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As a restaurant owner, you may have never considered utilizing gift cards as a way to bring in additional income. You may have previously thought that gift cards were best left to clothing retailers and other such stores and that they didn’t apply to those who worked in the restaurant industry.

Here’s what you need to know: gift cards do make sense for your restaurant – and you’re missing out on potential additional profit by not utilizing them as an income resource. Think of it this way: in today’s tenuous economy, where many businesses and individuals are struggling to make ends meet, the best gift in the world is money. This is why so many businesses have jumped on the bandwagon and begun offering gift cards to their customers.

Gift cards might be great for those who receive them, but they are also great for your restaurant. Gift card

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The state’s emissions contain 18.2 million pounds of toxins — mercury, metals and acid gases — 44 percent of which come from coal-fired power plants, according to the Natural Resource Defense Council report. It also put Georgia Power’s Plant Branch, in Milledgeville, at No. 10 on the list of the nation’s most polluting coal and oil fired plants.

The NRDC is a nonprofit advocacy group formed in 1970. The group used annual toxic emission data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency That data is based on information supplied by industries and companies including Atlanta-based Southern Co., which owns Georgia Power.

Georgia Power, asked for comment on the report, said it plans to close or convert some of the coal units and has added equipment to others to cut toxic emissions.

The data in the report is from 2009 and is the most recent available. The N

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More than any other complaint, the Federal Trade Commission received those about debt collectors. Specifically, people complained that they were often ignored when requesting validation of debt (VOD) and or refused the right altogether. The Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) demands that consumers be given this basic right but collection agencies often fall short — either not sending out the notice or leaving the important verbage out of the notices. Because there is some variances in the FDCPA verbage it can be open to interpretation. Adding a standard format would make the rules clear to everyone.

The new Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) which will work along side the FTC will have the power to make changes in the debt collection industry including requiring that collection agencies follow standard formats in their letters. By h

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WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) — Foreign investors bought $23.6 billion in long-term U.S. assets in May, down from $30.6 billion in April, the Treasury Department said.

Foreign investors spent $44.6 billion on U.S. securities, down slightly from $44.8 billion purchased in the previous month, while U.S. residents bought a net $21 billion of foreign securities in May, up from $14.7 billion in April, MarketWatch.com reported.

The Treasury Department said investors purchased $5.6 billion in corporate bonds in May compared with net sales of $3.8 billion in the previous month.

Treasury data indicate China bumped up its holdings in May for the second straight month. Japan and the United Kingdom also increased their holdings.

If you’re a small business, it’s likely that you’ve never considered utilizing a loyalty card program to boost your bottom line. You’ve probably assumed that these programs are best left to the larger retailers, the big box stores such as Target and Walmart, where loyalty programs make more sense. The truth is that loyalty programs are just as beneficial and important to small businesses as they are to large ones.

One of the oldest rules in the business book is the knowledge that keeping a current customer in your throes is much easier and less expensive than trying to go out and hook a new one. Current customers require little to no extra effort or finances on the part of your business. They kn

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“This is the biggest story that we’re going to cover in the next 18 months,” said Sam Feist, CNN’s Washington bureau chief. “It’s important to our network as a news story and as a business because so much of our air time is being dedicated to it.”

In 2008, Atlanta-based CNN rolled out a slate of prime time and weekend programs such as “CNN Election Center” and “Ballot Bowl” leading up to 2008 Election Day. Feist said similar election-based programming will steadily increase between now and January, when the first primary ballots will be cast for the Republican nominee.

“It’s a significant investment,” said Feist.

In Friday’s newspaper, the AJC takes a deep look at how CNN’s strategy in covering the 2012 presidential election. It’s a story you’ll g

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