Archive for March, 2010

Choosing Between Debt Consolidation and Debt Settlement

Are you in debt and looking for a way out? Maybe you’ve heard about debt consolidation and debt settlement and how families, businesses and individuals are using them to help eliminate debt and chart a course towards brighter financial futures.

You want to be one of those lucky individuals, too. But you don’t understand the differences, so it’s difficult to determine which is right for your situation.

If that’s where you’re at, this article is for you. In it you’ll learn the similarities, the differences, and which one has the potential to quickly reduce and eliminate your debt by 50 percent or more.

First the similarities. Both debt settlement and debt consolidation fall into the category of debt relief programs and services. Besides relieving you of debt, both offer a number of debt management benefits.

Now the differences. Consolidation is the process of consolidating all of your unsecured debt, such as your credit cards and medical bills, into one lower monthly payment. You do this by using the money from your consolidation loan to pay off each of your individual creditors. Then each month, you make a single payment towards your lower rate consolidation loan and continue making payments until the loan is repaid. You’re not free until you repay the consolidation loan. But you are relieved from all those higher interest rates and angry bill collectors.

Debt settlement is the program that can reduce your debt by as much as 50% and sometimes even more. It’s a faster way to eliminate a large amount of debt and shorten the amount of time it takes to become free. People and businesses that choose settlement usually work with a debt management firm. Representatives from the firm negotiate on your behalf with each of your creditors with the goal of getting creditors to make concessions on the amount you owe. Oftentimes negotiations result in creditors agreeing to forgive up to 50% or more of the balance due. You will never be required to repay anything that has been forgiven.

West Virginia Small Business Grants

West Virginia business grant makes it very easy on the owners of small business from all the angles of life to succeed and to innovate. A person may be looking for the grants in West Virginia for various reasons like child care, agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, technology and environmental management. There are varieties of choices available for a person to run the business and also to get the required help. The sources for the financial support in West Virginia are more customary than the earlier situation and give millions of dollars every year to the business owners who are well deserved.

One of the very famous West Virginia business grants arrives from the federal government. But, in contrary, many of the federal sponsored grants are available to the other businesses apart from those not for profit enterprises. The Small Business Innovation Research – SBIR and the Small Business Technology Transfer – STTR grants yearly award $1 billion towards research and development resources and contracts to the small businesses for the development of new products and the services of technology based. These grants remain funding sent into the economy of West Virginia and permit the state to remain on the critical edge of novelty in the business. The website of SBIR contains all the details pertaining to procedure for applying.

Idea Cafe is an organization run privately. It motivates creativity and impel from its collection of applicants. The vision at Idea Cafe is that the entrepreneur of the small business takes care of the economy. To assist in developing every business of the winner, Idea Cafe gives $1000 as prize to many of the stirring owners of the business. There are no restrictions on the applicants regarding the status of the business as profit in Idea Cafe like any other grants sponsored by the government. There is no necessity that the applicant should be charitable enterprise to take advantage from the kindness of Idea Cafe. Idea Cafe has given out around 9 grants from 2001 and also has offered hundred of various other business grants in West Virginia. The website is available and any one can join freely in it and can get the listing of grant and also can apply for the grant.

If the business is meant for promoting the advertising projects that encourages the trade of tourism for West Virginia, while also rationalizing as an attraction, then this business will get qualified for the MAPP – Matching Advertising Partnership Program. The keyword for this is matching. It means that the entrepreneur has to demonstrate some of the competence at the private fund developing so as to get the awareness of the grant program. But, with the MAPP, one can possible get the reimbursement for the complete funds for the project. For applying, one should first give consideration to the quantity of money that is required for the project. The applications can be availed for the grant ranging from $5000 to $10000 and also for more amounts.

How Do Contract Mortgage Processors Comply With the New State Licensing Requirements?

There are thousands of mortgage processors acting on a contract basis in the United States. The SAFE Mortgage License Act that passed in July 2008 requires contract mortgage processors to be licensed by July 2010. How does the new law affect contract mortgage processors? Obtaining mortgage loan originator (MLO) licenses in multiple states can be very costly. What can a contract mortgage processor do to comply and not break the bank?

Let’s first look at the definition of a contract mortgage processor under the SAFE Mortgage Licensing Act. The Act defines a mortgage processor as an individual that gathers documents from borrowers and submits the documents to a lender, but does not take residential loan applications. The Act then goes on to state that a mortgage processor is exempt from mortgage loan originator licensing as long as they are a w-2 employee of just one mortgage company. Thus a mortgage processor that is 1099 and/or processes loans for more than one mortgage company must be licensed as a mortgage loan originator (MLO) and is considered a contract mortgage processor. If you are defined as a contract processor, then what are your options for obtaining a license in each state you process loans?

Option 1

You can choose to become a w-2 employee of just one mortgage company and process mortgage loans for only that one company. This is probably not the ideal situation for most contract mortgage processors, but it may be the only option for some. The cost of licensing can be expensive and a license is required in each state you process loans. Also, as we will discuss shortly, you may need to obtain a mortgage company license too. This is even more costly than obtaining just the mortgage loan originator license.

The down side to this option is obvious. You can’t continue to process mortgage loans for your other customers. Also, it may be hard to find a company that will hire you on a full-time w-2 basis. Most smaller companies just do not have the resources to maintain a full-time processor on staff.

Option 2

You can choose to obtain a mortgage loan originator (MLO) license in each state you want to process loans in. Then you can have your primary customer sponsor those mortgage loan originator licenses. To get a mortgage loan originator license, you will need to complete 20 hours of education, two tests, fingerprinting, credit check, and pay an application fee between $100 and $400 per state. Then you can have your primary customer sponsor your mortgage loan originator license. This will allow you to process loans for your primary customer on a 1099 contract basis. The problem is that if you want to have other customers, you would have to set up your contract between your sponsoring primary employer and the other customers. So when you want to get paid by your other customers, the other customers would have to pay your primary customer and then your primary customer could pay you. This obviously poses a huge problem for most contract processors since it is very unlikely you will find a primary customer that will be willing to sign processing contracts with your other customers. However, this is how the states are saying it must be done. Some states may be implementing this slightly differently, so I recommend contacting the state or a licensing service to determine how the state is interpreting these requirements.

Option 3

You can choose to obtain a mortgage company license and a mortgage loan originator (MLO) license in each state you want to process loans in. This is the ideal situation, because then you do not have to be limited to just one employer as in option 1 and you do not have to have a primary customer sponsor you and pay you for your other customers work as in option 2. However, this is the most costly option. It usually costs about $1,000 to $3,000 to apply for a mortgage company license per state. And some states have net worth requirements, experience requirements, and bonding requirements that can be difficult barriers to overcome.

If you are able to go this option, you will actually be able to avoid the mortgage loan originator licensing in many of the states by paying yourself as a w-2 employee of your contract processing company, but the costs will still be much higher. If you are thinking of going this way, you will want to get licensed only in states you plan on processing ten or more loans in each month. In fact, most people that go this route will benefit from having a few contract processors work with them to offset the costs.

Time Management Tips For Professionals

There is no easy route in perfecting time management. Although the idea of managing time may sound easy, many people are still finding it difficult to follow.

If you are one of those people who find it hard to follow time management, then here are some tips that you can follow.

1. See the BIGGER Picture

Time is a constant and abundant resource that people can’t purchase or sell. It is a resource that can be shared with or can be shared from someone else.

And one effective way of managing it is by visualizing a bigger and clearer picture of your goal. Prioritize more the activities that would put you closer to your objective, and prioritize less those that won’t. Carefully assess the tasks that need prioritization in order to accomplish activities that are closely related to your goal.

Many successful people today practice different time management forms and techniques, but if there’s one thing these business minded people share in common. It’s the vision of how they want to spend their business time.

2. AUDITING Time Management (For Professionals)

Ideally speaking, everything that a person should list and follow should be actively valuable towards their desired goal.

To make your auditing faster, the following are sub-breakdowns that many professionals spend their time on. Personal goals may differ, but the general idea of breaking goals down remains the same.

• People and Managing. Managing people can be sub-categorized in to three different areas namely;

1. Managing time across
2. Managing time up
3. Managing time down

If you’re currently working as a leader or as a manager in a company, understand that the best way to spend most of your time is by directly supervising your team or co-workers below you.

This is also an effective strategy of teaching your employees while working your personal professional goal at the same time. Cultivating time-leverage upward not only benefits the team and the company, but it can also benefit you by moving closer to your goal.

3. CHARTS for Time Management

Presently, there are lots of these tips that are scattered all over the internet. The approach may vary sometimes, but believe that the basic idea is still there.

One common tip most time management tips share is in building a chart. Building charts are effective in reminding important plans ahead. Creating charts are also helpful in simplifying time management audits, as well as in pitching the whole picture of your goal.

Building a Chart:

a. Start building your chart by writing down the days and weeks in a month. Across its columns on top, write down your major tasks and goals that needs prioritization.

b. After you complete this activity, record the amount of time you spent under each category. This way you can easily monitor your progress and accomplishments in one day.

c. Try to stick to the plan as much as possible.

d. Avoid over doing it by stuffing to much work in one day.

Text Loans – Get Finance From Mobile Phones

Technology has made lots of things easier for us in terms of communication, food, transport, work etc. Advance technology brought some changes in the financial industry as well and text loans are the new example. Can you avail the loan by sending one text from mobile phone? Yes, it is true now. This is the new way lenders are offering money. It provides short term monetary help to meet any unexpected expenses that can destroy your financial or monthly budget. These are small financial help but provide huge help at time of emergency.

With the help of these loans, borrowers can avail the money from any part of UK by sending text through cell phone. Banks or lenders transfer the amount into the account within few minutes after receiving the text. People are free to use the money for any purpose like, education fees, hospital charges, medical bills, car broken payment, rent payment, credit card payment etc. This loan options allow people to borrow the amount up to £100 for the time period of 7 days. People need to fulfill the eligibility criteria in order to obtain the cash like:

- UK citizenship and individual should be 18 years old or more.
- Full time job with regular source of money
- 6 months old active bank account
- Borrower can not avail the option without mobile phone and email address

In order to proceed for text loans, applicants need to fill a free online application form. After submitting the application form, lenders verify the details and send the complete information about the next steps. You just need to follow the same instructions in order to finish the procedure. The biggest advantage of finance is that you can obtain the cash any number of times after becoming the client of bank.

Banking Aspects of a Business – Bank Factoring and Bank Loans

Bank factoring generally refers to the process in which a bank buys a business’s account receivables instead of lending against them. Most major banks and a growing number of smaller banks are involved in factoring. Traditionally, however, a separate agency usually provides factoring programs because of tight governmental restrictions on banks that curtail lending limits.

To be considered for bank factoring, a business owner must accept and process credit card payments from its customers. Once a bank buys the company’s accounts receivables, it calculates the amount of advanced funds to be provided to the owner, and then collects that amount from the customers. The bank earns a certain percentage off the accounts every month. Once the entire balance is paid off, the bank subtracts the original amount of funds advanced and pays it back to the business owner.

Banks may also require certain other criteria to be met before considering an individual for factoring. The most common criteria considered are a company’s sales volume, average invoice, gross profit, and credit terms available to customers. Because their main focus is on the financial stability of a business’s customers, banks usually do not take into account restricted working capital or prior losses determinants for approval of factoring.

Bank factoring offers many benefits to individuals in need of business capital: immediate deposit of funds, simplified billing processes, and prompt payment of invoices.

A bank loan is a specified amount of money lent to a client for at an interest rate. Terms of payment and interest rates vary greatly depending on which bank lends the money. Bank loans for consumers and bank loans for businesses have different approval requirements, and it is much harder to get a business loan from a bank.

The first things a bank looks for in determining whether to approve a loan are the character, promise, and credit of the individual applying for the loan. These three criteria tell the bank if there is any chance the individual will not pay back the loan, therefore putting the bank’s money at risk. If it does happen that the individual does not repay the loan, the bank wants sufficient collateral to be on hand to compensate for any unpaid funds. When considering a business owner for a loan, the bank also looks at the business’s profitability record, current assets, and the owner’s investment in the company. Typically, a bank loan to a small business requires the owner to personally guarantee the borrowed funds.

Another option for a business owner who is unable to secure a business bank loan is applying for a personal bank loan. These loans are much easier to obtain, and the funds can be directed towards the business. Banks feel safer about approving personal loans because statistically, a loan requiring personal collateral, such as a home, is more likely to be repaid than a loan for a business.

Where Are 0% APR Student Credit Cards?

Building your credit for the first time can be a challenge. First, you’re going to find that some banks want you to have credit, but if you’re new to the game, how the heck are you supposed to have credit? It just doesn’t make any sense! If you’re looking to get a first time credit card, I would advise that you go down the student credit card route.

Now, if you’re already looking for student cards, you’re going to find that you will more than likely want a card that has a 0% interest / APR. Sadly, this isn’t going to happen, but you’re going to find that if you know where to look, you can get a card that has a great introductory rate.

You don’t want to be the students that see 0% on the application and instantly think that that’s what you’re going to get, because this isn’t the case. You’re going to find that many credit card companies are going to do everything in their own power to get you to sign up, hoping that you don’t read the fine print. Trust me, it works now and it will work well into the future.

The alternatives

I know that credit cards come in handy when it comes to college. You’re going to have to put $100s on your card to pay for books, food, and more. While it’s going to be a challenge to pay it off in full each month, you’re going to find that if you do, you can avoid interest rates all together. So, even if they want to charge you 300%, it won’t matter to you since you’re not going to pay interest anyways.

Your best route

The best thing that you’re going to be able to do is take advantage of the introductory rates. Most of the major banks today such as Discover, Citi, and others are going to give you an intro rate for the first 6 months. Always make sure that you read the application to know what you’re getting yourself into. While 6 months doesn’t seem like a long time, it’s a lot better than nothing.

The best place to find these cards is simply by using comparison sites, or heading to your local bank. In today’s economic climate, you more than likely won’t find a card that gives you 0% for life. Once that card does come to market, you can bet that everyone will flock to it one by one.

Marketing Consulting Services – How to Authoritatively Position and Presell Your Expertise

If you currently offer consulting services or are thinking of adding consulting services to your offerings, one of the most important skills you need to master is how to strategically position and package your expertise in a way that can be promoted across multiple media and marketing channels.

This is easier said than done if your consulting area is not in the personal branding or marketing category. Here are a few tips that can help you systematically create a highly marketable package out of what you know and do so in a way that helps you convert more prospects and attract powerful strategic partners.

1. Systematize Your Expertise

By this I mean that you should translate your expertise into branded packages, products and programs that prospects find easier to understand and more accessible. While you may not always be able to get prospects to understand the detailed (or technical) aspects of what you do, they should be able to understand:

  • What their benefits will be
  • The philosophies that guide your practice
  • The process by which you deliver results
  • The difference between you and your competitors

You should work hard to provide your marketplace with resources that help them identify the difference between your philosophies, processes and practices and those of your competition.

2. Branding

While personal branding is a popular catch phrase in entrepreneurial circles, successful consultants and business coaches learn how to brand concepts, philosophies and approaches. In the arena of consulting where your “products” are intangibles, the importance of this skill can not be overstated.

In my consulting practice, we teach our clients how to apply the “4P strategic thinking framework” to the area of concept branding. Not only should you brand your concepts, you should also make sure to brand yourself by:

  • Developing a unique selling proposition (USP)
  • Compressing your USP into a memorable tag line
  • Assigning yourself a congruent personal tagline

3. Book Authorship

After you have developed your concepts, branded them and developed a unique selling proposition for yourself and an appropriate personal title, it’s time to get the word out about your concepts and the problems that you help solve.

One of the most powerful ways to do this is by authoring a book on your specialty area. A book is the best business card money can buy and can help you land lucrative speaking gigs, media publicity and the attention of valuable strategic partners.

You can learn how to properly pre-sell your services in books by reading the works of the most successful consultants like Dan Kennedy, Ram Charan, Jack Trout and Geoff Smart.

4. Assessment Tools

Developing assessment tools help you engage book readers beyond the purchase of your book. Your assessment tools could be located on a website to which members gain access when they register with their email addresses. You may also include other interactive and educational elements that deepen the connection between you and your prospects.

By carefully designing your assessment tools, you can virtually sell your consulting services and make sure that the people who call your office or organization already need and want your services. The Kolbe Index from Kathy Kolbe is a great example of a powerful assessment tool that pre-sells higher level consulting services.

5. Syndicate Your Content

If you are starting without a national audience or a high-profile platform from a previous career, you are going to need all the promotional help you can get. Content marketing online and off is a great way to spread the word about your expertise and your business.

Break up the areas of your expertise to address the problems that give your target prospects headaches. Share this content in ways that people like to receive information – especially online. Then syndicate your content through tools like social media websites, article marketing directories and even video screencasts on video sharing and syndication sites.

3 Ways to Give Before Receiving When Networking

When I envision “perfect networking”, the word reciprocity comes to mind. Business networking is about forming relationships that lead to benefits immediately or down the line. These benefits can include any number of positive outcomes.

In order for great business networking to be manifested, one has to be willing to give and the other to receive. Through time, these roles switch and the giver becomes the receiver. It is actually fantastic when this is done with sincerity- When one person offers something of value and expects nothing in return.

Perfect business however, usually ends up with both parties involved in a transaction receiving something of benefit. One party spends their money and in return they receive the desired product or service. The seller, of course, receives the financial compensation.

That’s basic business but networking has some extra levels added. When we network effectively, one person typically gives something first. In other words, the first giver initiates the process and whether the receiver returns the favor at a later time, is due to decision and circumstance.

It’s good however, when building relationships that will help your career, to be the first giver when you can. Below, are 3 ways to give before receiving when networking;

1. Give them something free from your company.

So, you have just met a good candidate to be a lifelong contact. You really don’t know where this business relationship can go but it’s always good to have an open mind and foster positivity regardless. A good way to do this is to offer a part of your service or a product free of charge. This has a few benefits;

A. You are giving something of value to a new associate. Of course, you should give something that you honestly feel they will value.

B. You are giving a mini promotion to your product or service. This helps you to stay at the top of the mind of your new associate.

C. You are performing a good gesture. Sincere generosity is an amicable trait.

2. Give them an endorsement.

Giving a person a good endorsement is a sure way to help them look good. When you give a person a good endorsement, the people who trust your word can now view this person in a trusting light. This is a good idea within reason.

You should learn a bit more about an individual before co-signing on them as reputable. It doesn’t take that long to do brief research but you should not be overly adamant within the endorsement. In other words, don’t overdo it but speak kindly.

3. Give referrals.

Lastly, you must use your judgment wisely but offering a referral is the ultimate in giving. When you offer a referral, you could very well be giving someone a client for life. The value that a referral holds is priceless. At the end of the day, reciprocity will unfold and you’ll find that giving first can be a valuable activity.

Stock Market Investing – Planning Your Financial Success

Making money by trading in the stock market requires learning just how the market functions and using prudent strategies to gain a great return on your investment.

You need to become comfortable with the basics of stock market terminology and strategy to help determine how to approach your investment strategies. Upon understanding the basics, you can learn how to maximize trading opportunities for maximum gains. The stock market is definitely NOT a get-rich-quick scheme.

How to Succeed

It is nearly impossible to be successful with trading in the stock market until you know what you are doing (though some claim a monkey throwing darts at a “buy” or “sell” target could be as successful as any investor – but that’s another discussion…). Success requires proper planning and preparation as well as a great deal of knowledge about the market.

You need to make calculated, well-informed decisions to succeed with your investments while learning what to trade, when to trade it, and what techniques and strategies to use for maximizing the return on your investment.

Following are a few skills and techniques to help improve your stock trading proficiency.

Learn the Right Timing

You want to gains a sense of how long to hold on to your investments before selling. Knowing whether to hold onto your stocks for only the short-term or to hang in for the long-term is one decision you have to get right – at least when you have a lot of money invested.

A successful trader must be able to discern when the timing is right to buy, sell or hold. Timing is everything in the stock market, because selling too soon or late can make the difference between earning and losing money.

Make Decisions Based on Logic, not Emotions

All your decisions should be made based on a prudently calculated decision that takes into account all pertinent factors of the stock market. No matter how tempting it is to act off a hunch or your emotions (“This one’s a winner – I feel it in my bones!”), you should do your utmost to avoid it.

Sometimes your intuition may be right, but you want to be extremely cautious when making rash, expensive decisions.

This principle goes both ways: you also cannot allow your emotions of fear to paralyze you from making good, solid moves. Some decisions may be difficult due to the risk involved, but may be the best choice in the long run – such as “cutting bait” and selling when your stock price is spiraling downward. Weigh both the likely short-term and long-term scenarios.

Permitting your emotions to guide your decisions may work in a card game, but it’s a recipe for disaster in stock market trading. The best decisions are made drawing conclusions from the enormous amount of available data you have about the performance of the stock market and the specific stock you own.