In Cash Flow We Trust

When the financial sector took a dive this fall many personal financial sites thought they were in for rotten times-just the opposite has happened. Burned by their banks and the stock market, more people are seeking budgeting help, saving and investing ideas online.

They are turning to sites like Mint, SmartyPig, Cake Financial, Wesabe and Credit Karma. Personally, I don’t care what consumers do to educate themselves-just do something! We have definitely become some major whiners when it comes to being financial savvy and I for one am sick of hearing the whiners. Here’s a big shout out to the new sites!

Companies in Denver, Colorado are finding a true resource when they need team building and training. Brenda Staab, founder of Mountain Peak team building and sales training is a professional speaker and licensed PEP ™ trainer.

One of Mountain Peaks most popular workshops is sales training. In this comprehensive training workshop; a sales force is taught how to speak the customers’ language. This powerful sales training allows a sales force to learn and implement these powerful tools. The results are happier customers and improved performance.

Brenda’s Team Building Events Cover:

• Increased productivity
• Higher morale
• Improved performance
• Decreased turnover
• Less stress
• Better hiring decisions
• Enhanced creativity and long-term growth

and more.

Whether your needs are team building or sales training the results will be dramatically improved by using the PEP ™ methodology. This personality profile is incorporated in all workshops and retreats. This transformational tool allows individuals to capitalize on their strengths. It also identifies any challenging areas. Armed with this knowledge, individuals can bring their strengths to sales teams and corporations.

I just finished reading Riches in Niches by Susan Friedman. The sub title is How to Make it Big in a Small Market. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book on Niches and highly recommend it. I’ve been an entrepreneur for thirty years and have met countless others. We have this tendency to try to be all things to all people-and fail miserably. The key is to mine all the riches available to you in niches!

Susan does a great job in honestly and thoroughly covering what it takes to be successful as a Nichepreneur! The word Nichepreneur is a word coined  by Susan and I believe she really hits the mark by encouraging entrepreneurs to focus on specific niches. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many successful Nichepreneurs and their singular focus always amazes me. Susan gives many examples of individuals who have focused on specific niches and the strategies they employ. Don’t be afraid to focus on your passion and expertise-Susan has provided you a road map in this book Riches In Niches!

I would recommend two things to all you entrepreneurs out there: buy a copy of Susan’s book. Read her book and really study the strategies. The second thing I would do is to watch The Big Idea every night with Donny Deutsch. The Big Idea and Donny Deutsch will affirm to you that there is plenty of money to be found by following your passion and mining the Riches in Niches!

Ovation credit is a company that can help you if your credit is in need of some repair. It’s easy to run into credit problems-it starts when you get that first credit card in the mail, before you have graduated high school. Credit problems start slowly and can snowball out of control in short order-credit repair from Ovation may be the answer.
Credit card debt is by far one of the biggest financial (more…)

It was good to see Thomas Hoenig, President of the Federal reserve Bank of Kansas City, in our state of Colorado. He went on a folksy tour of small businesses and ended up at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Durango on Tuesday.
Rocky Mountain Chocolates makes great candy and Bryan Merryman, the CFO of the company told Hoenig:

“Commodities across the board have pressured us”. “There are a lot of pressures in our system that we haven’t seen before”.

It’s reassuring to see that the feds have recently discovered that they need to start raising interest rates. I hope Hoenig went to the grocery store and gas station with Merryman just to confirm his suspicions

Good News-for all of you who have been wondering about the Yellowstone Club, the Playground Spat Is Resolved according to the Wall Street Journal. Edra Blixseth, who started the club with her husband, Tim, was granted ownership of the club in the couples divorce decree !!
Membership at Yellowstone costs an initial $250,000 was $18,000 in annual dues and millions of dollars to buy or build a home there.

Members such as Bill Gates and Dan (potatoe) Quayle can now rest easier this evening
Edra, email me if you need me to see if the club is now up to your standards!

Have a great 4th of July! The year is flying by and hopefully you are having a productive and prosperous year. Thanks to all our troops around the world for all you do.

I would be a liar claiming that any of my portfolios are hedged-I have been long forever! However, on Friday I did buy 500 shares of SDS-Ultrashort S&P 500 Proshares. My cost was $58.91 and they closed the day at $59.80 for a gain of $1855.00.
Buying these shares did not hedge my portfolio but it’s interesting to note that instead of a loss for the day of $8065.00 my net loss turned out to be $6210.00

Obviously, every portfolio is different but having not lost an additional 20% was some small comfort in an otherwise ugly day. Take a look at what you might do to lessen the losses in your portfolio because…I don’t think it’s over.

Why do gas stations have a $75 limit on Visa or MasterCard transactions at the pump?
According to stations owners they say they are simply following the policies of Visa and MasterCard, who won’t reimburse them more than $75 per transaction at the pump if there’s a disputed charges or fraudulent card use!

What does MasterCard say:
“It’s the merchants’ decision to limit purchases,” says Visa spokesman Paul Wilke. He adds: “Customers always have the option of paying with the card at the cash register” where its policy differs from the pump.

The $75 limit “ensures merchants and customers are protected from fraud,” says MasterCard spokesman Tristan Jordan.

Visa and MasterCard have no immediate plans to go higher. “It’s something we always look at,” Wilke says.
Thanks to the USA Today for for this lesson-Happy Friday!!