Mums Finance

Back in one of my earlier posts I warned about the hazards of fraudulent emails. Most commonly seemingly from Paypal. I get oodles of them and one thing I must stress is that you DO NOT reply to them at all, no matter how convincing they seem. Once you sign up for a PayPal account you will start to receive them. Please remember that PayPal do NOT contact their account holders and ask that they ‘verify details’. They also never threaten to ’suspend your account’.

Here is a sample of a recent fraudulent email asking for me to provide my personal data by clicking on one of their links:

“Dear PayPal Member ,

It has come to our attention that your PayPal® account information needs to be  updated as part of our continuing commitment to protect your account and to  reduce the instance of fraud on our website. If you could please take 5-10 minutes out of your online experience and update your personal records you will not run into any future problems with the online service.

However, failure to update your records will result in account suspension.  Please update your records before December 30, 2007.

Once you have updated your account records, your PayPal® account activity will not be interrupted and will continue as normal.

Click here to update your PayPal account information”

Okay. Now, if you ‘click here’ they will simply record your details and password…next thing you know is that your account has been cleared.

Don’t fall for it. PayPal never contact you and ask you to log in from a link. ALWAYS type in the URL and login that way…NEVER from a link in an email.

Be aware and fight the fraudsters. Delete those emails and never, ever, reply.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Let’s take a quick look at what to do when you need to equip your small business with what you need to start trading and providing service to those all important clients.  Now, the majority of small business folk at the off do not have a large amount of cash at their disposal so nearly always the very first financial transaction you will make as a business person will be to organise finance – a loan. Maybe you are expanding and updating? well all this is relative to you as well.

It is actually a good idea to take stock of what resources you have especially your cash resources; hang onto your cash as a cash flow is vital at the start and take care of your equipment financing needs by way of borrowing. This will establish your credit rating for your business ensuring that later on, if needed, lenders will consider your business viable for any further loans.

When you are looking around to source your lender it is a good idea to consider firms that specialise exclusively in assisting small businesses; a company such as Crest Capitol will assist small businesses to get off the ground and extend their services to cover such areas as not only finance but equipment leasing for those whose trade requirements are not confined to just office space and stationery. And don’t forget to have that business plan in order for you to outlay your needs and objectives.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Hope you all had a great Xmas!. We have just come back from a week in Valencia down in the south of Spain where we spent our festive season and it was wonderful. I couldn’t help noticing though the differences in  commercial practices there with regards to trading hours over the holiday season, restaurant opening times, etc, as opposed to places like France.

In France the shops close at 7pm. No shops open Sundays and the restaurants slam the doors shut by 9.30pm regardless of the time of year. Most do not serve food after 8.30 pm. In all shoppers are quite restricted, and to be honest, it is hard to catch any Xmas spirit in France as a result.

In Spain it is quite different. The shops are open 7 days a week from morning until midnight and the restaurants and cafes start trading at the time that the French ones are closing. I found doing the Xmas shopping in Spain to be a fantastic experience; it was fun, all the shops were brilliantly decorated and with Xmas carols playing over loud speakers andnativity scenes everywhere – not the austere ‘front’ that the French display in keeping with their ‘republican’ ethos…”lets celebrate Xmas but don’t mention Jesus!”.

Of course it is the difference in workplace laws between France and Spain that you notice. The French are trapped in their ridiculous and totally impractical straight-jacket of the 35 hour week with their policy of no Sunday trading thrown in for good measure.   I also noticed that a certain ‘affluence’ has crept into Spanish life, something that the French will not discover until they scrap this 35 hour nonsense and start working more hours and with better pay. It will serve the workers better and of course create the employment that is badly lacking in France; they should take a look at the Spanish example and follow suit.

Popularity: 25% [?]