With 2010 in full swing, Canada is beginning to feel a greater sense of confidence in the nation’s economic situation. Well on the path to recovery, the nation now inhabits citizens who are planning their financial futures with a bit more scrutiny than year or so ago. In today’s edition of The Toronto Sun, P.J. Harston advises people to be cautious with their personal finances this year.

Harston suggests that playing it safe is probably the best bet informing us that there is no need to get overly worried or overly confident just yet. Budgeting should be at the top of everyone’s to do list. Improving your budgeting is the key to ensuring that you don’t overspend or find yourself in more debt.

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” he reminds us. Harston insists that each of your financial decisions should be realistic. Make sure to devote the appropriate amount of funds to each of your important priorities. Proper budgeting is perhaps the most important task to accomplish if you want to ensure your finances are in good shape.

He writes: “If you fail to budget enough — or properly — you won’t have money to tuck into your RRSP; you won’t have money to put into a tax-free savings account; you can forget about investing in savings bonds and the stock market. You’ll end up shorting yourself with nobody else to blame.”

The second most important task involves reducing your debt. To do so, Harston suggests that you learn to stop spending money that you don’t have. And while this seems like common sense, many Canadians find themselves in debt simply because they put purchases on their credit cards that they are unable to pay off in full.

As a result, they find themselves paying off high balances that accrue high interest charges that seemingly never disappear no matter how many payments are made towards them. One suggestion is to apply for a “zero-interest, pay-as-you-go credit cards that you pre-load with cash and you can only use as much money as you load on to it.”

Acknowledging that having a credit card can still be very beneficial, he notes that with this type of account, one can still make hotel reservations, book a car rental or buy items online without the risk of spending money that you don’t actually have.

The moral of the story: Make it a mission of yours to carry as little debt as possible. Says Harston: “The less debt you carry — and here’s hoping you have no credit-card debt — the better off you are and you’ll continue to be moving forward in this recovering economy.”

In order to ensure that a Canadian business owner is eligible to participate in Synergy Merchant Services’ unique cash advance program, there is one very important criteria that must be met. The business must accept credit and/or debit cards as methods of payments at their locations. The program is based squarely on a company’s ability to process Visa, MasterCard and/or Interac transactions.

In this day and age, it actually amazes us that there are still merchants out there who do not have a relationship with a point-of-sale processor and therefore do not accept any of these cards as forms of payment. Interestingly, The QMI Agency reports today that the use of plastic is only becoming increasingly popular in North America.

In an article posted on The Toronto Sun‘s website, it was revealed that debit cards are especially becoming more widely used for everyday purchases throughout the continent. Says the report: “Debit cards are increasingly propping up the bottom lines of credit card giants MasterCard and Visa, reflecting a shift in spending habits…MasterCard reported a 25% jump in fourth-quarter profits.”

The article, in fact, goes on to note that the use of MasterCard debit cards are increasing globally. The credit card giant reports worldwide purchase transactions of $2.8 billion US last year – a 16.5 per cent jump from the year previous.

Patricia Preston, head of MasterCard’s U.S. debit product management and development division reveals that consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable with plastic. She notices that they generally tend to use debit cards for everyday purposes while credit cards are most often used for larger ticket items. The use of cash and cheques for most purchases is slowly becoming a thing of the past.

She explains that debit cards give consumers a sense of control over their spending as they acknowledge that it teaches them to only spend what they can afford. Meanwhile, as successful as MasterCard continues to be, its biggest rival Visa also reports major profits boosted by debit card use. A 33 per cent spike in profits was reported for their latest quarter.

Visa CEO Joseph Saunders agrees that a shift towards greater debit card use has helped to foster this growth. As The QMI Agency reveals: “Visa debit transactions rose 17% in the quarter that ended Dec. 31 compared to the year-ago period. Debit purchases now make up 54% of total U.S. payment volume.”

At present, Visa maintains a larger debit card presence than MasterCard although its competition remains confident that it is cutting into Visa’s market share. Nevertheless, this is all very good news for merchants who accept Visa and MasterCard as forms of payment in their establishments.

Of course, Interac or debit card usage in Canada continues to be very popular. We strongly advise any merchant not currently accepting plastic to look into getting a payment processor as soon as possible. Your acceptance of plastic will greatly increase your sales and obviously allow you to then take advantage of Synergy’s merchant cash advance program.

Get swiping!

The financial crisis that affected the globe over the course of the last year or so certainly had its impact on all kinds of businesses. Slower sales turned into job losses which turned into growing concern than some industries would find it difficult to even survive into the new decade.

One industry that seems to have not been impacted too greatly however is tourism in Toronto. According to Business Reporter, Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew in today’s edition of The Toronto Star, Toronto’s tourism industry remained fairly steady throughout 2009. Citing a report released by Tourism Toronto yesterday, the city welcomed 10 million overnight visitors in 2009 which was down by only about 600,000 people from the year before.

It seems like the biggest city in Canada is still one of the country’s biggest attractions. The fact that Toronto still generates enough interest to draw in visitors during hard economic times speaks volumes about the fact that it is a world-class city. Perhaps, more importantly, it also helps to generate much needed revenue for the many different businesses throughout Toronto.

As Acharya-Tom Yew writes: “In 2008, overnight visitors added about $3.5 billion to the economy in the Greater Toronto Area as they spent money on hotels, restaurants and shopping. Another 10 million day trippers contributed an additional $1 billion.”

In 2009, a major hit to tourism in Toronto was expected as the first half of the year showed that many would-be travellers were staying home. In addition to being cash-strapped, people may have also been put off by Toronto’s unseasonably cool and wet spring season during May and June. During this time, hotel occupancy rates decreased by approximately 10 per cent from their 2008 levels.

As if that wasn’t enough to hurt the tourism industry in T.O., new laws regarding travel within North America were not making it any easier for visitors to flock to the city. Acharya-Tom Yew reminds us that “along with the stronger Canadian dollar, new rules requiring American visitors to present a passport at the border and travellers from Mexico to have visas seemed to add insult to the tourism industry’s injuries.”

However, by the time August rolled around, better weather and signs of a growing economy reared their heads. As mentioned in the Synergy Merchant Services Blog back in August 2009, Toronto’s annual Caribana festival and parade celebrating Caribbean music and culture, brought in upwards of $350 million to the city drawing 1.2 million revellers.

In addition to this year’s parade, Toronto has a number of high-profile international events on the horizon including the International Indian Film Academy Awards in 2011 and the Pan Am Games in 2015. Tourism in the city, of course, is expected to continue to rise.

Says Toronto Tourism spokesman Andrew Weir: “We want to raise Toronto’s profile, make sure people know this is one of the top urban destinations in North America…If you like cities, Toronto should be on your list and it should be high on your list.”

Last year, the Canadian economy took a great hit due to the global recession. As a result, the Canadian news media was wrought with stories about job losses, bankrupt businesses and financial despair for a good portion of the population. With the turn of the decade however, the nation appears more optimistic than it has been in over a year about the future of Canada’s economic status.

The Synergy Merchant Services Blog has kept on top of a number of surveys that were conducted over the course of 2009 that took a look at the feelings among Canadian business owners and their views about either the decimation or growth of their staff. Today, the QMI Agency reported on The Toronto Sun’s website that small businesses are becoming increasingly optimistic about their hiring practices in the first half of 2010.

According to the report: “Three-quarters of business owners in this country said staffing levels will remain unchanged over the next six months and another 22% plan to hire in near term. Only 4% plan to slash employees in the first half on 2010.” It goes on to note that employers intend on investing more in their businesses this year as well.

The success of small businesses in Canada is no small deal. The QMI Agency reveals that small business makes up a whopping 98 per cent of Canada’s 2.3 million businesses. They are, says the report, “the backbone of the national economy”.

The Synergy Merchant Services team remains proud of the fact that they have worked diligently to ensure that numerous small business owners throughout the nation have our innovative merchant cash advance program to thank for assisting the growth of their companies. We are even prouder of the fact that we have had the pleasure of developing strong working relationships with Canadian entrepreneurs who are such huge parts of what drives the national economy.

Derrick Ragland, the global head of Business Banking at HSBC acknowledges the importance of small businesses throughout the world in the strengthening of the world’s financial situation after the recent crisis.

Said Ragland: “There is a rebalancing of the world economy, and emerging markets are becoming more and more important as a driver of growth,” said Derrick Ragland, global head of Business Banking at HSBC…Small businesses are at the heart of this growth, driving local job creation, investment and productivity.”

Synergy provides working capital to small to medium-sized businesses all over Canada. If you process Visa, MasterCard and Interac transactions at your location, we would love the opportunity to offer you a free, no obligation quote for a merchant cash advance in the hopes that we may assist your business in helping to grow both the national and global economy that much more.

It’s official Canada. We are in the month of February. And that means we are just under a couple of weeks away until we host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Of course, the entire nation will be watching and rooting for its countrymen to make it to the podium in as many events as possible. And it goes without saying that Canada is most certainly looking for big things to happen at the hockey rink.

With as skilled a team as Canada has in both the men’s and women’s hockey tournaments, a little extra luck couldn’t possibly hurt right? Well, back in 2002, Canadian ice-make Trent Evans felt that way and decided to bury a loonie – our famed Canadian one dollar coin – beneath centre ice at the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. That year, the men’s and women’s Team Canada hockey teams both won gold!

This year, Canadians are hoping that maybe the “Lucky Loonie” will bring our hockey teams that extra dose of luck once again. Except this time, the loonie will not be buried beneath centre ice. After the 2002 games, the loonie was excavated from the ice and presented to Team Canada general manager and hockey legend, Wayne Gretzky.

Gretzky has since donated this loonie to the Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto. And now all visitors to the Hockey Hall of Fame will have the opportunity to join in the “luck wishing” practice by giving the famed “Lucky Loonie” a rub!

That right! As The Toronto Sun reports today, “a hole in the protective hard plastic covering the $1 icon was opened Monday by legendary hockey coach and commentator Don Cherry for the first time in eight years.” Visitors are encouraged to go ahead and stick their fingers through the hole to touch the loonie in a symbolic gesture of well-wishes to Team Canada.

For those worrying about the potential tarnishing of the loonie due to so many grubby and potentially dirty fingers touching the storied coin, Hockey Hall of Fame spokesman Bob Stellick has already thought of that. A protective coating was added to the loonie to protect its shine and luster.

He knows many hockey fans are superstitious, and like Don Cherry, feel that rubbing the loonie may just provide the extra luck that Team Canada needs to secure gold once again at the Winter Olympics. The loonie will be available for rubbing all through the duration of the Olympics, and perhaps even until the end of February.

“It’s worth it, come down and just touch it,” said Cherry who was the first to offer his well-wishes to the men’s and women’s Canadian hockey teams. Never one to shy away from his support of Team Canada, Cherry was decked out in a red jacket and Team Canada baseball cap at the loonie’s unveiling.

So do as the man says and take advantage of this unique opportunity to help Team Canada regain hockey’s gold medals at the Olympics. The Hockey Hall of Fame is located at the corner of Front and Yonge in downtown Toronto. General admission is $15. Go Canada!