It’s the last day of September. So, with October beginning tomorrow, business owners everywhere are preparing to enter the year’s fourth quarter. Generally, the last three months of the year are the busiest, and therefore, most important for any business. This is the time of year when owners are usually working to achieve greater sales and end the year off on a high note.

Clearly, it makes sense to concentrate on strong end-of-the-year sales as the holiday season is guaranteed to provide quite a boost. This doesn’t mean that business owners can simply lay back and take for granted that a sales spike is inevitable. Being diligent in ensuring that customers choose your products and services over the competition is a key to maximizing profits.

There are, of course, times of the year when sales slumps do occur. It is especially important that, during those times, business owners focus on ways to increase sales. However, the final quarter of the year is not one to ignore. Perhaps now, more than any other time of the year is when you should be thinking about having your best sales year yet.

Shari Waters of About.com agrees that boosting retail sales is something that store owners should be concerned about all year round. In a recent article posted on the website, Waters outlines a number of ways that this can be achieved. Whether it’s to increase traffic during slow seasons or to take advantage of the holiday rush, business owners should take measures to utilize these tips.

Investing in advertising is an integral step to take in boosting sales in your store. Many business owners remain concerned about their marketing budgets in the wake of the recent recession. However, it is arguable that there is a better way to overcome the stresses of the economic downturn than to advertise your business.

Waters insists that entrepreneurs should “advertise more”. Increasing marketing efforts can take place through a variety of avenues including newspaper ads, magazines and other specialty publications. Without consistently letting the public know that your store exists, how else will they know to shop there?

“Generate a buzz,” writes Waters, “Whenever anything noteworthy happens within your business, send a press release to the media. The idea is to grab any free coverage possible. Get involved with community events. Consider hosting classes, meetings or other networking events in your retail store. Use a unique promotional event to generate a buzz about your business.”

We will take a look at a few more of Waters’ tips in tomorrow’s blog. After all, tomorrow isn’t just the first day of October. It is also the first day of the last quarter of the year. It only makes sense to consider the ways in which you can make it your strongest quarter ever!

Synergy Merchant Services proudly works with small and mid-sized business owners all over Canada. These entrepreneurs have been the lifeblood of the Canadian economy in the wake of the recent economic downturn. Media outlets everywhere have said so, it isn’t just our opinion.

Sadly, many business owners have expressed great concern about continuing to run their businesses following the recession for fear that they cannot afford to do so. Today, however, we are happy to report that it appears as if optimism is increasing among business owners in Canada.

The news comes courtesy of a QMI Agency report that reveals that the number of entrepreneurs in Canada is on the rise. A new poll has found that entrepreneurial intentions have practically doubled over the past year. This is especially true in Alberta and British Columbia.

The survey, conducted by the Business Development Bank of Canada and the Fondation de l’entrepreneurship, found that the three of four entrepreneurial activity indicators rose since last year. They include “entrepreneurial intention, venture efforts and business ownership”.

This, obviously, is great news for the Canadian economy which saw the closing down of numerous businesses over the past year or so. In fact, QMI notes that the “number of Canadians involved in shuttered operations jumped to 6.7% in 2010, compared to 5.4% in 2009.”

That number, however, is bound to go in the opposite direction as more Canadians are planning to open businesses over the next year. As previously mentioned, the west coast of Canada is especially feeling the entrepreneurial spirit. QMI reports that 6 per cent of those polled in the west want to start a business compared to 4.6 per cent for the entire country.

Said Jerome Nyca of the Business Development Bank of Canada: “Rather than giving up, Canadians are showing a greater propensity to see the business opportunities generated by the economic recovery. They want to take advantage of them by starting their own businesses.”

The main culprit to those holding back on starting up a business is a lack of savings or financial support. As always, financing is a key to both starting and running a business, not to mention growing one into a major financial success. We wish all of our nation’s new entrepreneurs great success in the coming year.

As Canada’s merchant funding company, Synergy Merchant Services is known for supplying Canadian owners of small and medium-sized businesses with extra working capital. It’s that much needed money that these business owners require to help grow and expand their businesses.

Without this extra money, developing one’s company to greater levels of profit is a next-to-impossible task. This task, is one that is becoming increasingly harder to achieve as banks tighten their lending policies in the post-recession era. Getting a loan to help an entrepreneur grow his or her business is not as easy at it once was.

Of course, we have always championed that the merchant cash advance is the perfect source of small business funding in Canada. There are a number of benefits for business owners to consider. You don’t just have to take our word for it. An article on Loan.com lists four benefits to merchant cash advances that we would like to share with you.

The website’s slogan indicates that it is a source for “the truth about lending”. So sensibly, Loan.com lists that the first benefit of a merchant cash advance is that “it is not a loan”. It notes that unlike a loan, an advance commands no interest rate, but instead charges a fee. As they write, “for many small businesses, a merchant cash advance is worth the price because other forms of funding are difficult to obtain.”

The second merchant cash advance benefit according to Loan.com is that “credit history is less important.” Clarifying that a merchant cash advance is specifically based on a merchant’s previous credit card sales, money is both provided and collected based on a merchant’s receivables. One’s credit history need not be impacted by taking a merchant cash advance.

Benefit number three, according to Loan.com is that there is “less security required”. Says the site: “Lenders speak of the Five ‘C’s’ they want potential borrowers to have: capacity to repay, good character (or reputation), good loan condition, capital in the business and collateral.”

“Often, for the new borrower or small business borrower, more collateral or security is required to offset the risk to the lender. With a merchant cash advance, your credit card receivables are the security the factoring company needs.”

Finally, the fourth benefit is that there is “less risk for you”. The website affirms that the merchant cash advance company places itself at risk, not the business owner. Traditional loans require the type of security that could mean the loss of personal assets and property if the loan cannot be repaid. Again, this will negatively impact a merchant’s credit rating. Perhaps, it’s time you treat your business to the benefits of a merchant cash advance!

In a few of our past blogs, we have commented on the fact that Canadians are growing more concerned with online scams. Identity theft taking place over the internet seems to be a disturbingly increasing trend. Studies have shown that many Canadians do not feel comfortable doing any banking online.

Interestingly, the same thing cannot be said about shopping online. According to a report from QMI Agency’s Stefania Moretti from earlier today, online shopping is growing in popularity among Canadian consumers. Revealing the findings of a Statistics Canada study, Moretti notes that approximately 39 per cent of Canadians aged 16 and older bought goods and services with the help of the internet last year.

Upwards of $15 billion dollars were spent in 2009, which is a 7 per cent spike in online sales from 2007 when $12.8 billion dollars were spent through online shopping. Intriguingly, however, the cost of the average transaction has actually lowered, suggesting that Canadians are becoming a bit more cautious about the type of spending they are doing online.

According to StatsCan, the average transaction fell to $158 in 2009 from $183 in 2007. Larry McKeown of Statistics Canada cites the economic downturn as one of the factors that may have turned out this result. Moretti notes that retail sales overall dipped by 2.5 per cent in 2009.

McKeown also mentions that young people are helping to popularize the online shopping trend. Growing up using the internet and entering their “income earning years”, today’s younger generation is bound to increase their comfort level with online shopping. Everyday inexpensive items appear to be the most popular so far.

One of the best examples, says Moretti, is the iTunes music sale. For just 99 cents, online shoppers are growing their music collections one mp3 download at a time. She writes that “online music sales accounted for 26% of online purchases last year, up from 22% in 2007, and that number is likely higher among younger shoppers.”

For those who fear that online shopping may threaten the old practice of walking into an actual store to buy goods, fear not, says StatsCan. They report that “the internet complements traditional retail for certain categories such as consumer electronics, appliances and furniture, as well as clothing, jewellery and accessories.”

This Saturday marks, perhaps, the biggest day in the life of Synergy’s biggest staff member. Our Vice President of Marketing, office manager and tallest guy in the building, John Meloche is finally walking down that aisle to tie the knot with his lovely fiancé, Kathryn.

It was nearly one year ago when we originally blogged about John and Kathryn finally setting the date for their wedding as September 25th, 2010. However, it was on Valentine’s Day last year that John popped the big question at his favourite restaurant, The David Duncan House.

On John and Kathryn’s wedding website, John tells the story of how he prepared to propose to Kathryn on that fateful evening. Knowing that Valentine’s Day may not have been the most original date to choose to ask for one’s hand in marriage, John had some concerns about having his girlfriend clue in on his plans.

He explains: “The night before Valentine’s Day, I arranged 12 red and pink roses, a big teddy bear, chocolates, a card and a 32 inch widescreen television. Also, we had planned for the next evening to go to The David Duncan House for what tends to be a pretty amazing evening. I wanted to make her think it would be impossible for me to ALSO plan a proposal.”

Who knew John was such a romantic? Waiting until after dessert (of course), John got down on one knee and popped the big question in front of family and friends. Now, here we are – a good year and a half later – and the day of the wedding is nearly here. To John and Kathryn, it likely feels that time has seemingly passed in the blink of an eye.

This week has been a crazy one for John as his last minute preparations have been taking him in and out of the Synergy offices in something of a frenzy. One can’t help but notice that he is doing it all with a quite a big smile on his face, though. “Getting nervous?” a lot of his colleagues have been asking him. “No…excited!” is John’s quick reply.

Just under a month ago, John and Kathryn held an exciting Stag & Doe. The couple partied it up with family, friends and co-workers showing that they have been excited about their impending big day for some time now. We would like to take this final opportunity to wish John and Kathryn a very happy, healthy and long life together.

Your family here at Synergy is looking forward to celebrating the biggest day of your lives with you. In other words, we can’t wait for the biggest party of the year tomorrow night. We’ll see you there for the first time as husband and wife. Congratulations guys!

Quite often, we here at Synergy Merchant Services discover from their clients that it is difficult to afford the cost of staying ahead in the business world. Unfortunately, many Canadian business owners are unaware of just how easy it is to be approved for a merchant cash advance in order to help grow their businesses. That is, of course, until they speak to one of our licensed funding specialists.

It really is too bad, however, that we can’t provide the same service to parents of post-secondary education students. According to Sharon Singleton of QMI Agency today, nearly two-thirds of the nation’s parents say that they cannot afford putting their kids through college or university. Based on a poll conducted by BMO Financial Group, students today are graduating with double the debt that students had two decades ago.

On Monday of this week, we blogged about how this burden has been passed on to the students themselves. More often than not, college and university students feel forced to work part-time jobs in order to pay for their school fees. Sadly, this has been shown to negatively affect their grades.

But who can blame them for seeking out employment to help pay for school? As Singleton explains, it costs the average Canadian university student $60,000 for a four-year undergraduate program. The BMO poll reveals that only 21 per cent of parents surveyed feel that they can pay off that amount with many measure of certainty.

The poll discovered, however, that parents aren’t all taking advantage of saving options that are available to them. According to the survey, 52 per cent of parents with a child under 18 contribute to a Registered Education Savings Plan. The poll, by the way, received responses from 1,582 Canadian adults.

David Sharone, the manager of registered products with BMO Financial Group had this to say: “RESPs really are the best thing, especially since 1998 when the government began giving incentives. While the money is invested, it’s growing in a tax deferred way much like other registered investment plans.”

With the new school year well under way now, the concern among both students and their parents continues to increase as it relates to funding. Of course, that degree the students are working towards brings them closer to finding the type of jobs that will secure a steady income.

The numbers are worrisome. Reveals Singleton: “In 1990, students pursing an undergraduate degree could expect to be $12,271 in debt when they graduated. That number doubled by 2000, when students would owe $24,706, a report from the Canadian Council on Learning said. By 2009, the average debt for university graduates was $26,680.”

For obvious reasons, we speak often about utilizing your money to improve your business. Working regularly with entrepreneurs all over Canada, we are very interested in helping the nation’s small businesses grow and excel to higher levels. Naturally, our conversations with these owners centre on ways to use our merchant cash advance program to increase their company’s profits.

However, life can’t always be work, work, work, right? When thinking about the difference between your earnings and your expenses, it’s important to consider the various ways you can have fun with your money. After all, what’s the point of making money if you can’t enjoy yourself with it?

In yesterday’s edition of Metro Canada, Lesley Scorgie discusses the concept of having a “financial weak spot”. Scorgie, admits that her own weak spot is books. Apparently, she cannot help herself when passing by a book store. She insists, however, that this is a weakness that she can afford.

The point, of course, is that if you can afford your financial weak spot, there is no problem. However, if you are not making enough money to splurge on items that are not considered necessities, it may be time to seriously rethink your spending habits. Too often, people find themselves in debt by racking up unnecessary expenses.

As Scorgie writes: “Satisfying an impulse to buy something you don’t need can be dangerous; increased spending often leads to unnecessary bad debt.” She notes that a recent report by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada found that household debt in Canada is on the rise.

Shockingly, Canadians owe a total of a whopping $1.4 trillion! This is two and a half times more debt than the nation had collectively accrued twenty years ago. Spread evenly among each Canadian, each person is in debt $41,740, points out Scorgie. Credit card and lines of credit are the main culprits for this debt, she says.

Scorgie offers a few tips on how to avoid bad debt – the kind that is expensive, restrictive and unable to work as an investment that may grow in value such as a mortgage or investment loan. Bad debt, she notes, is often “incurred through impulse buying”. Her first tip is simple: “remove the temptation to spend”.

Don’t go into stores selling items that you cannot afford and just as importantly, do not need. She advises that you take your name off of promotional lists and keep just one credit card with a manageable limit.

“Second,” writes Scorgie, “pay off bad debt fast. Don’t incur additional debt while tackling the existing. Negotiate and/or consolidate debt to get lower interest rates and a manageable payment plan. Focus on paying the highest interest debt first because it costs the most.”

In other words, you should cut costs where possible and pay off debt with the objective of never accumulating any more. Try to have fun without impulse buying and you’ll be well on your way to a debt-free life.

If you live outside of the Greater Toronto Area, you may not yet be aware that the city is currently undergoing a major change. Specifically, the mayor’s office is soon to house a new owner. And as debates heat up between candidates in recent weeks, business reporters Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew and Rita Trichur of The Toronto Star examine what the mayoral race looks like to business owners.

Catherine Swift, the president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business was quoted as saying: “ The last few years have not been happy days for small businesses in Toronto. The cost of government in Toronto skyrocketed under David Miller.” With that being said, it is clear that small business owners will be looking to the new mayor for better assistance.

Acharya-Tom Yew and Trichur notes that candidate Rob Ford’s economic plan for the city is to spend less at City Hall and impose less taxes on the public. This, of course, is welcoming news to small business owners across the city. Last year, small businesses and citizens alike were hit hard by such incidents as the municipal workers strike which caused the stoppage of garbage collection.

High property taxes is also a growing concern amongst entrepreneurs. Swift notes that these issues have forced a number of business out of the city. Says Swift: “We have seen an exodus from Toronto to the 905 and they’ll never come back. When you’re driving businesses out, you’re driving jobs out. It felt like city council didn’t really care about business.”

Evidently, this is a major issue that the new mayor of Toronto will have to address. Keeping business owners happy is one thing. Keeping them remaining in the city is another. It is expected of the new mayor, that there will be a focus on cutting down the city’s deficit and promoting growth throughout the GTA.

Acharya-Tom Yew and Trichur do mention that the CFIB is not specifically backing any one candidate but do highlight the fact that Ford – an apparent front-runner – will be tackling the important concerns of small business owners. According to their article, “Ford also promises to slash city hall spending, and also to eliminate the land transfer tax and the $60 vehicle registration tax.”

Some believe that Ford lacks an economic plan, however. Erin Weir, an economist with the United Steelworkers union, reviewed Ford’s website only to feel as if the candidate is not concerning himself with the need’s of the city’s businesses. Said Weir: “I went to the section entitled ‘Issues.’ And if you do a search on it, the word ‘economy’ doesn’t appear at all and the word ‘economic’ doesn’t appear. So, I don’t think Rob Ford is even claiming that he has an economic plan.”

Now that the new school season is in full swing, many post-secondary education students are finding out the hard way that balancing the school curriculum with their jobs is quite difficult. Of course, many students have to work part-time jobs in order to pay for their school fees. With tuition and supplies being mandatory expenses, some students can’t do without a part-time job.

The problem with this situation, however, is that a student’s on-the-job time takes away from critical study time. Often, a student’s inability to designate enough time for studying while they also work a part-time job can negatively affect his or her grades. Earlier today, the QMI Agency released a report confirming that, unfortunately, this is generally the case with working students.

According to the report, a new poll of university faculty and librarians confirmed that students who work part-time while they are in school have a harder time managing strong academic achievements. Looking at Ontario students specifically, the study found that 64 per cent of those polled believe that part-time jobs do, in fact, hinder a student’s grades.

In addition, 33 per cent of those polled felt that more students are working outside of the classroom compared to a year ago. Evidently, there is an increasing number of Ontario students who are looking for ways to afford their school fees. Not all of them, apparently, can simply rely on student loans and help from their families to pay for school.

Carleton University professor and president of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), Mark Langer had this to say: “Many need to work during the school year to meet the rising costs of their education, but that paid work is often a barrier to their progress and achievement.”

QMI goes on to note that 41 per cent of the 1,400 poll respondents feel that universities should be offering remedial programs to their student bodies. In addition, 23 per cent of those polled feel that remedial programs should actually be mandatory for students in their first year of post-secondary schooling.

Added Langer: “We expect our students to pay for a larger share of their education, engage in more paid work, attend larger classes, have less interaction with faculty and pursue remedial courses on top of their regular studies to succeed in a demanding university curriculum. This is a recipe for disaster.”

It seems as if the most important lesson being learned by college and university students in Ontario is how to manage their time between part-time jobs and classes. Finding jobs to pay for these classes, in fact, may be an even harder task to complete. The most difficult part of the school year, however, may just be maintaining those good grades while meeting the requirements of their employers once those jobs are found.

Perhaps, the silliest question to ask a business owner is, “Are you interested in making more money?” The obvious answer is “yes” but apparently many entrepreneurs are not entirely sure what to do in order to increase their profit margins. According to Steven Gillman of IdeaMarketers.com, most business owners aren’t asking themselves the right questions.

On the website, Gillman poses a number of questions that business owners should ask in order to better place themselves in a position to make more money. The first question is “What is the least expensive way to get a new customer?” Of course, there are many options including advertising to grow your customer base. But it’s not so easy to do so when working with a small budget.

Gillman suggests that you consider all of the ways that you have accumulated your current client base to date. Utilize your strengths and attempt to grow your customer base using the most cost-effective methods possible. Word of mouth, as we have mentioned in past blogs, can certainly go a long way. Think of all of the ways you can “wow” your customers so that they recommend your business to others.

The next question to ask, says Gillman is “What low risk ideas can you try to increase profits?” He writes: “There may be new services or products you can try that take very little risk. Starting with these lets you fail nine times out of ten and still come out ahead after the tenth.”

“Can you ‘educate the customer’ to increase sales?” is another important thing to ask. Gillman advises that you inform the public of just how much your product or service can help them. It’s important to communicate that what you offer is essential and of great value. Gillman uses the example of photos that show dust mites living in carpet. If these photos were more prevalent, he surmises, people would clean their carpets more often.

Educating the public about why they should come to your business more often is an important way to drive up sales consistently. Another question that should be asked is “Have you tested prices?” Gillman notes that sometimes items actually sell better when they are more expensive.

He writes that “on a product with a ten percent markup you can double the profit with a ten percent price increase. Unless you lose half of the sales as a result, you’ll make more money. The only way to know these things is to test.” This leads him to his next question: “Can you increase the average sale?”

In other words, Gillman suggests that you continually think of ways to ‘upsell’. This isn’t much different than someone asking if a customer if he “would like fries with that” when he is ordering a burger at a fast food restaurant. As Gillman puts it, “it is often easier to find ways to increase the average sale amount by twenty percent than to find twenty percent more customers.”

There are, of course, many more questions that entrepreneurs should ask themselves when preparing to take steps to increasing their profits. Getting into the habit of answering these questions will help you to develop ways to make more money for your business.

Remember back when you were in grade school? Do you recall the question that was most likely posed to you more often than any other? You know the one…“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Well, now that you’re all grown up and you own your own business, it’s time we pose that question to you once again.

Only this time, we’d like to put a little spin on it. “What would you like your business to be when it grows up?” In other words, how far would you like to grow your company? We imagine that all business owners have aspirations to taking their businesses to the next level. It’s unfortunate, however, when no plan is put in place to make that happen.

In our experience, we find that most business owners, who don’t know what they’d like their businesses to be when they have “grown up”, feel that they do not have the resources to take their companies any further. It must certainly be a deflating feeling to have the impression that there is no room to grow.

This has especially been the case over the past couple of years as many business owners still see themselves as being in a state of recovery. Hit hard by the recession, numerous entrepreneurs think more with a “how to get back afloat” type of attitude instead of employing a “how to get ahead” approach.

In addition, banks are not making it any easier on Canadian business owners. It is not uncommon for one of our clients to remind us of his or her harrowing experience trying to squeeze funding out of the local bank. Even when long business relationships are established between business owner and bank, there is no guarantee that the bank will be willing to lend.

So why then, would the business owner feel confident that growth is possible? This, of course, is understandable. But it is always important to have a positive attitude when approaching the subject of your business. Now, we don’t mean to sound like a high school football coach or a cheesy motivational tape, but we do feel that keeping optimistic is sound advice.

As always, we recommend a merchant cash advance as an option for business owners who may have otherwise given up on trying to grow their businesses. We believe that it is always important to keep your options open. And how else would you be able to weigh your options against each other if you didn’t take advantage of them when they are presented to you?

We are aware that many entrepreneurs get turned down when applying for bank loans. This is why we promise to provide a very different process to discovering if your business is eligible for extra working capital. We trust that you do know what you’d like for your business to be when it grows up. We would just like for you to give us the chance to help you take it there.

This past Monday, we blogged about the fact that online scams are apparently becoming more and more prevalent. Of course, with the internet fast approaching the most popular way to receive information in the world, many consumers flock to websites before making purchases in actual store locations.

And while we have advocated before, that shoppers should browse online to make the best shopping decisions possible, we also advise that they use caution before making purchases over the internet. Today, the QMI Agency adds more reason to take precautions when considering making online purchases.

In a report released earlier today, QMI reveals that a fifth of Canadians have reported being the victims of unauthorized charges on their credit cards. According to a recent study conducted by Visa, these fraudulent charges have come as a result of accepting marketing offers either over the phone or on the internet.

Sadly, credit card fraud only seems to be a growing problem in Canada. The fact that online scams exist, obviously doesn’t make this situation any easier for either the consumers or the credit card issuers. Although some argue the point that credit card companies make money when fraud is committed, it becomes quite a hassle for them to dispute these charges.

Inevitably, these disputes can cause credit card issuers enormous sums of money when they are written off. The QMI report notes that many Canadians fail to read the small print or to uncheck pre-checked boxes when signing up for offers online. Often, unintentional charges then show up on the credit card bill.

This, of course, is not necessarily fraud, but instead the result of some consumers simply not paying close attention to what they are doing. Unfortunately, many online promotions can be quite deceptive. In fact, although 20 per cent of Canadians claim to have been victims of deceptive marketing schemes, 78 per cent of the respondents to Visa’s survey reported that they are aware of the “potential pitfalls” of signing up.

Says Gord Jamieson, the head of payment system risk at Visa Canada: “Deceptive marketing practices come in many forms. While the majority of retailers are honest and legitimate, consumers need to be conscious that there may be fraudsters out there and they should think twice before accepting an offer that sounds too good to be true.”

Visa suggests that consumers thoroughly check their card statements for unauthorized charges and attempt to contact the merchants directly if any are noticed. If not, the next step would be to contact the credit card issuer to set up a dispute and report the case to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.

We have blogged numerous times about Canada’s outstanding ability to bounce back from the recession. A world leader in recovery, the nation continues to show signs of economic growth. Noticeably, Canada’s southern counterpart has not shared in this trend. The United States, it appears, is still experiencing a tough time recovering.

A QMI Agency report, published last Friday, mentions that the struggling U.S. economy may be holding back Canada’s growth. Economists, in fact, are lowering their expectations for Canada’s economic growth over the remaining months of 2010. Says the report, the American housing and labour markets are still showing some disappointing trends.

Says QMI: “The bank pared back its expectations for gross domestic product growth to 3.3% this year, down from 3.6%.” Perhaps, it’s surprising that the neighboring United States hasn’t impacted Canada’s financial status with greater severity in the past.

According to Craig Wright, senior vice-president and chief economist at RBC: “While Canada’s second-quarter growth put real GDP close to its pre-recession high, concerns in the U.S. and nervousness about the health of the global economy are weighing on the outlook for the second half of the year.”

Added Eric Thomson, an economist at the Conference Board of Canada: “The economic recovery remains well ahead of that of the U.S., which continues to experience modest economic growth and high unemployment.” The RBC went on to note that Canada’s output gap should actually be wiped out by the middle of 2012.

As mentioned in previous blogs, Canada has done a fantastic job in recovering all of the jobs lost during the recession. The QMI Agency reports that the jobless rate in Canada should continue to drop by as much as 7.3 per cent by the end of next year. It currently sits at 8.1 per cent.

It adds: “Still, headwinds from the U.S. led RBC to downwardly revise its GDP expectations for 2011 to 3.2% from 0.3%. The bank expects core inflation to remain on track at about 2%…South of the border, RBC is now banking on growth of just 2.7% this year and 3% in 2011, down from 3.1% and 3.4% respectively.”

Last week Friday, we blogged about the concept of “scams” and the fact that businesses who use telemarketing to promote their products and services are often stereotyped as scam artists. While we know that this unfair stereotype often disallows customers to take advantage of great offers, we can’t necessarily blame them for their skepticism.

Last Friday, The Toronto Sun reported that online business promotion is beginning to experience the same type of concern. According to a recent study, there are 57,000 new scam websites appearing online on a weekly basis! Apparently, cybercriminals are creating so many fraudulent websites so quickly that search engines can’t even keep up!

The three-week study was conducted by PandaLabs, the antivirus developer at Panda Security. Among the biggest targets of online scams are banks. It’s no wonder that so many people are still hesitant to do any banking online. The study concluded that an overwhelming 65 per cent of scam websites purport to be legitimate banking websites.

In second place came auction websites representing 27 per cent of online scams. According to The Sun: “The top targeted brands were eBay (23.21%), Western Union (21.15%), Visa (9.51%), the United Services Automobile Association (6.85%), HSBC (5.98%), Bank of America (2.29%), PayPal (1.77%), Internal Revenue Service (1.69%) and Bendigo Bank (1.38%).”

Evidently, if you are looking to do any banking or shopping online, it pays to be extra cautious. Clearly, the intention of online scammers is to cheat people out of their money, one way or the other. Perhaps, it pays to get someone on the phone after all. One piece of advice to take if you are looking to make a purchase online is to call the customer service line of the business you wish to buy from.

According to Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs: “Although search engines are making an effort to mitigate the problem by changing indexing algorithms, they have so far been unable to offset the avalanche of new websites being created by hackers every day.”

Here, at Synergy, we herald our website as a method of openly proclaiming our legitimacy. Of course, you may locate our exact address, phone number and details about our business. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case with many other websites out there. As always, we encourage you to give us a call for that added personal touch.

Scenario: someone calls you up on the phone who you have never heard of before. They offer you the opportunity to take advantage of a product or service you have never heard of before. This product or service has to do with the offer of money. In fact, it’s a significant amount of money that could potentially be yours within five days…or so they say.

What is the first thought that pops into your head? We’re guessing there may be a few that go something along the lines of … “Who are these people?” or “What kind of scam is this?” Naturally, people are quick to assume that when a business proposition is offered to them over the phone, that there must be some sort of scam involved.

This, of course, is the stereotype that is latched on to telemarketers, who for the most part, are simply doing their legitimate jobs. We too, here at Synergy Merchant Services, do employ the use of a small call centre. For the most part, we know that reaching out to business owners all over Canada requires that we call them up directly.

And even though the stereotype of the “crooked telemarketer” is always looming, we are more than confident that if given the opportunity, our reps will put your fears to rest. So don’t be alarmed or taken aback if you receive a phone call from one of our friendly and well-trained representatives.

Their objectives are very simple. They wish for nothing more than to simply introduce our merchant cash advance program to you. Far from a scam, our program offers Canadian business owners of small and medium-sized companies the opportunity to receive a free quote for a merchant cash advance with no obligation to become involved in the program.

That way, we assure our potential clients that the initial phone call will cost them absolutely nothing. Don’t get us wrong, we are well aware that there are many businesses out there who use telemarketing negatively. The resulting bad reputation of those who work on the phone is a hard one to shake. Nevertheless, we ask that you give us an open ear.

We recognize and completely understand your skepticism. But we ask that you look into receiving your free quote to determine whether or not there really is anything to be skeptical about. Most often, clients who first hear of our program question the concept of getting money with no interest rate affixed to it.

Since the cash advance is not a loan, our clients to do not have an accruing interest rate or fixed repayment schedule. Instead, they are charged a one time fee and they pay the advance back through their future credit and debit sales without having to lift a finger to process any of the payments.

We know this may sound strange, but we’d like you to find out how much money you can get and what it may cost you. We are sure that doing so will not only put your fears to rest, but will also give you greater confidence that a merchant cash advance may be just what you were looking for to help grow your business. Talk to you soon!