How to Prepare

How to Prepare a Financial Plan for a Hotel
By Joel Balaba Calamba Escol

Isn't your childhood dream to own a high-rise building with an elegant interior and one of the city's best hotels? What would be the next step if you suddenly decided to open a hotel? The next step is to make a financial plan. It's like a blueprint for the hotel's day-to-day operations and activities. Entrepreneurs are submerged in troubled waters at this point.

Many entrepreneurs face a dilemma in the planning stage of their businesses, whether they are new to the industry or have been in it for a long time. One of the most common problems they experience is with their finances. When you don't know how to plan for business finances, who wouldn't get grumpy?

Your hotel budget should be as clear as a crystal to you. It will assist you in developing a feasible plan or strategy for allocating budget to key areas that can generate profit.

Here are some tips on how you can prepare a Financial Plan for a hotel:

1. Determine the type of hotel you want to open.

This is critical because it will serve as a guide and a starting point for understanding your target market. It's important to remember that different types of hotels require different budgets.

2. Make a list of all the factors that could affect a hotel's profit generation and all the accommodation units, services, and amenities that you have.

All the factors that may affect the hotel's finances must be considered, and all the hotel's offerings and services must be acknowledged. You will have a better idea of what you can offer your customers this way.

3. Make a budget for the hotel's expenses.

Even if you are still in the planning and development stages, you must anticipate or estimate how you will allocate the budget for all the services, accommodations, and amenities you will provide. This will assist you in gaining insight and determining whether it is necessary for the long run to generate profit despite its costs.

This will also serve as a guide for keeping your company running smoothly. Forecasting startup costs will help you decide how to adjust and allocate your finances to finally open your hotel. 4. Use a plan to project or predict assumptions.

4. Use a plan to project or predict assumptions.

If you're starting from scratch, creating a plan that projects your forecast of the overall performance of the hotel will help you determine the probable profit, cash flow, and risks. These forecasts or assumptions will assist you in predicting the hotel's demand and future performance.

Forecasting or generating forecasts is an important component of managing finances or creating a financial plan since it will better prepare you to deal with future uncertainties. You must be ahead of the game in order to make modifications to maximize revenue, resources, and prevent any dangers, as they say, "If you plan to fail, you plan to fail."

If you're having trouble organizing your business's finances and don't have a basic understanding of how to plan and anticipate cash flows, as well as prepare reports and analyses, we offer a simple and painless solution for you. You can check out our best-tailored fit financial model for your business at http://www.efinancialmodels.com.

Have a great time, hustlin'!

Joel calamba Escol is a professional Journalist in the Philippines since 1992. Currently, he's been writing about financial plan for a hotel.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Joel_Balaba_Calamba_Escol/196490
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Avoid These Six Common Life Insurance Mistakes

By [https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dwaipayan_Bose/1976106]Dwaipayan Bose 

Life insurance is one of the most important components of any individual's financial plan. However there is lot of misunderstanding about life insurance, mainly due to the way life insurance products have been sold over the years in India. We have discussed some common mistakes insurance buyers should avoid when buying insurance policies.

1. Underestimating insurance requirement: Many life insurance buyers choose their insurance covers or sum assured, based on the plans their agents want to sell and how much premium they can afford. This a wrong approach. Your insurance requirement is a function of your financial situation, and has nothing do with what products are available. Many insurance buyers use thumb rules like 10 times annual income for cover. Some financial advisers say that a cover of 10 times your annual income is adequate because it gives your family 10 years worth of income, when you are gone. But this is not always correct. Suppose, you have 20 year mortgage or home loan. How will your family pay the EMIs after 10 years, when most of the loan is still outstanding? Suppose you have very young children. Your family will run out of income, when your children need it the most, e.g. for their higher education. Insurance buyers need to consider several factors in deciding how much insurance cover is adequate for them.

� Repayment of the entire outstanding debt (e.g. home loan, car loan etc.) of the policy holder

� After debt repayment, the cover or sum assured should have surplus funds to generate enough monthly income to cover all the living expenses of the dependents of the policy holder, factoring in inflation

� After debt repayment and generating monthly income, the sum assured should also be adequate to meet future obligations of the policy holder, like children's education, marriage etc.

2. Choosing the cheapest policy: Many insurance buyers like to buy policies that are cheaper. This is another serious mistake. A cheap policy is no good, if the insurance company for some reason or another cannot fulfil the claim in the event of an untimely death. Even if the insurer fulfils the claim, if it takes a very long time to fulfil the claim it is certainly not a desirable situation for family of the insured to be in. You should look at metrics like Claims Settlement Ratio and Duration wise settlement of death claims of different life insurance companies, to select an insurer, that will honour its obligation in fulfilling your claim in a timely manner, should such an unfortunate situation arise. Data on these metrics for all the insurance companies in India is available in the IRDA annual report (on the IRDA website). You should also check claim settlement reviews online and only then choose a company that has a good track record of settling claims.

3. Treating life insurance as an investment and buying the wrong plan: The common misconception about life insurance is that, it is also as a good investment or retirement planning solution. This misconception is largely due to some insurance agents who like to sell expensive policies to earn high commissions. If you compare returns from life insurance to other investment options, it simply does not make sense as an investment. If you are a young investor with a long time horizon, equity is the best wealth creation instrument. Over a 20 year time horizon, investment in equity funds through SIP will result in a corpus that is at least three or four times the maturity amount of life insurance plan with a 20 year term, with the same investment. Life insurance should always been seen as protection for your family, in the event of an untimely death. Investment should be a completely separate consideration. Even though insurance companies sell Unit Linked Insurance Plans (ULIPs) as attractive investment products, for your own evaluation you should separate the insurance component and investment component and pay careful attention to what portion of your premium actually gets allocated to investments. In the early years of a ULIP policy, only a small amount goes to buying units.

A good financial planner will always advise you to buy term insurance plan. A term plan is the purest form of insurance and is a straightforward protection policy. The premium of term insurance plans is much less than other types of insurance plans, and it leaves the policy holders with a much larger investible surplus that they can invest in investment products like mutual funds that give much higher returns in the long term, compared to endowment or money back plans. If you are a term insurance policy holder, under some specific situations, you may opt for other types of insurance (e.g. ULIP, endowment or money back plans), in addition to your term policy, for your specific financial needs.

4. Buying insurance for the purpose of tax planning: For many years agents have inveigled their clients into buying insurance plans to save tax under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. Investors should realize that insurance is probably the worst tax saving investment. Return from insurance plans is in the range of 5 - 6%, whereas Public Provident Fund, another 80C investment, gives close to 9% risk free and tax free returns. Equity Linked Saving Schemes, another 80C investment, gives much higher tax free returns over the long term. Further, returns from insurance plans may not be entirely tax free. If the premiums exceed 20% of sum assured, then to that extent the maturity proceeds are taxable. As discussed earlier, the most important thing to note about life insurance is that objective is to provide life cover, not to generate the best investment return.

5. Surrendering life insurance policy or withdrawing from it before maturity: This is a serious mistake and compromises the financial security of your family in the event of an unfortunate incident. Life Insurance should not be touched until the unfortunate death of the insured occurs. Some policy holders surrender their policy to meet an urgent financial need, with the hope of buying a new policy when their financial situation improves. Such policy holders need to remember two things. First, mortality is not in anyone's control. That is why we buy life insurance in the first place. Second, life insurance gets very expensive as the insurance buyer gets older. Your financial plan should provide for contingency funds to meet any unexpected urgent expense or provide liquidity for a period of time in the event of a financial distress.

6. Insurance is a one-time exercise: I am reminded of an old motorcycle advertisement on television, which had the punch line, "Fill it, shut it, forget it". Some insurance buyers have the same philosophy towards life insurance. Once they buy adequate cover in a good life insurance plan from a reputed company, they assume that their life insurance needs are taken care of forever. This is a mistake. Financial situation of insurance buyers change with time. Compare your current income with your income ten years back. Hasn't your income grown several times? Your lifestyle would also have improved significantly. If you bought a life insurance plan ten years ago based on your income back then, the sum assured will not be enough to meet your family's current lifestyle and needs, in the unfortunate event of your untimely death. Therefore you should buy an additional term plan to cover that risk. Life Insurance needs have to be re-evaluated at a regular frequency and any additional sum assured if required, should be bought.

Conclusion

Investors should avoid these common mistakes when buying insurance policies. Life insurance is one of the most important components of any individual's financial plan. Therefore, thoughtful consideration must be devoted to life insurance. Insurance buyers should exercise prudence against questionable selling practised in the life insurance industry. It is always beneficial to engage a financial planner who looks at your entire portfolio of investments and insurance on a holistic basis, so that you can take the best decision with regards to both life insurance and investments.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Avoid-These-Six-Common-Life-Insurance-Mistakes&id=8691522] Avoid These Six Common Life Insurance Mistakes

Gas Home Buyers Report

By [https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Steve_Duval/2304033]Steve Duval 

When buying a new home you want to be sure you don't have any unexpected expensive bills to repair or replace the gas boiler and any other appliance.

A gas home buyers report would find any problems that may be waiting for the new owners.

When you buy a new home you engage a surveyor to carry out a survey of the property to ensure everything is as is should be, any problems found are then listed in the survey report.

Once you receive the report you can then discuss whether to carry on with the purchase or negotiate with the seller re any faults that may have been found.

Most surveyors when compiling your report may state that the heating is working but untested.

This normally means they have turned the heating on and everything starts to heat up.

That's fine, but there could be a hidden problem that could costs you a lot of your hard earned cash to put right.

Most surveyors are not gas safe registered and by law cannot give you a full report on the state of the heating and any gas appliances within the property.

They can only test them by switching the appliances on to see if they work, but that's it.

By having a gas home buyers report carried out this will reveal any hidden problems that may be waiting for the new owners.

The most important part of a gas home buyers report is Safety, you want to be sure that once you have moved into your new property you are safe.

So what is involved in a gas home buyers report?

First, a gas tightness test is carried out at the gas meter, this will reveal if any form of a gas leak is present. Once the test is complete a print out of the results printed off.

Now we start with the appliances

Lets first take a look at the boiler visually, does it comply with gas and building regulations.

Does the flue have any signs of corrosion, internally and externally?

Is the boiler in good working order and safe to use.

The gas rate of the boiler is checked to ensure the boiler is getting enough gas to burn correctly.

Undersized gas pipes are quite common on combination boilers.

A full flue flow test is carried out with a flue gas analyzer and the results printed off. This test will reveal if there are any combustion problems present.

Check to ensure that the correct ventilation is present and not obstructed.

Any faults found are recorded on a gas safe certificate and forwarded on with the gas home buyers report.

The type of boiler is it a high efficiency condensing boiler or an old style gas guzzler as well as the age of the boiler.

Check to ensure that the correct controls are fitted to control the boiler. 

If there are any gas fires within the property these are checked over, again to ensure they are safe to use.

Gas fires seem to get overlooked and are never serviced, because of this the fire flues tend to get partly blocked overtime with objects falling down the flue.

A full flue test is carried out to ensure the flue is working and adequate for the gas fire.

if ventilation is required for the gas fire, check that it is of the correct size and not blocked off.

All other gas appliances are checked over to ensure they are working as they should and they have been fitted correctly to gas and building regulations.

At the end of the gas home buyers report another gas tightness test is carried out and the results printed off.

A full written report is then put together for the client detailing any problems found as well as the costs to put any problems right.

The report is then forwarded on to the client as well as the gas certificate and print offs.

This gas home buyers report applies to both LPG and naturals gas properties.

When buying your dream property you want everything to be right when you move in, that's why you engage a surveyor to carry out a property report.

Do the right thing and have a gas home buyers report carried out.

Gas can be very dangerous if installed incorrectly, be safe with your new home move and have a Gas home buyers report carried out.

When it comes to gas, you need to use a gas safe registered person or company, don't be fooled into thinking Joe Bloggs can do your work. It could cost lives. We are gas safe friendly and can issue a certificate once all works is complete. http://www.duvalheating.co.uk/gas-safe/

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Gas-Home-Buyers-Report&id=9940702] Gas Home Buyers Report

How to Fix Your Credit Yourself

By [https://EzineArticles.com/expert/David_Neman/2174734]David Neman 

You can pay a credit repair company to fix your credit, but if you're willing to invest your time instead of your cash then you can do it yourself without having to pay a professional. The only questions you need to know before you get started are how much your time is worth to you, and how comfortable you are with initiating and managing multiple credit profile related contacts via phone and email. You will also need to be comfortable with reading and writing quasi-legal documents. You can find example correspondence online which can help you with this.

Step 1: Obtain Your Credit Reports

Your credit score is based on a combination of factors and information which is reported about you by 3rd parties to the 3 major credit reporting agencies. The major agencies we are concerned with are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. These three companies are the ones who are responsible for publishing information about you onto your credit report, however they are not the ones responsible for generating the information. A creditor, a collection agency or another company (known as data furnishers) will tell Experian, Equifax and TransUnion what to publish about you, and then the credit bureaus will publish it. They do not perform a thorough investigation into the legitimacy of the information when they initially report it. Only when it is discovered and disputed by you will it be investigated, at which point it may have been damaging your credit for months or years. It is also very common for information to be different on each of your three credit reports, which is like playing Russian roulette every time your credit is pulled if you don't fix all three at the same time. The reason is because you never know which report your potential landlord, employer or loan provider is going to pull. Let me give you an example:

You have never checked your credit reports or felt the need to do so, however 2 years ago a credit card account was fraudulently opened in your name, maxed out and never paid on. You have never heard anything about it. The credit card company which was defrauded only reports payment information to Equifax and TransUnion, not to Experian. You have previously been approved for a car loan from your bank about 9 months ago, so you assume your score is good, however you are turned down in the final stages of your employment application and receive a form in the mail stating that a consumer report was used in the negative determination of your employment application. That means that even though your bank pulled your Experian information to verify your credit worthiness for your car loan, your potential employer used Equifax or Transunion and assumed the fraudulent negative credit card entry was valid.

Situations similar to the above are very common, and whether you are turned down for a loan, a credit card application, a job or an apartment it is a huge disruption to your plans and can be a major stress inducing event. Go and check your credit reports right now and then once a month from here on out in order to nip this potential problem in the bud.

The first step to take is to simply obtain a credit report from each of the agencies above. Legally you are allowed to do this for free once per year and also every time you are denied credit or suffer another qualifying negative event based on the results of a consumer report. To get your free reports go to annualcreditreport.com and follow the instructions to obtain your report. This is the official government website for obtaining your free credit reports, and it does not require a credit card or any kind of subscription or trial. Some people are not able to receive their reports from annualcreditreport.com due to problems verifying their identity or other reasons. If you are unable to obtain your reports from annualcreditreport.com, you can either search online for credit report providers or you can contact the credit bureaus directly yourself. Typically you can find providers online which will charge you $1 for your first month of access to your credit reports and to a credit monitoring service, with cost rising to about $30 per month thereafter. Remember, it's free for you if you can get your reports from annualcreditreport.com, so that is definitely your first choice. If you can't get them there try a paid provider or contact the bureaus directly either online or by mail and persuade them to provide you with a copy of your report. I always send mail certified, signature required, with a tracking number - and I highly advise you do the same. Keeping a detailed record of all of your communications with each entity you will be contacting is of the utmost importance to your success. The dates of your mailings and of the correspondence you receive as a result are extremely important. Below are the web addresses for the credit bureaus - search their site or search online for instructions for requesting access to your credit report if you are unable to do so through annualcreditreport.com.

So, just to be clear:

annualcreditreport.com - official site for obtaining your credit reports - go here first

Experian.com - Equifax.com - TransUnion.com; contact directly if needed

OK, I've received my credit reports in the mail or I've accessed them online - now what?

Step 2: Reviewing Your Credit Reports for Accuracy

Once you receive your reports you will need to review them for accuracy. Check each one carefully. There are several sections you will need to review and each one contains important information about you which will be checked by employers, landlords, utility companies, your cell phone provider and of course, potential creditors and others. Credit reports from the three agencies each look slightly different, but are generally composed of sections similar to these:

Personal Profile: This section contains your personal information, such as your legal name, your current and previous addresses, your employment history and your birth date.

Credit Summary: A snapshot of your credit, including how many accounts have been opened in your name and their total balance. Reported delinquencies will be listed here as well.

Public Records: The odds are that you likely don't have any public records listed on your report, but they are very common. Mistakes in this area of your report are also fairly common and need to be disputed immediately. This type of information includes bankruptcy, tax lien, court records, judgements and child support.

Credit Inquiries: Any company you have given permission to review your credit file (called a hard inquiry) will be listed here for two years. More than 3 inquiries listed in this section can lower your credit score. If you see companies listed in this section that you have not authorized to pull your credit, then they need to be removed. If you personally check your own credit (such as through a paid provider or credit monitoring service like referenced above) your credit score will not be affected. This type of inquiry is known a soft inquiry. Typical listings in this section include lenders, and potential or former employers and landlords.

Account History: This is the specific account information for all accounts opened in your name which are reported to a credit reporting agency. This information can be positive or negative, and collectively has the biggest impact on your credit rating. A large amount of inaccurate information can be found on some people's credit reports in this section. Positive information reported about you will remain on your report indefinitely, while negative information will remain for 7 - 10 years from the date that the account was closed, or the date you last made a payment on or acknowledged the alleged debt.

The contact information for all the companies who are listing information about you will also be found in this section. These addresses are where you will be sending your dispute letters if you choose to mail them versus filing online (recommended).

The above sections will comprise the majority of your credit reports. As stated before, go through them very carefully. Pay special attention to the alleged amounts that you owe, the payment dates and the names of the companies which are reporting the negative information. Take note of whether or not it is the original creditor or a debt collector as this will have an effect on the wording of the letters you will be sending out, and look at the account creation dates. In short, go through and verify that every single datapoint which is being reported about you on that credit report is accurate. Make notations of what you believe to be incorrect, reconcile this information with your records and if it is not exactly the same, then it may be being reported incorrectly and having a negative effect on your credit profile.

Step 3: First Contact

Now that you have reviewed your credit reports the fun part starts. You need to take all of the information which you want to be removed from your report and begin writing letters to address those issues. You can put multiple issues on each letter, however I never send more than 3 issues per letter to any agency and I recommend you don't either. You will want to send a letter to each of the credit bureaus which specifically details the reasons the information should be removed from your report. If it is inaccurate in any way, then legally it must be removed from your report. Carefully word your dispute letter with diplomatic and professional language, and inform the credit reporting agencies that you want them to investigate the points you raise in your letter as you are disputing their accuracy. If you have evidence supporting your claim, submit a copy with your dispute letters. The credit agencies want to report correct information, and they will look at the evidence you send to them. Make sure you do not acknowledge that the debt is yours or make any payment offers as this could potentially restart the 7 year clock that the debt will be reported about you.

After you have disputed your items the credit agencies are allowed a minimum of 30 days to respond under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). During this time they will contact the data furnisher and attempt to verify the accuracy of the debt they are reporting about you. Generally the data furnisher will simply respond that the data is correct, and nothing will change. The credit bureau will send you a letter explaining that they reviewed your claim, and the information was reported to be accurate, and therefore they will continue to report it. If you have submitted good documentation supporting your position, the credit bureau will review it, however they may still side with the data furnisher and refuse to remove the incorrect items(s) from your report.

If this happens, you will need to contact the original creditors and the collections agencies if they are involved, and request validation of the debt they are reporting about you. Typically you will receive some sort of report generated by them which simply states that you them a certain amount of money. This amount will rarely correlate with what you think you owe, or what is being reported onto your credit report. Depending on what type of information you receive from the data furnisher directly, you may be able to simply write a new letter to the credit bureau with copies of the information you received from the data furnisher and an explanation of how the information doesn't correlate with what is being reported on your credit report. They are also required to be able to validate your debt. This is different than verifying it, which is what data furnishers sometimes do. Look up this distinction online and then check to make sure that they have provided the evidence legally required of them to continue reporting information about you.

The parties you will be contacting include:

The three major credit bureaus

Experian

Equifax

TransUnion

The data furnishers

Original creditors

Collection agencies

Attorneys

Others various parties

Dealing with each of these contacts and correctly generating effective correspondence to them along with corroborating evidence will be the best and fastest way to fix your credit reports.

Do not enter into any payment negotiations with collections agencies or any other data furnishers without express written statements from them that they will be deleting the "tradeline" once you have fulfilled your payments. This is a very important step when dealing with data furnishers, and forgetting to specify this could cause negative information to stay on your report for much longer in the form of a paid collections account.

Step 4: Raising or Establishing Your Credit Worthiness

If everything looks good on your credit reports and your score still isn't as high as you think it should be, or if you are just new to obtaining credit, there are several things you should be aware of.

Some credit scoring models will give you a lower score for credit card limits or loans which are under $2,000 - get a limit at least this high if you can.

The average age of all of your combined accounts is important - the older the better. What this means is that if you have 10 accounts with an average age of 22 years and then you go out and open 4 new accounts to try and raise your score, the average age of your accounts will drop to just under 15 1/2 years old. This will have a negative effect on your credit score and may offset any benefit of opening 4 new accounts, which will also generate 4 new hard inquiries which will also have a negative effect. Make sure you absolutely need credit before applying for it.

Having over twenty accounts in good standing can raise your score, however the average age of your accounts will generally make more of an impact on your score than the total number of your accounts (see above).

If you have bad credit or no credit - try this out: Pull your credit reports and fix everything on them that you can so that your credit history is as favorable as possible. Save up $200 dollars, and then go to your bank or go online and find a company which offers secured loans and credit cards - these are generally easy to be approved for because the credit limit is the same as the amount which you deposit. In this case, you will deposit $200 to obtain a secured loan, then you will take the $200 from your loan and open a secured credit card. This way, you will gain two new accounts which are reporting your timely payments to the credit bureaus for the price of one. Also, you aren't really out any money because even though you deposited $200 to obtain a secured credit card and loan, you now have $200 worth of credit at your disposal. Make sure you make timely payments on these two accounts and your score can easily go up 75 points or more in just a few months. If you can manage a $2,000 secured loan then you will get the benefit of having a loan and a credit card with credit limits of at least $2,000 each which will both report to the major credit bureaus and can raise your score even more. If you decide to do this make sure your secured card provider reports to all three major credit bureaus - and try to pay off your credit card in full each month.

On time payments to your accounts in good standing are the best way to raise your score and keep it there.

If you are offered a lower credit card limit than you want you can always call the financial provider and request a higher limit. Sometimes all they need is a little additional information to approve you for thousands of dollars more.

The amount of your credit limit which you actually borrow matters; your debt to credit ratio is what credit agencies use to quickly see how much of your available credit you are using each month. This amount can change on a daily basis and has a major effect on your credit score. Keep the total amount of your debt down to about 20% or less of your available credit to look favorable.

Don't max out individual cards; if you have $10,000 of total credit on three cards of $4,000, $5,000 and $1,000 dollars, don't max out any individual card. Keep each of them at 20% or less utilization to save on interest and to keep your cards from being individually over utilized.

Keep your cash back by paying your cards in full each month. As long as the accounts are active and being used, paying them off each month won't look bad for your score. By not carrying a monthly balance you will avoid paying interest completely while still receiving cash back for using your cards. In this case, you can actually make money by properly managing your credit cards if you are disciplined.

Paying twice can save you thousands; many loans can be paid off much quicker by simply taking the monthly amount owed, splitting it in two and paying it off in two separate payments each billing cycle. If you can add just a little extra in each payment your savings could be significant and it could speed up the time it takes to pay off your loan by months. Mortgages and car loans are great for this strategy.

I encourage you to look into the huge amount of information available online and learn as much as possible prior to taking any of the steps outlined above as a simple mistake could be extremely negative to your credit profile. Fixing your credit can be tricky, with a lot of pitfalls and confusing rules, regulations and recommendations. Even so, it is absolutely imperative to just go ahead and dive into it and get started as the longer you wait, the more it will cost you in the long run.

Liberty Credit Consulting LLC is a full service registered, bonded, and certified consumer [http://libertycreditconsulting.com/about-us/]credit repair and restoration company and we can get started repairing your credit immediately. [http://libertycreditconsulting.com/]Liberty Credit Consulting. Be ready for life's biggest opportunities.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Fix-Your-Credit-Yourself&id=9147295] How to Fix Your Credit Yourself

Nontraditional Students - What Kind of College Degree Do You Need?

By [https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Amy_Doughten/520467]Amy Doughten 

As an adult nontraditional student, your educational needs are different than a traditional student going to college directly from high school. You may need a degree to advance to the next level in your workplace or to qualify for a particular kind of employment. You may find that your earning potential is limited without a college degree.

The type of degree you consider is closely intertwined with your end goal. Two year (Associate degree) and four year degrees (Bachelor degree) are the most common. Of course, within those two types of degree is an almost infinite variety.

Associate Degree

An Associate degree usually requires two years of college. Associate degrees are typically offered at community colleges, technical and vocational colleges, and some 4-year colleges.

It is vital to understand the different types of Associate degree because the choice you make can affect your future schooling opportunities. There are two main types of Associate Degree: Occupational and Transfer.

Occupational:

If you need a degree for a specific skill, an occupational Associate degree may be a good choice for you. The courses you take will be heavily weighed toward the occupation you are studying; you will take a minimum of traditional general education courses like English and Mathematics.

Although each college is different, generally an occupational Associate degree results in:

Associate Degree of Applied Science (A.A.S.) 

ProsYou can be career-ready in two years. There are a significant number of careers where an Associate degree is helpful. Some examples include: interior design, fashion design, auto mechanics, computer networking, computer programming, social work, veterinary technicians and healthcare.

 

Cons

If you plan on continuing your education to obtain a 4-year degree, be aware that the majority of occupational-related coursework you do will probably not transfer to your selected school. Typically, only the general education coursework you complete will count toward a 4-year degree.

Transfer:

A transfer Associate degree is designed to be the first step toward a 4-year bachelor's degree. Most of the coursework will be in general education areas (English, Mathematics, Sciences) and will correspond to the core classes offered at a 4-year school. This is a great way to enhance your current career by adding a degree to your skillset while you work to obtain your bachelor's degree.

Although each college is different, generally an occupational Associate degree results in:

Associate of Arts (A.A.) Concentration in humanities and social sciences

Associate of Science (A.S.) Concentration in science courses

Pros

This can be a very cost-effective way to get through the first two years of required coursework for your 4-year degree. Tuition at the local community college is usually a fraction of the cost of tuition at a private university. You obtain a degree which can enhance your career prospects and increase your potential earning power.

ConsTypically you will choose a concentration of study. If you later change your mind about the type of 4-year degree you wish to pursue, your two years of coursework may not translate to a full two years of transfer classes.

 

Talk to your academic advisor to make sure your coursework will transfer to the 4-year college of your choice! Many community colleges have articulation agreements with local state colleges, but not all coursework automatically transfer. If a transfer degree is your goal, save yourself time and money by ensuring your coursework will count at the college of your choice.

Bachelor's Degree

Also referred to as either an undergraduate degree or a 4-year degree, a Bachelor's degree generally takes a minimum of four years to complete. As an adult student, it may take several years to complete the coursework for a Bachelor's degree so be prepared that your 4-year degree might take you 6, 8 or more years to complete. A Bachelor's degree is a prerequisite to a Master's degree (a graduate degree) or a Doctorate.

A Bachelor's degree typically focuses on a specific area of study combined with general educational courses. For example, a Bachelor's degree in psychology is general educational courses, some elective courses, and a heavy concentration in a number of psychology-related courses. This specific area of study is called your Major.

Like the Associate degree, there are different types of Bachelor's degrees. Each college is different, but typically a Bachelor's degree results in:

- Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) Concentration in humanities and social science.

- Bachelor of Science (B.S). Concentration in scientific and technical fields.

- Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.).

- Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.)

One Last Note: Degrees versus Certification

A certification isn't a degree in the traditional sense, but it certifies that you have gone through specialized education for some type of trade or skill. For example, you may want to be certified as a massage therapist, beautician, or a truck driver. These skills do not require a traditional college degree. Certifications are typically offered by technical/vocational schools and community colleges.

Amy Doughten is a full-time nontraditional student attending Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina. Read her blog at http://www.backtocollegenow.wordpress.com and follow her progress at [http://www.twitter.com/amydoughten].

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Nontraditional-Students---What-Kind-of-College-Degree-Do-You-Need?&id=3618962] Nontraditional Students - What Kind of College Degree Do You Need?

The 7 Pitfalls That Can Ruin Your Conference Calls

By [https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Michael_R._Burns/329647]Michael R. Burns 

Conference calls have practically become a way of life in the business world. People schedule and hold conference calls almost every day of the week without even thinking twice about the technology being used or how they are being perceived by their fellow conferees over the other end of the line. Moderators or hosts of conference calls just take it for granted that the technology will work just fine and that everyone is hearing their voice perfectly.

Au contraire! The technology that you are using can be imperfect and have limitations or the moderator and the conferees on the call can be untrained or unaware of how their usage habits are affecting the calls. Both of these issues can cause devastating results leading to information being lost or not communicated properly, and in some cases, terminating the entire call.

Because these nasty issues on conference calls keep occurring, it was decided that a small, concise booklet be prepared that would spell out each problem and propose simple solutions for each one that could easily be followed to eliminate any future "disconnects". So here they are: The Seven Pitfalls That Can Ruin Your Conference Calls and You May Not Even Realize It.

1. Avoid Free Conference Services

Free conference services were started around the year 2000 as a way to exploit the telephone companies' way of revenue separation. Revenues from long distance calls were divided up between the parties that carried each call from the originating party to the terminating party. The originating party would be billed for the call and the telephone company that collected that bill had a system to pay the other companies that handled that call. It was called separation of revenues.

Back in the day, if a long distance call costs 10 cents per minute, a portion of the call or two pennies, for example, would be remitted to the company that terminated the call. These payments are called terminating revenue. All of these costs were regulated by state and national rules and each telephone company had to file tariffs.

What some bright telecom entrepreneurs figured out was that they could locate a conference bridge in a remote, rural telephone company and do a business deal with the company that they would deliver conference minutes into this bridge and split the terminating revenue that was being paid to them for these minutes. To generate huge amounts of minutes, they would advertise their conference service for free and just make money on the terminating revenue paid by the teleco.

And that is exactly what happened, the free providers generated so many millions of minutes each month that they had trouble keeping up with enough equipment or conference bridges to handle the traffic. This problem caused contention on the bridges. There were more parties trying to get into conference calls than they had enough ports or lines to accommodate all of them. Consequently, many conferees on conference calls could not get into their conference calls. Granted the conference calls were free, but you were not guaranteed if all of your parties would be on the call. Bummer! So you get what you pay for.

The reason for this long story is that free conference services still exist and as a customer you could still have contention for the conference ports on the bridges, resulting in only a portion of your conferees getting into your conference calls. In the business world, this cannot be tolerated. What do you say to your colleagues, We are going to schedule half a conference call tomorrow. The problem is that you don't know which half will be allowed into the call. It's a disaster.

As a sidebar to this issue, the Federal Communications Commission, the national entity that regulates telecommunications and telephone companies passed some new rules a couple of years ago that gradually reduced the amount paid to these terminating parties to the point that in 2017, they will be eliminated almost entirely. This could lead to many free conference services exiting the business entirely.

2. Failing to Mute Conferees in Large Conference Calls

Most moderators of conference calls have learned this rule the hard way, by having it happen to them on a live call. It certainly can be embarrassing and if the moderator doesn't correct it and tries to soldier through, the call can become a disaster with many conferees fleeing the scene.

Conference bridges are typically programmed with some moderator commands, which allow the moderator of the call some degree of control over the call. One of the commands is the mute function. On many bridges, the mute function is activated when the moderator presses the *5 keys. When these keys are pressed by the moderator, all of the conferees are placed into mute, meaning their microphones are shut off and will not allow interactive participation with the moderator or the other conferees. This allows the moderator complete silence when giving a presentation or long dissertation. The function is sometimes referred to as "listen only".

When the moderator has completed the speech and wants to put the parties back into interactive mode, the *5 keys are pressed again and the conferee microphones are now activated for speech and all of the parties can interact on the call. There is one major caution when placing all of the conferees into interactive mode. Calls larger than fifteen to twenty five callers are about the limit to being interactive. Any larger calls can become a mass of confusion when multiple parties are trying to speak at the same time.

As a conferencing service provider, we have experienced several customers that have larger conference calls with as many as five hundred to one thousand parties on the call. Even though we have warned them about this issue of too many parties trying to talk at the same time on large calls, they insist upon having an open call. Much to their chagrin after a few minutes of mass confusion and inaudible babble, they ring our operator to help them place their call into listen only. The lesson here is learn to use the mute function and tell your conferees that you are placing them into listen only and you will let them know when they are able to speak again.

3. Choosing a Service With No Live Support

In today's environment of on-line Internet services, customer service has fallen to a new low. High tech Internet companies are trying to make their services "Do it Yourself" (DIY) and limit their expenses on providing customer service personnel. This philosophy can add greatly to their bottom line profitability, but it stinks for the customers when they don't have a live person to assist them with a problem or issue with the service.

There are many Internet audio and web conferencing services that are web page driven and have no live customer service. All you get is a Q&A section on the website and if your question or issue is not in there, then you are stuck. Their service is basically useless if you can't figure out how to use it.

Consequently, you should select a conferencing service that has full customer support with an 800 number and a customer service department. This service will assist you real time when you have an issue, not call you back the next day. In fact, a good customer service department has operators that can even operate the controls on a web conference for you, allowing the customer to focus on the content of the presentation and not have to worry about pushing the right buttons.

4. Choosing a Service with 30 Day Expiring Pass Codes

This is a new one. I was called out on a customer contact at a law firm and the Managing Director said that he was very upset with his conferencing company. I asked why and he said that one of his attorneys was hosting an occasional call that was quite large, fifty parties. He didn't hold these calls very often, about every six to eight weeks. When it came time for everyone to dial into the 800 number, no one could get into the call. The call never happened. The moderator of the call was totally upset because he had wasted all of the conferees time and he looked bad in the process.

After this lawyer reported the bad call to the Managing Director, he called the conferencing company to find out what had just happened. The company representation said that, "Oh, you have 30 day expiring pass codes. If you want the pass codes to be permanent, you have to pay a charge of $5. per pass code per month." With 100 sets of pass codes, the firm would have to pay an extra $500. per month just to keep them active.

After hearing this, the Managing Director became very angry, resulting in a phone call to our company, which led to his firm switching their service over to us.

Repeat this after me, "You should never have to pay a monthly fee for a pass code." Pass codes are free. There is an unlimited number of pass codes that can be assigned to a conference bridge. Every employee in your company or organization can have a free pass code. They never run out. Don't be fooled by this new ploy to get your money.

5. Using Poor SIP Phones

With the advent of digital technology, more telephone equipment has migrated from old analog technology to new digital technology using the Internet. Telephone service has migrated also to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), which is reliant upon good Internet bandwidth for clear transmission of voice calls. Many business telephone systems are changing to this new format and they have become dependent upon having enough bandwidth for clear voice calls. Some of these telephone system providers, which use Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) do not provide enough bandwidth and therefore the voice quality is sacrificed. The voice can fade in and out. There is cracking or popping on the line. It is just a horrible experience.

When a moderator or conferee comes into a conference call with a poor SIP phone, it can cause havoc on a conference call. No one wants to hear popping, crackling or voices fading in and out. The immediate solution is to use another phone. The longer term solution is to call your phone system provider and have them fix the bandwidth or the phone itself. If this does not correct the problems, then it is time to switch phones. Be sure and test new phones out before buying them.

6. Using Your Speakerphone as a Moderator

Some people just love using their speaker phone, both on their cell phone and on their business phone. This is just fine if you keep your mouth within a reasonably close distance to the phone's speaker for the duration of the call. However, some moderators love to walk and talk. This presents a problem, because when a person walks away from the microphone, their voice fades out. When you add multiple parties in the same room around the speaker phone, the microphone will pick up any conversations within the room, causing disruption in the call. Consequently, when a moderator uses a speaker phone, they have to be extremely careful to stay at a constant distance from the microphone. The moderator should also caution all of the parties within the same room to refrain from talking amongst themselves while the call is proceeding.

7. Moderator on a Cell Phone: The Kiss of Death

Recently, the number of participants on cell phones in a conference calls exceeded the number of participants from business phones. If you are a conferee on a call, you are probably okay to participate via cell phone. You just need to insure that your surroundings are in a quiet setting. However, if you are a moderator on a conference call using your cell phone, you should be aware of certain procedures that can ruin your calls and which you must avoid.

When you set up your conference service with a conference moderator, regardless of the type of phone you are using, you have to specify whether you want your calls to end when you, the moderator, hang up or if you want participants to continue to be able to talk after you hang up. If you want the call to end when you, the moderator hang up, this feature is called "automatic disconnect when moderator hangs up". This means that on all of your calls when you hang up, all of the other parties are automatically disconnected.

The problem you have with being a moderator on a cell phone with this feature is that if your cell phone fades out for whatever reason and disconnects in the middle of your call, all of the parties will be disconnected also. They can all dial back in and be reconnected, but if this keeps happening on your calls, participants will get frustrated and not call back in.

This issue becomes problematic when you are mobile or traveling in a car and go under a bridge or enter a dead zone. Your phone disconnects and boom, your call is toasted. Therefore, when setting up your conference service, consider selecting the option to allow your conferees to stay connected until they hang up.

Remember, it is okay to participate with a cell phone as a conferee on a conference call. It is as a moderator of a conference call that you have to be careful and consider the options available for you when you set up your conference service.

So there you have them, the 7 Pitfalls That can Ruin Your Conference Calls. Now you are educated and can put this information to good use with your conference call etiquette. I wish you much success with your conference calls and your future endeavors.

Mike Burns has been in the conferencing industry since 1971, having originally worked for Southwestern Bell and AT&T. In 1989, Mr. Burns founded Conference Pros International and in 2000, Mr Burns founded A+ Conferencing, a conferencing provider that sells exclusively through master agents and resellers. Mr Burns speaks and writes about the conferencing industry frequently.

888-239-3969. http://www.aplusconferencing.com

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?The-7-Pitfalls-That-Can-Ruin-Your-Conference-Calls&id=9479213] The 7 Pitfalls That Can Ruin Your Conference Calls

Don't Roll the Dice When Making a Car Donation to Charity

By [https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Daryl_Reese/1073790]Daryl Reese 

For over two decades, making a vehicle donation to a charity has been very popular for those trying to get rid of that old unwanted car.

Many charities across the country have become quite dependent on the funds raised through vehicle donations. So much that the rise of numerous vehicle donation processing companies have begun to fill the automotive landscape, giving way to many options for charities and donors alike. Unfortunately, many of these companies have become complacent in how they process your vehicle donation, resulting in low sales numbers, meaning minimal write-off potential.

VEHICLE DONATIONS - a quick glance back

In the early years of 2000, this landscape had been on rock solid foundation with nothing standing in its way. Then signs of economical instability turned into governmental concerns and eventually lead to governmental action.

Ultimately it was the findings of the Senate Finance Committee's investigation by the GAO (U.S. General Accounting Office), spearheaded by its chairman Iowa's Senator Grassley, who had uncovered a multitude of car donation abuses.

With part of their investigation focusing on the tax year 2000, results came in claiming approximately 6% of all noncash contributions over $500 reported on returns that year were for vehicle donations. Their analysis estimated vehicle donation deductions lowered taxpayers' income tax liability by $654 million that year alone.

The GAO study tracked a judgmental sample of 54 donated vehicles for that year to compare the amount of proceeds the charities received from vehicle sales and the amount claimed as deductions on donor's tax returns.

The findings raised eyebrows. From the sample of 54 donated vehicles, the charities only received 5% or less of the actual value the donor had claimed as a deduction on their tax returns.

They identified two factors that contributed to this difference.

1. Donated vehicles were often sold at wholesale prices rather than at the price the donor might expect if selling the vehicle to a private party.

2. Vehicle processing and fund-raising costs are subtracted from gross vehicle sales revenue; further reducing the proceeds charities receive from vehicle sales.

They also indicated that they were unable to determine whether individuals claiming deductions for donated vehicles accurately assessed the fair market value of their vehicle, because data as to the vehicles condition was not available. However they mentioned some charities they interviewed stated some of their donors' claims about vehicle value might have been inflated.

The GAO's 43 page findings and recommendations were very detail oriented and what Congress eventually approved was included in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. The final version of the changed law took effect for tax year 2005.

Charity Car Donation TAX LAW OVERVIEW

THE OLD DAYS (tax year 2004 and older)

A taxpayer could claim fair market value for any vehicle donated to charity up to $5,000 accompanied by a receipt from the charity, regardless of what the charity sold it for. No reporting requirement on behalf of the charity.

Anything over $5,000 still required a receipt from the charity, along with IRS tax form 8283 and a required third party appraisal. The charity was required to submit IRS form 8282 once the vehicle sold.

TODAYS STANDARDS (tax year 2005 to PRESENT)

A taxpayer could claim up to $500 for any vehicle donated to charity accompanied by a receipt from the charity, regardless of what the charity sold it for.

A taxpayer could claim whatever amount the donated vehicle sold for by the charity, accompanied by IRS form 1098C completed by the charity, indicating the amount sold and other pertinent info from the donor. If sold for more than $5,000 then IRS form 8283 will be required as well.

A taxpayer could claim fair market value (usually determined by an evaluation guide, like KBB.com) if the charity materially improves the vehicle or uses the vehicle significantly and accompanied by IRS form 1098C. If determined value is more than $5,000 then IRS tax form 8283 along with a third party appraisal will be required as well. Charity will be required to submit IRS form 8282 once the vehicle is sold.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

The abuses identified in the governmental study, pointed at several issues, but at the end of the day, it was determined to be a loophole in the law and lack of governmental resources to police it that would change the way the vehicle donation process would continue.

These new changes put the responsibility of how much the donor could claim on the shoulders of the charity or vehicle donation processing company. This is where the problem lies.

It's been over six years since the vehicle donation tax laws have changed and in that time we have seen many vehicle donation companies come and go. But the one thing we haven't seen much of, is how the existing vehicle donation processing companies or charities have changed to accommodate this new tax law. Most seem to work in that old mind-set, selling the vehicles it receives as quickly as possible. Their primary goal is to get your car donation, not maximize your deduction.

To them it's a numbers game. The more cars received, the more money in fees they collect. Selling most through wholesale auto auctions or wholesale outlets and to prove this point, just recently one of the larger vehicle donation companies with hundreds of charities on board was just bought out by a Nationwide Auto Auction Company who specializes in Wholesale.

With the responsibility falling on the vehicle donation company or the charity to maximize the donor's right off, selling donated cars in a wholesale environment is a careless business practice, where the donor is the one who loses. Lately we have heard from many car donors who had donated vehicles to other organizations and were dissatisfied with the end result, because the company processing their car donation sold it much cheaper than it was worth.

AT THE PROSTATE CANCER AWARENESS PROJECT, WE GET IT!

Our staff has years of experience in this field dating back to the late 90's and since every donated vehicle is different, it's crucial knowing which advertising medium will yield the highest selling price, maximizing our donors write-off potential. Retail classifieds, such as Craig's List, Ebay, Auto Trader, etc. are typical of where we advertise your donated car, truck, van, RV or Boat. In the event we use an auction to sell our donated property and prior to accepting the highest bid, we will thoroughly investigate vehicle values and confirm bid prices are in line with real world retail prices, again insuring the highest value possible for our donors write off potential.

Unlike most our competition, who's primary goal is to get you to hand over your vehicle to them, only so they can move it as quickly as possible, in a WHOLESALE environment. We on the other hand, spend a great deal of time making repairs, professionally detailing your donated vehicle and then researching the best RETAIL venue, showcasing it with detailed photos, making every effort possible to get the highest price possible.

So, please don't be tricked by other company's claims about receiving the highest value for your donation. If they are not selling your donated vehicle in a retail environment then they don't have your best interests in mind.

Read More at [http://www.carsforprostatecancer.org/info-for-donors/facts-about-car-donation-to-charity/].

Donate your car to the Prostate Cancer Awareness Project [http://www.carsforprostatecancer.org/].

Daryl - Prostate Cancer Awareness Project

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Dont-Roll-the-Dice-When-Making-a-Car-Donation-to-Charity&id=6308130] Don't Roll the Dice When Making a Car Donation to Charity

3 Tips For Catching More Trout In The Spring Season

By [https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Trevor_Kugler/38856]Trevor Kugler 

The spring of the year means a lot of things to a lot of different people, but one group of people that really get excited as the spring season gets underway are fishermen. While all fishermen begin to get a little "antsy" during the spring as they think about heading out onto the water, nowhere is this more true than with trout fishermen. The spring season is the holy grail to many trout fishermen and with good reason as the spring coincides with the beginning of trout season in many areas of the United States.

Below I will draw upon my twenty plus years of experience fishing for trout to outline 3 tips for catching more trout in the spring season. Although the tips themselves are being listed in no particular order, I have found all of them to be extremely effective when fishing for trout, especially during the spring of the year. 

A Longer Fishing Rod Is In Order - Many trout fishermen tend not to think much about the length of their fishing rod and this is a big mistake. The reason that this is a mistake is that during the spring of the year you are normally dealing with water conditions that are higher than normal in both lakes and rivers and a longer fishing rod will give you much more "feel" when detecting bites, setting the hook, and fighting trout. This fact is especially true in river fishing scenarios where drift fishing is the technique of choice. Under "normal" river and water conditions you more than likely employ a four to five foot ultralight rod while fishing for trout and during the spring season an ultralight rod that is from six to seven feet is in order.

Smaller Baits Are In Order - No matter what type of trout bait you choose to use for trout during the spring many times smaller is better. So spinners should be in the 1/32 ounce range, spoons should be no larger than 1/4 of an ounce, and any trout jigs should be as small as you can get away with. If you are using live bait or eggs as trout bait, make sure that you employ very small fishing hooks. An example of this rule would be with our friends live worms. During the spring never use an entire night crawler as bait, but rather pinch the night crawler in half or opt instead to use the night crawlers smaller cousin the red worm as your [http://www.jrwfishing.com/gang_hooks.asp]trout bait choice.

Use The Correct Fly - There is no doubt that when you talk about trout fishing or trout bait you have to mention the use of artificial flies as bait and choosing the correct fly is vitally important during the spring trout season. Whether you are a traditional fly fisherman or are a spin fisherman who uses a casting bubble to fish with artificial flies there are certain fly choices that you need to have at the ready early in the trout season. These flies would include woolly buggers, the freshwater clouser, an egg pattern or two, Adams, blue winged olive parachutes, and a couple of pheasant tail nymphs.

Keep these simple trout fishing tips in mind this spring as you head out on your next trout fishing excursion and you will surely experience more success on the water.

Trevor Kugler is president of JRWfishing.com, a website dedicated to ultra light fishing, with an emphasis on ultra light river fishing for trout. Check out our new blog focused on trout fishing tips and techniques to help you be more successful on the water: [http://jrwfishing.blogspot.com]The Ultimate Trout Fishing Blog

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?3-Tips-For-Catching-More-Trout-In-The-Spring-Season&id=6976899] 3 Tips For Catching More Trout In The Spring Season