Are you invested in markets other than the US ? If not, you should be...

The vast majority of people saving in their 401k and retirement portfolios are investing only in the US stock markets. To me, this is myopic, if not downright negligent. The GDP growth rates for the US, for the foreseeable future, is going to be in the 1.5% to 2.5% annual rate at best. The countries with the best GDP growth rates, which are both high and substantial enough to be meaningful, are China and India, and to a lesser extent, the European Union. Their forecasted GDP growth rates are 7% to 9.5% for atleast the next 3 decades. 

 Below is the forecasted GDP for the coming decades through 2050 -

Top 10 GDP Countries 2000-2050

This table shows the top 10 countries by GDP (Gross Domestic Product)expressed in billions of US$, for the years 2000, 2010, 2020, 2030, 2040 and 2050, listed by projected 2050 rank. 
SOURCE: Goldman Sachs 

2050 Rank		Country Name	2000GDP	2010 GDP	2020 GDP	2030 GDP	2040 GDP	2050GDP
1	CHN	China	1078	2998	7070	14312	26439	44453
*	EU	European Union *	9395	12965	16861	21075	28323	35288
2	USA	United States	9825	13271	16415	20833	27229	35165
3	IND	India	469	929	2104	4935	12367	27803
4	JPN	Japan	4176	4601	5221	5810	6039	6673
5	BRA	Brazil	762	668	1333	2189	3740	6074
6	RUS	Russia	391	847	1741	2980	4467	5870
7	UK	United Kingdom	1437	1876	2285	2649	3201	3782
8	GER	Germany	1875	2212	2524	2697	3147	3603
9	FRA	France	1311	1622	1930	2267	2668	3148
10	ITA	Italy	1078	1337	1553	1671	1788	2061

* European Union GDP, which I calculated myself, is shown for comparison, but not ranked.

A well allocated investment portfolio would do the following -

 1. Allocate the portfolio among countries based on their share of World GDP, weighted in favor of countries with a high rate of GDP growth.

 2. Allocate funds between stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds and cash. In other words, diversify based on investor's risk and return criteria.

 While the above allocation would work for both the aggressive and the defensive investor, the selection of index funds or individual stocks would differ for the two types of investors.

Investment accounts, 401K retirement accounts, etc. should be rebalanced now  to benefit from growth in the emerging markets and the EU in the coming decades. If you are not doing this yourself but would like to, I would be glad to discuss this further. Shoot me an email at RDhawan at sbcglobal dot net. Later !

I.  WRITE OUT ON PAPER WHAT YOUR BUSINESS IS ALL ABOUT

Using the power of search, identify where the demand is in your industry. So for me, in finance and accounting, Google search tells me that the most demand is for the following search terms -

1.   Point of Sale Software (POS)

  POS QuickBooks Accounting

  Merchant accounts

  Credit card machines / processing

2.   Audit Software

  Audit checklist

  Internal Auditor

  Tax Audit

3.   Probate

  Wealth Management

  Last Will

  Financial Planner

  Retirement Planning & 401K

II.    IDENTIFY & BUILD BUYER PERSONAS

Build buyer personas by -

1. Identifying keywords that people are using to search

2. Group these keywords, and build buyer personas around these groups

3. Avail the blogging services of Techorati, Google Blog Search, etc.

4. Have a Google profile, so people reading your blogs can know you and contact you

III. CREATE A CONTENT-RICH WEBSITE

The website should be where it all comes together –

1.     Begin blogging, or writing from your perspective, on your business 

Write often in Blogger or other software, and be consistent 

Blog/write with the buyer personas in mind

Use social bookmarks Deli.cio.us and Digg

Your blog should be rich in search keywords

Links to website, landing pages, Google profile

2.     Press Room / News Releases

Optimized for searching

Have an editorial calendar

Publish simultaneously to website & release wires

3.     Google Analytics

Install it in all web pages

Learn to use and understand what it is telling you

4.     Social Networking and Social Media Sites

YouTube videos

FaceBook, Linked In, Twitter

Use social media Widgets Everywhere

IV.  LANDING PAGES, E-COMMERCE & SALES

The content-rich website should further –

1.     Have a merchant account

2.     Allow credit card processing

3.     Clearly state the pricing of products and/or services

4.     Capture emails and allow customer feedback

5.     Allow for booking appointments and contact information

 OCTOBER 16^TH, 2010           
RAJ DHAWAN, CPA                                                                             RDhawan@sbcglobal.net

Leave your virtual business card on the web...and promote yourself !!!

Not everyone has gotten a website of their own. And even if they do, it is often not updated, or is hard to make changes to, or has the perennial problem of many websites, namely TMI - too much information.

However, I have seen that a blog could be an ideal place to let people know who you are, and what you are upto. It is your virtual business card, and one that can be readily updated. A blog as your business card should be succinct and visually appealing. Be sure to have widgets that people can click onto if they should want more information about you. So links to your LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook profiles could be placed on your virtual business card blog. Be sure leave a way for people to contact you, which could be via email, text messages, phone, a tweet, ping, or any other way that works best for you. Consider leaving your virtual business card when you reach out to people on the web, leave comments for others, give a review on Amazon, or any other place in cyberspace.

My email is RDhawan (at) sbcglobal (dot) net.
Drop me an email if you'd like with your thoughts. I'd be glad to hear from you.