Survey: Bosses blasted and booed - South Florida Business Journal

Saturday is National Bosses Day, a time to reflect on how we feel about those to whom we answer every day.

Are you planning to honor your boss with some token of appreciation? Or are you among the growing number of workers dissatisfied with your relationship?

A new poll, conducted by Monster on behalf of Fort Lauderdale-based Spherion Staffing, finds 45 percent of U.S. workers say their relationship with their boss has been affected by the recession. And, of those, 74 percent say it has weakened their relationship with their boss.

“Not only are many bosses falling short in supporting their employees’ career development, in many cases, they are hindering their progress,” Spherion notes.

The study found that 38 percent of workers felt their boss is somewhat or very uncaring when it comes to their career development, and 27 percent say that their boss's attitude about their career development has changed since the recession.

More alarming, nearly half of workers (45 percent) say their boss has taken credit for their work, and an additional 37 percent say their boss has “thrown them under the bus” to save himself/herself.

At a time when jobs are tough to keep, one out of four workers said their boss is somewhat or very dishonest about their job security, and more than half (53 percent) feel their boss doesn’t respect them.

And, many employees lack confidence in discussing sensitive or unethical issues with their managers. The study found 46 percent of workers say they don’t think they can freely and openly discuss unethical workplace issues with their boss, and 44 percent say they can’t confide about sensitive or confidential workplace issues.

“Managers need to create an environment that fosters open and direct communication, offers unwavering support for workers, and demonstrates commitment to career development,” says Loretta Penn, president of Spherion Staffing Services. “Unfortunately, many of today’s bosses simply aren’t delivering on this responsibility.”

Now, what if someone offered you your boss’s job? Would you take it? Just 34 percent said they would, while 40 percent said no. Despite that, 44 percent felt they could do their boss’s job better and 61 percent felt they had better management skills than their boss.

There also doesn’t seem to be much loyalty, with 43 percent sating they would not follow their boss to another company. Thirty-five percent said they weren’t sure.

How do you feel about your boss? Do you like him or her? Do you think you could do a better job? Would you follow him or her to another company, or say good riddance?

Doesn't surprise me, I cannot remember last time anyone had something positive to say about their boss; but I think this goes beyond the recession and will become an determining factor for business success especially with the Small Business.

The Card Game - How Visa, Using Fees Behind Its Debit Card, Dominates a Market - Series

Every day, millions of Americans stand at store checkout counters and make a seemingly random decision: after swiping their debit card, they choose whether to punch in a code, or to sign their name.

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Monica Almeida/The New York Times

Mitch Goldstone, in his digital photo-processing shop in Irvine, Calif., is part of a suit against Visa and MasterCard.

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The Card Game series is a joint reporting project with the PBS program "Frontline."

Readers' Comments

"Smart retailers take advantage and offer a 'discount' on debit purchases. Sharing the savings with the customers is a great incentive."
Tom, Texas

It is a pointless distinction to most consumers, since the price is the same either way. But behind the scenes, billions of dollars are at stake.

When you sign a debit card receipt at a large retailer, the store pays your bank an average of 75 cents for every $100 spent, more than twice as much as when you punch in a four-digit code.

The difference is so large that Costco will not allow you to sign for your debit purchase in its checkout lines. Wal-Mart and Home Depot steer customers to use a PIN, the debit card norm outside the United States.

Despite all this, signature debit cards dominate debit use in this country, accounting for 61 percent of all such transactions, even though PIN debit cards are less expensive and less vulnerable to fraud.

How this came to be is largely a result of a successful if controversial strategy hatched decades ago by Visa, the dominant payment network for credit and debit cards. It is an approach that has benefited Visa and the nation’s banks at the expense of merchants and, some argue, consumers.

Competition, of course, usually forces prices lower. But for payment networks like Visa and MasterCard, competition in the card business is more about winning over banks that actually issue the cards than consumers who use them. Visa and MasterCard set the fees that merchants must pay the cardholder’s bank. And higher fees mean higher profits for banks, even if it means that merchants shift the cost to consumers.

Seizing on this odd twist, Visa enticed banks to embrace signature debit — the higher-priced method of handling debit cards — and turned over the fees to banks as an incentive to issue more Visa cards. At least initially, MasterCard and other rivals promoted PIN debit instead.

As debit cards became the preferred plastic in American wallets, Visa has turned its attention to PIN debit too and increased its market share even more. And it has succeeded — not by lowering the fees that merchants pay, but often by pushing them up, making its bank customers happier.

In an effort to catch up, MasterCard and other rivals eventually raised fees on debit cards too, sometimes higher than Visa, to try to woo bank customers back.

“What we witnessed was truly a perverse form of competition,” said Ronald Congemi, the former chief executive of Star Systems, one of the regional PIN-based networks that has struggled to compete with Visa. “They competed on the basis of raising prices. What other industry do you know that gets away with that?”

Visa has managed to dominate the debit landscape despite more than a decade of litigation and antitrust investigations into high fees and anticompetitive behavior, including a settlement in 2003 in which Visa paid $2 billion that some predicted would inject more competition into the debit industry.

Yet today, Visa has a commanding lead in signature debit in the United States, with a 73 percent share. Its share of the domestic PIN debit market is smaller but growing, at 42 percent, making Visa the biggest PIN network, according to The Nilson Report, an industry newsletter.

The Risk of Refusing

Critics complain that Visa does not fight fair, and that it used its market power to force merchants to accept higher costs for debit cards. Merchants say they cannot refuse Visa cards because it would result in lower sales.

“A dollar is no longer a dollar in this country,” said Mallory Duncan, senior vice president of the National Retail Federation, a trade association. “It’s a Visa dollar. It’s only worth 99 cents because they take a piece of every one.”

Visa officials say its critics are griping about debit products that have transformed the nation’s payment system, adding convenience for consumers and higher sales for merchants, while cutting the hassle and expense of dealing with cash and checks. In recent years, New York cabbies and McDonald’s restaurants are among those reporting higher sales as a result of accepting plastic.

“At times we have a perspective problem,” said William M. Sheedy, Visa’s president for the Americas. “Debit has become so mainstream, some of the people who have benefited have lost sight of what their business model was, what their cost structure was.”

Visa officials said the costs of debit for merchants had not gone down because the cards now provided greater value than they did five or 10 years ago. The costs must not be too onerous, they say, because merchant acceptance has doubled in the last decade.

The fees are “not a cost-based calculation, but a value-based calculation,” said Elizabeth Buse, Visa’s global head of product.

As for Visa’s market share, company officials maintain that it is rather small when considered within the larger context of all payments, where, for now at least, cash remains king.

While Visa may be among the best-known brands in the world, how it operates is a mystery to many consumers.

Visa does not distribute credit or debit cards, nor does it provide credit so consumers can buy flat-screen televisions or a Starbucks latte. Those tasks are left to the banks, which owned Visa until it went public in 2008.

Sign in to Recommend Next Article in Your Money (5 of 28) » A version of this article appeared in print on January 5, 2010, on page A1 of the New York edition.

Small Business: Start-Ups Still Seen Struggling In 2010

By COLLEEN DEBAISE

Read an excerpt from THE WALL STREET JOURNAL COMPLETE SMALL BUSINESS GUIDEBOOK (Three Rivers Press).

The economic downturn has dimmed many entrepreneurs' hopes of opening a small business, as sources of funding have dwindled or dried up completely. And while many hope 2010 will be better, the outlook continues to be bleak.

The majority of entrepreneurs use personal savings or contributions from family or friends to fund their ventures, but personal wealth, often connected to the value of stock portfolios or homes, hasn't bounced back.

Kenneth MacKinnon

Kenneth MacKinnon, who wants to open a restaurant, networks with chefs on a fishing trip near Los Angeles.

SBOUTLOOK

SBOUTLOOK

Meanwhile, banks—under scrutiny by regulators—are continuing to strengthen capital reserves, making it difficult even for entrepreneurs with track records and years of experience to qualify for loans. And professional investors, stung by the financial meltdown, are meting out fewer capital infusions.

Kenneth MacKinnon moved to Los Angeles over two years ago with plans to start a tapas wine bar, but despite a high credit rating and collateral, including a home, the Scotland native says he has been unable to secure the $300,000 he needs from banks or private investors.

"The money supply has been shut off," says Mr. MacKinnon, who had run a successful seafood eatery for 15 years in the U.K. that he sold in 2007 before moving to the U.S.

Funding from angel investors, or high-net-worth individuals who provide capital to young companies, fell 30% to $9.1 billion in the first half of 2009 compared with the same period a year earlier. That figure is expected to remain flat for 2010, according to Jeffrey Sohl, director of University of New Hampshire's Center for Venture Research, which tracks the data.

What is encouraging, Mr. Sohl says, is the number of deals has ticked up slightly. While angels are investing less—$370,000 per deal in 2009, versus $530,000 in 2008—about 24,500 ventures received funding during the first half of 2009, compared with 23,100 the year earlier.

"They are still doing the deals, but the deals are much cheaper now," he says.

Venture capitalists, too, are continuing to invest, but typically in later-stage companies already in their portfolios rather than new prospects, says Mr. Sohl. The average deal size declined to $5.7 million in the first half of 2009, compared with $7.4 million to $7.8 million between 2005 and 2008.

As for Small Business Administration-guaranteed loans or conventional bank loans, the best thing about 2010 is that it won't be 2009, says Bob Coleman, publisher of "The Coleman Report," a La Canada, Calif., trade publication for SBA lenders. "We're better off than where we were 12 months ago, but we are nowhere near where we were two years ago," he says.

The SBA approved less than 45,000 loans for the 12 months ended Sept. 30, down 36% from a year earlier. Total volume for its flagship 7(a) loan was $9.3 billion, off year-ago levels by $3.4 billion.

Stimulus-related measures, however, contributed to an uptick in SBA lending in recent months. Mr. Coleman expects that trend to continue for 2010.

But SBA loans make up only about 1% of overall small-business lending, Mr. Coleman estimates. That figure may grow to 5% to 10% in 2010 as the government provides more incentives for financial institutions, especially community banks, to provide financing to small businesses, he says.

Still, getting the money may be a challenge. "Whether it's an SBA loan or a conventional loan, you really have to be perceived as the 'cream,'" Mr. Coleman says. Start-up entrepreneurs in particular will have to show they have a significant amount of their own savings in the venture, plus solid cash-flow projections, he says.

[SBOUTLOOK]

Maria Coyne, executive vice president and head of SBA lending at KeyBank in Clevand, agrees that start-up entrepreneurs will have to have a solid plan and assets. "They've got to get a good hunk of skin in the game, too," she says.

Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., estimates that entrepreneurs need on average $65,000 to start a business, two-thirds of which comes from personal savings and the rest from "informal" investors such as relatives and friends.

Although the stock market is starting to recover, housing values remain weak. Two years ago, relatives were more willing to invest because "they might have seen they had a couple hundred thousand dollars in equity in their house," says Babson entrepreneurship professor Andrew Zacharakis. "Today, that's a scarier proposition."

Lack of access to capital will also likely hamper entrepreneurs interested in buying a franchise, says Matt Shay, president of the International Franchise Association in Washington. The group estimates 2% growth in franchises for 2010 to over 901,000 establishments. That's better than zero growth in 2009, but off the average 5.6% growth per year from 2001 to 2005.

In the past, potential franchisees could finance a purchase if they could put 15% to 20% down. Now, banks require large down payments of between 40% and 50%, Mr. Shay says.

Babson's Prof. Zacharakis says he's seeing companies doing more with less, including asking friends and family to work for free. "Instead of capital infusions, there might be a lot more exchanges of services or trading favors," he says.

In Los Angeles, Mr. MacKinnon says he's considering taking on partners so he can open his long-planned bar. Instead of starting from scratch, he might invest in a failed restaurant.

University of New Hampshire's Mr. Sohl says he believes "we're done with the downdraft," though he remains cautious for 2010. "People aren't ready to bet the farm," he says.

Write to Colleen DeBaise at colleen.debaise@wsj.com

Should Credit Card Transactions Be Free? There May Be A Way » StorefrontBacktalk » Blog Archive »

Franchisee Columnist Todd Michaud has spent the last 16 years trying to fight IT issues, with the last six years focused on franchisee IT issues. He is currently responsible for IT at Focus Brands (Cinnabon, Carvel, Schlotzsky’s and Moe’s Southwestern Grill).

Envision a world where credit card transactions are free. How could we accomplish such an outrageous feat? Well, crazy things can happen when you start to apply IT problem-solving initiatives to business issues.

I just finished reading “Free – The Future Of A Radical Price” by Chris Anderson. Chris, the author of “The Long Tail,” discusses how several factors–including the constant reduction of technology costs–have enabled companies to give away valuable services to their customers. Examples include Google giving away search functions and videos on YouTube, eBay giving away free phone calls with Skype and Linux as a free version of Unix software. But for some reason, the costs of processing credit card transactions have been immune to the same trends that have provided free versions of far more complex technology. Why?

Somehow, the system has evolved in a way that primarily protects the banks at the expense of retailers and, ultimately, customers. From a purely technological perspective, credit card transactions should cost a fraction of what they actually do. Moore’s Law, loosely translated, states that the cost of technology will reduce by roughly 50 percent every 18 months. If this law is true, then why, after decades of credit card processing, does Home Depot pay more for credit card processing than it does for employee healthcare benefits?

A credit card transaction is fairly complicated and involves several different organizations/people:

  • The issuing bank: The bank that provides the credit card to the consumer.
  • The cardholder: The person who uses the card to make purchases at various retailers.
  • The merchant: The retail organization that accepts the credit card in exchange for goods or services.
  • The acquiring bank: The bank that processes the credit card transactions.
  • The bankcard association: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, etc.

    What is the big problem in this ecosystem? The merchant is the only one hit up for a fee to process a credit card transaction. The merchant pays a “merchant discount” to the acquirer, which then splits up the fee among itself (processing fee), the issuing bank (interchange) and the bankcard association (assessments). In the case of credit cards that offer rewards programs, the merchant also funds these customer perks through a forced higher interchange fee. Ridiculous! So how do we change it?

    Interchange rates should be demolished.
    Issuing banks will no longer be paid an interchange fee; instead, a transaction processing fee will be charged to manage the costs of providing authorizations, settlements and money transfers. The rate should be about equal to the current ACH transaction costs, which should serve as a good benchmark for the costs associated with moving money between two bank accounts. Rewards programs would then be completely funded by the issuing bank.

    Remove Overhead From The System.
    In this crazy New World, the bankcard associations are no longer in the transaction processing business. With 88 percent of all cards issued by the top 10 issuing banks, the acquiring banks should process directly with each issuing bank. They will take on this responsibility in exchange for lower assessment fees.

    Reduce Costs Through Improved Efficiencies.
    And what about the acquiring banks? Because their job will also be one of transaction processing, they will earn a flat monthly fee from each merchant rather than a transaction fee. A flat monthly fee? That is crazy talk! Now, imagine travelling back in time to 1999 and telling Michael Armstrong (then CEO of AT&T) that in just 10 years an Internet company would offer unlimited calling to anywhere in the world for just $24.99 per month. (Vonage recently announced this plan.) I’m pretty sure he would have told you that you were nuts.

    Subsidize The Remaining Costs With Someone Who Gains Value.
    OK, but I said that in this crazy New World credit card processing would be free. Except that the previous examples still add costs. Granted, this solution is a ton better than where we are today. But you were promised free. So, how do we get there? I’m going to leverage more of what I learned from Chris Anderson and his book. In the book, Chris discusses the concept of “free” as a “three party market,” where a third party subsidizes the costs of providing the goods or services between the merchant and the consumer.

    An example is how TV stations can offer you free programming in exchange for broadcasting advertisers’ commercials. In our crazy New World of free credit card transactions, we are going to subsidize the costs of credit card transactions by leveraging a three party market. So how do we do this?

  • Sell Receipt Space.
    Acquiring banks can work with merchants and POS companies to pass along small “banner ads” that are displayed at the bottom of each receipt. The merchant has the opportunity to set parameters for which ads are displayed to avoid conflicts, such as making sure that no competitors’ ads are run. In today’s media-heavy world, eyeballs are worth money.
  • Sell Signature Banners.
    Let the acquiring banks display small banners that are placed above the spot on the electronic signature pad where a customer signs for credit card purchases. This option could be used in conjunction with selling receipt space.
  • Sell Data.
    Allow marketers to access information about spending at your location. Each company would be aligned with a central catalog of different merchant types. The transactions would then be categorized and aggregated in a central system that can be used by marketers for a fee.
  • Sell More Data.
    Provide the line-item details of the transactions to a centralized database. The products and services would also be categorized and aggregated from many merchants. Although most large organizations would not dream of giving away such intimate data, thousands of small businesses would be happy to provide the data anonymously (only the industry would be required) in exchange for lower transaction fees.

    That’s my case. It feels a little like a Sprint/Nextel commercial doesn’t it? (What if IT people ran the world?) Find major holes in my theories? Disagree with the concept? Love it like RockBand? Let me know: Todd.Michaud@FranchiseIT.org.

  • MAYBE ONE DAY, BUT UNTIL THEN YOU NEED KV MANAGEMENT'S RATE LOCK PROGRAM AND OUR TEAM OF CREDIT CARD INTERCHANGE EXPERTS!

    KV MANAGEMENT IS FOCUSED ON PROVIDING YOU THE EXPERTISE NEEDED TO REDUCE THESE HIDDEN EXPENSES THAT FOR NOW ARE ONLY GETTING WORSE!

    DID YOU KNOW THAT CREDIT CARD INTERCHANGE FEES ARE CURRENTLY THE HIGHEST EXPENSE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES BEHIND PAYROLL AND HEALTHCARE.

    DO SOMETHING THAT WILL NOT COST YOU ANYTHING BUT TIME AND SAVE UP TO 20%!

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    Job Growth Hindered by Interchange Fees

    Job Growth Hindered by Interchange Fees

    Hefty credit card interchange 'swipe' fees prevent small business owners from hiring new employees

    INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Consumers for Competitive Choice (C4CC) president Bob Johnson has a suggestion that will spur more job growth: interchange fee reform. The President and his economic team gathered yesterday to hear from some of the best and brightest CEOs, small business owners, and financial experts about ideas for continuing to grow the economy and put Americans back to work at a Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth. The meeting was held in advance of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' announcement today that our national unemployment rate remains in the double digits, at an unsettling 10%.

    Interchange fees are the charges that merchants, local governments, universities, or anyone else who accepts plastic, are assessed every time a transaction is completed by swiping or keying in a credit or debit card. Last year alone credit card companies received $48 billion dollars in these fees, this number up 300% since 2001. Not surprisingly, small business owners say that if they were not saddled with these skyrocketing fees, they would be able to spread those resources elsewhere - like hiring additional employees.

    "In 1995, CN Brown paid $353,000 in interchange fees," said Jinger Duryea, President of CN Brown, which owns Big Apple convenience stores across Maine. "In 2007, we paid $3,494,000 in interchange fees. This amount of money could stretch very far if any portion were available to us to hire additional employees or lower costs for consumers, rather than lining the pockets of credit card companies."

    Every dollar spent on interchange fees is a dollar not spent hiring workers or providing savings to customers. At an average cost of 2% per credit card swipe these fees add up quickly, and the potential savings or job growth that could result if the funds were not going to big banks and credit card companies is one that we cannot afford to overlook.

    "With the national unemployment still at a troubling level, we have a very long way to go before this economy is where we need it to be," said Johnson. "I have spoken with small business owners throughout the country these past few weeks and they all have one thing to say - credit card interchange "swipe" fees are increasing and are hurting both small business and consumers. This fact was recently supported by the Government Accountability Office's report on interchange fees."

    "Interchange fees are currently the highest expense for small businesses behind payroll and healthcare. The cost is astronomic, and we don't need a job summit to know that the jobs that could be saved or created if these fees are reduced are real. The numbers don't lie. Any level of relief would be a significant step toward our economic recovery. With unemployment holding steady in the double digits and small business growth being impaired, it is imperative that our Representatives and Senators in Washington take steps to reduce this unfair burden, especially considering the economic impact such reform could have."

    About The Credit Card Con

    The Credit Card Con is a project by the Consumers for Competitive Choice. For more information, visit The Credit Card Con website at www.thecreditcardcon.com.

    SOURCE Consumers for Competitive Choice

    Vulnerability is Oxygen :David

    Most leaders avoid openness and vulnerability like the plague – some even view it like kryptonite. However, for the flawless leader, vulnerability is not optional; it’s oxygen! Without vulnerability and openness, a leader is trapped in a world that is severely limited by her own perceptions and assumptions.

    A mandatory vulnerability for flawless leaders is forgiveness. Forgiveness is often the only key that can dislodge a leader stuck in the trap of her own perceptions.

    “He knew that our enemies by contrast seem always with us. The greater our hatred the more persistent the memory of them, so that a truly terrible enemy becomes deathless. The man who has done you great injury or injustice makes himself a guest in your house forever. Perhaps only forgiveness can dislodge him” Cormac McCarthy, Cities Of The Plains.

    Forgiveness is just too abstract to discuss without making it personal with examples. Forgiveness must be experienced viscerally. Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables illustrates this eloquently. Jean Valjean, the main character, spends nineteen years in prison for stealing. He is released after being hardened and calloused by excruciating cruelty during his long sentence. Now, a former convict, he must carry identification that informs everyone he is lecherous and dangerous. After wandering four days in a merciless world that summarily rejects him, he is shown kindness by Bishop Myriel, who gives him a warm meal and shelter for the night. The tough, indifferent Valjean only knows a world of judgment, threats, and survival, and returns the first gift of love he has received in almost twenty years by stealing the Bishop’s silver and leaving in the night. The next day the authorities return with Valjean in custody to restore the stolen silver to its rightful owner. The Bishop unexpectedly swings open both the door and his arms widely, and warmly greets Valjean as a long lost friend. He exclaims he is overjoyed that Valjean has returned. Myriel then explains to the gendarmes that Jean had evidently forgotten to take the silver candlesticks that he had given him also. The police leave, and Jean Valjean’s hardened heart of stone melts as the Bishop explains that he forgives him. The Bishop’s gift of the silver is to start a new and honest life, a life full of love and power. Hugo’s tale then expounds on the beautiful transformation that occurs in Valjean’s life – a life that essentially becomes an enormous expression of compassion and kindness, a huge enlivening ripple in the sea of humanity from one flawless leader’s act of forgiveness.

    From this story we can clearly see the raw anatomy of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a three-part harmony that Myriel evidently knew well. It is 1) a recognition of evil and harm, 2) the willful abandonment of judgment and rightful resentment, and 3) authentic acts of undeserving kindness toward the harmful evildoer. While the evil of Valjean is necessary for forgiveness to occur, the clarity of self-identity and transcendent capability of Myriel is even more necessary. Hugo’s scene of forgiveness occurred more because of whom Myriel was than because of what Valjean had done. Let us also make no mistake, Myriel’s act of forgiveness was not selfless; it was appropriately self-caring and self-honoring. He was grounded in firm submission to a powerful purpose: the healing restoration and transformation of others. For by compassionately freeing himself from his wall of wounds, his vexing victimization, and his addictive prison of resentment, Myriel was able to lead Valjean toward his own freedom. Flawless leaders must first scale their walls of wounds, like Myriel, before they can free others.

    The lack of forgiveness is rooted deeply in most all societies. In Hemmingway’s short story The Capital of the World, he writes of a Spanish father who decides to reconcile with his son, Paco. The remorseful father places an ad in a newspaper saying “Paco, Meet Me At Hotel Montana Noon Tuesday. All Is Forgiven, Papa.” Caught up in the emotional desire for reconciliation when making the newspaper ad, the father did not realize that Paco is such a common name in Spain. On Tuesday, eight hundred young Pacos showed up at Hotel Montana, looking for their father’s love.

    Flawless leaders are willing to abandon power in favor of love, vacate condemnation in favor of compassion, jettison judgment in favor of acceptance, shuck self-protection in favor of vulnerability, ignore independence in favor of relationship, and forsake fairness in favor of forgiveness. Anger and resentment are appropriately human responses to injustice. Forgiveness is an appropriately super-human intervention of healing and restoration.

    What resentments limit your leadership? What forgiveness would set you free?

    Important Information for WordPress.com Users | Direct Sales and Social Media

    CBR002938If you have taken a blogging course with me, then you already received an email from me with this information.  However, it’s such an important issue that I want to share it here with everyone.

    It was recently brought to my attention that WordPress.com is now outright banning MLM blogs, referring to them as “affiliate marketing” and “pyramid schemes.”  While I disagree with this assessment, and have alerted the DSA who is looking into the issue, it is important that you be aware of this, so that you don’t get your blog shut down.

    In my own correspondence with WordPress about the issue, here is their clarification:
    “Any kind of MLM blogs – or blogs created to direct readers to external domains for commercial purposes – are not permitted at WordPress.com. If you are creating the blog to make money, WordPress.com is not the place for you.”
    However in WordPress’s rules, they do allow business blogs to demonstrate expertise:
    “Business: Professionals ranging from realtors to lawyers and stock brokers are using WordPress to share their expertise, and companies have discovered the power of blogs to more directly and personally engage with their customers.”
    When I followed up with them asking about this, here is what they said:
    Jennifer: “If legitimate direct sellers are only using their blog to demonstrate their expertise, wouldn’t that fall under those rules?”

    WordPress: “Yes, but if the direct seller is continually linking back to their own domain to sell things, they will not be allowed. If the blog is purely information (with no intent to direct users elsewhere to buy things), that is perfectly okay.”

    You can read all the rules here: http://en.wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/

    If you follow the strategy laid out in my courses and teachings, you SHOULD be OK.  You should not be highlighting specific products or opportunity, but instead should be giving practical, actionable content that people can use right now without spending a dime.  However you will NOT be allowed to include a link to your personal website based on WordPress’ interpretation of the rules.  Instead, you should have a place for people to sign up for your newsletter, and you can share the link to your website there.  Be aware, however, that WordPress.com will shut you down without notice if they decide your blog is in violation of their rules.

    Please note that this does not apply to you if you are hosting your blog on your own domain.  However if you are using the free WordPress.com service, it is important to make sure you are in compliance.

    If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email WordPress directly at support@wordpress.com.

    What do you think about these rules?  Do you think the actions of a few “bad apples” is messing it up for the rest of us?  Is it fair?  Would love to read your thoughts below.

    Prices slashed on 25% of homes in Miami in Q3

    Twenty-five percent of homes listed for sale in Miami have had their prices reduced at least once between June and December, according to Trulia. The national figure is 22 percent.

    The San Francisco-based real estate Web site found the average price reduction in Miami was 15 percent, while the national figure was 11 percent, up slightly from 10 percent in the previous quarter.

    Statewide, 23 percent of listings had price reductions in the last quarter, with an average reduction of 13 percent, or $53,591.

    Nationwide, total listings fell 9 percent in December from the previous month, with the total amount slashed from home prices falling to $24.7 billion in December from $28.1 billion in November.

    “The tax credit extension has provided sellers with a much bigger window of opportunity, creating significantly less pressure to sell now,” Trulia co-founder and CEO Pete Flint said in a news release. “With economic indicators showing positive signs during the past couple months, many sellers will be poised to wait to sell. They want to sell at the highest price possible and, as inventory levels are seeing a 9 percent decrease from the previous month, there will be less competition amongst sellers, leading to less price reductions in the near term.”

    Cities that have experienced significant increases in percentage of listings with price reductions in the third quarter include:

    • Kansas City, Mo. – 40%
    • Omaha, Neb. – 39%
    • Houston – 32%
    • Minneapolis – 29%
    • Arlington, Va. – 28%

    Cities with the highest percentage of declines for listings with price reductions between June and November include:

    • Las Vegas – 30%
    • San Jose, Calif. – 30%
    • Long Beach, Calif. – 25%
    • Honolulu – 23%
    • Albuquerque, N.M. – 22%

    State government revenue falls 16%

    The U.S. Census Bureau reports that state governments took in nearly $1.7 trillion in total revenue in fiscal year 2008, a 15.8 percent decrease from 2007.

    The largest share of the state revenue came from taxes ($780.7 billion), which made up 46.5 percent of the total. The Census Bureau said the decline was primarily because of a decrease in insurance trust revenue, which fell by $377.7 billion (72.7 percent).

    Insurance trust systems include public employee retirement systems, the unemployment compensation system, state government workers’ compensation programs and other state social insurance trusts.

    Florida's total revenue was $69.2 billion last year, of which $35.8 billion came from taxes. Total expenditures were $76.9 billion, up from $72.7 billion in 2007. By function, the biggest chunk came from education, at $23.1 billion, followed by welfare, which totaled $18.06 billion, up from with $17.3 billion in 2007. Welfare expenditures comprised 23.5 percent of the state’s total expenditures in 2008.

    Other findings:

    • Total state government expenditures increased 6.2 percent from fiscal year 2007, totaling $1.7 trillion in 2008. Education ($546.8 billion), public welfare ($412.1 billion) and highways ($107.2 billion) represented the top three outlays, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all state government total expenditures.
    • Eleven states spent more than 25 percent of total expenditures on public welfare, with Tennessee (32.8 percent), Maine (30.5 percent) and Rhode Island (29.8 percent) spending the highest percentage of their total expenditures.
    • Public welfare spending, used to support people based on need, includes such items as old-age assistance, temporary assistance for needy families, and commodities and services provided under welfare programs, including medical care or burial services.
    • Hawaii (11.5 percent), Alabama (10.1 percent) and South Carolina (9.9 percent) led in spending on public health and hospitals as a percentage of total expenditures.

    The findings come from the 2008 Annual Survey of State Government Finances, which includes data on revenue, expenditures, debt, and cash and security holdings for each state, as well as a national level summary.

    Click here to access the report.

    S. Fla. home value losses top $45B in 2009

    South Florida ranks among the five markets in the country with the biggest home value losses – down $45.9 billion in 2009, according to the latest statistics from Zillow.

    Still, that’s better than the $137.2 billion in value lost in 2008.

    The improvement also is reflected on the national level, where U.S. homes lost $489 billion in value during the first 11 months of the year, significantly less than the $3.6 trillion that was lost in 2008.

    Forty-eight of the 154 markets tracked by Zillow showed gains in home values this year, with the Boston metropolitan statistical area showing the largest gain, at $23.3 billion. The Providence, R.I., MSA was second, with a $12.4 billion gain.

    Fewer single-family homeowners also were underwater in the third quarter – 21 percent, down from 23 percent in the second quarter, according to Zillow.

    “Most housing markets across the country had a good summer, spurred largely by the government’s tax credits for homebuyers combined with very low mortgage rates,” said Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, in a news release.

    However, he noted that demand is expected to drop as mortgage rates creep back up, and the number of foreclosures remains high.

    On Tuesday, Condo Vultures reported that there were 7,000 foreclosures last month in the tri-county area.