Common Credit Score Myths
A lot of credit score myths about fico score ratings get spread around and some of them are just outdated information. Sometimes even lenders can give you the wrong advice and it can get confusing. But the bottom line is bad information can cost you money no matter who you get it from.Fico score ... more...

Direct Mail Strategy - Brand Identity Guru
1. Know your purpose: What do you want your direct mailer to accomplish? Do you want to be remembered? Do you want to educate prospects about benefits? Recently, Brand Identity Guru was hired to expand a clients direct mail efforts, so we created a direct mail piece to showcase our clients related ... more...

Be Prepared With Your Home Equity Loan Checklist
A home equity loan can be an excellent way to obtain money in order to pay off high interest bills or consolidate your current debt into one monthly payment. A home equity line of credit is a form of revolving credit in which your home serves as collateral. Because the home is likely to be a ... more...

Quality Recovery and Rework - When It All Goes Wrong
When Quality is the Target, but not the Result, what do you do?While Quality may be the overarching goal of all production, stuff happens, resulting in non-conforming parts. This results in failure verification, rework, recalls, sorting, kitting, retest, relabeling and pipeline management, which ... more...

Payday Loans The Legal Loan Sharking Industry
Laws have been created to protect people against "Loan Shark" practices in which short-term loans are given out at excessive interest rates. There is an industry that has come of age the last couple of years that has circumvented these laws. Enter the Payday loan industry.Payday loans is a ... more...

Check Your Stress Level Before You Book
You need to know your stress levels before you book a holiday. This quiz for evaluating stress originally surfaced in a Macmillan medical book in 1982 but in various forms it has been around for much longer. Basically what you need to know is whether you have been under too much stress in the past ... more...

A Fathers Dilemma: Can We Help Our Children, Without Crippling Them?
Breakdown in the Becky Lane!I'd just sat down at my office away from home, the local Panera, when another regular customer, Harold, sidled up to my table. We'd chatted a number of times before, and he was intrigued by my title of Financial Sanity Coach and knew I had been working on my book, "Good ... more...

Credit Score: The Brightest Feather In Your Financial Cap
Credit scores are the most important aspect that determines your financial future. Carrying a good credit score is an asset and can pave your future towards greener pastures. On the other hand a negative marking on your credit report can be ruinous for your future dreams. However, "There Isnt Much ... more...

Pros and Cons of Credit Cards
Credit cards are very convenient. Theres no need to carry any cash; you can just take a credit card with you to the shop and charge for your shopping.When you shop on the Internet or over the phone, its the only good way to make purchases online. This is more convenient than posting a cheque for ... more...

Fantasy Football Format -- Go Basic or Go Home
My fantasy football league is approaching its 16th season. We have had 16 teams competing before, but now we are a 14-team league. Although the subject of performance points is bandied about at our league meetings virtually every year, we remain a basic scoring league -- the only way to go for ... more...

I Said Pareto Chart Not Potato Chart!
Does this sound familiar? You were hired for the new management position. You were tasked to turn the numbers around. You take some time reviewing the current situation. Now its time to take a look at the current processes and get your staff together to analyze the data. You tell them that you want ... more...