Free Basketball Picks - 3/21/06

Raptors @ Knicks: Two of the League's most up-and-down teams meet in New York. While both Toronto and the Knicks have spent most of the year in the gutter they both have shown signs of life, particularly New York with a wins versus the Detroit Pistons. There's no postseason significance here, but it should be a close game nonetheless. Road victory here for the Toronto Raptors. Predicted Score: Toronto wins 109-104

Pacers @ Grizzlies: The Pacers may have difficulty sizing up Pau Gasol without Jermaine O'Neal. The X-Factor for the Pacers is Anthony Johnson, who could very well have a productive game against the Grizzlies. For Memphis it's Mike Miller, who leads the NBA in 20-pt games off the bench. Who'll show up? This should be a close game. Predicted Score: Memphis wins 87-83

Warriors @ Spurs: Golden State is a lesser version of the Spurs. They score enough to win most of the time but don't play good enough defense. Richardson is going to have to pass out of double-teams frequently and will rely on the supporting cast to pick up some of the slack. Unless he somehow scores 30 Golden State has no chance. The Spurs are expected to be a blowout winner here. Predicted Score: San Antonio wins 97-88

Lead Management Software

Efficient lead management is the cornerstone to good sales. Without some sort of lead management system, keeping track of follow-up calls, meetings, and details relating to prospective clients can be nearly impossible. With proper lead management tools, all the information you will ever need to convert prospects into clients will be at your finger tips.

One of the first things necessary for good lead management is an efficient tool to organize records with. Whether a company is a one man shop, or a multinational organization, the efficiency of lead management can be essential to the health of the business.

A good lead management system allows business owners to organize and streamline the process of converting potential customers into clients. From the moment of contact, a sales representative should be able to add personal data and notes to client records. Follow up scheduling should be as easy as possible. Making a sale is often a matter of remembering the details and doing what you say you'll do when you say you'll do it.

After a good lead management tool has been selected, learn it and use it to follow up quickly. In the instant world of Internet, email and phones, a quick follow-up can make or break a sale. Having a good stock of marketing materials handy to close a deal is also very helpful. Ideally, your lead management software will allow for the sending of marketing material with a few key strokes.

Before you can use your lead management tool, a plan to generate leads is needed. Perhaps it's an online request form, an 800 number, a catalog, a magazine ad or maybe all of the above. With the right software, Internet leads are easy to track, allowing business owners to see what is working and what is not. Magazine and TV ads are also very effective, but can be harder to track.

When ever you contact a potential client, use your lead management tool to keep track of the details of your conversations. The more personal details you include, the easier it will be to connect with your potential client in the future. Making a personal connection to your client is often the key to making a sale.

Once you make initial contact with a potential client, you'll want to follow-up. Keep in front of your potential client. Even if the potential client doesn't need your product or service now, maybe he or she will down the road. If you can manage to get in front of your audience enough for them to remember your company when it comes time to make the purchase decision, they will be likely to choose your company.

Proper lead management without the right tool can be an overwhelming task. With a tool to organize and prioritize all of your lead management tasks, following up with potential customers can be a real pleasure. All their information will be right in front of you, and you will be able to provide them any information they need instantaneously.

The Death of the Music Industry in 2008

The music business as we know it is dying a fast death and gone are those days of pressing up and selling CDs. That's bad news for those still playing the same old music game but definitely not bad news for those artists and labels willing to ride the new wave. But all is not lost with the music industry. Emerging trends in online marketing and social media optimization has created new opportunities to market to a larger audience. Those who survive will see the need to step outside of the traditional label relationship and be more cost effective while still being able to make money and have longevity in the business. Those who fail will continue to do what they've been doing. Nevertheless, there are some hot new trends to jump start any music promotion campaign in 2008.

8 MUSIC PROMOTION TRENDS FOR 2008

Viral Videos: We saw what it did for Soulja Boy. Imagine what a little creativity could do in your online promotions.

Digital Sales: It's killed CD sales but created new sales opportunities (i.e. ringtones, mobile marketing, etc). Combine your digital sales with your Myspace, Facebook, & social media marketing strategy.

Free Music: It's not completely free but funded by advertisers and sponsors. Heard of RCRD LBL or Spiral Frog? Find out how Puma & other advertisers are helping their artists promote their songs.

Online PR: Print media is always a great source of publicity but notice how magazines are shrinking in size and becoming less content & way too much ads. Besides, online PR gets your message out quicker and to a larger audience.

Blog, Blog, & Blog: Besides being a great tool to stay in touch with your audience, blogging also helps to optimize your search engine rank.

Guerilla Marketing: Nothing beats in your face marketing that you can't seem to avoid.

Control at the Hands of Your Audience: It worked for Radiohead when they let their fans name the price of their CD. It could work for you.

New media technologies: Myspace, Facebook, Ning, Bebo, Joost TV, Goodstorm Mixtapes. Need I say more.

Small Business Accounting Software Reviews

Small business accounting software reviews mainly focus on contents of profit and loss account. It is also known by several other titles such as income statement, statement of earnings, statement of operations and profit and loss statement. While the balance sheet, as a stock/position statement, reveals the financial condition of a business at a particular point of time, the profit and loss account portrays, as a flow statement, the operations over/during a particular period of time. The period of time is an accounting period.

Since the purpose of every business firm is to earn profit, the operations of a firm in a given period of time will truly be reflected in the profit earned by it. Thus, the income statement/profit and loss account of a firm reports the results of operations in terms of income/net profit in a year. The profit and loss account can be presented broadly in two forms: the usual account form and step form.

In operational terms, the accounting report that summarizes the revenue items, the expense items and the difference between them (net income) for an accounting period is called the income statement. There are three contents of the profit and loss account: revenues, expenses and net income/profit/loss.

Revenues can be defined as the income that accrues to the firm by the sale of goods/services/assets or by the supply of the firm's resources to others. Alternatively, revenues mean the value that a firm receives from its customers. The value/income can arise from three sources: sale of products/goods/services, supply of firm resources to others, and sale of assets like production plants, investments, and so on. The cost of earning revenue is called expenses. An important item of expense appearing in the profit and loss account is the cost of goods sold. The difference between revenues and expenses is net profit. The profit and loss account may also show the appropriation of the net profits between dividends paid to the shareholders and retained earnings/ amount transferred to reserves and surplus.

Can Hypnosis Help You to Lose Weight

Hypnosis is a natural and powerful state of mind. As a matter of fact you enter a state of hypnosis many times per day. A trance is another term used in place of hypnosis. For example, anytime you are driving and you don't remember if you pasted your exit, you're in a trance or a light state of hypnosis. Anytime you are watching a television program and you are engrossed in the story... you are in a trance which is a light state of hypnosis. It is not difficult to experience hypnosis, you are in and out of trance that the real effort is snapping out of it.

Hypnosis is effortless and natural, your mind is comfortable "zoning" out and coasting on autopilot. Think about how easy it is to drive your car, tie your shoes or eat a bag of chips. You may not have realized how easy it is to experience a light trance until I just mentioned it right now. Think about sitting at the movie theatre and holding a box of popcorn, how long does it take for you to become aware that you ate too much? Usually when it is gone. That is unconscious behavior, eating until you are stuffed is another form of trance. It is simply a habit, the movie starts you eat popcorn. No matter how good your intention is you still over eat because you are swept up in the moment and became hypnotized by the movie and eating and didn't regain awareness until your stomach cried out with pain.

Now you can use the power of hypnosis to not only break negative habits like overeating food like sweets, and chocolate but also to lose weight. Hypnosis is an excellent way to lose weight. It helps reprogram your unconscious mind, which is where all habits and beliefs reside. The reason hypnosis is so effective for weight loss is because people eat out of habit, rarely than physical hunger. If you only ate when you were hungry you would be eating about half of what you currently consume. People eat for comfort and boredom instead of for fuel. This is learned behavior, and it can be unlearned. Hypnosis goes directly to the root of the problem and offers a better solution. The mind is an obedient servant and will take direction that is in harmony of its values.

Repetition and conditioning is the key to reprogramming the unconscious mind. You should reinforce suggestions daily until you are unconsciously engaging in the desired behavior. Give hypnosis a try, you have nothing to lose except a few pounds.

Tips For Taking a Caribbean Vacation During Hurricane Season

The official Caribbean hurricane season stretches from June 1 - November 30. It's rare to see a large storm in either June or November and most major hurricanes occur between August and October, with the peak season usually being September.

The upside is that prices are lower for the Caribbean during this time and resorts are less crowded. So what do you do if you want to get away during hurricane season?

Buy Travel Insurance

You must buy the trip cancellation insurance before the storm is announced, otherwise it will be deemed a pre-existing condition, so always purchase insurance the same day you book your trip to be safe. Most travel insurance policies will cover a trip disrupted because of a hurricane when you are forced to arrive late or leave early for your trip, but you'll be reimbursed only for the affected days until the airport or resort reopens. You will usually be reimbursed for the days you are forced to stay at a resort during a hurricane, but be sure to always read the fine print on your policy to make sure you know what they will actually cover.

Try to Avoid the Storms

Track hurricanes online with weather websites during the season. Some good sites include:

The National Weather Service - National Hurricane Center

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Hurricane & Storm Tracking for the Atlantic & Pacific Oceans

http://hurricane.terrapin.com

Hurricane News and Information

http://www.hurricanetrack.com

Weather.com Tropical Storm Center

http://www.weather.com/newscenter/tropical/

Pick Your Location Well

When planning a trip to the Caribbean during hurricane season, it is good to know that hurricanes are less likely the further south you go. The islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and St. Vincent, including the islands below them, are the least hit by hurricanes. However, as Grenada discovered in 2004 with Hurricane Ivan, never say never and keep in mind that hurricanes are unpredictable.

Go on a Cruise

The good thing about cruises is that they can usually sail around the worst of a storm. And today's ships are extraordinarily safe and with the advanced weather tracking available today, bad weather is something they can avoid. The downside is that the cruise line always reserves the right to reschedule port calls and change itineraries for weather-related reasons and therefore you may not get to visit the places you had hoped to.

Pick a Resort That Offers a "Hurricane Guarantee"

Recently, many of the largest resorts and resort chains, have started instituting a "hurricane guarantee," offering guests their money back for days lost to bad weather. For example, in the unlikely event that hurricane force winds (as defined by the U.S. National Weather Service) directly hit the Sandals or Beaches resorts while you are a guest, interrupting the use of all the included activities, Sandals or Beaches Resorts will offer a free replacement vacation to be taken at any Sandals or Beaches Resort of your choice. Go to http://www.best-family-beach-vacations.com/caribbean-hurricane-season.html for more resorts that offer hurricane guarantees.

Make The Best Of It

If you do get caught on vacation during a hurricane, try to make the best of it. As long as there is no danger present, relax indoors and focus on other activities.

My husband and I got caught in the Mayan Riviera, Mexico during hurricane Keith in 2000. He was my boyfriend t that time and unbeknownst to me, he planned to propose on our second evening there. We got dressed for dinner and arrived at the hotel restaurant to find it boarded up. We went to the hotel lobby, everyone was being evacuated from the hotel to one farther up the coast. We ran back to our room, packed and got on the next bus out - not the evening my husband had planned!

When we checked into our room at the new hotel a few hours later, he still had the engagement ring burning a hole in his pocket. The winds were blowing and it was raining so the romantic walk on the beach he had been hoping for was out. He couldn't put it off any longer so he dropped to one knee and proposed then and there. It was definitely a memorable evening, hurricane and all!