Friday, October 24, 2008

Gutter Protection, Spend Time, Before You Spend Money

It Pays To Do Your Homework
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Picture this if you will
You hire a company to put gutter protection on your house, they talked a good game and you think you have made a wise purchase. The company claims that you are saving some ridiculous amount of money.
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The company pulls up to your house in a car, there is a ladder strapped to the top, the workers are dropped off and the boss then leaves. The boss returns late at night well after the job has been completed, you have been housing the workers in your garage for several hours, feeding them and feeling sorry for them. When you are asked to pay, the boss would like you to put the check in a workers name.
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Later you find out that the company bends trim coil around a piece of wood in the basement, the gutter protection does not have a fastener and neither the company or the workers had any insurance coverage.
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Be careful and do your homework, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.
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Your Gutter Protection Connection
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Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Overhead And Cost, Is there a Difference?

Overhead
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In business, overhead, overhead cost or overhead expense refers to an ongoing expense of operating a business. The term overhead is usually used to group expenses that are necessary to the continued functioning of the business but that do not directly generate income .
Overhead expenses are all costs on the income statement except for direct labor and direct materials. Overhead expenses include accounting fees, advertising, depreciation, indirect labor, insurance, interest, legal fees, rent, repairs, supplies, taxes, telephone bills, travel and utilities costs.profits.
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Cost
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Here is where things get tricky and you will quickly see where this could be easily manipulated in order to advertise a at cost sale and actually make a profit. There are basically two kinds of cost, indirect cost which would fall into the category of overhead cost, and direct cost which is the cost that is directly involved in a project or job that a company may be doing, labor, and material.
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When a company advertises that you are going to get something at cost, both categories could be used to determine their idea of cost. While the advertisement could merely be a hook in order to sell you other products and/or services, make no mistake, the at cost deal can be manipulated to make a profit.
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The best way to determine if you are being misled and overcharged is to obtain other estimates by companies specializing in the area of the work you wish to have performed.
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Your Gutter Protection Connection
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Coptright 2008 All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Salesmanship, Hooks, Gimmicks, And Outright Fraud

Why do some businesses try to entice you with sweepstakes, hooks, unbelievably high percentage off or at cost deals, cash able rebate and other offers that ultimately end up insulting your intelligence, you ask.


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High Overhead and the pressure that comes with it. The pressure to sell, sell, sell, that is.


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High overhead is the high cost of doing business, unusually high and out of control overhead is largely self inflicted and will more times than not accompany poor and/or questionable management.

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Now that we have clarified exactly what we are dealing with

lets examine some of those fantastic offers, think about them logically, and then ask ourselves some common sense questions.

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Could these offers be to good to be true, what are these companies really up to ?

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Why would company X, do the work at cost and not make any money ?

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Will I really get all of my money back ?

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How is it possible to stay in business and constantly be running some kind of little or no money making deal ?

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Is there a set pricing structure or is there a see what you can get pricing structure ?

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Alright, enough on the questions, I am quite confident that you do have a brain and I am eager to further dissect this consumer belittlement.
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Lets get started with the sweepstakes, this one is easy and probably the most transparent of the bunch. This is simply a gain access and lay on the pressure technique. You will receive a credit if you win, etc, etc, etc. Even if the sweepstakes is legitimate and supervised by a non bias outside third party company, this is a technique that is designed to sell you something.
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Next lets take A look at the high percentage off and at cost deals, here is where things start getting allot fuzzy. There is no way of knowing whether you are really getting that price break or high percentage off, if there has been a recent markup to cover the sale, etc. These are usually the same companies that hide true cost and pricing structure like it is a sacred scroll of some sort. I have a hunch that cost changes once they start advertising that the job will get done at cost, think about everything that could be considered when we are dealing with cost. I am very confident that your idea of cost and their idea of cost will be no where in the same ball park.
This is a play on words gain access technique designed to sell you something For Profit.
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At last we have come to the fantastic cash able rebate, where you are led to believe that over a period of time you will get all of your money back, I immediately think of bonds, markets and financial instruments that are completely out of any ones control. This hit Toledo and other areas back in the 2003 to 2005 time frame and many consumers were victimized by cash able rebates. I have not heard of one success story from this scam.
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I would like us all to ask ourselves one more question.
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Why would I invite this into my home ?
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Your Gutter Protection Connection
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