Here are the two best methods for paying off your credit cards.
1. Highest interest rate first. Paying off the credit card with highest interest rate will save you money in the long run, especially if the highest interest rate credit card also happens to be the card with the highest balance. When the highest interest rate card also has the highest balance, it will take the longest to pay off. It's easy to lose motivation paying off your debt when it takes too long. That's why the "lowest balance first" method might be a better choice.
2. Lowest balance first. There are immediate tangible benefits to paying off the credit card with the lowest balance first. The first balances are easier and quicker to pay off. When you finally pay off a bill, the feeling of accomplishment is motivation to keep you going.
Pick the method you're going to use to pay off your credit cards. Then write your debts down in the order you're going to pay them - either from highest interest rate to lowest interest rate OR from lowest balance to highest balance. Write down the interest rate, balance, minimum payment. Then, allocate your entire net income (income - expenses) to paying off the credit card on the top of the list. You'll send the minimum payment to all your other credit cards.
Once you've completely repaid the first credit card, cross it off the list and focus on the next card on the list. As before, pay your entire net income to that card. Keep doing this process until all the cards have been paid off.
The most important part is that you need to budget your money carefully. You can opt for a Free budget software or a personal budget calculator.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Top 5 modern Lead generation tools
Relationship marketing
Relationship marketing is the approach underlying all of the "sales-lead-generation-success" methods. Sales lead generation using this method simply refers to cultivating a personal, sales-winning relationship with your prospects. Keeping in touch with prospects via a series of ongoing communications and offers throughout your prospective customers' consideration processes lets you pick up sales others leave on the table.
Complementary partner referrals
By joining forces with complementary partners, you can instantly multiply your sales lead generation pool and make it easier for companies to engage in doing business with you. Of all the sales lead generation programs, complementary partner referral programs generate the highest quality B2B sales leads.
Internet marketing and search engine optimization
Business buyers are more sophisticated and getting harder to reach than ever. Studies show that about 90% of business buyers start with research on the Internet. Therefore, it's critical to have a well-tuned sales lead generation program that includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO)/Internet marketing strategies to attract prospects at the beginning of their buying cycle.
Telemarketing
Even though many people despise the thought of telemarketing, it is very effective for sales lead generation when executed properly. Telemarketing is a personal marketing and sales lead generation technique that offers a cost-effective, efficient alternative to field selling, but it can be significantly more expensive than direct mail email. By including telemarketing in your B2B sales lead generation marketing plan, you can reach up to thirty decision-makers a day at a cost of $15 to $20 per contact. In contrast, with field sales, you can reach only four or five decision-makers a day at an average cost of $392 or more per contact. Direct mail may cost as little as a dollar, and email is often much less. However, if you consistently prospect for and nurture leads via phone, you will consistently generate qualified sales leads.
Email publications
By creating your own email newsletter, you could send out industry news and tips to suspects in your market. Since you will be on your prospects' minds more often than your competition, eventually, your sales leads will turn into actual sales.
Relationship marketing is the approach underlying all of the "sales-lead-generation-success" methods. Sales lead generation using this method simply refers to cultivating a personal, sales-winning relationship with your prospects. Keeping in touch with prospects via a series of ongoing communications and offers throughout your prospective customers' consideration processes lets you pick up sales others leave on the table.
Complementary partner referrals
By joining forces with complementary partners, you can instantly multiply your sales lead generation pool and make it easier for companies to engage in doing business with you. Of all the sales lead generation programs, complementary partner referral programs generate the highest quality B2B sales leads.
Internet marketing and search engine optimization
Business buyers are more sophisticated and getting harder to reach than ever. Studies show that about 90% of business buyers start with research on the Internet. Therefore, it's critical to have a well-tuned sales lead generation program that includes Search Engine Optimization (SEO)/Internet marketing strategies to attract prospects at the beginning of their buying cycle.
Telemarketing
Even though many people despise the thought of telemarketing, it is very effective for sales lead generation when executed properly. Telemarketing is a personal marketing and sales lead generation technique that offers a cost-effective, efficient alternative to field selling, but it can be significantly more expensive than direct mail email. By including telemarketing in your B2B sales lead generation marketing plan, you can reach up to thirty decision-makers a day at a cost of $15 to $20 per contact. In contrast, with field sales, you can reach only four or five decision-makers a day at an average cost of $392 or more per contact. Direct mail may cost as little as a dollar, and email is often much less. However, if you consistently prospect for and nurture leads via phone, you will consistently generate qualified sales leads.
Email publications
By creating your own email newsletter, you could send out industry news and tips to suspects in your market. Since you will be on your prospects' minds more often than your competition, eventually, your sales leads will turn into actual sales.
Friday, May 8, 2009
eDiscovery the need of the hour
Wake-up call regarding digital data is one that we have been hearing for at least a decade. But its increasing relevance to litigation and electronic discovery is something new for any organization’s general counsel. With the significant changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) that went into effect December 2006 and subsequent change to the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE), taking control of e-Discovery has become a truly urgent concern. These changes have dramatically impacted the way all companies manage legal discovery and the enormous volume of digital data it encompasses.
E-Discovery solutions is all about managing electronically stored information (ESI). Managing ESI is an enterprise-wide activity that requires uniform records management policies and the technology infrastructure to automate and enforce them. There were plenty of compelling reasons to develop these policies and infrastructure before the FRCP changes. But now it is imperative because the cost and risk to your company of failure to do so is enormous.
e-Discovery management enables corporations to apply the principles of process efficiency to every stage of discovery— making it a repeatable business process. A repeatable business process is reasonable and defensible, which is exactly what companies need to be compliant with FRCP guidelines. Beyond FRCP compliance, e-Discovery management also reduces the costs of e-Discovery, minimizes its disruptive impact to an organization’s core business, boosts responsiveness, and reduces the risk of inadvertent production.
E-Discovery solutions is all about managing electronically stored information (ESI). Managing ESI is an enterprise-wide activity that requires uniform records management policies and the technology infrastructure to automate and enforce them. There were plenty of compelling reasons to develop these policies and infrastructure before the FRCP changes. But now it is imperative because the cost and risk to your company of failure to do so is enormous.
e-Discovery management enables corporations to apply the principles of process efficiency to every stage of discovery— making it a repeatable business process. A repeatable business process is reasonable and defensible, which is exactly what companies need to be compliant with FRCP guidelines. Beyond FRCP compliance, e-Discovery management also reduces the costs of e-Discovery, minimizes its disruptive impact to an organization’s core business, boosts responsiveness, and reduces the risk of inadvertent production.
Localizing marketing campaign materials
Mass marketing today is replaced by mass personalization. With globalization, marketing gurus have realized the need for localization especially of marketing materials. Marketing campaigns are today brought down to the neighborhood, and are personalized to the customer taste.
Consider this, in the US alone, over 100 languages are spoken. Spanish is by far the most common language amongst non-native English speakers in the US. Of these 100 languages, there are 11 languages that correspond to populations greater that 500,000 people in the US. Communicating with the US Hispanic market in Spanish is not a courtesy; much of the Spanish speaking population in the US is not fluent in English. In fact, almost 50% of this population identifies itself as having limited English skills. This means that nearly 14 million people may not fully understand a marketed message if it is not also provided in Spanish.
According to a recently published Common Sense Advisory survey, nearly three out of four participants surveyed agreed that they were more likely to buy if the marketing materials are in their own language. Global consumers also indicated that they are willing to pay more for products with information in their own language. Nearly three out of four participants surveyed agreed they are more likely to buy products if after sale support is in their own language.
So localization of marketing campaigns cannot be dismissed. Translation or localization of marketing materials is not required by law, but rather demanded by the reseller of a product or service.
Planning a multilingual project can challenge even the most experienced companies. Finding qualified subject matter linguists, available engineers to deal with potential internationalization and localization issues, and the right talent to publish multilingual content are all crucial to the success of a localization project. You can also try machine language software or use language translation software.
Consider this, in the US alone, over 100 languages are spoken. Spanish is by far the most common language amongst non-native English speakers in the US. Of these 100 languages, there are 11 languages that correspond to populations greater that 500,000 people in the US. Communicating with the US Hispanic market in Spanish is not a courtesy; much of the Spanish speaking population in the US is not fluent in English. In fact, almost 50% of this population identifies itself as having limited English skills. This means that nearly 14 million people may not fully understand a marketed message if it is not also provided in Spanish.
According to a recently published Common Sense Advisory survey, nearly three out of four participants surveyed agreed that they were more likely to buy if the marketing materials are in their own language. Global consumers also indicated that they are willing to pay more for products with information in their own language. Nearly three out of four participants surveyed agreed they are more likely to buy products if after sale support is in their own language.
So localization of marketing campaigns cannot be dismissed. Translation or localization of marketing materials is not required by law, but rather demanded by the reseller of a product or service.
Planning a multilingual project can challenge even the most experienced companies. Finding qualified subject matter linguists, available engineers to deal with potential internationalization and localization issues, and the right talent to publish multilingual content are all crucial to the success of a localization project. You can also try machine language software or use language translation software.
Mobile Clinical assistants in the healthcare sector
Mobile clinical assistants are Tablet PCs/Mac tablet specifically designed for the healthcare sector. It’s a lightweight, portable slate Macintosh tablet/tablet that can be carried around the hospital by the doctors/ nurses. can be combined with software to enable bedside note taking, patient record retrieval, accurate treatment administration and faster response times.
The MCA is intended to replace more than the patient clip board. Just some of the applications for the MCA include:
Clinical Documentation
Practice Management
Electronic Health Records
Patient Education
The adoption of these devices has been gradual due to the fact that this is a massive shift for healthcare. Healthcare practices usually have long standing and well functioning paper based systems, and it takes time to develop a digital solution to supplement or replace these.
Now that there are a number of hardware options available, there are 3 key elements needed to enable the widespread adoption of the MCA:
Software to enable the shift
Staff training and adoption
Good hardware support
Much of this is already available. There are numerous software solutions across a wide range of healthcare specialties. We have to wait and watch.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
MTV’s movie awards with Brangelina
No doubt, MTV will do anything to get Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to its upcoming Movie Awards.
We’re sure Brangelina will receive many nominations (remember this past year included Jolie in Wanted, Changeling and Kung Fu Panda along with Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Burn After Reading), but for now we know of at least one so far for Ms. Jolie.
My peeps at MTV tell me that this year’s 18th annual awards, which will be handed out on May 31 and telecast live from L.A.’s Gibson Amphitheatre, will include a new category: Best WTF Moment.
Nominees include:
Angelina Jolie: Wanted, Curved Bullet Kill
Amy Poehler: Baby Mama, Peeing In the Sink
Ayush Mahesh Khedekar: Slumdog Millionaire, Jumping in the Poop Shed
Ben Stiller: Tropic Thunder, Tasting the Decapitated Head
Jason Segel and Kristen Bell: Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Naked Break-Up
We say the Ayush from Slumdog should take home the Golden Popcorn. Do you agree?
You can see movies online and also watch new movies online
Carrier Ethernet standards
Carrier Ethernet is now becoming a widely deployed technology to connect metropolitan area networks. With Ethernet becoming immensely popular with customers, service providers are keen to roll out Ethernet networks that are carrier class. The key to the large scale roll out of these networks is two fold – standardization and conformance.
For Ethernet networks to become carrier class, they have to bring to the table, the same kind of services that have been available with traditional networks like Frame relay and ATM. Besides services, the networks have to pass the tests of reliability, simplicity and rapid provisioning. To achieve this and to increase interoperability amongst equipment vendors, there is need to standardize the services and requirements of carrier Ethernet.
This is being achieved by forums like the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) and by standards bodies like IEEE. Once standards are decided and services and implementation agreements reached, the task shifts to conformance.
For interoperability, its imperative that equipments that be certified for conformance to standards. There are various ways to achieve this – one obvious way is to publish the standards and let vendors decide their degree of conformance. The other option to is to setup certification bodies that issue compliance certificates. By doing the latter, it becomes important for vendors to put their equipment through the tests before going to service providers to sell their gear. There are many types of tests that need to be passed in certification – performance and functionality. Performance testing measure the network and subsystems at both ends of the scale – high and low speeds and congestion. Functionality tests measure protocol and feature requirements – q-in-q, VPLS, PBT etc.
An offshoot of the twin requirements of standardization and compliance is the need for test suites that can qualify equipments. The suites can run tests for performance and functionality and helps both service providers and equipment makers to achieve certification. Vendors run these tests to check if the devices they make conform to standards and service providers use them to check if equipment they are buying are compliant. Network testing suits are thus a crucial component in the widescale adoption and deployment of carrier Ethernet
Friday, May 1, 2009
How to tackle loss of job
In early 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics noted that over 40 states recorded an increase over last year in the number of layoffs. In February alone over 600,000 workers were caught up in layoffs. This is an alarming statistics. If you and your family are experiencing a job loss then here are some tips that could help you out.
Set emotions aside. Don’t panic.: Job loss could have a profound effect on your emotional well being. It’s not easy to be separated from ones job. All of us closely identify ourselves with our work and its not easy to stay away from it. However we need to learn to adapt ourselves to the situation. Think what’s next and start planning for your future.
Make a graceful exit: If you are handed the pink slip, it’s very important that you keep your emotions in check and do not panic. It’s better to leave in a good term. You might have to run into the same people again or might even require their help. Make sure that you collect all your settlements. Remember money is very important during a job loss.
Check out and apply for benefits: In the United States, your local Employment Service Center will be able to help you. The Web Site of the U.S. Department of Labor has information on unemployment compensation in the United States. This includes links to the individual sites of many states.
Update your budget: Check your emergency funds. Be open to your family and kids about the financial situation. If you have to implement an expense reduction plan, do it immediately. Start managing your money properly. You can try online money management or free money management software.
Pass the word around: Do not be hesitant, but let your world know about your job loss. Anyone and everyone can give you a good lead. Networking at this hour is very critical.
Be open to new opportunities: It’s the best time to experiment with new field and opportunity. Do not restrict yourself to what you did before. Expand your search and include other jobs that you can possibly do.
Coping with a job loss is no joke. But remember patience pays. Be calm, be patient and all the best.
Set emotions aside. Don’t panic.: Job loss could have a profound effect on your emotional well being. It’s not easy to be separated from ones job. All of us closely identify ourselves with our work and its not easy to stay away from it. However we need to learn to adapt ourselves to the situation. Think what’s next and start planning for your future.
Make a graceful exit: If you are handed the pink slip, it’s very important that you keep your emotions in check and do not panic. It’s better to leave in a good term. You might have to run into the same people again or might even require their help. Make sure that you collect all your settlements. Remember money is very important during a job loss.
Check out and apply for benefits: In the United States, your local Employment Service Center will be able to help you. The Web Site of the U.S. Department of Labor has information on unemployment compensation in the United States. This includes links to the individual sites of many states.
Update your budget: Check your emergency funds. Be open to your family and kids about the financial situation. If you have to implement an expense reduction plan, do it immediately. Start managing your money properly. You can try online money management or free money management software.
Pass the word around: Do not be hesitant, but let your world know about your job loss. Anyone and everyone can give you a good lead. Networking at this hour is very critical.
Be open to new opportunities: It’s the best time to experiment with new field and opportunity. Do not restrict yourself to what you did before. Expand your search and include other jobs that you can possibly do.
Coping with a job loss is no joke. But remember patience pays. Be calm, be patient and all the best.
How to generate quality sales lead in a down market
Recession or downturn calls for big changes. It could be reducing waste, re-engineering processes, revamping their sales efforts, cutting expenses, selling off inventories and the list goes on and on. As a sales leads generator this could be a green season for you. Change is a sales lead generation manager's best friend. Change gives rise to new openings that probably were not available previously.
Here are some tips as to how to go about acquiring your new market.
Realign your sales messages: You should understand ‘change’ sounds exciting for you but it might be a nightmare for a company you are pitching for. Understand their requirements and realign your messages before pitching. Talk more on the lines of how your product could render help via money saving or dramatic process improvements.
Be on the lookout for obvious moves and changes. Do not neglect any company or stay away from any changes. You can never assess as to how things might change. For example a downsizing company might rely greatly on outsourcing services.
Adjust your target market: Not all markets are sensitive to the economy in the same way. The point is, not everyone is experiencing the same economy you are. Determine who is doing well and match your product or service to their needs. The goal is to micro-target vertical markets that are weathering the economic slowdown better than others.
Here are some tips as to how to go about acquiring your new market.
Realign your sales messages: You should understand ‘change’ sounds exciting for you but it might be a nightmare for a company you are pitching for. Understand their requirements and realign your messages before pitching. Talk more on the lines of how your product could render help via money saving or dramatic process improvements.
Be on the lookout for obvious moves and changes. Do not neglect any company or stay away from any changes. You can never assess as to how things might change. For example a downsizing company might rely greatly on outsourcing services.
Adjust your target market: Not all markets are sensitive to the economy in the same way. The point is, not everyone is experiencing the same economy you are. Determine who is doing well and match your product or service to their needs. The goal is to micro-target vertical markets that are weathering the economic slowdown better than others.
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