Browsing all articles from January, 2011

Ten ways to push up your pay

If you’re one of the many people facing a pay freeze this year, here are ten ways to help boost your income….

What with inflation, VAT and the cost of everyday living having increased this year, money is becoming increasingly tight. What’s more, for many of us, the prospect of a pay rise is non-existent.

In fact, according to research from uSwitch, six in ten of the working population face a pay freeze this year. Meanwhile, one in ten workers have been given a pay rise, but over three quarters of these have been given a pay increase at less than inflation (currently 4.4%).

What’s more, with train fares having jumped by an average of 5.8% and petrol prices soaring by 15% in the last year, many of us who have been lucky enough to enjoy a pay increase are in fact seeing this wiped out by the cost of commuting.

So whether you’ve got no hope of getting a pay rise in the near future, or whether any pay increase you have been given has been pretty insignificant, here are ten tips to help push up your pay:

1. Rent it

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Tags: Pay, Ten Ways

Little Black Book of Innovation

I had the honor of keynoting at the Imaginatik Innovation Leaders Forum at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City. But, I also had the privilege of hearing great innovation leaders speak from a diverse set of organizations including: Chubb, NYSE, Bombardier, Medco and the General Services Administration (GSA).

One of the best stories at the event was from Mike Hatrick and David Wooten of Bombardier about the early days of their formal innovation effort and one of their employees and his little black book.

Unrequited Innovation

Typically when organizations start a formal innovation effort and begin soliciting ideas from people inside (or even from outside) the organization, there is a spike in the number of ideas submitted within the first few days of the effort and then the submission volume begins to tail off.

This is because in every organization there is backlog of innovation ideas that are lying dormant, going unused or possibly even walking out the door to the competition or to serve as the basis of new start-ups outside the organization.

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Tags: Innovation

Know Your Deductions

Tax season is here! IRS has extended the tax filing deadline to April 18th this year thats 3 whole extra days. So, its time to suck it up and get your paperwork ready to file your taxes.  Although your accountant or tax preparer wont need all of your paperwork, (s)he will need your total business expenses and income for your Etsy shop.  Your Etsy business is considered a home business and therefore, you enjoy some special tax benefits.  You can save yourself a nice little wade of cash by understanding how to take advantage of your special situation.  Im only going to offer one important tip in this post, so pay attention here it goes:

TIP #1 KNOW YOUR DEDUCTIONS

This doesnt require you become a tax expert, but it does require you to become an informed tax payer. As a home business/small business owner the IRS treats you differently.  According to , Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyo

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4 Key Underpinnings to MasterCard’s Stock

MasterCard is the second largest global payment solutions company in the world. It provides a variety of services to support the credit, debit and related card payments of over 24,000 financial institutions globally. MasterCard competes with Visa and American Express . Below we look at the four most important division driving our $293 price estimate for MasterCard, which is around 17% ahead of the current market price.

Rise of Mobile Payments a Catalyst

The number of mobile payment users have been rising fast with 351 million users in 2009 which is estimated to reach 1.06 billion by 2014 at a compound annual growth rate of 20.5%. Global mobile payments transactions are expected to rise to $1.13 trillion in 2014 from $37.4 billion in 2009, at an annual growth rate of 98%.

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Japan’s Feb. Consumer Prices Fall 0.3% On Year

SYDNEY — Japan’s core consumer price index fell 0.3% in February on the previous year, the Statistics Bureau of Japan said Friday. The result – which strips out volatile fresh food prices – was in line with market expectations, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The index was down by 0.1% on the prior month. Education prices were the biggest mover in February, down by 13% on the prior year, while miscellaneous prices gained by 6.7% during the period.

Tags: Year