NEW YORK—On football and soccer fields across the nation, small business owners are taking advantage of a huge marketing opportunity: sponsoring local sports teams. Just about every sport, from T-ball played by 5-year-olds to semi-pro baseball or basketball, offers small businesses a chance to get some name recognition and create goodwill [ Read More → ]

Tipping etiquette is a very English minefield Photo: PAUL GROVER Here we go again. Back to the bad old days of restaurant-dining. Should I give that pretty Polish waitress a ten per cent tip for bringing me the food I ordered? Or twelve per cent because I think she’s cute? Or six [ Read More → ]

Walter Hamilton And E. Scott Reckard - Kenneth D. Lewis, who became a focus of public and political outrage while presiding over Bank of America Corp.’s stunning fall from grace in the financial crisis, is stepping down as [ Read More → ]

NEW YORK - The cost of making phone calls has been dropping rapidly in the last few years. If you want take full advantage of that, you’ll need to try some new things, because the phone companies aren’t going to thrust savings on you. Here are 10 tips on how [ Read More → ]

Pensioners Bruce and Judy Bartle have lost their case against the finance company that lent them more than their house was worth to invest in Blue Chip. However the judge has ruled that the lawyer who advised them - a Blue Chip specialist who acted for over 150 investors in the [ Read More → ]

FRIEND TURNED BOSS: You have lunch together every day, grab an occasional drink after work, and have gotten each other through work-related crises. So wouldn’t it be strange if your office buddy became your new boss? It’s more likely to happen in the current economic environment as hiring freezes force companies [ Read More → ]

Dropping the Money Managers name is not about running and hiding from the past, it’s about reflecting the huge change the business has been through in the past 18 months, according to the financial advisory group’s boss Derek Young. The nationwide company, founded in 1985 by Doug Somers-Edgar on Auckland’s North [ Read More → ]

The Boston-area housekeepers who were fired by Hyatt Hotels Corp. sent a clear message yesterday about the company’s offer to put them in new jobs at a staffing agency: They don’t plan to accept it. The housekeepers chanted “No way, Hyatt,’’ at a press conference yesterday afternoon after 77 of the [ Read More → ]

Reunited with 70-year-old policy and £617 richer I am 87 years old and have just come across the enclosed certificate of endowment assurance issued by the Alliance Assurance Co. Could you please advise if the Alliance is still in business and, if so, am I still able to [ Read More → ]

Wealthy Canterbury families and other investors are bailing out of Pyne Gould Corp ahead of its $237 million rights issue, according to brokers. The company’s share price plunged 28.57 per cent to be 50c in afternoon trading and brokers said the volume was ten times usual turnover. The stock has fallen [ Read More → ]