All in all, our decision-making equipment is pretty sound. We don’t follow the lead lemming over a cliff. We can’t be fooled into thinking that a 99-cent lure is a meal. We don’t try to catch car fenders with our teeth. Then again, it wasn’t a dog who launched New Coke. So there are a few bugs – little design flaws of the mind – that can have big consequences.

People are clinically overoptimistic, for instance, assigning zero probability to events that are merely unlikely (such as a massive iceberg in the path of a really big ship). We see “patterns” in the random movements of stocks the way our ancestors saw bears and hunters in the scatterplot of the night sky. We make choices that justify our past choices and then look for data to support them. Not only do we make these errors; we make them reliably.

That’s the good news. Predictable errors are preventable errors. And a few simple techniques, like those below, can help you steer clear of the most common wrong turns. They can get you to your go point, that decisive moment when the essential information has been gathered, the pros and cons weighed, and the time has come to get off the fence.

Problem: Authority Is Not Bestowed Tool: Pursue Responsibility

For some, responsibility is simply bestowed: a princess is handed the kingdom upon the passing of the monarch; a favorite son inherits the family business. For most, however, the authority to make decisions must be actively sought.

Born in the Bronx of an interracial marriage, Jaime Irick thrived from his earliest days by tackling new challenges. In high school, he jumped into sports; at college, he took on social service projects. After graduation, Irick joined the military, qualified as an airborne Ranger, and found himself promoted up the officer ranks. Back in civilian life, he repeatedly asked for larger and stretch assignments. “I’ve never been fully qualified on paper for a job that I’ve had,” he told me, yet he so readily embraced his duties that ever more responsibility came naturally his way. With a new MBA degree in hand, Irick brashly contacted GE’s chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt, with a simple message: “I always wanted to run something.” The personal appeal to the CEO worked. Today, as director of sales in General Electric’s Homeland Protection division, Jaime Irick plays a significant role in one of Immelt’s growth businesses.

Madhabi Puri Buch did much the same at ICICI, one of India’s premier banks, which she joined in 1997. With little experience in fairly specialized fields, she tackled a succession of responsibilities, ranging from Internet trading to mortgage financing. Finally, she asked chief executive K. V. Kamath to give her a crack at running the “boiler room” of the bank, the back office that handles the enormous volume of paper, telephone, and electronic data that surges through the bank every day. “In the past,” she explained, “I had been given assignments where I had no experience. Yet they worked well!” Now she upped the stakes by taking on one of the bank’s least glamorous but most critical operations. Her friends thought she had been “sidelined.” Instead, Buch mastered the essence of still another banking function by taking responsibility for deciding how to remake it.

Printing has become a necessity whenever promotional materials that look great are at issue. You see the world today is struck by so many technologies. And because of these technologies, slowly the printing industry is moving forward.

For those who want to start a business, you must be equipped with tools that will boost your marketing potential. You need to print your marketing materials in nice-looking details in order to attract attention. If you have a major printing project to accomplish, you need to find the suitable support of a printing company to be a triumph.

Printing Services are in Demand Nowadays, printing services are becoming in demand. Many businesses are seeking out printing assistance when it comes to improving their marketing materials. There’s a wide selection of printing services that you can find online. The services vary depending on the print job to be produced.

In printing, many options are at hand. It depends on what the customers want, on what is really needed. For this reason, you can check out what Los Angeles printing can do for you.

Printing through the Internet If you want a sure-fire way to take your business to the next level, you must take advantage of Los Angeles printing services, which you can access easily through the internet. You can find that there are a lot of options that you can use for your printing jobs. If you’re searching for a marketing material that is professionally designed, there are custom printing options that can meet your requirements. This option allows you to customize your prints, in a way where you can specify the type of print you want, the size, quantity, color and the printing method to be used.

Professional printing services is of the essence if you’re yearning for high quality printouts of marketing materials. When you don’t want which printing service will give you the best results, you can check the internet and browse all the sites that are offering commercial printing services. The World Wide Web offer lots of options to help you deal with all your printing jobs.

Having your marketing aids be printed online is the quickest and most efficient way to build promotional materials to highlight your corporate image and boost the company’s brand recognition. Many online printing providers are focused on providing quality Los Angeles printing for those who want to make their business turn heads.

Technology can be very confusing for a buyer, especially when there a hundreds of products to choose from and it is necessary to decide which will suit his or her needs. Knowing some basics about point of sale (POS) requirements will simplify things to a large extent. Here is some basic information about POS equipment for a beginner!

Every POS system has some hardware requirements and needs physical input and output devices to carry out the commands of remote system software and to guarantee the smooth functioning of business transactions in a restaurant or a retail outlet. Some of the mandatory hardware includes computer terminals, receipt printers, cash drawers, magnetic stripe readers, check readers, monitors or screens, keyboards, barcode scanners, and customer display screens. These are aimed at time-effective and error-free sales transactions, where every activity is machine driven and manual input is minimal.

Computer terminals with operating systems like Windows or Linux are essential to map the software into Windows or Java and to integrate it with the mechanical devices. Receipt printers for retail outlets and hotels come with cash drawer ports and both the printers and the cash drawers share a single port with the PC, leaving other PC ports free for other peripherals of the POS system. Barcode scanners read product information from the price tag of the products and feed the information into the computer, which then processes it and prints it. Magnetic stripe card readers and check readers are essential for vendors who accept payment through cards and checks. Apart from drawing money from the customer’s account, these devices also prevent fake checks and credit card accounts from getting submitted. The scanners and readers are usually wedges in point-of-sale keyboards, which come with a maximum of 101 keys for industry-specific functions.

Monitors and touch-screen displays are used as both input and output devices depending on the individual needs of a vendor. Fourteen-inch monitors are most widely used, but nine- or ten-inch monitors are used in some cases, especially when they are used as display boards for product or menu information and pricings.

Travel expense reports are the records of the travel and expense (T&E) spending of the employees of business organizations. Indeed, travel and expense spending is the third largest but controllable cost after salaries of employees and data-processing costs of an organization. Every business traveler has to submit expense report to the Accounts Department of his company for claiming reimbursement. Almost all organizations, whether business or service, have their own formats of travel expense reports to be filled out and submitted by the employees at the end of their trips. Along with the submission of the report, an employee has to submit the receipts and vouchers of his expenses. However, some companies may not insist on the receipts if the total claim is less than certain amount. If the employees meet the expenses by credit card, the statement will serve as an evidence for claiming that amount from the employer. If the employee submits the travel expense report online, then he can attach electronic receipts. Generally for frequent business travelers, it is useful to submit T&E reports online to save time. Nowadays, companies are using expense report software to enrich the process of submission, approval and reimbursement by reducing the costs involved at the same time.

The travel expense report should include the details about the full name of the employee, his designation and level, purpose, dates and locations of travel, list of all the expenses, advance amounts taken by the employee, if any, attachments of all the vouchers and receipts, preferable mode of payment to the employee and signatures of both the traveler and the authorized person who has given approval for the travel. While mentioning the expenses, the employee has to clearly segregate the credit card payments and cash payments. Once the report has been submitted with the concerned department for approval, it should be reviewed, and if everything is as per the rules, reimbursement should be sanctioned. Then the payroll department would reimburse the amount to the employee.

Factoring is selling invoices to receive your money at the moment, instead of waiting for say, two to three months. That’s why it is one of the most important finance management tools - especially for a small company that does not create debt. Factoring does not require you to give up any ownership in your company.

For carrying out any operation, finance is required. So, necessary finance is to be raised, allocated and controlled for the effective execution of any function. Success or failure of the firm as such depends on how effectively the finance part is undertaken.

The finance function is comprised of the determining and raising of necessary funds from appropriate sources and their proper allocation and control. The aim is to attain the enterprise objective of wealth maximization. The wealth or the value of the firm is at the maximum when the return or profit is also at the maximum. But with the increase in return the risk also increases. For example, holding less inventory may increase profit because a lesser amount is locked up in inventory, but this may increase the risk as the chance of running out of inventory is higher.

According to experts, factoring process has some distinct advantages. For example, unlike a loan, collateral is not required in the factoring process, there is no interest, and no debt shows up on your balance sheet. What’s more, fees are paid in the form of a percentage discount, deducted after all of the invoices have been paid to the Factor. The discount amount depends on the length of time it takes to collect on the invoices.

Always keep capital budgeting and working capital on mind while understanding the finance management. Capital budgeting is the evaluation and ranking of investment projects with the aim of finding out the most suitable project from among alternative courses. On the other hand, working capital is the amount of capital required for the day-to-day running of the enterprise.

Brochures are a great way to get your message across. While having a brochure can be extremely useful, it is sometimes hard to know whether it is affordable. The price for brochures can vary widely, with many variables contributing to the final quote.

There are two basic ways to arrive at a price for your brochure. Many people find an online quote form to be the most convenient. After you clearly identify the specific needs of your brochure, including type of paper, type of finish, type of fold, shipping, print run and color, fill out the online quote request form to the best of your ability. Usually the company will respond within twenty-four hours. If you do not get a response as quickly as you expected, contact the printer via e-mail or phone.

You may also speak directly to a customer service representative. If you choose to call directly, experienced estimators will be able to help you to determine the right paper, inks, finishes, bindery and shipping that will combine to make the best use of your press time and keep costs down. Estimates are usually turned around quickly; most printing companies provide a very efficient and comprehensive quoting system, and unless your brochure requires very unique or very customized work, you can expect to get a good estimate on your brochure in a short time.

When you receive your brochure printing quote, go over it thoroughly and make sure all items or services that you need and their prices have been included. The price per hour for corrections made to your files is often a hidden cost within your brochure-printing job and should not be overlooked. Most brochure price quotes include processing one set of uploaded files and creating a single digital proof. Images and pages are sent through the Internet for the customer’s final approval. Brochure printing companies will often send a link to you via e-mail when your proof is ready. If you want a hard copy of your brochure mailed to you, there will probably be a charge for postage and for each hard copy proof. Brochure printing price quotes are easy to calculate and quick to find, so what are you waiting for, get out there and price your brochure.

Legal Forms are needed in every important sphere of human activity, including accounting, financial dealings, affidavits, credits, agreements, bonds and declarations, entering into various types of deeds, marriage, divorce, notices, wills and testaments, copyrights, contracts, health and insurance.

A hastily selected or wrongly formatted Legal Form can land you in trouble. You should, therefore, be thoroughly careful before obtaining and filling out a Legal Form. You should check that the form you are going to fill pertains to the state where you live or are involved in.

It should be so formatted that it does not contain outdated or irrelevant queries. It should not be filled in haste or ignorance. A huge variety of Legal Forms are available from law firms and business establishments over the counter or on the Internet. They may be available free of cost or at low cost.

Don’t download a form because it is free or cheap. It may be outdated, or may not pertain to the specific issue you are addressing A little money spent on the purchase of the form may save you tons of money and harassment in the future. You should, therefore, see to it that the form which you are about to fill, is supplied by a reputed law firm or establishment, and is up-to-date and relevant to your problem.

You should thoroughly and patiently read the instructions before filling out a Legal Form. There may be certain laws and provisions with very serious and far-reaching legal consequences, and ignoring or hastily skipping over them may cost you very dearly later on.

It is essential that you understand their implications before putting your signature on them. If in doubt, consult your friend, an experienced person or a specialist before filling out the forms. Find the latest version of the required form from your local law library or the Internet, and compare it to the one you are going to fill with it before submitting it.

I get many compliments on my newsletter, and every so often I'm asked how I create my email newsletter (Ezine). It's not as tough as you might think.

In a nutshell, an HTML newsletter is a web page that is transmitted via some email broadcasting service. Because this format incorporates graphics and color, HTML newsletters are more attention-getting than plain text newsletters. Overall, when compared to a plain text newsletter, HTML newsletters:

--Have a higher click-through rate (more readers click on the links contained within your newsletter that link back to your site, affiliate program, or sales offers)

--Permit you to track your open rate (determine how many readers actually open your email newsletter)

--Help you continue to establish your brand in front of your readers, as it may carry the same look as your website or other marketing materials you may use

--Are read more often than plain text newsletters because of the eye-catching graphics

Here are 10 steps you can follow to make the creation of your email newsletter quick and easy:

1. Select your newsletter distribution service. Many small business owners start their newsletters by choosing to send them out via their email program (Outlook). When their list begins to grow to several hundred subscribers or more, this task begins to overwhelm them. The dangers you face by choosing to send your email newsletter out through your email program are two-fold:

a. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) can shut you down if you send out an excessive amount of email each day. If you exceed the daily limit of outgoing emails established by your ISP, they will brand you a spa*mmer and shut down your account, many times without warning and without any ability to reinstate your account.

b. When you start to get a larger number of subscribers, you'll begin to get emails asking you to remove them from the list (yes, it happens to us all!) or to change their email address or requesting your latest newsletter issue. Get 10-15 of these emails per day and you'll soon end up spending all of your time managing your list.

There are a number of distribution options available in various price ranges. If you plan on designing an ezine template yourself using an HTML editor, I recommend aWeber.com, which offers sequential autoresponders in addition to being able to send out your email newsletter. If you don't want to learn HTML and want to use a template-driven system in which all you have to do is cut and paste your text, I recommend ConstantContact.com. Both of these services offer automatic subscriber management (where subscribers can go in and change their email address or take themselves off a list) as well as the ability to customize your opt-in and thank you pages.

2. Determine your software needs. There are several heavy duty website design and HTML editing programs out there to help you design your newsletter template. If all you plan to do is create a newsletter, there's no need to spend lots of money. I recommend that you try this easy-to-use HTML editor found at CoffeeCup.com. If you're really interested in web design, I recommend you purchase DreamWeaver, which has a steep learning curve but will serve you well over the long-term.

If you're feeling strapped for cash and you have at least one product or program to sell, consider having a sale to make some quick income - and make some sales you wouldn't have otherwise!

The key, though, is to not use this strategy too often. Otherwise it can seem as though your offering isn't really worth its original price tag. But once in awhile, when sales are slow, like during the holiday season, or when you need an extra few bucks in the bank, having a sale can be just the ticket.

Here are some other pointers, with my own experience:

1. Have a reason for having your sale: a thank you to your subscribers, a holiday promotion, share some personal reason for having a sale - like you need quick cash to pay the tax man, have a birthday sale, or an anniversary of your business sale. You get the idea.

This past June, I held a summer sale of some of my most popular products as a thank you to my subscribers (that's you!). It was the first time I had put more than one product on sale at once, and the response gave me a nice chunk of cash to bring along on my summer vacation.

2. Send out more than one email about your sale. People are busy and even if they are interested in your sale, they may not remember when it ends. Make sure you send out a initial "We're having a sale" email, one a few days later as a reminder, and then one more just before the sale ends, to be the most effective.

For the summer sale, I sent the initial email about the sale to my list with a one week deadline. A few days later, I sent a reminder email, and then one more just before the sale ended on the last day. I got quite a few orders after the initial email, a handful more after the reminder, but the most after I sent the "last chance" email (see below).

3. Expect to get the most orders just before your deadline ends, and then stick to that deadline. If you let people buy after the sale ends, they won't take your deadlines seriously in the future and it just creates more work for you.

When I had my summer sale, I got the most orders just before the deadline. And I know that if I hadn't sent that "last chance" email, I would have missed out on more than 50% of my sales for this promotion.

So, what product or program that you're already offering can you hold a sale for to make some extra income? Pick at least one, choose a reason for your sale, send an email to your list about the sale, follow up with them, and watch the cash roll in!

A motorcycle accident is a very dangerous thing to be involved in, as the motorbike annually kills more people than any other means of transportation on the road. Different statistics show worrying trends, as the number of injuries or fatalities have been rising for the last few years continuously. Here are a few main reasons why this is happening:

COLLISIONS WITH FIXED OBJECTS

Fixed objects in the environment that motorcycle drivers fail to see or to dodge are another important cause for accidents. This goes hand in hand with high speeds, use of alcohol or drugs and bad maintenance of the bike. Also, negotiating a curve at very high speeds and under-cornering are also important factors. In this category, the human error accounts for approximately 66% of all the motorcycle accidents.

VEHICLE FAILURE

Although it is only responsible for about 3% of all the accidents, it’s worth taking into consideration. Bad maintenance is avoidable. Most of these accidents are the result of a flat tire which forced the driver to collide with another vehicle or with a fixed object in the environment. Claim Compensation Online Now!

COLLISIONS WITH OTHER TYPES OF VEHICLES

It is approximated that 75% of all the motorcycle accidents are the result of a collision with another vehicle, typically passenger cars. Out of this percentage, a staggering 65% is due to the fact that the driver of the other vehicle failed to see the motorbike and crossed over its path. This situation is most often encountered at night, when the riders are most vulnerable.

ROAD FLAWS AND ANIMAL INVOLVEMENT

Road flaws like holes, spillages, etc. and animal involvement are to blame for about 2% of motorcycle accidents.

Now, here are some more interesting facts and figures. Out of all the motorcycle drivers who are injured in accidents, 60% don’t wear protective helmets. Now, that is a really big number, considering the fact that the helmet greatly reduces the risk of injury. It’s not a big deal to put it on, but many riders consider them uncomfortable. Moreover, the helmet doesn’t diminish by any means the rider’s attention, his/her hearing or the vision.

The ages in which a motorcycle accident is more likely to happen are those between 16 and 24, and as far as the gender goes, males are involved in 96%. Over 50% of the riders have less than 5 months of experience. Bad weather is only involved in 2% of the motorcycle accidents.

The figures say it all. The motorbike is not a toy. But a great deal of all the accidents happen because it is considered one. Lacking protection from the outside world, the protection which a normal automobile would have, the bikes are more vulnerable than any other vehicles.

But the young riders couldn’t care less about these figures. For them, the bike represents freedom, independence, the wind blowing through the hair and the direct contact with the road. Feeling the rumble of a bike’s engine is music to many of these peoples’ years. They are not to blame. Even for the outsiders, a bike can be fascinating. But the sad thing is that many of these accidents can be prevented.

A Home Based Business can appear to be quite a task in the beginning, especially if you don’t have any experience doing it. You will have to keep track of various details and will have to work hard at least in the beginning if you want to achieve real success. For that reason always try and treat your home business like a real business. Many people treat their home business like a part time business and hence do not achieve desired results. Most people start a home based business to generate extra income. Hence always try to make it as efficient and as profitable as you can.

Listed below are some important factors worth considering while running your own home based business.

What is your area of speciality?

You must have some qualities or skills to be successful in your home business or anything for that matter. Hence please spend some time analysing your strengths and weaknesses. You’ll want to capitalize on the former and minimize the effects of the latter. For example, if you are a good communicator or have a presentable personality, then you might want to handle public relations or customer support section of your business. If you are good with numbers and also possess knowledge of any accounting software, then you might become your own accountant and leave the communication part to someone else. Of course if you are good at more than one or two skills then nothing like it, but always try to concentrate on your strengths and apply them in your business.

What type of business will you be doing?

Spend some time understanding your new business and try and learn as much as you can about your business and any similar type of business, if there is one. Remember studying and researching never stops in business since there is always a danger of falling behind your competition. The internet, newspapers, trade magazines, and business books might be a good place to start. Always remember that it is your original ideas that will make you real money. Think creatively out of the box and you will have an edge over your competition.

What does your customer mean to you?

Always remember to treat your customers with utmost respect. After all they are the most valuable persons in your business, since it is them who will make or break your business. So please learn to treasure them. Try to put yourself in their shoes, anticipate their concerns, and try your best to help them in any way you possibly can.

Give them more than what you promised:

Try to amaze people with your level of professionalism, service or the quality of goods that you sell. If they buy something on your site give them a discount on some other item. Or try giving out samples of your product or service for a trial period. If they want something done by next week, have it done in a few days this week. In short always try and exceed their expectations. When your customers understand that you care for them and are willing to go that extra mile then your word as a excellent business person will quickly spread and your business will skyrocket.

Running a home business can be risky, but it can also bring in huge rewards. However, by constantly studying, researching and striving for excellence in your service, you will have a recipe for success. So just go ahead and join the club. You will be glad you did.

When working with others, clearly defining and monitoring your expectations is the key to strong, healthy and productive relationships.

I remember when I the first year I worked as a commissioned sales rep. The company said they expected the reps to meet face to face with at least 20 new people a month and to have an opening discussion with the perspective buyer. At the end of the first month I had only met with 17 new people and was a little down on myself. I walked into the sales managers office and dejectedly told him that I had only met with 17 and braced myself for a “shape up or ship out” talk. Instead to my utter astonishment he congratulated me on a stellar month. I incredulously asked, “But I was supposed to meet 20 new people.” He proceeded to inform me that no one in years had seen 17 people in a month. I was flabbergasted.

What makes companies do stuff like that? Do you think I ever hit the 20 mark again in all the years that I was with that Company? Of course not! It wasn’t a real expectation and the monitoring process didn’t insure that it would get done.

If the expectation is clearly defined and monitored people will respond to the expectation.

I once worked as a corporate trainer for a Fortune 100 Company. When speaking to sales people that were floundering I often asked that if there sales manager had told them they have a minimum production the first quarter or they would need to find a different place of work, how would that expectation have affected their performance. Everyone I asked that to said they would have performed far better. Most thought they would have been able to meet the production quota to boot.

When you are working with others set clear expectations, monitor those expectations and congratulate them when they are met. You will be astonished at the results.

So let’s investigate the right way to define, communicate and monitor expectations for the best results possible. The idea of creating expectations is really another way of saying you have a standard. As a manager, owner, or supervisor it is you obligation to communicate that standard (expectations) well and make sure that the employee takes ownership of that standard. If the standard is not met there needs to be a feedback method (consequence) that will insure adherence to the standard.

Let’s take a simple example. You are a manger and an employee has a tardiness problem. Can you see the earlier this problem is dealt with and clarified the less it will be a problem. If the employee is told that tardiness is not acceptable and comes in every day the next week late and no one says anything again, then even though an expectation was set, it was not monitored and the tardiness will continue. However, if the employee comes again the next day late and the manager makes it clear that the next time it happens they will need to find a new position at a different company. What is the possibility that the employee will come in lat e the next day. And if they do come in the next day late what are they saying about how much they think about the position and company. The employee at this point owns their behavior and the consequences must be followed through. The employee must be terminated. Anything less will cause a total weakening of the company. (By the way this was the employee’s decision, not the managers.)

Now I am not talking about the problem of tardiness. This is just an example of the importance of setting and monitoring real expectations. If tardiness is not an issue that is important to your company and people work flex time it should not be an expectation. However there clearly is a need for expectations on all aspects of the company.

This is critical for the Uncommon Leader. Expectations must be set clearly and monitored regularly. A good practice is for manager and employee to meet weekly to review the behaviors that are expected in the next week. It might be volume of work, sales calls, follow up calls, bookkeeping, etc. Clearly define the objective and desired behavior. Monitor the following week and make sure everything was done correctly. If it was congratulate and recognize the work with gratitude and praise. If it wasn’t, find out why and reset new expectations for the following week. Make sure the expectations are realistic and achievable. You must also have a buy in from the employee. Clearly define the consequence of meeting the expectation and of not meeting the expectation. If the expectations are realistic and doable and they are still not being met on an ongoing basis, it is not the employees fault. It is management’s fault. The expectations and standards are not clear enough and the employee does not trust that management will enforce the standard and consequences. This is where leadership on the part of management is critical.

In general, people respond to expectations pretty well. It is both in business and home life. Expect the best from all your relationships and you will find that you usually experience your expectation. Expect to be let down, cheated on and scorned, chance are that is also what you’ll experience. Just communicate and monitor those expectations.

Expectations are the tool of getting great productivity out of valuable employees and are the rules of engagement for great relationships.

The point behind the 2005 bankruptcy laws is to make it hard to file for convenience bankruptcy. Credit card companies and other creditors that have been pushing for it, claim that most cases of consumer bankruptcy involved careless people that have spent their money irresponsibly and are now looking for an easy way out.

New bankruptcy laws should make it more difficult for people with debt problem to file for bankruptcy, legislators claim that this way much more bills will be paid, the creditors will save huge amounts of money, and that will in turn cause interest rates to drop.

So how to explain new bankruptcy laws? Below you will find some of the mayor changes:

1st - the most important change, no more easy Chapter 7. Until the 2005 bankruptcy laws most filers have been allowed to file for Chapter 7. Chapter 7 essentially makes it possible to have all your debts cleared away.

But here is the catch, the new bankruptcy law is requiring a means test. So what is a means test? It is actually a test consisting of two parts, first will use a formula to exempt expenses.

That means that your basic living expenses like food and rent are compared to determine if you will be able to return at least 25% of your debt. The bad news here is that an IRS formula is used here, and if IRS calculates that your expenses for something should be lower, youre stuck with it.

The second one will test if your income is larger then median income of the state you live in, if it is you will have to file for more restrictive Chapter 13, and that means that you will have to pay back some of your debt in the next 5 years.

2nd - you will now have to hire a lawyer. Chapter 13 is just too complicated for regular people to file for by them selves. And with Chapter 7 being now more restrictive a lot of people will have to file Chapter 13.

3rd - bankruptcy lawyers are now more expensive since under new 2005 bankruptcy laws they are legally held accountable for their clients, or to be more precise information filed on behalf of the clients.

Because of that many lawyers providing pro bono services have stopped with that practice because of new bankruptcy laws.

4th - credit counseling is now a must, you are required to go through the credit counseling in the next six months following your filing for bankruptcy.

5th - some bills will have to be paid. For example taxes (surprise, surprise) or college loans must now be completely paid back. There is much more debts on the no forgives list, check with your lawyer if some of those apply to you.

6th - with the 2005 bankruptcy laws very little room have been left for debt problems caused by job sickness, losing a job or any other unforeseeable problem.

So what all of that means to a regular person? It will be very difficult to file for bankruptcy now. It will take more of your time and money then before. However if you do decide to go through with it I hope that this article has been able to explain new bankruptcy laws and difficulties, and that it will help you with your decision.

Online affiliate marketing is one of the most effective, cheapest and fastest ways to promote merchandise. With millions of people getting access to the Internet everyday, there’s a great chance for a merchant to introduce his products and services to a wider market, thereby, maximizing his revenue.

Likewise, affiliate marketing is an excellent way to generate full-time income for a home-based affiliate marketer. For someone who is jaded of going through a grueling eight-hour work routine, affiliate marketing offers a great opportunity to earn big without wearing himself out—physically, mentally and emotionally.

In affiliate marketing, both parties are benefited since as the merchant earns from each item sold, the marketer likewise earns a commission.

If you are interested in affiliate marketing but are finding it hard to look for affiliate programs, affiliates or merchants, you can start by checking sites of various affiliate networks. Many affiliate programs in the Internet are being offered through an affiliate program network, which acts as a link between the merchants and individual affiliates.

Among the most popular is LinkShare, it is through it that merchants and affiliates meet. LinkShare maintains and manages affiliate marketing programs for a great number of merchants with various kinds of businesses, products and services. It also has over 6,000 affiliate site members in its network. It gains profit from the set-up fees, monthly account maintenance fees and commissions.

Joining networks like LinkShare can be of great help in establishing your online marketing business. Whether you are a merchant or an affiliate marketer, you need to research well on your partners in order to choose the best for you.

LinkShare provides the facility of acquiring access to a large network of advertisers (merchants) who offer their affiliate programs to publishers (affiliates) who are willing to promote their products. In the same manner, it gives the merchants access to a large network of affiliates who are searching for affiliate marketing opportunities.

LinkShare is especially beneficial for an affiliate in choosing his partners since he can find his options all in one location. It would be easier for him to compare products, commission rates and other benefits given by the merchant. The merchant usually just waits for interested affiliates to sign up in his affiliate marketing program but being in the network increases his chance to promote his products to a larger market, thus, maximizing his potential to gain huge profit.

To help you decide whether to use large affiliate networks such as LinkShare or not, let us try to look deeper into its positive and negative sides. The primary advantage of LinkShare to you as an affiliate is convenience.

As earlier mentioned, you find different pieces of information about your choices simultaneously all in a single location, so you save time and effort looking for affiliate programs or merchants.