American Express Plum Card: The Credit Card Wars Heat Up

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American Express Plum Card

There was a lot of speculation on how well the Mastercard IPO would do in 2006. The stock’s done well. Very well. And investors are waiting anxiously for the coming Visa IPO which has got fortune-maker written all over it.

These public offerings are raising the stakes in the credit card arena significantly and the offerings we’ll see from the various credit card issuers as they duke it out is going to get a lot more competitive.

Understanding Trade Terms in General

Most businesses have credit accounts with other businesses (their suppliers). When it come to trade terms on business-to-business transactions, the most common set of terms is net 30 days; you buy something and you have 30 days from the invoice date to pay for it.

But there’s another common term that’s used for B2B credit accounts called 2% 10 days. What this means is that if you pay within 10 days of the invoice date, you get a 2% rebate on the invoice amount. 2 percent 10 days is a set of terms that’s usually forced on small companies by large retailers and distributors because it’s a good deal for these cash-rich buyers.

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Leadership Hats: The Sombrero

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Mexican Sombrero

I know, I know … you’re a machine. And I know if they could bottle the drive and passion you put into every second of the day, a crate of the stuff would be worth a king’s ransom.

But even machines need an oil change and a tune-up once in a while.

A Very Important Leadership Hat

Out of all the different hats that leaders wear, the sombrero (or as I like to call it, the siesta-time hat) earns the least respect. But it’s one of the more important hats you can wear. And probably not for the reasons you’re thinking.

Yes, the sombrero combats fatigue and burn-out and helps you bring some balance to the mad dash of whatever you’re pursuing. It also does two other very important things:

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Turning your Blog into a “King-maker”

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Blog King

For the last couple years I’ve played with quite a few different ideas on the net. The more you learn about how different things work, what works and what doesn’t work, the better results you get.

The great thing about a blog is it can be a lot of things; an outlet for writing, a marketing tool for a business, or an income-earning business in itself. And the power and ease of using WordPress to build blogs or affiliate sites or whatever you can dream up is pretty much without equal.

What Works When it Comes to Building an Online Business

Lots of things work, and most of them are really hit and miss if you don’t get all the ingredients just right. But there are a couple of “internet truths” that never seem to fail when you put them together … content is king and traffic is queen. Period.

A blog with consistently great content (a voice), and significant traffic (an audience) can consistently play king-maker … and by that I mean; you talk about it and it turns to gold. As long as you’re true to your audience you can promote a lot of great things. And do it quite lucratively.

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The 3 Laws of Tasering

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Sexy Robot

There are quite a few controversial stories about people getting tased lately. Controversial, because they’re incidents that never should have happened.  I look at some of them and I can’t figure out whether they’re more attributable to a lack of training. Or just plain laziness.

There’s no reason that 4 or 5 guys can’t easily subdue and arrest one person without using a taser.

The big problem is that tasers are not being used the way they were intended to be used. They’re supposed to be used in situations where the only other alternative would be to draw a gun. The taser is supposed to be a non-lethal alternative.

But they’re being used (increasingly) in situations where authorities would never think of drawing their guns.

Of course, some people need to be tased. We just need some rules. In 1942, Isaac Asimov gave us the Three Laws of Robotics. So here’s three new laws for this century …

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The Must-Have Stock Pick for 2008: Visa IPO

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Charge!

Again and again I hear talking heads on the boob tube talking about how sitting on a diversified portfolio over the long haul is a great way to invest your money. And while that’s a safe bet, unless you get lucky, the chances are pretty good that you’ll never make a ton of money doing that.

If you want to make good money you have to catch the waves. You have to keep your money moving in and out of the opportunites as they come along.

It’s not fire-and-forget. You have to get in the game. You have to get involved in your own investing.

There are two kinds of stock plays I really like:

  1. Buying small to mid caps on bad news
  2. Can’t-lose IPOs

Both of those plays will give you better than average returns. And you can make anywhere from 200% on your money in a couple weeks to 500%+ in a year or two. A lot better than the run-of-the-mill 10% annual return you’ll make in a diversified mutual fund.

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Risky Business: Crafting Your Break-out Moment

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There’s an anecdote I love that says “Poor people are crazy. Rich people are eccentric”. And that leads us into a chicken and egg question … Are celebrities wild and crazy because they’re rich and famous, or are they rich and famous because they’re wild and crazy? It’s pretty easy to argue that one feeds … Read more

Blog Action Day 2007: The Environment

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In 1944, 29 reindeer were moved to St. Matthew Island. The reindeer thrived on their rich natural resources. The island had no natural predators to keep the reindeer population in check, so the population swelled to 6,000 animals during the next 19 years. Suddenly the natural resources were depleted and the population crashed until only … Read more

“Look Before You Leap” Test Marketing

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There’s something to be said for coming up with a great idea and just jumping in to it. In fact, there’s a lot to be said about it and I can sum it up in 3 words … just do it. Entrepreneurs are about taking risks. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. But … Read more

How to Hire the Superstars Your Company Needs

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A couple friends that used to work for me recently asked me to be a reference for jobs they’re applying to. They’re both top-notch. They’re the kind of people that are a huge asset to a team. Which got me to thinking about how you find good people. People are a company’s most important asset. … Read more