1. Postpone buying high-tech products like PCs, digital cameras and high-definition TVs for as long as possible. And then buy after the selling season or buy older technology just as a new technology comes along.
2. Never pay a real estate agent a 6 percent commission.
3. Buy used things, except maybe used tires.
4. Lose weight. Carrying extra pounds costs tens of thousands of dollars over a lifetime.
5. And, I'm sorry, I'm really serious about this last one: make your own coffee.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
5 Tips to Earn More Money
1. Choose fields with higher financial and emotional risks.
Risk is a huge reason venture capitalists earn between $100,000 and $300,000 a year—substantially more than supermarket cashiers who receive a regular paycheck and "check out" at the end of the day.
2. Understand the Trends Reshaping the Workplace.
Pharmacists now earn more than physicians.
3. Put in the hours.
People who work just ten hours more per week earn almost twice the pay.
4. Concentrate on career options in the hard sciences, not the social sciences.
Engineers and computer scientists get paid more than teachers, journalists, and social workers. Engineering managers earn an average annual salary of $83,000.
5. Switch to a higher-paying subfield.
The same 25 ways to higher pay in any given field also lead to higher pay in a subfield. For example, a nurse who wishes to become a nurse anesthetist can make twice the pay of a general nurse; one who wishes to travel can earn much better income as a traveling nurse.
Risk is a huge reason venture capitalists earn between $100,000 and $300,000 a year—substantially more than supermarket cashiers who receive a regular paycheck and "check out" at the end of the day.
2. Understand the Trends Reshaping the Workplace.
Pharmacists now earn more than physicians.
3. Put in the hours.
People who work just ten hours more per week earn almost twice the pay.
4. Concentrate on career options in the hard sciences, not the social sciences.
Engineers and computer scientists get paid more than teachers, journalists, and social workers. Engineering managers earn an average annual salary of $83,000.
5. Switch to a higher-paying subfield.
The same 25 ways to higher pay in any given field also lead to higher pay in a subfield. For example, a nurse who wishes to become a nurse anesthetist can make twice the pay of a general nurse; one who wishes to travel can earn much better income as a traveling nurse.
5 Tips for Better del.icio.us Bookmarking
1. Post links to multiple delicious accounts.
An easy way to manage this if you’re using Mac OS X is to install Pukka, a rich client for delicious. The del.icio.us Complete add-on for Firefox also supports multiple accounts, plus it autocompletes tags for you based on your own tags and other users’ tags for the page.
2. Use via: to credit your sources.
In many parts of the blogosphere, noting where you got a link is almost as important as the link itself — because it shows who did the work in surfacing useful stuff. These days, we need to not only know what to look at right now but who to look to in the future to find what else we should be paying attention to.
While the for: tag is well known among delicious users (and specifically supported by delicious), some delicious users use the via: tag to track who provided a link. That allows people browsing your links to know who else they might want to add to their network on del.icio.us.
3. Make your del.icio.us bookmarks searchable in Gmail.
Use Yahoo! Alerts to send your del.icio.us bookmark feed into Gmail, then set up a filter to label and archive the messages as they come in. Now you can search bookmarks using label:delicious (or whatever you’ve labeled those messages). And you’ve backed up your bookmarks to boot.
4. Get some help bundling your tags.
If you have the official del.icio.us Firefox add-on installed though, you can use the sidebar to give you some help. For each tag, it lists related tags. View the sidebar while you are bundling your tags.
5. Replace your Firefox bookmarks with delicious bookmarks.
The recently updated delicious bookmarks extension for Firefox can import your existing local browser bookmarks into delicious and post links to delicious from the browser Bookmarks menu. It includes a toolbar that displays recent bookmarks and a sidebar for sorting, searching, and modifying your bookmarks.
An easy way to manage this if you’re using Mac OS X is to install Pukka, a rich client for delicious. The del.icio.us Complete add-on for Firefox also supports multiple accounts, plus it autocompletes tags for you based on your own tags and other users’ tags for the page.
2. Use via: to credit your sources.
In many parts of the blogosphere, noting where you got a link is almost as important as the link itself — because it shows who did the work in surfacing useful stuff. These days, we need to not only know what to look at right now but who to look to in the future to find what else we should be paying attention to.
While the for: tag is well known among delicious users (and specifically supported by delicious), some delicious users use the via: tag to track who provided a link. That allows people browsing your links to know who else they might want to add to their network on del.icio.us.
3. Make your del.icio.us bookmarks searchable in Gmail.
Use Yahoo! Alerts to send your del.icio.us bookmark feed into Gmail, then set up a filter to label and archive the messages as they come in. Now you can search bookmarks using label:delicious (or whatever you’ve labeled those messages). And you’ve backed up your bookmarks to boot.
4. Get some help bundling your tags.
If you have the official del.icio.us Firefox add-on installed though, you can use the sidebar to give you some help. For each tag, it lists related tags. View the sidebar while you are bundling your tags.
5. Replace your Firefox bookmarks with delicious bookmarks.
The recently updated delicious bookmarks extension for Firefox can import your existing local browser bookmarks into delicious and post links to delicious from the browser Bookmarks menu. It includes a toolbar that displays recent bookmarks and a sidebar for sorting, searching, and modifying your bookmarks.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
5 Tips on Financial Packages
1. Understand that loans and venture capital often come in packages—that is, each may have several sources of funds and one piece of financing may depend on another.
2. Recognize that even government programs may require several sources. Under the federal 504 loan program, funds might come from a certified development company and one or more banks.
3. Expect to come up with some cash yourself. A down payment or demonstration of willingness to risk some of your own capital may be required.
4. Be sure you understand what’s expected of you. For example, does a government program expect you to employ a certain number of workers within a certain time period?
5. Be patient. When more than one financing institution is involved, there’s more paperwork, and each institution must give its approval.
2. Recognize that even government programs may require several sources. Under the federal 504 loan program, funds might come from a certified development company and one or more banks.
3. Expect to come up with some cash yourself. A down payment or demonstration of willingness to risk some of your own capital may be required.
4. Be sure you understand what’s expected of you. For example, does a government program expect you to employ a certain number of workers within a certain time period?
5. Be patient. When more than one financing institution is involved, there’s more paperwork, and each institution must give its approval.
5 Tips to Get Great Talent for Less Money
1. Consider immigrants. Many are talented people who will accept less pay because they don’t speak English. (But pay them fairly!)
2. Keep an eye out for displaced “Mommy Trackers”—smart women who’ve left corporate executive positions to start a family or be closer to their children. They can make excellent part-time executives.
3. Investigate employee-leasing and temporary-help services.
4. Offer internships and part-time challenges to graduate students and upper-level undergrads. They want to get experience and can bring excellent knowledge and skills.
5. Get referrals from employees—and don’t be afraid to hire relatives of good workers. You can save substantially on recruiting costs this way.
2. Keep an eye out for displaced “Mommy Trackers”—smart women who’ve left corporate executive positions to start a family or be closer to their children. They can make excellent part-time executives.
3. Investigate employee-leasing and temporary-help services.
4. Offer internships and part-time challenges to graduate students and upper-level undergrads. They want to get experience and can bring excellent knowledge and skills.
5. Get referrals from employees—and don’t be afraid to hire relatives of good workers. You can save substantially on recruiting costs this way.
5 Tips to Creatively Search For Funding
1. Contact your state, county and local development departments. Many offer funding programs to foster business within a certain geographic area.
2. Take advantage of organizations aimed at helping you. The National Organization of Women Business Owners offers special funding programs for women entrepreneurs, for example, and the National Minority Supplier Development Council has an arm that works with minority entrepreneurs.
3. Call on the community banks in your area. These smaller banks pride themselves on helping small business owners.
4. Find out of there are any revolving loan fund (RLF) programs for which you might qualify. They provide “gap financing” that your bank won’t or can’t offer. Your banker should know of any RLFs available.
5. Visit www.sba.gov/financing, the finance section of U.S. Small Business Administration’s Web site. It provides details on SBA’s many funding programs. Perhaps you qualify for one.
2. Take advantage of organizations aimed at helping you. The National Organization of Women Business Owners offers special funding programs for women entrepreneurs, for example, and the National Minority Supplier Development Council has an arm that works with minority entrepreneurs.
3. Call on the community banks in your area. These smaller banks pride themselves on helping small business owners.
4. Find out of there are any revolving loan fund (RLF) programs for which you might qualify. They provide “gap financing” that your bank won’t or can’t offer. Your banker should know of any RLFs available.
5. Visit www.sba.gov/financing, the finance section of U.S. Small Business Administration’s Web site. It provides details on SBA’s many funding programs. Perhaps you qualify for one.
5 Tips for Hands-On Leadership
1. Be there. Entrepreneurs warn that a successful business can slip when an owner is not there at least part of every day, keeping in touch with how things are going.
2. Set an example for working hard. One wholesale bakery owner sometimes sleeps on the couch in his office so he can be there when the early shift comes in at 4 a.m.
3. Don’t confuse “hands-on” managing with micro-management. Set objectives and offer guidance, but don’t make employees do every little thing your way. Gauge what they do by the results.
4. Understand your business down to the last detail. The founder of a toy-store chain visits the stores and spends time doing each job (selling, clerking, etc.) and observing customers’ reactions.
5. Stay in touch with “stakeholders”—including customers, employees and suppliers.
2. Set an example for working hard. One wholesale bakery owner sometimes sleeps on the couch in his office so he can be there when the early shift comes in at 4 a.m.
3. Don’t confuse “hands-on” managing with micro-management. Set objectives and offer guidance, but don’t make employees do every little thing your way. Gauge what they do by the results.
4. Understand your business down to the last detail. The founder of a toy-store chain visits the stores and spends time doing each job (selling, clerking, etc.) and observing customers’ reactions.
5. Stay in touch with “stakeholders”—including customers, employees and suppliers.
5 Tips on Managing Yourself
1. Recognize when you’ve outrun your abilities. When one entrepreneur saw that her skills were not adequate to manage her company, she hired a president to handle day-to-day operations.
2. Get a CEO coach. Skilled consultants can help you learn how to take your company to the next level. SCORE can help.
3. Open yourself to being transformed. Listen, really listen, to employees. Let go of old notions of leadership (managing by fear, for example).
4. Be self-aware. Many business owners say self-awareness is essential to understanding what leadership style works for you.
5. Be a servant leader. Consider it your responsibility to serve employees and customers.
2. Get a CEO coach. Skilled consultants can help you learn how to take your company to the next level. SCORE can help.
3. Open yourself to being transformed. Listen, really listen, to employees. Let go of old notions of leadership (managing by fear, for example).
4. Be self-aware. Many business owners say self-awareness is essential to understanding what leadership style works for you.
5. Be a servant leader. Consider it your responsibility to serve employees and customers.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
5 Tips on Ways to Sell Your Products or Services
1. Try direct mail. Buying or renting a good mailing list helps you reach the people most interested in your product.
2. Partner with another business and sell each other’s products or services. If you’re a caterer, for example, join forces with a wedding planner.
3. Use your Web site as a marketing tool. Sell items directly on the site or use the site to educate customers about your product or service.
4. Test coupons—in the Yellow Pages, in your local newspaper, or on your web site. Or, participate in a cooperative direct mail program like those offered by Val-Pak, Carol Wright, and other advertisers.
5. Offer a seminar and use it to sell—such as a cooking class if you make food products, or a meeting on long-term care insurance if you are a financial planner.
2. Partner with another business and sell each other’s products or services. If you’re a caterer, for example, join forces with a wedding planner.
3. Use your Web site as a marketing tool. Sell items directly on the site or use the site to educate customers about your product or service.
4. Test coupons—in the Yellow Pages, in your local newspaper, or on your web site. Or, participate in a cooperative direct mail program like those offered by Val-Pak, Carol Wright, and other advertisers.
5. Offer a seminar and use it to sell—such as a cooking class if you make food products, or a meeting on long-term care insurance if you are a financial planner.
5 Tips For Successful Public Speaking
1. Know the audience. Greet some of the audience as they arrive. It's easier to speak to a group of friends than to a group of strangers.
2. Know your material. If you're not familiar with your material or are uncomfortable with it, your nervousness will increase. Practice your speech and revise it if necessary.
3. Relax. Ease tension by doing exercises.
4. Don't apologize. If you mention your nervousness or apologize for any problems you think you have with your speech, you may be calling the audience's attention to something they hadn't noticed. Keep silent.
5. Concentrate on the message -- not the medium. Focus your attention away from your own anxieties, and outwardly toward your message and your audience. Your nervousness will dissipate.
2. Know your material. If you're not familiar with your material or are uncomfortable with it, your nervousness will increase. Practice your speech and revise it if necessary.
3. Relax. Ease tension by doing exercises.
4. Don't apologize. If you mention your nervousness or apologize for any problems you think you have with your speech, you may be calling the audience's attention to something they hadn't noticed. Keep silent.
5. Concentrate on the message -- not the medium. Focus your attention away from your own anxieties, and outwardly toward your message and your audience. Your nervousness will dissipate.
5 Tips on talking with kids
1. Create an Open Environment
2. Communicate your values
3. Listen to Your Child
4. Be Patient
5. Use Everyday Opportunities to Talk
2. Communicate your values
3. Listen to Your Child
4. Be Patient
5. Use Everyday Opportunities to Talk
5 Tips to Bullet Proof Your Resume
1. Use Titles or Headings That Match The Jobs You Want
2. Create Content That Sells
3. Use Quantify and Power Words
4. Create An Image That Matches The Salary You Want
5. Tweak and Target Your Resumes and Cover Letters
2. Create Content That Sells
3. Use Quantify and Power Words
4. Create An Image That Matches The Salary You Want
5. Tweak and Target Your Resumes and Cover Letters
5 Tips for Better Sleep
1. Create a sleep-conducive environment that is dark, quiet, comfortable and cool.
2. Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillows.
3. Use your bedroom only for sleep and sex. It is best to take work materials, computers and televisions out of the sleeping environment.
4. Finish eating at least two to three hours before your regular bedtime.
5. Exercise regularly. It is best to complete your workout at least a few hours before bedtime.
2. Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillows.
3. Use your bedroom only for sleep and sex. It is best to take work materials, computers and televisions out of the sleeping environment.
4. Finish eating at least two to three hours before your regular bedtime.
5. Exercise regularly. It is best to complete your workout at least a few hours before bedtime.
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