Cited: Business Wire

A program called “Marketing Your Business: Five Strategies to Position Your Company in a Challenging Market” featuring Carolyn Sawyer, Founder and Chief Creative Strategist of the Tom Sawyer Company will be live on June 30 at 12 PM (CT), a hosted by The Principal Women in Business Teleclass Series complimentary teleclass.

“Now, more than ever, clients seek results-focused partners and that’s where opportunity emerges,” said Michelle Swanson, assistant director, Advertising, The Principal. “Having started her company from scratch and working with national brands, coupled with leading a successful broadcast career, Carolyn knows the meaning of perseverance especially in a tough market. She’ll inspire our listeners with her story and proven approaches to turn today’s market into opportunity.”

Held on “Teleclass Tuesdays,” the series of four complimentary teleclasses are squarely focused on bringing the best leaders, ideas and tools to women business owners to navigate the recession. This second session in 2009’s program allows the audience unique interaction in a casual format with Sawyer. To take part in the program and become a member, register at www.principal.com/women.

A respected author, Sawyer wrote, “Forget the Glass Slipper, Build Your Own Castle: 10 Traits of a Million Dollar Business.” Sawyer has served as a correspondent for ABC News and as a news anchor for Lifetime Television. She is an active member of the Women’s President’s Organization (WPO,) an association for multi-million dollar business owners, and is a founding member of the Coalition of 100 Black Women-Boston Chapter.

Those looking for invitations or announcements . . . Life has so many special occasions and you make each one truly special. From graduations to first communions, from anniversaries to Baptisms, wedding announcements to birth announcements you can find unique invitations for every occasion you want to celebrate. That includes the most popular in invitations.

While bridal showers are great fun, they also take a lot of time to coordinate. When you order professionally printed bridal shower invitations, you will save time with a quick and easy ordering system. You can save even more time and money when you order your marriage announcements.

For a special occasion like a baby, you want adorable baby shower invitations that truly express how much you care. You will be thrilled at the wide selection of baby shower invitations from which you can choose. Ask for a free proof to ensure it is printed exactly the way you want for your invitations.

Any birthday party is a blast, but those that fall on landmark years are especially fun. Spend your time tending to the details, and let someone create memorable birthday party invitations for your special event. You can even find coordinating party supplies to go with the invitations. Your friends and the birthday boy or girl will be impressed!

The teleclass is provided by the Principal Financial Group. It features nationally recognized business leaders and thinkers from bestselling author and “Today” show financial contributor Jean Chatzky to chocolate visionary and multi-million dollar business owner Katrina Markoff. Class summaries and audio of all past programs are available for download at www.principal.com/women. The program’s moderator is Pamela Mitchell, Founder of The Reinvention Institute and Inc. Women in Business Contributor.

The Principal Financial Group (The Principal) is a leader in offering businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement and investment services, life and health insurance, and banking through its diverse family of financial services companies. A member of the Fortune 500, the Principal Financial Group has $236.6 billion in assets under management and serves some 18.8 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more information, visit www.principal.com.

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My Take: I think it is always a good idea to keep learning when you own a business. Programs like this allow business owners to improve themselves, which improves their business. They can even do it from the comfort of their own home.

Many large corporations offer their employees and executives educational opportunities within the company and they even will pay them to attend these opportunities. However, a small business owner may not have the opportunity to take advantage of additional education because he or she is too busy running their business. This type of program gives that small business owner the opportunity to increase their knowledge and improve their business without taking precious time away from that business.

Small business owners need more programs like this, especially if they are free. I believe it would help the economy more if small businesses could grow without additional expense. Sometimes, that additional expense could be a problem for small business owner.

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Other Resources

Simpler Times

In a much simpler time, children grew up in a small towns or neighborhoods. They experienced a childhood lifted straight from the pages of a Norman Rockwell book. They rode bikes to baseball practice, fished in the local river for whatever would bite, and delivered newspapers each afternoon through rain, sleet, or snow.

From the art of Bob Byerley, featuring nostalgic paintings of children building tree forts or soapbox cars, to replica tin signs and wooden airplane propellers, you can bring that same smile to every person who remembers something from their childhood.

Genuine Irish Jewelry

Celtic jewelry is hallmarked by the Assay Office in Dublin Castle. The Dublin Assay Office was established in 1637 to supervise the assaying of all gold and silver throughout the whole kingdom of Ireland. Originally, hallmarks consisted of the goldsmiths’ proper mark, which was the maker’s mark originally used to identify the silversmith or goldsmith responsible for making the article. The fineness mark, the crowned harp, was applied to 22-carat gold and sterling silver, which was silver of a standard of 925 parts of fine silver in each 1000.

In 1638, a date letter system was introduced and used in conjunction with the above marks. This date letter denotes the year in which the piece was made or hallmarked and is changed on January 1 each year. A new mark in the form of Hibernia was introduced on March 25th 1730 to indicate that a duty had been paid on all articles manufactured on or after that date. The Hibernia mark is used on all claddagh jewelry of Irish manufacture hallmarked at the Dublin Assay Office.

Value of Marital Property

Once a couple has made the final decision to divorce, the court or their Pittsburgh family attorney will hire a valuator who will determine the “fair market” value of any business or property they may share. However, separate property that was placed in both names during the marriage may be “transmuted” into marital property. However, a spouse may be able to “trace” separate property from one account to another during the marriage, thereby preserving separate property. By utilizing the date of separation, a court can identify marital assets and give credit the spouse who has contributed non-marital property to the marital estate. A Pittsburgh divorce lawyer can assist his client who also utilizes post-separation income that is used to maintain marital assets get credit.

Had an Accident?

A traffic collision or car accident is when a road vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, or geographical or architectural obstacle. Traffic collisions can result in injury, property damage, and death. Many factors contribute to an accident including driver behavior, speed, driver impairment and even road design. Let us not forget that even a well-designed, well-maintained vehicle with good brakes and tires can still be involved in an accident. Car collisions will usually carry legal consequences in proportion to the severity of the crash. This means that you should contact a Portland OR personal injury attorney if you have been involved in a motor vehicle accident.

Epoxy and Tires

Keep epoxy and your hot car tires do not mix well! Most epoxies react to your hot tires during the curing process. That means that your new garage flooring is going to come up quickly because the heat from your tires make epoxy softens, then this color, bubble, appeal or even stick to your tire. Not only that, but your hot tires are extremely abrasive and wear the high gloss finish off most epoxies that new garage floor in no time at all. In addition, did you know that all solids based epoxies are not UV stable and need a topcoat of urethane based topcoat to prevent it from yellowing from sun exposure?

Cited: CNN.com

Did you know that over 1 million Americans will declare bankruptcy this year? Unbelievably, these bankruptcies will not be because of overspending or a lavish lifestyle but because of medical bills. Medical bills have caused bankruptcies to increase 50% in just six years. In 2001, it was only 46% and that went up to 62% in 2007. In addition, those who have been filing bankruptcy are middle-class, well-educated homeowners according to a report will be published in August in an issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

“Unless you’re a Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, you’re one illness away from financial ruin in this country,” says lead author Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., of the Harvard Medical School, in Cambridge, Mass. “If an illness is long enough and expensive enough, private insurance offers very little protection against medical bankruptcy, and that’s the major finding in our study.”

Woolhandler and her colleagues surveyed a random sample of 2,314 people who filed for bankruptcy in early 2007, looked at their court records, and then interviewed more than 1,000 of them. Health.com: Expert advice on getting health insurance and affordable care for chronic pain

They concluded that 62.1% of the bankruptcies were medically related because the individuals either had more than $5,000 (or 10% of their pretax income) in medical bills, mortgaged their home to pay for medical bills, or lost significant income due to an illness. On average, medically bankrupt families had $17,943 in out-of-pocket expenses, including $26,971 for those who lacked insurance and $17,749 who had insurance at some point. Overall, three-quarters of the people with a medically related bankruptcy had health insurance, they say.

“That was actually the predominant problem in patients in our study — 78% of them had health insurance, but many of them were bankrupted anyway because there were gaps in their coverage like co-payments and deductibles and uncovered services,” says Woolhandler. “Other people had private insurance but got so sick that they lost their job and lost their insurance.”

However, Peter Cunningham, Ph.D., a senior fellow at the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan policy research organization in Washington, D.C., isn’t completely convinced. He says it is often hard to tell in which cases medical bills add to the bleak financial picture without being directly responsible for the bankruptcies.

“I’m not sure that it is correct to say that medical problems were the direct cause of all of these bankruptcies,” he says. “In most of these cases, it’s going to be medical expenses and other things, other debt that is accumulating.” Either way, he agrees that medical bills are an increasing problem for many people.

“I think medical bills are something that a lot of families are having a lot of difficulty with. Whether it’s the direct cause of bankruptcy or whether it helps to push them over the edge because they already were in a precarious financial situation, it’s a big concern and hopefully that’s what medical reform will try to address,” he says.

For those who are looking to avoid bankruptcy and keep their homes . . . Are you struggling to make your payments? Do you have an Arizona foreclosure date scheduled for your home? Does your Arizona loan modification have a payment that you cannot afford? Are you lost with the myriad of information that is available to you? Do you have unanswered questions? Would you like someone to be completely honest with you about what is possible? You need to call someone with your questions that will not try to sell you anything, without pushy people and with just friendly, knowledgeable and compassionate professionals who will answer your questions!

The study may overestimate the number of bankruptcies caused by medical bills yet underestimate the financial burden of health care on American families, because most people struggle along but do not end up declaring bankruptcy, according to Cunningham.

“Bankruptcy is the most extreme or final step for people who are having problems paying medical bills,” he says. “Medical bills and medical costs are an issue that can very easily and in pretty short order overwhelm a lot families who are on otherwise solid financial ground, including those with private insurance.” His group’s research found that medical bills unduly stress 1 in 5 families.

The economic atmosphere became worse a year after the study was conducted. However, the problem is still getting worse for people in the United States because of the high cost of medical care. Bankruptcy numbers are soaring and are expected to get even worse than they were in 2005 when Congress changed the bankruptcy laws. In fact, in 2005 bankruptcy peak 2 million filings.

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My Take: I really do not believe that medical bills are the main reason people are filing for bankruptcy. I believe it has everything to do with credit cards. Credit cards make buying anything too easy! Of course, carrying plastic is a lot safer than carrying cash. Nevertheless, there is always a check!

I went bankrupt in 2000 and was because of credit cards. Yes, I do have one credit card now with a zero balance. It is only meant for emergencies. Those emergencies are not for clothes or Christmas presents. An emergency is a flat tire on a rainy night and no money in your pocket and they will not accept a check. You can easily pay this off before the end of the month with this type of small emergency. A big emergency might be a family illness in another state and you do not have the cash to get there.

I highly recommend if you have credit cards, at them all in half and pay them off before you get to a bankruptcy situation. Moreover, go by the rule of “if you don’t have the money, you don’t need it.” If you want something bad enough, stick the money aside and buy it when you have the cash. If you live by this rule financially, you will avoid a whole lot of migraines.

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Related Resources

Commercial Loans

If capital is to real estate as oxygen is to life, then what we do is important. Selecting the proper commercial real estate financing structure is as critical to the ultimate financial performance of a real estate asset as is the acquisition decision itself. When you work with commercial loan brokers, you work with commercial real estate financing professionals who expertly handle all aspects of the transaction from identifying the best lender, negotiating the optimal loan terms and micro managing the entire loan process. You need someone who believes in addressing any potential deal issues at the outset of the transaction, thereby mitigating lender re-trades after loan application. Lenders respect and appreciate an upfront approach to doing business as much as you do. If you looking at a commercial mortgage default, call someone now.

Quick Cash

Get cash now and forget those monthly payments FOREVER! You can easily contact someone who will work with buyers who are ready to pay top dollar for your cash flow notes. If you have a trust deed, a mortgage note or any private loan, it is time to find out exactly how much CASH you could be entitled to.

You can quickly learn how to cash out in minutes and it is easy to get cash in just a few days. You can get real quotes directly from certified buyers. There has never been an easier or faster way to cash out of your investment. Whether you need money to pay bills, to buy a home, to fund an education or even if you just need some spending cash. You can find someone who is willing to buy real estate notes and see your money in a short time.

Real Estate Financing or Refinancing

Are you looking for someone who specializes in low rate purchase mortgage KY and refinancing for KY and IN homes. You can easily find one located in Louisville, KY that is committed to customer satisfaction. Most mortgage companies are approved to originate FHA purchase and refinance mortgages, VA loans, FHA streamline refinances, jumbo loans, conventional mortgages such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans as well as Rural Housing loans and others. Make sure they are a member of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and have earned an “A” rating with that agency. You want someone who is realtor friendly and consistently receives exceptional reviews from current and past clients. They should also be a member of the Kentucky Association of Mortgage Professionals and the National Association of Mortgage Brokers especially if you are looking for Lawrenceburg Kentucky mortgage.

The Case of the Defective Product

A defective product can cause serious injury or even early death for both young and old alike. It is now the responsibility of a manufacturer to protect consumers from defective products. At one time, manufacturers did not have to own up to injuries caused by their products. Now, manufacturers are required to warn customers that a defective product is on the market otherwise, the company is liable. To protect consumers from harmful defective products, liability laws were created to help victims in recovering damages for injuries suffered. Texas injury attorneys can help victims get compensation for injuries or deaths from manufacturers that have produced defective products. If you think a defective product has caused you harm or the death of someone, you know, contact an attorney immediately.

Community Property

Every Pittsburgh divorce attorney knows that community property or “marital” property includes all property that has been acquired by both parties during the marriage without regard to who owns it including the increase in value of anything acquired prior to marriage or by gift, bequest, devise or descent like bonds and stocks. This means simply that the court does not pay any attention to whose name is on the property just when it was acquired during the marriage. Of course, every Pittsburgh divorce lawyer knows the nine exceptions to the law in Pennsylvania, which includes premarital property and anything acquired during a separation. This type of property is called separate or non-marital property.

Legal Experience

Over the course of the years, an attorney should gain experience in a broad variety of legal matters, claims and trials. That broad based experience allows them to see the big picture and choose the best path for your particular concerns. A Portland OR car accident lawyer should be able to assist you from straightforward issues to serious litigation. Even Portland OR bankruptcy attorneys should be able to provide you with the experience and confident advice you need to maneuver through the confusing morass of any legal problem. Their goal should be to provide you with respectful and courteous service, to listen to your concerns and to tailor a cost effective solution to your particular needs.

Choosing a Bankruptcy Attorney

Usually an initial consultation with a bankruptcy attorney is free. This is when a client should be really honest and explain his or her situation to the attorney. The client can also figure out whether they are comfortable with that attorney and their staff or not. At the same time, the North Carolina bankruptcy attorneys will give you feedback on your financial problems and possible options. You should also find out how long the attorney has been in practice, what their specialization is and how many cases they have won. You also should ask if the attorney will be “personally” handling your case or if it will be passed on to a junior lawyer or staff member. Ask questions until you are satisfied that they are the bankruptcy attorneys for you.

Child Support

To determine child support, Colorado uses the “income shares” model. This is a method based on the level of support both parents combined income. There are worksheets available at the Colorado Judicial Branch Child Support Guidelines that can help you to determine the level of support or you could contact a Denver CO child support lawyer. Child support may continue until a child becomes emancipated, graduates from high school, or it may continue beyond the age of nineteen if the child is mentally or physically disabled. Support for post-secondary education of the child may be ordered on both the parents.

Clunker Cash

Would you like to get rid of that useless old clunker in your backyard? Junking that old car for cash is a lot easier than you think! This is a cash program that offers you a removal service and cash for your old clunker. This vendor will have a local professional who buy junk cars contact you to arrange a pickup and payment. In most cases, professionals also sell junk cars. You will not only receive cash or your junker quality service and pickup of your junker at your convenience. How convenient is that? You just collect money!