Submetering and Ratio Utility Billing System (RUBS) have been around in one form or another for over 40 years. For most of that time it was limited to a few small companies providing gas & electric sub-metering services to individual owner/operators of apartment buildings. This all changed in the mid nineties and was driven by three events. The first was the decision of United Dominion Realty Trust and Equity Residential Property Trust to pass water costs through to residents through a company they helped create for this purpose.

With several hundred thousand units between them their decision to pass through these costs was followed over the next few years by most of the large owner/managers. The second event was Inovonics introduction of a wireless transmitter suitable for sub-metering applications. This technology allowed the installation of non-proprietary equipment and soon became the industry standard allowing easy installation and remote reading that could be read by every company. The third event was the widespread use and acceptance of RUBS (Ratio Utility Billing System). With RUBS an owner could get many of the benefits of metered services with no equipment costs.

By the late 90′s there were over a dozen sub-metering/RUBS companies with at least 60,000 billable units and dozens more with smaller bases. By 2004 there were over 110 billing companies serving the industry. Consolidation over the last several years has reduced the number of companies providing these services to around 70. Most of the companies are little more than mom & pops without the financing or management to grow beyond their present size.

The market is huge. There are over 30,000,000 multifamily units, a similar number of manufactured home communities, 150,000 utility & water districts, 700,000 units of military housing and 15,000,000 federal facilities. Even with all the growth, it is estimated that less than 15% of the multifamily properties are presently passing all utility costs through to residents.

So far no one company has put all the pieces together and the industry is ripe for continued consolidation. The company that can install equipment efficiently, bill correctly and provide superior customer service could corner a significant share of the emerging market.

We looked at the B Pound recently and gave you areas to sell if you did you made a huge profit with low risk and we have done separate report on the BP – here we want to look at the Yen and Euro and low risk /high reward trading scenario.

Lets look at these currencies and what the week ahead holds.

Japanese Yen

The trend against the dollar is down and has been for years – the recent rally is simply un-winding of carry trades.

This means the JY should resume its down trend and the recent volatility is presenting a low risk high reward opportunity. Take a look at a good free chart service such as futuresource.com and you will see for yourself.

Prices have spiked and are outside the top Bollinger band and resistance lies at 0.85.50 and 86.00. The key to looking at the short side is a change in price momentum.

Pull up the Relative Strength Index which has peaked at just above 70.00 and is losing momentum and also check the Stochastic which is set to cross with bearish divergence.

Look for a reversal day and momentum to turn bearish target on both indicators – target is the mid Bollinger band.

Euro

The euro is in a long term uptrend against the dollar and the recent correction (like the one we looked at in the British Pound) is simply the huge speculative long position being washed out and this looks to be almost done.

The key near term support is 1.36 (bottom of Bollinger band and July Lows)

Again you need to look at the RSI and stochastic and watch for a change in price momentum.

At present there is NO signal to buy RSI continues to fall and the stochastics are deeply oversold.

In Both Currencies

Do not try and predict WAIT for the confirmation on the charts backed up by price momentum.

Trade the reality of price – NOT your opinion (or the opinions of others) stay focused on the charts and stay disciplined.

There are of course conflicting news stories about what happens next – by focusing on the charts and trading the reality of a shift in price momentum, you will be trading the odds and that’s what any currency trader needs to do.

The long term trend is down in the Yen and up in the euro and while we could see a major trend change, this looks like a correction in both currencies and the longer term trends up in Euro and down in Yen will re assert themselves.

Whether you are in an organisation and developing your career or you are the leader of your own professional services practice, one thing you can be sure about….

…. at some stage in the next 12 months you are likely to be asked to present yourself on paper.

That could be for a proposal you are submitting, a job you are applying for or a profile you have to present as a speaker at a conference.

But when was the last time you reviewed your personal profile or CV? And does it accurately reflect your expertise and experience?

I was recently working with a professional association to support them building their brand on-line. They had developed a new web site which gave the members of the association the opportunity to add their details to the data base, providing them with increased visibility.

However, the quality of the personal profiles was so poor, they certainly were not likely to attract interest from potential clients or strategic joint venture partners.

I was also recently working with an executive who was looking for their next career move and we were working on developing their personal brand. However when we looked at their personal marketing materials – their CV – it certainly did not enhance their reputation.

I am frequently asked for a copy of my personal profile and what I have some to learn is that we need to have a core profile available at a moments notice so that we can adapt it to the needs of the audience requesting our profile.

You see it is much easier keeping your profile up to date and relevant than having to create it the first time.

So if your personal profile or CV is out of date, here are four personal branding action steps to ensure that your profile projects your personal brand.

1. Print out a copy of your current personal profile and identify which elements are no longer current.

2. Update your profile – whether it is a CV or professional profile make sure that it does not exceed 2 pages.

3. If you are not sure if your profile accurately reflects your personal brand and expertise, ask a colleague or friend to review it and provide feedback.

4. If you need additional assistance consider the support of a resume writer or personal branding coach to help you create

Do you want to learn more about this and similar strategies? Then join me for my no-cost branding and business development teleseminars.

Your MLM company is planning a big seminar or marketing plan presentation in your area and you’ve chosen to run a Pay-per-Click campaign to generate some prospects to invite. You’re definitely going to need a “Squeeze Page” to make this work but we’ll get into that later. If you click on my link at the bottom of this page I’ll send you some free software to build a Squeeze Page.

What’s the best way to go about this?

To make your campaign cost effective you’ll want to be very specific in your ad about the fact that this is a seminar. You don’t want tire kickers. You want people who like to go to free seminars.

You’ll want to give yourself lots of lead time too if this is your first campaign in this area. If it’s for a marketing plan presentation you may want to wait to see what sort of traffic you can get and how long it takes to show up, before booking the hotel room for your meeting. This is a trial and error process until you find the formula that works for you.

Your ad might say something like this:

Life Changing Seminar Will be Held In “Your-City”-Free The Secrets of Financial Freedom your website goes here.com

You may hate this ad so write one of your own. Or use my ad if you want. Chances are you’ll be the only one in your city doing this.

And make the ad non-specific. You don’t have room in a PPC ad to get into locations and topics etc.

Once you get this going to your liking you can use it continuously, building a list of prospects in your area who are interested in seminars. You’ll always have someone to invite!

As well as your MLM efforts you’ll need a Funded Proposal. If you want to stay in the game long term you’ll want to be making some sideline money early on to fund your marketing programs.

Here are “3 Surefire Ways to make Money Online”