Download Your Dividends - The Apps to Help With Financial Success

By: Maggie Quinn

You tried to avoid it, but it showed up like a bad penny. It's tax day.

April 15 creeps up on us every year, but if your check to Uncle Sam is larger than you expected, now is the perfect opportunity
to start fresh with financial goals for the rest of the year. 

Ben Franklin said, “In this world nothing can be certain, except death and taxes.” Though that still seems to stand true, today we have
tools to manage personal finances that Benny lacked.

Mint.com

This free app, available for Android and iOS users, is the overwhelming favorite among tech and financial blogs. Simply add your bank, credit card, home loan and investment account information and Mint creates a budget that is easily tracked and edited. The app also makes recommendations for areas in which users can save and warns when accounts are low. With bank-level security, Mint alerts users to any suspicious transactions with text messages and emails.

Expensify

Did you get an eye roll when you handed your accountant a
box of expense receipts? If so, it’s time to use Expensify. Tracking business expenses can be difficult, especially when traveling. With this mobile app, users can create expense reports through a photo log of receipts. Additionally, there is an option to connect most major credit cards including American Express, Chase, Discover and Bank of America to automatically generate expense reports as they occur.

LearnVest

Like Mint, LearnVest offers suggestions as to where to cut spending by looking at your accounts and spending habits. It takes this concept to the next level by offering access to Certified Financial Planners in three programs.

Betterment

Betterment is an excellent tool for those who would like to begin investing but have little idea as to where and how to start. Its step-by-step program helps optimize portfolios by first teaching users about the markets and then directing them as to where to invest based on their financial goals and risk tolerance.

As with any app, these are only worth the space on your phone if you actually take the time to use them. In this case, it will actually pay off. But before you start clicking through the AppStore, give a sigh of relief that you are done (until next year), enjoy some of the tax day freebies. Adopt these habits now, and you'll be better prepared for next year's visit from Tax Man Max - who by the way, is voiced by my uncle. Let's hope his advice manifests in a nice tax return!

Tough Financial Times Cause Problems for Management

Posted by Amanda Walsh

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article by Sarah Needleman, compiled for PR Tactics and The Strategist Online by Greg Beaubien, managers are now dealing with the difficult challenge of maintaining worker productivity and morale.

Needleman's article stated that, "Ceridian Corp., an employee-assistance provider in Minneapolis, saw a 30 percent jump last month in calls from managers seeking help with
uneasy workers, compared with September 2007."

There has been an increase in employee personal calls, unproductive online time, late arrivals, and rumors about the companies' fates. Continuing to do their own jobs as well as managing the stress of employees has caused managers to reach out for assistance during these tough times.

Experts interviewed in the Journal offered the following advice for managers:

• Be as candid as possible about a company's prospects - good or bad.
• Tell employees that the best way to safeguard their jobs is to boost the company's prospects by staying productive.
• Maintain productivity and buoy workers' spirits during the financial crisis by sticking to routines, moderating discussions in which employees can express their emotions, being reasonable about work expectations, and offering outside help from available support services.

Keeping employee spirits up in tough times may be a difficult task but the above tips should help. This situation calls for the same principles that apply to crisis communications, relaying factual information quickly and efficiently and sticking to information you know is correct.

PR Professionals Must be Quick with Responses

Posted by Amanda Walsh

There has been a plethora of news here in Spain about the financial problems facing not only the USA, but the whole world. These issues have caused PR professionals in the banking and financial industry to take a different approach to the way they work.

According to an article, "Response Must Travel as Fast as Bad News" on PRWeek.com by Tonya Garcia, "PR pros that work in the financial sector say that more and more, they have to be ready to go early on a Monday morning after such news breaks to stop any rumors or misinformation from taking hold and ruining already fragile Wall Street reputations."

Experts must hit the ground running on Monday morning. "Sundays have become the new Mondays," said CJP Communications partner, Mark Kollar.

Managing word-of-mouth interpretations to news has become a growing challenge for PR experts. Battling the instant dissemination of news via the Internet and mobile services also requires preparation. One of the most important tips PR experts can learn is how to quickly assess bad news. This skill allows experts to formulate a plan to counteract or respond. Not all of the work needs to be reactive however. If the financial industry changes have been monitored for ups and downs, experts have been preparing for the worst for months.

What does this article mean for public relations? Professionals should constantly be monitoring the industries of their clients so that they can prepare them for the worst news in advance. Keeping a finger on the pulse of changes and new discoveries will help everyone read the warning signs for bad news. This will allow for proactive communications instead of crisis control or reactive communications. With early acknowledgment, more time is available to tailor messages and curb rumors.

Publicity Hound Shares Important Pitching Tips from NPR

Posted by Amanda Walsh-
An interesting blog from The Publicity Hound was written to give some media relations pitching tips. The author, Carol Klinger, Associate Editor of "All Things Considered" on National Public Radio (NPR), has been working there since 1995. Her experiences have given her the ability to guide PR professionals in the right direction for effective pitching. The main focus of "All Things Considered" is breaking news. This is a departure from other NPR shows that focus on feature stories.

Klinger’s pitching tips are broken down into easy to read bullet points:

Pitches she hates:

* Get-rich-quick products or services.
* Anything diet-related.
* "The next big thing" in the health category.

Pitches she loves:

* Breaking news. “Smart publicists,” she says, “call their authors as soon as they hear about a breaking news event that ties into the client's expertise.” Then they call her and pitch—that day!
* Ones that have "terrific sound." For example, one of her sources who works for a university, pitched a story about how the school was going to drop cars atop a hurricane shelter, as part of an experiment, to see how much strain the shelter could take.
* Pitches from publicists whose clients have JUST had an amazing experience. Call her that day, not three days later.

You can listen to Carol’s tips by visiting the link below for this interview with Eric Schwartzman from On the Record…Online.

NPR has a large collection of archives, so before pitching, be sure to educate yourself on the types of stories that are featured on each show by using the topic search feature on their Web site. This advice is true when pitching your story to any media outlet and a valuable media relations tip. Being familiar with the journalist's past stories will help both of you. They will be happy that you took the time to research their beat, and you won't be wasting your time pitching a story that they do not typically cover.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Here is an interesting article I found on Philadelphia.bizwomen.com: It's a must read and I hope you all enjoy!

Who wants to be a millionaire?
October 4th, 2007

Make Mine a Million, a contest for women business owners described as a cross between “American Idol,” “The Apprentice” and “Queen for a Day,” is featured in today’s New York Times.

The article by Lisa Belkin cites these two well know statistics:
More than half of today’s startup companies are owned by women. But 43 percent of women-owned businesses have sales of $10,000 or less.

That combination led to the formation of the Make Mine a Million contest, which lets women business owners who want to take their businesses to the $1 million mark and beyond compete for help to get big, including business coaching and a line of credit from OPEN by American Express.

The goal of the contest, according to the founding nonprofit Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence is to inspire a million women entrepreneurs to reach annual revenue of $1 million by 2010.

How Does Your Credit Card Rate?

I came across an article, “The Best and Worst Credit Cards” on CNNmoney.com and wanted to share this information before the Holiday Season hits us all.

Topics include consumer satisfaction, all-in-one credit cards, interest rates and timeless money rules for credit cards.

Hopefully you will think twice before swiping your credit card after reading this article!