Insure Your Travel Plans to Avoid Making a Slip-Up on the Slopes

Research carried out by many travel companies reveals that it can cost as little as a fraction over £10 to insure a family of four for a week’s holiday in Spain, which represents a fraction of the cost of that holiday, considering the benefits which are offered.

Many policies include cover for any medical expenses arising from accident or illness of up to £5million. However, policies covering winter sports vary widely in both their price and the scope of cover offered, and exclusions and caveats are very common, according to the website.

One travel expert said that no-one looking to take a holiday, regardless of the time of year, destination and length of their stay, should even set out without having insurance in place. A costly family holiday soon becomes even more so if it is a winter sports break, as you could potentially find yourself heavily out of pocket through unforeseen expenses, which are likely to hurt even more if you have already shelled out large sums on buying special clothing and/or equipment specifically for your break.

In this case, foregoing travel cover is simply not an option, a good look at the small print is essential to ensure that buyers know exactly what is covered by their policy. A standard policy will give cover in eventualities such as cancellation, loss of or damage to baggage and medical expenses, while some policies may also include extras such as cover for sports equipment, ski pass, or going off-piste, but it’s essential that you speak to your insurer so that you can be made aware of the clauses, and more specifically, exclusions from your policy while you still have the chance to find alternative cover if necessary.

Individuals and travellers who make more than one foreign trip each year are also advised that annual travel insurance cover is likely to work out cheaper than multiple single-trip policies.

Tips for travellers taking out ski insurance include to check the amount of medical cover provided. £1million is a recommended minimum for Europe, and £2million for the USA and rest of the world. At least £1million of personal liability cover is recommended. Ensure the amount of your baggage and belongings cover is sufficient for all your winter sports gear, and be sure that your ski equipment is covered while it is in transit as well as on the slopes.

Use Your Small Business Website To Gain Leverage Over The Competition – Unlock What’s Inside

There are many arsenal tools of a Small Business, but by far the greatest is the Business Website. Without a business website for The Small Businessman it can be very difficult to reach your fullest growth potential. There are many benefits locked inside your business website. The key is to find them and unlock your websites potential to be a money making machine for your business. See if these 5 power tools can unlock the potential that’s inside your website.

Tool 1. The Small Business Website Can Be Designed & Structured To Build Business

The structure of a Small Business Website can be designed to bring a focus to what’s important to you company and to bring you more business. Using proper placement of things like opt-in forms, videos, picture images, pop-up pages, landing pages, color palettes, Facebook & Twitter shares & survey forms can not only make you website fun & exciting to see visually, but it can also move and flow traffic to different pages of your website. Website design & structure can lead customers to buying shopping carts, that can boost sales. Large images on a photographer or artist website can help to showcase work better. The right placement of color on your web pages can turn the attention of your customers and highlight sales, a special discount coupon, or a survey form you desire your customer to fill out. What ever strategies you decide to use, make sure as you are designing your website with a little more thought about website design & structure to bring business.

Tool 2. The Small Business Website Is Your Voice

The Small Business Website is the primary tool to share the voice of your company. Your business website should be from your point of view. How or What your company… Thinks? Feels? Wishes? Desires? So how do you accomplish all of this in one website? Through CONTENT! Content Management is your voice. Sometimes on a website it is design with a blogging system that allows you to post content regularly which helps generate a following or leads. For businesses like MLM’s, Direct Sales, or Service Businesses, blogging has a very inexpensive starting cost with a high return value. Share the voice of your business with the world and watch the financial benefits follow.

Tool 3. The Small Business Website Can Be A Leverage Tool

When you have a small business, using your website to leverage or give your business the upper hand over competition is a high priority. There are statistics by Google that show 66% of Small Business do not have a business website. OK… Breathe & Meditate on this for a moment… Ready? What this statistic is saying, is only 44% of people in your industry have a website that is in front of buying customers each day. So if you have a product like Organic Skin Care, or a specialized service for example Immigration Law, then you can see how a business website can almost immediately increase your leveraging power. And remember to use your VOICE… ie CONTENT for more leveraging power.

Tool 4. The Small Business Website Can Establish You As The Expert & Authority

Now that you know only a small percentage of people have a small business website in your industry, it’s easier to recognized how powerful a website can be, and how this can set you as the expert or authority in your industry. Posting articles on your website puts your company’s name in front of your customers or clients. In your article, give your potential customers information that is helpful to them. Provide information that helps them to make a better buying decision on products. All of these things establishes your small business as an authority and you as the expert. Each week by sharing vital nuggets and segments of key reviews, potential customer & prospects look to your business for critical answers.

Tool 5. The Small Business Website Can Be The Ultimate Advertising Billboard

Most small business have little to no advertising dollars. So one of the best and least expensive ways to advertise is through your website. It is the Ultimate Advertising Billboard. Creating Banner Ads, for example, can showcase what your business does, or what you have to offer can be place on your website to increase your sales. Often time websites are built only as an Affiliate Marketing site for just that reason. Also the cost to advertise in the newspaper, or in a magazine can be expensive, and your ad will only run a few time before you have to pay again. With a website, your ads can stay up for as long as you like. When someone is using a search engines, an optimized website can drive traffic right to the Banner Ads with just what your customers wants.

Online Education – How You Can Benefit From Taking Online Courses

Education is without a doubt one of the most important things in life that everyone should have access to. Typically, the kind of job that a person has is determined by his or her educational attainment. The advent of the internet has provided us with so many great opportunities to advance our skills and knowledge, and this is through online education. Online degree programs offer so many great benefits to those people who want to pursue higher education, particularly those who have no time to go to school, like parents and working professionals. Here are some of the greatest benefits of taking online courses:

Students Can Take Accredited Degrees

Online education gives students the chance to have a diploma in various accredited courses. These accredited online degree programs are also recognized by employers just as much as they recognize graduates of on-campus courses. So it is not true that students who take online courses are less likely to be hired in the future. For instance, students who have a degree in environmental science at an online degree program accredited by the National Environmental Health Science & Protection Accreditation Council are hired as quickly as the students who earn their degree with an on-campus program.

Another interesting example is the case of students taking up a course in the field of engineering. If the course a student takes is offered at a distance learning program which is accredited by ABET, Inc., they will surely be interesting prospects for employers. There is not even a possibility that they will be less preferred than on-campus graduates just because they had online education.

Students Can Choose Their Own Schedule

Online degree programs are designed in such a way that students can get access to various archived lectures. What this means is that every single lecture for a particular course is already saved in an online lecture archive, so students can use them at any given time. This is one of the most significant advantages of online education as students have a chance to learn wherever and whenever they would like to.

Taking up online courses also allow students to work while they are enrolled so they can avoid accumulating lots of debt, which most on-campus students are suffering from. As you can imagine, students enrolled in an online degree program do not need as much amount of student loans as on-campus students. As a result, online students are more capable of paying their tuition fees upfront and avoid any debt.

Students Don’t Need to Travel to Their Campus

Students who are taking online education can just stay at home and have their classes there. This actually saves them not only the money, but also the time that it would take them if they were to go to campus. Another interesting fact about online degree programs is that students who are part of degree programs that require practicum or internships can easily meet those requirements in some of the facilities in their own locality. This also gives them a great chance to meet some potential employers who may hire them soon after graduation.

Bad Credit – What the Car Dealerships Don’t Want You to Know About Your Financing

If you finance your car at the dealership it may not be yours. You may have been the victim of what is termed in the industry as a “spot delivery”. What is a spot delivery? The dealership makes the decision to let you take the vehicle home and sign all the paperwork without having your loan approved by the bank.  They may not even have a good faith belief they can get you approved for the vehicle you take home.Why would they do this?

  • It takes you out of the market. You are no longer shopping for a car. They have your business so you can’t go anywhere else and buy.
  • It gives them time to send your credit application to several banks to see if they can obtain an approval.
  • They know if you take the vehicle home and show your friends and family you will be more likely to pay more down payment or a higher payment to keep it.

It’s a dirty secret of the car business. Days, weeks, months after you drive your new car home you may get a phone call asking for the following:

  • More down payment
  • A co-signer
  • Or they may say they need to get something signed, and when you get there the terms have changed and the loan is longer or the interest rate higher, raising the payment

The car dealerships rarely tell you they don’t have your loan approved. Somewhere in the endless papers you signed will be an agreement that will  contain the terms of the spot delivery. It will state that if your loan is not purchased by a bank or finance company that you agree to bring the vehicle back and may even charge you for mileage while you have the vehicle. The car dealership may say they have sold the trade in so you feel forced to sign under the new terms of the loan. The dealership may threaten to report the car stolen or that it will show as a repossession if you do not sign the new paperwork. 

If you become a victim of a spot delivery don’t fall for their scams. You do not have to sign a new contract. You are entitled to have your down payment and trade in returned to you. It will not reflect on your credit. Unfortunately most victims of spot deliveries tend to be customers with less than perfect credit. Car dealerships know they will not have as many options available to them and may prey on their desperation. 

What to watch for and how to tell if your being spot delivered:

  • They don’t give you a copy of your contract
  • You sign an agreement stating the dealership has a certain amount of time to get your loan approved (they may explain this form away as something else so read carefully)
  • You may be asked to sign blank paperwork or more than one contract

Ask lots of questions and read everything carefully. As a finance manager I have no problem explaining the complicated paperwork or when customers take extra time to look over what they are signing. Ask if your loan is approved and what bank it is approved with. Get a copy of the contract you signed.