10 Stupid Mistakes Made by the Newly Self-employed

The Newly self-employed tend to make many mistakes.

Here are 10 stupid mistakes that are often made be newly self-employed people.

Don't make the same mistakes.

10. Laziness

Being self-employed will usually allow you to make your own schedule. If you have a Dentist appointment then you can be sure that you will be able to make it and not have to worry about your work schedule. The problem with many newly self-employed people is that they may decide to lounge on the couch watching Television instead of actually working. You need to get into the habit of actually working hard. If you struggle with this then it may help to pretend that you have a boss and imagine what he would tell you to do.

9. Distractions

When you work for yourself it is easy to get distracted. Instead of actually working you spend your day on Facebook, checking your email, playing Angry Birds, and reading Wikipedia articles. You need to force yourself to work and eliminate as many distractions as you can. It is vital that you prioritize the work you need to do in order to make a profit.

8. No Business Plan or Mission Statement

You need a business plan, or at least a mission statement. Regardless of how small your business is a business plan and a mission statement will help you to keep you business on track. We can often get distracted and focus on aspects of the daily grind that in reality have no bearing on our business. Expand you customer base, but keep a watchful eye on your business plan to ensure you do not shy away from your core business. Business Plans can however need to be re-written and changed around in some cases. Only you know what is best for you self-employment, however you do need to have at least a mission statement you can refer to and also get inspired from.

7. No Work Area Away From the Family

If you work from home it is easy to get distracted by your spouse and children. It is imperative that you set up a work area or office that is dedicated solely for your work. When you are working your friends and family need to understand that they should not ever disturb you unless it is an emergency. It is hard to work when every 5 minutes you kids come in and need something from you. If you worked cooking burgers at McDonald’s your family wouldn’t be coming back into the kitchen area every few minutes, so they should not do it if you work for yourself, regardless of whether you work from home or in a location somewhere else.

6. Hating Your Business

If you are self-employed then it is going to be important as to if you enjoy your niche or not. If you hate carpet, hate manual labor, and hate chemical smells then you will hate yourself if you open up a carpet cleaning business. If you love your job then you will be more apt to work hard and still be able to enjoy yourself while you work.

5. Selling to Friends and Family

If you start a business where you will be direct selling to customers, then you need to have a potential customer base that does not include your friends and family. If you start of by hounding your family to buy your products they will begin to avoid you and hate your business. If on the other hand you begin to sell your quality product to customers, your friends and family will also be more apt to buy products from you. If your friends and family ask you to buy your product without you trying to “hard sell” your products to them, then they are much more likely to use positive word of mouth to spread your products to even more customers. Positive word of mouth is one of the most valuable and effective ways of getting free advertising for your business.

4. Not Advertising

Many new business owners will not advertise in order to conserve their cash flow. Although saving money and not wasting it is vital, you still have to advertise. How can customers find you if you do hot advertise? Make sure you also advertise in a venue and method that will work for your business.  If you build webpage’s for local bars, then you obviously do not need to Advertise during the Super Bowl. Craigslist works for many businesses and it is free, however you may find that you get more results by paid advertising such as in your local newspaper.

3. High Rent Office

If you are a new tech company that consists of only a few employees, then there is no need to rent extremely high-priced office space in Downtown San Francisco. You can open up you office in an area where the rent is cheap. You are not a retail store so you do not have to have prime space. You simply need a working space and by saving money you will give yourself better odds of succeeding by not being undercapitalized.

2. Quit After Failing

Most successful business owners have had multiple failures in the business world before they became successful. Instead of looking at a business failure as a loss, you should instead be looking at failure as a learning experience and then move on to your next business and you will have much better odds of succeeding. If you fail working for yourself then you should not quit. You may have to go work for someone else for awhile, but never give up on working for yourself. You need to have not only a good idea for a business, but also the confidence to know that it truly can work.

1. Under-Funded

If you are under-funded then the odds of your business failing will skyrocket. If you cannot afford to buy advertising, then your business may not get any customers. If you cannot afford to upgrade your web server when you website becomes more popular than your business may fail because the website will crash and that will lead to no customers and no sales. It is extremely important that you have enough capital to keep your business running smoothly.

If you plan on quitting your job and simply working from home as a 1 man operation it is still important that you have some money in the bank saved up. If you are stressing about how to pay your monthly bills then your odds of having a successful career as a self-employed person will collapse.

source: infobarrel.com

7 Quick Tips on How To Write a Resume

What to consider when writing a resume

A résumé is a document for you to present your career background and professional skills. It is often spelt as “resume” and sometimes also known as a curriculum vitae (CV) in common parlance (though there is technically a slight difference in some countries). The purpose of the resume is to land an interview (and the purpose of the interview is to land the job). What are some of the things you should consider when writing a resume? Here are 7 quick tips:

1) Present your most relevant experience, skills or education first in your resume.

Presenting what is most relevant to the potential employer helps them to see upfront what you can bring to the table, so that there is a higher chance they will continue to read your resume. For example, if you are switching fields from an engineering background to a finance field, the most recent finance-related experience or education (e.g. an MBA or CFA) should be presented first.

2) Tailor your resume to each employer
While tailoring your resume to each employer is time-consuming, it is beneficial as it helps you to target each employer specifically. If you do not think this is practical all the time, you could tailor your resume for those high priority jobs that you really want, and send a more general one for the other jobs. You could also prepare one resume for each category of jobs, for example one for Sales and another for Marketing.
3) Use a Clean Design for your resume
Using a clean design helps the potential employer read and scan the resume quickly, so that he is not distracted by any jarring elements. Do not clutter your resume with unnecessary design elements (such as cute-looking bullets) and use lines or headers appropriately to separate the sections of your resume.
4) Use Action Words or Power Words in your role descriptions
In the description of each role, you should use action words or power words to more fully describe what you did at the role. For example, instead of saying “Involved in restructuring exercise”, you should say “Restructured company operations”.
5) Quantify your Achievements
When listing your achievements, where practicable, you should use numbers to quantify them. For example, instead of saying “Led restructuring exercise to cut costs”, you can say “Restructured company operations to cut costs by $5million”.
6) Drop the Objective Statement in the resume
Many resume templates or guides advise people to include at the beginning of the resume an objective statement, for example “Objective: To secure a Human Resources management position at a leading firm”. However, there is no good reason to include the objective statement on the resume, as the recruiting manager on the other end will usually not care too much about what your objective is, but rather how your skills or background can match the role they are trying to fill. If you decide to include it, the objective could be better covered in the cover letter.
7) Proofread and proofread again
This is very important as any mistake, large or small, spelling or grammar or formatting, will leave the potential employer with the impression that you are not meticulous or detail-oriented. This can kill your chances quite quickly. Hence, you should proofread a few times to ensure that there are no mistakes.




SOURCE: infobarrel.com

Top 5 Weirdest Reasons To Get Fired

5. The waitress who got fired because she shaved her hair for charity

Stacey Fearnall, whose father died of cancer, decided to shave her head for a cancer fundraising event. But when she returned to work at Nathaniels restaurant, where she worked as a waiter, she was laid off. The mother of two was told by her boss to go home after she refused to wear a wig. Nathaniels owner and chef Dan Hilliard defended his decision, saying the restaurant has certain standards. He prohibits male staff from wearing earrings and requires employees to keep their hair at a reasonable length. The 36-year-old waitress at Nathaniels restaurant in Owen Sound, Ont., had raised more than $2,700 for the charity Cops for Cancer in exchange for her locks.

4. The woman who was fired for updating her Facebook status

How many times have you updated your Facebook status to say “…is boring at work?” Probably at least once, though statistically that number averages at 3.4 times a week. But can you imagine getting fired for it? Because that’s what happened to Briton teen, Kimberly Swann. She was summarily sacked after her boss learned — via her updated status — that she was “bored at work.” Her boss, meanwhile, says Swann’s admission of boredom revealed that “she just wasn’t happy here” and thus “it wasn’t going to work out.” The question is, why was the boss perusing Facebook on company time? Was he, perhaps, a little bored?

3. The woman who was fired for sending emails in all caps

An Auckland accountant was sacked for sending “confrontational” emails with words in red, in bold and in capital letters. Vicki Walker, who was a financial controller with ProCare Health, was later awarded $17,000 for unfair dismissal, and plans to lodge an appeal for further compensation. ProCare told the authorities Walker – who was fired in December 2007 after two years of employment – had caused disharmony in the workplace by using block capitals, bold typeface and red text in her emails. She had also acted provocatively in seeking to view complaints laid against her by colleagues. But Walker said they talked about a number of emails she had sent, yet used only one in evidence. The email, which advises her team how to fill out staff claim forms, specifies a time and date highlighted in bold red, and a sentence written in capitals and highlighted in bold blue. It reads: “To ensure your staff claim is processed and paid, please do follow the below checklist.”

2. The woman who was fired from McDonald’s because she added a slice of cheese to a hamburger

A waitress was fired after she sold a hamburger to a co-worker who asked for cheese, which she added. The fast-food chain argued this turned the hamburger into a cheeseburger, and so she should have charged more. McDonald’s was ordered to pay the former employee more than 4,200 euros ($5,900; £3,660) for the last five months of her contract. The fast-food chain had argued that the waitress – who was employed at a branch in the northern town of Lemmer – had broken staff rules prohibiting free gifts to family, friends or colleagues. (Link | Via)

1. The Vodafone employee who was fired over a Tweet to T-Mobile

Companies are clearly beginning to take their Twitter communication channel a little more seriously. For one Vodafone Hungary employee, Müller Tamás, this fact has left him unemployed. It all began when T-Mobile had issues with its mobile network in Hungary. The Vodafone competitor was having trouble connecting phone calls and to keep its customers informed, decided to use Twitter. The first tweet said: “Hungary´s T-Mobile network partly down, software to blame”; then another to calm some presumably furious customers saying:

“There will be an official statement (released) about the network problem. Please be patient!”

Tamas, as a member of Vodafone’s marketing staff responsible for the carrier’s Twitter messages, decided it would funny to retweet T-Mobiles tweet with a dash of humor to send it on its way. The tweet said: “OK, give us a ring! RT @tmobilehungary There will be an official statement (released) about the network problem. Please be patient!” Needless to say, Vodafone were not best pleased and quick to issue a statement of their own saying that Vodafone had nothing to do with this reply but it would gladly lend a helping hand to T-Mobile to fix its problem. Vodafone didn’t leave it there either, the company announced that the Twitterer acted without authorization and the remark was inappropriate.

A Stock Market Introduction

There's no doubt about it, the stock market has made many people very, very wealthy. There are many people who trade the stock market on a part-time basis to supplement their income while others trade stocks on a daily basis as a full-time career. The reality though, is that it's not always quite so rosy all the time. Many people do end up losing a lot of money in the market. The stock market itself can even be a catalyst to a recession or even a depression as happened with the Great Depression. The stock market is something that almost everyone pays attention to, but not everyone universally understands how it works.

If you watch the evening news, you've probably noticed that the stock market is constantly a topic of discussion. The stock market even has a TV station, CNBC, that is focused entirely on the stock market and topics that are related to it. There's simply no denying that the stock market is a huge force in the world's economy. Today's stock market essentially forms the structure that supports the global financial market as we know it. If financial institutions didn't have the ability to trade stocks, they would quickly go out of business, dragging entire sectors of the economy down with them.

The stock market, on its most basic level, is a large market where anyone can purchase one or more shares of a company. Companies offer up shares of their stock for investors to purchase so that they can raise operating capital and to fund expansions. From time to time a company that is in great financial condition with strong cash reserves will buy back its stock and return to being a privately owned entity.

Anyone can buy and sell in the stock market. You don't have to have special knowledge or be technically savvy. A common practice for many people is to buy stock with the intent of holding it on a long-term basis to fund their retirement. Still, there are others who prefer to buy and sell the same stock in the same day for fast cash. The investment strategy doesn't really matter. The end result is always the same....to make money.

Dividend capturing is another way that some people make money from the stock market. Dividends are periodic payments that companies pay out to the company's owners (its stock holders). With dividend capturing, an investor will time the purchase of a company's stock to coincide with the dividend payout. Once the dividend is received and as long as the stock has not decreased in value, the stock will then be quickly sold and the process will be repeated with another company's stock. Then again, there are some people who buy stock from companies that issue dividends and then hold it for years. The owners of such stock can receive dividends over and over again throughout the years.

Perhaps the simplest stock market strategy that people use to profit in the market is called "buy low and sell high." In this basic strategy a person will purchase a stock when it is believed to be at a low point and then hold it for a period of time while it increases in value. The stock will then be sold for a profit at a later date.

Understanding the stock market is not that hard. Anyone can learn how to buy and sell in this market with a little bit of self-study. In time, you too can be actively investing in this exciting market.

source: infobarrel

5 Investing Tips to Survive the Debt Downgrade

So the Debt was Downgraded....

How you can STILL be a successful investor

Doom and gloom is particularly hard to deal with because it becomes a pervasive force, blanketing the whole economy with a shroud of malaise. It is easy to fall into the trap of taking all your money out of the market. To a certain extent, this mentality is to be expected. Phrases such as "debt downgrade", "double dip recession" and "permanent unemployment" have a nasty ring to them. With the market falling over five percent in one day, some "investment experts" on cable television have fanned the flames by encouraging investing to flee the market and eat their losses. The reality is that this is a perfect time to start investing in the market. Whether you have a portfolio already, or you are waiting on the sidelines, the single greatest opportunity to increase your net worth may be at hand.
1) Be Conservative Without Being a Miser
Just because there is tremendous opportunity right now in the market does not mean you should jump headfirst into the first opportunity you see. There are many good opportunities, but take the time to find the truly great opportunities. Why settle for decent returns when you can do better? This is why you should be conservative even while looking for opportunities to invest. Do not lower your standards for high quality companies. In this market, you WILL find the great value bargains.
2) Don't Ignore the Fundamentals
Going off of the conservative mindset, make sure you still check the companies fundamental valuations before putting your money into play. While much of the stock market declines can be attributed to general economic malaise, some companies still deserve to be trading at rock-bottom levels. In particular, pay attention to things like Free Cash Flow, Entity Value, P/E, ROE, and ROIC. Don't change your investing philosophy in mid-stream just because the market is down.
3) Look for Dividends, But Also Growth
With unpredictable prospects for strong future U.S. economic growth, many investors are fleeing small cap growth stocks in favor of the older established names that are paying a cushy looking dividend. While this is not a bad idea to protect your wealth and earn some cash on the side, it is not a strategy in and of itself. Many investors treat growth stocks and dividend stocks as if they are mutually exclusive. They are not. You may have to settle for slightly lower dividend payments, but there are many quality growth stocks in the market that are trading at discount valuations, yet still command a steady dividend payout.
4) Don't Watch CNBC
Stop watching the economic "experts" predict the future. They are wrong, most of the time. Develop your own strategy for investing.
5) Adopt a Long Term Approach
It may seem scary to see all that red ink on your portfolio statement, but be prepared to take some losses for a while. Even as you buy more de-valued stocks, don't panic if they drop lower and do not immediately go up. Even if the market has not hit the floor yet, it is still a good strategy to buy all the way down until it does. Think about where your portfolio could be in 2-5 years, not the next few weeks, or even the next 3-6 months.

source: infobarrel

Creative Ways to Sell Your House Fast

There are creative ways to sell your house fast, without having to rely on the traditional ways, such as listing with real estate.
Most of these ways will of course depend on your situation, but do work.  It all depends on how creative you are willing to get and what type of house you are selling!
Sell Yourself With an Open House - This will take some work on your part, but many people feel more comfortable when at an Open House.  I know that when we were looking for a house, open houses were a great way to get to know the area and also be a bit nosy!
You will get lots of "tire kickers" who are basically neighbours who are somewhat nosy and want to see what you have done with the place.  But chances are that you will get interested people too, who enjoy an open house as there is not the same pressue as with "one on one".


Hire an Inspector - You need to start by really cleaning the house, and doing any repairs and fixups.  This is really important.  The best way to start this process, is to be pro-active and hire a qualified home inspector.  Yes, this will cost you up front, but you will be given a report.  On this report will be things that are in need of repairs and anything that may be coming due for repairs.
Do, the repairs necessary, and keep this report, so that you can show serious prospective buyers that you have done an inspection by a qualified inspector and have made repairs to the house.  This way if they do end up hiring their own inspector, you can feel confident that they will not find anything new, and the potential buyer will feel more confident about the house, especially if it is an older one.
Stage the House - You can do this yourself.  Get rid of any extra furniture, by renting a storage unit.  You can get these on a monthly basis, and by cleaning out as much heavy looking furniture as you can will give your rooms a larger feel.   Take down photographs, and leave the walls with just a few pieces of art.
Paint most rooms a neutral colour such as beige, ivory or pale yellow, rather than a deeper colour which can make a room feel smaller and dark.  The owners to be will probably put their own touch on it anyways, but this way they don't have to do it right away.
Find All Papers That Pertain To the House - Such as electric bills and gas bills, and tax bills for example, so they can see the running costs of this house.
Talk To Your lawyer about what you will need to know about selling your house private.  In Ontario, the prospective buyer will need to create an "offer to purchase" through their own lawyer, so it is good to know ahead of time, just how the purchase should go when selling private.
When purchasing our latest home.  We actually bumped into someone at an open house, trying to decide what to price their own home at.  We followed them to this home and after inspection decided it was just what we wanted.  We haggled on the price right then and there, and then made a list of things that would be included and we both agreed to.
We then went to our lawyer with the list and the legal address, and had a legal "offer to purchase" created that we then delivered to them, and the lawyers took care of the rest.  There were no real estate fees involved at all, just the usual legal fees.
Low Commission Real Estate - There are many services around now, that will help you sell your house for a low commission.  It all depends on how much of the work you are willing to do.  
From personal experience, I have found the local paper doesn't really work, unless you are advertising an OPEN HOUSE and put Private Sale beside it, so that they know it is being sold by you and not real estate.  To just state a house is for sale, just doesn't seem to get the calls.
Garage Sale - No you won't sell your house in a garage sale, but it is one way to get potential buyers to see the house.  You can have a sign saying House for Sale on your front lawn at the garage sale, and if you can find the help for the day to man the garage sale, you can also have this as an open house day. 
All you need is one serious customer.  Yes, you will get many "tire kickers" but chances are that there will be a serious buyer in there.
Word of Mouth - let family members and co-workers know that you are selling your house privately and if they are interested to let you know.  Word of mouth works quite well.  In our case a family member bought our house.  As long as everything is done legal and up front with no added surprises, it will go through with no hitches. 
Price it Well - Make sure you do your homework on pricing your house.  If you want to sell quickly, then the obvious way is to offer it for a better price, but make sure and list the good qualitites of your house, such as close to schools, and shopping to make the price competitive and worth checking out.
Since you will not be paying real estate fees, then you can afford to drop your price a bit, but have a bottom line in mind, so that if anyone starts negotiating, that you know the lowest you will go.  You and your partner need to be on the same page for this.
Third Party Appraiser - I have searched out private buyers before, and many times have found them to be too high.  Don't get emotional about your house.  This is business, and if you want to stay competitive, it is worth having a third party appraiser let you know how much it is really worth in todays market.
An appraiser will cost you a few hundred dollars, but they do their homework and they don't work for real estate companies, they are their own company and will give you a realistic price.
If you want to do this yourself, there are creative ways to sell your house, you just need to be prepared to be hands on and involved, but you can save yourself time and money in the end.

source:infobarrel

What You Need To Know About Mortgage Assistance Relief Scams

        

As the number of foreclosures has increased in the last five years, the incidences of Mortgage Assistance Relief Scams have risen also.  Scam artists are stealing homes right out from under their owner's nose.  Sometimes the homeowner helps them get away with it! 

How is this possible?  How could someone just let some crook take their home without a fight?  Because the homeowner thought this person was a legitimate financial company trying to help them save their home from foreclosure. 

 

These fraudulent foreclosure "rescue" professionals use lies and half-truths to talk their way into the lives of homeowners all over the country.  Their promises of rescuing families' homes and saving money are ones that many can't turn away from, especially when they are teetering on the brink of losing everything. 

What are some of the types of Mortgage Assistance Relief Scams?

Phony Counseling / Phantom Help –

The scammers promise to negotiate with your bank to save your home.  They charge an exorbitant fee and may even ask you to pay your mortgage payment directing to them which they promise put in a trust until negotiations are finalized.  After a few months of stringing you along and collecting money, they disappear with your money, leaving you and your mortgage high and dry.

"Forensic" Audit

A company calls with a great offer: for a very steep fee, forensic auditors will comb through your mortgage documents to see if your lender followed each and every regulation. 

They claim that the resulting paperwork can be used to speed up the loan modification process or stop the bank from foreclosing on your property.  It's only when you try to submit the paperwork to your mortgage company that you discover that the audit was useless – it does nothing to help you.

Rent-To-Buy

Scammers ask you to surrender your home's title so they can use their better credit to refinance the mortgage.  Then they rent the house back to you, with the idea of putting the money towards the new loan.  So, in essence, you are allowed to stay in your house while paying it off over time.

This sounds great, especially to someone who is a stone's throw away from losing their home.  The problem comes when either the new owner raises the rent over and over until you can't afford it, they sell the house out from under you, or they never refinance, pocket the rent and let the bank foreclose on you.

Bait-and-Switch

The scammer offers you a new mortgage but to get it, you have to sign all new paperwork.  If you've ever bought a house, you know the amount of paperwork that you have to sign.  So it would be easy to slip in a form that surrenders your house to the scammers.  You return home that night, thinking that your house is safe…and then the Sheriff arrives with an eviction notice.

What are some of the signs of a scam?

Do not trust any company that:

  

• directly contacts you without you first initiating contact
• guarantees to stop your foreclosure no matter what
• suggests any of the above three scams
• pressures you to sign new paperwork, especially papers that you haven't had time to read yet
• collects a fee before they do anything
• only allows you to pay in non-traceable methods (money order / wire transfer / cashier's check)
• suggests that you pay your mortgage payment to them and not the lender
• tells you not to contact your lawyer or lender

What should you do if you suspect a scam?

If you suspect that a company is running a scam, don't just turn your back on them and put on your blinders.  Help protect others by reporting them to your local office of the United States Trustee.  This section of the Justice Department monitors the bankruptcy system and is very interested in curbing this sudden influx of mortgage scams.

source: infobarrel

Ten things to do to cut back on your expenses

Ten things to do to cut back on your expenses

You may be saving and saving and realize it is still not working as well as you expect.  Review the situation from another perspective.  Maybe it is about how your money is flowing out. 

Just like fixing a leak, once you plug the “hole” where you money is flowing out you will find excess funds after all.  Below are ten ways you can do this:

1.    Waste not.  “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” has been chanted over and over again but now you should really make it your personal mantra.  Whether it is food or furniture, make it a point to never waste it. 
This means shamelessly packing up leftovers from buffet meals or dinners with friends, and doggy bagging what you (and the family) cannot finish at that restaurant.  If you feel funny looks coming your way from other diners, take heart in the fact that you probably have saved more money than they spent! 

2.    Make and pack a lunch.  You will be amazed at how much we all spend on lunch on a regular workday.  Make it a point to pack a lunch from home – if this sounds a bit much, do it for just one or two days in a week.  This is far better than skipping lunch. 

3.    Make gifts instead of buying them.  Unless it is something you cannot make, avoid buying presents for birthdays, farewells and other occasions.  Make it a point that you only buy gifts for weddings and anniversaries. 
For example, at children’s parties, instead of buying items for gift packs, have a handicraft session where they make their own craftwork and get to bring it home in a pretty package.  All you will need to buy are ribbons (which are relatively cheap) and gift wrap paper (which you can also make with coloured paper, some patterned stamps and watercolour). 

4.    Turn old clothes into dishrags.  There is no need to buy dishrags when an old t-shirt does the job of cleaning just as well.  Old, faded towels can be used as bathmats or dishrags to wipe your plates while old cotton shorts are great for wiping up the mess at the dining table after a meal.  You will find that you have saved yourself quite a bit by not buying special cloth to wipe messes!

5.    Save on energy.  Not only will you be saving the environment, you would also be saving yourself many, many pennies.  Using energy-saving lightbulbs, for instance, can save you up to 40 percent on your electricity bills, which in a year, can be a pretty astounding sum.  The bulbs may cost a little bit more initially but they save you loads in the long term.  With each bulb lasting up to 5 years, it is definitely worth that expensive purchase at the beginning. 

6.    Save water.  If it rains a little bit too often where you live, you may as well put all that wet weather to good use.  Leave a bucket outside and save all that rainwater.  You can then use it for washing the car, dishrags, bathmats or to mop the floor.  This is especially useful because you will never have to wait for the bucket to fill. 

7.    Save on petrol.  With petrol prices sky rocketing with the sky as its limit, you can save tons by walking or cycling short distances.  That quick trip to the neighbourhood supermarket for eggs can be done just as efficiently by brisk walking or going on a bicycle.  You will get the exercise (and eggs) you need without paying for gas or risking the environment with additional carbon emissions. 

8.    Expanding on the above point, the extra exercise you get by going more manual will save you on gym memberships.  Brisk walking and cycling gives you all the cardiovascular exercise you need and you will soon start seeing those pounds fall off naturally.  You can get more exercise by using as much public transport as possible, too as they normally stop off a little distance away from your destinations. 

9.    Make use of your friends.  If you like gardening, get seeds or shoots from your green-thumb friends.  Buying them from a nursery can be expensive. 
The same for your clothes – if you have a friend in a similar size who loves to shop, ask her for her old work clothes.  If they are not good enough for your workplace, you would have new home clothes so you never have to buy clothes for grocery shopping. 

10.    Pool your meals.  If you are single or have no children, pool your dinners with your family members.  Everyone can then save on having to buy or make dinner.  If this is too difficult, then just do it on weekends so at least you save for two days out of the week.

Developing a Budget You Can Live With

You’ve tried.  You have sat through the budget procedure before, tallying up your receipts and bills.  But within days your meticulous budget falls to pieces.  And then you fade back into complacency.
Perhaps the years of renting or newly developed house envy have you angry with yourself for not saving.  It could be that credit card debt has you swallowed whole and it is easier to imagine undergoing major surgery than opening the bills.   Maybe one friend too many has lost his job and you wouldn’t make it for a week without yours, however much you day-dream about leaving it.  Whatever reason it is that has you crawling through websites promising that some program is going to get you on track, you need to start living on your budget.
If you have been there before, you already know that setting up the budget is the easy part.  After opening all your bills and checking all your online accounts, you spend an evening or two going through it all; dutifully add it to your spreadsheet. Or perhaps even the program you just downloaded, giving you ten days to decide that you do have room for it in your budget.  You wake up the next morning and skip past the coffee you normally buy, because now you are “going to be good”.


But when lunch time arrives, you realize you forgot your leftovers and grab the closest fast food.  Somehow, it is always justifiable.  After all, last night you were up working on your budget.  By the time you got to June two years from now and the figures were starting to look good, it was already the middle of the night.  So now, you need to dig into that stash that you promised you wouldn’t touch and the cycle begins again.
Don’t worry, you are not alone.  Getting to a budget you can live with isn’t easy.  If it isn’t a natural skill you have, you need to take the time to develop it.  There are no quick fixes for financial problems.  If you have tried before and failed, here are some tips and strategies that may help in getting you to a budget you can live with.

Budget Detox
Try this if…your problem is a continuous stream of clothing, media and consumables spending which disables your month-long budget.
How a budget detox works:
Cut yourself off from all spending for a short time period, such as a few days or a week.  During this period, the only spending allowed is debt repayment.  More than likely there is enough food in the fridge and enough Tupperware to take it to work in.  You will probably be surprised at how liberating it is to get through a day or two spending nothing.  Whatever you do, don’t break the goal you have set for yourself.
How a budget detox helps:
This method should show how quickly these small purchases add up to total budget destruction and how possible it is to do without many of them.  When you sit down to budget, you should include spending days and non-spending days to keep yourself on track.
Luxury Basket
Try this if… your problem is that you continue to keep budget-stifling monthly contracts or you have always found ways to prove your entertainment spend.
How a luxury basket works:
List all the luxury items from your budget.  This includes satellite television with all the fixings, Friday night drinks after work, internet games that you casually pay for, gourmet food to cook with, new music you need to feed your soul with, expensive gym memberships, annual vacations, new name-brand clothes, DVD rentals, and anything else that isn’t essential for living.  Once you have listed everything, assign a value to each item on a scale of one to ten. This value should show the item’s importance to your life and lifestyle, not how much it is costing you.
Once you have valued each area of spend, add up all the values and divide by half.  So if your list adds up to 50, then your permissable luxury spend is 25.  Decide which items stay in your luxury basket (and therefore budget) and which have to wait.  Then set financial goals to match point values.  For example, if I save $2500, I will be able to clear 5 points worth into my luxury basket.   The item must be budgeted for, but you will have hopefully managed to clear a certain level of debt to better accommodate your reclaimed luxury basket items.
How a luxury basket helps:
One of the hardest parts of developing a realistic debt relief budget is doing without all the comforts we have grown used to.  Having all the channels in the world will not ease the pain not going out with friends if that is what you really want to do.  Going without a few luxuries for a few months is easier than trying to cut everything that makes your life worth living.
Divide by 52
Try this if… you find that you have lost speed on budget reconciliation after a few days and you discover at the end of the month, you have blown it completely.
How dividing by 52 works:
Add up your projected income for the next year and divide each total by 52, regardless of the frequency of your paycheck.  This is how much you are able to spend weekly, whether it is on bills, monthly accounts or on eating at your favorite restaurant.  On a calendar, mark each payment due date.  Develop a weekly budget based on each week’s particular needs.  For large payments, such as mortgages or rent, the amount set aside may need to be shared between various weeks.  You may want to consider a separate bank account for these expenses so you can set that money aside each week in an account you don’t have card access to.
How diving by 52 helps:
Most budgets and budgeting software programs follow a monthly financial breakdown.  By looking at a smaller time period, not only are budget review and revision periods more frequent, but so are the milestones!
Not Waiting… To Save
Try this if… you have a major purchase or event in the next year that you need to save for, but you still have a lot of debt hanging over your head.
How not waiting works:
Add the budget line for savings and make it as big as you need to.  The general rule of thumb is to get out of debt first and then start aggressively saving.  However, part of financial wellness is not accruing new non-secured debt.
Even if you aren’t saving for anything specific, but words like compound interest make you long for financial freedom, then you need to add savings to your budget.  Set yourself up with a small savings that covers you for income loss or emergencies, then return to aggressive debt repayment.
How not waiting helps:
Perhaps you are paying 20% interest on credit card debt and only earning 3% in your savings account, but if you know of large expenses coming up in the near future, ensuring you can cover those without adding addition debt to your burden is just as important as getting out of debt.  Realizing the value of  savings goals and halting new debt is part of a healthy financial lifestyle.  Saving is not something to feel guilty about.
Whatever method you use to get to a budget you can actually keep up, you are on a path to living without debt.  And if you fall off your budget horse again, brush yourself off and get right back up there.  Your future depends on it!

Samsung started as a company selling dry fish and vegetables

Samsung started in 1938 as a company selling dried Korean fish, vegetables and fruit to Manchuria and Beijing.
This is how Samsung looked like 74 years ago when they started.

Some 20 years after its foundation, the company switched to selling flour mills and confectionery machines, which was the fundamental turn of the company towards technology products.
Throughout the course of their early operation, Samsung invested in a clothing company, acquired a Swiss watch company and even negotiated acquisition of a Dutch aircraft maker Fokker, thereby showing interest in a variety of industries.
Still successful, today Samsung sells a very wide range of consumer electronics.

1 Hour Payday Loans

Lately there have been a number of advertisements that have been claiming that their particular company can offer 1 hour payday loans to individuals who may be in need of some fast cash in the form of a small personal loan. These 1 hour payday loans that each of these lenders are promising their borrowers are essentially just your typical payday loan product with the added benefit that they can be disbursed to you as long as you can have your entire application in order and ready to be submitted for approval. The approval and disbursement process is pretty much the same as other sorts of cash advance loans, and in order to get approved by these 1 hour payday loan lenders then you are going to have to have a minimal and consistent monthly income, a checking account that is good standing, and possibly certain kinds of credit qualifications. Once you have these things in check then you should have no problem getting approved almost immediately at these types of payday loan lenders who offer these 1 hour cash advance loans, and normally these lenders will be able to provide you with your money almost as quick as you are approved.

The key to getting the proceeds of your payday loan in 1 hour is to make sure that you have all of the lenders requirements in order before you apply. This will avoid any kind of delays, and it will ensure that you don't have to keep going back and forth while communicating and applying to a particular lender. You don't need to have too many things in check to get approved for one of these 1 hour payday loans, and like was previously said you only need to have a minimal monthly income, a checking account, and perhaps a clean credit report, although the majority of payday loan lenders don't place too much emphasis on the your credit nowadays. When it comes to income, you should make at least around eight hundred dollars per month on average for most payday loan lenders. This can of course vary a bit depending on the lender you apply to, but for the majority of lenders this level of income should be sufficient as long as you can demonstrate that you make that much on a consistent basis.

When it comes to your credit you need to take into account what your credit score is and what is exactly on your credit report. Most 1 hour payday loan lenders do not care too much about your credit score while determining to approve you or not, and they will rather use it as a part of a formula to determine your interest rate and the amount of fees they are going to charge you. Payday loan lenders will often look at your credit report in detail to see if there are any kinds of specific negative marks that they typically frown upon. These include accounts with late-payments, bankruptcies, and delinquent accounts, as they pay special attention to any other similar kinds of loans that you may have taken out over the past five years or so. You may get denied if you have defaulted on any payday loan accounts in the past, and it is therefore imperative that you either put the effort in to resolve such accounts or go out of your way to provide the lender with an explanation as to why you may have defaulted. Once you think that your credit and income are all set then it just a matter of applying to such lenders, and as long as you have submitted a complete application then you should have no problem receiving your money in hopefully less than an hour. Payday loans in 1 hour are a feasible option if you can get things in line on your end and send in a complete application all at once, as well as if you apply to the right sort of 1 hour payday loan lender. Do this and you should expect to hear a response almost immediately and you should then be able to get your money almost as fast as long as you have been approved.

10 Ways to Drive Your Employees Nuts

Managing people is the organizational equivalent of Whack-a-Mole: the moment you have one staffer functioning, another pops up on your radar with a time-draining issue. It’s best to hone your supervision skills so you’re not adding to the problem.  Avoid these ten pitfalls when working with your team (or invest in an employee assistance program to give them workplace counseling):

1) Have no respect for their time

There’s a time and a place for unannounced inspections, but meetings, training sessions and conference calls need to be scheduled with as much notice as possible, especially if it may require your team members to arrange things in their personal life, like child care. Make sure your meetings start and end on time.

2) Expect them to read your mind

When in doubt, over-communicate with your team.  If you want them to bring certain materials to a meeting, tell them with as much notice as possible (see item one). Don’t be cryptic or sarcastic – tell them clearly what you expect from them. If you’re not sure you’re being clear, ask them to tell you what they think you want – you might be surprised what they got from what you said.

3) Write nothing down

Employees can refer to your e-mails and memos when you’re not around, so follow up important conversations with an email. When you schedule a meeting, put all of the important details in the e-mail (when it’s being held, where it’s taking place, how long it will take, what the subject is, and what they should bring with them). 

4) Never admit your mistakes

All bosses make mistakes, but not everyone admits to it. If you snap at an employee, apologize. If you gave out incorrect information, apologize and correct yourself. Fessing up fosters trust in your employees and keeps their morale high in times of stress. It also encourages them to confess when they have messed up.

5) Have different standards for different people

If you have 6 people in the same job title, all six of them should have the same standards of performance, regardless of who you know from college, who knows your parents, who knows your boss, or who you find attractive. Don’t think your employees don’t notice favoritism – they do.

6) Put them in difficult positions

Gossiping with your subordinates about which of their superiors you like or dislike and why is no-win for anyone. Many employees will repeat what you tell them.  Meanwhile, you erode your trust with them: they soon realize you’re capable of talking about them behind their backs too.

7) Don’t reward good performance

Even when corporate purse strings are shut tight, find a way to recognize people whose performance shines.  If you can’t afford raises or bonuses, write out your praises in an e-mail and send it to them, copying everyone.  Buy hard workers their favorite formula at Starbucks or favorite candy bar from the vending machine.

8) Contradict yourself, and do it often

Everyone needs to change standards sometime, but make sure it’s the exception, rather than the rule.  If employees know they can get a different answer from you on different days, they will quit aiming for any target at all.

9) Don’t give them the tools to do their jobs properly

While thrift keeps costs down, don’t be cheap.  If no one takes their coats off inside the office, it may be time to turn up the thermostat. Make coffee, tea and water available all day long.

10) Lag waaaay behind in technology

Drive as much material as you can to web-based applications that employees can access from anywhere. Automate payroll for hourly employees with timeclocks. Send out reminders with broadcast phone message apps. Make things easier on them and yourself, and give your employees a sense of pride in their workplace at the same time.