| Job Tips
As the holiday season approaches, gift-giving anxiety mounts. Working in a large firm multiplies the issue: One must decide who gets a present, what to buy, how much to spend and if the gift carries even a hint of impropriety. According to an unscientific Time Inc. Giftscriptions survey, 31 percent of people are throwing away their co-workers' presents. Setting up a "Secret Santa" gift exchange between randomly selected officemates doesn't necessarily help: 41 percent of respondents still bought additional presents for co-workers, and more than half report disliking the gifts they received. Instead, keep gifts small, inexpensive and personalized, said Leah Ingram, an etiquette and gift-giving consultant. Stay away from presents that are overtly sexual or could be misconstrued, such as a male supervisor giving a female employee a spa gift certificate.
Web Winners |
There are only a few more weeks to take action to limit your business and personal tax bills for the year. Here are some Web sites to help sort your credits and deductions. Options estimator. The SmartMoney tax guide has a couple of simple tax tools for us corporate titans - a couple of stock option tax estimators, for example. Of course, they are not much use while your company's stock is in the tank. But, hey, the year is not over yet. There is advice on how to deduct business travel, even if some of your business trip is for fun, and an explanation for when to engage in year-end dumping of loser stocks. www.smartmoney.com/tax/ Small business. Words of advice for small-business owners on ways to cut the tax bill in the final weeks of the year include opening retirement accounts, making charitable gifts, and even making small deductible gifts to "legitimate business associates." This is the Web site of the National Federation of Independent Business, a lobbyist group.
Announcing Unique Business Cash Advance Loans From MAXX Business Solutions
MAXX Business Solutions (www.cmscreditcards.com), industry leader in merchant account credit card processing, announces their unique offering for business cash advance loans. Their unique kind of funding is ideal for retail, restaurant and service businesses. Business cash advances with MAXX are easy, fast, have a 95% approval rate and offer up to $250,000. .
New local businesses
Started a new business? Have you started a business within the past six months? Let us know about it. Please visit recordonline.com/business for more information, or send the news about your new business to bgilhooly@th-record.com, with We're in Business in the subject line. Here's what we'd like to know: Name of business:Location:Owners:Number of employees:Phone number/Web site:Hours (if relevant):What made you decide to open this type of business?Who is your target customer?What makes your business special?Describe your business in one word.What are your long-term plans, if any? We'd be happy to run a photo, as well. Please identify all people in the picture. Please send jpeg attachments of at least 200 dpis. Golden Circle Preschool Location: 5 Everett Road, Campbell Hall Owner: Cathryn Bump Phone: 294-1227 Web site: www.goldencirclepreschool.org Hours: 9 a.m.- 4 p.m.
New Mexico is ready for business, paying big dividends
By Paul Goblet, Financial Advisor, New Mexico Small Business Investment Corp. The Small Business Investment Corp (SBIC) was created by state legislation in 2000 to provide equity or loan capital to small businesses in New Mexico. Support for this legislation rested on the knowledge that small businesses n those with 25 or fewer employees n are the backbone of the state, sustaining the economies of local communities where they are located. Most new jobs in the state have been generated by small businesses, and small firms represent the majority of business enterprises in New Mexico.While it may be a clich�, investing on Main Street instead of Wall Street has paid big dividends in New Mexico, where existing businesses have been strengthened and new businesses have sprouted as a result.
Big banks made the same mistakes small investors often do
Big-name investment banks are taking a financial beating this year, leaving many Americans to ask: Just how did all these Wall Street bankers in their $4,500 John Lobb shoes manage to step in you-know-what? The answer is simple. They made the same mistakes as the rest of us, just with more zeros attached to them and bigger consequences for the U.S. economy, if not for their own $625 John Lobb wallets. Those mistakes are why the heads of Merrill Lynch and Citigroup have been ousted in recent weeks, why household names such as Bank of America and Wachovia are announcing billion-dollar losses, and why more trouble is brewing. Individual investors frequently lose money by chasing past returns, deciding on future investments by looking at past performance instead of future market conditions.
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