There is no question that jewelry fanatics can acquire a substantial number of necklaces, rings, bracelets, broaches, and earrings over time. While some jewelry pieces hold a sentimental value, which often prevents the collector from getting rid of the piece, other jewelry items may be easier to part with. Fashion experts agree that people should clean out their jewelry box and reduce their collection to only those items which are truly valued and cherished. Not to mention the extra cash that can be obtained from taking your jewelry scraps to reputable jewelry buyers.

Step One: Declutter Your Jewelry Box

Many people will find a great deal of clutter in their jewelry boxes. There is no telling what could be hiding amongst all of the broken chains and bent rings. Often times, people will have missing earrings and old bracelets that are no longer in style. Rings from an old boyfriend may also be easy to add to your pile of items to sell. An old watch or a gift from a friend that didn’t quite reflect your personal sense of style can bring in additional cash at the jewelry store as well. As you go through your various jewelry collections, think about what items you love to wear, as opposed to items that are passed over each time. If you haven’t worn the item within the past year, and it doesn’t hold a special sentimental significance, then it may be time to part with it.

Step Two: Organize Your Findings

The best way to get the maximum amount for your jewelry pieces is to separate them yourself. Divide the jewelry into piles for gold, silver and any gemstones that you may have. Make sure that you know exactly what you have to sell and approximately how much each is worth.

• Gold: Gold is measured by karats; however, many jewelers will measure gold by Troy ounces. Most gold pieces will be marked with the weight, such as 10K, 14K, or 18K. This will tell you the content of pure gold in each piece. Research the current market value of gold in order to obtain a general understanding of the gold’s monetary worth.
• Silver: Sterling silver is valued on its weight and purity. While some people have their silver professionally evaluated, others use a basic silver test kit to give them a general idea of their silver’s purity. If the jewelry piece is stamped with a number, such as 925, it means that the piece is 92.5 percent pure silver.
• Precious Stones: It may be best to have any precious stones professionally evaluated to determine their clarity, weight, and brilliance, as these details will ultimately determine their value.

 
Step Three: Exchange for Cash

 
Now you are ready to exchange your old and broken jewelry pieces for cash. There are a number of local pawn shops and online buyers available that specialize in buying jewelry. It is vital that you do some research into the company before sending them your jewelry. Check to see if they are members of any creditable jewelry organizations, such as the Jewelers Board of Trade or the Jewelers Vigilance Committee. Find out if the company has any complaints or customer compliments. Lastly, talk directly to the company and ask them any questions that you may have regarding the selling process.

Cleaning out your old jewelry box serves several purposes. Not only are you left with an orderly space filled with only the jewelry items that you love, but you now have room to add more jewelry pieces in the future. The extra cash from all of the scrap jewelry will definitely come in handy as well.

Have you heard of the Grocer’s Apostrophe? The term was coined for the errant apostrophes that regularly appeared in handwritten greengrocer signs. Potatoes would become potatoe’s, tomato, tomatoe’s and so on.

Unfortunately, the Grocer’s Apostrophe isn’t limited to greengrocers; it’s an epidemic amongst retailers of all kind. You can see hundreds of examples in the Flickr group dedicated solely to sightings.

Reactions to the Grocer’s Apostrophe shows that grammar is still valued despite the influence of text speak and internet slang in recent years. Bad grammar is openly mocked and so are the businesses and individuals who fall foul of it (as evidenced by the Flickr group).

The Importance of Proofreading

Everything you write, whether it’s a friendly email, an entertaining article or a lengthy business report, is communicating a message or idea. Effective prose flows, allowing your message to be effortlessly absorbed by the reader. But mistakes in the text are jarring, spelling errors distract the reader and punctuation misuse can completely change the meaning of a sentence. Mistakes are loud; they leap from the page causing confusion, irritation, disinterest and offence.

Proofreading your writing is a foolproof way to keep your message intact and your readers on track, but should you do it yourself or call in a professional?

DIY or DI Don’t?

Proofreading is a skill altogether different from writing. You need an eagle eye, excellent grammatical knowledge (how else will you spot the mistakes?) and the patience of a saint.

If you possess the skills required there’s no reason why you shouldn’t proofread your own work. It is important however to detach yourself from the text first. Take a break, of several days if you can, and come back to it with fresh eyes. Remember that as the writer you are deeply connected to your work so you may see what you want or expect to see rather than what’s actually there.

If the text is very important or you are at all concerned about your proofreading ability, you will benefit from hiring a professional. It is their job to meticulously analyse every word, and they will do so several times until the text is perfect. If you want to avoid making it into the Bad Grammar Hall of Fame, enlist the help of a professional proofreading service.

Choosing a Proofreader

After hours of hard work, the last thing you want to do is send your writing to a sub-standard proofreader. Naturally, you want to find the best person for the job, so allow yourself plenty of time and be prepared to do some research.

Start by searching for professional proofreaders in your area. Sometimes it’s reassuring to meet in person and discuss the project before committing to work together. Ask colleagues and friends for recommendations and look at reviews online. Contact several agencies and/or individuals and ask about their experience, qualifications, specialist areas and previous clients. Most importantly, don’t make a rush decision or simply settle for the lowest bidder, because it could cost you much more than you bargained for.

About the Author

This article is brought to you by Alphatrad (for more info see www.alphatrad.co.uk) a UK Translation Agency in London. Our translation agency offers professional services through a network of more than 80 centres worldwide. With over 35 years of experience, Alphatrad is positioned as a leader in certified translations, proofreading & editing services and much more.

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Every homeowner wants to make sure that the home they are living in is taken care of in case of disability, disease or death. With a product such as mortgage protection insurance, homeowners can have the extra security they need just in case something happens to one or both homeowners. Knowing the basics about this type of policy is important to determine whether you need a policy on your own home.

The Benefits
There are a number of benefits to mortgage protection insurance. One of the biggest benefits is that most of these policies are considered guaranteed acceptance. That means homeowners with health issues or dangerous occupations can get this insurance when they normally are not able to obtain traditional disability insurance.

This type of insurance policy benefits homeowners the most when the situation is just right. Typically, homeowners who see the most benefit from this policy are those who have just purchased a home and are paying a fifteen or thirty year mortgage. The benefits of this type of policy decrease as what the homeowner owes decreases.

The Cost
When you are calculating the cost of mortgage protection insurance, there are a number of factors that go into the price of your monthly premium. The first factor is the amount of coverage you want on your policy. Then, additional factors such as age, health and location will also contribute to the cost of your monthly premiums. Knowing where these factors put you with a quote will help you find the best deal that fits your budget.

While this type of insurance is not for every homeowner, those who want to protect their family and have the right situation to benefit from this type of insurance will want to get it. Make sure to shop around for a great rate and you will be one step closer to keeping your home and family protected.

You can get yourself into debt for many reasons. Some of these reasons are outside of a person’s control. A loss of a job is at the top of the list, but the list is a long one. Suffice to say, if you find yourself with more debt than you ever anticipated as well as too many creditors to deal with each month, you need to consider a 2nd mortgage.

If you own a home and it has a value that is greater than the mortgage that you are paying on, then you have equity in your home. This equity can serve as collateral for a second mortgage. This loan can then be used to pay off all of your other debts. There are several advantages to this type of consolidation loan. The first is that you will no longer need to pay several creditors each month. By making only one payment for all of your debt, the chances of missing a payment is almost zero, so you will avoid paying late fees for a bill you forgot to pay during the month. In short, when you have a single payment for your debt, your personal finances are simplified.

A second reason to use a second mortgage for your debt is that it has the potential to improve your credit rating. It is much easier to make a single payment on time each month than several payments. Making payments on time is one of the important aspects of having a good credit rating. In addition, by having only one balance owed to one creditor or your credit report and showing other balances as zero, your credit score will most likely increase. Having a many accounts with a balance can affect your credit score.

A third reason for a second mortgage is to save money on interest. If much of your debt is in the form of credit cards, the interest is most likely high. This is because the debt is not secured. However, 2nd mortgage rates can be quite low because these loans are secured by the equity in your home. The money you save on interest over time can be substantial.

Every business owner knows how important it is for his or hers business to be present to the best exhibitions for the company’s business needs. It’s a great opportunity to shake hands with some important partners and future suppliers that will help your company grow, even if it is not that evident on the short term. The only thing you need to do now is to figure out how to decide faster and easier on the exhibitions that are worth your investment and to leverage your attendance to the maximum. And one sure way to do this is with WhereInFair.

Business people like Steve Wynn create opportunities by using their business acumen to make a fresh start. They use this fresh start to expand their enterprise until it is operating comfortably. After the enterprise is running smoothly, these people choose to diversify their operations to reach more people.

Becoming a famous entrepreneur is an exercise in patience, ambition and wisdom. The best business people in the world do not use their influence to sit on their cash. They go through all the steps below to further their success.

They Start Small

Successful business people start with one operation. Big department store chains all had to start with one store. One of the largest clothing store chains in the world started with a $5,000 loan from the owner’s mother. People who went to Las Vegas in the early days opened relatively small hotels.

These small beginnings help to build the foundation of an empire that can last for many decades to come. The business person who expands too quickly does not have a solid foundation, and will miss that solid foundation after they have overextended themselves.

This Foundation Includes People

The foundation of a large enterprise is people. The people who begin with the company when it is small become the internal face of the company as it grows. The cashier who has worked with the company for 30 years is sometimes more important than the business owner’s face in marketing.

Additionally, the best entrepreneurs in the world have people around them who have been advisors for many years. This foundation helps the company to remain stable as it expands.

They Expand Wisely

Business people who expand without doing their homework tend to lose money on their expansion plans. At times it may seem like some businesses come out of nowhere into the global spotlight, but these businesses have expanded slowly. The business must gain footing in every new market it goes into, and growing too quickly will result in failures that are crippling.

They Diversify

When a successful business owner has grown their empire to a healthy size, they must begin to diversify their company. A business owner may want to build hotels in luxurious locations around the world, a department store chain may want to offer financial solutions through a new service, and a bank may begin to offer stock and trading services through a new arm of their business.

Diversification allows the business to support itself through many means. One part of the business can help the other parts of the business succeed during lean times. Also, diversification prevents a failure in one part of the business from crippling the whole empire.

They Follow The Plan

Business people who follow the steps listed above tend to be the most successful in the world. Most people do not realize the many years of work that went into the expansion of a large business, and the patience that is required. Planning to grow a business in the manner noted above makes it much easier for the business to succeed for many years to come.