The Council of Better Business Bureau is an organization in North America which seeks to build mutual trust between businesses and consumers. The organization was founded in 1912 and provides affiliation to businesses from United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Recently the Bureau has also come up with its own website which is called the Better Business Bureau Online

The most important service offered by Better Business Bureau Online is the Reliability Seal program which ensures that sellers of products and services on the Internet comply with the appropriate standards of quality and reliability. It also checks whether the concerned business has taken steps to protect the consumers’ privacy and other types of financial information.

The primary aim of Better Business Bureau and its online division is to foster confidence among consumers and promote ethical business practices. For this the bureau grants its seal of approval only after evaluating and confirming that a particular business meets certain benchmarks of quality and dependability. These include truth in advertisements, supportive guidelines for consumers as well as efficient customer service. In return the business gets high trust-ratings from potential buyers and, in case of disputes, is backed by the bureau’s efficient arbitration process.

-Kalyani Mookherji

For most families buying a house ranks as one of biggest responsibilities of life. Almost in every society, couples invest a great deal of emotional and financial resources in planning and purchasing the right kind of house. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this task is to fix a suitable budget before one proceeds to contact a real estate agent.

Deciding on a budget at the outset helps the prospective buyer to make an estimate as to how much he or she can afford to spend for the house. For this, one would need to keep in mind the current income of all the earning members in the family and then make a list of both recurring and one time expenses. Some of the costs to take into account are down payments on the house, monthly or regular payments for home loans as well as credit ratings.

The budget would also include the costs of incurring various services from professionals like a lawyer and a real estate agent. Besides these there might be registration fees and other types of licenses. Finally one should also take into account, domestic expenses which would be required to be deducted from the monthly income of the household as well as an emergency fund to meet any exigencies of health or life.

-Kalyani Mookherji

Many out there dream of chucking their boring nine-to-five jobs and starting a business of one’s own. Something that will be more connected to one’s interests and passions. However appealing the idea may seem, starting a small business can seem a daunting task and making it profitable even more difficult. But here are some tips on evaluating the various types of costs one is likely to incur.

It is important to get an estimate of the various kinds of costs involved in running a business so that one knows how much you have to sell to make it even or make a profit. Cost might include small things such as office stationary or major deposits for rental space and other utilities. It is always a good idea to take out insurance on office equipment especially it they have been acquired on loans. Besides, these there are legal and professional fees for the services of a lawyer, accountant and various other licenses or registrations which may have to be acquired.

A newly-opened business may not immediately start making money. Thus, it is important to add living expenses to costs and salaries too if one is going to have employees. Moreover one must also include delay costs till the time the business starts to turn in profits. Finally it always helps of add in another 5 to 10% to leave some room for unexpected exigencies. The total figure arrived at, after adding up all the costs will give a new business owner a realistic figure to go for.

-Kalyani Mookherji.

In urban centers of developing countries increasingly more women are engaging in social drinking. Professional women freed from the shackles of tradition and family, are learning the joys of chilling out over a vodka with friends and co-workers. Even though this trend is mainly visible in big cities like Bangalore and Mumbai in India, the very fact that young women now seem confident of socializing without male friends seems remarkable.

The undercurrents of change in social mores have not escaped the industry either. Pubs, restaurants and lounge bars are only too glad to oblige the growing clout of their women customers who are mainly in their 20s and 30s. Ladies-only nights at discotheques and pubs are getting increasingly popular. Bartenders feel that most women like to go for wines, cocktails with vodka or gin as the base, liqueurs and even single malts. Beverage companies in India are thus increasingly experimenting with low alcohol-content drinks to indulge their expanding base of women consumers.

The growing trend of woman celebrating a night out at the pub has caught the attention of the media as well and is even becoming part of the Indian popular culture. Women’s magazines and lifestyle glossies quite often feature unusual cocktail recipes and advertisements for swanky bar accessories. Wine-appreciation workshops, cocktail-making courses and special wine bars at vineyards are signs of the changing times which are seeing more and more women come out in the open with their glass of bubbly.

-Kalyani Mookherji

In these times of soaring airfares and rising expenses, the average tourist has to take a hard look at his budget. Happily there are a plethora of discount travel packages available to most of the popular destinations. What’s more, information on these package tours is readily available on the Internet.

The discount travel packages primarily make use of the low-cost airlines which are able to offer below-standard rates by cutting down on many non-essential services. These low-fare carriers generally have early morning or late night flights and make use of unreserved seating. They also fly to secondary airports which are less busy and thus not too costly.

The other important aspect of budget package tours is hotel reservation. The cost of lodging can be substantially slashed if one can go for early and bulk bookings. Again most lodgers are able to make offer bargain rates during the lean tourist season when occupancy is generally at a low. Other than these many hostels, motels or bed and breakfast lodgings are able to attract budget travelers by cutting down on extraneous services.

Finally, one must always check the authenticity of the tour operators. This can be done by confirming with the local business directories or getting a feedback from someone who has actually used their services. Checking early will minimize chances of being duped or stranded on foreign soil.

-Kalyani Mookherj

Being a regular saver can seem to deplete one’s entire reserves of will power and patience. And yet it is not such a saintly or inhumanly task. With a little bit of planning and some amount of discipline, one can not only save enough for a rainy day but even aspire to fulfill one’s long-cherished dreams.

The most practical way to start saving regularly is to set a realistic goal. Initially this might be a modest 10% of the total take-home pay but which can be gradually increased over time as income rises. One should set aside this money as soon as the check arrives so that it is not used to meet household or lifestyle expenses. If this still seems to hard a task, then one can make use of recurring deposits which will compel an account holder to make regular contributions.

Now, to the spending part – avoid using the savings to meet expenses and keep it only for dire emergencies. Also it is a good idea to keep only the required amount of cash at home or in savings account. Idle cash lying around or easily accessible tends to get spent rather than being saved and invested. Thus a measured dose of discipline and planning can go a long way of creating a comfortable nest-egg which can then be further invested.

-Kalyani Mookherji

Soaring gas prices in the United States has forced automobile owners to cut down on road travel. This has led to sinking federal funds meant for highway construction and maintenance. According to data released by Department of Transportation on July 28, 2008, there was a 3.7 percent drop in the number of miles that American drove between May 2007 and the same month this year.

As more people cut down on their car trips in the US, the impact is especially felt on highway travel. A spokesperson for the Nevada Department of Transportation revealed that people are driving less throughout the state, and more so at the borders where traffic mainly heads for the tourist attractions like Las Vegas. This comes at a time when travel generally peaks due to Memorial Day holiday and the onset of summer vacations in May.

As fuel costs continue to rise, people are changing their travel patterns and taking recourse to different modes of travel. The practice of carpooling or simply walking to destinations is on the rise in order to save on gasoline expenses. Other than this, more and more people are heading for mass transit which has shown a 3 to 5 percent rise this year according to New Jersey Transport Commissioner, Kris Kolluri.

-Kalyani Mookherji

Late last week Cyberpreneurs acquired the gaming site Stealth Gamers. This is forth time this gaming site has changed hands. Stealth Gamers adds the gaming profile to the companies operations of Cyberpreneurs which has last financial year reported a star performance. While it isn’t confirmed what the company plans to do with StealthGamers but the in all probability the company would be using this as a launch pad of their gaming portfolio in which substantial investment has already been made.

Apparently August seems to be a very bullish month for gaming.. It’s almost raining games with the release of games like Galaga Legions, Braid, Castle Crashers, Bionic Commando Rearmed and Geometry Wars: Retro Evolve. Microsoft even decreased the price of its console earlier this month.

Higher quarterly profit on wireless sales by Verizon Communications Inc were posted, but due to falling land lines because of growth in its FiOS television subscribers missed some estimates, it is under worry.

To encourage its home phone business and compete with cable companies, FiOS is main part of Verizon’s strategy as FiOS is an advanced high-speed Internet and video service.

In the course of a weak economy company’s enormous investment in FiOS was failing to result a loss in conventional phone subscribers as per some analysts.

Compared to last year residential switched access lines drop 11.4 percent in the second quarter, where total lines fell 8.5 percent as stated by Verizon on Monday.

According to analysts lose rate of access line is worst in the history and this rate is of great worry. FiOS TV customers’ total reached about1.4 million after Verizon added 176,000 new FiOS in the quarter.

According to Verizon the costs of acquiring subscribers fell as well as FiOS growth slowed after a sponsorship giving free flat-screen TVs to new customers ended.

Despite of this Verizon’s wireless profits were high and it declared the profit margin above the expectations 45.6 percent. Analysts expected margin of 44.9 percent only. Along with this second quarter profit also rose to 66 cents which was 58 cents last yea

The second largest US telecommunications group, Verizon Communications introduced its FiOS video service based on on Monday in New York City fibre-optic indicating the stage of geat compitition battle with strong cable network operators, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision.

with help of continued strong performance of its Verizon Wireless joint venture with Britain’s Vodafone group Verizon annonced strong second quarter earnings, will now offer in starting FiOS in 108 New York neighbourhoods with ‘triple play’ voice, video and data packages starting at $95.

The new emerging telecome operator plan to introduce voice, data and video service to 500,000 New York City homes by the end of this year and afterwords expantion of service area to near about 3m businesses and homes within few years is on its expantion chart.

Since last year when the service was launched by Verizon which has collected nearly 1.4m FiOS Video subscribers across the US, now trying to discriminate its video service by offering more high-definition channels as compared to its cable rivals. In its initial time in New York it is offering 100HD channels.

AT&T, the largest US telecoms operator by reporting its second quarter earnings last week, show that US cable TV network operators are still more successful signing up new broadband and triple-play subscribers, however there is around 53 prcent rise in Verizon broadband and video revenues. Verizon also facing fall in residential fixed line customers.Verizon also agreed to purchase a regional US wireless operator Alltel.