Most of us have been there before, looking to buy a new home. Can you picture the situation now? You see a photo in the estate agents window, and you nip in for a schedule. As soon as the agents know you’re looking to buy a property, they will offer to set up a meeting with their mortgage advisor.
You feel like you are being railroaded into using their services, you now believe that these mortgage advisors are the best in the business. The mortgage deals elsewhere aren’t worth the paper that they have been written on and if you go anywhere else for your mortgage then you will be filing for bankruptcy within 3 months. Does it seem familiar?
While it can be an excellent idea to take on the services of a mortgage advisor, it’s by no means compulsory. Advisors will either charge a fee – in which case they should be offering you totally impartial advice – or they will be on commission. This does mean they are likely to try and steer you towards certain products in the interest of earning a bonus.
A broker is an intermediary who will help you to find the best mortgage deal for your needs and circumstances. Those who subscribe to the Mortgage Code are bound to disclose information about the services they are providing, including:
· Whether they are independent, or tied to a particular organisation
· What commissions, if any, they will receive
· What level of service and advice they can provide
You can request a list of local independent mortgage brokers from The Mortgage Code Register of Intermediaries – check www.cml.org.uk for details. Independent Financial Advisors can also act as intermediaries – some specialise in mortgages. Make sure to find out whether your broker charges a fee before you agree to use them, and how much it will cost. Normally they should only charge you once you have found a mortgage and had your application accepted.
Using a broker can make the process of finding and choosing a mortgage much easier – you give them information about what you are looking for and your finances, and they can do the hard work. Because brokers have experience of the field and a good awareness of current market trends, they can often give good advice to borrowers. They also will have access to a vast range of products that you may struggle to find yourself – mortgages from the smaller providers, for example, may not be prominently advertised.
Independent brokers earn money by selling you products – they may suggest additional insurance policies for example. You are not required to take up these offers, and be aware that the broker is receiving commissions for selling you policies. However, if you are looking for extra insurance – for example repayment protection to cover your mortgage payments – it may be easiest to let the broker find you a policy at the same time as your mortgage.
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Thursday, April 19, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
The Life Of Luxury In Dubai
The United Arab Emirates are a prime tourist destination because they stand out as a remarkable example of how petrodollars can be used to improve the lives of Arabs. In contrast to the poverty for which so much of Arabia is renowned, Dubai features skyscrapers and futuristic amusement parks. Modern Dubai is the product of 20 years of intensive planned development; prior to this, it was a small fishing port of little importance.
The United Arab Emirates, or UAE, is 32,000 square mile political union of seven sheikhdoms, formed when the British left the Gulf region in 1971. The total area of Dubai is approximately 1000 square miles, and it is the second largest emirate in the UAE, after Abu Dhabi. In addition to a federal president and prime minister, each emirate has a separate ruler who oversees the local government. Dubai, a small fishing settlement, was taken over around 1830 by a group of Bani Yas tribesmen from the Liwa oasis, led by the Maktoum family which still rules the tiny nation today. For most of its history, main economic activities were agriculture, fishing and pearl production.
The ruling clan of Dubai was exceptionally progressive, and did their best to make their tiny nation attractive to traders from nations including India and Persia. These businessmen settled in the growing city of Dubai and made it a leading entry port for trade goods. In 1971, the independent emirate joined with the other small sheikhdoms of Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah and, in 1972, Ras Al Khaimah to create the federation of United Arab Emirates.
The discovery of oil in 1966 transformed the region by providing funds for the development of a modern, western infrastructure. The Maktoum family, unlike many middle eastern rulers who hoard oil wealth for their private use alone, ensured that the oil revenue was deployed in national development. Much of the modernization is due to the efforts of Sheikh Rasid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who ruled from 1958 to 1990.
Well informed of the risks of oil-dependency, Sheikh Rashid actively promoted industrial ventures to build his nation's infrastructure. The Aluminium and Cement factory are the result of this endeavour. He also establised the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone, the fifth largest free trade zone in the world. Within 10 years of its inception, it attracted over 900 international companies that include global giants such as General Motors, AEG, Aiwa, BP, Ciba, Geigy, Daewoo and Heinz.
Dubai is appealing to tourists as well as business executives. Like the rest of the U.A.E., it has also been actively promoting itself as a vacation destination. In June 1996 World Travel prizes ceremony held in Las Vegas, USA, it won the gold prize for the best destination in the Middle East.
Dubai features the annual Dubai Shopping Festival, the Dubai World Trade Center which hosts innumerable international events and fairs, the Dubai Air Show, the Dubai Summer Surprises, the world's tallest skyscraper, an undersea hotel and even indoor alpine skiing at the Ski Dubai Dome.
The Dubai International Airport is reputed to be the world's second best transit airport. It currently handles 7.3 million passengers per year with a growth rate of 12% that is double that of any other airport in the world. The emirates, which will begin receiving Airbus A380 superjumbos starting April 2007, will hire 8,000 new staff members as cabin crew for its rapidly expanding air fleet. It is investing $20 million to expand its crew training facility at the Emirates Training Center in Garhoud.
The United Arab Emirates, or UAE, is 32,000 square mile political union of seven sheikhdoms, formed when the British left the Gulf region in 1971. The total area of Dubai is approximately 1000 square miles, and it is the second largest emirate in the UAE, after Abu Dhabi. In addition to a federal president and prime minister, each emirate has a separate ruler who oversees the local government. Dubai, a small fishing settlement, was taken over around 1830 by a group of Bani Yas tribesmen from the Liwa oasis, led by the Maktoum family which still rules the tiny nation today. For most of its history, main economic activities were agriculture, fishing and pearl production.
The ruling clan of Dubai was exceptionally progressive, and did their best to make their tiny nation attractive to traders from nations including India and Persia. These businessmen settled in the growing city of Dubai and made it a leading entry port for trade goods. In 1971, the independent emirate joined with the other small sheikhdoms of Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain, Fujairah and, in 1972, Ras Al Khaimah to create the federation of United Arab Emirates.
The discovery of oil in 1966 transformed the region by providing funds for the development of a modern, western infrastructure. The Maktoum family, unlike many middle eastern rulers who hoard oil wealth for their private use alone, ensured that the oil revenue was deployed in national development. Much of the modernization is due to the efforts of Sheikh Rasid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who ruled from 1958 to 1990.
Well informed of the risks of oil-dependency, Sheikh Rashid actively promoted industrial ventures to build his nation's infrastructure. The Aluminium and Cement factory are the result of this endeavour. He also establised the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone, the fifth largest free trade zone in the world. Within 10 years of its inception, it attracted over 900 international companies that include global giants such as General Motors, AEG, Aiwa, BP, Ciba, Geigy, Daewoo and Heinz.
Dubai is appealing to tourists as well as business executives. Like the rest of the U.A.E., it has also been actively promoting itself as a vacation destination. In June 1996 World Travel prizes ceremony held in Las Vegas, USA, it won the gold prize for the best destination in the Middle East.
Dubai features the annual Dubai Shopping Festival, the Dubai World Trade Center which hosts innumerable international events and fairs, the Dubai Air Show, the Dubai Summer Surprises, the world's tallest skyscraper, an undersea hotel and even indoor alpine skiing at the Ski Dubai Dome.
The Dubai International Airport is reputed to be the world's second best transit airport. It currently handles 7.3 million passengers per year with a growth rate of 12% that is double that of any other airport in the world. The emirates, which will begin receiving Airbus A380 superjumbos starting April 2007, will hire 8,000 new staff members as cabin crew for its rapidly expanding air fleet. It is investing $20 million to expand its crew training facility at the Emirates Training Center in Garhoud.
How To Effectively Market Your Woodworking Products
E-advertisements of woodworking services force the woodworkers to compete to survive in the market.
The question which arises here is how one under such circumstances does, effectively attract customers and start receiving profitable business.
Well, for starters, here are a few suggestions that might help:
1) Showcase your products locally in trade shows organized by different communities. In this way you will be able to get a clear idea of the popularity and prospect of salability of your product. Also, in this way you get a feedback right away so it is profitable for the medium scale businesses. Apart from this a craftsman can make a deal with bigger businesses who can sell his goods and for which he will be charged a small percentage of the sale.
2) Next, forming a network of product marketing through friends and family relatives also helps a lot. They buy the goods initially and informally advertise it for you.
3) Placing ads in the magazines read by your targeted market can work wonders because it is a very popular form of media. You can place an ad in a woodwork magazine. To make it catchy you can hire a photographer to take snaps of your products to be placed in your advertisement.
4) Though people hardly appreciate the time and effort spent on creating woodworks some buyers do have interest in such things. To attract these buyers, at local trade shows, you can set up a live demonstration exhibition.
5) You can also create online woodwork shopping websites for the online transaction of your goods. Basically, creating an online store that features you wonderful woodworking products.
Hiring a broker to sell your woodworks can also help. He can provide you clients, market information and advice you regarding the time and location for you to advertise. That's how you can market your woodwork products.
The question which arises here is how one under such circumstances does, effectively attract customers and start receiving profitable business.
Well, for starters, here are a few suggestions that might help:
1) Showcase your products locally in trade shows organized by different communities. In this way you will be able to get a clear idea of the popularity and prospect of salability of your product. Also, in this way you get a feedback right away so it is profitable for the medium scale businesses. Apart from this a craftsman can make a deal with bigger businesses who can sell his goods and for which he will be charged a small percentage of the sale.
2) Next, forming a network of product marketing through friends and family relatives also helps a lot. They buy the goods initially and informally advertise it for you.
3) Placing ads in the magazines read by your targeted market can work wonders because it is a very popular form of media. You can place an ad in a woodwork magazine. To make it catchy you can hire a photographer to take snaps of your products to be placed in your advertisement.
4) Though people hardly appreciate the time and effort spent on creating woodworks some buyers do have interest in such things. To attract these buyers, at local trade shows, you can set up a live demonstration exhibition.
5) You can also create online woodwork shopping websites for the online transaction of your goods. Basically, creating an online store that features you wonderful woodworking products.
Hiring a broker to sell your woodworks can also help. He can provide you clients, market information and advice you regarding the time and location for you to advertise. That's how you can market your woodwork products.
Staff Augmentation services for businesses
Staff augmentation gives customers a chance to hire a worker or a team of employees for a certain period of time and remove employees when the task or the project is over. This practice helps to reduce the operational costs, arising from the need to employ new people with the required skills.
Clients who turn to firms, offering staff augmentation services, have to pay for the employees only when there is a need to use their services. They get a possibility to use the services of the professionals, who specialize in the very field the customer needs. By doing so, they also get a chance to respond to the quickly changing market needs. The employees who are usually hired often have a great desire to work as they normally get better wages at outsourcing centers than they would if they worked for a local firm. Staff augmentation centers possess the latest technologies and expertise, and the customers also get an access to the technological innovations, which they may need for their projects.
Staff augmentation centers may provide professionals in the following spheres: web development, mainframe programming, business analytics, software development and engineering, technical writing, customer support, systems analytics, call centers, desk help, technical support, project management, database design and administration, network engineering and administration, and others.
Staff augmentation centers may offer the services of workers for both short-term and long-term projects. Often companies have long-term projects with the necessity to involve IT teams. Some of them hire IT specialists full-time; however they may supplement the team with one or several specialists, which will be needed only for a short period of time. In this case they turn to the outsourcing centers. Others prefer to use the staff augmentation services and hire IT staff offshore for a long period of time. This has the aim of seriously minimizing the costs spent on IT staff.
Working with the employees, provided by staff augmentation services is really easy. It is actually as easy as working with your own employees, who sit in another room. The modern means of communication allow to easily talk to your colleague abroad and even to control how the job is done in real-time.
Most staff augmentation centers have employees, who work dedicatedly on customer projects in different parts of the world, therefore most companies can really benefit from them.
Clients who turn to firms, offering staff augmentation services, have to pay for the employees only when there is a need to use their services. They get a possibility to use the services of the professionals, who specialize in the very field the customer needs. By doing so, they also get a chance to respond to the quickly changing market needs. The employees who are usually hired often have a great desire to work as they normally get better wages at outsourcing centers than they would if they worked for a local firm. Staff augmentation centers possess the latest technologies and expertise, and the customers also get an access to the technological innovations, which they may need for their projects.
Staff augmentation centers may provide professionals in the following spheres: web development, mainframe programming, business analytics, software development and engineering, technical writing, customer support, systems analytics, call centers, desk help, technical support, project management, database design and administration, network engineering and administration, and others.
Staff augmentation centers may offer the services of workers for both short-term and long-term projects. Often companies have long-term projects with the necessity to involve IT teams. Some of them hire IT specialists full-time; however they may supplement the team with one or several specialists, which will be needed only for a short period of time. In this case they turn to the outsourcing centers. Others prefer to use the staff augmentation services and hire IT staff offshore for a long period of time. This has the aim of seriously minimizing the costs spent on IT staff.
Working with the employees, provided by staff augmentation services is really easy. It is actually as easy as working with your own employees, who sit in another room. The modern means of communication allow to easily talk to your colleague abroad and even to control how the job is done in real-time.
Most staff augmentation centers have employees, who work dedicatedly on customer projects in different parts of the world, therefore most companies can really benefit from them.
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