Watch Your Credit Card Statements!

It is more important than ever to pay attention to your credit card statments and any correspondence from your credit card companies. Because of new laws affecting credit cards (look for my previous blog post) the banks are getting very aggressive with consumer and business credit card accounts.

Consider this article -

One-Third of Credit Card Holders' Limits Cut

"Credit card companies reduced limits for 58 million cardholders w/ little regard to their credit scores" http://bit.ly/JB2y9


And from American Banker yesterday (a subscription publication):

"Credit card lines nationwide are set to be cut by another $1.5 trillion before the economy bottoms, on top of a $1.2 trillion cut from the peak, the analyst Meredith Whitney predicted Monday.

Unless credit loosens up dramatically for Main Street, small businesses will stymie a recovery, she wrote in a report to clients.

Credit cards are a particular source of concern, as roughly four out of five use them as vital portion of their overall funding, Whitney wrote."

So watch your personal and business credit card statements and correspondence and don't be blind-sided by increasing interest rates, reduction of credit lines or cancellation of accounts and the worst, in my opinion, the increase of the minimum payment percentage.

Why Starting a Business NOW Makes Good Sense

I've been a business owner for over 30 years now. Back in the late 70's I had a Word Processing business. For those of you too young to understand that concept, stand-alone word processing machines were the "big thing" before personal computers put word processing on everyone's desk. Now this was before spell checking and grammar checks and I had to have every document proof-read by a live person. And it was the world of dot matrix printers...it seems like an eternity ago!

It was hard work and long hours, but it allowed me to be my own boss and chart my own course. I've owned several other businesses over the years and have more than a couple right now including one that does about $5 million in sales. The one thing I can say with absolute certainty is I don't have to worry about losing my job(s).

I was just reading an article that was saying right now is probably a good time to start a business, and I'd agree. Maybe not a full-time one if you're employed, but a small business that you can start with little money that will provide you with some additional income; ultimately I'm a big fan of multiple streams of income. It all adds up and it also gives you a sense of security in times of cutbacks; you'll already have something that can generate income if you were to lose your job.

The article can be found in the October 15, 2008 issue of Bottom Line Personal http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/article.html?article_id=46533

And if you're interested in exploring one of the businesses I'm involved with that I highly recommend, visit my website page at www.SendOutCards.com/cardgallery - a business with a product that everyone uses is a "no brainer!"

New Facebook/Visa Partnership for Small Businesses

For anyone with an online business, here's some info - it's from June, so the offer may no longer be available, but it's still good information!

Visa Gives Away $2 Million in Facebook Ads

By Zachary Rodgers, The ClickZ Network, Jun 25, 2008
Articles | Contact Zachary | Subscribe to Newsletters | RSS Feeds
An oft-repeated bromide in social marketing circles is that advertisers should seek to create value for their constituents.

Visa has taken the mantra to heart, creating a Facebook app for small businesses and promising to give away $100 in free Facebook advertising to the first 20,000 proprietors to install it.

"At the moment, with the economy being a bit challenging, [small businesses] are looking for new ways to attract new customers," said Alex Craddock, Visa's head of small business marketing. "This is a way to help them do that... risk-free."

Visa worked with media agency OMD and agency of record AKQA to create the Visa Small Business Network app, which offers small business proprietors advice, resources, and the ability to search for and connect with one another. Among its specific offerings is a software toolkit from Google that melds free products including Google Docs, Google Sites and Google Calendar. Media partners including The Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur Magazine will contribute advice and content feeds on financial issues related to running a business.

The Facebook effort is part of Visa's new U.S.-based ad campaign geared toward small businesses. Messaging is delivered in the voice of small business owners, and repeats the tagline, "We're anything but small."

"It can be a lonely walk as a small business owner," said Craddock. He added Visa's purpose with the Facebook application is to assist small businesspeople. "This in many respects is a product extension for us."

Visa is creating new online, print and radio ads to drive awareness for the app. Its online media buy will include ads on the Facebook platform.

Under the ad giveaway promotion, it will offer a total of $2 million in Facebook ad credits to small businesses that install the app. In addition to generating good will and brand equity for the credit card services giant, the move should benefit Facebook by generating new awareness and trial customers for its ad platform. "If the business owner finds value in it, they're going to want to keep doing it," Craddock observed.

According to Facebook, approximately 80,000 small businesses already have a presence on its site.

It took me a while to find where this deal was offered, but here is the link:
http://apps.facebook.com/visabusiness/sign_up

Writing a Business Plan

I just want to remind people of the importance of actually writing a Business Plan for each and every one of your potential businesses. The process of doing this will make you think it through thoroughly and prove its validity (or not!).

When we started our main business over 20 years ago we only had $10,000 in the bank, a new house with a big mortgage (we didn’t expect my husband to lose his job out of the blue), a 9-month old baby (I had closed my 7-year old business to be a stay-at-home mom) and my 74 year old mother had just moved in with us. Knowing very specifically how we were going to start a business, what we were going to do to attract and keep customers, and more importantly what the cash flow would be, was essential. We couldn’t afford any surprises…we had no cushion, no room for error. And believe me, when that first box of inventory came and my husband had his hand poised over the check for all of that $10,000 we had in the bank we looked at each other and at least had the knowledge that we had thought it through and were pretty sure it would work. Informed risk is the only type of risk that is worth it.

And, it will also point out (when you do a cash flow analysis as part of your business plan) what can be and is the death of many small businesses…too much success. If you don’t have the cash flow to sustain the growth you WILL go out of business. We had to hold back our growth for many years because we were too much of a risk to a bank to provide us with the LOC that we needed for the full growth potential of the business.

A great source of information on writing a business plan, and information on starting a business is at the Small Business Administration website - www.sba.gov