If you haven’t yet considered buying gold to secure your financial future, then it’s about time you gave it a serious thought. Even the very mention of the yellow metal “gold” can be very exciting. No doubt diamonds are a girl’s best friends but that does not affect the popularity of gold in any way. From ancient times, gold has always been dear to a woman’s heart and has been used extensively for making jewelry and artifacts. As far as the popularity of gold is concerned, it still remains untouched. In fact, gold has also caught the eye of shrewd investors who have realized that it could perhaps be the only form of safe investment in times of recession.

People like you and me can buy gold in various forms – pure gold bars, nuggets, gold ingots, 1oz gold bars, 999.9 gold, gold bullion, and of course dazzling gold jewelry. Gold is readily available for sale even on the Internet on online marketplaces like eBay. For many, buying gold items is a way of becoming financially secured than just buying a valuable commodity. The best part is that gold is an independent asset that remains more or less unaffected by the economic cycle due to its sheer diversity of supply and demand base. To understand this, one needs to understand that unlike other commodities that suffer during economic recessions since the supply of raw materials declines, gold is not so vulnerable to the vagaries of the economic market trends.

Demand for gold in the industrial sector suffered a setback with almost 14% drop in the electronic market in 2007. But this was the result of slowing down of consumer spending. As compared to the setback faced by other metals this fall is negligible. Recession in the US has certainly impacted the demand for gold jewelry in North America as buying power of consumers slows down. Buying gold however should not be looked at as spending at all and what you need to really focus on is gold’s inflation and dollar hedging properties.

In fact, gold prices have always been rising steadily and although the dollar value has been sliding downwards in times of recession, gold prices have touched an all time high. With consumer prices in the United States seeing a sharp rise, the investment demand for the yellow metal as a means of inflation and dollar hedge would continue to grow. This demand is expected to remain like this even if the recession continues for a long time. Buying gold therefore remains the safest alternative to many other investments that go through a roller coaster ride during economic tides.

The involvement of the Central Bank in buying and selling gold is also an important factor why there is such a huge demand for gold. Their decision of trading in gold is independent of the economic cycle and is made much in advance to be carried out over a time span of many years. For instance, the first gold sales program in Switzerland commenced proceedings only by May 2000 although it was recommended in 1997 itself by a group of experts. This demonstrates the confidence they had in the yellow metal to render long-term profits and can also give you an idea as to how reliable gold investments can be.

In a nutshell, buying gold is the only way you can prepare yourself financially so that you have the necessary money in your hour of need. While 70% of gold supply can be attributed to mine production, the rest of the supply comes from official sector sales and scrap or recycled gold.

So finally the time has come to sell the business.  After investing years of your time and uncounted thousands of dollars, it has become successful, providing for your needs and wants, and it's time to enjoy the fruits of your labor.  Where do you start?

A good time to start thinking about selling a business is right after startup, when it shows signs of beginning to succeed and become self-sustaining.  Even if you are planning on bequeathing it to your progeny or a partner, it's never too early to think about what will happen afterwards.

The first step is to take your time--selling a business is a complex process and you will only do it once.  Confidentiality is a necessity at this point, as word of an impending sale can cause repercussions among employees and business partners (suppliers, customers, etc.) alike.

Your position in the business is also a point to consider.  If you are the sole proprietor, the decision is yours alone.  However, if you are a partner or board member, selling your part of the business will involve more considerations.

Finding a good broker is worth any amount of time needed to locate one you are comfortable with.  Check the Better Business Bureau for any investigation history, and get referrals from fellow business owners or from industry associations like the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA).  This is a non-profit "trade association of business brokers providing education, conferences, professional designations and networking opportunities" (IBBA), as well as professional certifications and boasts over 1300 members.

Next, a professional appraiser should be consulted, as just like selling a home, a professional appraisal will give a fair value to begin negotiations with.  Keep in mind though, an appraisal is an estimate of the fair value of a business' hard assets, and the market value of the business may be higher or lower, as a business is only worth what someone else is willing to pay. 

Determining major terms and price are issues that you are going to have to work out with your broker, but a few basic factors come into play: what do you want to get out of the sale?  Continuing salary?  Lump sum? Stock options?  This is a step often overlooked until late in the negotiations, often to the detriment of the seller.

Financing the sale is usually about 90% left to the seller.  If you can't or won't be willing to cover the costs of the sale, it may not be a good time to sell.

Once you and your broker have located a buyer and agreed on a price, a Letter of Intent is drafted.  This letter outlines the terms and tentative price in a non-binding document and allows the buyer time to thoroughly investigate the business.  This process is subject to Due Diligence, as the onus of discovery is placed upon the buyer and buyer's agent.          

After the discovery process is completed to both parties' satisfaction, the Purchase Agreement is drafted.  This set of paperwork creates a formal agreement between buyer and seller regarding purchase price, terms, and other legal details.  Once the respective lawyers have finalized the details and complied with state law requirements regarding the sale, the Purchase Agreement is signed, closing documents finalized, and the sale is complete.  If everything has gone well, it's time to breathe a sigh of relief and start planning what to do with all that free time!

William King is the director of Wholesale Pages: http://www.wholesalepages.co.uk , Aid and Trade: http://www.aidandtrade.com , Daily Trader: http://www.dailytrader.com and Pakistan Property Portal http://www.zameen.com/ . He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers, entrepreneurs and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.