Posts Tagged ‘business’

What to Know Before Signing a Home Improvement Contract

It is important to be a very careful consumer when it comes to home improvement contractors. For instance, I had a case where my client, an elderly and blind woman, signed a contract and paid $30,000.00 to a home improvement company that disappeared with all of her money! Unfortunately, the company was a scam operation, my client lost her life’s savings and it will take some time in court before my client may ever see her money again however, her mistake will be a lesson to all of you because this article explains how to protect yourself from home improvement fraud.

Before signing any contract with a home improvement company, first ask that company for its license number and check it out with your State or County Consumer Affairs’ Business License Division. Find the License Division on the web or call information and get their number. You want to find out (1) the name and address of the company associated with the license number given to you, (2) if the company is currently licensed and the license expiration date and (3) whether any complaints have been made against that company. The answers to those questions will help you determine if you want to proceed with signing a contract. Make sure both the contractor and the company he works for are licensed to work in your State.

If your going to sign the contract then make sure certain things are included pursuant to your understanding and as required by your State’s Home Improvement Business Law. The contracting company’s name, address and phone number should be printed on the contract. Also, it is important that the contracting company’s home improvement license number is printed on the contract and that it is not different from the number you called and inquired about with Consumer Affairs. Lastly, make sure that all of the work to be performed is listed in the contract and that the approximate start and end dates of work are included. You should put a penalty clause in the contract regarding the contractor’s failure to timely complete the work because contractors are notorious for starting jobs and then leaving for a few days or weeks to do other jobs while you sit and wait in your dismantled kitchen for him to return. Once the contract terms are satisfactory then the contract should be signed by both you and the company’s representative.

An example of a consumer protection law is New York’s General Business Law §771 (“GBL”) requiring all home improvement contracts shall be in writing and contain certain terms of payment, fees for services and materials and start and completion dates, among other terms. GBL §771 is a consumer protection statute to prevent the misunderstandings between contractor had consumer and to protect the consumer from overreaching of the contractor, such as charging for work that was not agreed upon. GBL §771 limits the contractor who disregards its written contract requirements to satisfactorily proving to a court each and every item of work he did and the reasonable value of each item by detailed invoices, timesheets and proof of hourly rates, among other proofs. So, if the contractor who failed to put your home improvement work in writing attempts to collect $20,000.00 from you, he has to prove the value of his services in detail before scaring you into paying an amount you had no idea about. New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act and the Home Improvement Act protect the consumer even more by denying the contractor from recovering any monies if he violates any of the consumer laws AND he will pay three times the amount of damages (called treble damages) to the consumer for his failing to obtain proper permits or licenses or any other violation of those laws.

Lastly, protect yourself by not paying 100% upfront. Most contracting companies ask for a deposit upon your signing the contract. I suggest that you put down as little as possible and arrange a payment schedule with the company where you will pay a certain amount as certain work is completed. Of course, always get a receipt, signed by the company and stating the date and amount of any monies paid to the company if you pay anything in cash.

This article is certainly not all inclusive and is intended only as a brief explanation of the legal issue presented. Not all cases are alike and it is strongly recommended that you consult an attorney if you have any questions with respect to any legal matters.

Any questions and/or comments with respect to this topic or any other topic, contact:

Law Offices of Susan Chana Lask
853 Broadway, Suite 1516
New York, NY 10003
(212) 358-5762 Susan Chana Lask, Esq. c 2004

About The Author

Susan Chana Lask is named in the media as New York’s “high powered attorney”. She practices sucessfully all civil, criminal & appeals cases in State & Federal courts nationwide. http://www.newsletterjournal.com

scl@appellate-brief.com

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments


How To Write Your Newsletter

So how do you set about writing your own newsletter?

The first thing you need to do is decide on a topic that you are interested in and your potential customers would also like to know more about. Then all you need to do is decide if you have enough knowledge on that subject to write confidently about it, and if you don’t, there are ways around that too. Then decide what format you want to use to present the information and bingo; you have a winning formula for your newsletter.

Deciding on a topic.

You should pick a subject that interests you, and if possible, one that you already know something about. It should also be a topic that is relevant and interesting to your potential customers. It should also be linked to the products and services you sell so that throughout your publications, you can refer readers to your web site for further information or relevant products or services.

For example, if you sell second hand cars, you may want to write a newsletter about “What to look for when buying a second hand car” or “Basic car maintenance”, if you sell houses, you may want to write about” Tips for preparing your house for sale”, or “How to profit from the buy-to-let market”, etc.

Do you have the knowledge?

If you don’t feel you have enough knowledge to write on specific, relevant topics, another strategy for producing a newsletter is to ask others to write it for you. Why would an author give you an article for your newsletter? Because they can include their contact information and links to their web pages, that’s why. The more copies of your newsletter that you give away, the more traffic they get to their web sites. More traffic equals more sales.

There are many article syndication agencies that take articles from experts in all fields for reproduction in newsletters and on web sites. It’s a great place to start looking for articles you can use and as long as you reproduce them in their entirely, including the authors details and links, there will be no problem with copyright infringement. Try typing “article syndication” into a major search engine such as Google along with your particular area of interest and see what comes up.

I would also advise that if you use an article from a particular author, you email them and let them know you have reproduced it and are interested in any other articles of a similar type. You may then find that they send you new relevant articles as they are finished and this will provide content for some of your future newsletters without having to go looking for it.

Another way of getting experts to write articles for you is to seek them out and interview them. Ask yourself:

1. What problem can you think of that could be solved by experts?

2. Who are these experts?

3. Where can I contact them?

Ask them if they’d agree to be interviewed for your newsletter. You can interview them by telephone, email or in person. Often, experts who would not take the time to write an article would be more than happy to answer a few questions and let you publish their answers in return for the free publicity, the publishing of their contact details and a link to their web site.

Don’t get discouraged if they don’t all respond. Remember to be courteous and respectful as they’re doing you a favour.

How to present the information

If you are using someone else’s articles or interviews for your newsletter, the format will present itself. You can’t change the format of a prewritten article for copyright reasons and an interview is usually easiest to present in a question an answer format. When writing your own articles you can also use question and answer format, using yourself as the expert or you can explore a topic in depth in an article style format. Another popular way to present the information is what I call the “tip-list” list option.

For example:

21 maintenance tips for your car

10 ways to prepare your home for sale

101 things you can with your digital camera

25 easy ways to say money on your household bills

All you need to do is decide what question or problem you want to solve and come up with a list of answers. Easy. And if you get stuck, go back to those experts again.

For more information about “Building Online Relationships” download our guide here: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/book_4.html

Now What?

Easy, isn’t it?

The truth of the matter is, today anyone can become a published author with a subscriber based newsletter in no time at all.

Now that you’re a newsletter author, you’re going to be interested in ways to improve and make money from your newsletter. But that’s a topic for next time?

Is your web site driving high quality, targeted customers to your business and consistently converting Internet traffic into loyal, long term, paying customers? Our proven Internet Marketing solutions make your web site work harder for you. For a complete range of Internet marketing and advertising resources to improve search engine positions visit Enable UK. Stop losing customers to your competitors and make more money from your web site TODAY. http://www.enable-uk.co.uk

To catch up with previous issues of this newsletter, visit: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk/html/internet_marketing_newsletter_.html

Internet Marketing Information and Resources Make your web site work smarter!
Web: http://www.enable-uk.co.uk
Email: info@enable-uk.co.uk

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments


Break it up, Break it Down: Paragraphing Strategies for College Essays

Some of us fill a page with a wall of words, with no paragraph indentations, no transitions, and no clearly defined topic sentences. Some of us have the appropriate indentations, but within each paragraph our sentences are out of order. Francis Christensen [1] devised a brilliant trick for paragraphing, one you can use at (and not before) the revising stage:

First, let’s imagine we are creating a couple of “outlines” for paragraphs about places in the world. [2] Fill in the blanks for the two paragraphs below, by pretending each word or phrase is a sentence, with the first word (1) the topic sentence:

(1) WORLD

…..(2) COUNTRY___USA______ (2) COUNTRY____________

……..(3) CITY___San Francisco__ (3) CITY_____________

……….(4) STREET__Haight______ (4) STREET___________

………….(5) BUSINESS_Amoeba Music_ (5) BUSINESS______

For this paragraph, we can see how each entry (sentence) refers back to (1), but is also a more specific reference to the place directly before it. So the sequence is tight/orderly.

But what if we tried to put another (2) next in this sequence, after the (5)? Would bringing in another country in the city, on the street, and at the business there work logically for our reader? Or would it throw our reader?

It would throw our reader.

So we need to start a new paragraph, a new (1), an ALSO/BESIDES/IN ADDITION…. For, this paragraph is of the kind Christensen calls the SUBORDINATE PARAGRAPH, and it must have an order and sub order of 1, 2, 3, 4, …. It cannot have 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, and it cannot have a 1, 5, 2, 3, 4 order.

***** SUBORDINATE paragraphs are good for telling stories, showing a process (or how-to) order, or moving from general to specific descriptions. They are one of three types of paragraphs in the writing world.*****

This brings us, then, to the next type of paragraphing. Fill in each of the blanks below with a phrase:

(1) What is truth?

(2) Truth is_____________________________________.

(2) It is________________________________________.

(2) It is________________________________________.

For this kind of paragraph, called a COORDINATE PARAGRAPH, each sentence that follows the topic sentence–the (1)–cooperates with the others to define and redefine a term or terms. Once you complete your own statements defining truth, note how musical, poetic, or symmetrical (matching) the paragraph is because of the effective repetition.

***** COORDINATE paragraphs are good for–as you likely guessed–definitions, reinforcing meaning in a delivered point, and re-defining a topic.*****

This brings us to the last of the paragraphing types, called the MIXED PARAGRAPH. This includes all other logical and reinforcing paragraphs that contain a combination of the SUBORDINATE and the COORDINATE, while it still keeps order. That is, for example, it can be a 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, pattern, but should not have a new 1 thrown in or an oddly placed sentence like another 2 after the 3, 3, 3, part.

To clarify and to try the numbering on already written paragraphs (if, for example, you draft first and then check order second), let’s look at the following. Try to decipher the numbering pattern in each:

A

___I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. ___I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered; and only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. ___I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder. –from Dr. Martin Luther King’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Dec. 10, 1964 [3]

The above is a sample of a _____________________paragraph.

B

___There’s nothing quite so risky as a parody movie. ___Some of them work out wonderfully, and examples like “Blazing Saddles” and “Airplane!” are two of the funniest movies ever made. ___On the other hand, sometimes you get examples like “High School High,” the new film starring Jon Lovitz and Tia Carrere. ___It’s supposed to be a spoof of the “Dangerous Minds” type of movie, where a teacher comes into an inner city high school and changes everything around. ___Lovitz plays a teacher named Richard Clark — get it, Dick Clark? — who quits his job at a posh private school and takes a position at the worst public high school in the district, Marion Berry High. ___He meets the beautiful administrative assistant, played by Carrere, and the hard-nosed principal, played by Louise Fletcher. ___Yes, former Oscar-winner Louise Fletcher. Can you say, “tragic waste of talent”? I knew you could…. –from Alex Lau’s Movie Magazine International review, October, 1996

The above is a sample of a _____________________paragraph.

C

___Technically, Carlito’s Way is a combination of the innovative and the banal. ___The camerawork is invigorating, if sometimes too exotic. ___DePalma makes good use of the steadicam during the chase sequences, and this heightens whatever tension is present. ___Jellybean Benitez, a former DJ and club manager, is the music supervisor, and his choice of about a dozen mid-seventies hits helps to establish the time-frame. ___Patrick Doyle’s score, however, is horribly out-of-place…. –from James Berardinelli’s Colossus review, 1993

The above is a sample of a _____________________paragraph.

D

___Describing Tupac…. ___Shit, he was real. ___I’ma be real for a minute, because I can’t describe someone so real without being real myself: [Tupac] was everything and nothing. ___He was dreamful, hopeful, a leader, a rebel, a thug, a friend, a role model. ___Just everything he did was, as Tupac once said, “a calculated step to bring me closer to my death.” ___He was the hip hop Jesus. –from Luis Camacho’s journal entry, June 16, 2004

The above is a sample of a _____________________paragraph.

What kind of paragraph do you find A is? If you see it as a COORDINATE, you are absolutely right!

How about B? Yep, a (well-written) SUBORDINATE.

My students are divided on C, with general consensus seeing it as either a COORDINATE, with each sentence after the first reinforcing the writer’s topic sentence or as a MIXED, with the final sentence (a 3)—or?possible a new 1?

And paragraph D? Looks like a rich MIX of details, doesn’t it? And the writer of D hadn’t yet done this paragraphing experiment!

End Notes

[1] Christensen, Francis. A Generative Rhetoric of the Paragraph. CCC 16 (October 1965).

[2] This part of the experiment is a modified version of that used in Graduate Composition Teaching courses taught by Deborah Swanson at SFSU.

[3] All paragraph samples taken from and/or modified for English 880, Skyline College, San Bruno, CA. Passage D is a selected piece written by a student who has granted his permission for my use of it here and elsewhere. RM.

N.H.-born prize-winning poet, creative nonfiction writer, memoirist, and award-winning Assoc. Prof. of English, Roxanne is also web content and freelance writer/founder of http://www.roxannewrites.com, a support site for academic, memoir, mental disability, and creative writers who need a nudge, a nod, or just ideas?of which Roxanne has 1,000s, so do stop in for a visit, as this sentence can’t possibly get any longer??.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1 Comment


Want to Work for Yourself? Those Dream Jobs Dont Just Happen, Theyre Created

While traveling in northern California last October, I happened to tune into a local newscast. The newscaster was telling his co-anchor that the speaker at that morning’s Rotary Club meeting had to cut his presentation short because he was being flown down to Disneyland to carve elaborate Halloween pumpkins for the park festivities. The newscaster wrapped up the story with the familiar quip, “Nice work if you can get it.” He got the first part right. For a creative kid-at-heart, being a professional pumpkin carver is a dream come true. It was his serendipitous “if you can get it” thinking that missed the mark. The fact is, people rarely “get” great work; they create it!

Despite all the emphasis on growth in the “job sector” I am continually amazed at just how many fascinating alternatives there are to the whole 9-to-5 schtick. And just as traditional job seekers can’t wait around for “Mr. Job” to knock on the door, people who want to do satisfying work ? and call their own shots ? need to be proactive as well. Francis Bacon defined a wise man as one who “makes more opportunities than he finds.” Here’s a couple of other wise entrepreneurs who made it by going for it.

Sports-lover Don Shoenewald was just 18 when he went to the Philadelphia Eagles management wearing a homemade Eagle costume and asking for a mascot job. They weren’t interested. Undaunted, Shoenewald kept showing up at Eagles football games. Pretty soon the fans adopted him as the unofficial (meaning, “unpaid”) mascot. Thirteen paid team mascot jobs, four mascot character creations (including ones for the New Jersey Devils and the San Jose Sharks), and 18 years later, Shoenewald started Mascot Mania, the only professional training school for mascots in the world.

Despite what your high school guidance counselor might have told you, showing up invited in a bird costume isn’t the only route to self-employment. For Dan Zawacki it all began when he was working as a sales rep for Honeywell and decided to give away 120 live lobsters as gifts to his customers. Dan was so bowled over by the response that he decided to open a small side business shipping live lobsters complete with pot, crackers, butter and bibs to crustacean-lovers from coast-to-coast. That is until his boss heard him pitching Lobster Gram, Inc. on a local radio station and promptly fired him.

In the beginning, Dan worked out of his bedroom, storing his lobsters in a used tank in his father’s garage. His first year he netted only $4,000. Ten years later, his company sells about 9,000 lobster packages a year for $99 plus shipping. All and all, not a bad tale.

If you dream of making the transition from employee to self-bosser, the first thing you need to do is belief that you can. Then, the next time you see some entrepreneur doing what they love, try thinking: “Nice work ? now, all I have to do is get it!

“Off the beaten career path” consultant, Valerie Young, abandoned her corporate cubicle to become the Dreamer in Residence at http://www.ChangingCourse.com, offering free resources to help you discover your life mission and live it. Her career change tips have been cited The Wall Street Journal, USA Today Weekend, Redbook, Entrepreneur’s Business Start Ups, and on-line at MSN, CareerBuilder, and iVillage.com. An expert on the Impostor Syndrome, she’s presented her How to Feel as Bright and Capable as Everyone Seems to Think You Are program to thousands of people.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

No Comments


Pre-Money vs. Post-Money Valuation

When a company decides that it must raise capital, a key question that must be answered is how much the company is worth. For example, if the business needs $500,000 to get started and/or grow, how much of the equity in that company should $500,000 command? Once this question is answered, the company will go out and try to find investors. When doing so, a key question often arises as to whether the valuation is “pre-money” or “post-money.”

“Before the money” or “pre-money” and “after the money” or “post-money” denote simple concepts. However, these simple concepts can even confuse even the most sophisticated analysts at times. If a company is valued at $1 million on Day 1, then 25 percent of the company is worth $250,000. However, there may be an ambiguity. Suppose the company and the investor agree on two terms: (1) a $1 million valuation, and (2) a $250,000 equity investment. In this case, the company may offer the investor 250 shares for $250,000. Immediately there can be a disagreement. The investor may have thought that equity in the company was worth $1,000 per percentage point, in which case $250,000 gets 250 out of 1,000 shares or a 25% equity position. Conversely, the company may have believed that the investor was contributing to the enterprise which was already worth $1 million. Under this rationale, the $250,000 would give the investor 250 shares out of 1,250 shares or a 20% equity position.

The critical issue was whether the agreed value of $1 million to be assigned to the company was prior to or after the investor’s contribution of cash (pre-money) or post-money.

In the above case, a pre-money valuation of $1 million and a post-money valuation of $1.25 million were equivalent. Because mixing up the terms could significantly increase the cost of capital raised, companies must be sure to understand the two metrics and agree with investors to the metric that raises them the capital at the appropriate price.

Since its inception, Growthink Business Plans has developed over 200 business plans. Growthink clients have collectively raised over $750 million in financing, launched numerous new product and service lines and gained competitive advantage and market share. Growthink has become the firm of choice for venture capital firms, angel investors, corporations and entrepreneurs in the know. For more information please visit http://www.growthink.com or download our free Business Plan Guide.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

6 Comments


Avoiding Tire Kickers as Job Seekers

With the economy heating up and employment prospects opening up after years of dormancy, it is more critical than ever for employers to understand that unfortunately, career “tire kickers” still exist in the marketplace. Demand for quality talent, especially at the senior executive level, still outweighs supply. Tire kickers’ waste valuable time and resources for both professional recruiters and busy hiring managers. They sap the strength of well designed recruiting efforts and can wreak havoc on organizations that fall for their deception.

What can recruiters and employers do to protect themselves? Assuming that you have received preliminary contact from a prospective candidate be certain to watch for any of the following warning signs:

1. Money or financial gain is their only motivation for making a change. While improving the quality of one’s life should be an important consideration when changing employers, it should not be the only reason. Candidates should naturally be curious and interested in compensation issues, but if you begin to sense that there are few other reasons for the candidate to be seeking employment with your company other than a simple pay increase, be aware you may have a tire kicker on your hands. Ultimately they will waste your time and effort. Question the candidate thoroughly about their current situation. What are the candidate’s near and long terms prospects if he were to stay at his current employer? What is the current market condition of the candidates’ current employer? What is the candidate’s relationship to his current supervisor and direct peers? Test to determine the three most critical issues that make this candidate interested in your respective opportunity. If the candidate cannot extrapolate at least three reasons beyond financial gain, be wary of their intent.

2. Communication breakdown: Tire Kickers love to be “romanced” from afar. They love “the chase of being pursued”. It strokes their ego which is their primary motivation. You should suspect you have a tire kicker if you have requested a face to face meeting and there seems to be very limited availability on the candidates’ part. If communication, either telephonically or via email suddenly becomes very sparse from the candidates’ end. Once a tire kicker is confronted with actually making a decision to commit to the recruiter or prospective employer via substantial interviews, disclosure of confidential material including business references and specific work history verification, they may/will react by suddenly becoming very unavailable.

3. Spouse/Family is unaware of discussions. This is a very significant sign, especially if relocation is necessary. As recruiters, we make it a practice of speaking directly with the spouse to make certain relocation to our client employers’ locale is not only acceptable, but ideally, preferable. If we call the spouse and she/he is totally unaware of the possible job change, a red flag goes up immediately.

4. Exact Start Date/Resignation Date Unclear: If you have extended a formal written offer of employment to a candidate and there seems to be some unexplainable wavering on the exact start date, question it immediately. Committed and considerate candidates will give their current employer 2 weeks notice. If a candidate requests more than 2 weeks to quit their current employer, you may be faced with not only a tire kicker but also a counter offer situation. There are very few reasons why a committed candidate would need longer than 2 weeks notice. Additionally as recruiters, we make it practice to “script” the candidates’ resignation with them. This includes their face to face resignation along with their resignation letter. Any reluctance is preparing the resignation script is a major red flag.

Our firm estimates approximately 10-15% of all candidates we come into contact with are tire kickers. Through careful due diligence and research to uncover their true motivations, or lack thereof, we are able to consistently present candidates that are serious about improving their life and that overall business for potential employers. Corporate clients are not as lucky as they devote significant portions of their time and effort to other pressing Human Resource issues. Proper evaluation and assessment is critical to a strong recruitment campaign inside or outside of an organization. Keep an eye out for the warning signs listed above and save yourself, and your company, the trouble of dealing with tire kickers.

Executive recruiter William Werksman is a frequent columnist to job boards including http://www.NevadaJobBoard.com addressing both the candidate’s and employer’s perspective. Werksman’s expertise has been featured in business magazines, national newspapers and television news segments. His firm, Resource Partners, is recognized as the leading source of specialized and executive talent in the Casino and Gaming industry. He manages a staff of recruiters out of his firm’s Las Vegas, Nevada headquarters. He may be reached at: Bill@CareerInsider.com or (702)248-1028.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , ,

No Comments


Make Money by Making a Life as Mother Teresa Did

Many people forget business is a way of service. When you serve others, you make a life instead of making a living. Jesus said he came to serve others in his Father’s business. I am not religious, but it is very important to understand the point. If you think of business as a spiritual event, you are co-creating with the Universe. That is to say, it is an opportunity to make this world a better place to live.

Mother Teresa is a wonderful example of someone who lived life fully by serving others. She helped those in need through her acts of kindness and love. Through her hard work and living her life as a child of God, others were able to make their dreams come true. Serving others is between you and God, not between you and them. God is in charge and through him you will find serenity and happiness.

As regards Mother Teresa, I am hesitant to talk about her and money at the same time. According to polls, Mother Teresa is the most respected woman in the world. By the way, it is unpleasant how several websites talk about her as someone with pecuniary interests. The most reliable reports we have about her confirm she never promotes fundraising. Nevertheless, I beg your permission to talk about her example.

Money is energy. When you find your purpose in life and practice it, you create positive energy, abundant energy. One component to prove you have found your purpose in life is when part of your mission is serving humanity. As soon as you fulfill this purpose, abundance surrounds you.

Mother Teresa is not excluded from this example. She won seven awards and prizes, but she always behaved according to her mission in life. Excuse me for saying this, but she could have taken a pleasure trip, a worldwide vacation. Instead, she said, “I see God in every human being.” And all the money she received from the awards and prizes went to her centers, which devoted all their energy towards helping treat the blind, lepers, the dying, the disabled, and the aged.

I dare to use Mother Teresa’s work as an example because it is real. When your main purpose is to fulfill your mission in life, money inevitably comes into your life because money is energy, and you are generating plenty of energy. Of course, your mission might not be to help the sick, the poor, and the dying.

Mother Theresa said, “It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.” But one thing is true: when you find your passion and intentionally fulfill your purpose in life, you will generate enough energy to attract anything into your life. This includes money, too.

When you really do what you love, you will enjoy life with abundance. And you will be able to help others with love. Learn to find your purpose in life, and do what you love. You will start making a life instead of a living. You will never work again because when you do what you love, you fulfill the noble mission of serving others too. Everything will be given to you, and you will not need to seek the approval of others. You will want to work to serve them.

Mother Teresa said, “If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; succeed anyway. The good you do today, people will forget tomorrow; do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God. It never was between you and them anyway.”

You make a living by intensively serving others. You can do this through your business. Anything you do to make a living is a business. Even a spiritual group is a business. Jesus said he came to work in his Father’s business. Therefore, money is definitely spiritual.

Find your mission in life as Mother Teresa did and you will attract huge amounts of money into your life. You will make a living (that is, money) by serving others (that is, making a life). The pleasure of the material things will be a part of your spiritual reward.

I go deeper about this topic in my most recent book, THE TEN ENLIGHTENED TEACHINGS OF THE GRAND MASTERS: A complete guide to making universal laws work for you. Please visit my web site at www.tenpowerfulteachings.com

Copyright © 2004 All Rights Reserved. By Pedro Avalos

Pedro Avalos, is a teacher by nature, is also writer and motivator. He has become very famous for his practical and revolutionary ecourse “How to Be Motivated for Success Every Moment of Your Life.” This person has outstanding teaching credentials and many personal success stories-many people who contact him have had unbelievable results by applying these tips! Now he has summarized this course and all the experiences of more than 20 years helping people to be motivated every moment in his book TEN ENLIGHTENED TEACHINGS. http://www.tenpowerfulteachings.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

No Comments


Microsoft and Google Show Its Time for RSS Marketing

Many internet marketers are still wondering whether to start marketing with RSS or not. It seems that not even all the case studies, hard metrics and benefits available can’t convince them, or everyone would be jumping on the RSS wagon by now.

Just as an overview, here are some of the benefits marketers are missing out on by not marketing with RSS:

A] 100% delivery of their marketing, relationship building and educational messages to their subscribers, customers, prospects and partners. E-mail isn’t getting delivered, but with RSS you will achieve 100% delivery.

B] Increased search engine rankings and quick content indexing, and increased traffic from other RSS-enabled online sources.

C] Getting your internet content published on other websites.

D] Generating new subscribers more easily and quickly.

E] And much much more ?

Even if you don’t believe that RSS is being used by enough people right now, that’s still no excuse to not start using it as a vehicle to generate more traffic to your sites.

But, soon all of this will change, too.

As it was widely predicted, Microsoft is integrating RSS support in the next version of its Internet Explorer, and perhaps even more important, it’s making it an integral part of its long-awaited Longhorn operating system.

What does this mean for marketers?

A] By being integrated in IE and other Microsoft software, RSS will achieve mass penetration. For marketers this means that RSS will finally become one of the standard tools of mass communication and content delivery. Furthermore, internet users will start to expect RSS from marketers, probably even more so than e-mail newsletters.

B] Marketers will no longer (eventually, of course, when most of the world starts using the latest software versions) need to explain how to get an RSS reader, but will be able to focus only on presenting their business and benefits to the end-user.

C] Broader RSS integration in Microsoft’s tools will enable for additional RSS uses, far beyond basic content delivery in the form of stories, podcasts and products. Marketers and developers will be able to deploy rich interaction applications to make communication and business/personal interaction more fluent, easier and more effective. In essence, for many advanced marketers the capability of marketing with RSS will mean their either “in” or “out” of the game.

D] This is now official. Marketers need to start taking the lead and implementing RSS feeds accross all their communicational innitiatives, from PR to direct marketing and sales.

And to top all of this, Google just recently started serving Google AdSense ads in RSS feeds as well.

The deeper meaning behind this is four-fold:

A] The new “program” is the perfect opportunity for RSS publishers to monetize their RSS feeds. With inclussion in Google’s standard “runnings” of AdSense ads, publishers can expect to monetize on RSS immediately.

B] This is yet another reason for publishers to start publishing their content via RSS, especially since it won’t cost them anything or very little, but will provide them with an additional source of revenues. With the low-cost aspect of RSS, we can expect a flood of new publishers to set-up RSS feeds of their content to generate additional AdSense clicks.

C] With RSS ads included in feeds, more advertisers will become aware of RSS and its marketing potential.

D] Using RSS advertising publishers are now not only creating an additional revenues source, but are in fact making sure they don’t lose ad revenue opportunities.

We used to refer to RSS as the future. Well, that future is now. If you’re not ready to start marketing with RSS, time just might run you over. As well as your competitors… Copyright 2005 Rok Hrastnik

Rok Hrastnik is the author of »Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS«, acclaimed as the best and most comprehensive guide to RSS for marketers by leading RSS experts. The complete guide on RSS for marketers: http://rss.marketingstudies.net/index.html?src=sa10

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

1 Comment


The Power of the BLOG

Can a Blog earn you a prison sentence? Ask Mojtaba Saminejad. He is an Iranian whose Blog, published in the Farsi language, earned him a two-year prison sentence in June 2005.

The online community is fast waking up to the power of blogs which have spread across the internet like wild fire. If you are still grappling with the word BLOG, these are online websites which are diary-like in approach and people are free to publish news or their ideas and thoughts. Blogs are very popular as they are simple to use and in most cases, free.

However, professional bloggers (people who have a decent no. of hours of blogging to their credit) will admit that blogging is not as easy as waking up in the morning, checking out some posts and putting together a few witty lines before you brush your teeth. You do need to be knowledgeable about the subject you are writing on or you are likely to be torn apart by people who are.

Having a Blog has its own set of inherent advantages which are obvious and some which are not so obvious. The better known advantages are:

Freedom to express: If you like to build a chain of communication and use that as food for thought and for your existence, a BLOG is the best way to create this outlet. You can express your opinion openly and you just might be surprised by the number of people who would agree with you. Such communication channels also help build momentum for a particular line of thought.

Networking at its best: If you own a blog which has genuine exchange of ideas it can evolve onto a good platform to network and grow your business. It is easier to impress potential customers with a strong and valid point of view rather than a price quote.

Excellent advertising platform: The sheer size of community generated at a popular blog provides an excellent advertising platform for advertisers. With the hunger for new advertising platforms which is both innovative and cost effective, blogs seems like the next location for the big bucks of advertisers.

Gauging public opinion on products and services: Bloggers post comments at a fiery pace. It is not uncommon to see a couple of comments posted within a few minutes of the original post. The topic and title of the blog needs to be alluring enough to get such quick responses. Blogs thus become an excellent forum to gauge public opinion on products and services and even political and business events.

Useful tool for inter-company communication without the red tape: IBM recently started a blog for its employees on the intranet. Reason? Simple, to get employees interacting with each other and building up a knowledge based community for putting together new ideas as well as provide good human resource practices. More and more companies are ignoring the naysayers for blogs and going ahead with using this tool for fostering better employee relations within the company. The knowledge sharing is also excellent and HR personnel can monitor comments to get an idea about new policies or identify troublesome issues head on and well in advance.

Other benefits which are worth mentioning if you own a blog is search engine optimization due to the high volume of content featured here, updating yourself on the latest trend in the marketplace which subsequently helps you identify new opportunities which helps you stay ahead and allows you to be tech-savvy in your social and professional circle. The benefits outlined above should be enough to inspire you to start a blog at the earliest!

Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter and Entrepreneur Magazine e-Biz radio show host, became a “#1 Best Selling Author” in just a few short hours. He has helped a number of clients target his specialty, opt-in email direct marketing systems. The Powerful Promoter is not only a sought-after internet marketer but has also marketed for some of the world’s top experts whose reputations would shrivel if their followers ever found out someone else coached them on their online marketing strategies.

For more information, visit Bacak’s site at http://www.powerfulpromoter.com or sign up for his Powerful Promoting Tips at http://www.promotingtips.com

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

1 Comment


Hunting the Executive Head Hunter

5 tips to win over an executive head hunter or management recruiter

Many job seekers find themselves overwhelmed with dread at the prospect of hunting down a new career position on their own. That’s why many people hope to hang their hats on the connections of executive head hunters to do their hunting for them in their ongoing (never-ending?) quest for the ultimate trophy career.

In order to convince a reliable executive head hunter, a job seeker has to plan his attack. A well connected executive recruiter will not take on just any person in a suit. You have to build a solid foundation well in advance of making contact.

Just like animal-hunting needs supplies, recruiter hunting requires strategy and supplies, too. Here are five tips to successfully capture the prize ? the services of an executive recruiter.

Do Your Homework

The savvy job-seeker must be well armed with knowledge ? not just about his or her interests and skills, but also in the head hunter’s interests and specialties. Yes, it helps to approach a head hunter who understands your field and has built up connections, because there is very little need for chemical engineers at an accounting firm (although chemical makers have been forced to allow accountants into their sanctums, but that’s another story).

At the same time, an executive management recruiter has no interest in your skills, even if you have won dozens of awards for the French pastries you have created.

Of course, it helps to familiarize yourself with the job market. That is the executive recruiter’s job, but it is also yours.

You will also get a lot further if you have assessed your own skills, not just your desired employment. If you clearly are not qualified for what you seek, you won’t sell yourself to the head hunter. And if you can’t sell yourself to the head hunter, he or she won’t bother trying to sell you to anyone else.

Identify Reputable Executive Recruiters and Head Hunters

Unfortunately, in the 21st century there are a growing number of conmen and scam artists who have injected themselves in the business of executive head hunters and recruiters. Therefore, as you begin your search for a bona fide and qualified executive recruiter, it is vital that you ask around.

Before you approach an executive head hunter, find out all that you can about their operations, history and experience from as many independent resources that you can access. Make it a point to find other men or women who have used their services. Find out who has actually landed jobs for other people, before placing your career in the hands of a charlatan.

Prepare a Solid Resume

OK. so this might be obvious. But it is not always done. Prepare a professional resume before you make contact with the executive head hunters on your list. Your resume is your calling card, and it will determine whether the recruiter will even want to let you waste his secretary’s time.

Line Up Solid References

Before knocking on head hunter doors, make certain that you have handy a list of professional references.

Just as you will want to know the details about any executive recruiter you approach, these professionals will want to know a good deal about you as well. They will want to be able to contact your references, men and women who can support your professional aspirations with solid testimony about your prior accomplishments, your character, your skills and even your weaknesses, too.

Make sure to ask permission from each reference in advance, so they don’t get caught off guard and say something like, “well, uh, let me see, um…you were calling about whom?”

Schedule a One on One Head Hunter Meeting

Finally, when you have all your ducks lined up, you are ready to meet the executive head hunter who will land you that ultimate trophy career. Of course, it helps to pick more than just one recruiter, and it also helps to schedule a meeting at their convenience.

There you have it. You are ready to go and hunt an executive head hunter. Job-searching couldn’t be more fun unless it came with a candy cherry on top and a complementary subscription to Laugh magazine. Happy hunting.

David Leonhardt is a Canadian website marketing strategies consultant. He wrote this article for the Directory of Executive Recruiters and Head Hunters.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2 Comments



SetPageWidth