10.05 2011

Internet Merchant Accounts: Quick Facts for Web Business Owners

If you own a company that conducts any or all of its business through the web, you’ll be pleased to learn that there are a wide variety of ways to connect with consumers. As you no doubt already know, transacting business over the internet offers so many advantages of convenience, security, and marketing. Digital payment processing solutions and systems are, predictably, no less cutting-edge. If you decide to go with a payment processing solution online, you’ll have to find an internet merchant account services provider. What these services entail is allowing websites to process credit cards through a highly secure internet connection.

In choosing a merchant account service provider, you’ll want to carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages offered by each provider and make your decision based on the security, convenience, adaptability, and affordability of each. Weigh

Read more…

08.05 2011

Increasing Sales Productivity through CRM

Most companies these days are familiar with the value of a CRM system in relation to storing relevant client data and details, but there are other functions of CRM that people are less aware of. For example, an effectively functioning CRM system can be used to generate sales and increase staff productivity.

According to a recent survey by The Economist, there is a clear link between implementing technology to support customer service activity and increases in sales productivity. They go on to say that of the 59 respondents who had implemented new technologies over the past 12 months, 44 said customer service productivity had increased as a direct result.

Putting in the technology isn’t enough though. T

Read more…

06.05 2011

We Need To Cut The Deficit Right Now — And Doing It Is Going To Clobber The Economy

This week I finish the two-part letter on the Endgame and give you my thoughts on the economy and how it all plays out over the next five years.

This is the second part of a speech I gave last week at the Strategic Investment Conference in La Jolla. It is a rather bold forecast, and fraught with peril and likely errors, but that is my job here. Damn the torpedoes, etc.

I must offer one large caveat! If the facts change so will my forecast, but this is the view into my very cloudy crystal ball as I see it today. As always, remember that those of us in the forecasting world are often wrong but seldom in doubt. Read accordingly.

But before we get there, two quick things.

Read more…

05.05 2011

Bird Key modern is on the market

This modernist architect’s work comes with a pedigree, and aesthetically he’s a direct-line descendant of the legends of the Sarasota school of architecture, including Paul Rudolph, Victor Lundy, Gene Leedy, Jack West and Tim Seibert.

People who want to live in glass (very expensive, three-ply glass) cubes and rectangles, where a spare geometric architectural configuration is transformed into monumental piece of livable art, will want to take a close look at a 5,286-square-foot home on Mourning Dove Drive on Bird Key.

It’s priced at $6,185,000 and offered by Mary Hale and George Appel of Prudential Palms Realty.

The home was built by its present owners, James Courter and Mark Hodgson, who collaborated with Peterson on its design and on the materials used.

Read more…

04.05 2011

Girls… Are you on top?

I am referring to your finances … !

Do you know your credit card balance and the interest rate?

How much are your combined direct debits each month?

What’s your minimum mortgage repayment and how much of that is interest and the rate your Bank charges you?

Haven’t a clue and you’d rather be off shopping?

Great… then read on.

If you are not in control of your finances you will never ever be financially secure. Don’t leave the management of budgeting, paying bills, sorting your financial paperwork and managing your superannuation solely to anyone else. Ignorance m

Read more…

04.05 2011

Man who predicted Enron fall warns investors on China

03.05 2011

How Merchant Services can give your Start-Up Business a Boost

Americans have always had a can-do attitude. It was what drove them to create the world’s oldest current democracy. Of course, their faith has been tested many times along the way. The country has survived a Civil War, a Great Depression, and the murders of four presidents. And when it comes to politics, Americans are often divided. Liberals and conservative can’t seem to agree on anything at all. What keeps this ‘Great American Experiment’ intact?  Why, it’s the American Dream, of course.

What defines us as Americans is the belief that any person can succeed if he or she just works hard enough. We know this for a fact when we examine the small business statistics. Did you know, for instance, that 99.7 percent of U.S. firms are small businesses?

Even when the economy stumbles, Americans invest in small businesses. During the

Read more…