Tuesday, February 19, 2008

My last $20.....

....so, there is this website I go to sometimes and they have this feature called 'Writer's Block' - basically it gives you a question or topic you can write about in your blog when you can't come up with anything. So, here is today's question/topic :

List three things you'd buy with your last $20. One practical, one frivolous and one of your choosing.

OK, I guess I have to make some assumptions here in order to answer this....so I guess I am going to say, this is my last $20 and I homeless, in other words, I don't have all my other stuff.

Hmmm, one practical, probably some kind of container, something I can eat out of, maybe drink out of and carry stuff in. Frivolous, hair clips or rubber bands, I guess...and my choosing, a deck of cards.

What would you buy, assuming the same thing....you are homeless and this is your last $20.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Chinese food, good.

Didn't go to eat Chinese the other night because my friend Charles had to work late. So we went last night, it was yummy. I don't go eat Chinese that often and it is kind of mine and Charles's one thing we still do together I guess. I forgot to bring my fortune home but it was something about working as a team this week.

I started thinking today about what clothes I am going to bring for vacation. I checked the weather.com website for average temp in Navarre, FL for that time of year, and it looks like it could get cool in the evenings. Here are the averages for the timeframe we are there [graphic didn't turn out very good - sorry] :

So this looks perfect to me as long as it is sunny. I think capris and shorts are definitely the casual wear required and possibly a couple pair of pants. Crocs, flip flops and one pair of tennis shoes and I am golden. More planning to come.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Contracts

OK people....I wasn't going to have a topic to blog about today but my customers have given me one, well, one customer in particular.

When you sign a contract with someone, READ IT.

Now, I am not necessarily saying read EVERY word, not many of us do...thus the jokes about the fine print but for goodness sake, read SOME OF IT, like the part that says TERM and the part that says FEES and the part about CANCELLING/RENEWING.

I had a customer call today saying her bank account was overdrawn by $800. Why? Well, I am looking at two contracts she signed with us. One for a retail store and one is for her internet business. Each of them are 3 years contracts, with a monthly minimum fee of $25 and a statement fee of $7. So even if they do not have a single sale, they are billed at least $32 a month. They've been open since 10/2007.

She says she has called in before and cannot understand this and that when she signed the contracts she wasn't really opening her business yet, just getting things in order and never put ANY money in her business bank accounts. So we have been billing her $32 for each location each month for 4 months - we charge non-sufficient funds fees every month, her bank charges non-sufficient funds fees every month and now she is $800 overdrawn from all the fees and she hasn't sold a thing at her business yet.

People, read contracts. Once you sign one, make sure you have money in the bank in case there are fees, which you should know if you read the contract. And, lastly, don't wait 4 months to call and figure it out.

That is all.