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The Estrella Business Networking Group (EBNG) is pleased to have such an array of business owner members. This issue is delighted to highlight member Shirley Robertson. Here is what we found out about her company, The Traceur Group (WorldVentures/ROVIA).
Question: “Will you tell us a little about The Traceur Group?”
Answer: “My Company, The Traceur Group, is a lifestyle company that markets travel-related products supplied by WorldVentures/ROVIA to businesses, employees and individuals. We are combining the power of the Internet with the time-tested strength of word-of-mouth marketing; WorldVentures is a leader in the leisure travel industry. WorldVentures is a privately held company based in Plano, Texas, with active Representatives and members in all fifty states in the U.S. as well as
internationally. Through the inspiration from company founders, we are able to combine the power of the Internet with direct selling to do something innovative in several global markets. WorldVentures offers something that is one-of-a-kind in the network marketing and travel industries. Essentially, WorldVentures is a lifestyle company.”
Question: “What makes you so enthusiastic about what you offer?”
Answer: “Bottom Line is ‘Dream Vacations!” “For years, businesses have provided their employees with paid vacation days, but more and more, studies are showing that a high percentage of workers don’t plan to use all their vacation days. In fact, Americans will give back an estimated 460 million vacation days this year. While this may, at first glance, appear to be positive for businesses, the savings don’t actually hit the bottom line. The money that employees give back by not taking vacation is offset by costs related to worker burnout. The burned out employee will utilize more medical services, experience increased sick time, and have lower
productivity, all costing the employer money. Everyone needs to get away, relax, and recharge. So why aren’t employees going on vacation?
We can show you an innovative new program that will address these concerns, yield significant ROI, reduce health care costs, improve productivity, and increase morale.
I am always excited to talk about this employee benefit to business owners, as well as individuals. The employee benefit is not your usual medical, eye, dental or life insurance…insurances we definitely need, but don’t like to pay for. I offer a ‘Vacation Travel Benefit’. Yes, that is right, vacations. Who doesn’t like to go on vacations? Studies have shown that most people do not take all of their vacations because they are afraid their jobs may not be there when they return, they don’t have the time to plan a vacation and even a good to great vacation is not affordable. Our mission statement says a lot about what we offer.”
The Traceur Group, via WorldVentures, is creating more fun, freedom and fulfillment in people’s lives through the merging of great life experiences, financial opportunity, learning and contribution.
Question: “Will you explain more to me about this innovative employee benefit.”
Answer: “Thousands of us have a Sam’s Club or COSTCO membership. We purchase this membership so that we can save money on groceries, electronics and other services. You are able to purchase items from these warehouse stores at a cheaper price; prices that are lower than the prices offered at our local grocery or dept. stores. Sam’s & COSTCO buy in bulk so we can save money; well WorldVentures/ROVIA does the same thing. They buy Dream Vacations in bulk so that they can pass the savings on to us. When I approach businesses I know I have one of the best employee benefits around. For only $19.99 per month, either paid by the employer, employee or a combination of both, everyone can enjoy the luxury of taking Dream Vacations for a fraction of the regular price. Imagine staying at a 4 or 5 Star Hotel/Resort in Hawaii, Italy, South Africa or even close by to Sedona, Palm Springs or Las Vegas and paying 2 and 3 Star prices. How about enjoying a total Sportsman Dream Vacation of hunting, deep sea fishing, Grand Prix Racing, Final Four Basketball or a girl’s spa vacation to be totally pampered and every month offered a 3 or 4 day cruise for only $89.00? I am talking real cruise ships like Carnival and Norwegian…the very best. If you are interested in a long weekend trip; someplace about 4 hours’ drive away from home, well they have those types of trips available, also. When you purchase this employee benefit you have the buying power of over 500+ vacations every rolling calendar year at your fingertips and huge savings unimaginable.”
Question: “Well Shirley that price of $19.99 per month sounds nice, but how much does the spouse have to pay or any other family members to take advantage of Dream Vacations?”
Answer: “This is really unbelievable, but it is true. The $19.99 per month fee is good for…
1. Employee
2. Spouse or significant other
3. All children under the age of 25
4. One guest
That is a minimum of 4 people enjoying the benefit of Dream Vacations and the employee pays about $.67 cents per day. Can you get a cup of coffee that cheap? The business does not have to be a Fortune 500 business or even have 100’s of employees. The employer must have at least five employees to participate and one of the employees can actually be the employer, so really only four employees signing up can get a business going in the right direction of increased sales and more valued and loyal employees. The employee can even stop the benefit at any time without paying any penalty fees. Just like with most employee benefits, this is done automatically through your payroll deduction so you do not have to worry about remembering to send in your payment. Once you are enrolled, which usually takes 24 hours, you will have 24/7 capabilities to visit WorldVentures/ROVIA sites to see all of the vacations offered, but you will have to check back often because they add new vacations all of the time. If you want to go somewhere on a specific day and it is not listed on the hundreds of vacations through WorldVentures, you can use ROVIA to book your trip and take advantage of great rates with transportation, hotels, activities and a great concierge service.”
“I have had the pleasure of hearing testimonies from many employers on how the morale has risen from their employees because they are excited in looking forward to a real vacation they can actually afford and sales have increased because many employers offer to pay for the membership for a period of time to the employee with the highest sales or just to show how much the employer values a particular employee. It has shown to be a great motivational tool. Happy employees make great business sense.”
Question: “How does this vacation benefit help an individual that is unemployed, retired or working for a company not offering WorldVentures as an employee benefit?”
Answer: “That is no problem; I am able to sell individuals a membership, as well. Everything is the same…automatic monthly
payments via your checking account or credit card, 24/7 service to all Dream Vacations and ROVIA, $89.00 monthly cruises, membership for spouse or significant other, all children under 25 and one guest and offered the same vacations as all members. An individual membership is $26.99 per month with a onetime setup fee of $199.99 and the fun begins within 24 hours. It is that
easy. I, also help individuals hosts vacation parties in their homes so that they and their friends can enjoy taking Dream Vacations at a fraction of the regular price. If you want a membership and your employer doesn’t offer the employee benefit, I would encourage anyone to tell them about my company. I will be glad to sit down with them and show them how this employee vacation benefit can improve so much in the work place.”
Question: “How can a business or individual get started with this?”
Answer: “Just contact me via my email at worldventures@yahoo.comor call me at 623.266.7004 and look at our website at http://www.jcrobertson.worldventuresdreamtrips.com/new/.
My 15 minute presentation will change your life and the lives of others.
Dream Vacations do Come True & are Available to You!”
Always Happy Vacations,
Shirley Robertson – Vacation Benefits Specialist
In the 21st Century information age of Google, Facebook, Twitter and iPhones being connected and having a web presence is a must. If you have a business whether it be in its infancy or well established opportunities for gro
wth exist online. Every business especially those that provide services to the public, Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, Lawyers just to name a few should have a web presence. You need a website to attract customers in the new millennium. But having a website alone might not be enough? To increase traffic one needs to be engaged in Internet marketing more so than just being listed on Google and placing ads. Social networking sites are a great way to form a fresh young client base. Facebook and Twitter are sites consumers are using to connect to their favorite brands. One of the best ways to provide constant updates on your business, your products or services on social networking sites is to maintain a blog.
A blog? Isn’t that for political and news junkies and teenage girls who follow celebrity crushes and entertainment news? Is it really for a business? Absolutely! Businesses are catching on to the world of blogging. Blogs are for everything and are for everyone! Many blogs look professional and offer updates on areas of your business’s expertise. A stock broker or agency may write about the pulse of the market. Real Estate agents will often give tips and feedback to buyers and sellers, show market trends in the price of houses. As a business you are offering something free, a sample of your services online to everyone to establish both a rapport and a sense that you are the expert. The idea is for the consumer to remember this and in return offer you their business. The goal is to establish a sense of credibility so the next time the consumer whom browses your site needs a service they come to you in trust.
A blog is the best Internet marketing tool because updates and posts can automatically be posted to Twitter and Facebook. Both Blogger and WordPress are free services that have great hosting abilities and plenty of templates. In addition with just a click of a button the latest post is added to your Facebook page with a description and picture. It will even update your Twitter status using the title of the post and link to article. This is an automatic way to increase traffic. Twitter is the ultimate free traffic maximizer! It is a system in which people follow you have your Tweets updated on their homepage. You could have thousands of people seeing your new post every day. If you do Twitter right it is easy to get a couple thousand of followers within a few weeks.
Additionally, blogs are great for search engine optimization (SEO) because they often have more posts and constant daily hits due to the updating search engines tend to pick them up faster. A blog is a must for extreme traffic and sales!
Foreclosure activity continues to drop nationwide.
Based on data from foreclosure-tracking firm RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings nationwide fell below 220,000 in April 2011, a 9 percent decrease from March.
A “foreclosure filing” is defined as any foreclosure-related action including Notice of Default, Scheduled Auction, or Bank Repossession.
April marks the seventh straight month in which foreclosure filings have dropped and total filings are down more than one-third year-over-year.
One reason why filings are down is that banks are letting more time pass between delinquency and foreclosure, exploring alternative courses of actions such as short sales and loan modifications. It now takes, on average, 400 days from an initial default notice to bank repossession.
That’s more than double the 151-day average of early-2007.
Another reason may be that job growth is returning to the U.S. and job creation is associated with fewer home loan defaults.
Regardless, in the states in which foreclosures are occurring, bank repossessions are concentrating among just a few.
5 states accounted for half of the country’s April REO:
Collectively, these 5 states represent just 32 percent of the nation’s population.
On the other end of the chart, Vermont accounted for a measly 0.007% of April’s foreclosure filings.
If you’re a first-time home buyer considering foreclosed homes in Seattle , or a seasoned investor adding to your portfolio, the good news is that foreclosures are selling at steep, 20 percent discounts relative to non-distressed homes. Just make you know what you’re buying. Foreclosure purchases carry different risks and follow different procedures than “traditional” sales.
Rely on a seasoned real estate agent to navigate the deal.
When a mortgage applicants chooses an adjustable-rate mortgage over a fixed-rate one, he accepts a risk that — at some point in the future — the mortgage’s interest rate will rise. Lately, though, that hasn’t been the outcome.
Since mid-2010, conforming mortgages have adjusted below their initial “teaser” rate consistently, giving homeowners in Oregon and nationwide reason to ride their respective adjustable-rate mortgages out.
For example, this month, conforming 7-year and 5-year ARMs are adjusting near 3.011 percent based on the most common loan terms of 2004-2006. It’s because of how adjustable-rate mortgages are structured.
Adjustable-rate mortgages follow a defined lifecycle. First, the ARM’s mortgage rate is pegged; held fixed for a set number of years. This period ranges from one year to 10 years; periods of five and seven years are most common.
When the initial fixed-rate period ends, the mortgage rate then adjusts based on a pre-set formula. The formula is established by contract in the mortgage closing paperwork, and is commonly defined as:
(Adjusted Mortgage Rate) = (2.250 percent) + (Current 1-Year LIBOR)
Next, every 12 months, based on the same formula as above, the ARM adjusts again until 30 years have passed and the loan is paid is full.
It’s important to recognize that in the above equation, LIBOR is a variable so as LIBOR goes, so goes your adjusted mortgage rate. And because LIBOR is ultra-low right now, adjusted mortgage rates are ultra-low, too. LIBOR is expected to stay this way until the global economy has recovered more fully. Analysts predict a higher LIBOR by mid-2012.
So, if you have an adjustable-rate mortgage that’s due to reset this season, don’t rush to refinance. For at least one more year, you can benefit from low rates and low payments. As for the next adjustment, though, that’s anyone’s guess.
Most people have a personal Facebook page set up which allows them to communicate and interact with their friends and family. However, many businesses are not taking advantage of this marketing tool and setting up a Facebook fan page for their business. Having a Facebook fan page allows a business to advertise current promotions or upcoming sales and events. 
Additionally, fans and followers of the business and products can keep abreast of company activities and add comments to the fan page.
This type of interaction creates a relationship between the customer and business. Additionally, research reveals that customers are more likely to buy from a business or sales professional that they feel comfortable with and they can trust.
Facebook provides many opportunities to generate interest in a business. By attracting fans, a business can have access to up to 5,000 people. A business can update fans on new products or news and include links to the information they want to spread the word about. Additionally, a business can send marketing messages, offers and other lead magnets to their target market to persuade them to “like” their fan page. A business will then have access to their target market.
Facebook has some additional benefits that many of the other social media networking sites do not. Facebook allows users to post pictures, video, links and longer posts. Additionally, fans will able to access a business’s post for up to five years.
With so many powerful ways to build traffic using Facebook, marketers cannot ignore this medium of generating sales. However, attracting clients and prospects via Facebook can be quite time consuming. Fortunately, there are numerous services and tools that can automate many of the tasks that would take an undue amount of time to complete if they were all being done manually. Furthermore, Facebook is also a very inexpensive way to promote products or services. A business with a lot of fans will result in simple and easy promotions.
If a business wants to compete in today’s technology driven marketplace then they have to modify their means of communication and way of doing business to accommodate social media interaction. Social media is used as a tool to stay connected with consumers via the internet; knowing that the internet is a powerful tool for communication. Social media is seen as a means to maintain a sound relationship with existing customers while simultaneously reaching potential customers.
With housing prices down across the country, there are a lot of homeowners in Sacramento barely breaking even on their respective home sales. Some are even losing money.
You may find yourself in that position, too; wanting to sell, but worried about bringing cash to your own closing.
It creates an interesting dilemma. You want your home to “show nicely” relative to comparable properties, but you don’t want to invest big dollars that may never be recouped into upgrades or renovations. So what do you do?
The answer is simple. Do the bare minimum.
From an advice piece in the Wall Street Journal, we learn of 10 basic home improvement projects that will help your home have better showings. The advice requires almost no technical skills, and the projects be tackled in a weekend.
The theme? Handled your home’s delayed maintenance.
Now, you’ll notice that none of these projects can be considered “major”. By contrast, each is minor; they’re the items you’d add to your to-do list for work on “another day”. However, they’re extremely important for a home that’s about to be listed.
Here’s why. A prospective buyer doesn’t notice that the above repairs were made. He only notices if they weren’t made. When a buyer sees ripped screens or chipped paint in your home, it makes him wonder what else hasn’t been cared for. This is the why you should also hire an exterminator prior to selling your home. If a buyer spots a trail of ants in your home, it’s unlikely you’ll get an offer.
You don’t need to spend big bucks to get your home ready for sale, but you may to use apply elbow grease. The good news is that time spent up-front can be worth it in the end. Homes that show better tend to sell faster, and at higher prices.
A recent joint report from Forbes and GreatSchools debunks a powerful myth in housing. There’s little correlation between Public School Quality and the Median Price Point for a home.
In other words, the most expensive districts don’t always have the best schools. And spending per pupil seems only loosely correlated, too.
The study, titled America’s Best Schools For Your Housing Buck, puts tiny Falmouth, Maine at the top of its 2011 list.
Falmouth is a city of less than 11,000 people, and its school system educates roughly 2,000 children. With a median home sale price of near $350,000, Falmouth is the only city to score a 100 on the Forbes/GreatSchools list.
The complete Top 10 Best Schools For Your Housing Buck list follows:
One reason why Falmouth, Maine, tops this list is because the area’s Unemployment Rate is low, and so is Teacher Turnover — just two teachers have left for jobs in other districts since 1998. In fact, each of the ranking cities boast similar strengths.
To see the Top 10 areas in a variety of price ranges, visit the Forbes website.
In an echo of February’s Case-Shiller Index report, the government’s own home price-tracker — the Home Price Index — showed home values slipping between January and February 2011.
The Federal Home Finance Agency data had home values down 1.6 percent nationwide in February, on average, marking the fourth straight month in which prices fell.
Furthermore, all 9 regions posted losses from the month prior:
Before you draw conclusions, however, note that the data at which we’re looking has several major flaws to it.
First, it’s old. We’re now in the first week of May and the FHFA’s most recent release only covers through February, a time period ending roughly 60 days ago. That’s a long delay and today’s purchase market in Portland looks much different from the one of February.
Just ask a real estate agent and they’ll tell you — purchase activity is rising.
Second, the FHFA Home Price Index reports on home value changes between consecutive Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac-securitized transactions only. This might be creating an overweight of “distressed properties” in the index which, in turn, drags down valuations.
Distressed homes account for 40% of all home resales and typically sell at 20 percent discounts.
And, lastly, although the Home Price Index is a national report, real estate as a market is decidedly not national. To the contrary, it’s extremely local. As an individual, you don’t buy, sell or own homes in all 50 states. You buy them in a specific state, and a specific neighborhood ; in places like University Place.
The national data is useless to you in that respect.
We can’t discount the Home Price Index data entirely, but should remember that it paints a clearer picture of where housing has been versus where housing is going. As a home buyer or homeowner, it’s the future of home values that matters more.