Many consumers find it wise to use their credit cards because of the many points and rewards programs that are available. It only makes sense to get something back if you are able to, any time you plan on spending money. Credit cards also give you the freedom to pay over time – not that we recommend it.

Obviously, the way that interest works on a credit card is not much different than how interest works on a bank loan. The longer it takes you to pay off, the more you will end up paying. One of the greatest advantages of Synergy’s merchant cash advance program is that there is no fixed repayment schedule.

As a result, our clients never have to worry about any interest accruing on their outstanding balances. It’s important to know exactly how much you’ll be paying for something before you commit to an agreement to pay for it. That’s our philosophy, here at Synergy, and it has done wonders to put the minds of our clients at ease.

The same approach can work equally well for consumers. Before making a purchase, it’s imperative that you understand what it is you are committing to. Will there be any additional charges other than the purchase price? Remember that in the event you are paying for a service and you have to make monthly payments, your charges may fluctuate.

With Synergy’s merchant cash advance program, our clients make automatic payments based on a percentage of their Visa, MasterCard and Interac sales. This way, we ensure that there is no chance that the payment is unachievable. Our clients also know that they will never pay a penny more than what they originally agreed to.

It’s always a good idea to be in the know. This is why we offer free, no obligation quotes here at Synergy, so that our potential clients are in the know long before agreeing to participate in our merchant cash advance program. Give one of our licensed funding specialists a call today and know how much money we can get your business!

With that, our clients are ensured that there are no hidden fees, extra charges or accruing interest rates. They know exactly the cost of the cash advance to the penny before engaging into any agreement with our company. From experience, we know that business owners across Canada are disgruntled with the many different fees associated with banks.

QMI Agency’s Sharon Singleton highlights that customers across Canada – both business owners and consumers alike – are growing increasingly upset with bank fees, as well as the trouble that comes with getting their problems resolved at banks. Yesterday, she wrote about a recent J.D. Power report about customer satisfaction that revealed these findings.

The study found that there is a growing concern for bank fees in Canada. The problem, according to the report, is not so much with the fees themselves as it is generally understood that fees must be charged. But many customers feel that the reason for the fees are not often described clearly.

Lubo Li is the senior director of the financial services practice at J.D. Power and Associates in Toronto. Said Li: “It’s not that you can’t charge fees, it’s just that they need to be communicated clearly so customers know what they are getting for their money. Just calling something a maintenance fee doesn’t cut it.”

Li went on to say that the recent study showed that when customers have their fees explained to them, customer satisfaction increases. Of course, the problems that Canadians have is that they often don’t understand what they are being charged for. Singleton points out Courtney Barber, a St John’s based contract administrator, as an example of a disgruntled bank customer.

After graduating from university, Barber switched her student bank account to a lower-fee account which offered her fewer free debit transactions. The result was an extra $90 a month in transaction fees over the course of nine months! She hadn’t realized that she was being charged new fees for her debit card transactions.

Exclaimed Barber: “When I no longer qualified for the student account, I assumed the bank would roll my account over into something with similar services…Instead, I was getting ripped off with a per-use fee for my debit transactions — an account that was not at all suitable for the type of customer I am.”

It’s fair to say, however, that if one never takes a step in any direction, he or she will get nowhere! For business owners across Canada, overthinking is done quite often. Any business decision made is an important one as running a business can be one of the most stressful jobs around.

After all, as a business owner, you are the one in control. You are the one who makes the decisions. And you’re also the one who will have to take the fall if things don’t work out. Perhaps then, it only makes sense to keep things simple. Instead of overthinking things, maybe taking the simplest route is the best way to go sometimes.

Take, for example, the process of getting money. Our clients very often tell us about the many different factors they had to consider when first going to the bank to secure loans. What should they put up for collateral? Can they afford the interest rates? Are the monthly payments too high? Will this earn me more money anyway?

At Synergy Merchant Services, we like to keep things simple. Instead of worrying about all of these factors, we ask our clients to simply consider selling some of their future credit and debit transactions. By doing so, they don’t need to worry about collateral, interest rates or monthly payments.

What we ask them to do instead is consider the ways in which they can use their merchant cash advances to make more money in return. Our experience has shown us that renovations, advertising, expansion and buying new inventory are among the most popular choices for business growth once extra working capital is attained.

But then again, some business owners go through quite an emotional struggle trying to come up with ways to grow their businesses. We approach this decision with much the same attitude…keep it simple! In tomorrow’s blog, we’ll take a look at some simple ways to grow your business.

Ivan Widjaya of Noobpreneur.com discussed this in a blog of his own last May. Citing such celebrities as Britney Spears, Mike Tyson and Antoine Walker as millionaires who went bankrupt, he noted that bad money management is the sole reason why success stories can inevitably flounder into failure.

Naturally, spending more money than you have or are making is simply a bad idea. Widjaya notes that with success often comes the assumption that you can spend frivolously. Ironically, people who appear to have the most money are often the ones that are the most likely to be in debt!

Spending carelessly results in the not having anything left over for rainy days, says Widjaya. You can run a successful business for more than 20 years, but if the business eventually becomes no longer profitable, you don’t want to find yourself in a position where you can’t pay for your everyday living expenses.

Widjaya mentions that he knows of business owners who have had to sell their homes to pay off their business debts. These same people, at one time, were spending crazily on luxury items that they didn’t necessarily need. Perhaps, if their money was more regularly put towards things that would help to grow their businesses, they would have never gone out of business.

This is where careless spending will lead you, insists Widjaya. He offers this piece of advice: “Do you want to be rich? If so, you need to watch your business and personal spending closely – this is what successful entrepreneurs have as their number one rule to financial independence.”

The moral of the story is to always consider your future. What you think you can afford today is not necessarily something you will be able to afford years from now. Is the expenditure truly necessary? Is the purchase something that somehow be profitable to you in time?

Invest in the right places instead of spending lavishly. Real estate and precious metals are two suggestions Widjaya gives. “Prioritize your businessa nd personal financial planning above anything else,” he writes, “Then you’ll see that you will reap what you sow.”

Now, of course, it is true that we do ask what a business owner’s intentions are. But this is something that is done to assist that business owner with ideas on ways to make the money work for the growth and development of the business. Quite often, our funding specialists engage in conversations about renovations, expansion or advertising.

Plain and simple, our merchant cash advance works best when the recipient puts the money towards investing back into the business. Our most successful clients are the ones that have ideas about how the merchant cash advance can be put towards projects that will, in turn, make the company more money.

Now again, our clients have the right to do whatever they choose with the money they receive as part of our merchant cash advance program. Banks, on the other hand, generally insist upon receiving a detailed business plan that will accurately outline where and how all of the money that is being borrowed will be spent.

The main purpose of this, as far as the banks are concerned, is so that they may feel confident that they will get their money back. And while this is clearly important, Synergy, however, wants to ensure that our clients are successful in fulfilling their goals and increasing their profit margins.

After all, this is what allows us to not only be paid back but it helps to grow our relationships with our clients. We know that if our clients are happy, we will also remain successful. Helping Canadian business owners grow their businesses is exactly what we are in business to do.

Last May, Ivan Widjaya of Noobpreneur.com wrote that when business owners do not spend their money wisely, they inevitably go bankrupt and are forced to shut their businesses down. This is why we discuss with business owners their intentions for their merchant cash advances.

Of course, they have the freedom to take the money and go on vacation. But that doesn’t mean that doing so is a wise choice. Widjaya writes that bad money management is the sole reason that entrepreneurs experience bankruptcy. Manage your money well and spend wisely – these are the keys to a successful business.

We will take a further look into Widjaya’s view on this topic in tomorrow’s blog.

However, we figure that it may be time to throw a few pieces of advice the way of entrepreneurs who may have procrastinated this year. Remember, that as a business owner, you have the ability to write off a number of your business expenses. Everything from your gas and parking fees to your internet and phone services are charges that you should be claiming.

You don’t have all of your receipts, you say? Okay, let’s start from the beginning so that you don’t run into this problem next year. First off, new business owners may not be fully aware of the charges that they may claim each year. Go online and Google “business expenses you can write off”.

Or better yet, speak to your tax accountant and be sure to get the full scoop on what is eligible as business expense. Second of all, don’t wait until tax time to collect all of your receipts and start adding up the charges. Even though you think it may be part of his or her job, you don’t want your tax accountant to have to sort through every receipt that you have racked up him or herself.

Set aside a folder to keep your receipts in as you accumulate them throughout the year. Keep envelopes labeled to designate all of the charges from each other. For example, you should have envelopes for gas and parking, postage and supplies, internet and phone charges and even dining and entertainment as well.

Take the time to add up all of the charges at the end of the year. The earlier you do this, the better. That way, you won’t have to scramble (as some of you may be doing now) to calculate everything you wish to claim during the last week of March. Write the totals on each envelope and have your entire tax package ready to go well in advance.

This way, when you are ready to meet with your tax accountant, all he or she will have to do is plug in your numbers to have your tax return prepared for you within minutes. It may require a little bit of extra effort throughout the year, but you’ll be thanking yourself come tax time. Here’s to a big return!

In addition to our wonderful tips is news coming out today on The Toronto Star‘s website from Ottawa Bureau Chief, Bruce Campion-Smith, that will help entrepreneurs with their taxes. Small businesses, he writes, are expected to get a break from the federal government on payroll taxes.

The purpose of this, writes Campion-Smith, is to encourage work-share programs and get more unemployed Canadians back into the world of work. As well, Ottawa is promising that the nation’s education system will be invested into in order to better prepare people to enter the workforce in the future.

Campion-Smith reminds us that Canada has done an impeccable job rebounding from the recession when compared to its contemporaries in the G7. Nevertheless, job creation is still at the forefront of the country’s priorities, as job loss was one of the most heavily impacted areas during the global economic downturn.

According to Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty: “We need to keep protecting and creating jobs now…Compared to other countries, Canada’s economy is performing very well — but our continued recovery is by no means assured.” One of the remaining problems is the mindset of business owners who are still hesitant to hire new employees in the post-recession era, notes Campion-Smith.

To change this attitude, Flaherty has proposed some new measures that will benefit small business owners, including “a new hiring credit to provide a one-year break on employment insurance for some 525,000 small businesses.” According to the Finance Minister, “the measure will reduce payroll costs for new jobs and encourage hiring.”

In addition, there will be an extension of work-sharing agreements by up to 16 weeks. Writes Campion-Smith: “These programs allow companies to avoid layoffs by offering employment insurance benefits to workers willing to work at reduced hours while their company recovers. This measure has already protected 280,000 jobs. The budget provides $10 million to stretch the program to October 2011.”

In fact, Canadians are missing out on the benefits of the season as many of them may be owed healthy tax returns. If only they would file their taxes properly! To assist with this, we reviewed a number of tips offered up by Jacks to help the nation get more money back from the government each year.

Picking up where we left off, Jacks writes that “another reason why home ownership is so attractive is that the increase in value of a property designated as a principal residence is tax exempt.” Reminding us that one’s RRSP can be used to save up to buy a house, she adds that when contributing to your RRSP, you are saving that money from being taxed to begin with.

Jacks also strongly recommends that you minimize the tax on severance payments. She writes that when leaving a job, a severance package can help with a “soft landing”, but they are fully taxable. One way to help reduce taxes is to increase your RRSP contributions. This seems to be a general rule of thumb.

Control credit crunches, she advises as well. Writes Jacks: “Make sure you take advantage of losses to reduce income. And get your investment priorities right: Don’t cash in RRSPs if you can help it—this will cause a tax problem next year. Be sure to see a financial and tax advisor for help with your planning.”

Jacks also notes that some people pay their income taxes in quarterly payments. She suggests that you find ways to reduce your quarterly installments. For some people, when they are making payments, they are doing so on a reduced income. In fairness, the payments too should be reduced.

Thankfully, the simple writing of a letter to request a revised billing based on your estimated income for the year is sufficient enough to have this done. After all, the objective is for you to not make less money than you did the previous year. The hope, of course, is that these tips will help you to gain money back from filing your taxes correctly.

We hope that, this year, these tips may help you reap the benefits of tax time!

Among the major mistakes are omitting valuable credits and deductions or not filing their taxes at all. In addition to risking facing unnecessary penalties, these tax mistakes and can prove very costly. Many Canadians count on their tax returns for major expenditures every year and our losing out due to improper filing.

To help our nation avoid these tax-filing pitfalls, Jacks has offered up a number of tips to help people use the tax system to their advantage. Being fully immersed in tax season now, we hope that these tips will come in handy. As always, we will provide our own insight on this list of suggestions.

The first thing that Jacks suggests is that you file your income taxes as a family. In order to get the best return for your household, you should begin by preparing each return separately starting with the lowest income earning. Look at the return for each family member and then tweak them so that you can claim the best tax results for the family unit as a whole.

File on time, says Jacks. Many people put off filing their taxes out of fear that they will owe an amount that they cannot afford. This isn’t a problem that will simply go away. Filing your taxes yearly is a requirement that if avoided, will only lead to further financial strain and legal ramifications.

Remember that it is your legal right to prepare your tax return to your family’s benefit, looking for every tax deduction and credit that you are entitled to. Jacks reveals that you can even claim errors or omissions from previous tax returns going back ten years! It takes some extra effort, of course, but it can certainly pay off in the end.

A house is a great investment. So much so that Jacks recommends that you buy one, insisting that “owning a home is a cornerstone of wealth for Canadians and about 60 per cent of all Canadians do. Half of those homeowners have paid off their mortgage, freeing up cash flow, particularly in retirement.”

We will continue to take a look at some more tax tips in tomorrow’s blog.

Back in June, business reporter for The Toronto Star, Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew wrote of the ten steps than one can take to help properly budget. “Budgeting may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be complicated,” Acharya-Tom Yew writes, “It’s not so much what you make, but how you spend it that’s important.”

We figured that there would be no better time than now to revisit this list of budgeting tips. The first step is to “gather the facts”. It’s important to go through your financial records for, at least, the past three months. Go through all of your expenses right on down to your “little extras” like morning coffees.

Secondly, “create a worksheet”. Once you have gathered all of your facts, you will have to organize them so that you can create a clearer picture of the type of spending that you’re used to. Next, break your spending into “fixed and discretionary costs”. Your fixed costs include mortgage, rent, car payments and insurance. In other words, the monthly charges that don’t usually change.

The discretionary charges are the ones you can change. They include groceries, meals, entertainment and clothing. The “rules of thumb” writes Acharya-Tom Yew, say that “your housing costs should be less than about one-third of your gross income, financial planning.”

Also, “your monthly debt payments should not exceed 40 per cent of your gross monthly income. This includes housing, and such things as car loans and credit card payments.” The next step is to “pay yourself first”. Put away 10 per cent of your pay cheque. This is the simplest way to guarantee that you will be saving money over time.

“Cut out non-essentials,” insists Acharya-Tom Yew. You don’t have to buy your lunch every day. Turn fixtures into treats. Spend less on little unnecessary frills that add up over time. Attempt to avoid impulse purchases. However, when those credit card bills come rolling in, “pay more than the minimum”.

This step is a surefire way to help eliminate those dreaded interest charges. “Save for a rainy day” by getting a high-interest savings account. “Review and adjust” by going over your budget regularly to make sure you are staying on track. And finally, “build in a reward”. Once you have met your budgeting goals, it’s okay to splurge on something to treat yourself. But don’t forget to go right back to the plan and keep your budget in check!

Last week, QMI Agency’s Stefania Moretti reported that Canadians are lagging behind their American counterparts when it comes to saving money. According to the Financial Planning Standards Council (FPSC), less than 20 per cent of Canadians have a legitimate financial plan set in place.

Economists note that this finding has not occurred since the 1970s. In fact, Moretti points out that, at one point, Canadians were outsaving their neighbours to the south by 10 per cent. She writes that, “Canada’s personal savings rate fell to less than 3% through the first quarter of 2010. South of the border, personal savings rose to 6.4% in June.”

One of the biggest concerns for Canadians is the increase in household debt-to-income ratios. They have risen to an astonishing all-time high average of 145 per cent. Clearly, this is not good news for an economy that is regarded as making one of the strongest rebounds from the global recession of the past year.

Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney explains: “In effect, households are demanding funds from the rest of the economy, rather than providing them, as had been the case through the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. This cannot continue.”

The FPSC has declared this week as Financial Planning Week in an effort to assist Canadians in strengthening their financial plans. They will release a major study shortly to aid in this initiative. They are confident that adequate financial planning is all that is required to ensure proper savings for all of life’s necessities.

In fact, a previous study proves it. Moretti writes that they found that “83% of Canadians who engage in comprehensive financial planning said they feel in control of their finances and 61% said they have peace of mind. Meanwhile, more than half of those who do not engage in any financial planning said they barely get by every month.”

In addition, those who reported to have financial plans felt more comfortable that they could manage economically tough times, emergency situations, care for their families, meeting life goals and retirement. Inevitably, better savings leads to a better life.

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!

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.”

With the help of business reporter Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew of The Toronto Star, we looked at some ways that students can stretch their dollars as far as possible. Acharya-Tom Yew, herself, got some advice from a number of sources including Lawrence Engel, the Vice President of Personal Lending at TD Canada Trust and Alan Kaplan, the associate professor at the Ted Rogers School of Business Management at Ryerson University.

In her report published last week, Acharya-Tom Yew reveals that “the average cost of a four-year undergrad education for students living away from home is now estimated at about $80,000.” According to Engel, “The numbers continue to creep up and up and up. The amount of savings that either the child or parent is important but there’s often a shortfall.”

Kaplan advises that to properly budget for such major costs, students must prioritize. Clearly, tuition, living accommodations and books should be at the top of the priority list. Those staying on campus will have more to save for than if they are able to remain living at home while going to school.

A few ways to help out with proper budgeting include checking out the federal government’s Education Cost Calculator or speaking to a student financial officer or advisor at the school. Any help is good help, of course. But getting advice from professional sources is the best kind of help.

What if university is still a few years away? Of course, it is makes sense to begin saving for your post-secondary education before the time comes to go to college or university. But high-schoolers and saving money are not generally two things that make a common match. Acharya-Tom Yew notes that “Registered Education Savings Plans are a popular choice for parents of young children. Investments can grow tax-free and the government pitches in, too.”

Kaplan adds that school children need to start young when it comes to financial planning. During their high school years, students should be encouraged to find part time jobs to teach them both responsibility and the concept of saving money and budgeting for important expenses.

Says Kaplan: “I’m a big believer that if we can encourage young people to take ownership of their own finances and some pride in achieving goals, they will be able to do that through their lives.”

It’s even harder, however, to budget for school when there are so many expenditures to consider when starting to study all over again. The Toronto Star‘s Business Reporter Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew reported on the various ways in which students can save money this school year in an article published last week. We’d like to share some of those tips with back-to-schoolers today.

College and university students, especially, have plenty to budget for. From tuition to textbooks to transportation, a student’s expenses can add up in a hurry. One of Acharya-Tom Yew’s first tips for the post-secondary student is to “buy new to you.” In other words, as long as it serves your purpose, pick up used books, clothing or even furniture for your dorm room at a much cheaper prices than those for brand new items.

“Brown bag it,” she continues. Too often, students forget how much money they spend on buying lunches each and every day. As always, the cost of food adds up. Packing your own lunches and bringing them to school with you is both a cheaper and healthier option. You also won’t have to wait in line to be served, so it’s a time-saving practice as well.

Keeping in touch is always important to students. With the advent of such free online features as Facebook and Twitter, this has become easier in recent years. However, a cell phone plan that meets your basic needs is also often a necessity. Acharya-Tom Yew also advises that you buy a long distance card to reduce your phone bills.

Smart shopping is obviously the key here. Shopping online to browse items and compare prices is also advisable. Searching for the best deals to take advantage of savings, especially those targeting students, will help you to stretch your dollars. Student discounts are rampant during this time of year.

Acharya-Tom Yew reminds students to “be sure to flash your student ID at entertainment venues, on public transportation and anywhere else that will take them. Check out special deals through your student union (as well as) free entertainment in the city, and free events hosted on campus.”

The same can be said about the classic coffee-splurge. Students need to be alert. And as such, many often partake in a daily coffee. For some, this is done several times a day. Of course, this can also put a dent into one’s budget. Acharya-Tom Yew recommends that you “avoid the latte effect and buy a coffeemaker or a kettle to make your own.”