantages of giving away promotional apparel are:1. Wide Audience Reach – Given the assortment of items, custom printed apparel will surely attract a lot of people’s attention because everyone can wear them. Just imagine well-designed promotional apparel, say a T-shirt for example, worn by most men and women in your own town or city. The rate of publicity of your company will shoot up big time.2. Variety in Styles – Promotional apparel come in different styles that range from formal to casual. You are therefore given the liberty to choose which kind or style best works for you.3. Ease and Comfort – Most custom made apparel is easy to use, clean and maintain. They’re also comfortable to wear.4. Print-ability – One of clothing items’ best qualities is that they are ideal for printing and embroidery. You may choose which method works for you best and apply it to your promotional apparel.5. Durability – They are made to last. You can be sure that your customers and clients will be able to enjoy its benefits for a long time which also means longer advertisement time for you!Are you now excited to get your own set of customized apparel? Read these tips first:1. Plan Your Budget – It is always best to draw up a budget plan first before you settle on any business deal. Know how much you can spend on promotional items so you don’t go overboard.2. Consider the Weather – Before you get a whole batch of shirts or jackets printed try to identify first what time of the year you plan on giving away these items? Will it be during the winter or summer season? If it’s for the chilly season you might want to order long sleeved shirts. However if you plan to have your launching day during summertime you would have to settle for T-shirts that are made of light fabric. The kind of apparel you give out should be in accordance to the present weather.3. Gender Studies – You should also take into account the type of target audience you have. Will they be generally male or female? You might want to choose an article of clothing that would suit both sexes.4. Color Matters – Choose colors that would best suit your company name or logo. While it is fun to experiment on different color schemes you have to be wise about picking a design that would look appealing and eye-catchy.

Payday loans are the method of choice for millions of consumers whenever a financial emergency arises, as they offer quick cash in times of need, and are easy to apply and qualify for. So why are so many people bashing the payday loan industry? It’s simple, really. They see the unlawful actions of a few and assume that everybody is doing the same things – not disclosing terms, taking advantage of borrowers with usurious (excessive) interest rates, or in some unfortunate cases, requiring money up front; these loans are referred to as “advance fee loans,” which are Internet scams that have snookered hundreds of victims.As with any industry, there will always be some “companies” that seek to mislead customers to make money, all the while giving the industry a black eye. In addition to this, many borrowers take out payday loans without fully comprehending the terms of the loan, which obviously does not make for a positive experience. The fact remains, however, that obtaining a payday loan does not have to be a bad experience. If you research companies thoroughly, deal only with reputable companies with a proven track record, and carefully read the terms of a loan, you will find that obtaining a payday loan is a perfectly safe, manageable means to rectify your financial situation.Let’s examine the reasons why people choose to shy away from payday loans further. First, as previously mentioned, many borrowers are either not informed of the terms of the loan before signing the document, or simply gloss over the terms without fully understanding them. All of a sudden, the borrower finds him/herself in a precarious situation. It is mandated by law that lenders MUST disclose all terms in the loan agreement, including the interest rate and schedule for repayment. By simply reading over your loan agreement before signing it, you can decide whether or not you want to proceed.Secondly, let’s be realistic – the interest rates associated with payday loans are rather sky-high. What one must realize is that you are paying for convenience – you are getting fast money at a much higher interest rate than a regular loan. Whereas approval for a regular loan could take weeks, approval for a payday loan can be almost instantly. Credit does not factor into the decision either, so applicants with bad credit or no credit can get approved – when you consider all these factors, it is not hard to understand why lenders are able to get away with charging high interest rates. A rule of thumb to remember, as you have probably seen elsewhere, is you will be charged $15 for every $100 you borrow. The bottom line is, that if you borrow infrequently and responsibly, payday loans are the ideal short-term solution for a financial emergency.Probably the most unfortunate reason why payday loans get such a bad rap is because many borrowers misuse and/or overuse payday loans. They simply rely on them too much, and use them for unnecessary reasons, such as to go on vacations or purchase expensive things. That is not what payday loans are supposed to be for! Payday loans have an explicit purpose – to provide short-term financial relief for emergency situations – a hospital bill, car problems, etc. Overusing payday loans is another problem, as many borrowers have gotten into situations where they have to roll over loans because they cannot repay them. This results in financial ruin, as finance charges pile up and all of a sudden your financial “emergency” becomes a financial “nightmare”. Again, if you borrow infrequently and responsibly, this can be avoided, and payday loans can be seen for what they are.In conclusion, there is a common thread here – in order to get the full benefit of a payday loan and ensure that your experience is as smooth as possible, the onus is fully on you to make sure you do not either get taken advantage of or plunge yourself further into debt. By dealing with reputable companies, such as industry leaders OneHourCash or PayAdvanceLending, you can avoid being taken advantage of and feel secure knowing you are dealing in good faith. Lastly, by borrowing ONLY for financial emergencies and not for unnecessary things you can live without, you will be able to avoid any further debt and the despair that comes along with it. It is up to you – do your research, and make the right decisions.

Background

Police funding has risen by £4.8 billion and 77 per cent (39 per cent in real terms) since 1997. However the days where forces have enjoyed such levels of funding are over.

Chief Constables and senior management recognize that the annual cycle of looking for efficiencies year-on-year is not sustainable, and will not address the cash shortfall in years to come.
Facing slower funding growth and real cash deficits in their budgets, the Police Service must adopt innovative strategies which generate the productivity and efficiency gains needed to deliver high quality policing to the public.

The step-change in performance required to meet this challenge will only be achieved if the police service fully embraces effective resource management and makes efficient and productive use of its technology, partnerships and people.

The finance function has an essential role to play in addressing these challenges and supporting Forces’ objectives economically and efficiently.

Challenge

Police Forces tend to nurture a divisional and departmental culture rather than a corporate one, with individual procurement activities that do not exploit economies of scale. This is in part the result of over a decade of devolving functions from the center to the.divisions.

In order to reduce costs, improve efficiency and mitigate against the threat of “top down” mandatory, centrally-driven initiatives, Police Forces need to set up a corporate back office and induce behavioral change. This change must involve compliance with a corporate culture rather than a series of silos running through the organization.

Developing a Best in Class Finance Function

Traditionally finance functions within Police Forces have focused on transactional processing with only limited support for management information and business decision support. With a renewed focus on efficiencies, there is now a pressing need for finance departments to transform in order to add greater value to the force but with minimal costs.

1) Aligning to Force Strategy

As Police Forces need finance to function, it is imperative that finance and operations are closely aligned. This collaboration can be very powerful and help deliver significant improvements to a Force, but in order to achieve this model, there are many barriers to overcome. Finance Directors must look at whether their Force is ready for this collaboration, but more importantly, they must consider whether the Force itself can survive without it.

Finance requires a clear vision that centers around its role as a balanced business partner. However to achieve this vision a huge effort is required from the bottom up to understand the significant complexity in underlying systems and processes and to devise a way forward that can work for that particular organization.

The success of any change management program is dependent on its execution. Change is difficult and costly to execute correctly, and often, Police Forces lack the relevant experience to achieve such change. Although finance directors are required to hold appropriate professional qualifications (as opposed to being former police officers as was the case a few years ago) many have progressed within the Public Sector with limited opportunities for learning from and interaction with best in class methodologies. In addition cultural issues around self-preservation can present barriers to change.

Whilst it is relatively easy to get the message of finance transformation across, securing commitment to embark on bold change can be tough. Business cases often lack the quality required to drive through change and even where they are of exceptional quality senior police officers often lack the commercial awareness to trust them.

2) Supporting Force Decisions

Many Finance Directors are keen to develop their finance functions. The challenge they face is convincing the rest of the Force that the finance function can add value – by devoting more time and effort to financial analysis and providing senior management with the tools to understand the financial implications of major strategic decisions.

Maintaining Financial Controls and Managing Risk

Sarbanes Oxley, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Basel II and Individual Capital Assessments (ICA) have all put financial controls and reporting under the spotlight in the private sector. This in turn is increasing the spotlight on financial controls in the public sector.

A ‘Best in Class’ Police Force finance function will not just have the minimum controls to meet the regulatory requirements but will evaluate how the legislation and regulations that the finance function are required to comply with, can be leveraged to provide value to the organization. Providing strategic information that will enable the force to meet its objectives is a key task for a leading finance function.

3) Value to the Force

The drive for development over the last decade or so, has moved decision making to the Divisions and has led to an increase in costs in the finance function. Through utilizing a number of initiatives in a program of transformation, a Force can leverage up to 40% of savings on the cost of finance together with improving the responsiveness of finance teams and the quality of financial information. These initiatives include:

Centralization

By centralizing the finance function, a Police Force can create centers of excellence where industry best practice can be developed and shared. This will not only re-empower the department, creating greater independence and objectivity in assessing projects and performance, but also lead to more consistent management information and a higher degree of control. A Police Force can also develop a business partner group to act as strategic liaisons to departments and divisions. The business partners would, for example, advise on how the departmental and divisional commanders can meet the budget in future months instead of merely advising that the budget has been missed for the previous month.

With the mundane number crunching being performed in a shared service center, finance professionals will find they now have time to act as business partners to divisions and departments and focus on the strategic issues.

The cultural impact on the departments and divisional commanders should not be underestimated. Commanders will be concerned that:

o Their budgets will be centralized
o Workloads would increase
o There will be limited access to finance individuals
o There will not be on site support

However, if the centralized shared service center is designed appropriately none of the above should apply. In fact from centralization under a best practice model, leaders should accrue the following benefits:

o Strategic advice provided by business partners
o Increased flexibility
o Improved management information
o Faster transactions
o Reduced number of unresolved queries
o Greater clarity on service and cost of provision
o Forum for finance to be strategically aligned to the needs of the Force

A Force that moves from a de-centralized to a centralized system should try and ensure that the finance function does not lose touch with the Chief Constable and Divisional Commanders. Forces need to have a robust business case for finance transformation combined with a governance structure that spans operational, tactical and strategic requirements. There is a risk that potential benefits of implementing such a change may not be realized if the program is not carefully managed. Investment is needed to create a successful centralized finance function. Typically the future potential benefits of greater visibility and control, consistent processes, standardized management information, economies of scale, long-term cost savings and an empowered group of proud finance professionals, should outweigh those initial costs.

To reduce the commercial, operational and capability risks, the finance functions can be completely outsourced or partially outsourced to third parties. This will provide guaranteed cost benefits and may provide the opportunity to leverage relationships with vendors that provide best practice processes.

Process Efficiencies

Typically for Police Forces the focus on development has developed a silo based culture with disparate processes. As a result significant opportunities exist for standardization and simplification of processes which provide scalability, reduce manual effort and deliver business benefit. From simply rationalizing processes, a force can typically accrue a 40% reduction in the number of processes. An example of this is the use of electronic bank statements instead of using the manual bank statement for bank reconciliation and accounts receivable processes. This would save considerable effort that is involved in analyzing the data, moving the data onto different spreadsheet and inputting the data into the financial systems.

Organizations that possess a silo operating model tend to have significant inefficiencies and duplication in their processes, for example in HR and Payroll. This is largely due to the teams involved meeting their own goals but not aligning to the corporate objectives of an organization. Police Forces have a number of independent teams that are reliant on one another for data with finance in departments, divisions and headquarters sending and receiving information from each other as well as from the rest of the Force. The silo model leads to ineffective data being received by the teams that then have to carry out additional work to obtain the information required.

Whilst the argument for development has been well made in the context of moving decision making closer to operational service delivery, the added cost in terms of resources, duplication and misaligned processes has rarely featured in the debate. In the current financial climate these costs need to be recognized.

Culture

Within transactional processes, a leading finance function will set up targets for staff members on a daily basis. This target setting is an element of the metric based culture that leading finance functions develop. If the appropriate metrics of productivity and quality are applied and when these targets are challenging but not impossible, this is proven to result in improvements to productivity and quality.

A ‘Best in Class’ finance function in Police Forces will have a service focused culture, with the primary objectives of providing a high level of satisfaction for its customers (departments, divisions, employees & suppliers). A ‘Best in Class’ finance function will measure customer satisfaction on a timely basis through a metric based approach. This will be combined with a team wide focus on process improvement, with process owners, that will not necessarily be the team leads, owning force-wide improvement to each of the finance processes.

Organizational Improvements

Organizational structures within Police Forces are typically made up of supervisors leading teams of one to four team members. Through centralizing and consolidating the finance function, an opportunity exists to increase the span of control to best practice levels of 6 to 8 team members to one team lead / supervisor. By adjusting the organizational structure and increasing the span of control, Police Forces can accrue significant cashable benefit from a reduction in the number of team leads and team leads can accrue better management experience from managing larger teams.

Technology Enabled Improvements

There are a significant number of technology improvements that a Police Force could implement to help develop a ‘Best in Class’ finance function.

These include:

A) Scanning and workflow

Through adopting a scanning and workflow solution to replace manual processes, improved visibility, transparency and efficiencies can be reaped.

B) Call logging, tracking and workflow tool

Police Forces generally have a number of individuals responding to internal and supplier queries. These queries are neither logged nor tracked. The consequence of this is dual:

o Queries consume considerable effort within a particular finance team. There is a high risk of duplicated effort from the lack of logging of queries. For example, a query could be responded to for 30 minutes by person A in the finance team. Due to this query not being logged, if the individual that raised the query called up again and spoke to a different person then just for one additional question, this could take up to 20 minutes to ensure that the background was appropriately explained.

o Queries can have numerous interfaces with the business. An unresolved query can be responded against by up to four separate teams with considerable delay in providing a clear answer for the supplier.

The implementation of a call logging, tracking and workflow tool to document, measure and close internal and supplier queries combined with the set up of a central queries team, would significantly reduce the effort involved in responding to queries within the finance departments and divisions, as well as within the actual divisions and departments, and procurement.

C) Database solution

Throughout finance departments there are a significant number of spreadsheets utilized prior to input into the financial system. There is a tendency to transfer information manually from one spreadsheet to another to meet the needs of different teams.

Replacing the spreadsheets with a database solution would rationalize the number of inputs and lead to effort savings for the front line Police Officers as well as Police Staff.

D) Customize reports

In obtaining management information from the financial systems, police staff run a series of reports, import these into excel, use lookups to match the data and implement pivots to illustrate the data as required. There is significant manual effort that is involved in carrying out this work. Through customizing reports the outputs from the financial system can be set up to provide the data in the formats required through the click of a button. This would have the benefit of reduced effort and improved motivation for team members that previously carried out these mundane tasks.

In designing, procuring and implementing new technology enabling tools, a Police Force will face a number of challenges including investment approval; IT capacity; capability; and procurement.

These challenges can be mitigated through partnering with a third party service company with whom the investment can be shared, the skills can be provided and the procurement cycle can be minimized.

Conclusion

It is clear that cultural, process and technology change is required if police forces are to deliver both sustainable efficiencies and high quality services. In an environment where for the first time forces face real cash deficits and face having to reduce police officer and support staff numbers whilst maintaining current performance levels the current finance delivery models requires new thinking.

While there a number of barriers to be overcome in achieving a best in class finance function, it won’t be long before such a decision becomes mandatory. Those who are ahead of the curve will inevitably find themselves in a stronger position.