10 Ways to Go Green and Save Money from the Bargainlist

ORIGINAL POST: http://www.squidoo.com/go_green


Many of us are way too busy to do our share to help the environment - or at least, that's how it feels much of the time. We'd like to join the fight against global warming, but who has the time? Helping the environment isn't just good for the earth... it's good for your pocketbook too. You can do it in small ways, at home and when you drive, and those ways will add up to major changes worldwide and big changes that you'll see in your budget. Continue reading for 10 tips on how to save money saving the planet.

1. CFLs. Replace regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), which are slightly more expensive but will last much longer and burn less energy when they're on. This is a small change but it adds up to big savings over time.

2. Energy-efficient appliances. There are many new energy-efficient water heaters, washers, dryers - any electrical appliance in your house, in fact. This can save tons on your power bill. Other alternatives: don't use hot water for everything, and dry your clothes using a clothes line.

3. Buy used if possible. Before buying something new, ask friends or relatives, look at garage sales or thrift shops, look on eBay or other similar sites where used stuff is sold. You're helping a product live longer, thus reducing the impact on the environment, and at the same time getting it much cheaper (and sometimes just like new).

4. Make your own coffee. If you buy coffee from a trendy coffee shop, this can save you tons every year. At $4 a pop, Starbucks (or similar) coffee can add up to nearly $1,500 a year if purchased once a day. Twice a day and you can double that figure. Making coffee at home costs only cents, and if you buy Fair Trade coffee, you're helping poor farmers and the environment. Buy in bulk to save more.

5. Eat in more. Instead of eating at fast food joints (which are horrible damagers of the environment) or expensive sit-down restaurants, save huge amounts of money by creating a simple menu, buying the groceries, and cooking at home. You can create very easy dinners in 15 minutes or less, and the cost will be a fraction of what it costs to eat out. You can avoid the excessive packaging of fast food (not to mention their ravaging of the rain forests) to help the environment.

6. Ride a bike, walk, carpool. Driving contributes to global warming and the depletion of our natural resources, not to mention pollution. So the less you drive, the better. Even if you only replace a few trips a week with a bike or walking or carpooling, you're doing your part to help stop global warming and save on gas money at the same time. Walk your kid to school, bike to the corner store, carpool or commute by bike to work.

7. Gas-saving driving. If you must drive, at least ensure that you're using less gas by doing so. Some common recommendations to do so: ease up on the gas pedal and brake pedal, be sure your tires are inflated and your engine is running smoothly, don't have your car on idle for too long, and get a fuel-efficient car.

8. Less waste. The excessive packaging of most products today, and the use of paper and plastic disposable products, is a huge contributor to the destruction of the environment. Look for products that use less packaging, or buy in bulk (or at co-ops where you bring your own containers), and use real plates and silverware instead of paper or plastic ones. Bring cloth grocery bags when you go shopping instead of using paper or plastic.

9. Insulation. Be sure your house is properly insulated to save on heating and cooling costs. Many people allow their house to lose a ton of energy a year by neglecting this important step.

10. Push mower. If you've got a relatively flat yard, and you keep your grass fairly short, today's motor less push mowers are easy to use and consume zero gas. They're not the old fashioned mowers of your grandpa's generation - they actually run very smoothly.

11. Blue Iguana Software. If you care about your business and you want them involved in helping the planet, then use Blue Iguana Software as an integrated part of your logistics. http://www.blueiguanasoftware.com/

Get GREEN Certified Today!

Blue Iguana Software™ is dedicated to helping companies go green. Our product is designed to help your company understand how eco friendly it really is. Our software also gives you a detailed report complete with suggestions how you can become more eco friendly. If you score over 90% we will also certify you as a Blue Iguana Software™ Green Certified!



About Blue Iguana Software™ Business Edition


Blue Iguana Software™ Business Edition covers most aspects of your business. Whether you are a corporation, a small business, hospital or school Blue Iguana Software™ can help you understand your green standing and how to become more eco friendly. Our software covers all aspects of most businesses, including corporate real estate, such as break rooms, bathrooms, kitchens, company vehicles, and more. Our software also covers your infrastructure including workstations, peripherals, servers, and much more. We also cover the products that you manufacture including your production processes. We also address your business processes including ways your company can be more eco friendly and at the same time save money and stream line many of your business processes. Get Blue Iguana Software™ and start helping the planet and save money today.

• Corporate Real Estate (Own or Lease)
• Infrastructure (Small Business to Enterprise)
• Production and Materials. (Small or large scale)
• Business Processes (All Departments)

Businesses Go Green With Blue Iguana Software

Our Mission

Blue Iguana Software ™ is dedicated to helping your company be successful through achieving an eco friendly business model focused on education, efficiency, action and charity. We are dedicated to providing quality customer support and intelligent software products while helping our planet and fellow humans. The Blue Iguana Software ™ program is designed to help your company become more eco friendly and at the same time save money. Using the Eco Friendly Business Analysis Tool (EBAT) Blue Iguana Software ™ will perform a comprehensive analysis of your company’s corporate real estate, infrastructure, products/materials, business processes and much more. The software will then process the results and rate your company's green standing.

After you receive your company's rating you will then be provided with a detailed report giving you suggestions how you can make your company a more environmentally friendly business. If you score high enough you will be given the “Blue Iguana Software ™ Green Certified Company” seal. You will be granted permission to place this seal on your company’s website and marketing collateral, letting your employee’s, customers, partners, and vendors know you are a Blue Iguana Certified Green Company.

Blue Iguana Software ™ was started in order to help companies develop a more eco friendly business model while at the same time helping them understand the cost benefits of an eco friendly workplace. Blue Iguana Software ™ has found by becoming an eco friendly company you can not only transform your company into a green business but you can also become more efficient and reduce your costs at the same time. Blue Iguana Software ™ is always striving to find new and inexpensive ways for companies to adopt a more eco friendly approach to their business practices.

Digital Brand Expressions Simplifies Social Media Marketing Management

ORIGINAL POST: www.interbiznet.com


(January 14, 2010) - With the floodwaters of social media rising, Digital Brand Expressions created a 4-step social media process to make it easier for small businesses to large businesses succeed in the social media space.

Now, managing social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn can be done systematically. According to Niki Fielding, President of Digital Brand Expressions the 4-step process is:

1. Claim the company's important "brand" names - "Although claiming brand names on multiple sites is time consuming, it's far less work than dealing with the aftermath of a profile set up by someone else around your brand name."

2. Discover where your competitors are, locate communities made of your customers, reporters, and analysts that cover your industry, and niche networking sites.

3. Narrow the list that makes the most sense for your brand and configure active profiles. Note: do this only after you've gained an understanding the features and functionality of the sites you've chosen.

4. Implement ongoing communications strategies and start connecting with your key stakeholders.

As anyone who has even dabbled in social media knows, "Social media is constantly evolving so it's not enough to merely set up digital outposts," explains Ms. Fielding. "You'll need to dedicate some resources to keeping your content fresh and staying on top of conversations about your brand."

Company newsletters, web pages, email blasts, print and broadcast media, etc., are all effective ways to get the word out about where your brand can be found in the social media space.

Digital Brand Expressions is a search engine and social media marketing consultancy and services firm that helps companies enhance their findability on the Web to drive business success.

Content: Jennifer L. Taylor, Marketing Examiner

Hiring Managers use Social Media in Hiring Process

When looking for a new job, remember to utilize social media sites, especially LinkedIn. According to Jump Start Social Media, as many as 75% of hiring managers use LinkedIn on a regular basis to research candidates before making an offer, compared to 48% using FaceBook, and 26% using Twitter.

"Social media is not only a great networking tool, it's also a way for employers to perform reference checks on job candidates," said Veronica Fielding, president of Digital Brand Expressions and its social media service for consumers, Jump Start Social Media. "Because LinkedIn is the most professionally oriented of the three, it tends to attract hiring managers who are doing due diligence."

When it comes to sourcing job candidates, more hiring managers again prefer LinkedIn to Twitter and Facebook. Of the hiring managers surveyed, 66% of hiring managers visit LinkedIn, 23% visit Facebook and 16% use Twitter to find job candidates to fill openings.

To ensure that your personal brand is professional, monitor what you post on social marketing sites. Ms. Fielding reminds people, "Whether or not you are job hunting, you should be aware that your public profile is easily accessible so be sure to maintain a professional personal brand." Social media sites can enhance a candidate's position or be detrimental.

"Social media tools offer hiring managers the ability to gain a broad picture of an individual," says Rosina Racioppi, President of WOMEN Unlimited, Inc. "I prefer LinkedIn because its focus is on business connections and it allows you to see the professional beyond their resume. Utilizing social media tools enables hiring managers to assess whether a candidate is an appropriate fit for their organization.

The experts at Jump Start Social Media offer these tips for using social media in the job-hunting process:

•Become familiar with the popular social media sites so you can participate in important dialogues, including opportunities to network for jobs.

•Start with one service, get comfortable with it, and branch out from there. The easiest, safest choice is LinkedIn because it has always been 100% business focused.

•Share links to interesting news stories combined with a sentence of insight, and join groups (your alma mater, former employers, industry associations, etc.) in order to participate in online discussions with the other members.

•Ask people in your network to introduce you to the people that they know. It's these dynamic group interactions that help shape perceptions of you and your business acumen.

•Make sure to finish your social media profiles and keep them updated.

•If you are "tweeting" on Twitter, share links to stories, reports, interviews, etc. to which you add your insights.

•Don't overlook Facebook's value as a way of keeping in touch and staying top of mind with the business connections you've made during your career.

Bring it home: If you don't already have a personal brand, start developing one. And by all means, keep your social media sites in line with your personal branding efforts. If you don't want certain people to know something, don't post it for the whole world to see. Use good judment and common sense at the minimum when posting information on your social media pages.

The Jump Start Social Media survey polled 100 hiring managers at small, mid-sized, and large companies. Polling was done by Digital Brand Expressions and interbiznet.

WOMEN Unlimited, Inc. is a nationally recognized organization that cultivates leadership in high-potential women through programs that companies sponsor for their noteworthy female employees.

For more info about using social media in the job hunt, visit www.jumpstartsocialmedia.com or www.digitalbrandexpressions.com.

Small Business Lending Begins To Rebound? Of Course, Thanks To Quantum and CHOICE Funding!

Small business lending begins to rebound
Original Post By: Catherine Clifford

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Small businesses are still struggling to find financing, but for those seeking government-backed loans, the worst may be over. The Small Business Administration's flagship lending program backed 37% more loans in its latest quarter than it did a year ago, at the height of the financial crisis.

In the three months ended Dec. 31, the SBA's 7(a) lending program processed 12,393 loans totaling $3.8 billion, according to preliminary data released Monday by the agency. That's a sharp increase from the 9,070 loans, totaling $1.9 billion, processed in the year-earlier quarter.

The SBA credits the improvement to a slew of stimulus measures.


"The big takeaway that we have when we look at this is that we were successful in turning around the SBA lending," SBA spokesman Jonathan Swain said.

Still, lending remains far behind pre-recession benchmarks. Two years ago, in the last calendar quarter of 2007, the SBA backed more than 20,000 small business loans.

"While there are some indicators that the economy is moving in the right direction, no one would say we are out of the woods yet," Swain said.

A lagged recovery: SBA loans represent a tiny portion of the overall small business lending landscape, but they're an important barometer of banks' willingness to extend credit to startups and growing companies. The SBA program guarantees a portion of the money banks lend to qualifying businesses. If the borrower defaults, the government pays the bank back.

Credit conditions for large businesses have largely returned to normal after the dire credit crunch that followed Lehman Brothers' collapse in late 2008. But small businesses have not enjoyed the same recovery. Sales are down at most companies, and the value of assets typically used as collateral -- like real estate and goods in inventory -- has fallen. That leaves many banks reluctant to lend to borrowers they view as risky bets.

From April to October, the nation's largest banks shrunk their collective small business lending balance by 4.3%, cutting $11 billion in credit, according to the most recent Treasury Department data.

Stimulus help: In response to last year's credit crisis, the government lined up a slew of stimulus measures aimed at increasing lending through the SBA's programs.

February's Recovery Act set aside a $375 million funding pool to temporarily eliminate fees for a SBA loans and increase the portion of each loan that the government guarantees, up to 90%.

That move proved so popular that the money allocated for it ran out just before Thanksgiving. Banks and small businesses still clamoring for the stimulus incentives got in line in a Recovery Act Queue.

The queue had more than 1,000 loans pending approval when Congress appropriated another $125 million for the program just before Christmas. The SBA started approving loans off the queue late last month, and currently, the queue is wiped clean.

Another stimulus loan program, America's Recovery Capital, is still inching along, despite lender and borrower complaints that a burdensome application renders the program nearly useless. Last quarter, the SBA backed 2,206 ARC loans totaling $70.9 million.

The SBA plans to push for more funding to continue the stimulus measures. The House of Representatives passed a jobs bill late last year that includes another $354 million to fund an extension of waived fees and increased guarantees. The Senate will take up the bill when it returns from its winter recess.

Another Of Quantum Corporate Funding's Solutions - Asset Based Loans

Asset-Based Financing - an Alternative
Original Post By: Financial Web  http://www.finweb.com/

For companies that find themselves with short-term cash insufficiencies, asset-based financing may be a viable way of meeting those needs. With this method of funding, rapidly-growing – and often cash-strapped – businesses can use the assets that they have to alleviate their cash flow shortages. Although there still may exist a slight stigma regarding an organization's use of its assets for hard cash, this type of financing has nonetheless proliferated in recent years, fueled in large measure by small, expanding companies in dire need of ready currency.

There are two primary means of asset-based financing: asset-based loans and factoring. To obtain an asset-based loan, a business must apply for a secure loan from a lending institution (typically a bank or commercial finance company), pledging one or more assets as collateral. As with other instruments used as loan security, the business continues to own and benefit from the assets. Only if the loan is defaulted will the lender seize the pledged items.


Asset-based loans are used generally by companies with somewhat spotty credit. As such, the fees and interest rates for these loans will typically be higher than market prices, although rates have declined due to the surge in competition among lenders providing such them. Moreover, as with most commercial lending, rates can be negotiated. Lenders will evaluate the applicant company's credit history, time in business, liquidity of pledged assets, and other factors.

Accounts receivable and business inventory are the most common assets used as collateral, but any asset might be accepted by the lender. New account-receivable invoices are generally given a loan-to-value ratio of about seventy-five percent of their face amount, with the ratio dropping quickly and substantially for older accounts. For collateralized inventory, loan amounts can range from approximately thirty- to eighty percent of inventory value.

Another method of asset-based funding, known as factoring, is often used by rapidly-growing companies in need of immediate cash. Using this process, the business will actually sell its accounts receivable to a factoring company for cash (as opposed to pledging them as collateral for an asset-based loan). Again, for newer invoices, the company could receive up to eighty percent of their value up front. The factoring company assumes all credit risk for the outstanding accounts. Once collection has been made, the business will receive back from the factoring company the remaining value, less fees and interest rates, which could run as high as fifty percent annually.

Why use asset-based financing? For small businesses, it offers several advantages, the primary benefit being quicker access to ready cash (and possibly greater amounts of it) than with more traditional loans. Asset-based lenders and factoring companies also frequently offer a number of other services that may be valuable to smaller organizations, such as accounts-receivable processing, invoicing, and collection services.

The principal disadvantage of asset-based financing is, of course, its expense. Using assets to bolster cash flow increases a business's cost of funds, thereby significantly affecting its bottom line: the profits. The business owner must weigh his or her company's situation carefully and prudently to determine if this type of funding is indeed necessary, and if it will ultimately be beneficial to the company's continued growth and overall strength

BDO Junior Sanchez adds, "Our plans at Quantum Corporate Funding are designed to protect ourselves and our clients, thus making them a win for both parties.  Factoring, Asset Based Loans, even Hard Money Loans, we do it all!"

Economic Recovery? Small Businesses I Can Help You Recover!!!

Original Post By: CNBC
Economy 2010: A Recovery By Any Other Name

Economists are busy upgrading their economic forecasts for 2010, but don't start the "Happy New Year" cheers just yet.




Some forecasters are already calling for the economy to grow between four and five percent in the coming year, but that's after the most brutal recession in three decades.



"You have to remember that you're starting from a low base," says Chris Varvares, president of the economic consulting firm Macroeconomic Advisers, which in forecasting four percent GDP growth is among the more bullish views.



"We're getting a snapback that, when judged with those from other deep recessions, is pitiful," he quickly adds, comparing the economy to a intensive care patient recovering from a near fatal auto accident.



OK, now put away your noisemakers and hats.



"Sure there are a lot of tailwinds, a lot of pent up demand," says Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight, which is expecting economic growth in the 2.0-to-2.5-percent range for much of 2010, at the low end of forecasts. "All that means is that there is a recovery in place that is sustainable but not strong."



In the middle of those forecasts is the National Association of Business Economists, which in late November raised its 2010 GDP to 3.2 percent. That happens to be what the White House is calling for in its most recent economic outlook.



Consuming Questions



Like most things about the economy over the past couple years, 2010 will turn on the consumer and housing sectors. The other big factor this time around is unemployment.







Together, they represent something of a Bermuda Triangle for the market.



"The biggest drawback, the big unknown, is the massive amount of debt households have," says Christian Weller of the University of Massachusetts and the Center for American Progress. "A combination of employment and wage growth should help, but it's an unknown. We've never had this much debt before."



Weller is not in the business of making forecasts, but David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities, has been doing it for more than two decades.



Resler expects personal consumption to grow at a slower pace (2.3 percent) than the overall economy (2.7 percent).



Nomura estimates that the $9 trillion in wealth losses of 2008 and early 2009 will cut long-run consumer spending by about $300-$700 billion. What's more, though the debt service-to- disposable income ratio has fallen sharply in the past year, it remains well above the 30-year average.







"Households are going to use any wealth accumulation to pay down debt," says Resler. "That's going to be a continuing strain on the economy."



Others, such as Varvares, are ruling out such a drag because of the recent rebound in wealth---a nine month stock market rally has helped--as well as continuing increases in disposable income and wages.



A frugal, cautious consumer mindset, however, has been a drag on housing, especially in an environment of falling prices, in recent years.



Hardly anyone expects housing to remain a strain on the economy-there's something of a consensus that home prices have bottomed-but it won't be the engine it was in the past. Expectations are largely modest.



Resler expects housing starts to hit 730,000 for the year, NABE forecasts 800,000, Varvares 880,000. All of those, however are below the 2008 level. Any recovery in single family homes is now being somewhat undermined by weakness in multifamily.







Something bordering on an optimistic can be found in Ram Bhagavatula, managing director at the hedge fund Combinatorics Capital.



"Housing has bottomed," says Bhagavatula, who is forecasting housing starts of one million. "There's been a lot of postponed housing consumption."



Bhagavatula says he'll probably be revising his current GDP estimate of 3.5 percent to somewhere between 4.0-4.5 percent come January.



Nevertheless, he warns that the "strength of the recovery will be the big surprise. The market forecast is way too optimistic."



Jobs, Jobs, Jobs



Optimism, however, is not a word associated with the job market. Though most say the jobless rate either peaked at 10.3 in October or will edge a fraction higher than that in early 2010 (Global Insight, for one, expects 10.5 percent), no one has great expectations for improvement.



Forecasts above nine and a half percent for the jobless rate are common. One culprit-housing.



"A lot of employment in past years has been driven by the expansion in homebuilding," says Resler of Nomura, which expects the jobless rate to drop to 9.7 percent.



The outlook for job creation is somewhat more positive. Most expect the first job gains to appear in the next month or two.







"We're going to see progress on job growth," says Weller, who is encouraged by government efforts on job creation.



"I expect plus-250,000 a month by the spring," says Michael Mussa, a former International Monetary Fund economist, now with the Peterson Institute for International Studies.



Mussa is not among those raising his forecast; he's been calling for a five-percent GDP growth rate in 2010 since early this year, arguing that deep contractions beget steep recoveries in both growth and jobs.



With forecasts like these, it almost goes without saying that inflation is expected to be under control. The worst-case scenario is 2.3 percent for core CPI (Bhagavatula); the best is 1.1 percent for core PCE (Varvares)



Inflation appears to be less of a consideration for the Federal Reserve in deciding when to first raise interest rates than the labor market and economists' predictions run the gamut.



The soonest--where a consensus seems to be forming-is mid-year. The latest is the first half of 2011, assuming the worst case for the labor market. More than a few others expect the central bank to wait until late summer or early fall 2010.



"It's worried about this lackluster recovery," says Behravesh.