Source: CNN Money

Consumer confidence in July was pushed further downward for a sescond straight month, indicating slower than expected economic growth ahead.

The Conference Board, a New York-based research group, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 50.4 in July from June’s upwardly revised level of 54.3.

The Small Biz Factor
Experts contend that while large corporations may be slowly feeling the turn-around, it’s the mom and pops out there that are struggling to gain traction.  As small business financing continues to remain out of reach for many of the thousands of smaller companies with fewer than 100 employees, the pressure is on to keep funds flowing to cover basic needs, including payroll services.  Lending laws and tighter regulations over the banking industry may be a good thing, but for the small business finance sector they have made it much more difficult for small businesses to tap lines of credit loans or other resources they normally would have been able to rely upon a few years ago. Today, many are struggling just to keep the lights on, and that permeates across the landscape for consumers.

“Consumer confidence faded further in July as consumers continue to grow increasingly more pessimistic about the short-term outlook,” Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in a statement. “Concerns about business conditions and the labor market are casting a dark cloud over consumers that is not likely to lift until the job market improves.”

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My Take:  This is so true.  You won’t see my small business sending out any monogrammed note cards  this year to my customers thanking them for their business. There’s barely been any. I would normally start thinking about what kinds of personalized custom gifts to send out for the holidays right now but that’s no where on my radar.  It’s true, payroll solutions are at the top of my list when it comes to expenses, and not being able to pay my workers is a constant worry.    

Other Resources
Separation Anxiety?
If you are looking for a Philadelphia divorce lawyer to help you sort out child custody or alimony arrangements be selective.  Philadelphia PA family law attorneys should offer you at least 30 minutes of free consultation time that includes a brief discussion of their fee schedule to give you a sense of what you’ll be paying.  If they don’t, move on to the next one until you find a firm that will.  It’s good business practice for them to do this and if they can’t offer it that tells you what kind of a firm you’d be dealing with down the road.

Bad Constrution
If you have a grievance against a building contractor you might want to consult the services of a San Diego real estate lawyer.  A San Diego contracts attorney can help you decipher the small print and other issues involved in your home construction project so that you can claim what you might be entitled to should your contractor overcharge you, not complete a job properly or worse.

SOURCE: Associated Press

President Barack Obama finally signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression.

The law, pushed through mainly by Democrats in Washington’s deeply partisan environment, comes almost two years after the infamous near financial meltdown in 2008 in the United States that was felt around the globe. The legislation gives the government new powers to break up companies that threaten the economy, creates a new agency to guard consumers and puts more light on the financial markets that escaped the oversight of regulators.

Changes are expected to impact the way companies, including banks and mortgage lenders do business and will have implications for every small business owner out there from the manufacturers of sports pads and chalkboard items to the highest paid Redwood City CA DUI attorney.

Obama described them all as commonsense reforms that will help people in their daily life — signing contracts, understanding fees, being aware of risks.

He went so far as to call the reforms “the strongest consumer protections in history.” The president added to a burst of applause: “Because of this law, the American people will never again be asked to foot the bill for Wall Street’s mistakes.”

Republicans portray the bill as a burden on small banks and the businesses that rely on them and argue it will cost consumers and impede job growth. Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California called Obama’s bill-signing a “charade” that ignored the root causes of the financial crisis.

The president said otherwise. He argued that a crippling recession was primarily caused by a breakdown in the financial system that cannot happen again.

“I proposed a set of reforms to empower consumers and investors, to bring the shadowy deals that caused this crisis into the light of day, and to put a stop to taxpayer bailouts once and for all,” Obama said to supporters. “Today, thanks to a lot of people in this room, those reforms will become the law of the land.”

In a note of irony, Obama signed the bill with great fanfare in the massive Ronald Reagan Building, named after a president who championed deregulation.

The president was joined by scores of consumer advocates, state and local government officials, business owners and executives, and members of Congress who supported the bill. Obama singled out for praise Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who shepherded the bill through Congress

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 MY TAKE:  I’m sure the makers of dry erase boards and wall padding, and the fancy DWI lawyer Redwood City has for hire will appreciate the changes to the way financial institutions can charge fees for loans and other issues, but what about the little guys?  There are so many tiny mom and pops out there who really need to know they are protected when it comes to the lending and financial markets.  And, how will folks who’ve lost their IRAs and other retirement funds recover and how will this protect them?

OTHER RESOURCES:  
Houston Legal:
If you have been injured on the job and need a Houston work injury lawyer you should consult the State Bar of Texas can help.  They provide search support for a Texas (TX) wrongful death lawyer and other lawyers as well as opportunities to file complaints, get information about recommended fees and other issues.  Click here for more information.

 Day Car Help
If you’ve been wringing your hands about where you’ll find quality childcare once summer is over, don’t fret.  You can use any one of the quality child care finder Web sites online that will offer customized daycare and afterschool care searches based on your area, your child’s needs, income and even days and times you need coverage.

Doctors across the country are struggling with the economy just like everyone else. In McHenry County, private practices are struggling with a weak economy just like others across the country. Some doctors are even having problems with fewer patients coming in and many of those that have insurance. It does not help the government agencies and insurance companies can be slow with their payments and patients have a tendency to put medical bills at the bottom of the pile.

“Doctors are struggling just like everyone else,” said Dr. Gunnar Thors, a surgeon at Midwest Plastic Surgery Specialists in Algonquin.

Physicians might not be joining bread lines, but some practices are foundering. In addition to overhead costs such as leasing office space and paying staff, medical professionals also have to pay for costly malpractice insurance. Add student loans to the mix and it becomes even more difficult. Even during boom times, many doctors have to deal with delays in payments from patients and insurers, Thors said. Poor economic conditions have exacerbated such problems.

“There is always difficulty in collecting medical bills,” he said. “Not so much from patients, but from insurance companies. Increasingly, they are being more reticent in paying what they owe.” Collecting unpaid medical debts isn’t an easy task. And it puts the doctor in the middle of disputes between patients and their insurance companies.

“We try to collect what we can,” Thors said. “However, we’re put in an uncomfortable situation by the insurance companies. All of a sudden we are the bad guys for wanting to get paid.”

For physicians or facilities that may be interested in increasing cash flow . . . If capital is to real estate as oxygen is to life, then the proper commercial mortgage financing structure is as critical to the ultimate financial performance of a real estate asset as is the acquisition decision itself. A clients’ objectives for a particular asset and its expected performance to create the right combination of debt, mezzanine or equity financing is important cash flow. This makes getting commercial mortgage brokers is extremely important.

A. credit card receivable financing company can help a small business owners succeed by offering a variety of small business loan financing options. It can provide small businesses with an alternative to the traditional bank financing like business cash advance, which is very difficult to obtain and out of reach for most merchants or doctors. We understand that as a small business owner, traditional bank financing may simply not be an option.

In Illinois, government payments also have been unreliable. Family Medicine Specialists – a general practitioner with 33 employees and offices in Richmond, Waukegan, Wauconda and Antioch – nearly went out of business because the state wasn’t paying its bills promptly. While waiting on more than $300,000 in outstanding payments from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services last November, several employees, including physicians, had to go without paychecks.

When medical bills are not paid, “the losers are the doctors,” Thors said. General practitioners have been especially hard hit by what Joseph Fojtik called “a very broken and dysfunctional system.” Fojtik, general internist at Mercy Clinic in Cary, spends much of his time outside the clinic researching and learning about medical policy in America. He said insurance companies have lowered the amount they reimburse doctors for performing many medical procedures. At the same time, malpractice costs have skyrocketed, he said.

Things have gotten so bad that Fojtik wasn’t surprised by a recent survey he saw on the American College of Physicians Web site that showed 2 percent of freshman medical students wanted to go into general internal practice. The rest want to become specialists.

The average overhead costs for an office visit is about $40 for each patient, Fojtik said, pointing out that public aid such as Medicaid would only reimburse doctors about $25 for each visit. That means some doctors are losing money each time they see a public aid patient, Fojtik said.

It is difficult to determine how much business doctors have lost and how much uncollected debts have increased. Several doctors interviewed for this article declined to give specific information regarding their business finances.

Pediatric Associates, which has offices in Crystal Lake and Barrington, tries to help its patients pay bills via payment plans and other options, Dr. Johnathan Kaufman said.

“With the economy, we are understanding and we take a proactive approach,” he said.

That often means working with insurance companies and making sure that patients are pre-qualified before their visit. Kaufman said he also tries to avoid going to collections, which can damage a person’s credit.

“We don’t want to go to collections; it’s not good for anyone,” he said.

Kaufman described pediatric care as a “volume business” with an emphasis on quality care. He said it has become more difficult for many families to afford vaccines and routine check-ups, which are not always covered by insurance. Some private practices, like other small businesses, cannot stay in business without prompt payments.

“We’re a shoe-string operation,” Thors said. “And these are hard times.”

Thors stated that he would continue to help women with breast cancer to get needed breast reconstructive surgery despite any difficulties he may be having. “We’re willing to write that off as a service to the community,” he said. “Many of these women have been through so much. It’s sad and it’s scary, so we do what we can to help.”

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My Take: Well, maybe if doctors did not buy brand name office furniture for their offices, they would have more money. Have you seen some of the furniture a doctor has in his/her office? Leather bound chairs, mahogany desks, fancy statuettes and all those leather bound medical books. Of course, a medical office does need office supplies to carry out the business.

However, the doctor in this article seems like someone who would actually be concerned about their patients. And I know at least one other doctor that is concerned about her patients, my doctor! Today, there are not that many doctors who are actually concerned about their patients’ personal well-being and not just their health. If you can find a doctor like that, do not change to a different doctor!

One thing doctors might consider usually is real estate notes to increase the money they have on hand. If they had some, they could sell cash flow notes to keep their practice or facility afloat. This would help alleviate the problem of waiting for payments from insurance companies or government agencies.

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Related Resources

Medical Advertising

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Real Estate Equity

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