home base business

The Diminishing Popularity Of Banks

By: Ivan Mantelli

The last decade or so has seen a rise in the Australian economy but it has also seen in a downfall in banking. Banking, as we know has become a necessity and loans are increasingly becoming a popular means of sufficing an immediate requirement. Banks in Australia have always been traditionally focused and some of the top banks focusing on fulfilling basic consumer requirements of include:

Adelaide Bank

This bank is a listed publicly and has its head office in South Australia. It provides different types of financial services through a detailed distribution network and by forming new national alliances.

AMP Banking Australia

AMP is one of the leading wealth management companies in Australia with an excess of AUD$84 billion in assets.

ANZ (Australia and New Zealand) Bank

ANZ Bank is considered as one of the biggest banking companies in Australia as well as New Zealand and was also ranked among the top 50 banks in the world. The world headquarters for ANZ is situated in Melbourne where it started off in the 1830s.

Bank of Queensland (BOQ)

Bank of Queensland is the second largest Queensland-based banking and financial institution and is listed among the top 5 biggest banks in Australia.

BankSA

It was formerly called the Bank of South Australia and today it is one of the largest financial institutions in South Australia and is also the main provider of personal finance, housing and rural banking in the State. Today BankSA is owned by St George Bank.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is one of leading banking and financial institutions, which has positioned itself for future growth and is aiming to make banking accessible to all Australians.

Macquarie Bank Limited

The Macquarie Bank offers different types of investment banking opportunities and also caters to selected retail financial service markets as well as commercial banking in Australia.

National Australia Bank

The National Australia Bank is an internationally acclaimed financial services group that has been providing comprehensive range of financial services in Australia as well as 15 other countries.

RBA - Reserve Bank of Australia

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is the central bank and its primary responsibility is the monetary policy. Some of the key roles of the RBA include maintaining the stability of the financial system and enhancing the efficiency and safety of the Australian payments system.

These are some of the most popular banking institutions in Australia. Off late, it has been noticed by various research groups that Banks are falling way behind in their promises to upkeep customer satisfaction and to consistently thrive to offer competitive interest rates on their loans. As a result, more and more people are turning towards newer and non-traditional forms of accessing capital such as non-bank lenders and now social lending or peer to peer lending networks.

This phenomenon can be disastrous for banks as has been experienced by banks in the UK following the launch of Zopa. Zopa is considered a pioneer in peer to peer lending and anyone can take an online loan from the Zopa borrowing platform. The salient point is that the borrower can set his or her repayment amount with a maximum interest rate. The interest rate is definitely lower than what banks are offering and hence more people are finding it advantageous from their point of view.

Social lending has landed on the Australian shores with Lending Hub (lendinghub.com.au) now being seen in the same light as Zopa and Prosper. Of course the funding vehicle is still under development but one can safely predict that the social lending networks will start to take lending market share from the banks. Another aspect that has pushed social lending ahead is the fact that it is more community oriented, which banks are not (although the banks like to portray themselves as being people and community focused they have spent the last 4-5 years closing branches and making banking highly automated and less consumer focused).

According to a recent study in Britain, it has been found that 74% of people feel a positive attitude towards borrowing from a social lending community as opposed to borrowing from their own high street banks. Almost 49% people feel that the banks have not been able to keep their promise of offering customer satisfaction. Another 81% believe that the banks are self-interested while a good 76% believe that they are greedy.

All in all these features make banking institutions highly unpopular especially now in the light of the unprecedented growth of social lending communities and peer to peer lending solutions.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8991.shtml

Blogging to Grow Your MLM Business

By: Katrina Harris

If you?re looking for creative ways to generate interest in your MLM business, avoid wasting your money paying for leads and jump on the back of the latest hot trend ? blogging.

One of the most significant communication trends right now is ?blogging?. For those that aren?t familiar with a ?weblog? or ?blog? for short, it is simply an online message board where you can write your thoughts, ideas or opinions on any topic. By its very nature, as a place for like-minded people to share their opinions, a blog is a powerful tool for all entrepreneurs.

This article is designed to give the Network Marketer techniques to improve their networking, and ultimately grow their MLM business.

Remember, you are in the relationship building business, not the ?sales? business so any way that you can improve the way you communicate and network will give you a greater chance of building your business. A blog is a powerful communications tool and it is extremely suitable for social and business networks, like MLM. The other great benefit of having your own blog is that it establishes you as an authority in your field and can give you loads of credibility, which is great for Network Marketing.

So you?ve decided that you want to give blogging a go, so the first question you may have is, ?how do I get started?? Lucky for us not-so-tech-savvy entrepreneurs, setting up your own blog is relatively easy and quick. There are a number of online sites that will provide you with all the resources you need to start your own blog. The best part is that it can all be done for free! I have used both www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.com and comfortably recommend both of them.

Listed below is a quick action plan for establishing your blog and how to market yourself and your business opportunity:

? Sign up for a free blog on one of the above websites. I now use www.blogger.com and have found it easy to use. You don?t even need to have your own website.

? Decide on a theme. I recommend something as simple as your journey as a home based business entrepreneur. You can share both your business successes and challenges. Include useful tips and tricks that you have used in your business.

? If you are concerned about what to write about, just start brainstorming ideas with your team and you will find the list of topics are endless.

? Make the information interesting to the reader, and even add humor wherever possible.

? Add some content over a few weeks, including a couple of core articles along with short conversational, journal style entries.

? Send out the links to everyone in your downline and selected people in your upline. With this type of initial audience, you will find blogging a great way to share information and techniques amongst team members.

? Encourage your team to post comments on the blog and provide feedback to you about the content and usefulness of the blog. Make adjustments as required.

? Once you are happy with the character and theme of your blog, submit it to a number of blog directories (simply search on the term ?blog directory? and you should find plenty!).

? Become the distributor of the latest news and offerings from your company.

? Use alternate techniques like a video post. Simply record yourself with your computers webcam or digital camera and post away! Alternatively, you can take a video of interest from places like Youtube.com and place them in your blog. This will give your readers a great multimedia experience and reasons to keep visiting your blog.

? Tip ? I recommend that you do not try to sell your business opportunity on the blog. Build a relationship first and then you may be able to ask for expressions of interest.

? Tip ? you can refer network marketers from other companies to your blog to help them grow their business. When they see how helpful you are, they may even be encouraged to join your organization.

? Consider using Google Adsense on your blog as an easy income source.

? Be seen as the expert on the latest social networking technology (have you tried conference calls with www.skype.com yet? Watch out for a future article on this hot, free, communications method).

It?s important to keep up with technology and the latest trends, and blogging is a great way you can really take the lead and get ahead of the game. Being a leader means stepping up and providing a strong community amongst your team through the sharing of information. With a blog, you may find yourself being the entrepreneur that keen prospects want to get to know and be around. You are a leader and people want to be around leaders that provide them a better vision of the future. This will mean great success for you.

Looking at other ways to supercharge your MLM business? I recently gathered together 5 Superstars for a special MLM training seminar. Just follow the links below to find out more: www.SuperstarsofMLM.com

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/business_and_finance/article_8833.shtml