Credit card debts: How can I settle them?

If you cannot afford the minimum monthly payments on your credit cards and wish to pay off your credit card debt, you can negotiate with the creditors and get a portion of your outstanding debt balance eliminated. You can also enroll in a bill settlement program offered by the various debt relief companies and get rid off your bills.

How can you negotiate a settlement?

When you have fallen behind on your credit card debt payments, you can negotiate a settlement with your creditors with the help of the following guidelines:

Request to reduce outstanding balance: You must contact your creditors and start negotiating to reduce your outstanding credit card dues before your account is sold to collection agencies.
Analyze your situation: After you succesfully negotiate a settlement, you have to pay a lump sum towards you debts. So, you should assess your situation and determine how much you can pay towards your credit card dues before starting the negotiation.
Save suffecient money: You must plan out a budget for youreself and save as much as you can so that you can settle the bills soon.
You must negotiate all deals regarding your credit card bills in writing and keep a record of each telephonic conversation.

How can a debt relief company help you?

After you enroll in a debt settlement program offered by a debt relief company, a representative of the company offers you free counseling. The company starts negotoiating with your creditoirs to eliminate 40-60% of your outstanding dues. Instead of paying you creditors, you save money in a trust account with the relief company. When you have saved suffecient amount in the account, your bills are settled. By enrolling in a settlement pogram, you can get rid of your credit card debt within 2-4 years.

However, you must remember that when you settle your credit card debt, your credit score gets affected. But settlement does not lower your credit score as much as filing a bankruptcy does. So, if you do not have any other option to repay your bills, you can go for a settlement rather than file a bankruptcy.

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Improving your business telephone etiquette : speaking on the phone

Some people just don’t know how to speak on the phone. You can hear every breath they’re taking and the crunch-crunch of their afternoon corn chips, or they have the receiver so far away from their mouths that they sound like they’re talking to you from the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. Some people also don’t know how to listen on the phone. They respond “Uh-huh” to whatever you say while you hear the clicking of their busy fingers on the keyboard in the background, or they talk so much that you can’t get a word in edgewise.

These typical scenarios are common, but shouldn’t be this way! If you use the information in the following sections, you’ll be a polite speaker and listener on the phone in no time.

The basic facts of communication are these: One person is a speaker, and the other is a listener. In most circumstances, the speaker’s job is to be as clear as he can be and to speak in a polite, even tone. The listener’s job is . . . well, to listen to what the speaker says and then respond appropriately.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But messing the process up is amazingly easy. Usually, people just forget. As speakers, we mumble, shout, whisper, or speak with food in our mouths. As listeners, we do other things when we’re supposed to be listening, listen without hearing anything the other person says, or respond to another person’s question from left field — with an entirely different topic.

Everyone gets overworked and distracted, and no doubt you have those moments when someone calls you at exactly the wrong time. But it’s crucial that you pay attention to what you say, how you say it, and how you listen and respond to others on the phone. Studies have shown that the top reasons why customers do not become repeat customers are employees’ indifference and rudeness on the phone.

So what can you do? Practice speaking and listening with someone you trust by using these guidelines:
1.Speak clearly, and pay attention to your conversational partner. Find the correct distance from your mouth to hold the receiver so that your voice doesn’t sound like part of the ambient background or like a hectoring protester speaking into a bullhorn.

2.Practice listening, too. When you get a phone call, make a point of turning off other noisemaking equipment, including the radio. Turn away from your computer if you have to so that you can avoid the temptation to fiddle with the document on your screen. Excuse yourself from any conversations you are currently having so as to give your telephone conversational partner your undivided attention.

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Don’t mix e-business with e-pleasure

Keep your personal e-mail messages out of the workplace. If this is a problem, set up a private e-mail account for your home use. When you’re at work, you should be working. Corresponding with a long-lost buddy from college (usually) is not what you’re paid to do. So separate the two worlds!
Using the office e-mail system to circulate jokes, pass along nonwork-related gossip, or conduct other private correspondence is unethical and may cost you your job! It can usually be tracked—even if you press “delete” after sending your message. All the “Powers That Be” have to do is go back to the master tape. (And remember, your company may be liable for information—or disinformation—that “leaks” into the far reaches of cyberspace inadvertently.)

Think before you key! If you wouldn’t want the message to be posted on your company bulletin board, don’t send it through the e-mail system. Play it safe and conduct personal e-mail correspondence at home. Conduct workrelated e-mail correspondence at work.

��Respond in a timely manner. Whether it’s a phone call or an e-mail, no one likes to be kept waiting, and certainly not your e-mail correspondent. Send a reply as quickly as you can, preferably within 24 hours, even if it’s just to say you have received the message and will follow up. If your e-mail program is capable of doing so, provide for an “automatic reply” whenever you are away—a message that automatically acknowledges receipt of messages and provides information about when you will return.

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Send the right kind of thank-you

Your colleague has gone out of her way to help you meet a deadline. Your manager has taken you to lunch for your birthday. One of your vendors has given you two tickets to a sporting event. It goes without saying that a “thank you” is in order. But what kind of “thank you”?
During my seminars, many people ask me whether a verbal expression of thanks suffices when another person goes out of his or her way for you. The answer is simple:
Any time someone exerts more than 15 minutes of energy to do something for you, a written or keyed thank you is definitely in order.

The next question I hear is usually this one: “When may a thank-you note be sent via e-mail or fax?” The best answer I’ve got to this one is: Never. In my opinion, sending a thank-you note via either of these mediums is like trying to give someone a hug without touching them. The aim is to show that you went out of your way to express your thanks; typing for 30 seconds and hitting “send,” or deciding not to invest in a stamp, sends precisely the opposite message. It is far more appropriate to key or hand-write a letter or note and send it to the person via old-fashioned “snail mail.” By doing so, your “thank you” will appear to be the result of a conscious effort to articulate your appreciation, rather than a hasty attempt to cross an item off your to-do list. The only exception I can think of to this rule is when you’re saying “thank you” for a voice-mail message someone has left you, or for routine information passed along via e-mail. In such situations, sending a thank-you message via the same medium is probably acceptable.

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Make sure your business casual dress

Is there a bigger workplace faux pas than showing up seriously underdressed for work because you had a different idea of what “business casual dress” meant than everyone else did? Well, yes, there probably is, however that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t concern yourself with staying on the right side of this potentially tricky issue if you’re not in a position to formulate clear written guidelines yourself.

How casual is your organization’s business casual policy? The answer varies from company to company, of course, and, alas, not all companies develop formal written guidelines for the benefit of employees. One thing is for certain, though. You will never get in trouble for being too underdressed in a business casual arena if you follow this simple rule: Change your regular professional attire by only a single garment.

For example, men, if your organization’s culture requires that you wear a suit on “business professional days,” wear a sport coat when dressing business casual. And for women, swap that conservative blouse you wear on most days with a knit top that is compatible with your blazer.

By following this simple (and, yes, conservative) rule when dressing business casual, you’ll still be able to go to a last-minute client meeting on a moment’s notice—without having to apologize for how you look. I’ve been asked many times whether it’s acceptable for women to wear slack suits on dress-down days in professional environments where this would otherwise be considered inappropriate. The (frustrating) answer is: It depends on the culture of the organization for which you work. The safest standard is probably to keep an eye on what the highest-ranking woman in your organization does and follow her example.

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Five Explosive Marketing Strategies for Exponential (Online)Business GrowthBusiness Growth

By Jo Han Mok

Do you know the answer to this question: “What can you do now to instantly increase the profitability of your business?” Well, the answer is surprising simple: Change your strategy. Your strategy is the master purpose of your business. It’s the fabric that binds your business systems together and the bedrock of your business’s entire operating approach.
Here are five instantly deployable strategies that can take your business to new heights, regardless of what product or service you’re selling.

_ EXPLOSIVE STRATEGY 1:BIG-PICTURE AWARENESS
Napoleon Hill listed “accurate thought” as one of the most important success principles. Most business owners don’t even think about their businesses. They simply adopt a reactive approach. The truth is, you can’t go anywhere unless you know where you’re going. And frankly, this is why so many businesses out there fail, because they know not what they’re doing.

Try this simple exercise to cultivate big-picture awareness: Get a whole bunch of colored pencils and a sketchpad, and start creating a mind map of your business or next project. You should be able to look at the mind map and instantly know the following:
➤ Who’s doing what (for instance, web site design will be done by the webmaster).
➤ The possible options your prospect will take, and the outcomes.
➤ Points of up-sell, down-sell, cross-sell.

In short, you should have every single piece of the puzzle there. Objectively, your strategy should bring you the most results in the shortest period of time on the most sustainable basis. Once your master strategy is in place, everything else is merely tactical.

_ EXPLOSIVE STRATEGY 2: FUNNEL VISION
Always remember: A buyer is a buyer is a buyer. Every business should capitalize on the lifetime value of the customer through expansive repurchases of products and services. Have a marketing funnel in place. Introduce ancillary products that you deem to be performance enhancing. These can be other people’s products that you can obtain from joint venturing. Most importantly, you’ll want to graduate your customer to higher-ticket items as high-octane fuel for business growth.

_ EXPLOSIVE STRATEGY 3: THE INNER CIRCLE
You’ll find that many people are belongers. Such people tend to pride themselves on being a part of an elite group. They highly value membership and association. The savvy entrepreneur will do well to take advantage of such behavioral traits and cater to this select group.

There is a threefold advantage in doing so. First, it’s a highly efficient way to bundle goods or services together. Second, it’s a great way to introduce continuity in your business. And last but not least, it encourages hyperresponsiveness.

_ EXPLOSIVE STRATEGY 4:
IDENTIFYING HYPERRESPONSIVENESS
Have you ever encountered customers who seem to buy almost anything you put out? Customers who seem to be on standby, waiting to grab just about anything new that you put out or recommend? It’s a great idea to group such people into an A-list, the high rollers, if you will.

Usually, such people will come from your own database, and it should be your business priority to encourage hyperresponsive behavior. Make sure hyperresponsiveness is always well rewarded with surprise bonuses, freebies, and nurturing communication. Remember, because of the Pareto principle, 80 percent of your profits will come from 20 percent of your customers. Guess who belongs to the 20 percent?

_ EXPLOSIVE STRATEGY 5:
MULTIPLE INCOME SOURCES
You’re practically leaving money on the table if your business is limited to a few channels. Affiliate programs have made it possible for almost any business to make money from ancillary products at a few mouse clicks. Why go through the hassle of product development and the costs associated with it? Remember, you’re never in the business of anything, but you’re always in the business of marketing the business. And all you have to do as an affiliate, basically, is market.
Though many affiliate programs are free to join, it would always be a good idea to purchase the product in question and do a thorough review first before recommending it. As an information facilitator, you
should feel good about recommending a product that you sincerely know will benefit your list, and not be afraid of getting flamed for trying to pitch. If someone is offended and unsubscribes, then just shrug and say “Next.” You don’t need such people on your list. There you have it, my “Big Five” strategies for optimal business growth and profitability. Use them, and watch your business take on a new dynamism! A positive side effect may include swelling of your bank account. Best of all, they don’t cost a cent to implement, so don’t wait. The time is now.

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Make a humanize e-mail for business correspondent

“See me!”
“I need this now!”
“Call Joe Schmoe and tell him to expect a price increase!”
When was the last time you received a similar e-mail message that reminded you of one of the examples above— curt, rude, and perhaps even a bit crude? How did it make you feel about the sender?

It’s all too easy to compose brisk, impersonal e-mail messages…but with just a little effort, we can humanize our e-mail messages so that others will actually look forward to checking their in-boxes for messages from us.
Begin with rapport-building comments in the first or second sentence before getting down to business (for instance,“Hope you had a good weekend, George” or “Thanks for your quick response, Mary.”).

If you’ve got a request or suggestion, phrase it in the same way you would if you were having an in-person discussion with the person. In other words, if you aren’t comfortable barking out orders like, “Tell me what’s happening with the Jones account ASAP” when you’re looking the person in the eye, don’t use the same (ineffective) communication strategy when composing an e-mail.

When concluding your messages, humanize them with a friendly phrase like “Looking forward to seeing you next week, “ or “I’ll be in my office today until 6 p.m.—but if you’d like to visit by phone, call me at (978) 555-5555.”

By humanizing your message, recipients will know you are interacting with them as people first. Most importantly, they will look forward to hearing from you.

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