A paycheck advance is a small, short-term loan that is intended to cover a borrower’s expenses until his or her next paycheck. Legislation regarding paycheck loans varies widely between different countries and, within the USA, between different states. For example, there are some states that do not allow paycheck advance loans and others that limit the amount a consumer may borrow at any given time.

Borrowers visit a paycheck lending store or a trusted online payday loan lender secure a small cash loan, with payment due in full at the borrower’s next paycheck (usually a two week term). In the United States, finance charges on paycheck loans are typically in the range of 15 to 30 percent of the amount for the two-week period. The borrower writes a postdated check to the lender in the full amount of the loan plus fees. On the maturity date, the borrower is expected to return to the store to repay the loan in person. If the borrower doesn’t repay the loan in person, the lender may process the check traditionally or through electronic withdrawal from the borrower’s checking account.

If the account is short on funds to cover the check, the borrower may now face a bounced check fee from their bank in addition to the costs of the loan, and the loan may incur additional fees and/or an increased interest rate as a result of the failure to pay.

Paycheck lenders require the borrower to bring one or more recent pay stubs to prove that they have a steady source of income. The borrower is also required to provide recent bank statements. Individual companies and franchises have their own underwriting criteria.

Online paycheck loans are marketed through e-mail, online search, paid ads, and referrals. Typically, a consumer fills out an online application form or faxes a completed application that requests personal information, bank account numbers, Social Security number and employer information. Borrowers fax copies of a check, a recent bank statement, and signed paperwork. The loan is direct-deposited into the consumer’s checking account and loan payment or the finance charge is electronically withdrawn on the borrower’s next paycheck.

After we all agreed on the vision, I asked about the two dynamics of the Partnership Continuum. First, I said, let’s talk about the Stages of Relationship Development. Both agreed they hadn’t really gotten along in the past. In reality, they didn’t even know each other very well. I asked them if they met frequently to discuss issues of mutual concern. I wasn’t surprised to hear that they rarely even talked to each other. So I asked them what they could do to improve their relationship. Marty surprised me: “I think it would be helpful if we got to know each other’s operations.

Maybe there’s some way we can work together to solve our issues.” Jean immediately responded by suggesting they meet one afternoon the following week to talk about how they each accomplish their tasks. The following week we met again and both Jean and Marty reviewed how they scheduled and accomplished their tasks. One of the first things Jean noticed was that there was no coordination between cleaning the rooms and maintenance work. She asked Marty what time he received his list of guest room maintenance jobs. “First thing in the morning, about 7:30,” he said. The job orders were collected by the chief operator and given to him. He then passed them out to the maintenance engineers. We were well on our way to identifying the needs.

It is also sensible to be aware of and take into account the human dimension. People behave differently and inconsistently when making decisions involving risk. They may be exuberant or diffident, overconfident or overly concerned. Or they may simply overlook the issue of risk.

One important priority is to identify significant risks within and outside the organisation and allow these to inform decisions. This makes it easier to avoid unnecessary surprises. Examples of significant risks might be the loss of a major customer, the failure of a principal supplier or the appearance of a significant competitor.

Risk surrounds us all the time. As Harold Macmillan, a former British prime minister, once said: “To be alive at all involves some risk.” Some of the most common areas of risk affecting business are summarised in Table 11.1. It is valuable when attempting to identify risks to define the categories into which they fall. This allows for a more structured analysis and reduces the chances of risks being overlooked.

To this list should be added another, intangible category: the opportunity cost associated with risk. In other words, avoiding a risk may mean avoiding a potentially huge opportunity. There is a tendency for people to be too cautious and risk averse, even though they are often at their best when facing the pressure of risk or deciding to take a more audacious approach. It is also worth considering that sometimes the greatest risk of all is to do nothing.

Financial decisions affect everyone. They should not be left entirely to the “experts” in the finance department or among specialist advisers. Financial issues and techniques – such as dynamic cost management, the importance of cash flow and the time value of money – affect all managers with a financial responsibility and are influenced by everyone.

Make financial expertise widely available Every manager in the business should understand the importance of financial management for profitability and success. People need to feel ownership of their part of the process of financial control, to have the information and expertise to make the best financial decisions and to consider all relevant decisions from a financial perspective.

Decide the discount factor: the percentage that will be deducted from each year’s cash flow. Determining this is central to the whole exercise. A higher discount factor will generate a lower overall valuation. Typically, two things influence the level of the discount factor. The first is the level of business risk. If the risk is high (and the investment is unlikely to meet its projections), the discount factor should also be high. Second, there is often a compromise between the cost of borrowed money (such as 5% interest) and the return expected by the investors (for example, 15%); in this case, the discount factor would be 10%. It may be desirable to select a range of discount factors, providing optimistic, realistic and worst-case scenarios.

Apply the discount factor to the net cash flow for each year of the projection and to the terminal value. The figures resulting from these calculations are the present value contribution of each year’s future cash flow; adding these values provides a total estimate for the value of the investment.