Saturday, March 10, 2007

Hernia Mesh Recall

Parker Waichman Alonso Mark LLP is currently investigating hundreds of claims involving defective Kugel Mesh Hernia Patches manufactured by CR Bard Inc. The recalled Kugel Mesh Hernia Patches are used in hernia repair surgery and have caused serious injuries including: Migration of recoil ring, Breakage of recoil ring, Abdominal pain, Bowel perforation, Chronic enteric fistulas and Unnatural connections / tissue growth between bowels. If you or anyone you know have such symptoms contact an attorney immediately at 1-800-LAW-INFO for a free case evaluation.

The Hernia Mesh Recall expanded an earlier recall and market withdrawal of the Kugel Large Oval and Kugel Large Circle patches due to reports of PET recoil ring breakage. Recalls of the Kugel hernia patch have included all lot numbers of the Bard ® Composix ® Kugel Extra Large Oval, 8.7” x 10.7”, Bard ® Composix ® Kugel Extra Large Oval, 10.8” x 13.7”, Bard ® Composix ® Kugel Extra Large Oval, 7.7” x 9.7”, Bard ® Composix ® Kugel Oval, 6.3” x 12.3”, and certain lot numbers of the Bard ® Composix ® Kugel Large Oval, 5.4” x 7” and Bard ® Composix ® Kugel Large Circle, 4.5”.

Please make sure you contact someone if any of these issues have affected you or a loved one. Call the number or go to the link provided and find out more information.

How to quit your job, compete with your old boss and not get sued in the process

Some bridges are merely burned. Others are scorched.

Elaine Browne and her business partners, Federico Lupo and Dario Arias, knew the latter applied to them shortly after opening their New York City hair salon, Trillium. "We found out we were being sued during our second week when the affidavit came," says Browne. "We were shocked."

The reason for the lawsuit? Browne, Lupo and Arias, sensitive types who will only cop to being in their 30s and 40s, worked together for years at a hair salon known as the John Sahag Workshop before collectively quitting and creating a new company--effectively competing with their former salon.

It's a common gripe among many business owners. You hire employees, teach them everything you know and groom them for a long future at your business. Then one day, they're out the door, starting their own business with an indirect mission: to compete with you.

read more...

Americans don't know jack about taxes

Here's some tax trivia for you: What is this year's deadline for filing your taxes?

If you answered April 15, don't feel bad. In fact, over three quarters of 1,000 people polled in a recent survey failed to answer correctly.

Since Tax Day deadline falls on a Sunday this year and because that Monday is a legal holiday in the District of Columbia, this year's tax deadline is April 17.

Granted keeping Tax Day straight is one thing, but other results from the survey, conducted by H&R Block, suggest a much bigger problem: Americans are pretty clueless when it comes to their taxes.

"The need to educate and inform our taxpayers about key issues is greater than ever," said H&R Block tax professional Jackie Perlman.

read more...

Freelance Services

Elance is the online marketplace for services. The five core service categories – Programming, Design, Websites, Writing and Business Consulting – encompass just about every type of work your business needs. Now in its tenth year of business, Elance has more freelancers and companies bidding for projects in more countries than any other site.

Find yourself someone to outsource the work you cannot do with Elance. They have a perfect way to hook up with freelance professionals that can do almost any project you desire. From logos, brochures and corporate identity packages to cold calling, business plan writing, legal representation and data entry, odds are Elance has it. Think of it as a one stop shop for all your business needs.

Job growth weakest in 2 years

Payroll growth was the weakest in two years in February but a lower unemployment rate and a revision higher for January job growth hinted at surprising resilience in the nation's labor market.

The economy created 97,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said, down from a revised 146,000 gain in January, which was 35,000 more than the government's original estimate a month ago.

The gain of 97,000 was the smallest since January 2005, weaker than even the final readings in the two months after Hurricane Katrina that fall. But it was roughly in line with the forecasts of economists surveyed by Briefing.com, who had been looking for a gain of 100,000 jobs.

Read more...

Domain Registration Increased 32 Percent in One Year

Not really suprising. I've actually registered 6 domains in he last month and i know quite a few people have been doing the same around the blogsphere.

Registered domain names have grown to a base of 120 million worldwide across all top-level domains (TLD) (define) according to "The Domain Name Industry Brief, March 2007" published by VeriSign. The total number of domains comprises a 32 percent increase between 2005 and 2006. A total 11.6 million new domain names were registered in Q4 of last year. After .com registrations, the most new domains were under .de (Germany); .net, .uk (United Kingdom); and .org.

Registrations under the country code TLD (ccTLD) .cn in China exceeded 500,000 names during the last three months of 2007. That's a 43 percent quarter-over-quarter increase.

"A lot of countries...where there were restrictions on the Internet, as they become relaxed there will be a lot of growth," said Ken Silva, chief security officer at VeriSign.

ChaCha

The increase in registrations, 32 percent year-over-year between 2005 and 2006, and 8 percent from Q3 to Q4 of 2006, reflects an increase in the way people access and use the Internet.

read more...

Best Credit Cards

CardFusion.com is happy to announce that its secure credit card portal has become even better and easier to use. Best Credit Card Offers Effective tool for defining your goals at picking the right credit card and simultaneous quick tutorial that will introduce you to the essential information for beginners and advanced credit card users.

With over 100 cards to compare you shouuld never really get stuck with a bad credit card. They do extensive searching and find the best credit cards out there so you can get the info all in one place. The system is so easy to use and it is just a few clicks away. Why wouldn't you give it a try? I looked at it and found better cards than i currently have right away.

Create a small business website on a small budget

The barriers to enter the online world are pretty low, but to actually make an impact, you may very well invest a reasonable amount of money in your website.

Building a website
Though you can, in theory, build a website for free, you’d rather invest something into it, because it can make a huge difference. Before you spend a penny, you need to know what all you’ll need to do, right? Here you go:

research your customers
research your keywords
plan your website
get a content management system
get a website template
improve template usability
make the template accessible
write great content
promote the site

read more...

How to Locate Wholesale Suppliers

When setting up a retail business, one of the most daunting tasks can be locating and establishing accounts with wholesale suppliers. But this process doesn’t have to put a kink in your business plans. Here’s how to get going.

Licensing

In order to purchase products at wholesale prices and without paying sales tax, you will need to apply for a resale license (in addition to a standard business license). Holders of a resale license must collect and report sales tax monthly or quarterly, depending on local regulations. Contact your county business licensing division to apply for your license. Vendors may ask for a copy of the license or just your assigned license number in order to comply with government regulations, so be sure to keep this information handy.

read more...

San Diego DUI attorneys

I'm no stranger to needing a DUI attorney. I've been dumb enough to drive drunk many times and have finally gotten caught and had the madness put to an end. What I do know is that if you don't have a good attorney when you go to court for such a case you are going to get the shaft. You will get a ton more than you would with a good attorney and you are going to have no chance of pleading down to a lesser charge, which in turn carry less harsh penalties.

Liberty Lawyers is San Diego County’s largest criminal and DUI defense ONLY law firm. They are the experts in criminal defense and DUI defense cases. When you retain Liberty Lawyers you get an entire team of attorneys, investigators and support staff. Every case is reviewed by at least two senior lawyers to develop and execute a successful defense strategy. Theya re your best choice for san diego dui attorneys. You can never go wrong with a law office that specializes in this type of thing. They know the judges and they know the laws of this case to get you the lowest possible sentence, or even get you nothing at all.

Incubators: Great Places to Hatch Your Company

I saw this article and it was just one of those things you see and think, "Why didn't I think of this?". I suppose I have in a smaller capacity in many respects. I went into a partnership before that allowed us to share office resources and building space so that we could minimize our expenses. Everything involved with office expenses such as utilities, furniture, major equipments purchases, and rental revenue from our next door office was all shared.

This idea though makes me think about it quite a bit more for the future though. Finding like minded business with the same type of needs can be a tricky proposition though. Even so there are plenty of partnerships I have always entertained that made us a network for a place of one stop shops for whatever particular need we may have. Lawyers, Financial Advisors, Real Estate services, and Accountans sharing space together was always my plan as a financial advisor since we all did a few things taht are related to eachother, but not neccessarily all the things a client needs alone.

Imagine a place where you can focus on getting your company off the ground. A place with affordable rent where office equipment and administrative help are provided, and managerial and business advice are close at hand. If you imagined such a place, would you be dreaming? Maybe not, if you can hook up with one of the small business incubators springing up worldwide.

As the name suggests, business incubators provide a nurturing, supportive environment for fledgling businesses. While offering perks such as low-cost rental space, shared office services and equipment, access to capital, and business counseling and planning, incubators help new firms survive the initial startup stage.

read more...

Kulana Malama

Hadn't heard of this before, but I thought I would share a story about this interesting business.

An Ewa Beach nursing facility designed to provide skilled care to medically fragile children will have its grand opening March 15.

The 30-bed facility, called Kulana Malama, reportedly is the first residential care home in the state exclusively for children with chronic or complex medical conditions.

The $20 million, seven-acre facility on Karayan Street has storybook-themed rooms for the children and apartments in which families and caregivers can stay to receive support and education.

"The medically fragile child is a growing population that requires intense, specialized needs," said director of nursing Paul Bursey in a statement. "Currently, many of these types of children have prolonged hospital stays because there is no place or program between hospital and the home."

source

Orlando Realtor

Today, Orlando welcomes more visitors each year than the population of California – over 43.3 million (2000 statistics), which makes Orlando the number one tourist destination in the world. Most of them stay in one of 100,000 hotel rooms and visit 7 major theme parks.

With the vast amount of tourism coming to Orlando year after year it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize there are great opportunities for starting a business. Part of getting down there to take advantage of this involves finding a place to live. An Orlando Realtor can help you get the deal you need done quickly as they are a Buyer’s Broker. They work for the buyer to get the best deal and have no part in the seller side of things.

Ten Tips for New Small Businesses

I pulled this one out specifically for a couple of reasons. One is that when you start a small business you have enough stress to worry about in the first 6 months to a year. Starting that business with out a viable cash reserve beforehand has always been one of the main killers to any business. It may even be your downfall because you can't get your household and living expenses taken care of only to rely on credit you don't have the cash to pay for. Then entrepreneurs are out looking for a part time job just to make ends meet and are taking that time away from growing their business. When you are planning to start a business look at ALL your potential expenses and make sure you either have saved enough to cover them until your business takes off, or you may be in serious trouble when it comes to succeeding with your business idea.


Save up as much money as possible before starting.
All too often, people go into business without any savings, exclusively using loan money from friends, banks, or the SBA. They except to be able to start paying the loans back right away with their profits. What these business owners don't realize is that it can take months or years to make a profit. And once a lender discovers a business isn't as profitable as expected, the lender is likely to call in the loan or refuse to renew it for another year. Often new business owners then have to take out home equity loans or use credit cards to pay off their loans (which puts their home and credit rating at risk). For more information, see Business Financing FAQ.

A better plan is to save up as much of the needed investment money as possible, including your living expenses for the first year, or even two. Odds are that your business won't be profitable for one to two years. Even if you get plenty of business coming your way -- and your customers pay you on time, which isn't always a sure thing -- you'll want to be able to invest most of that money back in the business for space, equipment, advertising, and insurance needs.

see the rest...

Many Employers Found to Violate Child Labor Laws

These results don't suprise me too much, but it is an interessting article. I remember doing all kinds of crazy stuff at my jobs when I was in high school. PArticularly working until 2 AM on school nights for a "random" inspection at a restaurant, driving a forklift, and many other jobs that are likely to get a nice red flag from an inspector if they so happened to walk in.

Half of the nation's teenage employees are operating dangerous equipment, serving alcohol, or simply working too late on a school night, according to a new study.

Nearly half of all U.S. teenagers working in the retail or service sectors have performed workplace tasks that are prohibited by federal child labor laws, according to a new national study.

In a telephone survey of 866 teenagers between the ages of 14 and 18, 52 percent of males and 43 percent of females said they had operated box crushers, slicers, and other dangerous workplace equipment, or had performed other tasks that are prohibited by law for their age group -- such as driving a delivery truck or serving alcohol.

read more...

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Hayfield Dental Care

Hayfield Dental Care has been helping patients in Alexandria for almost 20 years now and has worked with over 20,000 of them. All of the dentists at Hayfield Dental Care have received advanced or specialty training which means they can perform almost any procedure without the need for a referral to another office. They all have a perfect record with the Virginia Board of Dentistry with a history of zero complaints.

Hayfield Dental Care offers all the services you would expect from a dental practice so that you don’t have to be referred to another dental professional. In addition to the great dentists they have they also employ a full time specialist in orthodontics. Orthodontic consultations are provided at no charge for both children and adults. They can be contacted at 703-971-2220.

People should seek deductions, credits

Americans looking to reduce their federal income taxes this year will get help from several important tax law changes that have expanded credits and deductions.

Some of the tax benefits are related to investments, such as savings in Individual Retirement Accounts, said Bill Urban, a certified financial planner. Others are tied to spending, including new energy efficient home and vehicle tax credits, or to claiming charitable contributions.

Regardless, "these are available to all taxpayers, and people should make sure they take advantage of the ones they qualify for," said Urban, who is with the Bingham, Osborn & Scarborough LLC wealth management firm in San Francisco. read more...

No Geeks Required

Suzanne Koch was confident she could make a success of Wow! Imports, her Cranford (N.J.) wholesaler of imported rugs and handicrafts made by artisans in Egypt, Turkey, Tanzania, and other countries. What daunted her was building the company's Web site. Three years ago, Koch turned to Register.com, a do-it-yourself Web design service that includes a domain name, hosting, and the design templates necessary to build a simple five-page site. All Koch had to do was add photos and text. Says Koch, the sole employee of her company, which brought in $100,000 in sales last year: "I stayed up all night cutting and pasting and did the whole thing in two days."

Read more...

Free Online Dating Services

Out of ideas for where to go on a sate? What about free Free Online Dating Services that also tells you some great ideas on where to go on that date?

Check out azcentral.com’s dating area (dating.azcentral.com where you’ll find more than 60 suggestions for places to go and things to do together. The stories, which range from the lighthearted (karaoke nights) to the sensual (spa date at a Valley resort) are the most popular part of a page that also features an events calendar, features such as “7 tips for creating the perfect online profile,” and a free personality profile test from eHarmony that promises to help you get matched with compatible Valley singles.

Vonage Ordered to Pay Verizon $58M

Internet phone company Vonage must pay Verizon Communications $58 million for infringing on three patents that enable the upstart's low-cost telephone service, a jury ruled Thursday.

The judgment is far less than the $197 million that Verizon had requested, and it was more in line with what Vonage had suggested -- if the Holmdel, N.J.-based company was found liable.

Still undetermined is whether Vonage will be barred from using Verizon's technology. Following the verdict, attorneys for New York-based Verizon requested a permanent injunction barring Vonage from further use of the patented technology.

A hearing on the request was scheduled for March 23 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria....

read more...

Bush Heads To Ethanol Country

President Bush begins a nearly week-long journey across Latin America Thursday, and his first stop--Brazil--is likely to be his most important. There he is expected to sign a major agreement with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, to make ethanol more widely available through construction of "pilot plants" in the Caribbean region.

The agreement itself is a positive step on the road to America's energy independence, particularly in light of Bush's goal to dramatically increase renewable fuel production by 2017. The U.S. and Brazil are the world's leading producers of ethanol, and any hemispheric effort to coordinate the development of biofuels should be seen as a good thing. Last week, the two countries participated in the International Biofuels Forum, an initiative to standardize the industry, open markets and explore development opportunities.

But despite all its good intentions, the visit appears to have widened a rift between the administration and several key lawmakers from the farm belt, the staunchest protectors of the domestic ethanol industry.

Read more...

shopping cart

Building a websiste with products to sell is a big thing. It is like having your own retail store that you don't even need a warehouse for in most cases. How are you dealing with your shopping cart though?

Finding a good shopping cart software has to be one of the hardest tasks for any business person new to the world of selling online. Your online store software needs to be up to date with functionality and especially security for the merchant and the customer. The easiest and most economical way of being up to date with the latest technologies is using a reliable hosted shopping cart system with great customer support. An application service provider is the way to go!

Who Should Own America?

Remember Dubai? Some big money interests there tried--and failed miserably--to buy a large chunk of America's ports a year ago. Well, now Congress is finally coming to grips with the basic problem raised at the time: Just who should own America--or at least some of its most strategic assets?

Sane voices in the House of Representatives prevailed in passing legislation that would make easy-to-swallow changes to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the federal panel charged with reviewing foreign acquisitions of domestic assets for national security threats.

The bill, which had 58 bipartisan cosponsors and passed the House unanimously, bolsters government scrutiny of foreign investment in companies operating in the United States. Specifically, it intensifies the investigation of acquisitions involving foreign governments and requires CFIUS to share its findings with the Director of National Intelligence. It also allows Congress to be notified after an investigation is complete and requires the Treasury and Homeland Security Departments to approve some deals.

Read more...

Crackdown On Stock Spam

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has promised trading halts, lawsuits and other probes in its efforts to curb manipulation in the penny stock market--and halt a tsunami of e-mails touting these questionable securities.

On Thursday, the agency announced "Operation Spamalot," a months-long investigation into the more than 100 million stock spam e-mails widely circulated each week in the U.S. and elsewhere. The SEC suspended shares of 35 penny stock companies, citing questions about the adequacy and accuracy of information available on them, and promised more as the investigation unfolds.

Next up are the promoters and others who are sending the spam, said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in a press conference Thursday. Canadian regulators are assisting in the investigation. "There will be more to come," Cox said.

Read more...

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Single Parents and Dating

Being a single parent makes it rather difficult to find a mate sometimes. Women seem to have a much more difficult time at it and I've actually not been told that a woman has a kid until dating them a few times. I guess it is a hard thing to bring up if you aren't sure the one you are dating will be receptive to dating someone who already has kids. Single Parents now have an easy way to get around it. An online dating service for single moms and dads can take that conversation out of their minds and just get to the things that they have in common. You already know they have kids and they know you do. The dating may still be nerveracking, but you can date with out having to worry about if they are receptive to you having kids or not.

Entrepreneurs Need a Dose of Cockiness

This article talks about the need to be cocky when you are in business for yourself. According to this Report scientists have discovered a correlation to success based on being a bit cocky.

Wow...great breakthrough, eh? There is confidence and there is cockiness. I don't like the word cockiness. It doesn't neccessarily get used correctly most of the time. Cockiness is like sexual harrasssment. If someone likes you it is flirting and if they don't it is harrassment. Well...I guess that is a broad generalization, but I feel the same way about cockiness. You have to be confident to have a successful business, but do you really have to be cocky?

Read this for thier take.

Bad Credit Secured Loans

When looking for information on Mortgages, refinancing, and debt consolidation the best place to get information is online. Libraries of information are available as well as tools that allow you to compare loans instantly and get a response from a lender.

At times the ability to find a loan is limited because of bad credit. Getting a bad credit secured loans is available from many places and the education surrounding it is also usually much more detailed on sites like UKPersonalLoanStore.com. Browse around the features there and find the answers quickly on any type of situation you have which requires you to get a loan. The answers are there and the comparisons are quick and painless.

How to Avoid an Audit

Tax season is here and for many of us we have quite a bit of self-employed income that follows some different rules than the money we make going to a job everyday. They are taxed differentl, but at the same time they allow us many more write offs than we would have if we were just employees.

With the freedom to write business expenses off comes a bit more responsibility. That means you have to have records, receipts, and logs of what you did all year so that you can prove these were actual expenses.

Sometimes you get audited and all that information is absolutely neccessary to keep you from aving trouble with the IRS. The best way is to keep from getting audited. Check out these tips on how to Avoid and Audit at Inc.com.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Bulgarian Real Estate

Investments in a country like Bulgaria are something that should be considered. They have been included in the European Union now and that means they will have more trade and in turn be more friendly to tourism. Right now bansko properties are in an area of growth and property values are rising. Home of the most popular ski resort in Bulgaria they also offer an array of top notch goldf courses making it a fantastic tourist getaway.

World's most expensive cities

These places make you feel like one poor bastard when you go there to vacation. Just the regular things you have to buy when you visit it seem like they are outrageous. Water, dinner, taxi rides, etc. The way the dollar is performing around the world doesn't make any of these places a real treat on the pocket book. Take a look at the most expensive cities in the world from CNN...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Dying to see Paris, London and other European cites? Better get there while you can still afford it.

According to the latest Worldwide Cost of Living survey released Monday by the Economist Group, European cities have taken over as the world's most expensive.

The top 10 most expensive world cities
Where the cost of living is highest.
City Nation Index (New York is 100)
Oslo Norway 134
Paris France 130
Copenhagen Denmark 126
London United Kingdom 125
Tokyo Japan 124
Osaka Japan 118
Reykjavic Iceland 118
Zurich Switzerland 118
Frankfurt Germany 116
Helsinki Finland 116


Source:The Economist GroupParis, Copenhagen and London have all joined Oslo - which retained the No. 1 slot it took last year - in surpassing Tokyo. read more...

Preconstruction Buying Clubs

What exactly is a preconstruction investment purchase? Well...I can give you a brief overview here but you are going to want to check out the secrets of preconstruction real estate investing.

The concept is pretty simple really. Pre-construction investing is a boon for the investor or buyer as well as the developer or builder. The biggest advantage of pre-construction process is that you can reserve your buy at discounted prices without investing a fortune.You simply have to make a small investment that is as low as 5% of the total cost to reserve a unit and pay the balance on achievement of different milestones.

Doing it by yourself can become a problem though. That is why the secrets contained in the free eBook above is going to show you how not to get yourself taken advantage of as well as how to get a group together to make great profits. There is strength in numbers.