Enjoy this guest post written by our friend Sergio Chaney!

I’m on a tight time schedule trying to get moved and get ready for this silent auction next month. I got a new job in Houston, so I’m headed out there tomorrow morning (probably shouldn’t be blogging right now) to set up my new place and get settled. Everything is packed, but I am feeling a bit apprehensive. But, the plan is to get out there, get everything moved in, Shop Electricity Rates Texas for the best rates for power, get a few pictures hung, and then try to make this house a home before guests arrive for the auction.

Every year, I hold a silent auction to raise money for the Susan G. Komen “For the Cure” foundation. As most of you know, my mom passed away from brain cancer a few years ago and I consider this my way of honoring her while contributing to research. No family should have to go through what we went through, but unfortunately, they still do. I am overwhelmed by the generosity of friends and family who have donated to the cause and can’t wait to announce how much money we raised. ALL proceeds go to the foundation, so if you’re in the area, stop in!

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When you’re trying to save money, that frugal mindset needs to carry over into your business life as well. One of the easiest ways to save money if you’re in direct sales or if you have a business of your own is in search engine optimization (SEO). Here are three frugal SEO ideas you can use right now and start building your online business without it costing you anything but your time.

1. Your Blog

While your blog may be what you need to optimize, since many people now maintain a blog as their sole website (like I do), it’s an ideal resource for using SEO strategies and getting quick results. Write blog posts that utilize your keywords. Include your keywords in the titles and sub-titles of your posts. Add pages to your blog and include keywords in the page name. Title your photos and add keywords in the alternate text. And tag everything you post with appropriate keywords. The results will be not only solid SEO results for your efforts, but faster than just about anything else you can do.

2. Twitter

Combining search engine optimization and social media is a natural way to build your business and your brand online. Twitter is free to use and is a great resource for SEO. Keep your keywords in mind as you post and you’ll be optimizing your business naturally, simply by interacting with others.

3. Facebook

This is my personal favorite, not only for business, but for keeping up with what’s going on with my family members and friends. Again, using your keywords on posts will help tremendously. You can also set Facebook to automatically pull in your blog posts (which are optimized, of course) and more. It’s a great way to find old friends, too, which is just a bonus.

Using frugal SEO tips and resources may be all you need to take your site to the top of the search engine results pages, increase your traffic and even give you a better Alexa ranking. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!

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One of the most important aspects of managing a home business, or any other kind for that matter, is keeping a tight rein on your finances. As a frugal fancier who’s also a direct sales consultant and home based business owner, I especially understand the need to find free and low-cost solutions for all aspects of running a business from home. That’s why a free online accounting opportunity is worth noting.

While there are many free standalone or desktop accounting programs, the benefit of using an online accounting program instead are vast. For one thing, being able to access your account from anywhere is a huge plus, particularly if you travel or work outside your office quite a bit. With an online program, you can simply login wherever you are and have all your financial data at your fingertips.

In addition, online budgeting software can link to your online financial accounts such as a credit card account, bank account or even PayPal. It can pull in each account’s transactions automatically, and keep a running total of your actual financial situation, without additional work on your part. There’s no need for tiresome data entry when your accounts are automatically updated by your bookkeeping software.

A good business bookkeeping solution will help you track expenses and income, and will allow you to easily categorize every transaction. That makes life a lot simpler come tax time. And as someone who puts off data entry and tax preparation to the very last second every year, that’s definitely a feature worth having.

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If your company is growing, or has already grown to a number of departments and divisions, finding a reliable, affordable Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software developer can help you put a system in place to easily manage and integrate both internal and external information across the entire company. Quality ERP software can help you manage and share important data across a variety of functional areas such as accounting and finance, sales, manufacturing, customer service, customer relationship management, and more.

While you may think that individual manufacturing software or distribution software would be more applicable for your situation, a complete ERP system can not only automate your manufacturing and distribution, but it can also integrate those functions with financial records, orders and accounting, connect them to customer sales and service, and track the entire flow of related information through various processes and procedures. Instead of needing several software applications to do the job, you can rely on one and know that the information you need is readily available, without unnecessary duplication, to every department or division.

ERP software is designed to keep your business running smoothly by providing the necessary information to everyone who needs it, regardless of the reason for that need—whether it be to deliver an order, invoice a customer, track a shipment, follow-up with a vendor, or anything else. ERP provides everything your business needs to function within the organization itself, and even in regards to external needs. It’s certainly worth your consideration before setting individual systems in place that will later need to be reworked for more efficient integration.

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Medical Billing Software Lightens the Load for Medical Billers

One of the increasingly popular at-home careers in recent years has become that of a medical biller. With the downsizing of staff in medical offices, clinics, etc. and the need to focus on other financial priorities, many such businesses have found that outsourcing their patient billing is a viable option for keeping costs down.

That’s good news for anyone who is looking for an at-home business opportunity, and one where the prospect of filling out medical billing forms is an agreeable job task.

With the use of programs like UB-04 software, a medical insurance software that fills out medical forms, the job is much more manageable and enjoyable than it might have been pre-computer days. (Though, in those days, medical billing was most often done in the doctor’s office rather than by an outside contractor.)

Not only can medical billing entrepreneurs use the UB-04 software to make their home business function more smoothly, but the program can benefit those physicians and administrators who keep their medical billing in-house as well. It can save a tremendous amount of time in processing insurance forms and ultimately free the doctor for seeing more patients, which is the goal.

Using the UB-04 claim form makes it much easier to process insurance claims quickly and efficiently, which makes the work of a medical billing technician—whether independent or employed by a doctor’s office—that much more effective. After all, everyone wants to be able to do their job more quickly, more efficiently, and with less hassle. Don’t you agree?

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If you’ve been considering bankruptcy, you may be wondering about the differences between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. While I am certainly not an expert, or a lawyer, I know a little about them from research.

Chapter 7 is the type of bankruptcy that clears your debt. For example, if you live in Omaha and you contact a Nebraska bankruptcy lawyer (a specialist is a good idea if you plan to file), they will help you list all your debts that are eligible to be dissolved and once the case is finalized, you won’t owe them anymore, period.

Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, on the other hand, allows you to file bankruptcy and stop your creditors from harassing you, which is a good thing, but it also gives you the opportunity to repay your debt at a slower pace.

The trouble with Chapter 13 is that the court is the one who determines what they think you can afford, and unless you can manage that amount each week, you may end up in another financial mess before long.

I know of a family who filed Chapter 13 because they felt they owed it to their creditors to repay the debt and they wanted to pay what they owed. But the weekly payments set by the court were so high, and the family had no regular income, that they couldn’t meet the obligation and ended up filing Chapter 7 a few months later. Sad, but true.

Again, I’m certainly no expert in this matter! But if you’re under the stress of mounting bills and can’t see a way out, contact a bankruptcy attorney in your area to discuss your options. Sure, there may be other alternatives. But sometimes there isn’t. Don’t kill yourself with worry over something you can’t control when there is a solution.

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As a small or home-based business owner, have you discovered that you may be unable to get credit for business use because of your personal credit history? If so, you might want to look into a Green Dot credit card which offers 100% guaranteed approval and gives you the flexibility of making business purchases online or other places where you prefer to use a debit or credit card.

By signing up for a pre-paid card like the Green Dot Prepaid Visa or MasterCard (your choice), no one need ever know that your credit isn’t what it should be. And let’s face it, there are very few people who have a perfect credit score. That’s why cards like this one were created. You simply deposit the amount of cash you want into your account and then use the card like any other credit card, with a spending limit based on your deposit amount.

There is a small fee if you deposit less than $1,000, but if you use the card at least 30 times during the month that’s waived. And you can use the card at in-network ATMs at no charge, or pay a small processing fee to use out-of-network ATMs. Those are typical charges that just about any credit card company charges.

You can reload the card online for no charge, or pay a small fee to reload at various locations locally. And you can even have your paycheck direct deposited to your Green Dot account, which will earn you $10 the first time you use this option. You can also reload the card with PayPal funds, which is a plus.

There are a lot of benefits to having a business credit card, and since you can get the Green Dot card with no credit check, there’s really no reason that every small and home based business owner can’t have one to use for their own business needs.

For more information on prepaid credit cards, in general, visit the USA.gov website.

If you’ve wondered what might be the best way to invest your hard earned dollars, it may be time to look into trading. While you may not fully understand all the nuances of investing in stocks and bonds, you’re more than likely aware of the tremendous potential return. And with help available from various sites online, you can actually educate yourself on how best to invest, how to choose the right stocks for your budget and style, and how to invest in the most economical way possible for your situation.

In addition to finding specific stock trading information, you can get a lot of good general information about the banking industry in general at any number of university websites such as The University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt, or just about any other educational site. You can also visit the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) site and get a lot of solid data.

The key is to find a site you can trust and not some fly-by-night website that some wannabe millionaire loaded overnight with some fluffy ebook you could have written yourself. Look for solid information from solid, secure sites and learn all you can about making smart investments. Doing so can provide for your financial future, as well as your family’s, but it can also offer necessary resources to help you build your business and expand where needed. It’s certainly worth the education and minimal effort required.

Contribution by Kennith Griffin

Hello Black Friday! You’re almost here again. Another year has come and gone. I can’t even finish getting Halloween costumes for the kids before I’m already stressing about what I’m going to get the in-laws for Christmas because of all the Christmas commercials and in-store specials.

Usually, after Thanksgiving dinner, all the girls in the family clean up from the meal, and spread out all the ads in the paper. That’s when we get down to business! Mom will go to this store for this, Grandmom will go to that store for that. My sister and I will go to this store for this. We divide and conquer. It’s a fun feeling to plan and prepare to save money. To make a plan and see who can be the most successful. Almost like a game. I love this part of Black Friday.

However, after stumbling out of bed at 3 AM, rushing to the stores, standing in lines, missing out on door-busters because they’re already sold out, and dealing with the crowds of rude people, we rarely get everything we need and we’ve realized over the years, we rarely save money! This is the part of Black Friday I hate.

This year, we noticed most of the stores offering the same “Black Friday deals” online as well. So I’ve decided to save my gas, my time and my sanity by shopping from my computer this year. Using my internet providers Louisiana, my computer and my credit card, I hope to have all my Christmas shopping done in no time. Heck, maybe I’ll get it done so easily that I can crawl back in bed and finish sleeping. Take that Black Friday and all the stress you bring with you!

If you’ve ever filed bankruptcy, you know that there is a stigma associated with it that makes you feel as if you’d done something terrible at times. But that shouldn’t be! Yes, I realize that bankruptcy allows you to get out of paying debts that you typically made yourself, but I know that sometimes, those debts are not entirely your fault.

For instance, in the case of huge medical bills, debts you got stuck with in a divorce, bills for vehicles that no longer run and can’t be sold, and more. There are truly legitimate reasons for filing bankruptcy. And while the laws have changed and made it somewhat more difficult to file, it’s still a possible option for those who truly can’t pay their debts and survive.

One of the main changes in bankruptcy laws that I’m aware of — at least in Tennessee — is that anyone who files bankruptcy must take an online bankruptcy course. I’m not a lawyer and don’t portray one on TV, nor did I spend the night in a Holiday Inn Express, but I think that’s a good thing. These courses are designed to teach you how to stay out of debt, manage your money better and understand financial priorities like paying your bills before you take the family on a Disney vacation.

While not everyone who files bankruptcy deserves to relinquish their debt, many people do. And it’s comforting to know that if you get yourself in such a position, there’s a way to keep from drowning in your money woes. Don’t you agree?