Life After an Affair - How to Recover From the Pain of Being Cheated By Your Spouse

For several women with cheating spouses, life after an affair is probably the most difficult to deal with. After all the pain and misery that you have gone through, here you are, looking at the man you married in a totally different light, and faced with a question on whether you can still go on with your married life in a normal way. Read the following advices to guide you with how to deal with your marriage life now that your husband has ruined your trust in him.

Reconciliation Should Be a Mutual Effort

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Your husband may have ruined your trust in him for having cheated on you, but there are reasons behind his infidelity. If you feel that you are at fault why your husband has decided to look for someone else, then you must be able to ask forgiveness from him, in the same way that you also forgive him for what he has done. Reconciliation should be the first step in moving on with your married life, and soon enough, you will be able to bring back the trust that you once have for him.

Set Clear Guidelines with Your Husband

If you find it hard to move on with your marriage life because of your husband's affair in the past, I suggest that you set clear guidelines with him in order to straighten things out. Be open about your feelings - let him know what makes you feel upset and ask him to assure you that he will not do the same mistakes ever again. Learning how to compromise with your husband is very important in order for you to regain back the trust and respect that you once had for him.

Make Some Efforts to Forget Everything

It is hard to forgive, but it is much harder to forget. But if you really want to save your marriage even after your husband has cheated on you, then you have to make some efforts to heal your heart in order to forgive your spouse and eventually forget what he has done. There is nothing wrong with giving second chances, especially if it is for the benefit of your marriage.

Consider Marriage Counseling

If after all the efforts you still feel that you are struggling to move on with your marriage life because of what your husband has done, it's time that you seek help from the professionals. Talk to your husband about the possibility of going for a marriage counseling. Sometimes, it is hard to solve your marital problems on your own - you need guidance from people who are experts on dealing with these things.

Hopefully, all the tips mentioned above could help solve your marital bliss and regain the trust that you once had. Forgiveness is actually the most important thing to do in order to move on right after your troubled marriage life. And more importantly, make sure that you and your spouse must work hand in hand in facing this marriage crisis of yours.

Life After an Affair - How to Recover From the Pain of Being Cheated By Your Spouse

Get Credit Cards For Bad Credit With No Deposit Required

Are you in need of a new credit card but don't wish to make a deposit as is often required? Finding credit cards for bad credit with no deposit required can often be difficult, but if you know where to look there are offers that can help you avoid putting money down as collateral. Let's explore some of the basics on how to find these credit cards and how to avoid a deposit.

When it comes to credit cards for people with bad credit there are a couple options that are traditionally offered, and it is important to know the difference to avoid any up front deposits for approval. Generally, when your credit rating is extremely bad, you are reduced in options to either prepaid credit card offers and bad credit cards. Let us explore the difference between the two and find out where to find the best offer for your situation.

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When searching online, prepaid credit cards for bad credit are a very common program that are easy to get approved for and do not require much in the way of a good credit history. These prepaid credit cards can provide easy approvals because they require you to fund, or deposit, cash into the account as collateral into the account before you are able to use them. These card offers are also sometimes called secured cards because of the requirement of up front deposits to offset the risks.

Some consumers stop their search for credit cards for bad credit with no deposit required right there, thinking there are no other alternative programs offered.

With a more in depth search one can also find that there are bad credit cards that offer programs that will fund that deposit directly from the credit line you get approved for, thereby making them no deposit credit offers for bad credit. Let us look at how these offers work.

These no deposit credit card offers will approve you for a credit line and instead of requiring a deposit will begin your credit line with this amount deducted from your total credit limit. In this way they can offset the higher risk of approval but still provide you with a credit card for bad credit with no deposit required. When faced with few other available options, this program can often provide the second chance required for you to reestablish a good credit history.

In summary, to find the credit cards with no deposit, you need to confine you search to programs that offer unsecured credit lines for people with bad credit. Secured cards and prepaid cards inherently require the deposit you are looking to avoid. Remember to maintain on time payments with your new credit card as there is no substitute for improving your credit score and the benefits that come from your rebuilt good credit history

Get Credit Cards For Bad Credit With No Deposit Required

History Of Olive Trees

Olive trees, 'Olea europaea,' are the oldest fruit trees and in fact are one of the most important fruit trees in history. Olive tree culture has been closely connected to the rise and fall of Mediterranean empires and other industrialized civilizations throughout the ages. Because olive trees offered wealth and future food supplies to established civilizations, the agricultural nations became garage societies, resulting from a derive expectation from past palpate of an uninterrupted food and olive oil supply. This factor was a significant requirement for population increase and increase. Trustworthy fruit output and olive oil output means that olive trees must exist in a garage community and a peaceful environment. That stability must enlarge for many years, since most ancient seedling olive trees required eight or more years before ever producing the first crop of fruit.

Productive orchards of olive trees meant that a foundation of the great empires of Greece and Rome had arisen and industrialized into complicated economic and political forces. It is moving to note that the historical decline of these empires corresponded to the destruction of their olive tree orchards that reduced the ready supplies of olives, olive oil, olive wood, and olive soap. In association with the destruction of olive orchards, it is moving to note that in the Israeli wars with Palestine, 50,000 olive trees were destroyed by Israeli bulldozers. That act of agricultural destruction resulted in significant anger and unrest along the Gaza strip and the West Bank, because the economic livelihood of many Palestinian farmers depended on their products from the uprooted olive trees. Additionally, the olive tree was historically a 'peace and goodwill' symbol, and when the olive trees were leveled near the city of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus and the "Cradle of Biblical History," that elimination of olive trees seemed like a deliberate provocation to end the 'peace' with the Palestinian settlers and farmers.

Bank Orchard

Medical properties of olive oil were reported by many ancient Greek writers and philosophers, their point in creating nutritional benefits and wealth for Greek citizens continues abundantly today--some Greek olive tree orchards containing a million or more trees. Aristotle wrote extensively about the thorough methods of successfully growing olive trees.

Greek mythology records that Athena, the Goddess of wisdom and peace, struck her magic spear into the Earth, and it turned into an olive tree, thus, the location where the olive tree appeared and grew was named Athens, Greece, in honor of the Goddess, Athena. Local legend tells us that the primary olive tree still stands growing after many centuries at the ancient sacred site. Citizens still claim that all Greek olive trees originated from rooted cuttings that were grown from that primary olive tree. Homer claimed in his writings that the ancient olive tree growing in Athens was already 10,000 years old. Homer stated that Greek courts sentenced population to death if they destroyed an olive tree. In 775 Bc Olympia, Greece, at the site of the ancient Olympic stadium, athletes competed and trained, and winners were triumphantly acclaimed and crowned with a wreath made of olive twigs. ancient gold coins that were minted in Athens depicted the face of the Goddess, Athena, wearing an olive leaf wreath on her helmet retention a clay vessel of olive oil. The Greeks began olive cultivation in 700 Bc.

The sacred lamp that was used in ancient Greek culture for lighting dark rooms at night was fueled by olive oil. Aged olive oil was also used in sacred anointing rituals of the church at weddings and at baptisms. Herodotus wrote in 500 Bc, that the growing and exporting of olives and olive oil were so sacred that only virgins and eunuchs were allowed to cultivate orchards of olive trees. The first documented plantings of olive trees may have occurred while the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete and are believed to have been growing colse to 3500 Bc. That civilization predates the discovered Mycenae olive fossils from 1600 Bc and later in the Greek empire. Sturt Manning, an archeologist from Cornell University, reported in Live Science Magazine (Apr 28, 2005) that the most devastating volcano in 10,000 years occurred on the Greek Island of Thera, after which the city of Akrotiri was totally buried by the falling ash. The looking of olive wood and olive seed fossils buried near the site has shown straight through carbon dating that the volcanic eruption occurred in the middle of 1660 and 1600 Bc and may have contributed to the total destruction of the industrialized Minoan civilization (Atlantis) on the isle of Crete and may have led to the formation of the Sahara desert in North Africa after vaporizing the native forests there.

The fragrant flowers of olive trees are small and creamy white, underground within the thick leaves. Some cultivars will self pollinate, but others will not. The blossoms usually begin appearing in April and can continue for many months. A wild, seedling olive tree usually begins to flower and produce fruit at the age of 8 years. The fruit of the olive tree is a purplish-black when wholly ripe, but a few cultivars are green when ripe and some olives turn a color of copper-brown. The size of the olive fruit is variable, even on the same tree, and the shape ranges from round to oval with pointed ends. Some olives can be eaten fresh after sun-drying and the taste is sweet, but most olive cultivars are bitter and must be treated by assorted chemical solutions before developing into edible olives. If the olives are thinned on the limbs of the trees to 2 or 3 per twig, the extreme size of the olives will be much larger. The fruit is gathered in mid October and should be processed as soon as potential to preclude fermentation and a decline in quality.

The leaves of olive trees are gray-green and are substituted at 2-3 year intervals while the spring after new increase appears. Pruning yearly and severely is very important to insure prolonged production. The trees have the unproductive limbs removed, "so that it will be more fruitful" John 15:2. An olive tree can grow to 50 feet with a limb spread of 30 feet, but most growers will keep the tree pruned to 20 feet to assure maximum production. New sprouts and trees will emerge from the olive tree stump roots, even if the trees are cut down. Some olive trees are believed to be over a thousand years old, and most will live to the ripe old age of 500 years.

Olives commonly are beaten off trees with poles, harvested mechanically or by shaking the fruit from the trees onto canvas. Most ripening olives are removed from the trees after the majority of the fruit begins to convert in color. It is important to squeeze out the olive oil within a day after harvesting or else fermentation or decline in flavor and capability will occur. The olive oil can be consumed or used in cooking immediately after its range from the press. Olive oils are unique and distinct, each brand of olive oil having its own character, as thought about by many factors, like those unique flavor differences found in fine wines. Prepared market olive oils can vary greatly in aroma, fruit flavor; whether the taste is, flowery, nutty, delicate, or mild, and the coloring of olive oil is quite variable.

Olive oil produces many condition benefits when used in cooking or when poured over salads. The use of olive oil can enhance digestion and can advantage heart metabolism straight through its low article of cholesterol. Experts claim that olive oil consumption will cause a someone to grow shiny hair, preclude dandruff, preclude wrinkles, preclude dry skin and acne, develop nails, stop muscle aching, lower blood pressure and cancel out the effects of alcohol.

Olive trees can survive droughts and strong winds, and they grow well on well drained soils up to a pH of 8.5 and the trees can tolerate salt water conditions. In Europe, olive trees are usually fertilized every other year with an organic fertilizer. Alternate bearing can be avoided by heavy pruning and commonly the trees riposte to this very swiftly and favorably.

Olive trees should be purchased that have been vegetatively propagated or grafted, because the seed grown trees will revert to a wild type that yields small olives with an insipid taste. Olive trees are more unyielding to diseases and insects than any other fruit tree and, therefore, are sprayed less than any other crop.

Even though market output of olives in the United States is only 2% of the world market, great interest in growing olives throughout the South has been stimulated by the up-to-date introduction of promising cold hardy olive trees from European hybridizers. Many European immigrants to the United States grow their own olive trees in large pots, that can be moved in and out of the house while seasonal changes.

History Of Olive Trees

Clearing Debt

If you are on a journey towards creating Wealth and Financial Freedom there are two things you can do to get there faster. You can increase your income, which is by far the easier and bigger option, and you can cut your costs.

And if you have existing debts, then often these add unnecessary costs to your budget. This means if you can reduce or eliminate your debts, or at least your bad debts anyway, then you have more money for investment and creating Wealth.

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So what is the best way to go about this?

Well firstly it helps to know exactly what you are dealing with, so write down a list of all your debts. Make a note of the creditor, the amount, the interest rate and your monthly payment.

Next look at how much you can allocate to paying down your debts. Include your existing monthly payments plus any more you can comfortably add.

From this total pay the minimum to all except the smallest debt, pay all the rest towards the smallest debt.

This way you will pay off your smallest debt fairly quickly.

Once you have paid it off use all the money you were using for that to pay the next smallest debt. Keep doing this until all your debts are paid off.

Of course you may if you are disciplined choose to start paying off the most expensive debt first. This is also OK as long as you can stick to it, and will reduce your costs the most whilst you are repaying.

Psychologically for most people it is best to pay the smallest first so that you can see the results quickly!

A useful website you can go to for free help and resources on reducing debts and saving on costs is Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert.

Clearing Debt

Non Profit Payroll

Non Profit Organizations have some unique situations when addressing payroll and payroll taxes for their employees. Here we are addressing here many of the common payroll situations for Non Profit Payrolls.

Non Profit Payroll: Employee Records

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There are many state and federal laws and regulations concerning employee records that can be confusing and some times contradictory. What employee records should you keep to be safe? The following items if you actually have them (and you should) need to be kept in employee's personnel files. We recommend for audit and IRS purposes that you keep them for at least seven full years.

Employee job application Reference and background checks Offer of employment Job description IRS Form W4 State W4 equivalent HLS Form I9 Employee benefit enrollment or declining forms Annual performance evaluations Interim evaluations or disciplinary forms Exit Interview

Additional possible forms to keep

Non Profit Payroll: Payroll Pay Records

Non Profit Payroll: Employees

Officers and Directors

The Internal Revenue Code defines the officers of a corporation--president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer--as employees, and your 501(c)(3) must classify them as such for tax purposes. This applies if your organization pays these officers to perform their duties as officers.

A 501(c)(3) should not classify a corporate officer as an employee if he or she performs no services, or performs only minor services and neither receives nor is entitled to compensation.

By contrast, the Code defines the directors of a corporation--that is, members of the governing board--as nonemployees, and your 501(c)(3) must classify them as such for tax purposes. This applies if your organization pays its board members to attend board meetings or otherwise compensates them for performing their duties as directors.

Volunteers

From time to time, some 501(c)(3)s may provide volunteers with awards, or gifts. In general, if these are non-cash items of nominal value, such as a ham around the holidays, your organization should not count these items as taxable wages.

If your 501(c)(3) gives volunteers cash items, such as gift certificates or any other taxable fringe benefit, it must include these items in the volunteers taxable wages.

Employees

If a person is not an officer, director or volunteer and you compensate them for work done and they are not an independent contractor, they are an employee. Like other employers, 501(c)(3)s that pay wages to employees must pay Federal Employment taxes on those wages. These taxes include:

Federal income tax FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare)

Non Profit Payroll: Federal Income Tax Withholding

Your 501(c)(3) generally (except Statutory Employees) must withhold and pay Federal income tax from its employees' wages.

To figure out how much Federal income tax to withhold, employers should ask employees to complete IRS Form W-4, Employee Withholding Allowance Certificate. Ask each new employee to complete and sign a W-4 by his or her first day of work. Keep the form on file, and send a copy to the IRS if the IRS directs you to do so in a written notice.

If a new employee fails to provide a completed Form W-4, your 501(c)(3) should assume single status with no withholding allowances.

Non Profit Payroll: FICA Taxes

FICA taxes go toward Social Security and Medicare. Your 501(c)(3) must withhold and pay these taxes from employees' wages, with one exception: If your organization pays an employee less than 0 in any calendar year, it need not withhold FICA taxes for that employee. A 501(c)(3) must pay both the amount of FICA tax withheld from employees' wages and the organization's match of that amount.

Non Profit Payroll: Federal Unemployment Taxes

The following is a direct quote from the IRS 940 instructions available at the following link:
http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i940/ch01.html#d0e251

"Religious, educational, scientific, charitable, and other organizations described in section 501(c)(3) and exempt from tax under section 501(a) are not subject to FUTA tax and do not have to file Form 940. "

What it comes down to is that if you are a 501(c) (3) and you have received your favorable determination letter from the IRS you don't have to pay Federal Unemployment taxes.

Non Profit Payroll: State Unemployment Taxes

States vary on unemployment taxes on non profits and you should check with your State Unemployment Insurance Department for the rules in the States you have employees.

Non Profit Payroll: Paying Federal Income and FICA Taxes

Your 501(c)(3) must pay withheld income taxes, together with both the employer and employee portions of FICA taxes (minus any advance earned income credit [EIC] payments). These payments must be paid electronically using the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) or by mailing or delivering a check, money order, or cash to an authorized depositary. Note that some taxpayers are required to exclusivly deposit using EFTPS. Check with a qualified non profit payroll tax professional for additional information.

Non Profit Payroll: Reporting Payroll Taxes

Once your 501(c)(3) deposits the Federal income and FICA taxes, it must submit returns reporting that it has withheld and paid them. Just as the 501(c)(3) pays Federal income and FICA taxes together, it must report them together on IRS Form 941Employers Quarterly Federal Tax Return. They must also be reported annually on IRS Form W2 a copy of which is also distributed to your employees

Non Profit Payroll: Conclusion

There are many similarities between Non Profit Payroll and For Profit Payrolls but several differences not all of which have been discussed here. We always recommend that you use a qualified payroll outsourcing company with CPA's on staff. That way your questions can be answered professionally and any problems solved by a CPA who is eminently qualified by training and experience to work with the IRS on payroll tax problems.

Non Profit Payroll

Can You Get a Free Apple iPad Just For Testing It?

Isn't it frustrating when some new technology comes on the market that you really want, but you just don't have the money to spare? This is the case for many people with the new Apple iPad. If you don't have the 0 to spend on this nifty new piece of technology right now, you still might be able to get a free Apple iPad if you follow my advice.

Although it might seem like some kind of a scam, believe it or not some research companies actually need testers for their products. Sometimes this means that you can assist them by giving an honest review of how it works. After all, this is called market research and companies desperately need honest folks who will give their opinion.

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Some companies will actually pay you to test their products along with giving you the actual product itself. However, be careful as some of these websites are not legit. You should not have to give them a credit card to receive a product for testing. If they ask for one, run away as fast as possible.

Companies typically give away a certain number of free items to be tested by private members of the public. Their are some lucky people that do get to test these at no charge to them. You just need to find a legitimate website that allows you to sign up for testing products. You also should be sure to read the fine print before signing up for anything.

Yes, you can get a free Apple iPad and many other products, but the key is to verify that website offering the product is a reputable website and you could be one of the lucky one's to receive one.

Can You Get a Free Apple iPad Just For Testing It?

50 Ideas For Increasing Profits and Cost Reduction

Do you want to know 50 great profit building ideas that you can put to immediate use in your business to increase profits and reduce costs?

If yes, read all these ideas that have been implemented by clients and have benefited them giving their businesses dramatic boost in profitability. Most ideas can be put to action immediately. Each idea has the potential to give you many %points increase in net profits.

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Research shows profits increase by 4%-56% and costs reduce by 18%-37% within 2 years using the simple 5 step process called the Profit Maps Model. Usually a 5% reduction in cost is adequate to turnaround most loss making businesses.

Businesses can calculate the value of the savings by these 2 simple formulas

If the business made a loss

Total Costs and Expenses = sales + absolute value of net loss +/- income tax = say X

Minimum Savings you will make in 2 years = 5% of X (which was calculated above)

If the business made a profit

Total Costs and Expenses = sales + net profit +/- income tax = say Y

Minimum Savings you will make in 2 years = 5% of Y (which was calculated above)

So how much can you save? Improve your profits by?

Revenue

This category typically contains inflows of resources into the business generated through operations.

Needless to say the profit building process can be used to generate marketing and sales ideas. The following ideas were generated with the objective of increasing revenue with little or no impact on the cost structure.

Revenue Increasing Ideas

1. If your company has facilities located over a multi-geographical area you may be able to rent antenna space to cellular phone companies. Typically these companies will pay for the use of rooftops as a place to erect their antennas. Another option is for billboards as advertising if you occupy a central location with a high visibility building. This enhances your revenue without any additional cost you. The point here is to explore alternative uses for your facilities. Remember they are assets that can be used 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are numerous opportunities available for increased revenue if you look for them. Training room and function room facilities can be rented out in the evening or weekends. How about spare land or excess slots you own for public car parking?

2. Determine whether your business can market commission and non-commissioned products as add-on sales. Look for opportunities to sell products to your existing customer base at no additional cost. Examples are catalogue sales to airline passengers and the sale of miscellaneous products to credit card customers. You may have the opportunity to do something similar. Your customers have more value than you realise.

3. Is there any additional value in your customer database? Perhaps your business could generate additional revenue by selling the data. Alternatively consider starting a telemarketing department to market another line of products or services. Depending on your business and the nature of your customer base you may have something great here.

4. Explore the advantages of an effective e-strategy including e-commerce, e-business, e- people and e-technology. There is no question that the new opportunities available through the Internet offer new and innovative ways to increase profits and reduce costs. Consult with an expert in this area including a cross-section of your employees and magic will happen.

5. Segment your customers into heavy user and light user categories and determine the difference between these two groups. What needs to be done to generate another sale from both categories? All customers are critical. What can you learn about the different types of customers to determine whether more selling occasions possible? Make the most of these customers; you already have them.

6. Develop retention strategies as well as growth strategies. In today's markets, it is as important to hold on to your existing customer base as it to grow your business. It took you a certain amount of resources to attract your customers: you may want to explore ways to retain a high percentage. What is your cost to acquire a customer? What is your cost to retain a customer? Do your employees know?

7. Continue to look for augmented products and/or services that would add value without adding expense.

8. Explore opportunities to licence or franchise your business products or services for additional market share or penetration

9. Explore merger and acquisition scenarios where efficiencies would be gained for all businesses concerned.

10. Develop a relationship with a long-distance carrier whereby your company will distribute phone cards to your customer base in return for a fee or residual commission.

Salaries

This category typically contains charges associated with

· Management Pay
· Non-management Pay
· Hourly Wages
· Training Labour
· Overtime Pay
· All Other Pay, Wages and Salary items

Cost Saving Ideas

11. Establish a 45 to 60 hour per week work environment among the managers. Cost structures among your competitors are basically similar to your cost structure so you will obtain an advantage because your managers are working more hours. This assumes that your managers are productive. Managers who have responsibility for a workforce of hourly employees are usually at the facility, a retail outlet, restaurant or office at least this amount of time. Sometimes business volume is extremely low at early or closing hours. During the slow hours managers can save substantially by scheduling fewer employees and filling it themselves. In addition to the Labour savings, managers will become more knowledgeable about operations and will find ways to improve customer service, training and operations. I have put this procedure in place in several places. At the beginning there will always be resistance, but once managers get beyond the initial hump things will run smoothly. I also find that certain incentive programmes work well here. Get the manager's incentives based on Labour dollar saved and they come to understand the process.

12. Effectively manage your salary administration programs. Many companies pay lip service to this principle but failed to obtain true levels of success in salary administration and management. To start, make sure you have a salary range for every position in the company. Salaries should be structured so that the midpoint is 100, the minimum is 80% and the maximum is 120%. The basic philosophy is that the candidate should be hired into a position between the minimum and the midpoint on the basis of his or her level of experience. The employees are then moved higher in the range on the basis of performance. This philosophy is based on the premise that mid-point is the amount the position is worth to the company. Employees can obtain an additional 20% through stellar performance. Few employees should be paid over the 120% range. Each job is worth a specific amount to the organisation. If a new hire needs training to become efficient in a particular job, that employee is working at a level below the worth of the position and therefore should be paid at the minimum salary range. When the employee's performance rises at successful completion of training and can perform 100% of the job duties move the employee quickly toward the midpoint of the salary range.

13. Insist that a salary survey be done every year to ensure that you have achieved the desired community position relative to your competition. In this case the competition is those companies that would recruit your employees. You need to make sure that if you survey 10 competitors; you have a salary range higher than 75% of these companies for your key positions and higher than 50% of these companies for lower-level positions. Implementing this strategy will help you reduce turnover and will also ensure that you are not overpaying for positions.

14. Make sure your salary administration program allows for regular salary review. Typically, this is done once a year for salaried employees and every six months for hourly employees. The review should include a performance appraisal form and the employee's performance levels should correspond with established pay increases. In other words, establish the pay for your performance review system.

15. Establish a bell curve of salary increases. Let's say that approximately 8% of your employees are superior performers, 12% are above average, 60% are average, 12% are fair, and 8% are poor. Create a salary increase guideline that mirrors this curve, with the better performing employees receiving higher increases. For example superior employees are given 6% to 7%, above average employees 4% to 5%, average employees 3%, fair employees 2%, and poor employees 0%. This allows the organisation to check and reward performance whilst still meeting its salary increase budget. Obviously, your goal is to continue to train and develop your workforce. Occasionally, low performing employees have to be replaced with those most suited to the position. The Bell curve is just a process to ensure that star performers are recognised and rewarded for their work.

16. Establish the salary increase guideline budget and stick to it. Plan salary increases for the coming year by using the Bell curve mentioned in the above idea. Department managers should budget salary increases for employees assuming that the next year's performance will be at the same level as this year's. Please be aware that some performance ratings will change. There will always be exceptions. This process will help ensure that your organisation will remain within the new salary increase budget.

17. The salary increase guideline budget should be preapproved. When a different rating is submitted during the year, treat it as an exception and make sure to justify it because performances can change- it may go up or down. A strict salary administration program will ensure that budgets are achieved.

18. Establish a training rate for all appropriate positions. This is crucial when your organisation experiences higher levels of turnover during the first and second months of employment. The training rate is lower than the standard pay rate and is applicable only during the training period. Employees are given a raise once the training has been completed satisfactorily. Determine whether the training rate could be established for other positions in the organisation.

19. Where the training rate is not appropriate, establish a probationary rate for the standard 90 day period. This rate is lower than the standard pay rate and is applicable only during the first 90 days of employment. If performance is satisfactory, the employee will receive a raise to the standard pay rate. Determine whether a probationary rate could be established for all positions in the organisation.

20. Develop a labour-management system whereby a computer predicts daily or hourly volume and the amount of labour needs on the basis of seasonality. Most businesses have a trend cycle that can be measured with 15 minute increments. First, you must find a way to get past the notion that your business cannot be tracked this way. There is a pattern to your business. Discovering your business pattern is the first step toward determining how to manage your Labour cost. Management will give you many reasons why the business cannot be tracked. Once you work through all their concerns, you and your team can identify those trend items, aspects of your customer behaviour that, in fact, can be tracked and schedule Labour accordingly.

21. Determine whether your new hires would qualify for the targeted job tax credit program whereby a percentage of training dollars is refunded by the government.

22. Determine whether your organisation would qualify for tax benefits for providing employee childcare services.

23. If your employees handle cash transactions, install software driven cash reconciliation process to save time at shift changes and at closing. This will also reduce cash shortages. This type of procedure also saves time in the cash out process.

24. Constantly look for software modifications that can reduce labour. Seconds saved could also mean dollars earned. Using technology is a natural approach to the whole effort of productivity improvement. If your business has not recently explored this area, effective tools that currently exist may surprise you.

25. Have an industrial engineer evaluate your business in terms of time and motion studies to determine whether additional efficiencies can be achieved in areas where high throughput is important. This approach can still work today. Some managers run their businesses the same way they did 10 or 20 years ago. Time and motion studies can have an impact on cost savings, productivity, customer service, and employee morale.

26. Establish a self-regulating team with the specific responsibility of improving productivity and reducing costs in a particular department or area of the organisation.

27. Develop an incentive to reduce absenteeism. This incentive should be linked to productivity improvement goals and to the availability of the workforce. It should be based on reducing absenteeism from previous period. The incentives could be a vacation bonus based on a 1% reduction in absenteeism

28. Develop a variable pay program whereby management salaries are reduced 5% to 10% across the board and these dollars are set aside into a bonus pool. When there is goal achievement, managers have the potential to earn even higher levels of compensation. However, these dollars will be at risk if managers do not achieve profit objectives. The potential to earn even higher levels of compensation will help sell this item.

29. Controlling your staff turnover is another way to reduce operating costs. Implementing strategies throughout the entire human resources cycle to ensure that all systems, procedures, policies, and practices are tight preventing employees from falling through the cracks. I refer to this as the human resources closed loop. If you think about it you will see that there is a cycle to the human resources process. It starts with recruitment, interviewing, selection and placement and continues to orientation, training, salary administration, performance appraisal, development, promotion, and finally termination. Then the cycle begins again. Make sure that all of the areas mentioned are employee friendly and are designed to retain employees. Identify any areas where improvements would reduce the number of employees leaving.

30. In order to determine where are to place additional controls, measure your labour costs in terms of cost per unit, cost per test, cost per guest check, etc. Breaking your labour costs down to the lowest unit will help you better identify cost saving ideas. It will also make it easier to affect and control.

Other Personnel Costs

This category would typically contains charges associated with

· Applied Payroll Burden
· Superannuation Employers Portion
· Vacation
· Paid Holidays
· Sick Leave
· Bonuses
· Short/Long term disability
· Group medical

Cost Saving Ideas

31. Make sure your company has a program that offers all full-time employees the opportunity to receive a higher salary in lieu of accepting certain benefits (such as medical, dental and life-insurance). Today many employees are being carried on a spouse's plan. Why not let these employees choose a higher salary instead of benefits? As long as salary increases less than the cost of benefits, the company will save money and employees will increase their income.

32. Evaluate the cost of your superannuation administration. There are competitive programs that can reduce administrative costs. A simple evaluation of three different companies will determine whether you have an opportunity to realise savings. Even if you do not want to change the current superannuation administration you may still be able to negotiate better terms by showing your evaluation.

33. Reduce workers compensation insurance by aggressively reducing accidents. Evaluate your workers compensation actual to determine your claims history. Most companies set an actual rate and never re-evaluate them even though their experiences change. Depending on your business you may be surprised at the potential savings here.

34. Using the Internet conduct benefit surveys to comply your cost with those of similar organisations.

35. Challenge third-party providers to reduce administration costs by using the Profit Maps Model and passing those savings along to you.

36. Continue to monitor workers compensation costs and develop action plans to reduce them.

37. Develop a back to work programme that puts injured employees in alternative positions. There are times when injured employees want to remain active in the organisation and appropriate positions are available.

38. Negotiate settlements when long-term workers compensation situations dictate.

39. Eliminate alcohol at all company sponsored activities. This approach can prevent accidents, cut beverage costs at functions and reduce risks.

Communications

This category typically contains charges associated with

· Long-Distance Telephone
· Cellular Phone
· Pagers
· Data lines
· Fax lines

Cost Saving Ideas

40. Authorise a telecommunications consultant to analyse all your communication costs in terms of rates charged, equipment used, and programmes offered, promotions available, usage, cellular phone options, long-distance carrier performance and pricing, fax and security line combinations, past bills, and so on. Structure the contract so that the consultant bills on the basis of percentage of cost saved or refunds received. In this way, there will be no cost to you if the consultant is not successful in improving your bottom line. Review all areas of communication to ferret out these pockets of expense that often go unnoticed. Pagers and cell phones are usually ordered and distributed without the benefit of an organised plan. There are real and meaningful discounts if you shop around.

41. Continue to renegotiate rates and terms with the vendors who provide services. Set up an ongoing procedure for constantly renegotiating rates and terms.

42. Monitor and control your communications cost on the basis of the cost per unit test (guests check, or that like) in order to determine locations for exerting any additional control.

Utilities

In this category typically charges associated are

· Gas and Electricity Usage
· Water

Cost Saving Ideas

43. Authorise a utility consultant to analyse your utility costs. Such consultants would know how to deal effectively with the local public service companies in order to discover advantages or missed opportunities associated with gas and electric services. They should be fully authorised to check existing equipment and records. They should be experienced in developing an index and analyses and creating demand graphs to spot situations where you may have been overcharged. They would also represent your issues to the public utility commission.

44. Pay your consultant on the basis of a percentage of the savings associated with his or her action steps. The typical rate is 25% to 30% of the demonstrated savings and refunds over a specific period of time. There should be no charge if savings are not demonstrated.

45. Take energy conservation action steps including setting thermostats at 72°F. Automatic controls should be put in place to control temperature during off hours.

46. Turn off lights in conference rooms, restrooms and officers when they are not in use.

47. Turn off all lights not related to security at the close of business.

Professional fees

This category typically includes charges associated with professional services such as

· Legal and Human Resources Related Fees
· Proposals (domestic and international)
· Fees for Technical Services
· Other professional fees

Cost saving ideas

48. Talk about fees. If your lawyer does not bring up the subject of fees, you should. Do not be shy. In business, lawyers are free to set their own fees. The best time to discuss is at the beginning of a new legal matter.

49. Try to settle cases rather than litigate.

50. Have lawyers design standard forms you can use in routine transactions.

Conclusion

50 Ideas For Increasing Profits and Cost Reduction