Great financial tips to ensure you make more dollar

There was a time when traveling was fun and affordable. With four-dollar-plus per gallon gas that’s no longer the case. Add to that the appallingly weak dollar, and it’s no surprise that prices are up across the board in the travel and hotel industries, no matter what the official inflation figures say. Business must go on, of course, and fortunately there are numerous new technologies that allow us to conduct business without the cost of travel. Video conferencing is one of them, and it makes ever more sense.

I remember times earlier on in my career when the company I worked for pretty much expected employees to drive to regional offices and clients if they were less than 300 miles or so away. Even with a gas guzzler, the 600-mile roundtrip cost less than $50 in gas, and if you decided to stay over, it was another $30 or so for a decent motel. That same roundtrip would now run over $150 in gas even with better gas mileage, and lower tier chain motels now routinely charge $60 to 80 per night. Go upscale a bit and it’s $150 per night, $10 for a glass of wine, and $50 for dinner. If you pick up the tab for dinner with clients, it can really add up. No wonder most companies are far more conservative in approving business travel.

Now I am definitely not saying personal contact isn’t important. Shaking hands, sharing a meal, or doing a round of Golf remain great ways to build trust, establish relationships, and close deals. But it is no longer the only way to do business, and in this day and age it’s become an increasingly costly way of doing business. Today, there are so many other ways to connect and stay in touch without losing time away from the office and spending a king’s ransom in the process.

All in all, it’s a matter of picking the right productivity tools and staying clear of traps. Cell phones are wonderful ways of staying in touch at all times, but if we become slaves to them, productivity goes down the drain (and let’s not even talk of Blackberry addiction!). Email remains a terrific means of communication, but unless you manage your address(es) carefully you either spend hours sifting through junk mail or risk losing important messages in all the various spam filters that sit between you and whoever you communicate with. Instant messaging is a great way to quickly get answers or resolve issues, but not if you let conversations drag on or let yourself get interrupted by buddies with too much time on their hands.

Then there is video conferencing, a tool that combines the warmth and immediacy of personal contact with the efficiency of electronic communication. You see the person on the other end, interaction is in real time, and yet you can do it all on your own computer or in a meeting room. A well-run video conference provides virtually all the benefits of personal meetings at a small fraction of the cost. What’s more, video conferencing technology is now such that you can make presentations, sales pitches, conduct seminars, or have one-on-ones with spreadsheets and multimedia while seeing and interacting with your business partners or clients in real time.

With today’s transportation and lodging costs it makes less and less sense to travel needlessly. Simply schedule a video conference, save, and get on with business.

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You are in the market to buy a new car. Your first thought is to trade in your existing one at the dealership. If you do not have any time and you are very comfortable loosing a couple of thousand dollars, go ahead and trade in your existing vehicle at the dealership. If you trade in at the dealership, you dont have to pay a portion of the sales tax, equivalent to the trade-in value of your old car, on your new car. For a $2,000 trade-in, that may be as high as $160 at 8% sales tax rate. But the same $2,000 trade-in car can be sold at $3,000 to a private party if you put some efforts. And that can be a nice chunk of money for a few hours of works.

If you have read so far, you must be interested in getting that extra $1,000. Go ahead start your research for the fair market value of your car using edmunds.com. Enter all your available vehicle features and mileage to obtain an accurate number. Take a printout of the page. Now you have all the details of your car at your finger tips and the estimated market value the sellers in your region are willing to pay from a private party sale.

Call your local news paper and buy a classified ads in automotive section for one week starting from a Sunday. Some local papers will extend your ad for an additional week for a nominal charge or for free if the vehicle is not sold in one week. Give details like make, model, year, mileage, engine cylinder size, etc. Also check out the online car selling sites like motor zoo.com and car.com. Get the title of your car and keep it in a place you can access it quickly if a prospective buyer wants to buy the car immediately.

Take your car to the nearest car wash and give it a through cleaning, both interior and exterior. Remove every thing from the trunk, back seats, and floor. The car should only have floor mats on the floor. Trunk should be completely empty. Secure the spare tire and the jack appropriately. Vacuum the trunk. Use a spot remover to remove spots from seats and trunk carpet if it is possible. Dont spend money fixing the car for any mechanical and electrical repairs, unless it is very minor like replacing the fuse or a bulb etc.. Be honest to the buyer if you have any mechanical or electrical problems with your car. Take the car to a quick oil change place for oil change and topping of other fluids. Most quick oil places will also fill up your anti-freeze, transmission fluids, power steering fluid if you go for their 20, 21 or whatever point inspection. They will also inflate your tires pressure to the recommended level.

When prospective buyers call you, answer all questions they might have about your vehicle. Answer them honestly because you want to turn an appointment into a sale. Make appointment at a specific time. dont be vague like come after work, because your after work and the buyers after work may not be the same. Ask the buyer to come during the day and not at night. This may be a problem during the week-days in Winter months when days are shorter but in the Summer it should not be a problem. You can also schedule your appointment during the week-ends in the Winter months. Get the cell phone number of the prospective buyer if it is possible. However, dont get upset if the prospective buyer does not show up or shows up late. Remember that a prospective buyer is your customer and customer is always right.

Before the buyer takes the car for a test drive, check his/her drivers license. You should accompany the buyer during the test drive and direct the buyer to roads you are familiar with. Dont allow him/her to take the car wherever he/she wants. During price negotiation, dont be extremely rigid in your price. Depending on the resale value of your car, you should be able to accept a couple of hundred dollars less than your advertised price. Take only cash; do not take checks or registered checks.

If you receive any inquires from prospective buyers to your online advertisement, be very cautious. There are lots of scams going on online. If the online buyer proposes to send you a registered check for more than what you are asking for and tells you to send the difference to a shipping company, than you know it is definitely a scam. The check is forged and they will take your money and run. Have fun with your extra money.

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