US Finance World

In a bid to retake the initiative on small-business policy, President Obama Wednesday is expected to propose a 10 percent tax credit tied to new hiring. But the policy appears designed as much to draw a political distinction as to generate new jobs. In describing the proposal, which Mr. Obama will flesh out in a visit to a Washington-area small business, the administration drew a sharp contrast with a Republican small-business tax cut that passed the House last month, which the White House contends is too tilted toward the wealthy.

Under the White House proposal, which the president previewed in a video address over the weekend, a company would get credit against income taxes worth up to 10 percent of the increase in total wages in 2012, which could come either in the form of salaries for new hires or raises. A company that increased its payroll by $4 million would see a $400,000 income tax credit.

The tax credit is capped at $500,000 to make it more valuable to smaller companies.

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I wrote a note to my sister a few weeks back. No, I mean I wrote it with pen and paper. All by myself. Not an e-mail. I do admit that after years of tapping away at the keyboard my writing looked as though a drunken spider with ink on it’s legs had crawled all over the page.

Guess what? She called me – said it was really nice to get real mail and hand written at that! She said that she really enjoyed the tactility of the process and to tell you the truth, so did I.

This got me to thinking. If my sister reacted in that manner then how would my clients and prospects respond? I went out and bought some inexpensive notelets and sat down one evening for an hour or so and wrote personal notes to those on a list I had made up.

• I wrote “Thank you for choosing me to work with you” notes to clients.
• I wrote “Thank you for considering me to help build your business” notes to prospects.
• I wrote “Congratulations on (insert event here)” notes to others on my list.

About a week after I mailed off the notelets a very cool thing happened. I received four

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Old security system vs. New security system

Ive never had a security system until now, other than our dogs which are all bark and no bite. I suppose the main reason for that is that I didnt own enough property to be worth protecting. Burglars could take everything and it would perhaps fetch $600 total on Craigslist, which is less than what a year of ADT monitoring fees might cost.

Combine the baby nesting instinct with a rash of recent break-ins in our quiet neighborhood, and my mindset has changed. I wanted a home security system, but I didnt want to pay $60 or even $30 a month for monitoring. The monthly bill is where companies make most of their profit. $60 a month = $720 a year = $7,200 over a decade.

After some research, we settled on a company called . Heres a list of reasons why we chose it:

• Wireless. Simplisafe uses GSM cellular technology, which means you dont need a landline (which can also easily be cut by a criminal).

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Last week, I became inspired to write a post about bodies in motion for the Fitness Category here. I asked a few of my members how being physically fit positively impacts their business. My intention was to share their tips with you until I received the reply from Candance Sweeney who is pictured below in the green shorts, finishing her first half marathon.

Candances reply said:

I believe it is all about commitment. It is not enough to be interested in something. When you are interested in something, you will do it only if it is convenient. When you are committed to something, you dont make excuses. No matter how hard it is, you just simply do it.

Thats all it said.

I received great tips from others, and I will share them with you later, but for now, I want you to keep Candances thought in your mind for a minute, as you read the rest of this post.

I am committed to my business

No matter what else is going on in my life, whether its good or bad, exhilarating or boring, hard or easy, I am always all over the business part of my life.

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Its been awhile since I did a debt update, so lets take a look at where Im at vs when I started debtkid.com back in 2007.

2011 was definitely not my best year for earning, especially compared to 2010 and even 2009. I let my work slack off with moving to Portland 2010 and getting married and other major life stuff.

So I was not able to save as much this year as I would have liked. I also started investing back into my current business more and so the last few months Ive been going negative on my savings! Yikes. Hopefully only a few more months of that and I can start saving again.

Total Debt Jan 2012

(change from 2010 in parenthesis)

Student Loans: $7512.01 (-$841.99)
Mom Debt: $67,000 (-$20,000)
Total: $74,512.01 (-20,841.99)

Whats in store for 2012

Im hoping that 2012 will be a breakout year for my business to really start earning well again.

Other than that life has been pretty darn good.

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May 8, ’12 10:19 AM Author Leonora Soculitherz Categories Business Books, Business Bootstrapping, Business Funding, Business Ideas, Business Marketing, Business Mentoring, Business Planning, Business Startup, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Getting Things Done, SOHO/SMB/SME/Micro, Small Business / SOHO, Sole-Trader, Start-Up, Start-Up, be successful, do a reality check, not to do it!, start-up in business

Keep up wont you most websites that promote how to successfully start and run your own business are sponsored by big companies and government bodies and written by people that are in jobs and have never started their own business. The advice is so yesterday. I

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The global money transfer market is exceeding USD 500 billion. It’s a huge amount and a lot of unscrupulous people are tempted to steal your small part during a process of transferring money. Moreover, in addition to traditional financial institutions online service providers, such as Caxtons, offer money transfers and this is a very convenient way to send money abroad. However, remittances are not just about moving money, but also on security and the matter of question is whether these services are safe.

Setting up an online account is relatively easy when everyone has an Internet connection today. The very fact that many people are accustomed to using online accounts every day and use them to pay bills, for example, makes us feel relaxed and forgot about the possible security problems. If you have not protected your data and account against malware, it is easy for someone to steal your correspondence with the recipient, including the issue of safety and response.

Many security experts suggest being very careful in banking on your computer or laptop. Read more…

Yesterday was post #700. Thank you for all your comment, support and suggestions since the beginning. This blog also celebrated its 4 year anniversary in Aprilwhich marks the beginning of the end of this blog. This blog is ending on May 1, 2012 which marks 5 years of blogging- a fitting landmark.

A good friend of mine once advised me to try something new every 5 years. So, after 5 years of blogging on personal finance, I will try my hand at something else. I promise not to make this into the never-ending farewell tour like The Who (who were supposed to retire in 1982).

Youll see some old friends and guests pop back into the fold during this farewell tour. Hope you enjoy it and thank you for reading.