Archive for Finance
What are you worth? The cost of branding you.
Posted by: | Comments“The cost of doing business” speaks for itself. You have to put money out to make money; feed the investment so that it grows becoming lucrative and prosperous. A fundamental basic that business leaders process regularly, right? Absolutely!
Why then do many business professionals treat themselves and their own career marketing tools with substandard expectations? As a career strategist and resume writer, pricing of services is one of the top #3 questions asked of clients. Certainly understandable and always welcome!
If you are willing to spend money on high end clothing, hair salon upkeep or high end handbags, perhaps you may want to redistribute where you are investing your hard earned dollars. Are you buying into someone else’s brand or are you taking care of your own?
While most professionals realize the time, complexity and strategic writing that goes into developing a solid and effective marketing tool, there are always a few folks who see their resumes as a typeset piece of paper tracking the basics of their work history asking, “Why does it cost so much”?
Top 5 Reasons Professionally Written Resumes Cost Money
You are paying for a customized marketing tool reflecting your most important commodity…YOU. Customized, one-on-one marketing takes time and a specialized set of skills from a writer who has the ability to dig deep into extracting your key skills and accomplishments.
- A behavioral based trained professional writer has a unique skill set in individualizing and interpreting your core competencies in writing. This takes credentialed training and years of practice which is more than just being a technical writer.
- Strategic writing and appropriately targeting a clients goal is factored into a professionally written resume. When I am asked to write a general resume, I educate potential clients that this is not a service that I offer. A general resume is as useful as trying to catch a variety of fish using one type of bait.
- Researching industry trends, verbiage and current job marketing opportunities takes time. Behind the scenes, a top notch resume writer is busy collaborating with industry peers, researching web sites and bringing forward new information to support the needs of the client.
- Credentials cost money. Most writers have a varied assortment of credentials, education and training to support their writing. For a writer who is continuing to learn, refine skills, seek out new credentials and advanced exposure to global assessment programs, know that the cost of doing business will be aligned according to skills being offered.
Lesson: Invest in your professional brand by having the appropriate tools. If you are going to drive a fancy car, wear high end heels or expensive jeans, become truly authentic and coveted by having a top notch resume in your tool kit.
Suze Orman Speaks to Women on Business Readers
Posted by: | CommentsRecently, I was asked to pose a question to Suze Orman, which she graciously answered as part of the new Suze Orman Show Channel on YouTube. I asked a question that I thought would be helpful to the Women on Business audience:
Women’s retirement savings needs differ from men’s. Women live longer, women are typically paid less than men, and the number of single, working mothers is staggering. What are the top 3 tips you would give to women in regards to saving for retirement? Are they different from the tips you give to men?
Suze’s response is included in the video below or follow the link to view Suze Orman’s video on YouTube:
Leadership Lessons: I’d Rather Be a Whale
Posted by: | CommentsPart of leadership, especially women, is to be a voice for separating the wheat from the chaff. It is time for all of us as women leaders to put a halt to the binding messages we are bombarded with about image. No, I don’t mean we should all state that overweight is better, I mean we need to begin to question what is being fed to us (sorry for the pun) about what is the standard for the acceptable and attractive woman. It is a legacy issue that if addressed now will have a vast impact on our daughters (and they are all our daughters regardless of who birthed them) of the future.
Nancy Pennebaker, a senior consultant with our organization, Creative Energy Options, Inc. (CEO) sent this to me for both the humor and the depth of the message. Our company motto, “we are all connected and no one wins unless we all do”, is embedded in the following short article. It shows that this issue of image is one that is a world issue.
Notice that the sign in the window of an exercise studio and the answer are from France, where the image of gorgeous models in clothes by Yves St. Laurent, Chanel et a.l became the standard of beauty.
This is a time for us to say what really matters and stand for changes, so that the future is not trapped in the girdles of the past.
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“This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?” A middle-aged woman, To Whom It May Concern, Mermaids don’t exist. The choice is perfectly clear to me: P.S. We are in an age |
Don’t Get Ripped Off – Tips for Saving Money on Credit Card Processing
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Stella Fayman (learn more about Stella at the end of this post)
When merchants begin accepting credit cards, usually they sign up for Paypal (if an online merchant). However, as business booms and revenue from credit cards grows, it may be more cost effective to switch to a credit card processor (merchant account provider). Be wary, processors are known to be tricky and take advantage of business owners who know little about their trade. Here are some tips to make sure you don’t get ripped off:
1. No cancellation fees allowed
Make sure to read the fine print from your credit card processing contract. You may be surprised to find a cancellation fee from at least $250 to several thousand dollars. This fee is a way of guaranteeing your loyalty to the processor, regardless of your satisfaction with their service. The good news is that getting rid of this fee should not be a problem: most salespeople have the authority to waive it. To avoid this problem, talk to the salesperson and make sure the fee is waived in writing either in the contract or as an amendment.
2. Only interchange plus pricing
The bulk of the processing fee goes to Visa and Mastercard—this fee is called “interchange” and is set in stone. Interchange-plus pricing is the fairest form of pricing structure for your business, meaning that you pay the interchange fee plus a constant markup which goes to the processor as a service charge. Having this structure ensures there are no tricky fees or hidden costs, unlike tiered pricing structures.
3. Comparison shop
Research shows that the best deal can be found by comparison shopping between at least 5 processors. However, make sure to compare on an apples-to-apples basis, and be sure each processor knows that you are actively shopping. You can easily make your bids more competitive by leveraging the power of comparison.
If you have any questions or want to learn more about processing, I blog about processing at the TransFS blog www.transfs.com/blog or email me at stella@transfs.com.
About the Author
Stella Fayman is a recent graduate of Northwestern University. She decided to join TransFS, a comparison shopping site for credit card processors, in order to help small business. Just like getting multiple plane tickets from airlines using Expedia, TransFS lets business owners compare top quality processors on an apples-to-apples basis and makes sure they get the best deal by not having any cancellation or hidden fees, and only interchange plus pricing. TransFS also recently launched the Credit Card Processor Directory, where business owners can rate and read reviews about processors.
FTC and Other Organizations Aim to Help Business Owners Get Loans
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Shannon Suetos (learn more about Shannon at the end of this post)
Being able to budget your money is key for a new business owner—doing so can be the difference between being successful or not. Budgeting is even more important these days with the state of the economy. The U.S. Labor of Statistics has reported that the unemployment rate (as of December 2009 ) is 10% and 8.2% of the unemployed are women. Because more people are losing their jobs it is crucial to make sure you stay on top of your personal credit, as banks are making it harder to get business loans.
These high unemployment numbers makes it more difficult for business owners to stay in business, or even start a business as a result of people being thriftier with their money. Banks are no exception. It is harder today to get a loan than in many years, and banks are looking closer at your personal credit when deciding if you will get a business loan or not.
There is some hope against the banks and other business cash advance companies–at least in the near future. According to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) in 2011 lenders will, “require a creditor to provide a risk-based pricing notice to a consumer when the creditor uses a consumer report to grant or extend credit to the consumer.” This will allow anyone to get a free report of their credit score and be able to review it before sending it to their lending company of choice. If you see you need some work on getting your credit score up, you can look to a debt management service to aid you in getting that loan you will need.
In mid-December Obama met with top bankers to discus the problem small business owners are facing when it comes to getting a loan. He pointed out America bailed out banks, so now its time for them to help small businesses, “I urged these institutions here today to go back and take a third and fourth look about how they are operating when it comes to small business and medium-sized business lending.” Read More→
Healthcare and Women
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One of the most well-run and informative meetings I went to last year was the HBA conference in San Francisco. The Healthcare Businesswomen Association is a class act.
What impressed me was the juggling act done to show the strong side of women in a mostly male dominated industry, as well as the feminine side that we, as women, need to maintain for our own sanity.
The women who represented the major pharmaceutical and biotech companies were key players, with long resumes down to the newbies just starting out. There was a sense of “we’re all in it together”, a desire to mentor and an equal desire to learn from the “elders’.
At one point, I stood on the side watching the buffet lunch line take shape and loved the musical sounds of people connecting with each other. The male manager of the hotel happened to stop next to me and we had a brief conversation. I was curious, so I asked what was it like to be surrounded by 800 women? His answer was telling. He said there was something different than many past meetings he had witnessed. He was not sure he could name the difference. I urged him to give it a shot.
“Well, for one thing” he began tentatively, “these women seem to really like each other”. He stopped to analyze his statement. I prodded with “How can you tell?” and he continued, almost in a stream of consciousness, “not sure….I always see women as one upping each other…..looking at what they are wearing and talking about that or where they got the dress or shoes….these women…..they seem focused on wanting to make a difference ….I don’t mean to listen in, yet can’t help hearing them…..they are talking about not just healthcare in general…..they are really talking about how to make their work settings better for everyone…. I even stopped in yesterday morning and there was session about how to develop trust at work…. They were in small groups and they were really working the issue, not just giving it lip service….I thought about it last night, women are really making a difference in the workplace and somehow, I just saw the power of what they, you, all can bring to the table from a deeper perspective.”
He stopped, embarrassed and excused himself to check on the wait staff. I saw him later and he waved, still embarrassed by the amount of self disclosure. He made sure not to get too near, for I might ask another open-ended question that would get him going again.
I thought about this male perspective in a women’s conference. There were a few men in attendance, certainly no more than a dozen at most, and I hoped they had a similar experience. We have come a long way and we certainly are on the road for bringing trust into the work setting as well as compassion and a sense of camaraderie. As women, we excel at relationships and mentoring and we can be partners to help our male colleagues pay attention to and benefit from our natural abilities.
