Sgt Papi » Business

Have You Signed Up for Overdraft / Non-Sufficient Fund Fees Yet?

Carlos Vazquez — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:20:27 +0000

When I was working for a particular bank one of the most challenging service issues that I had to periodically deal with was regarding Overdraft and Non-Sufficient Fund Fees. I was responsible on educating customers on how the fees were assessed and how to avoid them in the future. It definitely wasn’t something they wanted to hear. I do certainly see the occasional convenience of getting a mini temporary loan on certain transactions such as a bill payment however when it’s racking up a $35.00 fee for a 99 cent Bacon Cheeseburger, there is a fine line between convenience and outright abuse. Now that the government has intervened with these unethical practices (and I reiterate unethical) it appears that banks are now mailing out advertisements to have you Opt-in for this convenient abuse service.

Have you received one of these mailings or encountered a message on their website.

Check out the other various advertisements to entice you to opt-in Banks Luring You Into Signing Back Up For High Overdraft Fees

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Poll: Which Sgt Papi Logo do you like?

Carlos Vazquez — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:07:49 +0000

I submitted a Logo Design Contest for my Sgt Papi brand. Which one do you like the most? Vote nowNote: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

The geek “I’m sorry” card ...

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RANT: Get an idea and STICK to it!

Carlos Vazquez — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:27:49 +0000

I’ve been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug back in the year 2001 (Thanks to Robert Kiyosaki’s – Rich Dad Poor Dad Book) and ever since I’ve had this goal of becoming a millionaire. I’ve accepted that I won’t achieve this by winning the lottery, singing or being an athlete. I have no other alternative other than starting successful businesses (note the plural form of the word). As I was cleaning my room I’ve happen to come across some old business plans of other ventures that I’ve attempted. I consider them a success because I’ve actually generated some type of income from it however they failed because of one thing and that is consistency. I’ve come to the realization that making money isn’t the hard part, it’s actually making money over and over again. Coming up with an idea isn’t challenging for me however sticking to it is. Is that some form of business A.D.D.?

No need to reinvent the wheel One of the challenges I experienced when I was on...

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Undercover Boss: A new marketing ploy or a whistle

Carlos Vazquez — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:09:26 +0000

After the Superbowl CBS took the opportunity to broadcast a pilot of “Undercover Boss” a show that follows a Top Company Executive while they go undercover in their own business to see how the company truly runs. The first episode was of COO Larry O’Donnel from Waste Management. He posed as a new hire for entry level jobs such as recycling belt sorting, port-o-john cleaning, garbage picker upper, administration dancing/running and driving in a pickup truck with a lady whom can’t go and take a break to do number 1 so resorts to improvisation when she needs to go. Now there are mixed reviews of the show but as I get to work in Corporate America, these employees got to tell their story on how hard it is to keep a job. Sure we’re in a recession and it’s stressful being unemployed however it’s also true the the “Corporate” department always manages to implement “New” and “Innovative” ways to increase the bottom dollar for the shareholder at the expense of their hardest working employees. You can read a full article on a blog post for on Time. [Undercover Boss Is Phony and Manipulative. But Don't Hold That Against It]

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Working twice as hard for half the money

Carlos Vazquez — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:32:46 +0000

While working at the bank I have been able to see first hand how this recession has impacted the job market. As more and more have lost their jobs there are still those that still have jobs but they’re equally, if not, even more frustrated and stressed out because they’re doing everything they can to keep their jobs. Because of this more and more of the employed are no longer loyal to their employers for their abuse and looking for an opportunity to jump ship. Being abused and not compensated for it is disheartening and I can definitely relate.

Now, with signs of improvement in the economy, employers should start thinking about worker retention, rather than cost cutting.

“Morale is in the toilet,” said Glassdoor’s Rueff. “Morale issues lead to productivity issues which lead to results issues.”

You can read more of this post on CNN. – ‘Working Twice as hard for half the money – [ CNN Money ]

Have you lost loyalty to your employer? Are you getting ready to jump ship if a “better” opportunity is presented? I want to hear what you think.

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ATM alterations to capture your pin and card number

Carlos Vazquez — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:29:25 +0000

While working at the bank, I get a couple of frustrated individuals in shock and awe on how they’ve been defrauded with their check card. Here’s one of the ways crooks get your check card and your pin. They place the contraption right on top of the real card slide and if you notice in the image there’s a small dot. That is the camera that records your fingers inputting the pin number. Click the image to enlarge and familiarize yourself with these skimmers. This last one was recently found at a Citibank ATM. Would you have recognized the device?

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Use relevant ads for your blogs content to make money

Carlos Vazquez — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:25:23 +0000

When Yahoo! was the search engine leader, one of their biggest faults was their irrelevant ad placement on their pages. That is how Google was able to gain a strong foothold in the internet marketing market. Nowadays you can get a piece of the trillion dollar industry just by simply having a blog that has reoccurring visitors. One concept of advertising that I have that was very successful at one point was Kontera. They are in in-text ad placement service that automatically scans the words on your blog and underlines them with a relevant ad. The success was short lived as they’re algorithm is very sloppy and now doesn’t make any sense. As you can see in my image, when you hover over the name “Chris Brown” is shows an advertisement on Cabela’s Hunting. Your guess is as good as mine as to why this advertisement will be successful. Even at the top of the image you can see a Google AdSense Ad on Nexus One by Google. Obviously the one to the left is perfect because the post is about the music video.

The moral to the story is that if you want to have a successful revenue generator, please ensure that the ads you place are relevant and if it’s a company that is to show “relevant” ads it is your responsibility to “Inspect what you Expect” make sure their ads are relevant.

Do you have any horror stories? Leave a comment and share!

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Web Marketing Geniuses

Carlos Vazquez — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:03:45 +0000

Sometimes the best marketing ideas are those that appear to NOT be marketing. Mother London, a marketing firm in, well, London came up with a clever strategic marketing plan that involved, $10,000 US Dollars Cash in a briefcase, YouTube video, time, viral marketing techniques and named the video “The Honest $10,000 Spam.” albeit the genius concept, the end of the video is very heartwarming. Check out the video.

Vacation Day 1 – Self Study PHP Programming = Not successful My brain is like a hurricane of web project ideas. ...

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Vacation Day 1 – Self Study PHP Programming = Not successful

Carlos Vazquez — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:35:32 +0000

My brain is like a hurricane of web project ideas. Projects in which they definitely would be successful. I’ve had some success stories with some programming and many more failures. I’ve downloaded some e-books on Facebook Application Programming for Dummies and on the first project BAM! PHP parse error. To be honest I have no knowledge on how to program in PHP but I’m dying to create some mean web apps with it. I think it’s time that I start following Robert Kiyosaki’s advice and realize that I have no time to be an expert in something new and just focus on my strength in sales and sell my ideas to some web programmers. Or perhaps I should just go ahead and pay a programmer to do it. Choices, choices choices..

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No need to reinvent the wheel

Carlos Vazquez — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 04:17:51 +0000

One of the challenges I experienced when I was on my entrepreneurial venture was that I felt I had to reinvent the wheel and work on creating the next big thing. In my opinion the best thing to help start someone off is to niche their idea with a basic model. For example, one of my first truly successful projects were 2 soundboards of Pitbull and Elba (Now Prima) from the Enrique and Joe Morning show. The viral marketingwas so effective that it allowed me to generate an income of $500.00 a week with just 2 hours of work. Now, I re-accepted (believe me I somehow have forgotten) that I can use the latest technological trend to create an existing model to a unique niche in my area. I will not disclose exactly what I will do but it is coming soon.

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