Whispers Finance

Use Your Credit Card Sensibly
Joseph Kenny

A credit card is a wise option if you wish to make frequent purchases and keep a track of your expenses. The facilities could even be used to postpone payments on certain articles, thereby earning more interest on your money. It enables you to shop without carrying large amounts of money, thus eliminating the risk of theft. However, the credit limit on the card should be used sensibly, to avoid a bad credit rating.

Ways to use your card wisely:

Listed below are some tips on how to manage your card sensibly:

Select the right credit card: It is essential to choose a credit card that meets your specific requirement and adds significant value to your monetary assets. You need to shop around and compare cards, before selecting one that offers the best rewards at low interest rates.

Don't buy if you can't afford: Credit cards make provision for you to 'buy now and pay later'. However, you should buy only those articles with the credit card that you are sure to afford paying back, within the time limit allotted. You should be aware that most charge an additional fee and a relatively higher rate of interest on late payments. You need to carefully analyze the pros and cons of the offers, to increase your limit.

Avoid paying extra fees: Banks charge an annual fee on credit cards and so the use of fewer cards would mean less annual charges and minimized interest rates. Before opting for a credit card, you need to compare the benefits offered with the fees charged by the credit card company.

Pay on time: It is important to make a regular monthly payment, without crossing the credit limit. You ought to try and pay more than the minimum amount. The faster you pay, the quicker you minimize your debt on the credit card account. This helps to avoid the extra fees charged and the high interest rates applicable.

Manage debt wisely: It is important to manage your debts in a responsible manner. It would be beneficial to discuss your financial issues, if any, with the company and bank. You could adopt a payment schedule to help manage and curb your debt.

Don't use a credit card for long-term borrowing: Funding long-term borrowing through a credit card is not advisable. This would only increase the rate of interest on your account.

Utilize the interest free period: Most credit cards offer an interest free period. The period could be anything between forty four to fifty five days. You are promised additional interest-free days if you make purchases at the beginning of the month. A comparatively lesser number of interest free days are offered on purchases made at the end of the month. You are expected to pay the entire credit card closing balance within the time limit specified, if you wish to avoid paying interest on your expenses during the interest free days.

Credit cards are a great help to those who wish to avoid paying by cash. However, you need to make use of the facilities offered judiciously.

About the Author:

Joseph Kenny writes for CardGuide.co.uk/, visit to compare UK credit cards, and also many 0% balance transfers to transfer your debt to an introductory 0% credit card deal.

Article Source:
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Contests as a Retail Marketing Strategy
by Jim ODonnell

Contests are an excellent retail marketing tactic for generating 'buzz' and increasing foot traffic to a retail store. Contests are also a method by which to collect contact data from customers, to be used for direct mail and e-mail marketing campaigns.

The types of contests a retailer can plan are as limitless as his imagination. The objective of any contest should be to create the best possible incentive to get customers into the store, and to motivate them to place their contact information into the drawing box. Usually the incentive is a valuable grand prize, but can also take the form of a small gift given just for entering.

One example of a contest idea might be to ask customers to help name a mascot or character associated with the business. A retailer can create an entry form providing space for a contest entrant's name, address, phone number, e-mail address and mascot name suggestion. If the retailer has a website, customers can enter the contest via an online entry form as well. The retailer can set dates associated with the contest such as an entry deadline, a first round selection of three finalists, and finally the date to announce the grand prize winner. The contest rules and progress can be included in all advertising and marketing campaigns within the contest timeframe, including the store's voicemail greeting, flyers, media advertising and website.

The grand prize for this contest might be an opportunity for the winner to appear in a series of local advertisements with the mascot and to have her name and photo appear on the air, in the press, and on the website. In addition, a prize basket could be offered to the winner and to the two semi-finalists.

Another tactic to collect additional contact data and to add longevity to the event might be to conduct the contest in two parts: once the three finalists have been selected, customers can be called back into the store or to the website to vote for their favorite of the three possible choices. In addition to being a fun idea, this type of contest can create great word-of-mouth advertising and a great deal of foot traffic.

Contests with media tie-ins are particularly good traffic builders, as the reach for potential entrants is greater than usual. An example of this type of contest might involve a retail store owner inviting customers to come into the store to obtain a lottery-type ticket of numbers, in exchange for entering the contest via the entry form providing their contact information. Customers would be instructed to listen to a particular radio station at a particular time, or to purchase the local newspaper on a particular date to obtain the winning numbers drawn and compare them to her ticket. The customer holding the winning ticket is the grand prize winner.

The publication or station printing or airing your ads benefits from a tie-in contest, as it receives an increase in listeners and newspaper sales on a particular day. A radio station may provide a discounted advertising rate to motivate a retailer to direct listeners to a show in need of a ratings boost, or to a particular section of the newspaper in need of readers.

Contests are great opportunities to obtain contact information, generate foot traffic, and inspire word-of-mouth advertising for a retail store. Include a series of contests in your annual retail marketing plan.

About the Author:

Jim O'Donnell of Jaguar Consulting, Inc. in Kingston, NH provides marketing and business development services for small business and has developed a series of Retail Marketing Checklists designed to help small business owners achieve a higher growth and profitability. He can be reached at (603) 642-8338, JimODonnell@JaguarConsulting.com, or http://WWW.Checklists4Business.com to review all checklists that are currently available.

Article Source:
http://www.freearticles.co.za/business/contests-retail-marketing-strategy.html

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Work at home - Strategic businesses planning
by Tony Jacowski

Your strategic business plan is more or less based around two fundamental things. The first one is your necessity to be in business and the next is your ability to do business. No home based business person can deny this, and in addition to acknowledging this most of them will also acknowledge that they don't know much about planning. Good strategic planning needs a thorough understanding of the reasons for your being in business in the first place.

Why Are You In Business?

Many people have their own reasons to start home based businesses. Reasons range from additional income generation, to stay home moms to those who can't afford office space. The reasons define the outlook of your needs fairly well and thus your strategic plan should adjust itself to meet your goals.

Strategic Planning

Whatever the reason could be for your getting into business, it is fairly certain that you have chosen a line of business you are comfortable with. Strategic planning as applicable to work at home businesses should focus on three fundamental points. The first one being the lowest investment and fixed cost, the next is the potential for continuous revenue generation. The last is the potential for expanding the home based business into a small or larger business at some point in the future.

1. Choose A Business In Which You Have Core Strength: This means you can enjoy certain advantages by starting a business in which you have your basic strength. For example, if you spent half of your career as a dancer, you've already got a head start if you start a dance class or a dance costume designing business. Your strength lies here because you have already established relationships in the circle that comprises your customer base.

2. The Investment Factor: If yours is a start up business, you can't possibly invest all your savings or retirement benefits into the business. You will want to minimize recurring costs like telephone bills and stationery. Your fixed costs will also come down by reducing or eliminating commuting. Today, you can't think of a business without a home computer. This saves a lot of time and money by handling your bookkeeping and communication needs electronically (email and Internet). If necessary, you can try using your home equity for a secured business loan.

3. Choose A Business That Has Potential For Logical Diversification: Every business reaches critical mass after a certain point. Then you will need to critically evaluate the need for diversification. If you started off as an online editing and proof reading service provider, the next logical step for you is to diversify into copywriting jobs or data entry. Diversification is not expansion but adding another line of business without discarding your core strength.

4. Keeping The Revenue Cycle Continuous: This is crucial for the sustenance of the business. Most start-ups face this crisis for a reasonable length of time before becoming stable. But this can't be achieved just by good planning or being good at producing merchandise. It requires a sense of urgency and the desire for selling more. It takes a lot of maturity to turn away from avoidable expenses.

About the Author:

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

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