Discover Card Review

The last five days of growth for Discover Financial Services (DSF), located in Riverwood, Illinois has been well above their credit card competitors, Visa, American Express and Mastercard. Why has this happened? David Nelms, CEO of Discover since 2004 says, “Our very strong results this quarter were driven by a significant improvement in the credit performance of our loyal customer base along with continued solid growth in cardmember spending.”

During the fiscal second quarter, Discover reported a record sales volume at $23 billion. Discover topped their prior year statistics by 6%. Where are the profits coming from?

Discover has three payment services Pulse, an ATM/debit network, Affiliate Banking and Diners Club. Together these services process billions of financial transactions a year.

PULSE is one of the nation’s leading ATM/debit networks, currently serving more than 4,500 banks, credit unions and savings institutions across the country and they have just partnered with MoneyPass which offers thousands of surcharge-free ATMs. It is now the company’s biggest money maker.

Diners Club International was acquired by Discover in July of 2008. Diners Club card entitles consumers to exclusive savings on travel, dining, and entertainment.

Struggling with the new banking rules which prohibit charging late fees over $25, Discover will be loosing between $80 to $90 million a year. To help make up for that they will be focusing on their consumer banking division to make up for lost profits. They have two bank affiliates, Discover Bank and Bank of New Castle. In addition to the credit card division, they also offer personal and student loans, online savings accounts, certificates of deposit and money market accounts.

With David Nelms as the CEO, this company seems to be doing better and better. In fact, the earnings statement for Mr. Nelms is staggering. For 2009, his salary was $1 Million dollars, restricted stock awards $4,627,613.00, other compensations at $17,150.00 and pension valued at $39,750.00 for a grand total of $5,684,513.00 – over 5 1/2 million dollars a year. Looks like his MBA from Harvard Business school served him well.

The two most significant reasons he gives for the recent improvements have to do with how you and I have improved our credit reliability and continued to use Discover Card for purchases. Some employees from Discover have even suggested ways of making money through the significant rewards program they offer. If you are dedicated to watching your spending and able to actually pay off the monthly balance, you can earn money on what you spend. But that is only for the very self-disciplined spenders. This practice could leave you with nothing more than a huge credit card bill so be wary.

The Value of Scarcity and Uniqueness in Business

Auctions can bring hefty prices for unique, rare items. Recently, a manual typewriter fetched the amount of $254,000.

Why the astronomical price? You may wonder about this because living in the digital age, who needs a typewriter?

Possibly similar to the sale of one of Michael Jackson’s glove, this memorabilia belonged to Cormac McCarthy, American fiction writer. From this humble looking typewriter, McCarthy typed more than 5 million words over a period of 50 years.

Cormac McCarthy, born in 1933, is an American novelist and playwright sometimes compared to Faulkner. Six of his novels were made into films. Well known for his 2007, Pulitzer prize winning, work of fiction called, “The Road.”

In 2008, McCarthy was awarded the Pen/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction. His work was recognized for qualities of excellence, ambition and scale of achievement during his writing career. This places him in the highest ranks of American literature.

People predicted his typewriter may go for $18K or so. Those predictions were far below the price it received. The large sum of money was donated to a scientific research organization, the Santa Fe Institute.

The qualities of uniqueness combined with scarcity can drive up the value of an item exponentially. With many competing businesses in similar niches popping up all over the web, thousands will collapse and a few will prosper. It seems to be a natural cycle of business.

If you want your Internet business to prosper, ask yourself if you have something to offer people that is both unique and scarce. The more you can meet this criteria, the better your business will do. What can you bring to the table that is different from every other company? Opportunities to create new, unique products are endless.

The entrepreneur in us sees opportunities everywhere we look, but many people see only problems everywhere they look. The entrepreneur in us is more concerned with discriminating between opportunities than he or she is with failing to see the opportunities. ~Michael Gerber

How To Apply For A Government Grant

There are many different types of grants. The United States Government offers over 1,000 grants and a total amount of $500 billion dollars is available for these grants. Grants are awarded to people who have demonstrated that there is a public benefit for their project or research.

There are twenty one different categories that government grants fall into. There are environmental grants, educational grants, energy grants and many others. For a full list of the categories, you can go to www.grants.gov.

Grants are available to companies or organizations and to individuals. There are more grants available to organizations than there are to individuals. The government website lists 27 grants for individuals and hundreds of grants available for organizations.

One example of a grant for individuals is offered by the United States National Fish and Wildlife Service. They want to promote interest in conservation, and ecology. There is $5,000,000 available to be awarded for this project and they will give 40 awards out. The highest amount awarded can be up to $500,000 and the lowest amount awarded will be $1,000. So what does this grant require you to do?

They are looking for people interested in natural resource careers and would like to provide individuals with guidance and training by professionals. You will be working in wildlife refuges, fish hatcheries, and ecological services offices as an intern. You will be assigned seasonal work sometime between June 1 and Sept. 30. Award recipients need to be willing to administer a program for identifying and recruiting people for assignments at various stations in the United States.

After you have found a grant that fits your expertise and interest, you will need to go through an online application procedure at www.grants.gov. There are multiple steps involved in applying,  however there are videos to help you walk through the entire process.

You first will need to register with the website and then you need to apply for the grant you want. This procedure can take time to do, so plan on several weeks for this process.

Writing a successful grant proposal can be very challenging and competitive. You have several options. One is that you can hire someone to write it for you or you can train yourself to write a good proposal. There are classes you can take that can prepare you for this. Foundation.org offers a five day class that will cost you $785.

If you are going to write the grant yourself, you will need to summarize your project in two or three paragraphs. You will need to communicate important information about your organization that shows that you can be trusted to use their funds wisely. You’ll need to state what your organization’s track record is with similar achievements. One  thing to remember when writing your proposal is to describe the problem you are attempting to solve with the same magnitude as the solution you provide.

Although the procedure for applying is lengthy and requires you to write a very good proposal, you should try your best and see if you qualify. A federal grant could be just what you need.

How To Register A Trademark

If you are in business for yourself, you might be interested in learning about trademarks and possibly registering a trademark for your company.

Owning a trademark is appealing to people because they hope that one day, their particular brand may receive universal recognition. This universal recognition can make your company become more profitable than you may have imagined.

Historically, famous trademark names like Levi Strauss Jeans, Dutch Boy, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola have made life long impressions on millions of people. There are trademarks on other things that you may not have thought of like sounds. In 1924, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer registered the sound of a lion roaring. When you go to the movies today, you’ll hear that sound and associate it with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie productions. Even the design of buildings can be trademarked. The famous McDonald’s golden arches are trademarked.

Images can be trademarked and they have powerful effects on consumers. The most reproduced image in the world is that of Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse. There are over 7,500 items that have that image on it. The second most reproduced image is that of Jesus. Surely you’ve seen thousands of products with his image on them. You may be surprised to know that the third most reproduced image is of Elvis Presley and he “ain’t nothing but a hound dog.”

The average person knows what these symbols, sounds and words mean and generally that is good for business because of their universal appeal. So how does that affect you and your new business?

Suppose you have been dreaming of a new product or already have a great product and a very unique name for that product. You will want to make sure that you and your company are the people who benefit from your brilliance. You don’t want other people using this name to generate profits for themselves which will ultimately diffuse your profit making efforts. The best thing to do is to get a trademark for your name, idea or product.

Cost of Trademarking

This is perhaps the first question on your mind. It has a complicated answer. There are fees involved in getting a trademark and they vary. You may be able to complete the process for as low as $325.00 or if you have a lawyer handle it for you, you could be looking at several thousand dollars in fees.

How To Trademark

The government has a special procedure for you to apply for a trademark. Perhaps the easiest thing for you to do is to call them at 1-800 786-9199. If you want to be a bit more prepared to talk to them, you’ll need to find out if the idea you have is already trademarked. You can use a trademark search at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

You can apply online for a trademark, but you must be able to provide information in a timely fashion. They have strict deadlines that must be met to process your application. You will need to provide the name of the applicant, name and address for correspondence, a clear drawing of your symbol or  the words you want trademarked, the goods or services you intend to provide and a filing fee.

Once you submit that information, a lawyer will research it and decide whether it will be approved. This procedure may take up to two months. Once it is approved, they will print a public notice in the the Official Gazette. The public is given 30 days to issue a protest against your filing if they can prove that your trademark will be damaging to their business. If you make it through that step, then within 3 months you will be issued a NOTICE OF ALLOWANCE. Then you have six months to notify them of your intended STATEMENT OF USE plan. Once that is sent in and approved, you will be issued a REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE.

Do you think it’s worth your time and effort to register a trademark? I’m sure Levi Strauss did!

Control What You Can To Improve Your Life

I have been to my local gym to exercise, swim and use their public steam bath many times. One of my favorite things about this experience is to enjoy ten minutes of sitting in the steam bath. The heat and moisture make me feel good and more energetic during the rest of my day.

One of the things I hate about the steam bath is that many many times I’ve sat in the steam bath when there is barely any steam at all. I’ve watched people use various methods of trying to get the steam regulator to cool down, thus triggering the release of more steam. The small regulating device is strategically placed at a height of 6 1/2 feet and must be all of about 3/4 of an inch wide. Some people are successful at getting it to restart the steam. They were either taller than I was or had a better water bottle.

If you have ever tried to actually squirt water out of a drinking container, you’ll know that the water doesn’t go very far and accuracy is difficult to obtain. I have thought many times in the past as I was sitting in the steam bath that I should buy a cheap water gun and see if that would work. I had the idea months ago, but today I actually went to buy the water gun  and make it part of the necessary piece of equipment for my exercise routine.

I walked into the steam room. There were about six people sitting there and the steam looked like it was on its way to fizzling out. I sat down and inquired about the steam. I was told that it had just stopped but had previously been fine. I took my little water gun, filled with tap water and proceeded to take aim at the regulator. My first few attempts seemed to miss the bulls eye, but I continued until I could see that it was hitting it and felt that it had been sufficiently soaked. I walked to the seating area and within ten seconds the steam started coming forth with vigor. It provided the group with the best steam bath. In fact it got so hot in there that several people left.

What I learned from this experience is that if there is something that you can control to improve your life, do it. Don’t just think about it. Do it. The next time I go to the gym, I feel confident that I will be able to enjoy the best steam bath possible at the time that I want it to and it cost me 99 cents. That is really sweet.

When you work on the Internet and devote your days to building your business, many things that you choose to do can grow your business. However there are a slew of things that you can do that will not help you in the least. You have most likely already spent hours and hours getting distracted from your main Internet goals in the past.  Choose to do something that you know will help. Are you offering people better information? Are you offering them a reason to link to your site? Are you improving anything about your services and letting people know?

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her. But once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game. ~ Voltaire

Expect the Unexpected With Internet Startups

Great Expectations

I have cut, sliced and diced hundreds of onions. So many that when I cut this onion open and saw these funny faces smiling back at me, I had to laugh. I was amazed at how perfect these images seemed. To refresh my memory of what onions normally look like, I cut into another onion and found the look I usually find – one center and concentric circles. This onion produced two smiley faces. Totally unexpected! Sometimes it is better to expect the unexpected.

In any business people try to predict their success and  rely on statistics to back up their predictions. With the Internet this method doesn’t always work.

Many people start Internet businesses and plan to be successful. They’ve got a great business idea and they invest money and time towards building the business. They literally do everything they can do. What sometimes happens is that they don’t get enough traffic to sustain the business and they stop trying. This is not what they expected.

The Unexpected

On the other hand there are people who start an Internet business and have no expectations of being wildly successful, but they enjoy trying new things and testing different methods of getting their business to work. They actual stumble upon little ideas and little tricks that end up making their business earn more money. Repeating this as a regular work habit can make the site profitable.

Think about your expectations of your Internet business. Is it going well or is it a project that you have abandoned?

In a search for “websites that fail” an article was listed called The number 1 Reason Why Most Websites Fail. You would expect this site to tell you about reasons sites fail, however this site was an example of failure. Mistakes on the page were causing major errors that failed to pull in the correct information in five different areas. This is the advice they give.

Websites do fail. Lots of them fail. You will see many of them every day. Some of them fail to inspire or enthuse. Some fail to get found at all. Some fail to get completed. Some fail to understand the needs of the people visiting them. But there is an underlying common reason for all these failings..

This site expected to be an authority on why websites fail, but lost credibility because their own site was failing. That wasn’t what was expected.

Finding Success With Internet Start Ups

In 1969, Honeywell International Inc. developed a computer that sold for $10,600. It was advertised as a kitchen computer because back then, the engineers decided that the only reason people would want to use a personal computer at home was to store recipes. That was what they expected people to wanted to do. Not one of the computers they designed sold. Did they expect that when developing this product? I’m quite sure they didn’t.

When you start your business on the Internet remember to expect the unexpected. It will give you  patience while you work on your site and build it and continue to build it. Success for you may be right around the corner.

In life there is nothing more unexpected and surprising than the arrivals and departures of pleasure. If we find it in one place to-day, it is vain to seek it there to-morrow. You can not lay a trap for it.
~ Alexander Smith, Scottish poet

Creativity comes from looking for the unexpected and stepping outside your own experience.
~Masaru Ibuka, co-founder of Sony Corporation

Sometimes it is better to expect the unexpected.

Developing Strong Leadership Skills

Having good leadership skills does not come easy. It is a long, ongoing process that consists of research and internalizing what was read and learned.  Training an individual to become a leader by learning from past and present leaders is one of the best methods. One can learn from or even acquire the good qualities of those great leaders.

There are several qualities present in a great leader and businessman. An individual running a business must have both in order to become successful. Here are a few tips:

Think and Act Like a Businessman/Businesswoman

In order to be a great businessman or businesswoman for that matter, you must think and act like one. Connect yourself to other individuals that share the same passion as you and those who can motivate you further.

Finances Inside and Out

Understanding how the finances work in the business and how to make the business grow differentiates the entrepreneur from the common employee. If you do not know what profit you made this month, you are in very big trouble.

Ads, Ads, Ads

A great business does not solely rely on the performance of its product alone, but relies heavily in its marketing. Research who the target market for the business is and how to effectively present your product or service to them.

Know Your Enemies

Like in the Art of War, it is also important to know and understand about the existing competition in order to build a successful business.

A Leader with a Mission

Have a clear mission and vision for the business. Motivate your employees to join you in attaining this mission and vision.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

To be able to lead you would need to respect your employees and your clients. Respecting the people around you will be reciprocated with respect as well.

Passion

An exceptional leader is passionate in what he or she does. The best leaders are dedicated to their work and motivate other people to follow them.

Lead by Example

A great leader leads by example and is confident in what he or she does. By knowing every single detail about your business and doing what your employees do will encourage others to put their best efforts as well.

Confidence

The confidence a leader displays during times of uncertainty and doubt affects that of his peers and followers. Great leaders are calm even in disastrous situations and have the ability to direct or redirect attention to follow the key vision for the business.

Team Worker

Exemplary leaders also have the ability to work well with a group. In order to achieve a common goal, a great leader has the capacity and willingness to work with a team. A great leader sets the goal and makes appropriate steps in going towards that goal.

Excellence

Lastly, an excellent leader is dedicated to giving excellence in all aspects of the business. Great leaders do not waiver in terms of values and is passionate in setting the standards in the business higher.

These are some of the most important characteristics demonstrated by outstanding leaders and entrepreneurs. As previously mentioned, these are not often present in every individual and must be constantly learned, improved on and reinforced. Outstanding leaders and entrepreneurs have the capacity and willingness to adapt and learn to be better in their respective roles.

Designing A Company Logo

A company without a logo is like a person without a face.  Sounds weird, doesn’t it?  If you happen to bump into a person without a face while walking down the street, you’d probably freak out.  Maybe you’d even think that he’s from another planet. Well, this also applies to a company or business that doesn’t have a company logo.  Prospects, clients and customers will have second thoughts dealing with your company or buying a product from you if a company logo is lacking.

This very small detail called the logo actually does a lot in making your business grow.  A lot of business people neglect the importance of having a company logo, and this is a big no-no.  Before you even think you can do without having a company logo, read on and you’ll find out the importance of having your own company logo.

Basically, business starts in getting noticed and identified. A company logo will help customers notice and identify your business or company. That’s how important that piece of drawing is.  It helps people know your company’s existence.  Establishing your identity in the world of business is a very important matter as business starts when people become aware of your business operation.  Thus, having a company logo designed by a professional is one step closer to a thriving business.

Imagine giving away t-shirts or hats with your company logo to your valued customers.  This is a very effective strategy to promote your business.  Not only do you get to reward your loyal customers and clients, you also get to promote your company.  Good investment, isn’t it?  There are lots of items you can get your company logo printed on.  If you want to increase your company’s popularity, why not give away a mug, keychain, and greeting cards with, of course, your company logo printed.  These things can also be given to your employees and staff for their own use.

Having a company logo is really a great move towards a successful business.  And since this should not be taken for granted, it is best to have a professional logo maker take care of your company logo.  In this manner, you won’t end up with a piece of junk or a copycat company logo. Plus, professional logo makers will even help you come up with great promotional item ideas bearing the logo, such as:

-Automotive Promotional Products

-Business Card Holders

-Personalized Bags and Totes

-Brochures

-Appointment Products

-Personalized Cards

-Checks

-Letterhead Stationery

Surely, a company logo is your company’s face, your company’s identity.  With the help of an expert logo maker, your company logo will be as popular and as recognizable as the Golden Arches, Converse Star or M&M’s.

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