Inflikt

Applying for Social Security Disability benefits can be a lengthy process. Disability claims are taken by your local Social Security office and then transferred to a State disability agency for evaluation. Here is all you need to know about the timeframes when applying for disability benefits.

The first step to apply for disability benefits is to schedule an appointment with your local Social Security office or submit your application online. It can take as long as two weeks to get an appointment date depending on how busy the Social Security office is in your area. You can apply online at Social Security’s website; regardless of the method of your application you will need to provide proof of citizenship or legal residence for your claim. You will also need to provide the names and address of any doctors, hospitals, or clinics you have been seen at so Social Security can request records to support your claim.

Once you have submitted your application the local Social Security office will take about thirty days preparing it for transfer to your State’s disability agency. Your disability is evaluated by an agency of your State’s government called Disability Determination Services; this agency takes an average of 120 days to evaluate your medical evidence and make a determination.

If you receive a favorable decision on your disability claim from the State, your claim will be transferred back to Social Security and sent to a regional payment center to be processed for payments. Social Security payment centers do not take telephone calls from the public; they simply process payments, so you will not be able to contact the payment center for status updates. This payment center will typically take 60 days to finalize processing of your disability claim before you will receive an award letter and your first check.

As you can see, applying for disability benefits can be a lengthy process. Social Security can take as long as seven months to get you a check. If you have a medical condition that is expected to result in your death you can speed up the process by identifying yourself as a terminal patient when you schedule your application appointment. To learn more about applying for disability benefits visit the website “Social Security Laid Bare” using the links below.

Jack Burton specializes in helping people understand Social Security programs for Retirement, Medicare, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Disability Benefits. The website Social Security Laid Bare presents information on all of Social Security’s programs in an easy to read format, without technical jargon. For more information visit Social Security Laid Bare: http://www.socialsecuritylaidbare.com

Individual sales people, as well as sales managers and business owners, all share the same concern. How to sell more without burning everyone out, or paying too much for marketing.

That’s a dilemma that has certainly been solved, quite scientifically, and I’d like to share it with you now …

Executive Summary

Everyone knows that 95% of businesses fail within 5 years. Not so many people realize that even in the top 500 businesses in the world, within 2 years if history is any judge, more than 50% of them won’t be there!

So size is no guarantee of survival, let alone success. To survive, a business must continually grow its sales, and the only way it can do that is to remain relevant to the market, and retain the capacity to communicate its relevance in a meaningful way.

Whereas one of our previous reports covered this question from the business marketing perspective, this short report now looks at how the sales person should integrate his/her own activities in order to leverage the whole sales process!

It’s true that the notes provided in this report are necessarily simplistic - such a subject demands a book! But at least by reading you’ll see the steps that are required, and you’ll certainly be able to make positive changes that will result in a better understanding of what it takes to achieve your sales goals, together with some solid steps to get there.

You Need to Understand, Much More Precisely, What Parts of What You Do Actually Work

We have shown over and over again that in every business there is a Unique Selling Equation (USE) that provides a kind of secret recipe for success.

Via brainstorming, either in-house with your team, or perhaps even by sitting and analysing the return on each sales activities you engage in, you too can discover that predictive USE.

This automatically achieves 2 important agendas.

• Firstly most sales people find they save an enormous amount of time that they were previously spending on unproductive activities. It’s very important to literally dump activities that don’t “earn their keep”!
• Secondly, once you have an equation that gives a predictable result, you have complete control over sales levels.

Do the Important Things More Often

This might sound simple but in fact it actually describes a cycle:

Schedule it >>> Track it >>> Analyse it >>> Refine it >>> Schedule it, etc.

For this to work, it means that there must be a documented system and that system is inviolable. For instance if you have scheduled in a crucial activity like networking, you don’t go booking a client for that time!

Why? Because if you keep allowing clients to book over the top of scheduled selling activities, you’ll soon run out of clients! A client who doesn’t understand that is sabotaging your business, and that’s as bad as winning a client who doesn’t pay!

Sure, from time to time it’s a necessity, but only in an emergency, such as a client leaving the country and needing to see you NOW. Don’t allow your schedule to be upset because you’ll literally “ruin the recipe” for reaching your sales goals.

Do it Better

To be more effective you must, without doubt, commit to being a learner. In particular give your attention to:

1. Learning more effective ways to describe your product or service.

   This means getting inside the mind of your client and really understanding the true reasons he or she is buying from you. It also means understanding and using the exact same language as the client. To get a better handle on this, take a look at our free report “Why Better Marketing Strategies Add Up to More Customers Calling YOU”.

2. Learn to understand body language and other non-verbal communication from the client, so well that you can:

• Gain fabulous rapport even with tough clients
• Identify an objection coming even before the client is aware of it and “cut it off at the roots”
• Respond appropriately to more and more subtle buying signals
3. Dump “closing” and substitute “wrap-ups” instead.

   These are much more natural and respectful ways of completing the sales transaction. Trust me, people are sick to death of closes, which often didn’t work anyway. In addition many of them were quite offensive to the intelligence of the listener!

4. Learn how to replace cold calling by finding out how to get masses of interested and qualified clients calling YOU.

   There are so many strategies to achieve this, and I recommend the above report, as well as our article on intelligent networking, also available free from our web site, in order to achieve this step. It’s much easier than you think!

It Doesn’t Have to Cost a Fortune to Get This Knowledge!

Believe it or not, all of this and very much more is contained within what is the most up-to-date, and also the cheapest, book on intelligent selling that you could possibly consider buying. Hot off the presses is “How to Double Your Sales in 30 Days - and Keep Doubling Them”.

This incredible 127-page manual comes complete with assignments for your progress, case studies, trouble shooting, and even tracking pro-formas to get the quantification/systemisation part down pat.

If you want, you can even get on-line personalised help, not only from me but from a working party of peers. If you’re a business owner or sales manager, there’s even a special forum just for you to deal with issues relating to team management and development.

Take a look at the contents and see for yourself by visiting http://www.speedbusinessnetworking.com/speedbook.html/.

Please let me know what you think!

Christine Sutherland is the CEO of Speed Business Networking, a membership-based site dedicated to providing hands-on help to SME’s who are seeking a more immediate and responsive alternative to expensive consulting services.

Dating and saving money. For many, the two concepts don’t equate. There’s an automatic reaction for most when suggesting the two together that the person paying is trying to be “cheap” and the resulting date will naturally have the same feel. Contrary to popular belief, however, dating doesn’t have to be expensive to be fun, entertaining and memorable. It doesn’t even have to take a whole lot of extra preparation time. What it does take is a little imagination and breaking from the typical date routine. You have to be willing to think beyond dinner and a movie and be willing to try something new for a change. Here are 15 inexpensive dating ideas: 10 for anyone plus 5 for the adventurous.

Natural Scenery: The beauty of nature is all around us and it doesn’t cost a dime. Whether it’s a trip to the beach, a walk in the forest or a search into a cave, it can be done together for practically nothing. Take the time to find the natural scenic spots in your area and utilize them for your dates.

Sports: If you and your date are both athletic, sport activities together can be a great way to spend your time. Play a set of tennis, jog in the park, toss a Frisbee about, play catch with a baseball or football or shoot some baskets. Whichever you choose, you can spend quality time at minimal cost and get some exercise in, too.

Picnic: Picnics are great for dates because they can be taken along wherever you plan to go for the day and they cost a fraction of going out for a meal. They also can be made as casual or as romantic as you want. Take a casual picnic meal, add some cheese & wine along with a red rose and the picnic instantly takes on a romantic feel.

Historic Places & Buildings: It seems the only time people go looking at the historic landmarks near where they live is when visitors come from out of town. Many of these historic or culturally significant spots have no or small entrance fees and make a great place to go on a date. You also get to learn more about the area you live.

Meal/Evening At Home: Cook up a meal at home and spend the evening watching movies or some other activity such as a board game. The meal most likely will be better than at a restaurant and the evening will cost a fraction of what going out to dinner and a movie would cost. Cook the meal together to spend even more time together, or do it yourself as a special surprise.

Memory Album: Take your camera or purchase an inexpensive disposable camera and make a day of taking photos together. Make a theme for the day if you want or just take any crazy photo that comes to mind. Once finished, get the photos 1 hour processed and create a memory album together for the day that will live on forever.

Museums: If you have museums in your area, they can be an excellent place to enjoy an inexpensive date. Admission prices are usually reasonable and often they have discounts for those attending a number of events over the year.

Learn A New Skill: Gather some information on a skill you always wanted to learn and spend a day practicing it together. It could be a day of learning card tricks, learning how to juggle or learning to make bird calls. Any skill you have always wanted to try can make a fun and interesting date.

College Events: If you live near a college or university, utilize their resources for your dates. Guest lectures, music recitals, art exhibitions and plays are common and are often free of charge. The quality can be excellent and the variety enormous.

Hobby Together: you can set a regularly scheduled date if the two of you have a hobby you both enjoy. You can look in the local community newsletter to see if there are classes being offered in something that interests both of you. These classes are usually quite inexpensive and the two of you can enjoy a few hours each week together learning something new.

For those who are looking for an inexpensive date with some adventure involved, here are five more options that are sure to make the evening memorable:

Local Thrift Shop Date: Plan a date someplace where there are a lot of people. Before going, head down to the local thrift shop together. Once there, specify a small amount of money to purchase clothing or accessories for the other and both head off in different directions. The goal is to find items the other has to wear for the rest of the day/evening within the price specified. The entertainment is seeing the reaction from all the people who see your new outfit as you wander the crowded area.

Follow Them Date: As the two of you meet, you look around and pick somebody out on the street. The date is to follow that person where ever he or she goes. Once that person has stopped or you can no longer follow them, pick another person to follow. Your bound to have loads of laughs as you attempt to stay with your designated guide.

Scavenger Hunt Date: When your date arrives, have him or her make a list of what he or she considers to be 20 unusual items. Once the list is made, the date will be to try and find as many of those items as possible.

Truth Or Dare Date: Pick some spots in your area to visit, but play truth or dare along the way. It doesn’t really matter where you go since the entertainment is doing the various dares that the other gives in addition to telling all the truths.

Bag Of Dates: Put each of the dates I just mentioned, plus any others that you come up with, onto a separate sheet of paper and place them in a bag. When your date comes to the door, have him or her reach inside and choose a piece of paper. Whichever one is chosen is your date for the day/evening.

Copyright (c) 2004, by Jeffrey Strain

This article may be freely distributed so long as the copyright, author’s information and an active link (where possible) are included.

A complimentary copy of any newsletter or a link to the site where the article is posted would be greatly appreciated.

About The Author

Jeffrey Strain has published hundreds of money saving articles and the creator of the Daily Money Saving Challenge Program. He is the co-owner of http://www.savingadvice.com — a website dedicated to saving you money.

savingadvice@gmail.com

Camps have long been a rite of passage for children. It’s never
too early to research productive and fun activities for our
kids. These explorations help develop confidence in our children.

Here is a Top 10 checklist to get started. Find answers to these
questions by writing, calling, visiting the camps, seeking
referrals, or surfing the camp’s website.

1. Director: Does the director seem to care about and understand
kids? What are his or her qualifications and experience?

2. Staff: Does the camp have enough staff members to back up the
counselors? What are the staff and instructors’ qualifications?
Do they support the objectives of the camp? Can the teachers
relate to the students? What training occurs for staff and
counselors before the camp opens? How long is the training
period? Are there pre-camp training opportunities for staff and
counselors during the year?

3. Counselors: What is the camper to counselor ratio? How old
are the counselors? Are there any special qualifications
required to work at the camp? Does the camp have a junior
counselor or counselor-in-training program?

4. Objectives: What are the objectives of the camp? Are the
objectives carried out in the activities of the camp?

5. Flexibility: Are the camp’s programs flexible? If your child
has already had a particular course or activity, is it possible
for him or her to attend an alternate activity?

6. Balance: Does the camp allow for a balance between learning
and fun? How is the camp structured for the hours after classes
or activities?

7. References: Do campers who have been there before recommend
the camp? How about parents of campers who have been there? What
do they say?

8. Resources: Does the camp have a nurse, EMT, or doctor on-
call? Are emergency procedures taught to counselors and staff?

9. Orientation; Do the campers get a chance to know each other
and their counselors a little before the camp moves into full
swing?

10. Accreditation: Is the camp accredited by the American
Camping Association or another camping association?