March
11
2010
10 Tips to help you recover money:
PREPARE: Go over the paperwork on the debtor before making a call. Knowing the history of the account is key. Have all the records in front of you, ready for reference if needed.
ATTITUDE: Adopt a professional attitude. You have a contract or you delivered goods now money is owed to you and you have a right to expect payment promptly. Never ever let it become personal. Don’t yell or raise your voice; and NEVER swear. Don’t threaten physical harm; legal action is your recourse.
CONTACT: Be sure you are talking to the correct person. Do not let the individual brush you off with “You’ll have to talk to the bookkeeper.” Identify the person who will pay the bill. If you can not get through after several calls, tell the secretary that you know your calls are being screened. Indicate the purpose of your call and if necessary give deadlines.
CONTROL: Control the conversation. Keep it focused on the debt and on the repayment schedule. Don’t let the customer sidetrack you with personal history, excuses, etc. Remember, the object of your call is to collect money, or get a commitment, not to become buddies with the customer or win arguments.
FLEXIBLE: Always be prepared to adjust to any situation. Think about the kind of customer you are dealing with and adapt to meet the circumstances. Be prepared to accept a reasonable payment schedule, and a willingness to deal with a customers circumstances.
NOTES: Always keep detailed, accurate notes of every contact with the account. Probe for further information on the customer. Notes of these contacts will help you in subsequent phone calls, and may be invaluable in litigation. Accurate notes will also help in further credit decisions, or in cases where skip tracing may be needed.
PRODUCTIVE: Keep calls brief and to the point. This is a business call only, not a social one. Try to view your efforts on a ratio of time expended to results achieved. Long conversations usually mean the customer is stalling for time or trapping you in the buddy syndrome.
PRECISE: Never leave a call open ended, such as “Well talk next week,” or “Ill send what I can.” Every single call should result in a commitment to some kind of payment, You need a specific amount, by a specific date, even the check number the customer is using to pay the promise.
TIME: The longer an account is outstanding, the less likely it is that it will be paid. If payment is not arranged or a payment plan is not established within 90 days, place the claim with a collection agency or start legal proceedings.
PLACEMENT: Just type “Collection Agency” to any search engine and pick a firm that ranks outside of the sponsored listings. If a Collection Agency needs to buy you or bid for your business they must be desperate and could have money issues.
March
10
2010
The U.S. economy grew faster than initially thought in the fourth quarter as businesses drew down inventories at a much slower pace and boosted investment, a government report showed on Friday. Based on this good news, the Boise real estate market will be buoyed by the gains in economy.
In its second reading of fourth-quarter gross domestic product, the Commerce Department said the economy grew at a 5.9% annual rate, rather than the 5.7% pace it estimated last month. It was still the fastest pace since the third quarter of 2003. Posting an impressive 2.2% increase, the third quarter led all to date. If we go back to the 2003 number the Boise real estate market would be on solid footing.
The economy in the winter time frame posted a 5.7% rate of growth, including all goods and services sold inside the borders of the U.S., according to Reuters. With the recovery seemingly in full swing in the last few months of 2009, our nation seemed to be emerging from the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression, but that growth has been stymied somewhat in the first quarter of 2010. Even thought consumer spending and the housing markets were down, the fact that businesses increased investment in software and equipment helped add some steadiness to the economy and allowed business to liquidate bloated inventories. As the nation goes, so goes Boise real estate.
Stripping out inventories, the economy expanded at an annual rate of 1.9%, rather than the 2.2% pace estimated last month, indicating growth was not being driven by demand. Inventory sales amounts were alarmingly reduced from $33.5 billion to around $16.9 billion in the final quarter. They dropped $139.2 billion in the July-September period. The inventory changes alone were responsible for a 3.88% difference in GDP. This was the biggest percentage contribution since the fourth quarter of 1987. Inventory reductions by construction materials company had a sizable effect of Boise real estate too.
Not since the U.S. economy was recovering from World War II, in 1946, has it experienced the substantial drop in GDP of 2.4%. Even consumer spending projections had to be adjusted downward from 2% in January to the actual number of 1.7% increase. That was below the 2.8% rate in the prior quarter when consumption got a boost from the government’s “cash for clunkers” auto purchase program. A huge block of our economy normally comes from consumer spending, around 70%, but in the fourth quarter of 2009 it only added a minuscule 1.23%. In such a financial crisis, the Boise real estate market is not independent of the national trends.
Businesses continued to invest in equipment and necessary software at such a rate that the commercial real estate slump was not a cause of negative number in the Gross Domestic Product in the fourth quarter. Business investment rose at a 6.5% rate, much faster than the 2.9% pace estimated last month. In the preceding three months, it had slid by about 5.9%. With an anticipated increase of 5.7% for the fourth quarter, the construction numbers were a bit of a disappointment when they came in at 5%. Posting an increase of just under 19% in the third quarter, there was quite a disparity between quarters. Contributing a .3% increase in GDP, imports and exports were significantly stronger in the fourth quarter than previously anticipated. In the Boise real estate industry, the GDP and other market factors are closely watched.
March
9
2010
U.S. Bankruptcy Code imposes something called an automatic stay the moment that a petition for bankruptcy is filed. The automatic stay will typically prevent the enforcement, commencement, or appeal of actions and judgments against a debtor from the creditors they owe money to who are trying to collect these debts incurred prior to the bankruptcy petition. The automatic stay also protects property of the bankruptcy estate itself from collection actions and proceedings.
Any action that a creditor might take that violates the automatic stay will be voided out. Any violation of the stay might cause the violating party to have damages assessed to them. But, like every complicated law, there are exceptions. A creditor might be allowed to take their collateral if they obtain permission from the court first. They will get this by filing a motion for relief from the automatic stay.
The court will either grant the motion or provide security to the creditor, ensuring that the value of their collateral won’t decrease during the stay. Without the protection provided by the automatic stay creditors could hypothetically race to the courthouse in order to try to collect from a debtor. If this happened, and let’s say that a debtor’s business was simply facing just a temporary crunch, it might not survive a “run” by creditors when their business could otherwise be salvaged. A run may also result in waste and it might be unfair to similar creditors that are owed money too.
There are three kinds of avoidance actions, and all of these attempt to limit the risk of the legal system encouraging the downfall of a financially unstable debtor who hasn’t declared bankruptcy yet. The bankruptcy system will typically reward creditors who continue extending financing to debtors and will discourage creditors from ramping up their debt collection efforts.
Despite the seemingly simple nature of these rules, a couple of exceptions exist in the context of each category of avoidance action.
March
8
2010
A financial news commentator can very well give the following as the headline of the day: How Not to Spend Money from My Credit Cards. This is in fact a conviction that is mutually felt by many people today. Particularly, the down economy in the US has been created in part by individuals purchasing things on credit that they truly did not have the money for and accumulating debt as a result. Credit cards helped to create this circumstance. Given this occurrence and escalating credit card rates of interest, people have been thinking about ways to avoid utilizing credit cards if not stopping their use completely.
A profusion of beneficial things can be done to help to cut down on the usage of credit cards. These are: limiting oneself to using a sole credit card; not carrying the card when going out shopping; using an online tool to manage money; and making purchases with cash or debit cards alone.
To start, cutting down to only using one credit card and deleting every other account can aid people in curbing the usage of credit cards. While terminating many credit card accounts will lower someone’s credit score in the short term, minimizing the [...] Continue Reading…
March
7
2010
Choosing to sell your home all by yourself is not an easy thing to do. Though it can save you money from paying a realtor’s commission, it would also put you at disadvantages of marketing. That’s the reason why it would be necessary to get your property listed on the multiple listing service (MLS) for realtors. There are numerous benefits you can get from joining a MLS real estate listing. Find time to think about it and realize the worth of your money for a listing on MLS.
Countless advantages can be extracted from having your property listed on a MLS real estate listing. First, evaluate this option and find time to realize the vital points of joining a MLS real estate listing service, and eventually come up that a listing on a MLS is worth spending for. Joining a MLS real estate listing will give way to many possibilities for your property. To succeed in your sales, use this powerful key. It is attested by the figure of four out five home buyers who get their possession from MLS. Once your property be on a MLS listing, you can expect from the support of almost every [...] Continue Reading…
March
6
2010
How often have we heard the familiar refrain “Women drivers.”? Almost all of us must have heard it at some time or the other in our lives whether it was said by a family member, a friend, a colleague at work or perhaps a complete stranger on the road. And most women would be quite aggravated with remarks such as this. But then did you know that you can get cheap car insurance for a woman who is cheaper than the car insurance available for men?
You might be surprised but it is very true. Statistics have shown that women drivers are more careful and less prone to accidents than their male counterparts and hence many car insurance companies provide women drivers with much lower car insurance premiums. Car insurance for student drivers on the other hand can work out to be pretty expensive as they have very little or no experience and love to race when they are young but there are ways to get cheaper car insurance.
Car insurance companies don’t provide cheap car insurance for women for nothing at all. They have studied data over several years and have found out that women drivers are hardly involved [...] Continue Reading…
March
5
2010
Life insurance is great for individuals that have a family, dependents and earn the most income to support their family. Life is unpredictable and it is important to ensure your family and loved ones are taken care of financially in case anything happens to you.
Life Insurance in simple words means – A life which is insured. In today’s fast paced world, where everybody is too busy, getting insured does makes sense. In today’s world, where people are too involved in their self- made world, one needs to keep a track of the kind of assistance they can get in bad times.
Things can really go wrong, you can meet a fatal accident while going to office, your wife can be discovered of a heart disease at the age of 40 or you can be out of your job. To cover all these situations and to have a backup in the bad times, life insurance is the best thing you can have. Life Insurance works as a reliable backup in the times of crash out or in conditions where you are not able to provide financial support to your family.
The policy which you take depends entirely upon you. It is for [...] Continue Reading…
March
4
2010
If you are trying to raise capital with a PPM or public entity like OTCBB you need to understand the mind of the investor. After the business plan sells the investor on the business concept you need to sell them on you and your executive staff. You need to stack your executive positions with professionals with a proven track record of success and possess a solid reputation in the industry. You must paint the picture for investors that your business is run by the who’s who in your industry and this pedigree is demonstrated by your education, degree, grades in college, professional organizations of which you have been and are currently a member, advisory board positions with other corporate organizations, a track record of setting up and maintaining strategic alliances, networking contacts and more.
When an investor looks at your human resource list on your PPM, business plan or public offering docs it needs to scream power, authority and confidence. Each individual that you place on your advisory board must have a massive contribution other than ‘advice’. Advisors should be able to prove their ability to assist in crucial decisions, connect your company with strategic partners and help you get [...] Continue Reading…
March
3
2010
Easily Find And Secure: Angel Investors, Private Investors, Institutional Investors And More! Raising capital for a start-up, corporation in expansion mode or a company in virtually any position presents it’s challenges and roadblocks. There has been no period in recent history that can simulate the difficulties that current entrepreneurs and executives are having when trying to achieve the procurement of venture capital. The standards have become more stringent and the cross-collateralization of personal and corporate assets as security for loans has virtually become a mandatory prerequisite for any type of funding, equity or loan based.
When initiating the process of raising capital one should take into consideration the use of a combination of funding options such as but not limited to: traditional venture capital, bank institutional, institutional equity investment, hedge fund lenders, private money lending, angel equity and loan investment, a private placement memorandum as the mechanism for raising capital distributed in shares, international equity based funding, the reality of taking your small business public on the OTCBB and many other concepts of capital raising that can be placed into a simultaneous strategy.
It’s a common mistake among entrepreneurs and executives to place all of their attention and time into one [...] Continue Reading…
March
3
2010
Hopes soared on reports that the recession was coming to a close as the United States economy posted a healthy 5.9% gain and businesses invested to boost GDP. Boise real estate always depends on the national economic trend, so good news will help out.
In its second reading of fourth-quarter gross domestic product, the Commerce Department said the economy grew at a 5.9% annual rate, rather than the 5.7% pace it estimated last month. Not since summer of 2003 have we seen such a rapid pace of growth in GDP. The fastest quarter was the third quarter which posted a robust 2.2% growth rate. The Boise real estate market will see some benefit from these increases, plus other local market factors.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast GDP, which measures total goods and services output within U.S. borders, growing at a 5.7% rate in the October-December period. Not since the Great Depression of the 1930’s has the country seen this bad of a downturn, and it seemed like we were emerging in 2009 with the latter half of that year posting impressive numbers, but that has tailed off quite a bit in the initial months of 2010. A sharp brake in [...] Continue Reading…