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Archive for December, 2007
Hi everybody, I hope your New Year is fun. Have you thought about a New Years resolution yet? You still have a few hours left. Today I am going to give you a nice New Years shanghai chicken recipe. We will get back to some serious business discussion after the holiday. But for now, enjoy the holiday! The recipe I am going to give you is always a hit at parties. They are my grandmothers award winning chicken wings. They are sure to win anyone over if you bring these to your New Years party.
Needed ingredients:
9-10 lbs. of chicken wings
2 1/2 cups of brown sugar
2 1/4 cups of soy sauce
2 1/4 teaspoons of ginger
2 1/4 teaspoons of garlic powder
1. Thaw and prep the chicken wings by cutting them into individual sections.
2. Combine wet and dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
3. Place wings in a deep baking pan. Use a pan that will hold all 9-10 lbs. of chicken wings.
4. Evenly pour mixed ingredients over the wings. Making sure they are covered as much as possible.
5. Either simmer on stove top for 1 1/2 hours or place in a preheated oven for 2 hours (325-350).
6. Stir the wings so the ingredients get all over the wings every 15-20 minutes.
7. When the wings turn dark brown they are done. Enjoy.
These wings are delicious! Give them a try at your New Years party.
I won’t be blogging tomorrow, I am taking the holiday off. I hope you all have a safe and happy New Years!
Hi everyone, hope everyone is doing good today. Every business needs a fax machine. If you don’t have one, someday you will need one. You could buy your own fax machine or you could purchase a service that handles your business faxes. Do you have your business documents somewhere so clients could have easy access? Instead of wasting paper you could post your business documents online somewhere. Fax and storage space can cost your business lots of money if you don’t make the right decision. You can choose service over product, vice versa, or you can find a happy medium. Every business has different needs. Just decide what your business will need and do some research to see what will work best for you.
If you decide you don’t need a fax machine or server for extra storage space, there are companies who will do it for you. There are companies that are new online, but have lots of experience locally for this kind of business need. It is a fairly new service that has expanded locally to globally for lots of companies. I could recommend Axacore, they were stared in 1996. They are committed to excellence in the development of their products and customer service, they do this while maintaining the technological edge needed to stay on top of their business. They do lots for their customers to make sure they get the product and service they well deserve.
Axacore is a fax server and document management company that provides businesses with award-winning fax and document image solutions. They will help your business be more efficient by simplifying the paper-intensive processes. Axacore will also make it easier to automatically send documents to your co-workers, customers, and vendors. They work with a broad range of industries, organizations & enterprises of any size. They provide you with Fax over IP and VoID fax.
Some of Axacore’s key products are FaxAgent, ScanAgent, and XDOC . FaxAgent is an implanted system designed to provide office with the ability to send faxes. XDOC prevents the loss of important papers by providing a place to store everything in one place. This feature will also make it easier for everyone in your business to access documents, print, email, fax or upload documents. Making it easier to send documents to customers, vendors & co-workers.
Both systems work most effectively with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Operating System. Axacore ships the FaxAgent and XDOC system right on the Axacore Appliance, making them able to be used right away. Both systems can be used with many email systems; such as Gmail, HotMail, Yahoo & Earthlink. FaxAgent & XDOC can be incorporated with other applications; such as Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, Microsoft Office and many others.
Every business should have a fax machine or storage for your important business documents.
Thanks for stopping by everyone. See you tomorrow.
Lisa
Hi everyone, I hope you are doing well. The popular question of ” How do I find a real wholesale distributor” keeps coming up again. The whole problem is; people keep trying to find a general wholesaler that sells everything. That won’t happen. Usually the only wholesale distributors that sell everything, are only middlemen claiming to be a real wholesale distributor. You have to figure out specifically what you want to sell. For instance, you know you want to sell cameras, but what kind? Sony and Fuji are usually 2 totally different wholesale distributors. So stop thinking general, get specific and do some research. If you want to sell 3 different name brands from 3 different manufacturers, chances are, you will have to use 3 different wholesale distributors. Because its rare when you find a wholesale distributor that sells everything you want.
Here is how you can find a real wholesale distributor. This is the only way you can truly find wholesalers without getting middlemen. Lets say, you want to sell Sony cameras. You would call the Sony camera manufacturer. Tell them you own business and you are looking to buy wholesale. Then you want to ask a sales representative to give you all the wholesale distributor information they can give you.
That’s the easy part. Now you want to call each and every wholesale distributor that Sony gave you. Your goal here is to find some of those wholesale distributors that will work with your small business. Not all wholesale distributors will work with a small business. Some manufacturers have strict rules that they layout to the wholesale distributors, for who they can and can’t sell wholesale to. Most manufacturers and wholesale distributors don’t want to chance going into business with a small business. Nothing personal, it’s just how some manufacturers work.
This kind of research can take you hours, days, or weeks. It is very tedious, but it needs to be done if you want to find the best deals, so you can make the most profit. Otherwise you will probably be dealing with just middlemen claiming to be wholesale distributors. So it is as easy as that.
There are other ways to find wholesale distributors without doing research. There are many companies that offer their service to find you wholesale distributors. Some companies offer a scam wholesale list. Some companies actually offer you some really good services. There is a company I know that sells sourced wholesale and drop ship information. They are the only wholesale distributor source company recommended by ebay. They are World Wide Brands. World wide brands will do all the research work for you. They will save you tons of time. They find reliable drop shippers and wholesale distributors.
So stop looking for general wholesale distributors. You need to make a list of the specific items you want to sell. Then do the research to find wholesale distributors that will work with you. Then you can start making some money. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. I would be happy to help.
See you all tomorrow.
These scams usually have advertisements that aren’t spelled very well. The advertiser obviously can’t create proper sentences. This is one sure way to pick out these con-men, as they are usually from another country, so their english is not good. They usually don’t have a phone number or working phone number. Scam advertisements will include things like ” year of registration 2007“. This should put up a red flag up right away. If the car is new, it wouldn’t be registered yet, so it wouldn’t have a year of registration yet.
They will also list miss-spelled words like “Body Colour”, instead of Body Color. This is another popular phrase used, ” accesories fitted”; Climate control, power brakes. The scam artists will get a picture of a new car. Then they will go to DMV, carfax, or some other similar car check system online, to retrieve a similar cars information (this is suspected). Then they will copy all that cars information (including a legit VIN and mileage) into their advertisement. So if the person buying looks into a background of that car, they will see the car is real. These scam artists have really gone all out, to make people believe they are getting a really good deal.
They usually advertise that there is a surplus at a foreign car manufacturing plant. The scam artists used to advertise really expensive cars that are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, you can buy for just 30k-50k. But now they have moved onto more realistic scams and offer average, everyday, brand new cars, for just under average prices. It just sounds like a really good deal, so people have been falling for it a lot recently. Just keep in mind, if it is too good too be true, it is, walk away and shop elsewhere.
They even answer your email questions almost immediatly. But they reply with things like; the car is overseas at the manufacturer plant right now, if you give us a payment we will send it ASAP. This is the part that usually lures innocent victims in– You are told that you will be paying a shipping company and they will only release the money to the seller, after you see the car and approve it. Then, the “so called” car manufacturer plant includes a website to the “so called” shipping company you will be sending your money to. After you tranfer the funds to the shipping company, the shipping company never returns your emails and their website even goes offline. So lookout and beware of these types of advertisements.
Do some background research to see if the company advertising even exists or has a history of car sales. Run away if something sounds fishy or too good to believe. I can’t believe people are falling for this, but the reports show over 50 people a day are robbed by this scam in the past year. Over 100 people a day were robbed during the holiday season this year. Buying a car is a huge investment. Some people that buy new cars, can barely afford them as it is. I am informing you all, because this scam needs to be known so it can be stopped.
Thanks for reading my daily blog everyone. See you tomorrow.
Hi everybody, Thanks for reading my blog. I figured I would tell you how to promote your other ebay auctions on ebay today. Everyone knows how to promote their ebay items off ebay. But did you know you could advertise your own auctions on your ebay auctions? Yes, you can promote your other auctions on your ebay auctions. You can make ten times more sales when you promote your other auctions inside your auctions. If someone doesn’t like what you have for sale on one auction, they might see something they like if you offer other similar things right on that auction. Or if they already bought something from you; it could drag them in for another sale on the spot. There are plenty of ways you can advertise your auctions on ebay. Ebay even provides you with tools to promote your other items. Ebay has added a lot of options in recent years to help you promote yourself more. Promoting is like advertising, it’s the most important part of your business. Ebay offers it, you should take full advantage and use it.
There are some tools ebay doesn’t offer and you might have to find them elsewhere. I have been visiting an ebay help website for more than a few years now. They provide tips to bend the rules a little with HTML. With HTML you can do anything. Ebay lets you put whatever you like in your auctions, as long as you don’t break any rules. I will list a couple of HTML codes you can enter into your ebay auctions to promote your items more.
Seller Search Bar - This HTML code comes in handy to bring in more customers. I have been using it for a while. This search bar will let customers search for other items you have for sale on ebay. Maybe if someone wants to save some money on shipping. They can order a few items from you to get a better deal. If you draw lots of hits to your auctions, you will get a round cycle of the same hits going through your other auctions. Either way, those types of hits are coming from customers interested in buying something from you anyway. Once a person clicks onto your auction, your next step is to persuade them to buy something. You can find the HTML code for an ebay search by seller box on ebayhacks.com
Link to your other auctions. Don’t be afraid to put a link of some of your other auction listings. As long as you don’t over do it. One advertisement like this per auction is plenty. Just use this HTML code in bold type. CHECK OUT<a href=”http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?viewsellersotheritems&userid=YOUREBAYUSERID”>MY OTHER EBAY AUCTIONS</a> This HTML code will show your other auctions to anyone who clicks onto the link. It comes in very handy. Just edit the heading as you wish.
If you have an ebay store this next one will help you. Create categories and separate your items into the appropriate categories. In your ebay store you have the option to cross promote your items. This means; if you are selling hammers and nails, you might want to put nails and hammers into the same category. Then when you cross promote them, people will see hammers and nails on the same page. This will make the customer more likely to buy both from you. Most customers on ebay will try and buy everything from one seller, so they save on shipping. When the customer purchases an item from you, they will also see items they can buy in the same category.
There are tons of other ways you can promote your store inside ebay. These are just a few, I hope they help.
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Hi everyone, I hope you had a great holiday. I got to see lots of family I haven’t seen in a while. That’s always a treat. The question of the day is; Is Amazon better than Ebay? Lots of people email me with this question. Today I will do my best to explain why you want to be a seller on both websites. I am in favor of ebay, they seem to make me more money. But on the other hand, Amazon is very good for small items. Some people don’t know about Amazon. Some people don’t know about ebay. Hopefully I can help you make more money by utilizing the both of them as a seller.
Ebay is king of marketplaces right now. But don’t be fooled, Amazon is not far behind. But ebay wins hands down, when it comes to making more money. Amazon is great for selling small items, especially books, movies, video games, and things for college students. For some reason college students flock to Amazon. Amazon also offers almost everything ebay offers. I actually love to buy things on amazon. Amazon seems to have some really low priced deals sometimes. Once and a while you can find things cheaper than you can on ebay, depending on what product is for sale. Ebay still rules most categories for finding cheap items though. Amazon also offers Amazon prime, a great shipping program. Ebay doesn’t offer a shipping program.
Amazon is a necessity when you are thinking about expanding your business. You can make some really good money there. Just do your research. Find out what the hot items to sell for the most profit. Most of the time, you can use the same hot items from ebay. The good thing about amazon is; the prices are generally higher than ebay. As a seller, you can hike up the price and make more profit. The best thing is; The competition on Amazon will have high prices also. Your competitions prices will be higher than the competition’s prices found on ebay. So even though you won’t sell as much as you do on ebay, you will make good profit, when you do sell something. Amazon always has a great sale going on during the holidays. I think they have a 50%-70% sale going on right now.
So the question still remains…..Who is better; Amazon or Ebay? Ebay will make you the most money as a business. In my honest opinion; I have found ebay, by far, exceeds Amazon. All though Amazon is a great place to make some money. They don’t touch ebay when it comes to bringing in more sales. There are so many options the user has at their fingertips on ebay. Ebay has hundreds of tools floating around cyberspace to better your experience. Amazon doesn’t give you as much as ebay does, to make your experience more user friendly. Allthough Amazon has redone their entire website and it has really changed for the better. Amazon gets tons of traffic. Not as much as ebay, but they get their fair share of traffic.
I am not saying don’t sell on Amazon. I am just saying “Ebay is a better marketplace for the seller”. But I would recommend using both and expanding your business. Amazon is not a waste of time or money. It can really make a difference in that weekly profit margin. Don’t overlook the other marketplaces like Amazon or half.com. There are lots of marketplaces you can use to spread your business name around. Lots of other good marketplaces are free also. So you won’t have anything to lose exept your time. If you want to find out about other online marketplaces, I made a post about it not too long ago. Check it out here
I hope this helps some of you decide who is better. See you tomorrow.
Hi everyone, I hope your holiday is fun! As you might have noticed, I will be taking Christmas eve and Christmas day off from writing about business. Merry Christmas and Happy holidays.
Thanks for stopping by, I will return on Wed. December 26th.
Happy holidays everyone! Have you ever posted an auction on ebay and not made any money, because you didn’t figure the ebay and paypal fees? It is so important to figure your fees, so you can charge the appropriate price. You don’t want to end up paying for an auction you should have made money on. I have seen so many people on ebay screw themselves because they didn’t figure out ebay or paypal fees beforehand. Especially if you are selling a high priced item. The fees will be higher, so be very cautious before you list that auction. You want to make profit, not pay out of your pocket.
You can figure out the fees by visiting the ebay or paypal fee calculators on their websites. They list all the fees on various prices. They have a pyramid type pricing list that you can figure out your ebay and paypal fees. Ebay and paypal make it very easy to figure out your fees. Take advantage of it. Knowing your total auction fees will save your business and make it more profitable. One thing that will make your business fail is; not knowing hidden fees that come along with selling an auction. This can take up lots of time though. Through the years I have found some really cool tools that are quicker to figure out total auction fees.
One tool I have been using for ebay fees is a calculator. Just type in the prices and the calculator tells you how much the ebay total auction fees will be. The ebay calculator I use is located at www.ebcalc.com , it comes in handy and saves lots of time. Even though ebay lists all their fee calculations on their website, this tool will do the same thing in half the time you can figure out the fees. Try it out, I am sure you will find it very handy.
Another tool I use, figures out the paypal fees. Paypal fees can really get you, because the more you get paid, the more they take. The paypal fee calculator I use is located at http://www.ppcalc.com/ . This will save you tons of time trying to figure out the paypal fees. Try and use this calculator as much as you can. It will save you tons of time and money also. I have been using this tool for sometime now and I can’t live without it.
These are the two tools I use to figure out ebay auction and paypal fees. I hope these come in handy for some of you. These tools have really grown on me. I can figure out my auction fees in half the time using these tools. Plus you will have the knowledge to maximize your profits. If there is one thing I am good at, is maximizing ebay profit. Try them out and get familar with them.
Take care everyone, see you tomorrow.
Lisa
Hello everyone, I hope your holiday shopping is going smoothly. Today I am going to give you some tips I use for my ebay auction titles. Auction titles are the most important part of your auction. Ebay puts all your auctions into search engines by the keywords in your auction title. They also make your auction title optimized for all major search engines. People that search for products or items on ebay, usually search by keywords, not categories. If you are confused about what keywords would work best for your auctions, just look at what other sellers are doing.
Don’t forget, you can always use the subtitle to add things like, brand new, mint, excellent condition etc. If someone is looking for an apple ipod, they probably won’t search by category. Most users would type apple ipod into the search bar on ebay. As I said, this is the most popular way people look for items or products on ebay. Remember to keep your auction title original. Do not copy someone else’s title. It’s fine to use it as an example, so you know what to list as an auction title. But make up your own auction title.
Think of some keywords you would type, if you were looking for a specific item or product. This is a good way to test and see if you have a perfect auction title. There are tons of ways you could word your title. The best way you can tell if you have a perfect auction title is; ask yourself, what would I type into the ebay search engine, if I was looking for this item or product. Chances are, this will help you create the best possible auction title. The better your auction title, the more sales you will have.
Another way you could find what the best keywords to add into your ebay auction title is; check out ebay’s popular keywords list. This list is updated about once a week. It’s probably the best tool you can have, if you are a seller on ebay. The popular keywords on ebay’s popular keywords list, has all the keywords that are most typed into the ebay search engine. That means, if you list any of these keywords in your auction title, your auction will probably sell. More people will be able to find your auction also. The ebay popular keyword list in the USA is located at
http://keyword-index.ebay.com/keyword-index.html and http://category-keyword.ebay.com/default-category.html
If your outside the USA your keyword list would be located at the same address. Just replace .com with your countries dot code. For instance in the UK your keyword web address would be http://category-keyword.ebay.co.uk/default-category.html
Keywords are very important to list in your auction title. Try and use the information I have provided to you, for the ultimate perfect auction titles. You will maximize your sales with popular ebay keywords.
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Hi everyone, I hope everything is well. I have been getting a lot of emails asking me how people can open an ebay buyer account without a credit card. Ebay just wants to verify you are who, you say you are. I have even seen ebay lock up someones account, until they show ebay proof of who you are. Fraudulent accounts are everywhere on ebay, so they have to take measures to assure nobody gets ripped off.
If you are in the USA, you need to start an account with an email address you pay for. Your ISP email address should be used when you sign up for an ebay buyer account. Don’t use free email addresses such as yahoo, msn, hotmail, google etc. If you open a buyer account with a free email address, ebay will make you enter a credit card for verification purposes. So, don’t use a free email address when you sign up for a buyer account and ebay will never ask for a credit card number. Use your ISP email address when you sign up.
If you are outside the USA, give your correct phone number and ebay will call you with a pin number to verify you are who you say you are. Enter the pin number into your ebay account and you will be automatically verified for a buyer account. You won’t have to enter a credit card number if you give your correct phone number for verification purposes.
It’s as easy as that. Both of these methods work for everyone around the world. Now you know how to make a buyer account without using a credit card. Ebay has to ask for some kind of identity verification. Thousands of people sign up for ebay everyday just to rip people off. One fraudulent ebay account is opened every minute on average. So don’t blame ebay for taking these measured steps. They are only trying to protect your identity. In today’s age of identity theft, be thankful that someone is trying to help you.
Remember to be careful. Ebay will never ask for your personal information through an email. They will never ask you to sign in to your account directly from an email. Don’t be fooled by the fake ebay scam and phishing emails. Protect your identity at all costs.
Take care everyone. Thanks for stopping by. See you tomorrow.
Lisa
Hi everyone, I hope everything is going good. This weather is really weird. They said we were supposed to get 1-4 inches of snow and we got 11 inches. So we are staying in Florida until our flight is available, hopefully soon. Well Christmas is only 5 days away. That means you have to hurry and ship everything, so it arrives for Christmas. Most people that are buying from you, are expecting it to be there for Christmas. Unless you told them otherwise.
If you are drop shipping, make sure you gave your customers a deadline date. Most mail Currier’s don’t guarantee delivery before Christmas right now. UPS is the only company I know that guarantees delivery for Christmas if you ship it on or before Saturday. You have until Saturday to ship everything and have it there for Christmas. Unless you are drop shipping. If you are drop shipping, your deliveries will be delayed. Unless your drop shipper guarantees delivery.
Make sure you note your Christmas cutoff date it in your auctions or website. If you don’t note this, a customer may expect the item to arrive before Christmas. They may have bought it as a gift for someone else. If this is the case, they will be very upset if you haven’t told them a cutoff date. Clearly note the last day a customer can buy from you and have it delivered before Christmas. I made the mistake of not doing this a few years back on ebay. The customer was very upset and left me a negative feedback because of it.
If you are drop shipping expect a 4-10 day delivery. Unless your drop shipper says otherwise, they still have to go through the regular process. This usually takes 24 hours to process and 1-3 days to ship. Then you have to give a few days for delivery, if it wasn’t overnighted. So the customer will be waiting for a package before Christmas, but it won’t arrive on time. So don’t drop ship this time of year and expect it to make it on or before Christmas.
Don’t get get your customers upset. Make sure you do whatever you can do have items delivered on or before the expected delivery date. It’s very important to communicate with your customers all the way through to delivery. When you ship the item, send the customer and email with the tracking info. Tell them when to expect their package and have a great holiday. It’s very important to earn the customer’s trust before they even receive your product.
Sorry to keep this so short. I promise to make it up to you all when I get home. Thanks for stopping by!
Lisa
Hi everyone, I hope you are doing well. Have you ever heard someone tell you how easy it is to work at home or own a business? It may be easier than tons of 9-5 jobs, but it’s not easy. Most people that work at home, don’t have anyone to help out. They don’t have employees to do all the work. People that work at home tend to spend more time working than anyone else. There is so much to do. If you don’t put at least 3-8 hours a day in to your business, everyday, don’t expect to exceed any expectations. If you are working at home part time, this doesn’t apply to you. You have to be willing to put at least 40 hours a week in to your home business. If you don’t treat your business like a business, you can be sure to fail.
People seem to think because you work at home, you must have lots of time on your hands. Yeah, if you want to take off somewhere at last moment you can. But most of us put long hours into creating a good reputation and spreading word about our business. I am putting more hours a week into my home business, than most people do at their regular jobs. I probably spend 90-100+ hours a week on all my businesses. Most people only spend 30-50 hours a week at their regular job. So if you want to be successful at home and make great money; You have to also be willing to work hard and put in long hours. You have to be dedicated and work everyday. You are not allowed to call in sick or take days off, when you own your own business. Not if you want to reach your long term goals. You have to keep chipping away at the stone everyday!
People always tell me, you have lots of time, because you are always helping charities or volunteering somewhere. I have several side projects like this one, just to help people. I find time to help local charities and food banks. By far, it’s not easy. I just keep myself motivated to keep going. I love knowing that I was able to help at least one person today. Even though business owners put lots of hours in to their job; doesn’t mean we can’t do the things we want to.
The fact is; people that work at home and have successful businesses, usually spend 8-15 hours a day working on average. It’s not easy at all. The hard part is; to stay motivated day after day. If you are not used to it, you may want to quit. Working at home or owning a business is serious business. Most of the time you are dealing straight with the customer. There is no room for error. You have to be as professional as you can.
You can’t expect to win any customers over with the idea that you work at home. When you own your own business or work at home; the last thing you want to do, is show the customer that you don’t know what your doing. We have to keep a professional image if we want to win customers over. Chances are, if you spend 1 hour a day, 3 times a week on your business, your not showing anyone you professional and dedicated side. There is always room to better your business. That’s why it is so important to dedicate lots of time to keep it going successfully.
I hope this helps everyone understand how much dedication having a business takes. I hope you enjoyed my blog. See you tomorrow!
Lisa
Hi everyone, I hope everything is good. Well I have decided to stay in Florida until Thursday for family reasons. Today I am going to tell you how you can make every ebay auction sell. Did you know you could have ebay auctions for your favorite charity? Ebay allows you to hold auctions for your favorite charity. I used to have charity auctions for the MSPCA and gave 95% to them. The other five percent went to auction costs. Then I was able to write the charity auctions off on my taxes. It was a lot of fun and I was able to help a local charity.
Ebay charity auctions sell like pancakes, no matter what the item is. Lots of people donate to specific charities. If you are holding an auction for a charity they like, they will most likely purchase your item. Just because they want to support their favorite charity. I have seen paper bags sell for thousands of dollars, just because the money was going to a well known charity. Veteran, children, cancer, red cross, and animal charities seem to be the most popular. You could make a little money for yourself also. It’s okay to give yourself pay for helping a charity. By helping them, you are giving them money they wouldn’t have received without you. I have seen people give 30% to the charity and keep the rest. That may be greedy, but at least they are helping.
You have to let the charity know ahead of time, before you have the ebay auction. Most charities will welcome your help with open arms. But you have to get their permission first. Otherwise you could be brought up on fraud charges. When you get permission to hold charity auctions, just ask the charity for a certificate, to show you are sponsoring them. You need to show ebay this certificate, in order to hold charity auctions. Ebay will not let you list the charity auction, if you have not provided proof of sponsorship to a charity. Don’t worry, it sounds a lot more confusing than it really is. Get a hold of your favorite charity and tell them you want to hold charity auctions on ebay for them. They have probably done it before, so they could explain things to you.
Lots of people are holding ebay charity auctions as we speak. Have you ever wondered how someone got a charity symbol next to their auction title? Here is a great example of someone holding a charity auction on ebay. They only ask for 70% to hold the auction. They give 30% to the red cross. Red Cross Charity Auction. Charities like this sell all day long, for good amounts of profit to both the charity and seller. Who’s your favorite charity? Do you have a favorite charity?
I have mentioned before about helping your community by sponsoring a charity. You can actually help your city or state in a big way by giving to charity. Everyone wants to help, but it seems nobody has the time anymore. You have to step up and make a change if you want to make a difference.
Thanks for stopping by everyone. You are welcome to subscribe to my blog, it’s free.
Hi everyone, I hope your are all well. I am still out of town. All this snow is holding me here in Florida for the moment. I should be able to come back home by tomorrow. I have a flight scheduled for 10 am. Today I am going to give you a treat. I apologize for not making this post business related. I don’t have any of my blog subjects with me here on my laptop. I usually jot down blog ideas in to my desktop. I promise I will make it up to everyone this week.
With Christmas right around the corner I decided to post a fun recipe to make with the kids. I used to love making these with my aunt every year and I had even more fun eating them.
1 cup of butter or margarine
1 cup of powdered sugar
1 egg
2 teaspooons of vanilla or peppermint
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of finely crushed candy cane mixed with a 1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of red food coloring
1/2 teaspoon of green food coloring
Mix all ingredients, except candy cane/sugar mixture. Split dough into 3 equal portions. Color one portion of the dough red, one portion green and leave the last portion as is. Refrigerate the dough long enough the work with it easily, approx. 1 hour.
Remove dough from the refrigerator. Break off approx. 1 teaspoon of each color; 2 at a time and roll by hand into 4-5″ tubes. Twist the 2 pieces together and bend to form the candy cane. Sprinkle the top with the candy cane/sugar mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 6-9 minutes.
Remove gently from the cookie sheet. They break easily.
Enjoy.
Thanks for stopping by everyone!
Hi everyone, I hope you are doing good. We got another foot of snow today. I am away for the weekend, but everyone is telling me how much snow I am going to return to. Lately all I hear about is businesses failing and going under. These type of businesses spend more than they make. Businesses go under or go bankrupt, because of poor management and poor mapped out goals. You need to have a clear set of daily goals. Management should be in charge of making sure each set of goals is achieved. If management falls behind, so does the business.
Another thing I see; is when a business first starts out and the owner is paying them self a huge chunk of change, but puts nothing back in to the business. You have to put money back in to the business when you first start out. Most of your profit for the first few months should go in to the business. Pay your business expenses and employees, if any. Then put the rest of the money back in to the business. It is called growth and expanding. You may see no need to put money in to your business. But you do need to put money in to any business to keep it going properly.
I usually put about 20-50 percent of the profit back in to the business for the first 6 months. After six months, you can relax and put 20-30 percent in to the business. Everyone is different, because all businesses are different. Set out your spending and profit margins on a checklist. Figure out how much you are spending for business expenses. The rest should be used to benefit the business, if you can help it. Sometimes, needed circumstances call to dump money in to the business.
If you put a percentage of your weekly profits in to a seperate account, you can manage it a lot easier. Don’t touch this money, except for business expansion. You may want that new computer desk. But you probably need the computer more. Without the computer to work, you don’t have a use for a new computer desk. Get it? Buy the things your business needs at first. When you save all that profit, you will be able to buy the things you want, later down the line. You can do lots for your business, if you don’t pay yourself for a few months.
Take that pay cut now. Make up for it later. Your business will thank you. And you will thank yourself later. Get in to a regular habit of putting a certain percentage of your profit in to another account every week. You may want to purchase a new web domain or host, whatever the case may be. If you have money put away, you can use it. Obviously a web domain or host is much needed if you are working online. Always put your business first. If you keep this in mind, your business will prosper. Don’t go bankrupt before you get started.
I hate seeing businesses with so much potential get ruined by greedy leaders. The people in charge should not be greedy when they start a new business project. The most important thing to remember is; don’t take needed money away from your business. If your dream mean so much to you; Why take away from dream. Feed your dream!
Thanks for stopping by everyone!