The Package IS the Product

The Christmas season is upon us, and children young and old take great pleasure in wrapping gifts for loved ones and friends. Now, a little family history here... my mother, Head Wrapper of our household at Christmas, was not one to 'fuss' with wrapping to make gifts look like those found in store displays. As a Capricorn born in the Chinese Year of the Goat, "pragmatic" should have been her middle name. No sense investing a lot of time in making it look 'perfect'. Or buying expensive and difficult-to-maneuver foil paper and wrestling with superfluous curly bows. She had four kids ranging in age from two to 15 ripping everything to shreds inside 10 minutes on Christmas morning. So why bother? Heck, larger gifts would get wrapped in the Regina Leader Post Sunday comics. Wha-a-a-at? It was colorful! To this day, I admit, a certain amount of Mom's practicality has rubbed off. Although my husband refuses to let me wrap anything in newspaper, I do tend to save the 'fancy' paper for special gifts. If it's REALLY special, it gets a stick-on bow! Ooooooo.... the anticipation to open THAT one... A-HA! There it is. YOU know what I mean! You see that one gift under the tree, the one with the Martha Stewart treatment. The big fluffy bow atop a thick foil embossed paper with the hand-made card... and YOUR name on it! And you just KNOW it's THEE gift! The packaging influenced your opinion of its contents! Think for a moment, back to this Christmas shopping season. How many times did a package influence your decision to buy? An episode of "The Shopping Bags" in 2007 looked at the effects of packaging on our purchasing behavior. And no surprise to this designer, research indicates that consumers are heavily influenced by the packaging of products. It's the kind of subtle nuances that experienced designers know get results. In one case, tasters said that the pop from a can with more yellow on it had a more refreshing taste. And that when sampling canned meat, tasters thought the one that came from the can with the photo of the meat – with a spring of parsley on top – tasted more homemade. In their own live case study, the ladies conducted taste tests of various ranch salad dressings. When the samples were 'blind' (tasters could not see the label) tasters showed a preference for a store brand over leading national brands. But when tasters saw the bottle displayed, over half chose a highly recognized national brand name dressing, simply because the packaging was more attractive. They expect that the national brand is the better quality product. So what does all this mean? Package design is not just about fulfilling a function, or even about making something look nice. It's about building a brand. "Packaging will become even more integrated with the product in function, branding, and merchandising," says Duane McDonald, Senior Manager of Package Production at Kimberly-Clark Corp. "It has to do its part in delivering the brand promise to consumers. Graphics and aesthetics will be more important." Robert Henry Hall, Vice President of Brand Development at Boston Beer Co., describes this brand promise as "an emotional benefit of style. The design makes the consumer feel a certain way through the product and package use."

Three Sure-fired Ways Small Town Businesses Can LOSE Customer Loyalty

I live in a small rural community in Western Canada, sandwiched between a “small city” of about 80,000 and a major metropolitan center. There’s a lot of pressure to buy from local businesses in order to support our entrepreneurial base. I’m in favor of keeping it local whenever it’s possible. I too have a small business and appreciate local business supporting my venture. However, I still believe that you need to EARN the business. Just because you’re the ‘only game in town’ right now, or the political pressure is to ‘shop local’, doesn’t mean you can take your customers for granted, or ‘diss’ other local businesses. 1. Be gracious, even if you don’t get what you would like. My son’s hockey team just ordered some tracksuits from the bookstore at our local college. Several teams did the same. The college does not advertise that it can do this; someone just ‘knew’ they could get these suits at a very reasonable price. And since the college too is a local business and supports the community, it’s still “shopping locally”. The only catch was that the disk with the logo to be embroidered on the jackets was not available to the college. It was only available to the two local embroidery shops, the same ones who did NOT get the order for the tracksuits. When approached to do the embroidery, one vendor said to our team representative, “Since you didn’t order the tracksuits from me, I’m not going to guarantee my work. So if something gets wrecked, I won’t be responsible.” The message that kind of talk sends is that this person INTENDS to mess up a few jackets – out of spite! Whether that happens or not remains to be seen. Regardless, it’s very unprofessional. If you say things like that, you sound like a spoiled brat. Just take your ball and go home then. Certainly you can let a customer know that you’re disappointed you didn’t get the order. You still smile and deliver a quality product so they can go back to the other 17 families getting their jackets and marvel at the great job you did. If even half those people come to your shop for work in the future because they heard how good you were about the whole thing, doesn’t that pay its own dividends? 2. No one likes a gossip. When you live in a small town, there tends to be at least two of everything. Two hair salons. Two travel agencies. Two printers. Two hardware stores. Two accountants. You get the idea. If you spend your spare time gossiping and cutting down the work of your competitor, you do yourself a disservice. Gossip is probably one of the most harmful things you can do – to yourself. If you think it’s a way of letting people know what it’s ‘really’ like to do business with the other guy, you’re wrong. What it does is let everyone know how very insecure you are about your OWN abilities. Every business has its strengths. And everyone has things they just don’t particularly like to do in their line of work. Instead of competing, try collaborating. Get to know “the other guy” on a personal level. Understand their business. Share resources and information. Believe it or not, this will actually INCREASE your own business. It’s true. If you cannot help a customer on a particular day with a particular need, refer him to your “other guy”. He will do likewise for you if he’s asked to do something he knows is your specialty. I’ve got such an arrangement with a local ‘competitor’. We’ve collaborated on a few projects. She’s sent design work to me. I’m referring website queries to her. We both win, and most importantly, so do our clients. 3. Understand that customers are NOT fire hydrants. You cannot lift your leg and pee on your clients, mark them as your territory, and growl at any other dog that comes within 50 feet of them. This goes back to the previous point. Customers’ needs change. They grow. Hopefully your business does too. Sometimes, it’s just not a match anymore. They want to move on. Maybe you need to as well. Again, it serves you well to be gracious. Ask them why they feel the change is necessary. Ask them too if there was anything you could have done better that might have swayed their decision to stay instead. At the end, wish them well, and leave the door open to renew the relationship in the future. You’re more likely to get referrals from customers who have been given a kiss farewell than a kick in the keester. None of this is rocket science. None of this is MBA stuff. It comes down to the way our grandfathers used to do business: with a smile, a handshake, and some good old-fashioned common courtesy.

Leasing Retail Space - Terminating the Lease

Expense escalations are relevant when the landlord is paying a base level of expenses and when the tenant is paying expenses. With a typical gross lease, the landlord pays all expenses and the tenant pays expenses in excess of a base level. (Gross leases are atypical for retail.) The base level is typically the operating expenses for the year the lease is signed. The "expense escalations", would be expenses in excess of this base level which the tenant is responsible for paying. Caps on Increases? Some leases also provide a cap on increases in expenses. To provide more certainty for the tenant's cost of occupancy, the tenant may request that property tax increases do not exceed 5% in any year. Property tax increases can be enormous in some states. For example, initial property tax assessments in Texas for retail buildings have increased by 20% to 100% for many retail building owners. In many cases, these large initial assessments have been successfully reduced to a level much closer to the prior year's value. Cap Example However, the property tax assessment process can be arbitrary at times. If the property taxes did increase by 20% or 100%, the landlord would be responsible for the increase in excess of 5% for the example given. There are also sometimes expense escalation caps for utilities, insurance, total expenses and other items. Co-tenancy Termination Clause A co-tenancy clause for retail defines a tenant's right to terminate the lease if another tenant ceases operations. For example, consider a grocery anchored neighborhood shopping center. Let's assume Kroger's, a nationally known grocery retailer, is the anchor. Bob's dry cleaner store decides to lease space in the center because it believes the Kroger versus will draw all a large volume of traffic. There's an agreement to pay rent commensurate with the traffic which should be generated by Kroger. However, five years after the center is built Kroger decides to "go dark". Can You Terminate the Lease? In other words, it ceases operations at this location. A co-tenancy clause would provide Bob an option to terminate his lease. There will typically be a defined period for terminating the lease based upon the co-tenancy clause. Eminent Domain Eminent domain is the right of government to take private property. Historically, eminent domain was limited to taking private property for public purposes. However, the US Supreme Court expanded eminent domain to include taking private property for private uses. In most cases, property owners are compensated for "takings" through eminent domain. Eminent Domain Issues Issues related to leasing retail space include who retains compensation for a leasehold estate, what happens if eminent domain takes an amount of parking which makes operation of the Senate set retail center impractical and are there any rent abatements during construction related to a partial taking of the retail center. Leasehold Estate A leasehold estate is a tenant's interest in real estate obtained through a lease. A leasehold estate becomes meaningful when contract rent is substantially lower than market rent. Having the right to use retail space for a payment well below market rent has value. In the event of a complete taking up (when the government takes the entire retail center) the lease needs to address proceeds of the tenant's leasehold estate. Do they belong to the tenant or to the landlord? Partial Taking In any "partial taking", the government only takes a portion of the retail center. This may or may not include any portion of the building. For the sake of discussion, let's assume a retail center with 10,000 ft.² and 50 parking spaces. The 50 parking spaces are in two rows of 25. One row is along the street and one row is along the front of the building. The current amount of parking is just barely adequate. The condemnation will "take" the 25 parking spaces along the street. This leaves the property with only 25 parking spaces, or about half of what is necessary. The lease needs to define the rights and responsibilities of both the tenant and the landlord in event of a partial taking. Pay Rent During Road Construction? Consider addressing the payment of rent during road construction related to eminent domain. Most leases are silent on this point. In many cases, the loss of business due to construction is not compensated. The landlord must pay his expenses and mortgage payment during construction. The tenant's sales often decline precipitously during construction. There is no easy answer to equitably address this issue. The Market Research and Consulting division of O’Connor & Associates provides information necessary to make decision to commercial real estate professionals. Occupancy and Rental Data, ownership and management information are routinely gathered for four major land uses – multifamily, office, retail and industrial. This information allows investors to compare competitive properties, facilitate business decisions and track market and submarket performance. In addition the data is useful to brokers who for example continually monitor Houston retail space leasing, Houston office space leasing, Houston industrial space leasing, Houston apartments, Dallas apartments, Ft. Worth apartments, Austin apartments, and San Antonio apartments.

Forex Ambush 2.0: 100% Successful Trades, Slow to Trade

Summary: By all accounts, it works. They claim 100% successful trades. The one live account I found out there indeed had 100% successful trades and a 170% net profit over 7 weeks. The drawbacks are that you have to manually trade (the robot only gives you signals), or pay an extra $97 a month for their auto-trade version. And the auto trade version only supports 1 broker - FXCM. I do recommend Forex Ambush - it does work as advertised. $197 for manual version, plus $97 a month for auto-pilot trading. 60 days money back guarantee. Forex Ambush 2.0 uses an advanced custom-designed, artificial intelligence engine to process Forex data. Basically, it analyzes live and historical currency pricing and it then predicts the future trends. Once it finds a currency pair that it determines it can accurately predict, it sends you an alert. Forex Ambush 2.0 claims it has been 100% accurate so far and I didn't find any evidence of a losing trade when researching this review. Logically, large banks and trading organizations would have been using technology like this for years. Forex Ambush's ambition is to take the technology to the wider market and into the consumers' hands. Forex Ambush 2.0 claim it has been described as working so well, it feels like it uses insider information to pick trades. My attitude is that if it is so smart, why can't it pick the future of every movement. Of course nothing can do that. Instead, what this does is narrow things down to where it can confidently predict a future movement. Like, for 1,000 movements/fluctuations - maybe it is confident only the one time. Which is not a problem, as long as it is always right. After reviewing Forex MegaDroid and Fap Turbo, where they consistently got better than 95-97% accuracy, 100% success is not so far away. Perhaps Forex Ambush is just that bit more conservative, I really don't know. Like all expert advisors, don't expect a flurry of fast and furious action all day long. These forex robots often go several days with no trades at all. When visiting the Forex Ambush website, I was expecting the usual gaudy/tacky sales page - which is there as the home page - but at least there is a website with other pages (unlike many other vendors). I always like to scan through the offer first, and see what they claim, then the rest of their website before going off an investigating them fully with the professional traders. Anyway, that's where the Forex Ambush became a concern - when reading their website and seeing what it does. What its "software" does is give you "trading signals" - recommendations of what to buy and when. You have to do the trade manually. Which means of course you have to sit at the computer and be ready just in case it does make a recommendation. Remember, sometimes it can be days with no buy signals at all. For this, you pay $197 - once off. And you must make all the trades manually. For the automatic trading version of Forex Ambush 2.0, you then need to upgrade to the Diamond level of membership - and this costs you $97 per month - plus the original $197. Add to that their recommendation of using a VPS (virtual private server) at an additional cost of about $49 a month. A VPS is a server running 24x7 at a web-hosting company which has very fast internet connections to it. The main thing is that it is always turned on. You login to and manage it via your web-browser. Anyway, it then gets worse when it is explained that the automatic version does not operate with MetaTrader4 - which is the industry wide platform for almost everyone. Instead, it uses a proprietary platform - for no logical or explained reason. Forex Ambush AutoTrade V1 currently only supports the broker FXCM. You will need a regular FX Trading Station type FXCM account, not an MT4 or Active Trader type FXCM account. They claim they are not affiliated with FXCM in any way with FXCM - but this is not true. For sure they get a commission of your action. Their site quotes "Forex Ambush AutoTrade is a special piece of software which will run on your Windows computer or VPS that automatically receives signals and trades them. It is not an EA and currently only supports FXCM. It does not work with MetaTrader 4". They say more brokers will be supported in the future. That the software will interface directly to FXCM through their API (think plug-in), and that you don't actually need to install the broker's platform on your computer. But it really makes no sense to move to non-standard platforms as it ties you down to which broker's you can trade with - namely only 1. That alone is a big turn off for me. Again for their website "The AutoTrade software will automatically interface to your FXCM account and execute Forex Ambush signals for you. There is no other charge; this service is free and included with the Diamond Edition service. We do not charge an extra spread or any fee through FXCM". I did find one live trading account. Starting with an opening balance of $1,393.31 on March 31, 2009 it made 100% successful trades and a net profit of $2,367.79 as of May 15, 2009. So, 168% profit in 7 weeks which is up there with the best. You can click the link below, or right mouse on it and open it in a separate window (be patient, I found the link took 2 minutes to load). Forex Ambush Live Account since March 31, 2009 The user base for Forex Ambush is very small. On the large Forex forums I frequent, most people haven't heard of it. It would have been nice to get the views professionals but sadly none seem to know of it. On their website is a chat room - which is a nice touch - just login as a guest and chat with whoever is online about their product. I would have never found the "live trading account" link without the chat room.

Learning To Invest In Foreclosures

There is lots of talk these days about foreclosures. Investing in foreclosures can be a big money maker when it comes to real estate investing niches. While investing in foreclosures results in large profits when you choose the right house, ther are pitfalls that you must look out for before you buy a foreclosure. there are a lot of other factors to consider. A foreclosure occurs when the owner defaults on the mortgage. The bank has to start the process of taking the property that was pledged as security for the homeowner's loan. If the homeowner can't remedy the situation by paying the bank any money that is then owed, the property will likely make its way to public auction where it will be sold to the highest bidder at a sheriff's or trustee's sale. In my state of California, they use a trustee sale. When you are investing in a foreclosure, the first step is to determine what you are doing with the property. Do you plan on flipping it for a profit? Are you going to keep it as a rental? This will determine what area you should look in when searching what type of foreclosure properties you're interested in pursuing. The main factor to consider when you invest in a foreclosure is to know the law in that jurisdiction. There are laws that vary from state to state and county to county that govern foreclosures and if you violate those laws, accidentally or purposefully, serious consequences will follow. A lot of the home study courses and infomercial gurus advise buying a foreclosure and then renting the property back to the homeowner with the hope that they'll repurchase it at a higher price in the near future. Do not do this! One of the highest risks a real estate investor can take is letting the previous owner come back and reclaim their property because they misunderstood what you had agreed upon. In most states, you, the real estate investor, is the "bad" guy - you lose! Besides, would you really want a tenant in your property that has a history of not paying their bills? Of course not! You should always run a credit report on the potential tenant no matter what their excuse is today. However, many beginner real estate investors as well as many experienced foreclosure investors do that very same thing each day and pay a high price for doing so, oftentimes losing their investment completely when a judge declares that the transaction was indeed a usurious loan instead of an option to repurchase. During various stages of foreclosure, you can make a deal happen between you and the homeowner in default, wait and purchase at the auction, buy after the auction or many other more sophisticated strategies. If you intend to buy a property at the public auction, know that in some states, the law sets a certain time frame for foreclosures to become finalized commonly referred to as a redemption period. If you're considering investing in foreclosures, it is highly advisable for you to find out if and how this law potentially affects the ownership and possession of the property in your local area. You may think you own the property, when in fact you are a temporary caretaker for a set period of time. Once again, know rhe law! If there is a redemption period, the homeowner could be working out a deal with another investor or attempting to sell the property in some other manner without you even being aware what is happening. This can obviously have a big impact on what you do to the property during the redemption period, even if the property is vacant at the time of the auction. You could find yourself investing in foreclosures, putting money into them, only to lose all of the profit you thought you had coming to you. You are buying real estate foreclosures to make a profit. Act like it and treat it has a business! Many real estate investors look at investing in foreclosures as a sure bet to increase their wealth and or portfolio but fail to realize the potential pitfalls that await them. Knowing what to do as well as what not to do will save you a ton of money and headaches as you progress into the arena of investing in foreclosures. When you finally decide to buy real estate foreclosures, the bottom line is always to make a profit. A good rule of thumb to follow is only consider buying a foreclosure if you stand to make at least a 30% profit no matter what happens. That way, you'll never have to worry whether or not you should make a deal or not. Once you learn your local market for investing in foreclosures, you will find yourself keeping an eye on which properties are headed to foreclosure and how to potentially make potentially high profit deals happen on a regular basis. You will also begin networking and becoming familiar with other investors in your area. Finally, do not do everything yourself, especially if you are just starting out in the business. You should actively seek out someone more experienced than yourself to model. And remember, that education and specialized knowledge are key as well as taking massive action on what you learn along the way will guarantee your success as a pro real estate investor!

IRA on Death, IRD, Taxes and Stretch IRA-How the IRA distribution is dependent upon the IRD

The unpleasant TRIGGER word in the IRS dictionary is "IRD" [I]ncome in [R]espect of a [D]ecedent, Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 691. Income in Respect of a Decedent (IRD) refers to those amounts to which a decedent was entitled as gross income, but which were not properly includable in computing the decedent's taxable income for the taxable year ending with the date of the decedent's death [or] for a previous taxable year under the method of accounting employed by the decedent. Pursuant to Sec. 691, the amount of the IRA distribution is included in the gross income of the beneficiary for the tax year when it is received. Simply stated, the government allowed you to post-pone the tax while you were alive. Now, they want to collect, period. The baby boomer generation needs to understand and master the total significance of IRD, because they have accumulated significant wealth creating Taxable Estates. IRC Sec. 2031 defines and controls the valuation of the decedent's gross estate to include the value of all assets at the time of the decedent's death, real or personal, tangible or intangible, wherever situated. A decedent's estate may include stocks and securities, real estate, business interests, personal effects, annuities, trusts, IRAs, and other qualified plans. Because of the complex calculation of IRD, the IRA can be included in both the estate tax return and the income tax return of the recipient, thus creating the potential 77% tax-trap of double taxation. What's IRD taxable income? In order to determine whether an item of income is IRD, one must first determine how the decedent would have been taxable in his hands under IRC Section 691(a)(3), then he must consider the accounting method that was employed by the decedent. Generally, cash basis taxpayers only include "actual" cash received or constructive receipt (i.e. Interest on a CD) on the decedent's date of death. Regardless of the accounting method employed by the decedent, IRD is subject to income taxes on a current basis when the triggering event occurs, generally the actual receipt of the income by the beneficiary. A thorn on your wealth transfer to your next generation. Rev. Rul. 92-47 holds that a distribution to the "beneficiary of a decedent's IRA" is IRD (Income in Respect of a Decedent) under Sec. 691. Pursuant to Sec. 691, the amount of the IRA distribution is included in the gross income of the beneficiary for the tax year when it is received. However, Sec. 642(c)(2) provides that an estate or a trust shall be allowed a deduction for any amount that is permanently set aside for charitable purposes. Distributions from an IRA are taxable to the recipient. Distributions must begin not later than the required beginning date and continue over the life of the IRA owner [or] over the lives of the IRA owner and a designated beneficiary, IRC Sec. 401(a)(9)(A). There are ways to mitigate this unpleasant result. Implementation of any large IRA plan requires careful attention for the IRS requirements and estate tax considerations. The simplistic catch-all solution being bandied about is the "stretch-IRA." This solution requires "stretching" IRA distributions to a much younger beneficiary other than the owner, i.e., over the life of your grandchild, which is longer than your own. Stretch IRA and Estate Tax Problems Stretch IRAs are okay for those with no estate tax problem. Stretch IRAs do not work for those individuals with estate tax problems. Why does the Stretch IRA not work? Because when the stretch IRA passes to a younger heir, estate taxes are due. If the younger heir receives a $3 million dollar IRA, there would be a $1,500,000 estate tax due. Where is the younger heir going to get $1,500,000 to pay the IRS? The presumption is that the heir will take the $1,500,000 out of the IRA. When the heir takes out $1,500,000 from the stretch IRA, it is taxable income and income taxes are due on that money. This statement is required by IRS regulations (31 CFR Part 10, §10.35): Circular 230 disclaimer: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. Federal tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein To learn more about how to protect your IRA, reduce IRA taxes and have a personal assessment of your portfolio contact Best IRA Rescue. We provide professional services in: precise asset protection systems; tax-ree wealth creation systems; advanced income tax tax-deferred strategies; implementation of tax efficient transfers to your next generation elimination of the probate process; and the elimination of the only voluntary estate tax system.

Installment Loans: For Your Ease Of Mind

Installment loans are designed to assist people when unexpected financial emergencies occur. They are a fast, easy and hassle free way to get money to cover all your unexpected financial expenses. They are the excellent way out of all you financial problems. Installment loans are a means of borrowing short term short which is to be paid in installments. Once you receive your paycheck, the loan amounts are deducted in installments until the whole amount is paid off. The payments are the same through out the repayment duration. This means your budgeting won’t be affected by the loan repayments. This is because the predictable payments and a definite date of repayment will always put your mind at ease. Most lenders who offers this loan deal will definitely work with your monthly pay schedule, making the loan’s due date the same as your payday. They will offer automatic withdraws and notify your of your upcoming due dates and online account on which you can access your loan account. The main advantages of taking these loans is their ease of access. All a borrower does is to log on to the lenders website and apply for the required amounts online and if you meet their basic condition the loan amounts are instantly transferred into your checking account. The whole process, which is the application, verifying, approval of the loan, is done online. Most lenders are courteous and will assist you if encounter a problem on the application procedure. This type of loans do not involve any paper work or the physical visitation of the lenders office. The lenders also provides a convenient and affordable repayment options by which the borrower is fully satisfied with. In fact the repayment options can be extended to suit your schedule. There is no fee for early pay offs which makes these loans very popular especially with the employed people. When you are in need of some fast money to fulfill your financial obligations, the best place to search is the net. Online lenders offers a convenient, fast and hassle free loan application procedure by which you fill in a simple loan application form. Once the information you filled in is verified and deemed as true, the loan amounts are automatically transferred into your account. Before you filled in the loan application form, it good to read the terms and conditions form the loan approval very careful and make sure you understand them. Before the loan can be availed to you, you must be over 18 years of age, have a valid and active checking account and have a permanent residential address on which you have reside in for the last one year. The checking account must be over 3 months old and your monthly salary must not be less than $1000. The checking account is necessary for the loan amounts depositing. If you fulfill all the lenders requirements, the loan amount is directly deposited on your checking account the same day you applied or even within a few hours time. The repayment duration is usually 5 to 15 days after you have been availed with your loan amount. The only demerit about the installment loans is their higher rate of interest and other charges. Otherwise, the money is availed to within one banking day or hours after your application have been approved.