Visio Talk

If you are looking to select from a list of Caterers in Orange County you may find your selection to be somewhat difficult to narrow down mainly because there are so many excellent choices to choose from. If there was any advice to offer, however, it would be that it is always wise to select the caterer who has the widest possible selection of food choices. Now, for most people this would mean a choice of meat, fish, poultry, vegetarian and a number of desserts. However, while there is nothing wrong with these choices it is also a bit of a limited menu. For example, what about low carbohydrate dinners, or healthy choice menus, or ethnic menus? As one can see, there are always a great variety of different dinner entrees out there that one can select from if one has the choices available to them. The reason that such choice is important is because when the volume of guests at a catered event is diverse there will be a number of different tastes that need to be (pardon the pun) catered to. As such, selecting a caterer that can meet such a need becomes imperative in order to meet expectations.

If you own your own retail business or even if you just manage one, you know how crucial it is to have quality POS equipment. All it takes is the breakdown of you system to realize how much you rely on it. Whether you use IBM POS equipment,Fujitsu Point of Sale equipment or some other brand makes no difference. Trying to cash out customers without it can quickly turn into a nightmare.

Do you have a service contract to handle maintenance and repairs of your POS equipment? If you don’t, it’s a great idea to consider getting one. Regular maintenance can keep your equipment fully functional and avoid downtime none of us can afford. If you have used point of sale equipment, a service contract is probably even more important because it’s likely you don’t have a warranty. Not only that, but used equipment is more likely to need repair than brand new POS systems.

Shop around for the best prices on a service contract for your POS system, but don’t compromise on quality. 24 hour a day tech support is a must, especially if you do large volumes of business and truly can’t function if your system goes down.

I have been a web publisher for three years and I can’t believe I heard about The Lead Marketplace/Exchange only this week. It’s been going since 2002 and it’s an amazing way to earn money from your website traffic. I’m going to place banners on my 40 sites and blogs today. Most of my sites are affiliate sites. You know what those are right? Take for instance my auto website. On there I have banners and other links to auto-related sites and the big affiliate companies who manage the affiliate programs pay a commission for any clicks or sales resulting from users clicking on those links. That’s the old-fashioned way. What Leadpile has done is reversed the process in a way. They make banners shaped liked little forms for generic industries that we web publishers can place on our sites. Visitors then fill in the forms and submit them. So for instance I am going to put the one for Car Insurance on my auto site and one for Payday Loans on my personal loans site. Interested parties fill in the forms and submit them. Out there are car insurance businesses and payday loans businesses that want these leads. Through Leadpile they pay for them and I get a commission. Because Leadpile has been going since 2002 it has reached the stage where the leads get bought through a bidding process instantaneously. It’s a surefire way to turn traffic into dollars.

Fulfillment centers are a wonderful resource for both small and medium sized businesses that are in need of packing and shipping assistance. The process is very simple. All you need to do is send your products to the automated warehouse. Your website will be monitored and each order will be fulfilled quickly to ensure customer satisfaction. You can also take advantage of customer service assistance so you can focus on expanding your business through online marketing and other marketing techniques.

For many music cd distributors and others, using the services of a fulfillment center is a great way to increase sales. As you offer more products, you can have them sent to the warehouse and they will be shipped as soon as an order is placed. Each day, you will receive shipping reports, inventory reports, and accounting information needed for your personal files. If you are a wholesale clothing distributor, you will be pleased with the care and attention paid to the products and the level of customer service provided.

Because many small businesses can use the extra help, fulfillment centers can take some of the stress and frustration out of running and expanding your business so it can be as successful as possible.

A wide variety of retail installations require Point of Sale (POS) systems as part of their business. Application and specific requirements may vary according to the retail business and each business may have a wide range of POS equipment needs. For small retail business, refurbished POS Systems offer some big advantages.

The biggest advantage to purchasing refurbished POS Systems is up front cost savings. Small businesses can recognize significant initial capital cost savings when buying refurbished versus new. This is particularly attractive for start-up businesses that may not have much capital to work with.

It’s easy to think of refurbished systems as ‘used’ but remember, these systems have been restored and renovated to a ‘like new’ state by the manufacturer or an authorized service dealer.

Unlike some kinds of electronics, POS systems are easily refurbished. Many POS components are extremely simple and have few working parts. One example would be a card reader. Its major part is the read head which can be easily replaced. Another example would a cash drawer. It only has one function in life: to pop open on command. A simple spring replacement in a cash drawer can add many years to its life.

Finally, many companies who sell refurbished POS Systems offer maintenance plans with their systems. That leaves little risk for the retail business that requires POS systems for their check-out or other important functions.

Used Point of Sale

Let’s face it: when you are turning the ship around, which is how you should regard the experience of getting yourself out of debt, then it takes time. And time is the one thing you don’t have because creditors will not be keen on giving it to you, particularly for goods and services that are regarded as essential, such as utilities. In fact, the more you owe, the quicker your payments have to be made. It’s as if your creditors’ have some kind of sixth sense that you are short of cash. So it’s a tough one. This is where access to instant cash can form part of turnaround strategy. You can use an online firm such as Payday Loans ABC, for instance. The trick is not to use such a facility for self-indulgent purchases if you are trying to get on top of debt, but to use an online cash advance as an important tool to pay bills that need to be met rapidly while addressing the bigger problem of “cold” debt - in other words old debt that is being paid off gradually as agreed with the credit supplier. This could be credit card or hire purchase debt, for instance, that has mounted over several years. The speed and immediacy of faxless payday loans make this an important weapon in the battle against rising personal debt. As one who has “been there, done that”, I can recommend it.

If you could have just one saving tip to pass onto your grandkids what would it be?

I think if I were forced to choose one great finance tip, it would be to never pay retail. But, I would also have to add, to never buy name brands either.

If still blows me away thinking that many of the top brands are just rebadged versions of the middle of the range or even the cheapest model of many products (DVD players, cars, jeans, breakfast cereal..)

I used to work for a breakfast cereal company, and I can tell you the homebrand stuff comes from the same factory.. the only difference is the box.

If you have not discovered Big Island vacation rentals as the best way to holiday in Hawaii, then let me be the one to tell you it is the way to go.

I stumbled upon this Hawaiian Travel Blog when I was researching a couple of weeks ago for our family holiday and I am sold on the idea.

Basically, you can rent yourself an entire house, for a very competitive price. And a price that competes very well against the hotels and resorts.

I guess it comes back to what kind of holiday person you are.. but if you have a family and you are looking for a bit more privacy, then these vacation rental houses will suit you down to the ground.

Check pricing and locations here.

Today I was shopping around for some nice perfume for my wife for our anniversary. There are a few good e-stores around, but I settled for sendmescent (linked above..)

I really liked this store.

Plus they are accredited by safe buy, which is reassuring, and they are really focussed on delivered great customer satisfaction. They are a fast growing e-commerce group and they are passionate about their business. They are spreading mainly through word of mouth, which also says they are doing lots of things right.

But, mainly, they had my wife’s perfume at the best price, and I was confident it was 100% authentic and would arrive as promised.

Since my wife and I have been working on our house, fixing it up, something I have noticed is how trashed our station wagon has become. We have been driving a 1989 volvo station wagon, and I have been lugging cement, wood, slate and all sorts around in the back of it.. and it has taken its toll.

So, since we have decided that we really like fixing up houses, and that that is the way we are going to stash the cash we make from our businesses (the share market is probably not the best short term investment environment at the moment..) we have decided it is time for a little upgrade in the car department.

So, I have been researching and salivating over pick-ups. Yep.. crew cab and extended cab are now phrases that are part of my vocabulary.

I think a pickup (the front runner is an isuzu pickup at the moment) is a great idea.. you can throw messy building gear in the back of those things and not worry in the slightest about it doing damage or wear and tear.

I do not mind saving money. Actually I kind a like it. It you are up for a good free tip how to save money I would just say quite plain and simple.. shop online.

Every day of the week you are gonna save a packet online. Online retailers kick *ss over offline. Price wise that is. I have never seen an offline retailer beat an online one on price. But, then again mail order usually beats offline, traditional retail on price too, and still a very low percentage of the overall shopping public use mail order. I can understand that. Too hard. Actually posting the order form, and you feel like it is going to take forever. I think it is weird that people equate online ecommerce to mail order.. but they do. I reckon online is way better, easier and faster. And I do not subscribe to the theory and thinking that e-commerce is going to stagnate like mail order.. but I am veering off the point here.. which is where and how to grab sweet coupon codes for better online deals.

Thanks to free online coupons you will increase the already good savings of shopping online. Deal sites like deallocker.com (linked above) give you all the available extra savings for the major shops like target. And it is easy to check their site first and then head over to the retailer’s sites and do your shopping. Plus you do not have to feel like you are.. let’s say.. fiscally challenged. Like you do if you haul a truck load of coupons in with your when you go to the physical shop.

I estimate you will save at least $1000 on normal family (as in for a regular average family..) purchases in a 12 month period. Handy.

I got some invitations done for a (thanks for backing a truck load of cash up my *ss) client thing I was organizing for my top 100 clients this week and I thought I should post up about the publishing company because they are an online business and pretty bloody good at what they do.

Vistaprint has been around for a long time, anyone that has anything to do with affiliate marketing would no doubt have seen some of their deals (they have some pretty clever default pages organized with CPA and others when a deal is geo-targetted and the marketer or customer tries to load it up outside the region..) and just your average surfer might have seen the awesome free business card deal they have had going since forever. (The cards are free.. and there are some decent designs, although personally I would recommend splashing out and getting the premium designs which I think are very pro.. all you have to pay for is the postage)

It is easy to look good when you can access (cheaply) professional publishing. I am a bit of a marketing person, so I think it is value to spend money on advertising and giving your customers a quality experience.

Holiday and travel are two very competitive keywords in the major search engines, both return hundreds of thousands of searches every month.

As I have been posting lately, I am especially interested in travel and travel research at the moment because our family, like a lot of families is preparing for our summer holidays and I have been doing a lot of ROBO (research online buy offline..)

One way that I think you can test test how good a search portal is, is to test it not just on the main stream destinations (like Paris for example.. or London.. or Australia..) but to look at some of the more subtle searches (like great hotel offers in Fuerteventura for example..)

The search portal linked above is the best of the best. Sounds sucky I know.. but I absolutely love this portal. It is hands down the best I have found and has enough detail, in my humble opinion, to satisfy any researcher.

While I love the search engines, I am also a massive fan of search portals built around niches (like travel..) and aggregation sites and applications (like feedreaders..) it all saves me time and energy online.. which is what I am after. Who wants to spend 3 hours looking for all the greatest listings for holiday deals, when you can get it in one site/portal.

The main thing to look for is whether they are company sponsored results and all coming from the same company. You need diversity to ensure the best price, and you also want t range of options to choose from.

As I have mentioned before, my wife and I are on a property development/renovators dream mission at the moment.

Everything is going a long pretty well at the moment. We are just finishing putting in a second bathroom and a fourth bedroom. We have already had the house revalued at 50k higher than the purchase price, from 2 months work, and less than 10k outlay.

I am still researching Home Improvements sites and looking for the best companies around to get advice and contract to do the harder jobs.

Something we will be getting someone in to do is a Conservatory. And the front runner at this stage is the company linked above. They are 36 years old and getting stronger and stronger in the renovation game. They come highly recommended and have an excellent online resource to research with. Again, I am only posting up the absolute cream of my research, so you know these guys are the best of the best.

Knowing your rights is a good idea generally speaking. But, if you are a frequent traveler (or perhaps even more to the point if you are not..) you should know about your airlines 240 rule.

The 240 rule is the clause in every airlines terms of service that defines what their recompense will be to you the customer when they jerk you round with delayed flights, cancelled flights and mucked up travel itineraries in general.

Mostly the things are meal vouchers, hotel vouchers.. that sort of thing. Check here for a list. And always carry a copy of the 240 rule with you when you travel.

I cannot believe that anyone would pay retail anymore.

I mean that for everything. There has not been one purchase (outside of groceries, petrol etc.) in the last 12 months that my wife and I could not have bought online more cheaply than off.

But, especially this is the case with books. Not only are brand new books much cheaper online at Amazon.com but, they also sell second hand books that are basically brand new, for less than half price usually.

Stumbled another cool online retailer today.. these guys have True Religion Jeans for those that know. Very cool site. They have got mens and womens designer jeans and apparel. I love these kinds of online shops (when they are as good as these guys at both delivering on time and also customer service..) mainly because you can always get the gear you want, all the great brands, (which truth be told is more important these days to our hip teen age kids, than me and my wife..) but for a half decent price..

My biggest tip for using this site successfully is to do the reverse of most of your online activity.. which is to do your research off line first. Go and find the exact same pair of jeans in a shop and try them on.. then go to the site and pay half price.

I have mentioned before that my wife and I are renovating our house. We have scoured the net for everything that we have needed and saved ourselves a small fortune in the process.

But, something I have been interested to see happen along the journey is that we have not needed to sacrifice the style and design that we are most happy and comfortable with to both save the money and to do it online.

Check one of our recent bookmarked sites for wall coat hooks as a pretty good example of something quirky and perhaps seemingly uncommon that we were able to find online that matched our tastes, and saved us a packet.

Interior decoration in my opinion in harder than outside, because it is lots of little fiddly bits. But, finding everything you want online is just too easy!

Never pay retail again!

I was searching for some more memory for my computer today (PC800 RDRAM) and it occurred to me that this kind of thing is a lot easier than it seems.

I think there are a lot of fat cat computer company executives getting rich off their company stock options because we the average consumer is still under the mis-conception that we are better off buying a new computer than upgrading the old one.

It is dead easy to boost the speed and memory of your favorite laptop or desktop. And cheaper too. I hope we see the day soon where DIY is a term that begins to increasingly be applied to computer hardware.. because everything you need to do it is available.. and it is cheaper.. AND it is not as hard as you might think.

Keeping you PC safe from viruses and other unwanted nasties is an necessity for any surfer. But, paying through the roof for the latest technology is not.. personally I prefer free Antivirus protection because not only is it, well, free.. it is not any worse than the paid stuff.. and therefore forking out my hard earned dosh dosh just seems plain stupid.
There are a number of free “trial” versions you can download. But, be a little wary of those, and make sure you are still getting the full coverage if you decide to opt for that penny pinching option.