Make It Easier to Get Paid and Pay Employees

Businesses that pay attention to customers’ payment preferences should note trends and consider incorporating new technologies into their payment processes. For example, PIN-debit transactions grew 11.8% this January compared with January 2009, according to First Data’s January 2010 Spend Trend Report. Small businesses that don’t offer PIN-debit could upgrade their point-of-sale systems or add a peripheral device to offer this payment option.

Below are several other examples of commonly overlooked items that small business owners looking for ways to improve the bottom line should consider:

1. Point of Sale. Finding the right point-of-sale systems can mean greater flexibility in accepting payments and being ready for innovations in payments—potentially lowering infrastructure costs, decreasing customer wait times, and making transaction processing more reliable and secure.

2. Payroll. Direct deposit is a convenient way for employees to receive their pay, but millions of Americans still receive paper checks. Switching to electronic payroll distribution can significantly reduce payroll costs while giving employees easier access to their wages though a payroll card or self-issued check.

3. Paper Checks. Businesses can accept checks through their Web sites or convert them to electronic transactions at the point of sale or in a back office, allowing for quicker deposits and improved cash flow with faster funding. Additional benefits include quick insufficient-fund notices and enhanced security with electronic check processing.

Mark Herrington
General Manager, Retail Solutions
First Data
Atlanta

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/tips/archives/2010/04/make_it_easier.html

JAL to cut more flights, retire planes earlier

Japan Airlines Corp., undergoing a government-backed turnaround in bankruptcy, said Wednesday it will increase route cuts and retire planes earlier than planned in a bid to return to profit.

The carrier will cut 15 overseas and 30 domestic flights this business year, compared with an earlier plan to slash 31 routes over three years, President Masaru Onishi said at a news conference in Tokyo. Chairman Kazuo Inamori was also present.

The airline will stop flying to Sao Paulo, Amsterdam, Rome and Milan from Tokyo starting Sept. 30, the company said.

The 30 domestic flight routes to be terminated from Oct. 30 include those to and from Aichi Prefecture-run Nagoya airport, Hiroshima-Nishi airport in Hiroshima, Okadama airport in Sapporo and Okushiri airport on the island of Okushiri off Hokkaido, JAL said.

As JAL works out the details of its rehabilitation measures,including the route cuts, the government-backed turnaround body said the airline's submission of its turnaround plan to the Tokyo District Court may be delayed from the initial target of late June.

Hideo Seto, trustee of the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan, which is overseeing the airline's turnaround, told the news conference there is a "likelihood that (the submission) will be slightly delayed" to enable JAL to come up with a "firm" and "effective" turnaround plan.

Asia's largest carrier by sales said it will carry out "drastic cuts" in costs in one year rather than three years to speed its turnaround after filing for Japan's fourth-largest bankruptcy in January. Political opposition may still limit how deeply JAL can pare flights, said Mitsushige Akino of Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co.

"JAL is likely to face local opposition to cutting routes," he said. "They should really stop flying internationally if they want to stop big swings in their earnings."

Earlier this month, Onishi told reporters in Los Angeles that the airline may increase job cuts to return to profit.

JAL was headed for a fifth annual decline in international passenger numbers, according to figures released April 12. Overseas traveler numbers fell 8.6 percent in the 11 months to February, following a 12 percent drop in the previous fiscal year.

It will retire its Boeing Co. 747s and Airbus SAS A300 planes by March 31, according to the statement. It had planned to retire the 37 Boeing 747s over three years under the turnaround plan released in January.

The carrier, which was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange in February, predicted it would lose money in the 12 months that ended March 31. It had a net loss of ¥46.8 billion in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of ¥39 billion a year earlier.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20100429n1.html

Giant Lizard From Philippines is a New Species, Scientists Conclude

A 6.5-foot-long monitor lizard discovered in 2004 in the mountains of the Philippines is a previously unidentified species, researchers have concluded. After capturing an adult last year, they were able to determine the monitor is new to science.

Called the Northern Sierra Madre Forest Monitor Lizard, or Varanus bitatawa, the lizard eats fruit and snails, unlike many other monitors, including Komodo dragons, which are scavengers. The new species spends much of its time in trees.

The chief of the Philippines environment department said the discovery of "such a large, charismatic, and strikingly distinct new species of vertebrate" shows how little is yet known about the region´s biodiversity.

http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=83691

Governor kills thousands of Colorado Internet business

From a report at the first link below:

Colorado's Democratic legislature and governor thought they were being clever.

By putting the screws to online retailers, they could reap millions of dollars in tax revenues from items sold over the Internet and fill the budget gaps created by their failure to control spending and plan for hard economic times.

According to numbers provided by the governors office, the stimulus package "created or saved" 9,300 Colorado jobs.

It’s almost as if Governor Bill Ritter (pictured) thought that was too many jobs, because with one swipe of his pen he killed more than half that many Colorado jobs.

Ritter and his Democrats in the legislature imposed new rules designed to force retailers into collecting Colorado sales tax on all Internet sales to Colorado residents.

It backfired immediately.

Amazon.com cut ties Monday with Colorado online businesses that help it sell products because of a new state law aimed at getting out-of-state, online retailers to collect sales tax.

The move hurts Colorado businesses -- many of them small, home-based operations -- that earn money by using their Web sites and blogs to link customers to online retailers.

Colorado has at least 4,200 such businesses, known as affiliates or associates, accounting for about 5,000 jobs, and most of them rely on Amazon to some degree, according to their trade group, the Performance Marketing Association.

Governor Ritter has already said he will not run for re-election in November so he is not hurting himself. However, there will be many Democrats in the Colorado legislature who will lose re-election bids in November as a result of this legislative boondoggle.

http://caveviews.blogs.com/cave_news/2010/03/governor-kills-thousands-of-colorado-internet-business.html

Japanese automakers showcase hybrid, fuel-efficient cars at China show

BEIJING —

The Beijing motor show opened to the media Friday, with automakers from Japan and other parts of the world showcasing their latest fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly models as part of efforts to expand their market shares in the world’s largest automobile market. ‘‘China has become an increasingly important market for Nissan in our global strategy,’’ Nissan Motor Co President Carlos Ghosn said in a presentation at the Beijing International Automobile Exhibition.

Introducing the March global compact car, to be launched in China in the second half of this year, and the Leaf, the world’s first affordable electric vehicle for the mass market, to the audience, Ghosn said Nissan’s sales target for China in 2010 is 850,000 units, following a 40 percent sales increase in 2009.

Honda Motor Co President Takanobu Ito said the automaker will prioritize the full-scale market penetration of hybrid vehicles, so it will best contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.

‘‘Toward this goal, the most important challenge is to provide a wider selection of hybrid models to increase the number of customers in China who can drive hybrid vehicles,’’ Ito said in his presentation.

He said Honda will begin selling in 2012 two hybrid models in China—the Insight and the CR-Z—through Honda’s sales channel in the country.

The show, also known as Auto China 2010, brings together about 2,100 automakers and auto-parts companies from 16 countries and regions. It showcases 990 vehicles, including 89 world debut cars, according to organizers.

Under the theme, ‘‘For a Greener Tomorrow,’’ 95 new-energy vehicles debuted at the event, which will run through May 2, the organizers said.

Toyota Motor Corp is displaying the FT-CH (Future Toyota-Compact Hybrid) concept car, an Asia debut model featuring a gasoline-electric hybrid system, as well as the new Prius, a hybrid car the company plans to introduce in China in the future.

Toyota Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada extended the company’s apology for the global recalls earlier this year, saying it will ‘‘prioritize the opinions of our customers in China in order to conduct automobile manufacturing that meets the expectations of our Chinese customers.’‘

Mazda Motor Corp President Takashi Yamanouchi said that by utilizing Mazda’s next-generation gasoline and diesel engines, which it calls ‘‘Sky Concept engines,’’ the carmaker ‘‘is confident’’ that it will improve the average fuel efficiency of Mazda vehicles sold globally by 30 percent by 2015, compared with the 2008 level.

A senior Mazda executive said the company is expected to achieve its sales target of 220,000 units in China in 2010, up 22 percent from 2009.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp is showcasing the PX-MiEV, a sport utility vehicle plug-in hybrid concept.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/business/view/japan-makers-showcase-hybrid-fuel-efficient-cars-at-china-show

Apollo 14 astronaut claims aliens exist

Former NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - believes in ET.

And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades.

Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.'

Chillingly, he claimed our technology is "not nearly as sophisticated" as theirs and "had they been hostile", he warned "we would be been gone by now".

Preductably, NASA officials were quick to play down the comments of Dr. Mitchell.

In a statement, a spokesman said: "NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover up about alien life on this planet or anywhere in the universe.

'Dr Mitchell is a great American, but we do not share his opinions on this issue.

http://caveviews.blogs.com/cave_news/2008/07/apollo-14-astro.html

Orders for Nissan electric car approach 4,000

TOKYO —

Orders in Japan for Nissan’s electric car have reached 3,754 in three weeks, more than half its target for the entire year, underlining growing consumer interest in the green vehicles.

Nissan Motor Co. is planning to sell 6,000 of the zero-emission Leaf electric vehicles in Japan during this fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2011.

The Leaf has been outselling the i-MiEV, the electric vehicle from Japanese rival Mitsubishi Motors Corp, which has drawn 2,000 orders so far.

In a departure from the usual makeup of electric vehicle buyers, some 64% of the orders for the Leaf are from individual consumers—about a third of them 60 or older—while 36% are fleet customers. Electric cars, still viewed by many as experimental, usually get more orders from government agencies and companies than individuals.

Yokohama-based Nissan, which is allied with Renault SA of France, began taking orders for the Leaf in April and deliveries are set for December. Global mass marketing is scheduled for 2012.

The arrival of the Leaf, as well as its rivals, has made electric vehicles more accessible, especially because of their relatively affordable pricing.

The Leaf’s price falls to 3 million yen with Japanese government incentives, and it’s just over $25,000 in the U.S. with federal tax credits.

In response to the Leaf’s price, Mitsubishi lowered the i-MiEV price to 2.8 million yen with government subsidies.

Others are joining the race.

Chinese automaker BYD has also started retail sales of its new electric car, the F3DM, for the equivalent of $25,000. Ford Motor Co is planning an all-electric Focus for late 2011, and Toyota Motor Corp. has promised an electric vehicle for 2012.

Nissan has long focused on electric vehicles as its primary green technology after falling behind Toyota and Honda Motor Co in hybrids. The Renault-Nissan alliance has signed electric vehicle partnerships with more than 50 governments.

The Leaf has a range of 160 kilometers or 100 miles on a single charge.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/business/view/orders-for-nissan-electric-car-approach-4000

3D Television May be Hazardous

Samsung, one of several companies developing 3D television, has issued a warning to users that the new technology may have adverse effects on some viewers´ health.

The negative effects may include hallucinations, dizziness, decreased postural stability, eye strain and twitching, nausea, epileptic seizures, stroke, and disassociation from the real world. They also say people drinking alcohol should avoid 3D TV.

Some of the symptoms may be alleviated by simply taking a break from viewing the television, while others may require seeing a doctor. The warnings come as the technology is about to make the transition from testing to the consumer market.

http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=83875