Archive for December, 2008

Keep The New Year’s Resolution.

December 31st, 2008

Traditional New Year’s resolution is now passé. We hardly achieve any change from these New Year resolutions that we take every year. On 1st Jan, millions of people opt for a perfect diet to keep their weight under control and get rid of their excess fat. Scientific research has already proved that most of the people fail to keep their New Year’s resolution for more than 15 days. There are very few people who will actually loose any weight. Less than 2 percent actually keeps the resolution.

This happens mainly in the mind. The mind wins over the body. Initially you will find everything to be very interesting, but later you tend to loose interest in it.  You will be obstructed by your psychology.  You will feel like a handicapped and at the end, you will stop doing what you have planned for in the beginning. The thing, which looked appealing at the beginning, now looks boring. The problem is within your mind and the body reflects the aftermath. Your external behavior is the reflection of your internal you.

How to be Your Own Boss

December 10th, 2008

Every individual has a great idea and each one has a vision that the idea will be a successful business venture when enough capital is available. But only a few had the X-factor or the strong entrepreneurial spirit that will make the business going even on very tough times.
Most businesses fail on their second year because of a lot of risks to overcome. Entrepreneurs have to face long hours of work, management decisions, months with no income, and source of capital. Add inexperience to the young starters.
Here are 6 important factors to consider seriously before embarking on the long and often rocky journey of entrepreneurship:

  1. Work experience. Most successful business owners have experienced working as a messenger, a janitor, or a clerk before they decided to take the entrepreneurial challenges. They learned a lot from their own personal experiences. Taking up some business classes will also help a lot.
  2. Hand-pick your team member. Know your weaknesses and find individuals who have high levels of those weak points. For example, an accounting graduate may partner with a marketing guru to make their advertising business going. The other will tend to records while the other takes care of client accounts.
  3. Seek advice to beat your inexperience. As a new entrepreneur, it always pays to listen, read, and seek advice from the experts. SCORE is a website where you can find retired entrepreneurs, who can give advice that they have learned from experiences during their entrepreneurial years.
  4. Business plan. One of the common mistakes of young entrepreneurs is a weak business plan. A strong and sound business plan is complete. It should showcase your product or service offered, the plans on how the business will earn profit, and the skills needed to make the venture successful. This will serve as the map to success–or failure–of your business.
  5. Get your capital. Use your business plan to borrow money from the bank. Do not lose heart when rejected. Ask advice from the bank loan manager on how to improve your business plan. Never use your credit card because high interest rates will just pull down your business to oblivion.
  6. Watch your money. Be a conservative spender. Since you’ll not be earning money for months after starting your business, you should have some cash stashed away for your personal expenses. Do not mix money to avoid confusion on record-keeping.

Earn Extra Money While on Vacation

December 10th, 2008

You have to answer these 2 questions before we proceed. Do you have a spare room in your house? Are you willing to let a stranger or strangers live in your home while you’re on vacation? Thank you for replying ‘yes’ to both.

Letting out your home to earn money is better than leaving it vacant and alone for several weeks. Empty houses often attract burglars. If you’re not comfortable with strangers staying in your home, you may spread word to your friends about your intentions. Chances are big that a friend of a friend would be interested to rent your house for a week or two, or even a month. This way, you will have peace of mind because someone will be watering your plants and taking care of your house while you’re enjoying a trip.

This arrangement is perfect for long vacations such as backpacking through Australia or a leisurely Caribbean cruise. Exploring the world’s smallest continent on foot will need at least 3 months to complete. Otherwise, you may not see any place outside Sydney. One important thing that you have to do upon arrival to any country is to buy a mobile phone (if you did not have one yet) and an international sim card so that you will be able to call your friends and relatives from home. You may also call your tenant to ask how things are in your house. Before going away, you have to set up payment methods so that you could still pay your bills even when not at home. You just have to register at the utility companies’ websites.

One way of ensuring your enjoyment during a vacation is finding timeshare properties, which are often reasonably priced when rented out especially during off-season.

Because you have a spare room that you just use as storage or guest room occasionally, you may want to continue renting out that extra space. To help you find tourists who are looking to pay for a room for one or two nights, join a website that helps match room-for-rent owners to travelers, who are both from different countries.

RoomFT (or Room For Travellers) has members worldwide and has more than 2,000 rooms featured. Members are required to upload pictures of themselves, the room available for rent (for hosts only), and some important information such as contact details. There is a verification option for both hosts and travelers.

For your personal comfort and privacy, and also your guest’s, you may want to invest on a shower cubicle be installed in the spare room.