MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Convetion, Exhibition)

Credit card companies want your business. After all, lending money to people is profitable. Besides the interest fees that you’ll be charged, the credit card company also collects a fee from merchants who accept their credit cards. In order to get your business, most credit card companies are willing to offer you some great incentives – not only to apply for one of their cards, but to use it for everything from car rentals to weekly groceries.

Among the incentives that you might be offered for using a particular credit card are frequent flyer miles, phone call minutes, rebates and cash-back on purchases, insurance on your purchases and more. Here’s a list of some of the most popular incentives. Check around to find a card that offers incentives that make sense for the way you use your card.

Rebates

One of the most common incentives for using your credit card is a cash-back or rebate offer. Generally, you’ll get 1-5% back on various purchases. Depending on the credit card, you may get 1% back on most purchases, and 5% back on purchases made at convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores and ‘member merchants’. The rebate may be in the form of a credit on your bill, a gift card for $10, $20 or more dollars when you reach that amount in cash rebates, or a check sent from the credit card company.

Frequent flier miles

Another common credit card incentive is frequent flier miles that can be used on a number of airlines for personal and/or business travel. Check the individual cards’ terms and conditions to find out exactly how to redeem your frequent flier miles.

Phone Minutes

A new incentive being offered by several credit card companies is phone minutes to use with your cell phone account. Redemption is generally via a phone card sent when the amount of the reward minutes reaches a certain denomination, but your credit card company may have different rules and policies.

Additional warranty coverage for the items you purchase

A few credit card companies offer extra warranty time or coverage on items that you purchase using their card. The additional coverage is only available on particular cards, generally the Premium cards. If any item that you purchase using cards that are lost, stolen or breaks within the stated warranty period, the credit card company will replace it at their cost.

Car rental insurance, Travel accident insurance or travel-related discounts

If you travel often and use rental cars, then it may make sense for you to have a card that offers insurance on you when you’re driving a rental car – at no extra charge. Likewise travel insurance and travel discounts that may be available only to holders of that particular credit card, or is available at reduced rates to them.

Credit card registration

Some credit card companies offer to register all of your credit cards so that if your purse or wallet is lost or stolen, you only need to make one call to alert all of your credit card companies. It’s a handy perk to have, especially since it’s easy to forget a card you don’t use often in the heat of the moment. Taking advantage of a credit card registry is one way to be sure that all of your creditors are notified that your cards are lost.

Joseph Kenny is the webmaster of the credit card comparison sites http://www.credit-cards-info.com/ and also http://www.creditcards121.com/

Recent statistics show Americans are simply not saving money for the future. To encourage savings, the government has come up with tax incentives.

Tax Incentives for Saving for Education

Higher education in America is an expensive proposition. If you have a child in college, I hardly need to tell you this. While every parent is proud of a child pursuing education, the glorious event can make for some sleepless night when thinking about how to pay for it. If you have young children, the government has taken steps to make saving for college attractive from a tax perspective.

There are a number of different tax incentives to promote saving for education. One such program is known as the Coverdell.

A Coverdell account is designed to promote education savings by removing part of the tax penalty of doing so. The basic idea is that any money distributed from the account will not be taxed so long as distributions don’t exceed the expenses of pursuing education. Here is how it works.

An account is set up for a beneficiary – the child. You can open one account per child and contribute up to $2,000 a year. The beneficiary must be under 18. Obviously, this is a long-term strategy since contribution amounts are limited. Nonetheless, here are some key things to understand:

1. Distributions are not taxed, but must be used for education costs such as tuition, books and so on.

2. The school can be public, private or religious and the money can be used as early as elementary school, to wit, this particular platform is not just for college.

3. You can use this strategy in addition to the hope and lifetime learning strategies, i.e., they don’t cancel each other out.

4. If distributions do not go to education expenses or are more than said costs, the beneficiary is taxed like income tax and a ten percent penalty is added.

5. If the beneficiary completes school or does not go, the account may be rolled over to another family member.

All and all, the Coverdell plan is definitely a long-term strategy. Start one now for your young child, however, and you will be happy you did when the tuition bills start arriving.

Richard A. Chapo is with BusinessTaxRecovery.com – providing information on tax and taxes. Visit us to read more tax articles and our new tax credits page.

Use your creativity to develop an incentive program that will reward referrals. People like to give referrals and they LOVE to be recognized for giving referrals. And, incentives are one of the most powerful methods of generating more of them.

Incentives can range from gift certificates to purchase discounts to cash payment based on business generated.

The wonderful thing about an incentive program is that it feeds into people’s innate desire to help each other. It is rewarding to know an effort has been successful. Be sure to let your contact know when a referral he or she has made comes through.

Give people a reward that they will really appreciate. At my business (a marketing and graphic design company), we often give people a gift certificate for two at a local restaurant. You could also offer a gift certificate to Amazon or to a local theater or wine club.

I’ve found a gift certificate to be much more memorable than a cash incentive. The reason is simple – these kind of rewards make people feel special. Finding the right incentive can be a challenge, but it’s worth it. You will score big by really building your word-of-mouth business.

Here are some different types of referral incentives you can try in your business:

- If you have a waiting room, you can prominently post the names and pictures of people who refer to your business or practice. Give it a heading that proclaims, “We would like to thank the following people for referring a new customer this past month.” People are motivated to get their name recognized up on the board and so they will give referrals.

- You can use a direct mail campaign or new customer kit to encourage your customers to send referrals to you. Create an easy-to-complete referral form and a self-addressed, stamped envelope asking that recipients kindly complete the form and return it. You can also include a discount coupon that your recipients can pass along to a friend.

- When you have a sales event, send a letter or postcard or e-mail inviting customers to bring a friend to the event and get an extra discount.

- Offer a gift certificate during the holidays to make gift giving easy for your customers. Give them additional discounts with a coupon.

- Use coupons to encourage new business such as “buy one and bring your friend.” Or you can offer a “two-for-one” seminar admission.

- Invite your customers to an appreciation event and ask them to bring a guest. Give them both a special gift.

- Ask your current and former clients to pass your name and contact information on to their circle. When finishing a sales cycle with a customer, ask for referral recommendations.

You’ll be amazed at how the action of showing appreciation can generate good will and additional referrals. Once a person gives a referral, they become much more likely to continue to refer people your way. As soon as someone sends you a referral, immediately send them a thank-you gift. A card or quick phone call is the bare minimum.

On the flip side, if a person refers someone to you but gets no recognition or appreciation, he or she probably won’t say anything to you. But, the person is likely to make a comment to a co-worker, friend, or spouse: “Can you believe I didn’t even get a thank you!!!” And…no more referrals from that source.

ACTION ITEM: Consider your current referral program. How are you generating referrals? What could you do to create a Referral Incentive Program for your business? Developing a referral program now will save you a lot of time later. By encouraging a steady stream of word-of-mouth advertising, you will find you are getting more pre-qualified leads – a groups that is much more likely to make a purchase.

Copyright (c) 2006 Marketing Maven

Wendy Maynard, the Marketing Maven, publishes REMARKABLE MARKETING, a weekly marketing strategy ezine for business owners, freelancers, and entrepreneurs. If you’re ready to skyrocket your sales, easily attract customers, and have more fun, get your FREE TIPS now at http://www.gomarketingmaven.com/ezine.html

1. Play “find the meeting” by changing the location and time of your meeting at the last minute.

2. Don’t bother to book your meeting room in advance. Lead the group from room to room trying to find another place to meet.

3. Bring 5 handouts for 20 attendees.

4. Leave and say, “I’ll be back. I’m going to make handouts.”

5. Don’t use an agenda because “everybody knows why we are here.”

6. Keep an attitude that “meetings are not work.”

“Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything. “

- John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 – )

7. Say “I don’t need a microphone” and proceed to yell for the entire meeting or talk too softly for the back of the room to hear.

8. Combine two unrelated meetings into one big meeting, ensuring that half the group will not care about half of the meeting.

“Souffl