Masonry Magazine August 1992 Page. 42
Improving Your Cash Flow
Take advantage of short term and tax advantaged investments to make your company's income flow more predictable.
By RICHARD JOHNSON
Dean Witter Reynolds, Incorporated
SEASONAL fluctuations in your business impact your company's cash flow situation? If so, you may be able to even out the cash flow of your business throughout the year by maximizing the earnings potential of your current holdings through investment and tax strategies. There are a variety of short term and tax-advantaged investments that could make your company's cash flow more predictable.
Every day that your dollars earn little or no interest in a checking account costs you money. Large corporations solve this problem by investing their cash, even if only for two days. Small and mid-sized companies can take a similar approach by investing in cash equivalents, such as those highlighted below.
Short and Intermediate term certificates of deposit (CDs) offer safety, a variety of maturities (beginning at three months), low minimum investment and competitive yields. If you purchase the CD through a brokerage firm, you may be able to liquidate your investment before maturity without the penalty usually imposed by banks.
U.S. Treasury and federal agency obligations are short, intermediate and long term investments whose principal and interest are guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury or federal agencies. For a minimum of between $1,000 and $10,000, you can choose from a large selection of interest rates and maturity dates.
Commercial paper is a form of short term debt issued by many well known and highly rated corporations. Notes offer attractive yields and are available in amounts starting at $100,000.
Money market funds enable you to
The Fast
SCAFFOLDING
Increase Production 20%-35%
When the wall is waist high to the bricklayer, he will produce more. Government studies, the experience of our customers, and our own experience have proven that point most convincingly. Actually, it's basic human nature. When the bending, reaching, and stooping are eliminated, a mason will fall into a fast, comfortable side to side rhythm when laying brick and block. He'll put in more units and be less tired at the end of the day. How much more production depends on the type of work. Production increases of 20% are common, while 35% is typical for blank walls like warehouses. Our users have reported production increases as high as 47% on 12 blocks.
When you calculate the labor savings from this feature alone, you will see that Non-Stop can easily pay for itself in the first 10 to 20 works. Some masonry contractors say that their scaffolding paid for itself on the first job.
Never Run Scaffold-High Again
Building a wall from the ground to scaffold-high and then moving your men is another unnecessary expense to eliminate from your operation. It sends to scatter your men, creates extra work for the laborers, and it wastes ten to fifteen minutes of production time getting the crew started again.
Using Non Stop, you will set your scaffolding in place first, before any work begins. Stock it with materials and you masons start the wall right off the scaffold. Once they have reached a comfortable working height, their walk-boards can be dropped in place in about 30 seconds and they continue working uninterrupted until the wall is topped out. Non-Stop gives you the ability to put your masons walkboards as low as 4 off the ground.
Another standard feature Non-Stop provides is the ability to add an extra walkboard for the masons. In many situations, like brick veneer with block back-up, you must run the block up first. Using Non-Stop, you can run the block with 3 planks for the masons, let the scaffold down and then run the brick with 2 planks without moving or replumbing the scaffolding.