Friday, March 23, 2012

How to create a Good Business Card

What to Include
A personal business card should provide the contact information necessary to get in touch with you. Your phone number and email are most important, but you should also include links to your relevant social media profiles like LinkedIn or Twitter. And if you have a website or blog, consider including its link if you think it will help you impress employers.
Don't over-clutter the card. Stick to the basics, and leave off these extras:
--Your address
--Your specific job experience
--Your fax number
--Multiple phone numbers (stick to your main number)
Options like these may help you stand out:
--A tag line: How do you summarize yourself professionally in a sentence?
--A photo: Pictures can help people remember you.
How to Design Them
The font should be readable and consistent. Don't go for cute, or your card will be thrown away. If you have a personal logo, include it, but make sure it's not so distracting that people are turned off.
Paper choice is important. If the card stock you use is too flimsy, it cheapens your image. Opt for thicker stock, look at different textures, and consider matte versus glossy when printing.
Business cards come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Simply displaying the information vertically makes your card a bit unique. You could also play around with skinny business cards (about the size of a stick of gum) and foldouts.
And speaking of design, it's important to determine your budget for creating the cards. It's easy to get carried away with all the options. If you're on a shoestring budget, go with Vistaprint.com or Moo.com, which offer basic templates you can customize. If you've got a little bit more to spend, try 99designs.com, which has designers vying to create your cards, all at a modest cost. If your budget is even higher, work with a graphic designer who can help you customize what you want to portray with your business card.

Friday, March 16, 2012

2012-13 Highlights of Union Budget

    Offering some respite to the common man, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today proposed that the personal income tax exemption limit will be raised to Rs 200,000 (Rs 2 lakh) from the existing Rs 180,000.
    Thus persons earning up to Rs 2 lakh a year would not need to pay any tax. The finance minister also revised the income tax slabs. The new tax slabs and rates are as follows: (Click on next)
    • For annual income up to Rs 2 lakh: No tax
    • For annual income from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh: Tax at 10%
    • For annual income from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh: Tax at 20%
    • For annual income above Rs 10 lakh: 30%
    The finance minister also said that interest earned up to Rs 10,000 per year would be tax free too.

    No advance tax for senior citizens.

    Health insurance deduction up to Rs 5000 for preventive health checkup. FY13 market borrowing at Rs 4.79 lakh crore.

    Service tax net widened; to include most sectors.

    Negative list to include pre-school and high school education, entertainment services.

    Sale of residential property exempted from capital gains if invested in equity or equipment of an SME.

    All services to be taxed except those in negative list.

Monday, March 12, 2012

How much is $1mm in U.S. dollars?

How much is $1mm in U.S. dollars?

Think in terms of Roman numerals. The value is not case sensitive.

One "M" equals three zeros, or...

M = Thousands [000]
MM = Millions [000,000]
MMM = Billions [ 000,000,000]