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As an employer, you are responsible for a bevy of red tape when it comes to your employees. Making things even better, the rules and regulations regarding that red tape gets changed a bit each year.

In 2008, one of the base line employment tax standards is getting a tweak. It has to do with the social security withholdings. In 2007, employers were required to withhold social security taxes equating to 6.2 percent of the employees wages on all wages up to $97,500. Any wages about that amount required no withholding.

In 2008, the figures have been tweaked slightly. Employers should be aware that the $97,500 number has changed. It is now $102,000. This means, of course, that as an employer, you must withhold the 6.2 percent for an additional $4,500 of those employees who earn this type of money.

The Medicare tax is also often lumped together with the social security withholdings. Employers are required to withhold 1.45 percent of the wages of an employee for Medicare. This amount has not changed in 2008 because there is no cap on the tax collection. You must collect it from every employee regardless of whether they make one dollar or a million.

So, how is social security holding up these days? Can you expect to actually receive anything when you retire? Well, it obviously depends on when you will retire. Although benefits are currently holding steady, the government slowly keeps bumping the retirement age at which you can actually claim full benefits. You can expect this to continue. The current age is 65 years and 10 months.

There is, of course, a fundamental problem with social security. It has to do with population. The baby boomers constitute a bulge in the population. As they age, the people following them are placed under more of a burden to support these retirees through social security taxes. The numbers eventually will simply not work out.

All of this essentially means there is a pretty good chance the money you are paying in to social security today will never be returned to you. Since you are legally required to pay it whether you are an employer or employee, there really isn’t any alternative.

By: Richard Chapo

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Ask around, ask people why a business needs a plan. Chances are you will hear, “You need a business plan in case you need financing, and the bank wants one from you.

How about this? You need a business plan because you are involved in the creation of a business that will employ you and others for, hopefully, a long time.

People make better plans when they go on vacation than they do when they enter the adventure of their own business.

Carry it further, when you go on vacation you want to know where you are going. Unless it is your goal to just roam around, and in that case your vacation may not get you any further than the grocery store and the hardware store. Your business could possibly provide for you for anywhere from 20 to 50 years or more. And in this environment today regarding retirement, this business may provide for you long after you can work.

So why not have a direction? Why not have a game plan? Think about it. What are the short term goals that you want to achieve through this business? Long term? Profit? How much do you want to provide for the people that help to propel your company forward? How big? How much money do you want the company to create? Maybe your goal is to remain small and super profitable. Plan how you are going to do that.

Part of the business plan in the beginning is your vision, your dream. That is great. Did your dream include being your own boss? Did it include free time with your family. The point I am trying to make is that you don’t have to be a General Motors or Toyota to have or need a business plan.

This small job, creating a business plan is likely to affect you and a lot of people for a long and profitable life.

By: P E Cavanaugh

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business plan

In these tough economic times, many people find themselves short of cash and in need of an immediate loan. Payday loan companies often provide the ideal solution to emergency circumstances. These companies allow customers to take a loan out against their next expected paycheck. The loan has to be paid back with interest once the person is paid. The loans do not generally require a credit check, and often customers can receive cash in one hour or less. The interest demanded upon payment of the loan is often higher than with a traditional loan, so these loan services should only be used in case of emergency.

The best payday loan company to use depends upon your needs and circumstances. You should never use a payday loan company as a permanent solution to your financial problems. If you find yourself requiring a payday loan on a regular basis, you should examine your budget to find a better solution, as interest payments will begin to eat up a substantial portion of each paycheck. If you do require cash in an emergency, however, you should try to find a place that promises a wait time of an hour or less. The last thing you need during a financial crisis is the stress of waiting for a long time to see if your loan will go through.

Distance is also a factor when choosing a payday loan center to use for your emergency cash needs. Gas is expensive nowadays so you don’t want to be driving across town if it is not necessary to do so. Also, if your loan company is located too far away, you will find yourself reluctant to visit it when it is time to pay back the loan.

Many payday advance companies are now doing business online. This method is not recommended because it is too easy for identity thieves or other scammers to create websites that mimic legitimate businesses. These people will steal your money or credit information instead of giving you the loan you have applied for. If you do choose to use an online payday advance company, make sure the website provides a phone number that you can contact to verify that the site is legitimate.

Whether you use an online company or visit a physical address, the process for receiving a 1 hour cash advance is generally the same. Upon arrival, you will be asked to fill out a simple application form. The company usually will not run a credit report, although a few do; make sure to ask or check the FAQ online if this is a concern. Along with your application, you have to provide verification of income such as a check stub, and of course you will have to give the loan officer your driver’s license to verify your identity. Once the application and supporting documents have been received, you will be given your money. Online companies usually deposit the money directly into your bank account, while physical locations often give you cash.

On your application, you will usually be asked to indicate when you are receiving your next paycheck. Your loan payment will be due on this date. You are required to pay the loan in full, including interest. It is important to pay these loans back on time. Many payday advance companies take a post-dated check for the amount of the loan, and if you do not have funds in the account to cover that check you can be arrested for writing bad checks. Even if companies do not take this step, they can sue you for the amount of the loan. Finally, interest continues to accumulate until the loan is paid back, so you could find yourself owing a far greater total than expected should you make a late payment.

Payday loans can result in high interest charges, but in difficult economic times people often find themselves without other recourse. It is important to use payday loans appropriately and to pay them back in a timely manner to avoid extra fees.

By: Hector Milla

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Making a decision to have your mortgage extended can end up in losses or profit depending on how well you handle the procedure. Having to make the correct decision and select a loan modification company is something that lots of families are struggling to with because in these difficult economic times, many people and families are having problems in finding ways to keep their homes. To save their home many families look for need a mortgagemodifications done. While to some people it may be a tedious load of paper work, getting your mortgage modification done through a genuine and accredited mortgage modification company can make the process much easier and more successful.

Loan Modification Companies

There are several companies that deal in processing and attending to paper work for a mortgage modification. Your first step should be to get in touch with one of these institutions. Being the experts in loan modification, they posses the information, expertise and knowledge to process your paperwork. But be careful there are also many companies that are simply scam artists.

Once you submit your documentation, they have access to all the details that are required for going ahead with the process. Make sure to minimize your risk by not paying anything upfront to a mortgage modification company. They know what mortgage modification is good and what is bad for the customer. This makes the matter more simplified for you instead of having to do guess work.The entire process takes only around one week. This is because the Loan Modification Company is fully familiar with what your bank requires from you, for you to be successful in achieving approval of an extension to your mortgage. You don’t want to waste any time searching for information, making phone calls and being kept on hold by operators.

Loan modification companies are aware and know what topics to speak about with your bank or lender. They are quick in gathering information. Just by glancing at your documentation, they know if you will be successful or get rejected. To minimize risk don’t make upfront payments.

This also means that you have an option to decide which loan modification company to work with. If you have trust and confidence with the agency you are working with, then you can go on to the next step for submission to your lender. Being in the financial business, they speak the same financial language which many people would not understand.

By: J Gillham

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Did you know that somewhere around 50% of all websites have one or more of the following problems?

* typing errors

* spelling mistakes

* grammatical problems

* punctuation problems.

Wow! A whopping 50%!

Hard to believe??

No, I don’t think it is.

In my daily business life I briefly skim or read anywhere up to hundreds of web pages, brochures, flyers, business cards and emails per day.

I’m lucky – I’ve got a *proofreader’s eye* [I'll give it back soon - haha] which means that mistakes like those mentioned above just JUMP OFF THE PAGE and draw my attention to them.

I can’t help myself – I’m a wordsmith, a lover of words, and despite all those years at school with my eyes rolling back in my head with boredom during the English class, the information somehow seeped into my brain and it stuck.

Now I’m one of those people who wants to correct the mistakes on restaurant menus, much to the horror of my friends and biz associates. I used to carry a red pen [to make corrections...:o>] but I’ve been banned from doing that.

How many times have I seen this doozy, in print, on websites and on big signs and billboards outside stores:

*For all your stationary needs, visit Blahblahblah Company!*

See how they spelt *stationAry*, with an *a*??

Don’t they know this means *standing still, not moving* when spelt this way??

Obviously not. So how to remember HOW to spell it? I have a little saying which I learnt as a child:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

E is for ENVELOPE.

A is for APPLE.

StationEry with an E for Envelope.

StationAry with an A for Apple.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The thinking behind this is that an apple sits still, so therefore is *stationAry*, and an Envelope is one piece of *stationEry* with an E. For more info, visit my website and click the link for Stationery.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

YOUR / YOU’RE / YORE

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

If you want to say, *Your shoes are lovely.*, use YOUR.

If you want to say, *You’re late!!*, use YOU’RE, which is the shortened version of YOU ARE.

If you want to talk about historical times, you might say, *In days of yore, there were no motor vehicles.*, and use YORE.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

COMMON BOOBOOS ONLINE TODAY!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1. I see this one all the time, and spotted this on a top affiliate website:

==> One of the biggest mistakes I see affiliates making everyday is that **their** building a short-term business

The word **their** in the sentence above is used incorrectly.

It SHOULD be written as **they’re**, which is the shortened version of **they are**.

* * * * * * * * *

2. On a recruitment site I spotted the following:

==> Currently we have a number of temporary **vacancy’s**.

WRONG! No need for an apostrophe in the sentence above!

The word **vacancy’s** should be written as **vacancies**, which is the plural form of the word vacancy.

To put an apostrophe at the end of the word and add an *s* means you want to show ownership of something… so ask yourself, *What do the vacancies OWN?*. Of course they own zip, nada, nothing… so DON’T use an apostrophe here.

* * * * * * * * *

3. On the same recruitment site I spotted this:

==> If you happen to be a Secretary or Administrator with 3-5+ years of experience and **your** looking to make your next move…

The word **your** in the sentence above is used incorrectly.
It SHOULD be written as **you’re**, which is the shortened version of **you are**.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The key to avoiding these glaring errors is as follows:

* admit you might be tired or you might have read your text too many times to be able to notice any problems

* admit that spelling and grammar might not be your best skills

* acknowledge that you want your text, document, website etc to be the BEST IT CAN BE

* ask one or more friends or associates to read the text for you – reading something with a fresh *eye* can quickly spot mistakes

* * * * * * * * *

What’s the BIGGEST
PROOFREADING BOOBOO?

People proofread the small print,
the regular text and FORGET to
proof the MAJOR HEADINGS.

* * * * * * * * *

What should be proofread?

* business cards – I wish I had a dollar for every one I’ve seen with a typo on it

* contracts

* documents

* letters

* website content

* website links [quite often a typo will send a visitor into cyberspace]

* a series of autoresponders, or email course

* newsletters – online AND offline

* ebooks, especially as these will be around for many many years to come

* any document which will reflect on you or your business, in any way.

* * * * * * * * *

WHAT’S WORSE
THAN MAKING
TYPOS & ERRORS?

Not being able to see
them in the first place.

* * * * * * * * *

COULD THIS BE YOU?

You’ve launched your website, you’ve done a great job… and you didn’t ask anyone to help you proofread your site, just to give you an opinion. You’re wondering why you’re not getting any clients, and no-one is signing up for your newsletter. What on earth could be the problem? Ahhhhhhh… some kind soul finally emails you to tell you they were offended by a phrase on your home page. Yikes! This could have been avoided!!

Sometimes when we work on something for such a long time, we are immune to it in many ways – when we read over text again and again, we can’t see the mistakes.

Let someone with a fresh eye do this for you.

* * * * * * * * *

STOP mistakes BEFORE
they are a problem

* * * * * * * * *

Unproofed websites
show unprofessional
regard. Don’t get
caught out – ask
someone to proof
your site today!

* * * * * * * * *

The main thing to understand is that not everyone is great at everything. You’re probably great at selling your product or service – that doesn’t mean you have to be great at proofreading too.

Let someone else do that for you – whether it’s a friend, business associate or professional proofreader, do yourself a favor and let your words BE THE BEST THAT THEY CAN BE.

By: Teena Hughes

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business news

The sole aim of most businesses today is to make profit. For any business to be profitable, the cost of running it must be minimal in comparison with the income generated. The idea of growing and increasing the overall output of any business can only be achieved if there is cost reduction in the running of the business activities.

The following approaches can help you to save cost in your business:

a. Performance Review: There is need to introduce a system that will carry out simplified specific functions, measure the duration of activities, agree on the rate of doing things and also ensure that goals are realizable while keeping to time. Always review expenditure in non-critical areas of your business and focus on areas of huge turnover.

b. Capacity Review: Review roles, responsibilities and personnel targets of your workforce in a bid to ensure optimal to maximal output.

c. Space utilization: Always consider your space to ensure that it is necessary for your operations. No unnecessary expenditure in large spaces if there is no need for it in your business.

d. Financial Review: Determine critical areas of financial need and determine how to invest in capital projects like equipment and buildings. It should be noted that assets depreciates hence a critical analyses of the benefit of accumulating assets to the business profitability

e. Input Review: Check the input used for your production/services and look for possible ways of getting more discounts to the cost of the materials and services

f. Process Time Review: Ensure that your production/service provision is prompt i.e. has a quick response time. This will impact a lot on the customers who mostly do not like delays

g. Customer Review: weed out customers that don’t contribute sufficiently to your growth. This process involves re-orientation and termination of relationship with some of the customers.

h. IT Review: To reduce the cost of using old system, information technology need to come into play in your business. This involves utilization of modern facilities that will require minimum maintenance cost.

Smart software tools are a companion of any successful entrepreneur. This is simply because the workings of the software packages are in both quick response and quality of service. Thinking of cost reduction without technology powered software is a rouse.

By: Chinedu Ossai

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