Operating Cash Flow: The Secret to Creating and Sustaining a Valuable Business (American Christmas Tree Journal, July '05). Author Jim Devine notes, "The number of times that I have heard a business owner say they acquired additional assets due to their ability to write them off would require a Hewlett Packard calculator to quantify. . . . As a small business owner, the funding strategies that are available don't include some of the creative financing alternatives that are available to large businesses with open access to public capital markets. On the credit side, most small businesses have access to only the capital they can effectively borrow from their local bank or what they can squeeze from their suppliers. Equity in the form of retained profits represents their primary equity funding resource.. . . We often find that business owners who are struggling with cash flow issues are also the ones who have accumulated the biggest pool of assets. . . . The very decision to acquire an asset is an intentional decision to be less liquid. . . . Remember, at the end of the day, cash is king!"

Protect Your Hearing recommends Golf Course News (July '05) in an article that appears in English and Spanish. "Loud noises increase heart rate and energy use. This can contribute to fatigue, discomfort and mental unease. However, the primary effect of noise is loss of hearing. Abusing the ears with loud noises shifts the hearing threshold upward, so that a person can only hear louder sounds. . . . Once damage to hearing has occurred, it is impossible to repair. Everyone should take steps to protect their hearing in the workplace. . . . Acoustical ear muffs provide the most effective protection against noise. They don't contribute to infection and discomfort as do ear plugs, which fit tightly and carry dirt to the ear canal. Ear muffs block more noise than plugs because they also cover the sound conducting bones around the ears."

Research and Markets: Demand for Perlite in Horticulture Continues to Grow (BusinessWire.com, July 29, '05 ). " Research and Markets
( http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c21628 ) has announced the addition of a new Roskill report The Economics of Perlite to their offering. Annual world production of unexpanded perlite has increased by some 20% since 1997, principally driven by higher production in Greece , Turkey and China . Estimated world production of around 3.1Mtpy is believed to represent just 60% of installed production capacity. World consumption of unexpanded perlite was estimated at 2.7Mt in 2003, and is expected to increase at an average annualised rate of 1% over the next five years. There will, however, be major differences in regional rates of growth; overall demand in Asia is expected to grow by at least 3%pa while in China demand, largely based on use in building materials is expected to grow at 10%pa. The decline in construction activity in Western Europe is forecast to have bottomed out and overall demand for perlite to 2010 will now increase at a rate of 2% per year." Read the complete article at http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/
index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050729005193&newsLang=en .

Sun-Gro Investing $1 M in new equipment ( CanadaEast.com , July 23, 2005 ). " A Vancouver-based producer of sphagnum peat with extensive operations on the Acadian Peninsula is investing almost $1 million in new equipment that's expected to create 14 jobs in Lamèque. 'With this expansion we will almost double our production of perlite,' said Rénald Boudreau, general manager of Sun Gro Horticulture Canada 's eastern division, in French Friday. Perlite is a material used in the production of some peat products. With a new, high-tech furnace to be located in the Lamèque area, Sun Gro is planning to increase its current production of perlite from 48,000 to 75,000 cubic metres and use that material in its newly-acquired Metro Mix brand. . . . Sun Gro Horticulture's sudden need for more perlite comes after its acquisition of the U.S.-based Metro Mix and Redi-Earth brands from The Scotts Company for US-$6 million in mid-2004. Those brands are expected to bring the Vancouver-based company $30 million in annual revenue and $8 million of that is expected to be from products directly linked to the new capital investment in Lamque, said Mr. Boudreau." Read the complete article at http://canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050723/
TPMONEY10/207230398/-1/MONEY .

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