As a financial advisor, rep, broker, agent, or planner, without generating referral-based business, you will fail. It’s as simple as that. Of course there are exceptions, but not many.
So what is it that gets in the way of getting more referrals. Or any referrals, for that matter?
It’s the pressure, man. The pressure of writing more cases, dropping more tickets, getting more accounts, selling more products, accumulating more assets, and being in front of more people.
With all the pressure to hit your numbers and generate commission, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important. And what is important? If I had to guess, I would say relationships. But here’s the thing: It’s easy to forget about the importance of relationships when you’re simply looking to hit your numbers. And without focusing on relationships, it makes it very difficult to make a sale, grow your book, and ultimately help people. Isn’t that what it’s all about?
10 Best Paper Stocks To Buy For 2016: Crossroads Systems Inc (CRDS)
Crossroads Systems, Inc. (Crossroads), incorporated on September 26, 1996, provides, develops and markets patent pending products that provide online access to data archives through tape-based archive storage solutions that replace disk-based storage devices at a fraction of the cost, enabling businesses to change the way they approach their long-term data archiving needs. It ships the following products to these markets: StrongBox, Read Verify Appliance (RVA) and SPHiNX.It is focused primarily on the StrongBox solution. During the fiscal year ended October 31, 2012(fiscal 2012), the Company introduced itsCrossroads StrongBox product, a network attached storage (NAS) solution based on tape for long-term archive data.
The Company�� products include StrongBox, which offers a NAS storage solution focused on low cost, data archive with built in data protection; SPHiNX , which provides data protection from the desktop to the data center, functioning as a virtual tape library to ensure holistic data protection; ReadVerify Appliance (RVA) proactively monitors tape media and the overall health of tape drives, and Fibre Channel (FC) Storage Bridges and Storage Routers offer connectivity and protocol conversion from the FC Storage Area Network (SAN) to Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) tape and disk storage device interfaces.
StrongBox
StrongBox offers organizations the ability to archive their valuable corporate data assets without disrupting their architectures at a fraction of the cost of existing disk-only based solutions. The StrongBox solution is a shared file storage system, which stores the files on open standard LTFS physical tapes. The StrongBox system also provides the necessary data protection, data security, and online access of files required in a customer�� active archive environment. StrongBox addresses and expanding market providing a solution to customer problems. Regardless of size, no business can afford to keep decades old content on s! pinning disk due to its acquisition cost, but more importantly, the cost to continuously power the disk array and pay maintenance on the physical hardware. Additionally, disk arrays are only supported for three to five years requiring wholesale replacement multiple times over the life of the data. StrongBox enables this click and open access stores the information on reliable, scalable tape media. The StrongBox manages and verifies the data and auto-migrates the files over time as new higher-capacity tape drives become available.The Company�� offerings to the market through hardware appliances.
SPHiNX
SPHiNX provides complete disaster recovery capabilities for mid-range server, open systems and the desktop host environment and is designed to scale easily to grow with a customer�� business. As a primary repository for data center backups, SPHiNX can be used as secondary tiered storage for replicated data to meet disaster recovery requirements. As a disk-based data protection solution, SPHiNX maximizes reliability and improves backup and restore success rates by eliminating associated drive or media errors. SPHiNX offers flexible functionality as a virtual tape library for rapid, reliable data recovery with reduced data loss and minimal downtime. SPHiNX is delivered via a dedicated appliance with hot swappable drives and redundant power supplies to ensure high system availability.
With SPHiNX, backups can be streamlined for improved performance, and restores are exponentially faster than using traditional tape drives. Multiple host systems can be secured and connected to SPHiNX as a shared resource for several systems or partitions with multiple backup streams supported from any single system. With immediate access to stored data, SPHiNX drastically reduces recovery time to meet increasing stringent recovery time objectives and recovery point objective requirements.
SPHiNX provides the ability to replicate backups remotely by syn! chronizin! g data copies over a wide area network (WAN) between a local SPHiNX and one or more remote SPHiNX systems, which can reduce offsite storage or eliminate tape handling altogether while enabling immediate access of data. Cloud computing, data center consolidation, hosted disaster recovery and other IT trends have created a need to move more data remotely at higher speeds. SPHiNX provides WAN acceleration options to maximize data transfers, providing scalability, network efficiency, security and bandwidth control. SPHiNX provides an option to encrypt data in compliance with regulatory and company security policies. With SPHiNX, you can encrypt data as it is stored or wait for idle times if faced with short backup windows. SPHINX can also completely offload the encryption algorithm processing by passing a generated key to a physical tape device equipped with a hardware encryption chipset. SPHiNX is sold primarily as a branded offering in our VAR channel in the United States and Europe. Additionally, SPHiNX is sold by OEM partners as a co-branded or rebranded product line for tape backup replacement or augmentation.
ReadVerify Appliance
The Company�� ReadVerify Appliance (RVA) validates the integrity of tape backup systems and provides an easy to use, real-time way to monitor, track and report on the performance, utilization and health of tape devices and tape media. Providing visibility into the causes of incomplete or failed backups, RVA helps customers address media and hardware issues before a catastrophic failure threatens their data and business. RVA monitors tape backups and reports cartridge and drive statistics collected during backup operations. Automatic alerting and reporting provides critical information on impending media or drive failures, overall utilization and performance of tape media and drives. RVA uses built-in reporting for load balancing and to proactively address media and hardware failure. RVA provides a method to diagnose a degrading backup environment a! nd correc! tly identify root cause.
Using RVA, tapes will not be disposed of until they truly reach end-of-life. It also sold through OEM partners who co-brand or rebrand RVA as a product sale or as a service offering. In addition to providing a library monitoring service, with the Archive Verify feature Crossroads or its partners can provide a service built around analyzing a customer�� existing archival tape store to ensure the data written to tape can be read back.
Fibre Channel (FC) Storage Bridges and Storage Routers
The Company�� Fibre Channel Storage Bridges and Routers provide connectivity and protocol conversion from the Fibre Channel (FC) Storage Area Network (SAN) to tape and disk storage device interfaces. Its bridges provide value by extending the useful life of SCSI storage resources and aggregating device ports to save on switch port expenses. They are simple to deploy via either rack or desktop, manage using command line interface (CLI) or Ethernet interface options and support with field updateable firmware. Its bridges are designed to add reliability to SANs by detecting and tracking path readiness and network event errors and reporting configuration issues and conflicts. The Crossroads��Storage Bridge and Router product line is mature, having been developed and sold since the Company�� inception.
The Company competes with IBM, Quantum, Cache, TSI, Falconstor Software Inc. and EMC.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Jake Mann]
Looking to 2015, I will be watching Crossroads Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CRDS) closely as their StrongBox tape library offering has started experiencing growth, coupled with their IP assets (both '972 and non-'972 portfolios). Further, I will be watching ICTV Brands Inc (OTC: ICTV)'s new product offerings and how DermaWand fairs internationally as well as in Rite Aid stores nationwide...
Top Computer Hardware Companies To Watch For 2015: George Risk Industries Inc (RSKIA)
George Risk Industries, Inc. (GRI), incorporated on February 21, 1961, is engaged in the design, manufacture and sale of computer keyboards, push button switches, burglar alarm components and systems, pool alarms, thermostats, EZ Duct wire covers and water sensors. GRI is a diversified manufacturer of electronic components, consisting of the security industries variety of door and window contact switches, environmental products, proximity switches and custom keyboards. The Company operates in two segments: security alarm products and security alarm products GRI�� security burglar alarm products comprise approximately 84% of net revenues and are sold through distributors and alarm dealers/installers. These products are used for residential, commercial, industrial and government installations. Its products include security products/ magnetic reed switches, data entry peripherals, pushbutton switches, custom engraved keycaps and proximity sensors.
The security segment has approximately 3,000 customers. One of the distributors, ADI accounts for approximately 40% of the Company's sales of these products. The keyboard segment has approximately 800 customers. Keyboard products are sold to original equipment manufacturers to their specifications and to distributors of off-the-shelf keyboards of proprietary design. GRI owns and operates its main manufacturing plant and offices in Kimball, Nebraska with a satellite plant 40 miles away in Gering, Nebraska.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Geoff Gannon] or even just above book value. It's a darn good business so I'm getting high quality assets and earnings power. That gets less clear when looking at lower quality businesses.
For example:
Solitron (SODI) sells at 74% of NCAV, has decent z- and f-scores, a FCF margin of 5.3% and an ROA of 12%.
- [By Geoff Gannon]
So, I think of simple industries as food, entertainment, etc. And anything where logistics provide a competitive advantage. I mentioned a company I own shares of ��George Risk Industries (RSKIA) ��before. Its advantage is the ability to deliver a cheap product on time. They can't produce the product for less than the competition. If the purchase price was huge relative to what the end customer was purchasing as part of the same activity (the end customer is construction in this case) price competition would be important. Instead, delivery is important.
- [By Geoff Gannon] n. When it traded around $4.50 (it�� now more like $7.50 a share) it was a net-net with a good business and a moat. There were risks ��customer concentration for one ��and it was no blue chip. There was no diversification of product lines, customers, geography, industry, etc. It was closely tied to U.S. construction activity.
All this means it was no blue chip. Not that it didn�� have a moat. I felt it did. And certainly not that it wasn�� a high quality business. It demonstrably was (unleveraged returns on tangible equity were around 30%). And it was a net-net. In fact, it was a net cash stock at one time.
So they do happen. But they are rare. The usual distinction with net-nets is not between companies like that ��companies which may have a moat, do earn good returns on capital, etc. ��but between companies that are legitimate and illegitimate businesses.
A legitimate business is ��in my mind ��a historically profitable one. It is likely to have positive retained earnings (there are exceptions to this rule ��but it�� a good first check). It should have more years of profits (6 or more) than losses in the last 10 years. And it should be self-financing.
Compare this to an illegitimate business. The least legitimate businesses are those that ��while publicly traded ��have never turned a profit and can�� self finance. They may be net-nets ��but they are net-nets because they have issued stock in the past and then seen their share prices drop. Retained earnings are often negative.
There are other factors to consider. Is the business old or young? Is depreciation ��and other accounting ��especially conservative or aggressive? Are taxes especially conservative or aggressive? And is share issuance dilutive or not.
I think a legitimate business tends towards LIFO accounting, quicker depreciation, higher taxes paid as a percentage of reported income, and lower share issuance. There are exceptions. Many
- [By Geoff Gannon] ombination of not really cheap on a P/E basis and just barely cheap on a cash basis ��and it was connected to homebuilding.
I could go on like that. But I�� not sure I understand why knowing anything about the perceptions of others actually helps my own investment decisions. I�� also not sure the reasons I��e offered for the cheapness of those stocks are actually the reasons anybody else had for selling the stock, not buying it, etc. In fact, I think those are just plausible reasons I made up.
But that�� not the problem with wanting to know why a stock is cheap. The problem is how that knowledge ��or the quest for it ��directs your attention. And attention is the scarcest resource an investor has.
Once you know what somebody else�� perception is, you try to either prove or disprove that perception. In essence, I see the problem of thinking about market sentiment ��of worrying about the Keynesian beauty contest ��as being like one of those optical illusions. Like the duck-rabbit illusion. In fact, this concern of mine is one of the reasons why I��e suggested investors read Kuhn.
They often talk about some past period ��like the 1920s or 1950s ��with a total misunderstanding of what people were looking for in a stock back then. Of how they thought about stocks. Of what they thought stocks were. This isn�� a misanalysis of the facts. It�� a misclassification.
When Ben Graham started on Wall Street there was none of this ��tocks for the Long Run��stuff. There was no talk of asset classes. There were investments called bonds. And there were speculations called stocks. And it was heresy when Ben Graham basically said a cheap stock is a better investment than an expensive bond.
You become a bad financial historian when you confuse your own perceptions ��your own way of classifying stocks and noting the aspects of a stock ��with how people really thought about stocks back then.
In the same wa
Top Computer Hardware Companies To Watch For 2015: Western Digital Corp (WDC)
Western Digital Corporation (WD) is a provider of solutions for the collection, storage, management, protection and use of digital content, including audio and video. Its principal products are hard drives, which are devices that use one or more rotating magnetic disks (magnetic media) to store and allow access to data. Its hard drives are used in desktop and notebook computers, corporate and cloud computing data centers, home entertainment equipment and stand-alone consumer storage devices. In addition to hard drives, its other products include solid-state drives and home entertainment and networking products. The Company operates as the parent company of its hard drive business, Western Digital Technologies, Inc. Effective March 8, 2012, the Company acquired Viviti Technologies Ltd. In May 2012, the Company completed the divestiture of certain 3.5-inch hard drive assets to Toshiba Corporation. As part of its deal with Toshiba, WD also completed its purchase of Toshiba Storage Device (Thailand) Company Limited (TSDT), which manufactured hard drives.
The Company offers a line of storage devices. Its hard drives include 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch form factors, capacities ranging from 80 gigabytes to three terabytes, nominal rotation speeds up to 10,000 revolutions per minute, and interfaces, such as Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) and Serial Attached SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) (SAS). In addition, the Company offers a family of hard drives specifically designed to consume less power than standard drives, utilizing its WD GreenPower Technology. Its solid-state drives include 2.5-inch and Compact Flash form factors, capacities ranging from 1 gigabyte to 256 gigabytes, and interfaces, such as SATA and PATA.
Client Compute Storage Products
Client compute consists of hard drives and solid-state drives for desktop and mobile personal computers (PC��). During the fiscal year ended July 1, 2011 (fiscal 2011), it shipped 151 million hard drive clie! nt compute unit. Its client compute storage products include WD Caviar, WD Scorpio and WD Silicon Edge. WD Caviar family of hard drives is designed for use in desktop PCs. WD Scorpio family of hard drives is designed for use in mobile PCs. WD Silicon Edge family of solid-state drives is designed for both read-intensive client/consumer applications and write-intensive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) applications.
Client Non-Compute Storage Products
Client non-compute consists of branded products and consumer electronics products. Its hard drive client non-compute unit shipments were 46 million, during fiscal 2011.
Branded Products
Branded products consists of hard drives embedded into WD-branded external storage appliances with capacities ranging from 250 gigabytes to 8 terabytes and using interfaces, such as Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, USB 3.0, external SATA, FireWire and Ethernet network connections. Certain branded products models include software that assists customers with back up, remote access and management of digital content. Branded products also include its home entertainment and networking products. Its branded products include My Book and WD Elements Desktop family of storage appliances. My Passport and WD Elements Portable family of storage appliances include WD ShareSpace, WD TV and WD Livewire.
My Book and WD Elements Desktop family of storage appliances are designed to add external capacity to desktops and digital video recorders (DVRs), allow for the transfer and storage of videos directly from certain camcorders, and connect to networks to simplify storage for consumers. My Passport and WD Elements Portable family of storage appliances are designed for external portability weighing less than one-half of a pound and allow for the transfer and storage of videos directly from certain camcorders. WD ShareSpace is a network-attached storage system designed for home office or small office applications. WD TV m! edia play! ers connect to a user�� television or home theater system and play digital movies, music and photos from an integrated hard drive, network hard drives, any of its WD-branded external hard drives, other USB mass storage devices or content services accessed over the Internet. WD Livewire, which enables consumers to use their existing electrical outlets to extend Internet connections throughout the home.
Consumer Electronics Products
WD AV family of hard drives is designed for use in products, such as DVRs and audio and video applications. WD AV drives deliver the characteristics CE manufacturers.
Enterprise Storage Products
Enterprise consists of hard drives for traditional enterprise and nearline storage applications, as well as solid-state drives for embedded applications. Its hard drive enterprise unit shipments were 10 million, for fiscal 2011. Its enterprise storage products include WD S25 hard drive, WD VelociRaptor, WD RE and WD SiliconDrive. WD S25 hard drive is designed for mission-critical enterprise server and storage applications, such as data centers and data arrays. WD VelociRaptor hard drive is designed for enterprise server and storage applications. This hard drive is also used in the high-end desktop PC market for applications including gaming, servers and advanced computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) systems. WD RE family of hard drives is designed for nearline storage enterprise applications. WD SiliconDrive family of solid-state drives features fast read/write speeds in high capacities and is designed for embedded system OEM applications.
The Company competes with Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Intel Corporation, Micron Technology, Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Seagate Technology, STEC, Inc. and Toshiba Corporation.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Dan Caplinger]
The big challenge that Marvell has had to face going back well beyond the past quarter is the decline on the PC side of its business. In particular, Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC ) and Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX ) have been at the forefront of consolidation in the hard-drive industry, buying up operations from former rivals and thereby concentrating Marvell's exposure to a shrinking number of players in the space. Yet both Western Digital and Seagate have had to look to create hybrid solid-state/hard-disk drives to stay competitive with pure solid-state drives. If either company decides that Marvell's controller chips aren't necessary, it would have a huge impact on Marvell's overall business.
Top Computer Hardware Companies To Watch For 2015: Makism 3D Corp (MDDD)
Makism 3D Corp., incorporated on May 4 2010, is a three dimensional (3D) printer manufacturing company. The Company produces consumer and professional grade 3D printers. The Company�� flagship product, branded as the Wideboy family of printers, offers packaging designed to fit any office or professional space.
Its 3D printers utilize British and German engineered components. Its printers are assembled in Cambridge (United Kingdom).
Advisors' Opinion:- [By James E. Brumley]
All well and good, but for veteran traders, there's something uneasy about the recent swelling of interest in these names... there's too much hype, and not enough substance. Enter another small cap name in the 3D printing race - Makism 3D Corp. (OTCBB:MDDD). It's not throwing any parties for itself, and it's not congratulating itself for achievements that may be a solution to a problem that doesn't actually exist. MDDD is simply on the verge of making a high-quality 3D printer at a very practical price that will appeal to individual consumers as well as businesses.
- [By James E. Brumley]
Well, as it turns out, the snake that bit L&L Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:LLEN) and Sovereign Lithium Inc. (OTCMKTS:SLCO) didn't end up biting Makism 3D Corp. (OTCMKTS:MDDD). And in retrospect, that's probably how it should be. Indeed, the fact that MDDD didn't even come close to suffering the same fate as SLCO or LLEN did may be the biggest assurance Makism 3D fans could hope for that the company is everything it says it is.
- [By James E. Brumley]
In retrospect, their pullbacks come as no real surprise. Neither Voxeljet AG (NYSE:VJET) nor Camtek LTD. (NASDAQ:CAMT) saw their shares soar on any news that was meaningfully sustainable, and after the "shoot first, ask questions later" market had a chance to start asking questions, it became clear that - even with the largest of glimmers of corporate progress unveiled a few weeks ago - CAMT and VJET both had been bid up more on hype and less on substance. Meanwhile (and this could be bitterly ironic to some), a small cap play in the same 3D printing space that (1) didn't beat the daylights out of its hype-drum, and (2) is actually much closer to bringing a revenue-bearing product to the market [per today's news - more on that below] isn't getting anywhere near the same attention. That company? Makism 3D Corp. (OTCBB:MDDD). The good news is, MDDD finally looks like it's revving its engine, while Camtek and Voxeljet AG shares continue to deteriorate.
- [By James E. Brumley]
They say the great ones withstand the test of time. If that's true of stocks (and it is), then it's becoming increasingly safer to say Makism 3D Corp. (OTCMKTS:MDDD) is one of the great ones within the 3D printing world. No, it's neither as big nor as prolific as 3D printer names like 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD) or Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS). Then again, everything is relative; MDDD may well be packing more of a punch for its investors than SSYS or DDD have in a long time.
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