Sunday, September 30, 2012

How You Can Make Money

They say nothing in life is certain but death and taxes, and this is as true in the realm of property as it is anywhere else. Of course, some people don't like to face up to either. When a real estate owner fails to live up to his responsibilities to the government, the authority in charge of such matters will issue a lien on the property. At that point, the homeowner has a certain time period during which he can pay the owed amount. If he fails to do so, the property will be forfeited to the state or local government. This is where you come in. The government will put the home up for auction at a tax sale. This can represent a golden opportunity to make some money.
The Two Ways
Not every tax sale is the same. Generally speaking, you're going to run across two primary types: the lien auction and the deed auction. When you visit a lien auction, you'll find the county government selling off the actual debt to private investors. Once this transaction takes place, it's like a business selling off their bad debt to a collections agency. It is the investor's responsibility to get the owed amount from the homeowner. If the homeowner can't pay, the property itself may pass to the investor. The other type is the deed auction. This is where the government has already foreclosed on the house and now wants to get rid of the property for at least the amount of the back taxes. This, too, can be very profitable for investors.
The Lien Auction
One of the main advantages of investing in the lien auction is that you are guaranteed a profitable interest rates. Investors look to a tax sale of this kind as a chance to become a sort of default lender. They become a legal loan shark, of a sort. The only difference is that investors aren't going to send someone to break the leg of the homeowner should he be unable to come up with the interest. If enough time passes, however, they will be able to take the homeowner to court and sue them for the rights to the property. That said, don't get into lien auctions with the hope of landing cheap properties, as most owners will come up with the money in time.
The Deed Auction
If you want to own property, this is the tax sale you want to look for. While much rarer than lien auctions, they can represent a wonderful opportunity to buy property for a song. The government is only interested in getting the taxes and their overhead off the books. Once that minimum has been met, only the bidding will determine how much the home goes for. Get in at the right time, and you could get a house you can flip for a profit of thousands.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Holiday Shopping Tips For The Busy Executive

Fall is here. The holiday season is right around the corner. It's the time of year when we all start thinking about holiday gifts. Business to business gift giving during the Holiday Season has become common practice as more and more companies realized the value and importance of the gesture.
Giving gifts is a great way for the savvy business person to strengthen relationships by showing how much they value their clients and business associates. They know Holiday Season is the perfect time to say "thank you" and let clients and associates know how much they appreciate their contribution to your business' success. They understand that a business gift is about gratitude.
So, what's the secret to choosing the right business gift? Here are a few things to keep in mind.
A good gift is one that will be appreciated by the recipient. The first Christmas I spent with my husband (we were dating at the time), he gave his mother a blender. Seriously! Needless to say, I warned him that I would not appreciate kitchen appliances as gifts. Ever.
In business, you also want to make sure the gift is appropriate. Years ago, giving gifts of alcohol was very common but with changes in the law and social custom giving alcoholic beverages became less popular.
Be sure you know what company policies are with respect to receiving gifts. In order to avoid the hint of conflict of interest or any other impropriety, some companies, as well as government agencies, have set limits as to the dollar value of gifts that their employees can receive. Other companies don't allow employees to accept gifts of any sort.
If in doubt about company policy, check with the Human Resources Department.
The gift you choose says a lot about your company, so choose gifts that are in good taste. Gifts can be simple, practical, luxurious or even indulgent. Gifts with a company logo can be fine but remember that something that is appropriate for a trade show may not suitable as a holiday gift.
Try to add a personal touch. A hand written note makes the gift more personal and if at all possible, personally deliver the gift or have it hand delivered.
Approach business gift giving as you would any business project and develop a plan. Develop a list of who you are giving gifts to, determine the time frame in which each item needs to be completed, who will do the work and a budget.
Start by deciding who you will be giving gifts to. You may decide to give gifts to all 10,000 of your clients or just to ten or twenty-five of your best clients. Prepare a list with the names, addresses and phone numbers. You will need this information for shipping or deliveries, so if you make your list with all of that information now, you won't have to go back and do it later when you may be more pressed for time.
This list is the key. When your list is completed, you will be able to set your budget. The budget will help determine what your gift options are. If you decide to send a gift to10,000 clients, the amount of money you spend on each gift will probably be very different from the budget per gift if you are sending gifts to only 10 or 25 individuals. A calendar or key chain is an appropriate gift for an insurance agency to send to all policy holders insured by the company whereas a set of golf clubs might be a better gift choice for a senior executive at a Fortune 500 Company to send to a colleague.
Start early and give yourself plenty of time. As we get closer to the Holiday Season, manufacturers will become busier and the more lead time they will need. Ordering early will give you time to make adjustments should they become necessary. Choose your suppliers carefully and keep Murphy's Law in mind because something WILL go wrong.
Also take into account the time factor if you are going to be personally shipping your gifts rather than having them shipped directly from the supplier. Check with your courier service and make note of their schedules. Fed Ex and UPS post their delivery date deadlines on their websites. If you are having gifts drop shipped, request notification when the items were shipped and when they were received.
And finally, start early. Start your Holiday Shopping early, finish early and have more time to enjoy the Holiday Season.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Find a Reputable Gold Buyer

Everyone agrees, the economy has declined, and times are hard. Many people are even resorting to selling family heirlooms just to be able to pay their household bills. Thankfully, finding a reputable gold buyer isn't as difficult as you may think.
However, it's not always the best idea to trust everyone who trades in this commodity. It's all too easy to be taken advantage of if you don't know what to look for.
Even though your heirlooms aren't precious enough to keep, you still don't want to be cheated. It's possible to find a reputable metals dealer who will give you the fair market value for your gems.
- Value. The first thing you need to know is that the value of some metal varies daily. If you receive an offer from one dealer, and it differs from another, or, if the offer differs at different times, don't assume they're cheating you. The market fluctuates.
- Appraisal. Go to a jewelry store or independent appraiser service to find out the value of your jewelry before visiting a gold buyer. The appraiser should be able to give your items a range to fall between so you'll know if the dealer falls anywhere within that range, he's reputable.
- Urgency. It's a bad idea to try to sell your jewelry when you're desperate for cash. This is a recipe for failure and opens the door to scams. Look for a dealer when you don't need the money and store it your savings for when you need it most.
- Price Quotes. If you call a gold buyer and they give you a price quote over the telephone, they most likely aren't reputable. An honest dealer will always insist on looking at the items before making an offer.
- Comparisons. Another good idea is to visit several dealers in one day, and then compare the quotes for your items. You can easily root out the disreputable ones seeing which ones quoted lower than the others.
Avoid any dealers who don't have a permanent, established business. The "come and go" type business are often scam operations, so make sure any company that you deal with has a history of business in your area.
If you follow these tips, you'll be able to locate an honest dealer and get the money you need. It's very probable that you'll be able to get a fair price for your valuables.
However, one of the worst things you can do is allow your gold buyer contact to keep your items without paying you for them upfront. If they attempt to keep your valuables and insist that an appraiser will want to look at them before any payments are made, this is not the establishment with which you want to do business.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Proper Planning Is a Major Part of Office Furniture Installations

When some people think of office furniture installations the thing that comes to mind is a company coming in and putting in some equipment such as desks, chairs and maybe even cubicles. What some people don't realize, however, is that there is much more to this process then they may think.
For instance, before office furniture installations can begin, there must be a planning phase. This usually involves business owners sitting down with the company to map out the space and plan exactly where everything is going to go. This may not seem like a big deal, but without this task being done, the room would be a mess. Just think about it.
Imagine if a company went in to do one of these tasks without properly planning everything out with the business they are servicing. They would have a bunch of equipment and supplies to put together and place, but they wouldn't know where to start. Let's say they begin installing cubicles. As they work, they soon find out that they actually installed them improperly. It's not that they didn't put it together correctly. However, they started on the wrong side of the room. The bad news is that cubicles can't always just be picked up and moved around like a simple chair. So, they would end up having to take everything a part and start over again. What if they end up having to do this several times? Just imagine how frustrating this ordeal could be in real life. Not only would it be frustrating, but it is also a complete waste of time.
Now, some would argue that a pre-planning phase still isn't needed, because all that would have to happen is for the business owner to be there as a guide while the office furniture installations are taking place. This may be a little bit better. On the other hand, it could be just as bad. That's because, although the owner would have a good idea of how they want everything, they still couldn't remember all of their desires specifically. They might just have a general idea. So, they wouldn't be able to tell the workers the exact area to put the cubicles in. This could also cause them to have to do their work over a few times.
Conducting office furniture installations involves more than just going in and placing pieces of furniture in a space. A pre-planning phase is also needed to make sure the process runs smoothly and efficiently.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Freight Shipping Is Dealing With A Whole Host

Since the world becomes more competitive, there's increased congestion within the freight network in North America. The general trends are changing the investments that were made within the transport industry previously have started to show their age.
It costs money to ship goods and that price is climbing very quickly Increasing price of energy is one issue however problems within the transportation system can also be to blame. Shipping companies are concerned that the current national infrastructure which are barely capable of handling today's freight will be sorely inadequate later on. These problems not merely effect trucking but in addition railway, air and also boat transport methods.
The North American highway makes up a sizable chunk of the freight which is shipped. The highways used by truck drivers have reached or exceeded their designed limitations in several areas. Traveling during peak times has established unsafe conditions for most major metropolitan areas. In fact, rear end crashes caused by stopped traffic have become the best growing kind of accident.
This highway structure is the backbone of the shipping sector and bears almost 80 % of the overall tonnage transported each year. High quantities of traffic are impacting the industry by producing delays in deliveries. A lot of traffic jams are caused by an absence of capacity within the freeways but many delays will also be a direct result road work and vehicle accidents. Even though some highways can handle current traffic amounts interchanges are not up to the job and need to be upgraded.
On account of advancements in the usage of computer systems inside the industry just-in-time shipping started to be feasible. Adding mobile communication systems along with other hi-tech solutions allowed for much more reliable and also faster deliveries. Shipments are more and more difficult to rely on as urban areas expand and traffic gets to be unpredictable.
The future doesn't look that good unless of course significant investments are made to advance things. The system of highways is not just suffering from the increasing issue of traffic jams. Infrastructure improvements will also be very badly needed but finding the funds required can be quite a challenge. Gasoline is actively playing a sizable role within the ever climbing cost of construction. The building and repair of freeways is incredibly energy intensive. Diesel fuel is now expensive recently making construction tasks more costly as well that's restricting the level of initiatives a government can commit to. This as resulted in a seventy-percent increase in the price tag on main construction projects really short time.
The problematic motorways are impacting not simply trucking but the additional types of shipping at the same time. The normal link between the additional modes of transportation is trucking. The longer term is just not hopeless so long as the steps needed are undertaken as well as the investments are made to enhance the transport commercial infrastructure.