Australian Association of Angel

Investors Member Services

Purpose

The objectives of the AAAI are to:

• Promote ethical and efficient angel investment and angel syndication in Australia.
• Promote the growth of angel investment in Australia, including encouraging and informing the establishment of new angel groups.
• Define best practice for angel investor members in an Australian context.
• Disseminate information on and access to formally recognised syndication models.
• Be a source and channel for information and education of angel investors and entrepreneurs seeking angel investment.
• Represent the interests of angel investor members in Australia as a peak body in dialogues with governments, peers and industry.
• Represent members internationally in dialogues with peers, industry and governments.
• Act as a channel for information and opinion from members to form the basis of advice to Government.
• Assist with, and direct, research into Australian angel investment activities.
• Organise and hold an annual summit conference on topics relevant to members.

The Australian Association of Angel Investors Ltd (AAAI) is the national association for Angel investors founded in 2007. We

• Provide a voice for Australian Angel investors;
• Offer professional education and provide other relevant information; and
• Implement programs of interest in the sector,

to build a professional community of Angel investors and to enable our members to be more successful investors.

The fundamental tenet for AAAI and its members is that by enabling our members to be more successful as investors, more entrepreneurial businesses will be successful and our members will derive greater returns from their investments. This success will then encourage members to continue to invest in similar activities, thus promoting increased and ongoing investment and a sustainable “virtuous cycle” of investment driving the Australian innovation economy.

Since establishment in late 2007, AAAI has:

• Delivered Annual conferences in 2008 (Canberra) and 2009 (Brisbane)
• Facilitated the delivery of several professional Angel education workshops from the Power of Angel Investing curriculum of the Angel Capital Education Foundation
• Secured an Australian license for the delivery of the full suite of ACEF PAI workshops and accredited 3 Australian PAI presenters
• Delivered the first full day PAI overview workshop in Adelaide
• Significantly raised the profile of angel investing and the AAAI with Federal and State Governments and been invited to several Government roundtable strategic discussions
• Facilitated the formation of 6 new angel investment groups
• Collated a significant amount of information that is available for sharing by members
• Developed and delivered submissions to the Federal Enquiry into the Australian Innovation System
• Undertaken the 2008 Annual Survey of Angel Investment in Australia – the first comprehensive survey of Angel investment in Australia
• Delivered a submission to the Federal Department of Industry, Science and Research as part of the CCI initiative post the 2009-2010 federal budget for ongoing support of the development of Angel investment infrastructure

Our goals for the next year include:

• To facilitate the establishment of more Angel investor groups around Australia
• To work with the Federal Government to secure infrastructural funding for AAAI and to support sustainable group operations
• To work with the Federal Government to set up a co-investment fund
• To organize and deliver the 2010 Annual Conference in Adelaide
• To organize and deliver in partnership with regional Angel groups and other stakeholders, a range of awareness and education programs to build awareness, recruit members and offer professional education to support our mission
• To undertake the 2009 National Survey of Angel Investment in Australia
• To build national and international networks supporting Angel investment
• To undertake a comprehensive communication program to deliver the AAAI message
• To build resources and deliver value to our individual members and to support group formation

AAAI delivers products and services to members, groups and corporate and government stakeholders.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha

Everyone Works on Commission

Most sales people receive some portion of their remuneration based on the success of their sales effort. For some, they operate on 100% commission. And of course this is a powerful incentive to improve. Their connection to sales is obvious.

What about other people in your organisation? The receptionist. The delivery driver. The accounts clerk. In a small business, pretty much everyone will talk to your customers. But they probably don’t consider themselves in sales.

Whether they like it or not, they are in sales. And they are on commission too. After all, if sales go down dramatically, or they cause you to lose an important customer, their whole pay packet (and job) is at risk.

Do your non-sales staff see the connection between what they do and sales? Every customer contact in your business with anyone in it is a moment of truth for your business. Does everyone in your business know that they are in sales, and that everyone in your business Works on Commission?

So why not make even some small portion of their package visibly dependent on sales so that every time they answer the phone, they KNOW they are Working on Commission.

May Your Business Be – As You Plan It.

About the author:

Dr Greg Chapman is the Director of Empower Business Solutions and The Australian Business Coaching Club and is the internationally recognized author of The Five Pillars of Guaranteed Business Success.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 22nd March 2010

1. Be Your Own Boss – Build a Successful Business, Not Just an Income Stream
2. 
   
3. Being an employee for life is not likely to make you wealthy. Working for someone else only makes the employer richer. Unfortunately, the ’system’ is not designed to make you wealthy.Being your own boss and building a successful business will enable you to earn more money and create wealth than you ever could by working at a ‘job’. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying – ‘job’ stands for ‘just over broke’.

   Building a successful business, a lifestyle freedom business, allows you to have independence and determine your own destiny. You set your own hours, financial, business and growth goals, and time for leisure.

   Let’s take Internet Marketing for example – it allows you to set up a business relatively quickly with little expense, without overheads, and often from the comfort of your own home office.

   Like all entrepreneurs who have the guts to take control of their future, you need to decide which way is the right way to go. You are the only person you can rely on to get it started and make it happen.

   Success in business is not rocket science. It’s not as difficult as some will have you believe. It takes knowing the difference between what does and doesn’t work.

   Believe me, building a successful business is one of the most rewarding things you can do. Had I known years ago where my business journey would take me, I probably would have arrived at where my business is now much sooner.

   Here are some more tips:

   • When starting a business, most people focus on generating income and lose sight of their long-term goal of having a successful and ’sustainable’ business that will provide freedom, independence, wealth and support many years into the future. Keep focused on building a long-term asset.
   • Take one idea and build it up until it is successful. Then go back and decide on what to do next. Keep your focus to the finish line.
   • The no.1 question is – where can I win? Position yourself in a place where you’re going to win. Look for the gaps in the market and the market in the gaps.
   • Listen to the marketplace. Listening is one of the greatest skills an entrepreneur can acquire. This, plus creatively and quickly satisfying the need/s in the marketplace is the secret formula to creating money on demand.
   • Get clued up on how to build a successful business. Don’t stay clueless. If you find you’re missing a key piece or pieces of information to get your plan going, go get that information. Go in search of what’s missing.
   • Invest in your financial and business literacy.
   • Become an avid observer of the things that propel some entrepreneurs to create major success while others do nothing but struggle.
   • Then take the next step – it’s not enough just to keep learning, you must Take Action, Massive Action. Yes, get the knowledge, but then promptly put it to use. Freedom comes from taking action. Deal with the information overload and move forward one-step at a time.
   • Focus on progress rather than perfection. Just do it! It’s exhilarating
5. Posted by Henry Sapiecha22nd Feb 2010
6. 
   

REAL ESTATE MARKET IN AUSTRALIA
www.realestate-au.info

I've got some shocking news for you if you're a property
investor, and hopefully this will put the confusion to rest
as to whether the market will go up or down in the next 12
months.

Many of the negative views that relate to real estate are
coming off the back-end of what is happening in the U.S.
market. 

Despite the information that we have put out recently about
our prediction, some folk are still not convinced.

I suppose the reason why there is a strong focus on the U.S.
real estate market is that it was the catalyst that started
the ball rolling and has led us down this uncertain economic
climate. Confidence is coming back - but not quick enough.

So I want to have a conversation with you as to where the
U.S. is at and how we differ here in Australia.



Many experts in the U.S. still see housing prices as too
high to attract buyers and too low for sellers who have got
negative equity to get out with their dignity intact. 

With such a crazy scenario, there is obviously going to be
more problems in that market. The question is, will it
effect you as a real estate investor?

Let's have a look at it closely...

The first obstacle the U.S. have got is a simple one...
They've got too many houses that no one wants. I read a
report recently that said that nearly 10% of all homes built
this decade are sitting empty.

You're probably wondering how many are actually empty? Over
600,000 homes.


Who owns them? Well, it's probably a bank or a fancy
financial institution that was silly enough to buy the
mortgages two or three years ago.

So the guys that hold the asset have got a problem, don't
they? If they flood the market the prices of those homes
will come crashing down, which further destroys the value of
the asset on the corporate balance sheet. 

They don't want that - they would rather hold it and call it
an un-performing asset at a reasonable valuation rather than
what it's really worth.

These are the games that big companies play - it makes them
sound smart, but it's a dumb move.

Anyway, so yes, it's bad over there and likely to get worse.

But I know what you're thinking... 

What about us here in Australia?


Well, we have no such problem. In fact, we have the reverse.
In Australia, there is a shortage of housing that is quickly
adding up to 100,000 dwellings.

With no immediate solution...

It's really as simple as that... What forces prices down is
something that most property investors don't think about.
Supply and demand.

We're not going to experience the same fall-out that the
States has suffered - that should be obvious to you by now.
But I keep hearing these stories of how it's going to get
worse in the States and how we're going to be dragged along
and suffer the same circumstances.

It isn't going to happen.

To date, the US market generally speaking has fallen by 34%
based on the Case-Schiller Index. It'll probably fall
further, so if you're thinking about investing in the States
- here's what you should do...

Research the market for the next 3-6 months and then
consider buying some of the bargains of the century. Not
many of you would consider that, however there is a real big
opportunity emerging. (Best leave that for another day).

So what about Australia?

Well, here's what I'm doing. I'm looking for value in the
market and a vendor that's a little bit worried as to what
may happen in the next 12-24 months. 



I wont be rushing in just yet, I think the free money out
there that the government is throwing around has created a
short-term spike in prices. Once some of the free money is
taken out of the market, which begins in September, I'll be
opening up the check book again. 

For now, I'm doing my home work, researching, planning and
getting ready to strike after September and through the
early part of 2010.

I know some of the more astute property investors look to
two other fundamental indicators that may suggest where the
real estate market is going and they are... Unemployment and
Interest Rates


Let's deal with them both... 

Naive investors have got really short memories. It's handy
to look back in history and at past recessions to see what
the effect was on real estate.

In the 1982-83 and 1991-92 recessions, falling interest
rates actually boosted Australian house prices as
unemployment rose.

So can you see what happened back then? Cheap money
out-weighed fears of job losses, reinforced by strong banks
and a critical shortage of housing.

The governor of the Reserve Bank (Glen Stevens) said it
himself, most missed it, "If new supply, now at long-term
lows, doesn't improve, fresh demand will further inflate
existing housing prices."

...I know that's grammatically wrong - but he's got 4 MBA's
so he can say anything he likes. The bottom line is, he's
worried about real estate prices going up.

---
SECRET REAL ESTATE RESEARCH REVEALS 
WHERE PRICES WILL GO IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS


That means profit to you if you know what you're doing...

As a real estate investor that owns a substantial portfolio,
I'm not worried - I'm looking to pick up more deals whilst
the rest of the market is asleep at the wheel. If you've
read this far, don't sit on the fence. Either you're going
to get serious about real estate or you're not.

This article was posted here with input from an astute market
investor here in Australia.If you need further input from us please
email us or comment on this posting where we will make further
comments or make contact with our info source for you.

*If you are in the real estate business, then use this article
to promote sales.
*If you are an investor/buyer, then take this opportunity
to review your property buying options

Published by Henry Sapiecha 5th August 2009