Welcome to Michael's Article Collection

Using Equipment Leasing as a Competitive Weapon

Most great generals know how to design winning battle plans. They also know how to use their resources to gain advantages over the enemy. For these military leaders, getting enough tanks, aircraft, ships and armaments into the hands of the right personnel can spell military victory or defeat.In the business arena, gaining access to certain resources and getting them into able hands can also det. . .

Negotiate a Raise

Asking for a raise is a lot like looking for love. No one really values anything that comes too cheaply. But while dating can be fun, confronting authority can be intimidating. We asked John Towler, of Creative Organizational Design, a management consulting firm to outline how to talk money with your boss. • Know the market value of your job. Check with professional associations or personnel ag. . .

Credit Card Is Adding The Silver Lining To Your Pocket

In the new millennium plastic money or credit cards has rendered a new zing factor to your pocket. This has not only made you economically more flexible but subsequently added glamour to your financial image as well. No more bulging out hip pockets with excess of liquid cash. Instead, the slimmer your pocket; the smarter you look. But behind all these inviting attributes of credit cards there s. . .

Investors - What Separates the Good Traders from the Bad ...

There are many forms of investing online. While I can give you a list that is a mile long, these are the most common forms of successful investments. Some of the following know how to invest terms are: Option trading Future trading Currency trading Stock trading Future trading Forex trading (or) foreign exchange tradingI want to start this investing online critique out with a story... On a beau. . .

Ageism In The Workforce

FIRST there was sexism, then there was racism, now another ‘ism’ is poised to cause more headaches for South Wales employers – including how they word their job ads.The Government is currently asking people for their views on plans to outlaw age discrimination in the workplace by next October.The consultation – called “Age Matters” – asks how the UK should implement the EU Employment Directive,. . .

Let Us Uncover The Mystry Of Secured Loans

Okay, so one day you wake up and realize that you are far away from understanding your finances, let alone managing them. Finances are a gamble where you ought to win. If you lose you lose everything - whatever you have build, you have bought, you have worked for and most importantly you have secured. In today’s world we compete at every level to secure for us the basic necessities of life i.e.. . .

Are You Hearing Everything Your Customer, Peer, Boss, Sup...

Only 7% of what we say is verbal! The other 93% is nonverbal! How do you think Dr. Phil got his start? Reading the nonverbal communication of prospective jurors as a jury consultant. And that's why he's not afraid to call someone on a lie on his program! He's reading their body language--their nonverbal communication! And Dr. Phil knows he's right because your body language says so much more th. . .

Social Security Reform

Debtism - The Legacy of Perpetual Debt is the American government's bequest to its hard working people. The practice of debtism has caused the USA to become the world’s leading Debtor Nation. This did not happen because the nation is poor or in recession. The path from creditor nation to debtor nation is the direct result of faulty tax and welfare schemes that reward debt, penalize savings and . . .

Top Ten eBay Scams

Scam OneJune 15, 2004. eBay agreed to pay $9.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused its PayPal payment service of mishandling customer complaints about fraud. The suit, said that PayPal routinely failed to respond to customer complaints about fraud or account errors. In the settlement eBay agreed to provide customers' detailed disclosures when they register for a PayPal accoun. . .

Boycott Wal-Mart

For the everyday individual, companies like Wal-Mart have been a source of great deals, where goods can be purchased at a relatively inexpensive sum. These companies preach never-ending low costs for the benefit of the consumer. Most of us have taken that as face value, resulting in hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue annually. Wal-Mart in particular has been one of the major beneficiari. . .

IBM Lotus Domino Designer Release 6 and 6.5: New Features...

Domino Designer is an IDE, which provides to developers the features for creation, management and deployment of Lotus Domino applications. Version 6.х has new features for applications development, below the most interesting of them are listed: Domino JSP custom tag libraries – allows to developers create JSP pages, operating with Lotus Domino front-end and back-end objects. HTTP server i. . .

The New Paradigm for Entrepreneurial Success

Entrepreneurship is a great magnet to deliver new ideas, unique approaches and innovative technologies. When conducted in a proper way, turning people into entrepreneurs improves a country’s economic situation and aids sustainable progress. However, transition to become an entrepreneur is not that aspiring to all. Risks and uncertainties involved in starting a new business coupled with stagnant. . .

Find Free Resumes Online

Have you been spending money on countless job boards, only to find that they don’t offer the types of candidates you need? If the answer is yes, don’t fret any longer, you’re about to learn crafty techniques to help you find free resumes on the net. There are numerous free resources online that offer resumes. These include: Free Resume Databases; Free Member Resumes on Association websites; . . .

There's Gold in That There Information - Making the Case ...

Q. What can an information professional do for me?A. The briefest and most accurate answer is: Save you money, Save you time, Make your employees more productive, and Minimize your risk from competition by providing the following services: Current news articles and analysis from major sources on a daily basis Access to powerful specialized information aggregators that offer worldwide informatio. . .

Just What Kind of PR Matters to You?

Parties, videos, booklets and column plugs? Or public relations that does something positive and directly about those important outside audiences of yours whose behaviors most affect your operation? How happy are you -- as a business, non-profit or association manager -- when you see your PR folks futzing around with special events, brochures, press releases and TV talk show mentions? Especiall. . .

How To Decide Between a Travel And Cash Back Credit Card ...

Travel or Cash Back Credit Cards?If you want to use a reward credit card for getting free airline tickets, you have a choice of choosing a dedicated airline credit card, a travel reward credit card or a cash back credit card. A dedicated airline credit credit card has hefty annual fees and may not be worth it if you are not a very frequent traveller or do not spend enough on your credit card. B. . .

Stock Market Retirement Investment Plan

For a successful retirement investment plan to work in the stock market, some ‘reasonably sure’ assumptions would have to be made: The retirement investment plan must take into consideration the one prevailing constant in any stock market security – risk and uncertainty. Understanding that risk and uncertainty are the key factors that propels the return on investment in the stock market far bey. . .

Job Interview Preparation - What Employers Are Looking For

When an employer decides to conduct an interview with you, there are certain things that they are looking for from you. Naturally, you are likely to focus on these things during an interview, but you should remember all of the tips in this manual because following those tips is what is going to make the employers see all of those things in you. Since everybody wants to have a leg up when it com. . .

You Are What You Wear

When you step into a room, you get one free moment. In that moment colleagues and clients are making assumptions of who and what you are all about. If your visual integrity does not reflect your capabilities, it may take many further meetings to undo that first impression. Call it impression management, style or good grooming, the business professional knows the power of a positive image. Savvy. . .

Vending Machines and the Lure of the Instant Home Based B...

If you are considering vending machines as a home based business here are three very brief facts about vending. Vending machines will start to earn revenue for your home based business almost immediately. A brand new, high quality machine is actually very inexpensive. Any machine at the right location has the very realistic possibility of paying for itself well within one year. These three s. . .

Ten Rights: For Owners of Service Businesses

Ten Rights: For Owners of Service Businesses 1. You have the right to price your business services right!2. You have the right to raise your prices at any time.3. You have the right to say no to those who only want to "pick your brain."4. You have the right to set boundaries that are in line with your integrity!5. You have the right to terminate conversations with others because you don't feel . . .

10 Networking Myths For Newbies-To-Networking

It's a given, isn’t it? If you're in business, your number one job is to market. If you keep your business a secret - don't let people know how you can help make their lives better and what you do, you won't be successful - because no one will know that you're in business. How well you network, which is the "letting people know how you can help them" part, may well determine whether you succeed. . .

Top Ten Reasons To Create A One Page Business Plan

1. Choose opportunities more wisely and waste less time because I have my plan in place (P 6)2. A single page can contain all the elements you need to tell your employees, board of directors, potential partners or banker where you are taking your business and how you are going to get there. (P 17)3. The most important reason to have a business plan is to clarify your thinking, regardless of the. . .

How To Buy Your First Home With No Money Down

The current home buying frenzy has resulted in rapid escalation of home values during the last several years. Certain areas of the country have seen values climb by 100% or more during the last four years. Many first time home buyers have sat on the sidelines watching as the cost of owning a home has spiraled out of reach. Traditionally, future home buyers were taught to save their money to . . .

E-commerce, A No Nonsense Perspective For New Business

Success is about making fewer mistakes - why you should read this Guide?Whilst failure is one of the best ways we can learn, learning from others’ experience is far less painful - and that’s essentially the point of this guide! Learning from others makes achieving your own goal quicker and easier, plus lets face it, making unnecessary mistakes is just plain dumb!Spend just 2 hours digesting the. . .

Ambition and Drive Or Am I Just Crazy?

For years Michelle Murphy had the dream of owning her own business and being her own boss. Not everyone can afford to jump into entrepreneurship with both feet. There are so many options to consider, such as medical benefits and food for the children. It may seem trivial but those little guys do like to eat.Early 2004 a situation presented itself that seemed like a wonderful compromise. Prophet. . .

Easy to be Foolish About PR

In fact, here are three really foolish goofs made by too many business, non-profit and association managers. If that’s you, you foolishly do nothing positive about the behaviors of those important outside audiences of yours that most affect your operation. You foolishly fail to create external stakeholder behavior change leading directly to achieving your managerial objectives. Then you fo. . .

12 Tips For Getting The Most Value From The Cashflow 101 ...

Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow 101 game is a great learning tool. The following hints have been compiled so that you can get the most value you possibly can from the game. These tips apply to real life as well, so keep your heads up.1. Don't cheat. The purpose of the game Cashflow 101 is for you to learn so if you cheat you learn to cheat. Why make money illegally when it is so easy to do it legall. . .

Emergency Savings Accounts

Unexpected expenses sneak up on the best of us. Paying these unexpected expenses looks impossible when you are in debt and barely making the payments from month to month. If you're like most, you have to reach for the credit card and then find yourself deeper in debt and farther behind.What do you do about this?The answer for paying unexpected expenses is an emergency savings account.An emerg. . .

23 Things To Say When Someone Wants To "Pick Your Brain"

Many service business owners these days are "giving away" their business services – and then wonder why people aren't hiring them in droves. In the name of "marketing," business owners are providing way too much information for free. Some shifts in thinking are necessary if these business owners expect to be in business years from now. Even trained coaches, I believe, do too much pro-bono work.. . .

My Neighbor Got A New Car

I don’t know what kind it is, but I saw it on TV running full speed along the shore (I don’t live near the shore) throwing up spray or maybe it was that one climbing up the steep mountain trail thru the mud, rocks and snow. Very exciting. (I don’t live near the mountains either.) WOW! Just what I need. But there are a few obstacles. It costs about $28,000. (That’s close to the average annual w. . .

Stop Sickies and Make People Happy At Work

If you're an employer or a manager then work place absence is costing you money, inconvenience, and upsetting your customers. And as we all know, not all days taken off work are due to genuine sickness. Many employees "take a sickie" because their morale is low and they just don't like or can't do their work. The challenge for employers and managers is to make people happier at work. And if peo. . .

Location, Location…Relocation?

Before you launch that national job search, consider this: employers who are working with a tight hiring budget may not be willing to cover the cost of relocation. Differentiating factors between likely candidates for a job are important. Does the person have a two year or four year degree or a Master’s Degree? Is the potential candidate located within reasonable proximity, or will he/she have. . .

Electronic Resume Writing Tips That Boost Your Interview ...

Before you write your resume in a word processor, print it, and hand out copies to prospective employers, you should consider formatting it for easy scanning and retrieval from a computer database.As you can imagine, dozens, maybe hundreds of resumes bombard employers for a position they would like filled. To sift through each of these manually would probably be too time consuming even for the. . .

Effective Meetings by Phone - Part 1, How to Plan a Telec...

Teleconferences can be a boon or a bust. On the positive side, they allow people at different locations to attend meetings without having to travel. On the negative side, they can degenerate into frustrating struggles with uncontrolled babble. This occurs because people lack visual contact, which hinders effective communication and provides opportunities to misbehave. Here's how to set up an ef. . .

Turbo Charge Your Career With The Most Powerful Leadershi...

To develop and deliver a great Leadership Talk, you must understand that every Talk has three important parts. (1) Audience Needs. (2) Strong Belief. (3) Action.(1) Audience needs: The first step in putting together a Leadership Talk is to understand the needs of your audience. As I explained in Part Two, they cannot be ordered to be your cause leaders. Their commitment is one of free choice. T. . .

Budgeting Tips to Save Real Money

Sticking to a budget can be difficult, but with so many demands on your finances you have to be extra cautious. TV ads are constantly bombarding the airwaves with messages that you need to buy this or you must have that. Usually, if you just wait a week or two, the urge to buy that new gadget will pass. But, what should you do if you have already spent more than you have? The following are . . .

The Average Profile of Customers Opting for a Payday Loan...

Payday loans are loans of a small amount, taken for a short duration of time. Payday loans are generally meant to be paid off on the next payday. Payday lenders loan out thousands of dollars every week to people who are in dire need of money. The Community Financial Service Association of America, payday loan cash advance industry extends to about $25 billion.Payday lending is often regarded as. . .

Working at Home Isn’t All Fun and Games

I enjoy telling people that I “work at home.” I can see that wistful look in their eyes, and I can hear it in their voices when they say, “That must be nice.” And then for about five minutes, they do a little daydreaming about what it would be like to “work at home.” I never explain to them about the measure of self-discipline it takes, and how great are the temptations to take a “break” and re. . .

Private Mortgage Insurance Doesn't Protect Homeowners

If you borrowed more than 80% of the appraised value of you home, you're probably paying private mortgage insurance (PMI). PMI that is not lender paid is a waste of money. If you default on your mortgage, the private mortgage insurance provider will pay the lender, but you still would lose your home. PMI do not offer you any benefits whatsoever. PMI payments aren't even tax-deductible.PMI incre. . .

All Fortunes Begin With an Idea!

A new idea is merely the combination of two or more old ideas. The creation of a new idea is the critical first step in establishing any business. People who dream of setting up their own business but don’t succeed, generally fall into one of three categories: too few ideas too many ideas or waiting for the ‘perfect idea’. Any of these three states of mind may hinder the budding entreprene. . .

Effective Meetings by Phone - Part 2, How to Hold a Telec...

Even a well-planned teleconference can go poorly. Some people treat any meeting as a casual social activity instead of as a serious business project. And a teleconference brings special challenges because people attend them in the privacy of their office without being able to see or be seen by the other participants.Use these techniques to hold a more effective meeting by phone.1) Begin with a. . .

Microsoft Great Plains Technical Support : Typical Questi...

Microsoft has always been known for two things - outstanding products and even more outstanding product support. Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) continues the tradition by providing excellent customer support for partners and customers worldwide.Technical support offered by MBS depends on the region. For North America (NA), support is available to both partners and customers who availed of t. . .

How To Make Money From Buy To Let In A Property Crash

Over the last few years, most investors who have tried 'buy to let' (buying additional properties in order to rent them out) have profited spectacularly as the property market in most of the world boomed like never before. Historically unprecedented property prices in the USA, UK, Australia and most of Europe have made the concept of becoming a landlord look like an easy route to riches.Of cour. . .

7 Secrets of a Highly-Effective Resume Cover Letter

Just like the late, great Rodney Dangerfield, the "humble" cover letter gets no respect.Job-seekers spend so much time and energy on their resumes they've got nothing left to offer their poor, neglected cover letters.Big, BIG mistake!It is the well-written cover letter not the resume that can single-handedly land you more job interviews. The cover letter is your one chance to really "market" yo. . .

Using Emotion for Persuasion

The other day, I received the last issue of a business magazine before my subscription runs out. Now, I like this magazine, but I'm swamped with reading matter so I won't renew. Of course, I've received many reminders and offers about renewing; magazines try very hard to keep the subscribers they've got. So when the last issue came with a special promotional wrapper on the cover, I wasn't surp. . .

Success And Communication

Everything we do in life requires communication. Personal and business success often hinges on how well we understand others and how well they can understand us. If one of the objectives of communication is achieving a shared understanding, what can you do to become more effective when communicating? Here are few tips that will help you become a more effective communicator: Do you make eye co. . .

The Key To Success - Choose The Right Partner

Do you promote yourself as offering prompt, reliable and quality service?Of course – none of us promote ourselves as anything less, and equally we strive to provide this level of service all the time.So what happens when you take your networking to the next level, and start to offer referrals, or even establish partnerships or alliances for certain activities?Whatever you do at this point creat. . .

Know A Tax Cheat? Get Paid To Tell The IRS

According to the IRS, taxpayers underpay their taxes by some $300 billion. If you know someone that is contributing to that deficit, the IRS may be willing to pay you up to $10 million for the information you provide. The bigger the cheating you report, the more you're likely to receive. The most important thing to claim your reward is quality documentation. Without documentation of the cheatin. . .

Online Buying Guide

These days you can order almost anything without ever leaving the comfort of your home. Online stores and auctions are great ways to shop for those hard to find items, and a great way to find deals in the process. As a consumer you need to be aware of the positive and negative aspects of online shopping. Below you'll find our online shopping awareness guide. -First and for most, Know your selle. . .