<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362</id><updated>2011-10-23T05:29:38.106-04:00</updated><category term='credit policy'/><category term='michelle dunn'/><category term='women'/><category term='FDCPA'/><category term='expo'/><category term='collection agency'/><category term='ARM industry'/><category term='debt'/><category term='social media'/><category term='credit and collections'/><category term='networking'/><category term='kaulkin ginsberg'/><category term='association'/><title type='text'>Michelle Dunn</title><subtitle type='html'>An Industry leader in her field, Michelle Dunn shares her tips and tools in her "Collecting Money Series" Check out her blogs and websites for more information on her books,  teaching and consulting.  As seen in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and on The CBS Early Show!</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>20</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-1356020441291541681</id><published>2011-10-23T05:29:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2011-10-23T05:29:38.123-04:00</updated><title type='text'>The Guide to Getting Paid (Credit and Collections) Book Review</title><content type='html'>&lt;iframe width="480" height="270" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8kJDn8XS6Cg?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-1356020441291541681?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Getting-Paid-Customers-Balances/dp/1118011619/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top' title='The Guide to Getting Paid (Credit and Collections) Book Review'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/1356020441291541681/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=1356020441291541681' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/1356020441291541681'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/1356020441291541681'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2011/10/guide-to-getting-paid-credit-and.html' title='The Guide to Getting Paid (Credit and Collections) Book Review'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://img.youtube.com/vi/8kJDn8XS6Cg/default.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-4208669990691961760</id><published>2011-07-22T06:46:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2011-07-22T06:46:15.185-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Getting Friends that owe you money to pay up</title><content type='html'>&lt;iframe width="480" height="295" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mmRv9s60uyE?fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-4208669990691961760?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://www.youtube.com/user/MichelleDunn1?feature=mhee#p/u/4/mmRv9s60uyE' title='Getting Friends that owe you money to pay up'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/4208669990691961760/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=4208669990691961760' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/4208669990691961760'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/4208669990691961760'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2011/07/getting-friends-that-owe-you-money-to.html' title='Getting Friends that owe you money to pay up'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://img.youtube.com/vi/mmRv9s60uyE/default.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-1106890688484625217</id><published>2010-09-19T07:22:00.001-04:00</published><updated>2010-09-19T07:22:31.600-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Email Collections:  Do's and Don'ts</title><content type='html'>Check out this SlideShare Presentation: &lt;div style="width:425px" id="__ss_5232531"&gt;&lt;strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MichelleDunn/email-collections" title="Email Collections"&gt;Email Collections&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;object id="__sse5232531" width="425" height="355"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=emailcollections-12848935670424-phpapp02&amp;stripped_title=email-collections&amp;userName=MichelleDunn" /&gt;&lt;param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/&gt;&lt;param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/&gt;&lt;embed name="__sse5232531" src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=emailcollections-12848935670424-phpapp02&amp;stripped_title=email-collections&amp;userName=MichelleDunn" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;div style="padding:5px 0 12px"&gt;View more &lt;a href="http://www.slideshare.net/"&gt;presentations&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MichelleDunn"&gt;Michelle Dunn&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-1106890688484625217?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/1106890688484625217/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=1106890688484625217' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/1106890688484625217'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/1106890688484625217'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2010/09/email-collections-do-and-don.html' title='Email Collections:  Do&amp;#39;s and Don&amp;#39;ts'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-5232347314133380817</id><published>2010-08-15T09:19:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2010-08-15T09:19:37.555-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Frugal Book Marketing: Teacher and Marketer Recommends New Book on Marketing</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://frugal-book-marketing.blogspot.com/2010/08/teacher-and-marketer-recommends-new.html"&gt;Frugal Book Marketing: Teacher and Marketer Recommends New Book on Marketing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-5232347314133380817?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://frugal-book-marketing.blogspot.com/2010/08/teacher-and-marketer-recommends-new.html' title='Frugal Book Marketing: Teacher and Marketer Recommends New Book on Marketing'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/5232347314133380817/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=5232347314133380817' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/5232347314133380817'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/5232347314133380817'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2010/08/frugal-book-marketing-teacher-and.html' title='Frugal Book Marketing: Teacher and Marketer Recommends New Book on Marketing'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-4030778818870927572</id><published>2010-07-22T17:42:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2010-07-22T17:42:13.859-04:00</updated><title type='text'>Sharing with Writers and Readers: Author Michelle Dunn Shares Secrets for Getting Qu...</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/2010/07/author-michelle-dunn-shares-secrets-for.html?spref=bl"&gt;Sharing with Writers and Readers: Author Michelle Dunn Shares Secrets for Getting Qu...&lt;/a&gt;: "Michelle Dunn is a an author I fell in love with a long time ago because she is such a great marketer. You should know that my definition of..."&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-4030778818870927572?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://sharingwithwriters.blogspot.com/2010/07/author-michelle-dunn-shares-secrets-for.html?spref=bl' title='Sharing with Writers and Readers: Author Michelle Dunn Shares Secrets for Getting Qu...'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/4030778818870927572/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=4030778818870927572' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/4030778818870927572'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/4030778818870927572'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2010/07/sharing-with-writers-and-readers-author.html' title='Sharing with Writers and Readers: Author Michelle Dunn Shares Secrets for Getting Qu...'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-3978643550854027157</id><published>2010-03-12T13:39:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2010-03-12T13:40:28.016-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Social Networking/Marketing</title><content type='html'>In 2010 I am stepping up my online presence, and attending more virtual events and joining and networking on social networks to save on expenses and travel.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If anyone wants to connect on other social networks, please join me on&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;LinkedIn:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;http://www.linkedin.com/in/creditmd&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Twitter:&lt;br /&gt;http://twitter.com/DunnMich&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-3978643550854027157?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://americancreditandcollections.ning.com/' title='Social Networking/Marketing'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/3978643550854027157/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=3978643550854027157' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/3978643550854027157'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/3978643550854027157'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2010/03/social-networkingmarketing.html' title='Social Networking/Marketing'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-1026358945116315384</id><published>2010-02-22T07:35:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-22T07:36:56.803-05:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='collection agency'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='kaulkin ginsberg'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='ARM industry'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='debt'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='FDCPA'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='expo'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='credit and collections'/><title type='text'>Kaulkin Ginsberg’s Virtual Exposition a Success</title><content type='html'>Attending a virtual expo really appealed to me this year, especially since the economy has hit everyone hard and travel and time are an expense many of us can’t afford.  The best part about the industry’s first virtual exposition was that it was free and you could attend from anywhere, the park, your home in your slippers, a coffee shop or your office.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The virtual expo had a virtual exhibit hall, live webinars and booths where you could download information, have a private or public booth chat and network.  I stopped in to visit many of the booths and chatted with the folks manning the booth.  It was great to see who was there, say hello to old friends and meet new people in the industry.  I was able to connect and talk with specific vendors about their products and services and establish a relationship that I hope will help us to network with each other now and in the future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I attended the webinar “State of the Industry – Trends and Predictions” put on by Kaulkin Ginsberg.  They had a few different speakers and it was a very informative webinar.  Some of the highlights that I took away from the presentation were that in 2010 it appears that smaller bills or invoices will be easier to collect and securing settlements will be easier.  This makes sense due to the state of the economy and is a signal to all collectors to focus more on those accounts for more collections in 2010.  Some other things talked about were the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act reform, which we all knew was coming.  It was also discussed that the Federal Trade Commission will adjust who enforces it or who has rule-making authority.  We should also look for an increased violation charge, significantly more than the $1,000.00 per violation charge now in place.  Of course there will be more changes to the FDCPA and increased state enforcements of their specific laws.  Collection agencies should look for increased data security requirements for agencies because they are handling sensitive consumer data.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The webinar also talked about student lending, and how private student loans are already in decline due to the economy and this will have a severe impact to the ARM industry in this sector.  If you have been watching any national news or reading any national newspaper, you saw this one coming.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;ARM service providers will see that 2010 will be a rebuilding year, once again due to the economy.  Municipalities will increase their outsourcing which many agencies are already seeing.  I know I have had more inquiries on my consulting in this specific area.  This can be a good thing for agencies since it will help increase jobs in 2010.  Surviving this recession will force many agencies to take drastic steps to be successful and if they focus on increasing their commitment to their compliance departments this will help them to be successful in 2010.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There was a question and answer period and someone asked, “Due to the economy, what positions are in high demand for the ARM industry?”  The answer is, sales people and you can recruit good ones by offering incentives such as sign on bonuses, and senior level managers with experience with call centers.  Many other things were covered, and I found the webinar to be engaging, informative and interesting.  Something I would recommend and I look forward to attending more virtual expo’s this year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Michelle Dunn, author of &lt;span style="font-style:italic;"&gt;Starting a Collection Agency, how to make money collecting money 3rd edition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-1026358945116315384?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://americancreditandcollections.ning.com/' title='Kaulkin Ginsberg’s Virtual Exposition a Success'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/1026358945116315384/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=1026358945116315384' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/1026358945116315384'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/1026358945116315384'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2010/02/kaulkin-ginsbergs-virtual-exposition.html' title='Kaulkin Ginsberg’s Virtual Exposition a Success'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-8755253219478688896</id><published>2010-02-15T10:21:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-15T10:21:57.212-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Michelle Dunn: Your Credit Policy is an Asset to your Business</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2010/02/your-credit-policy-is-asset-to-your.html"&gt;Michelle Dunn: Your Credit Policy is an Asset to your Business&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-8755253219478688896?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2010/02/your-credit-policy-is-asset-to-your.html' title='Michelle Dunn: Your Credit Policy is an Asset to your Business'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/8755253219478688896/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=8755253219478688896' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/8755253219478688896'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/8755253219478688896'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2010/02/michelle-dunn-your-credit-policy-is.html' title='Michelle Dunn: Your Credit Policy is an Asset to your Business'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-5569162813628889333</id><published>2010-02-15T10:20:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-15T10:21:34.472-05:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='credit policy'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='credit and collections'/><title type='text'>Your Credit Policy is an Asset to your Business</title><content type='html'>Your business has many assets, such as physical items, maybe your building, equipment, items you stock, key employees, your customers and your credit functions.  Many business owners don’t look at their credit functions as an asset, but your &lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Credit-Collections-Handbook-Michelle/dp/1599180251/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1266246233&amp;sr=8-7"&gt;credit functions&lt;/a&gt; are one of the most important assets your business has.  Assets are economic resources owned by a business.  Anything tangible or intangible that your business owns is an asset, assets are things of value that can be easily converted into cash and cash is considered an asset. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Your &lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;credit functions&lt;/span&gt; should be involved in the segmentation, targeting and positioning of your business.  Ask yourself, what is the objective of my business and is my credit policy in line with those objectives or with corporate objectives?   Segmenting, targeting and positioning help your business to know your customers better and focus on those customers needs in your target market resulting in long-term customer relationships and therefore more sales at less cost.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Your &lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;credit policy&lt;/span&gt; is the backbone of your finances, without money you cannot continue to stay in business or grow your business.  The credit policies you have for your company should be integrated with your sales department and distribution so that you can all be on the same page and provide outstanding customer service.  When these things are in line with each other everything runs much more smoothly, and your customer can see that.  When your credit department is run correctly and efficiently it helps you to maintain long-term customer relationships by ensuring repeat profitable sales and minimizes your costs.  Having the lines of communication open between credit and sales will go a long way in your success, make sure to have regular meetings with the sales and credit departments and help them find ways that they can work together to make each others jobs easier.  This will be reflected in your bottom line.  These meetings can help you in many ways, it can help your sales people to learn the skills they need in order to gather key information that the credit department needs in order to make informed decisions.  The credit department can also be “trained” to know what the sales people deal with and how they can help them to make a sale while limiting your businesses credit risk.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As you take these steps to improve your business, be sure to reward your sales and credit people, this helps them to stay motivated and strive towards doing even better, which can only benefit you and your business.  If you do nothing else to increase sales try merging your credit and sales department and you will see a vast improvement in your receivables, bad debt and employee morale.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-5569162813628889333?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://www.credit-and-collections.com' title='Your Credit Policy is an Asset to your Business'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/5569162813628889333/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=5569162813628889333' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/5569162813628889333'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/5569162813628889333'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2010/02/your-credit-policy-is-asset-to-your.html' title='Your Credit Policy is an Asset to your Business'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-4617577354001556539</id><published>2010-02-12T07:21:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-12T07:22:34.208-05:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='women'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='michelle dunn'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='networking'/><title type='text'>Whether online or off, women have no shortage of places to meet other women biz owners.</title><content type='html'>When Michelle Dunn wanted help, she went looking for other women business owners. Recently divorced with two small children, Dunn wanted help growing her business, which sells personal-finance books and classes. Too busy to go out for in-person networking events, Dunn found what she needed on the internet--at Digital Women, an online networking group for women entrepreneurs.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-4617577354001556539?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://www.womenentrepreneur.com/2010/02/womens-only-networking-grows.html' title='Whether online or off, women have no shortage of places to meet other women biz owners.'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/4617577354001556539/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=4617577354001556539' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/4617577354001556539'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/4617577354001556539'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2010/02/whether-online-or-off-women-have-no.html' title='Whether online or off, women have no shortage of places to meet other women biz owners.'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-6902424628138323293</id><published>2010-02-08T08:09:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2010-02-08T08:13:20.533-05:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='association'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='social media'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='credit and collections'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='networking'/><title type='text'>American Credit &amp; Collections Association launches Social Networking website</title><content type='html'>&lt;meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"&gt;&lt;meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"&gt;&lt;meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"&gt;&lt;meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"&gt;&lt;link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"&gt;&lt;!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;&lt;xml&gt;  &lt;w:worddocument&gt;   &lt;w:view&gt;Normal&lt;/w:View&gt;   &lt;w:zoom&gt;0&lt;/w:Zoom&gt;   &lt;w:punctuationkerning/&gt;   &lt;w:validateagainstschemas/&gt;   &lt;w:saveifxmlinvalid&gt;false&lt;/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid&gt;   &lt;w:ignoremixedcontent&gt;false&lt;/w:IgnoreMixedContent&gt;   &lt;w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext&gt;false&lt;/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText&gt;   &lt;w:compatibility&gt;    &lt;w:breakwrappedtables/&gt;    &lt;w:snaptogridincell/&gt;    &lt;w:wraptextwithpunct/&gt;    &lt;w:useasianbreakrules/&gt;    &lt;w:dontgrowautofit/&gt;   &lt;/w:Compatibility&gt;   &lt;w:browserlevel&gt;MicrosoftInternetExplorer4&lt;/w:BrowserLevel&gt;  &lt;/w:WordDocument&gt; &lt;/xml&gt;&lt;![endif]--&gt;&lt;!--[if gte mso 9]&gt;&lt;xml&gt;  &lt;w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"&gt;  &lt;/w:LatentStyles&gt; &lt;/xml&gt;&lt;![endif]--&gt;&lt;style&gt; &lt;!--  /* Style Definitions */  p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal 	{mso-style-parent:""; 	margin:0in; 	margin-bottom:.0001pt; 	mso-pagination:widow-orphan; 	font-size:12.0pt; 	font-family:"Times New Roman"; 	mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 	{size:8.5in 11.0in; 	margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; 	mso-header-margin:.5in; 	mso-footer-margin:.5in; 	mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 	{page:Section1;} --&gt; &lt;/style&gt;&lt;!--[if gte mso 10]&gt; &lt;style&gt;  /* Style Definitions */  table.MsoNormalTable 	{mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; 	mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; 	mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; 	mso-style-noshow:yes; 	mso-style-parent:""; 	mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; 	mso-para-margin:0in; 	mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; 	mso-pagination:widow-orphan; 	font-size:10.0pt; 	font-family:"Times New Roman"; 	mso-ansi-language:#0400; 	mso-fareast-language:#0400; 	mso-bidi-language:#0400;} &lt;/style&gt; &lt;![endif]--&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;With social media taking over as the new way to market, network and grow your business, the credit and debt collection industry is no exception.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Michelle Dunn&lt;/span&gt;, the founder of the &lt;a href="http://www.credit-and-collections.com"&gt;American Credit and Collections Association&lt;/a&gt; has created a &lt;a href="http://Americancreditandcollections.ning.com/"&gt;social networking website&lt;/a&gt; for anyone who wants to learn more about &lt;span style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;collecting money&lt;/span&gt;, credit management and networking with others within the industry.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Membership is free and members can create a profile, upload videos, start a blog, join groups, ask questions and much more.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Visit Americancreditandcollections.ning.com/ to join and keep up to date on what is happening in the industry, meet new people, learn about industry events and expand your network.&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-6902424628138323293?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://www.credit-and-collections.com/blog/?p=1469' title='American Credit &amp; Collections Association launches Social Networking website'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/6902424628138323293/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=6902424628138323293' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/6902424628138323293'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/6902424628138323293'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2010/02/american-credit-collections-association.html' title='American Credit &amp; Collections Association launches Social Networking website'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-1789975084227024638</id><published>2009-12-03T11:44:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2009-12-03T11:44:20.542-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Ripoff Report: Elavon Elavon Merchant Services - NOVA Information Systems WARNING To All Merchants - Will take money without cause from your bank account!! DO NOT TRUST ELAVON to look out for your interests! Knoxville Tennessee</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://www.ripoffreport.com/Credit-Card-Processing-ACH-Companies/Elavon-Merchant-Serv/elavon-elavon-merchant-service-y5489.htm"&gt;Ripoff Report: Elavon Elavon Merchant Services - NOVA Information Systems WARNING To All Merchants - Will take money without cause from your bank account!! DO NOT TRUST ELAVON to look out for your interests! Knoxville Tennessee&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-1789975084227024638?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://www.ripoffreport.com/Credit-Card-Processing-ACH-Companies/Elavon-Merchant-Serv/elavon-elavon-merchant-service-y5489.htm' title='Ripoff Report: Elavon Elavon Merchant Services - NOVA Information Systems WARNING To All Merchants - Will take money without cause from your bank account!! DO NOT TRUST ELAVON to look out for your interests! Knoxville Tennessee'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/1789975084227024638/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=1789975084227024638' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/1789975084227024638'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/1789975084227024638'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2009/12/ripoff-report-elavon-elavon-merchant.html' title='Ripoff Report: Elavon Elavon Merchant Services - NOVA Information Systems WARNING To All Merchants - Will take money without cause from your bank account!! DO NOT TRUST ELAVON to look out for your interests! Knoxville Tennessee'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-458385603696208212</id><published>2008-03-03T21:36:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2008-03-03T21:37:08.115-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Top 19 ways to Recession Proof your Business or Career TODAY</title><content type='html'>&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;If you plan ahead you can survive the recession with a positive outlook and some specific actions.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="1" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Invest      in education:&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Continue to educate      yourself, attend seminars, free online webinars, read books and trade      magazines, keep up to date on what is happening in your industry and learn      all you can.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="2" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Network      and make contacts online and offline:&lt;span style=""&gt;       &lt;/span&gt;Networking will keep you in everyone’s minds, also if you end up      losing your job you will have a slew of business cards of others in the      business that you can contact to work with during hard times.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="3" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Follow      the market:&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Read the papers or      watch the news, know what is happening and stay on top of it.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="4" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Pay      off debt: If you can pay off any debt, now is the time to do it.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Dealing with a recession is hard enough,      but if you have a boatload of debt on top of that your stress level will      go through the roof and you might not be able to pay it a few months down      the line. Pay cash for anything you need, if you don’t have the cash, ask      yourself if you really NEED it, or do you just WANT it?&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Put your credit cards in the freezer or      cancel them and cut them up.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="5" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Cut      back on extras:&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Seems simple, but      do you need all the bells and whistles you have on your business or home      phone or even your cell phone?&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Do      you need to get Starbucks twice a day? Can you bring your lunch? Can you      carpool to work? &lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="6" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Build      your online presence:&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;With a      website, blog, newsletter or articles. Join online networking groups that      relate to what you do, mentor someone or find a mentor, visit Craig’s list      or other online portals.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="7" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Have      your clients sign a long term contract or review their existing contacts      and renew them or extend them.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="8" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Specialize      in something:&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Make yourself valuable,      employers are more likely to keep an employee who can do more than one      thing.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="9" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Turn      your hobby into a part time business: for example selling items on ebay.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="10" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;If you      don’t have to sell your home or any property, don’t. You won’t get top      dollar and will end up losing money. If you can, work on the home or      property that you want to sell so when the recession ends you can get more      money for it, for example, paint the house, do some landscaping, whatever      you can afford or do yourself to improve the quality of the property.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="11" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Update      your resume now, just in case.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="12" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Learn      more about jobs that are recession proof, industries such as food, energy,      vices (tobacco), entertainment, medical services, debt collection, security      or alarm services.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Are any of these      things something you could implement into your job or use as a part time      job avenue?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="13" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Don’t      cut prices, but reward your customers:&lt;span style=""&gt;       &lt;/span&gt;During a recession business owners may think that cutting prices      will help them and their customers. Don’t do it.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Keep your prices as they are but offer      your customers a coupon or a rewards program, to reward them for sticking      with you during tough times.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="14" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Build      value:&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Offer a buy one get one deal      or buy one get something at 50% off. This increases your sales, where      someone might have only purchased one item, with a deal like that it seems      almost foolish to them not to take advantage of the deal and therefore      purchase more from you&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="15" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Get in      contact with past customers who have not purchased from you in a while,      this can activate a dormant account and possibly create more sales for      you.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="16" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Follow      up on any new leads and all old leads:&lt;span style=""&gt;       &lt;/span&gt;Call them and see if they have a need for anything you offer.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="17" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Offer      Outstanding customer service:&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;To      keep your customers you want to give them more than what they pay      for.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Keep your customers happy and      they will stay with you.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="18" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Aggressively      work on your marketing plan: send out press releases,&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;keep yourself in the eyes of your target      audience during the recession.&lt;span style=""&gt;       &lt;/span&gt;Since you may have less work than normal, this is a great time to      do this.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Nothing may happen now but      in six months you will see results.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt; &lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="19" type="1"&gt;&lt;li class="MsoNormal" style=""&gt;Tighten      or update and keep on top of your credit policy:&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;now is not the time to extend credit      blindly, and it is the time to collect from any customers that owe you      money.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-458385603696208212?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/458385603696208212/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=458385603696208212' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/458385603696208212'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/458385603696208212'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2008/03/top-19-ways-to-recession-proof-your.html' title='Top 19 ways to Recession Proof your Business or Career TODAY'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-5654377007821752742</id><published>2007-08-04T18:29:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2007-08-04T18:31:50.266-04:00</updated><title type='text'>The end of “Easy Credit”</title><content type='html'>&lt;div align="center"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#660000;"&gt;Like “easy money” easy credit comes to an end&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When easy credit even first began it was perplexing to many. Why were lenders trying to entice consumers who had little or no credit or even consumers with bad credit to borrow money from them? Lenders could make more money by lending money or extending credit to people who could not afford it and who had bad credit in the first place. Doesn’t seem like a very ethical practice, but perfectly legal. But like all things in life, what goes around comes around and as the New York Times puts it “Bam! Easy Credit Evaporates, and so Does the Buyout Frenzy!” If you have watched the news of looked at any newspapers lately you will see they are full of stories about Wall Street, the credit and debt market and the housing market and it isn’t likely to go away any time soon.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This affects the American economy and is creating many more new difficulties for borrowing money for many homeowners and companies that have bad credit and in some cases where they have “passable” credit and even some money to put down. Quite a change from last year where you could get a loan with “No Credit” or “Bad Credit” and even with “No Credit Check!” This credit crisis began with a focus on the sub prime mortgage industry and has now spread into highly leveraged companies as well. We are now in the midst of a very weak market in terms of credit that reaches globally.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This not only affects companies and people who are looking to buy or build new homes, it also affects many jobs in the housing industry. According to a report released on Thursday, July 26, 2007 by Challenger Gray &amp;amp; Christmas, more than 65% of the planned job cuts in the real estate, construction and mortgage sectors are based on the impact of the housing market slump and that number is probably even greater than that. There are also job cuts in other industries such as retail, consumer products and industrial products manufacturing. Wednesday it was reported that the sales of existing homes fell last month to their lowest point in nearly five years. Take a look for yourself, drive down any street or through any neighborhood, how many houses do you see with for sale signs out front and how long have they been there?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the next two years look for many more foreclosures, and defaults on mortgages, sub prime and primary. This slump has at least another year or two to run its course. This will cause even more financial strain for consumers, who may already be struggling to make a mortgage payment. They will likely spend even less in order to try and make their housing payments which will affect the U.S. profit growth in companies nationwide. Any slowdown in consumer spending affects the corporate world’s earnings considerably. In a survey done by the Wall Street Journal of 28 major metropolitan areas, they show that the surge in inventories of unsold home is slowing and in Boston and Denver the number of homes for sale has declined from a year ago. Many sellers who don’t “need” to move have taken their homes off the market. While those who do “need” to move are sprucing up their homes and lowering their prices to try and find a buyer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As more borrowers default on their mortgages it creates this weakness and spreading troubles in the mortgage market and puts those homes back into the already flooded market. In addition to this, most lenders and banks are being more critical on who they lend money to even turning down people with good credit, full time employment and money to put down. According to the Commerce Department the inventory of unsold new homes in June was 537,000 houses.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Who is to blame for this slump? I believe it is the lenders, with the advertisements focusing on people with little or no credit, bad credit and no money down, how did they expect these people to make those mortgage payments indefinitely? When you advertise to people who don’t have credit or who have bad credit, of course they want to apply for a mortgage with you, and everyone wants to “move up” in the world, by owning their own home, or owning a nicer or larger home. I believe the lenders persuaded these consumers to borrow many times, more than they could easily afford with an adjustable rate mortgage when they felt sure the rates would rise. Many of the borrowers are so excited or enthralled with the thought of owning their own home or having a better life, that they don’t or didn’t pay particular attention to the type of interest or interest rates they were sucked into. Many believe that this was their only option to ever own a home, and so they took the bait. Most lenders or bankers would not or did not point out to a potential customer that the loan rate were all but certain to rise, now resulting in many of these borrowers being in default. Many of these sub prime mortgages that are now in default should never have been made at all. Now with tighter lending standards being put into place troubled borrowers are floundering. Now that their homes are worth considerably less and they might want to refinance in order to make their mortgage payments, they will not be approved which will contribute to even more prime-loan defaults in the next year.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-5654377007821752742?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/5654377007821752742/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=5654377007821752742' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/5654377007821752742'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/5654377007821752742'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2007/08/end-of-easy-credit.html' title='The end of “Easy Credit”'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-116964698407430627</id><published>2007-01-24T08:55:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-01-24T08:56:24.090-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Have you been Denied for a Business Loan? Add a Credit Policy to your Business Plan and Get Approved!</title><content type='html'>If you have been to the bank to get a business loan to start a business or for funding for your existing business you probably approached them with a business plan and possibly a marketing plan or outline.  Every business plan has part of if not all of a marketing plan included.  If you were denied your loan, part of the problem could be that you didn’t explain or elaborate enough on how you were going to pay back the money you want to borrow.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Your business plan tells the lender what you are going to do for a business, and the marketing plan tells them how you are going to obtain new clients and make money.  Your credit plan or credit policy tells them how you are going to get paid, in order to pay them back.  The credit plan will also tell them what you will do if you do make sales and don’t get paid.  This can put a bankers mind at ease, while showing them that you are serious about your business and about paying them back.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Approval of any loan is based on many things, one of the most important being on how you present yourself and your business.  A well written business plan is the first step, and will give the lender an overall picture of your business.  Make sure you include a credit history or if you have poor credit, get copies of your credit reports and fix any errors and pay off any debts before approaching a lender. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You can expedite the processing of your loan by providing the lender with as much relevant information that they need to make a decision right away.  If they have to continually contact you for more information, your chances of approval go down. Banks will carefully and particularly look to see if you have a solid understanding of financial record keeping, business credit, the importance of collecting accounts receivables, inventory control and turnover and marketing.   If you include a credit policy as well as a marketing plan or marketing plan outline with your business plan you will find that the lender will take you much more seriously and if they had any questions on your understanding of their being paid back will see that you have thought this through and have a plan in place to pay them back their money. That makes every banker happy; remember they make money by lending you money. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Remember, when you are trying to get someone to give you money, it is a hard job and the more thorough you are the better your chances.  If you approach your lender with a professional looking business plan, that includes a marketing plan and a credit plan, your application will go to the top of the pile.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-116964698407430627?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='related' href='http://www.michelledunn.com/published/articles/by_michelle/have-you-been-denied-for-.shtml' title='Have you been Denied for a Business Loan? Add a Credit Policy to your Business Plan and Get Approved!'/><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/116964698407430627/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=116964698407430627' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/116964698407430627'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/116964698407430627'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2007/01/have-you-been-denied-for-business-loan.html' title='Have you been Denied for a Business Loan? Add a Credit Policy to your Business Plan and Get Approved!'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-116644486119528209</id><published>2006-12-18T07:26:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2006-12-18T07:27:41.223-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Can I use a Blog or MySpace to promote my Business?</title><content type='html'>I have tried both using a blog &lt;a href="http://www.bizcreditpolicy.com/"&gt;www.BizCreditPolicy.com&lt;/a&gt; and My Space www.myspace.com/michelledunn to promote myself and my books.  I had heard of My Space but thought it was a place for teens or kids, the description on their website is “a place for friends”.   One afternoon I was reading an issue of Entrepreneur and they had a story about a woman who said she had used My Space as a marketing tool for her business.  My first thought was “there are business people on My Space?”  So I checked it out.  I found there were very few business people that were active members, and a lot of teens, younger kids, musicians and people looking to party and meet other people with similar interests.  I also saw that they have groups and some do pertain to business while some seem as if they are business related but are “Get Rich Quick” groups.  There are groups for anything you can imagine someone might have an interest in. I thought I would try it, since I like to try everything to market myself and my books and it was free!  I created my profile page, uploaded my pictures and began browsing the site for other business owners. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have met a few people that I network with but I did not have a huge response or increased traffic to my website or orders of my books because of my myspace page.  It is a fun way to meet a few other business people but you also have to weed through the emails from people just “hanging out” there and sending you emails about dating or partying.  I found it was not worth the time and effort to continuously maintain a My Space profile for my business, but am hoping that will change. It was taking me too much time to weed through all the “friend requests” and “emails” from people who had no interest in my books or business.  I have left my page up and do check it occasionally as well as post to my blog. My Space page also comes up when someone does a search on Google or Yahoo for me, so that is a bonus as well.  If they find me on My Space and then visit my website, I have accomplished what I started out to do.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My recommendation with My Space is that if you have the time to create a page and do a little searching for business groups and people, it is something that does not hurt you to have it out there, but I wouldn’t count on it to help you make more sales or increase your websites traffic.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Depending on what you are marketing, a blog at My Space may be the tool for you. Tish Hill, from “Off the Hanger” which sells, buys and trades quality high-end used clothing and accessories tells me that she had no experience in blogging, websites or anything to market her business online.   “My Space is a great option for me because my target audience is young people who want high quality fashion without the big price tags.” states Tish.  “My Space is user friendly, anyone can create a page without any technical knowledge” says Tish.   “You can screen the friends you accept, so you have quality contacts, and send out bulletins of special events or sales and keep a blog with fashion tips and ideas from what we have in the store.”  I think this is a great option for young people who visit My Space; to have other profiles to view that are positive if they are going to be “hanging out” on My Space.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Depending on your business and who your target audience is, My Space can work to help market your business.  Check it out and you can decide if it is a good fit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have a blog (&lt;a href="http://www.bizcreditpolicy.com/"&gt;www.BizCreditPolicy.com&lt;/a&gt;) through Know More Media, which is an online publisher of business information and news. The authors provide a broad spectrum of business knowledge, publishing their expertise on a continual basis. This is a great marketing tool.  When you blog, it is like a diary.  You can post every day, a few times a day or whenever you have something you want to share with your readers.  In my case, my blog is about Credit Policy for businesses and how to extend credit and manage credit risk.  The difference here and why this is so much more successful with marketing yourself than My Space, is that this is a blog for business!  My Space does not provide me with my target audience, but Know More Media does, so this is a perfect fit if you have something of interest to entrepreneurs, business owners or business professionals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When you use a blog to market yourself and your business, remember it is not a bulletin board for advertisements.  You can list accomplishments, such as an award or press event, but don’t blatantly advertise your business.  If you do, you will not have many readers.  Give your readers valuable information, and update it often to keep them coming back and to keep the search engines coming back to index your blog.  You want to post quality information, for example, I write books about collecting money and starting a collection agency.  In my blog posts I try to give people tips on how to collect more money, or what is going on in the news in regards to my subject matter.  You can incorporate other authors from your genre and do little interviews with them, link to their websites, and have them linked to your blog. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Easton Ellsworth who writes for “Business Blog Wire (&lt;a href="http://www.businessblogwire.com/"&gt;www.BusinessBlogWire.com&lt;/a&gt;) and is also an associate editor for the Know More Media network of blogs about business has some great tips for businesses who want to utilize a blog to help promote their business.  “A blog can promote your business in many ways.  You could use a blog to tell existing and potential customers about new products or services” states Easton.  “No matter what you do with a blog, make sure you have a clear plan before you start blogging about anything and everything.” Says Easton. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Easton was kind enough to share with me a simple process anyone can use to launch a blog right:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Choose a specific purpose and target audience.&lt;br /&gt;Pick a smart URL and title.&lt;br /&gt;Establish guidelines for the person(s) who will write for the blog.&lt;br /&gt;Read other blogs and talk to bloggers in your industry.&lt;br /&gt;Prepare a modest collection of ready-to-publish posts and quietly put several of them online.&lt;br /&gt;When you’re ready, tell the world about your blog!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name="OLE_LINK1"&gt;Michelle Dunn, author of an award winning book has spent the last 18 years stepping into dangerous debt collection potholes.  She shares her hard-won expertise on debt collection with the release of a Second Edition title in her “Collecting Money Series.” She is the founder and president of Never Dunn Publishing, LLC, is a writer, teacher, and consultant. Michelle started and ran M.A.D. Collection Agency for 8 years. She created Credit &amp; Collections a nine year old Association for credit and business professionals with over 978 members.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Michelle has been featured in Forbes.com, The Nilson Report, The Wall Street Journal, Ladies Home Journal, PC World, Home Business Magazine, Home Business Journal, Entrepreneur, Professional Collector, Credit &amp; Collections Risk, NH Business Review and in many books including Home Based Business for Dummies. Michelle has been a featured guest on (NPR) National Public Radio and has been in many newspapers and magazines nationwide as well as on the CBS Early Show.  She has many published articles and 7 published books to add to her list of accomplishments.  Entrepreneur Press released “The Ultimate Credit &amp; Collections Handbook, the check IS in the mail” penned by Dunn in 2006.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Visit &lt;a href="http://www.michelledunn.com/"&gt;www.michelledunn.com&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.credit-and-collections.com/"&gt;www.credit-and-collections.com&lt;/a&gt; for more information about Michelle Dunn and her books. To learn more about “Off the Hanger” visit &lt;a title="http://www.myspace.com/offthehanger" href="http://www.myspace.com/offthehanger"&gt;www.myspace.com/offthehanger&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a title="http://www.offthehanger.biz/" href="http://www.offthehanger.biz/"&gt;www.offthehanger.biz&lt;/a&gt;  Get more blogging tips at Easton Ellsworth’s blog &lt;a href="http://www.businessblogwire.com/"&gt;www.businessblogwire.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-116644486119528209?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/116644486119528209/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=116644486119528209' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/116644486119528209'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/116644486119528209'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2006/12/can-i-use-blog-or-myspace-to-promote.html' title='Can I use a Blog or MySpace to promote my Business?'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-115521098883070623</id><published>2006-08-10T07:55:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2006-08-10T07:56:28.840-04:00</updated><title type='text'>$141 Billion of Consumer Debt was charged off last year</title><content type='html'>&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;The Boston Globe is doing a series right now called “&lt;st1:personname st="on"&gt;Deb&lt;/st1:PersonName&gt;tors’ Hell” in their last segment, Part 4, they state, “They generally owe the money, but seldom anticipate the consequences.”&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;I have found that to be my experience even when the consequences were printed on the credit application they have signed.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;Richard S Daniels Jr. the &lt;st1:city st="on"&gt;&lt;st1:place st="on"&gt;Boston&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:City&gt; lawyer The Globe interviewed said it perfectly, “Any system that puts people’s backs up against the wall doesn’t work.”&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;If you listen to my interview on NPR that aired on January 29, 2003 on All Things Considered, you will see that I spent my debt collection years trying to help debtors to get the bill paid that I was collecting on while having understanding for their situations.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Sometimes this meant advising my client there was a hardship situation, or offering a settlement amount and taking payments.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;This only works with the debtors who seriously have run into hard times, not the “career” debtors.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;I created an online community for debt collection professionals and explain in my book “Starting a Collection Agency, How to make money collecting money” that being a bully does not work and is also against the law. Compassion, patience and understanding will help you collect more money and also let you and the debtor keep their dignity in an already embarrassing situation.&lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;I am not saying everyone follows these practices but I think that debt collectors have been given a bad rap collectively and there are many collectors out there who follow the law and try to work with people rather than bully them into paying. I encourage collectors to join associations in the collection industry, as well as the Better Business Bureau and their local Chambers of Commerce.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;This is because when you are operating an agency, even if you are the most perfect agency on the planet, this will let anyone who is considering using your agency see that you belong to these organizations, which lends your agency credibility and shows you have ethics.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;The people who hire an agency, should realize the agency they choose is a reflection of their business, and not choose an agency because it is the lowest price, but because it is an honest, ethical agency that can back that up with references and statistics.&lt;/p&gt;    &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;Something to consider is if there are debtors who feel they are being treated unfairly by a collection agency, we might want to look at the creditor that chose to use that agency.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Why did they choose that agency?&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Maybe they are not aware the agency might have done something they wouldn’t have done, but shouldn’t they be?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-115521098883070623?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/115521098883070623/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=115521098883070623' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/115521098883070623'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/115521098883070623'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2006/08/141-billion-of-consumer-debt-was.html' title='$141 Billion of Consumer Debt was charged off last year'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-115460425507846448</id><published>2006-08-03T07:22:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2006-08-03T07:24:15.096-04:00</updated><title type='text'>How to Deal with Customers that Do Not Pay</title><content type='html'>&lt;span class="plogBodyText"&gt; &lt;div&gt;Author Michelle Dunn, has been interviewed by Tom Taulli who writes a  weekly column for Forbes.com.&lt;span&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;“Tom contacted me on a Sunday night  and had just found my book online”, says Dunn.&lt;span&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Tom had a deadline  for his column which is featured on the front page of the Forbes.com website  each week, and this weeks column is about how business owners can deal with  customers that do not pay them, how to decide if someone should be on a cash  only basis, if you should collect using phone calls or letters, hot to escalate  things when no payment is forthcoming and when and how to place accounts with a  collection agency.&lt;span&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;“The article will get front page exposure and  &lt;span style="color:#000000;"&gt;F&lt;span style="color: navy;"&gt;orbes.com gets quite a bit of  traffic approximately 9 to 10 million unique visitors a day” says  Tom.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;As a recognized expert in her industry Dunn has received nationwide press  through the years based on her knowledge and expertise in the debt collection  industry.&lt;span&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Michelle has been featured in Business NH Magazine, The  Wall Street Journal, NH Business Review, NPR, The CBS Early Show and many other  national media.&lt;span&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&lt;b&gt;Tom Taulli &lt;/b&gt;is an author and advisor to startup companies, is the  author of various books on finance, such as The Complete M&amp;A Handbook  (Random House) and Investing in IPO's (Bloomberg Press). Mr. Taulli teaches  finance and investing at a variety of educational institutions, including  University of Southern California (USC) and University of California , Irvine  (UCI). He has written numerous articles for such prestigious publications as  Business2.0, CBS MarketWatch, MSN Investor and Forbes. &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;In addition to being a published author, Mr. Taulli often appears on  high-profile television venues such as CNN, CNBC and Bloomberg TV, and is  frequently quoted in the various print media sources such as the Wall Street  Journal, Barron's, USA Today and LA Times. Besides his books on M&amp;amp;A and  IPO's, Mr. Taulli has written five other books on finance, with publishers such  as Bloomberg Press and McGraw-Hill. Mr. Taulli has a Bachelor of Science degree  in Finance from Cal Poly, Pomona , and a law degree from Whittier School of  Law.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span&gt;Dunn was a debt collector for 17 years, started and ran her  own debt collection agency for 8 years and has written 7 books on the subject of  collecting money. The Second Edition to her first book&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt; “Starting a  Collection Agency”&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt; has just been released in June and  &lt;span&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;b&gt;Entrepreneur Press&lt;/b&gt; is publishing Dunn’s book&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt; “The  Ultimate Handbook of Credit &amp; Collections, the Check IS in the Mail”&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;  on August 1, 2006. Dunn also owns and moderates Credit &amp;amp; Collections a 10  year old online networking community and website with over 950 members.&lt;span&gt;   &lt;/span&gt;To learn more about Michelle or her services please visit &lt;a href="/gp/redirect.html/ref=cm_plog_item_link/103-8750227-9728606?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.michelledunn.com%2F&amp;amp;token=FAE03685104D0B69B7233E003F0E4F7DEE2C8B65" target="_blank"&gt;www.michelledunn.com&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href="/gp/redirect.html/ref=cm_plog_item_link/103-8750227-9728606?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.credit-and-collections.com%2F&amp;amp;token=3395B5832A5DFAD54647D43C4810543D2C975E66" target="_blank"&gt;www.credit-and-collections.com&lt;/a&gt; To learn more about Tom visit  &lt;a href="/gp/redirect.html/ref=cm_plog_item_link/103-8750227-9728606?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.taulli.com%2F&amp;amp;token=DC5FDFFB3DBE841919932961A9B049CEEE613F6E" target="_blank"&gt;http://www.taulli.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;span&gt;    &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-115460425507846448?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/115460425507846448/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=115460425507846448' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/115460425507846448'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/115460425507846448'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-to-deal-with-customers-that-do-not.html' title='How to Deal with Customers that Do Not Pay'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-113810337573309831</id><published>2006-01-24T06:47:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2006-01-24T06:49:35.743-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Press!</title><content type='html'>I am happy to announce that I was featured in The Dollar Strecher Newsletter yesterday and received a lot fo great comments from people, thank you!&lt;br /&gt;Look for more articles I have written in the April/March issue of "Home Business Journal" and in the March issue of "Business NH Magazine"  as well as the March issue of "The Neighborhood Watch" newsletter for Glen Allen, VA.&lt;br /&gt;Check out my website for new articles, books and updates on consulting, speaking and teleclasses.&lt;br /&gt;Have a great day!&lt;br /&gt;Michelle Dunn&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-113810337573309831?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/113810337573309831/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=113810337573309831' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/113810337573309831'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/113810337573309831'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2006/01/press.html' title='Press!'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17218362.post-112790688843980010</id><published>2005-09-28T07:26:00.000-04:00</published><updated>2005-09-28T07:28:08.443-04:00</updated><title type='text'>How to make money Collecting Money</title><content type='html'>I just signed up here, and don't have much experience with Blogs.&lt;br /&gt;Michelle Dunn&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.michelledunn.com"&gt;www.michelledunn.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.credit-and-collections.com"&gt;www.credit-and-collections.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/17218362-112790688843980010?l=michelledunn.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/feeds/112790688843980010/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17218362&amp;postID=112790688843980010' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/112790688843980010'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/17218362/posts/default/112790688843980010'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://michelledunn.blogspot.com/2005/09/how-to-make-money-collecting-money.html' title='How to make money Collecting Money'/><author><name>Michelle Dunn</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/01758132116067117662</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='21' height='32' src='http://bp1.blogger.com/_dzariJ5K2m8/R7o_LTUsmEI/AAAAAAAAAAQ/EAK2n04t_rI/S220/MichelleWeb.JPG'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>
