Books - new or used? I vote for used - preferably paperbacks.

I’ve always loved to read and have done a lot of it through the years. I’ve had a library card since I was six-years old. I love going to the library and browsing through the shelves. The problem is, now that I have grand-kids visiting, they want to feel and touch everything. Sticky fingers leave marks on my borrowed books and libraries don’t like that. And forget about wiping their hands first, they’re too fast! Kids can shoot in, fall into my lap (and book) and shoot back out quicker than I can blink now-a-days.

Kids like to write, have you noticed? Give them a fat crayon and a coloring book, and watch them go - straight to the wall or the bookshelf. Quick, bring them back to the coloring book. To show them what to do, you color a bit, (”See? Like this.”) and color a bit more. Did you forget how much fun it was? When you look up, the little angel has your borrowed library book splayed out on the floor with a crayon in her chubby fingers and a big smile on her sweet face.

So, I use a couple of bookshops who specialize in used paperbacks. I can buy them cheap, then trade them back for more - two for one. If a few get torn or drenched in red cool-aid, it’s no problem for anyone. I keep them on a small bookshelf, and if little hands happen to tear a page, I don’t stress over it.

Allowing my kids and grand-kids to handle my books freely has given me some wonderful surprise memories. I was going through a box just the other day and found a torn out single page with my son’s name carefully written in his five-year old hand along the top margin. It’s thirty-five years old, and it was a wonderful gift from the past. Priceless!

I’m a big believer in reducing as much stress in life as possible. Not much can be done about it out in the real world; but home is my territory and I try to keep it stress-free for everyone. We all need a sanctuary - even, or perhaps especially, children. So, I keep used paperbacks around the house and good books up high. Remove the stress and enjoy daily life by being a cheapskate. I do.

Esprit is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/
which is a site for Creative Writing.

My clients and many of my readers are small and home-based business owners, and one of the biggest struggles they face is getting new customers.

Getting new customers is costly and requires a repeated effort. Once you have a customer it is easier to retain them as long as they are receiving value and benefit from their relationship with you.

I recall a woman I dealt with years ago while I was serving as an executive member for our police association.

The legal name of the association was changing and we needed new letterhead, business cards, etc.

I knew this woman was trained as a graphic artist and was starting her own business.

Always wanting to support new entrepreneurs, I asked her if she would be interested in preparing several samples of draft letterhead and business cards for our review.

She was excited about the opportunity and informed me she didn’t have any set prices, but would create some designs and provide a proposal if we decided to accept her work.

She provided three samples to choose from. The designs she created could be used interchangeably on the letterhead, envelopes and business cards.

Her work was good. Our Executive Team reviewed the samples and selected a favorite.

I contacted the woman several days later and informed her we liked her designs and were interested in purchasing one. I then asked her to submit a written proposal for our consideration.

When I received her faxed quotation I almost fell off my chair. She wanted $750! She provided a breakdown indicating $200/hour for three hours work, and $150 for the design.

When I presented the quotation at the next executive meeting, the team members’ jaws dropped and the graphic artist’s proposal was unanimously denied.

What was her fatal mistake?

She was building a new business and although she may have had exceptional skills and the potential to become a high earning graphic artist, she didn’t understand marketing strategies.

She didn’t understand the concept that acquiring the client is crucially important and that once you have a relationship established, it is easier to sell to them again in the future.

It is important to recognize the lifetime value of a client or customer instead of focusing only on a one-shot, money-making deal.

If this woman had provided an irresistible offer, she might have established a relationship with us and could have created the opportunity to sell again and again as we required brochures, posters, etc. for ongoing events.

In the end, she invested three hours work and walked away with no client and no money.

What is the lesson here?

You have a huge responsibility to do whatever it takes to make it easy and irresistible for a potential client to enter into a relationship with you.

You don’t want to make it difficult or impossible.

Everything you do to secure a client should revolve around making is easier and more appealing to do business with you.

You want to make it easy for a prospect to say yes to enter into a relationship with you because once you have established that relationship, you may keep that client for many years during which you may benefit from referrals, ongoing purchases and higher level purchases.

Think about what you’re doing now to attract new clients and what can you do differently to create an irresistible offer for them - something they just can’t say no to.

This week, try something new. When you communicate with your next prospect, make an irresistible offer and see what happens.

Laurie Hayes, a Life Strategy/Small Business Coach, works with small and home-based business owners who are overwhelmed by wearing too many hats. To subscribe to her free newsletter visit http://www.wheretheheartis-lifecoaching.com

Stock certificates are proof of ownership of shares in a corporation. They signify that the holder of stock certificates has an ownership or equity in a corporation and they convey certain rights and privileges to the person who holds them. One of those benefits is to be able to attend an annual general meeting or the corporation, to vote on shareholder propositions, to vote for the officers of the corporation and to ask questions of the management of the corporation about any of their actions regarding the company.

Ownership in a corporation is divided up into shares and each corporation will decide how many shares to issue and the price they will sell their shares in the marketplace. When person buys stock in a company they are used stock certificates in the value of their shares in the corporation. Only companies that are registered as corporations have the right to sell stocks and issue stock certificates as proof of ownership. Other forms of business registration such as sole proprietorships, partners or limited liability companies are not permitted by law to issue stock certificates or sell shares in the company.

There are many different forms of shares that are provided by corporations and all of them provide stock certificates as proof of ownership or equity in the corporation. They include common stock, preferred stock and many variations that allow different types of corporations to raise money and issue stock certificates. Common shares are usually issued from a corporation that is widely held and each share or stock certificate entitled the holder to one vote for the officers of the corporation at the annual general meeting.

Preferred stock is another form of share issue that corporations use to spread ownership around within the marketplace and in addition to some of the normal rights of a common shareholder, a person who holds stock certificates in preferred stock does not get the opportunity to vote their shares at an annual general meeting but they do get preferential treatment in a number of other ways. They may include receiving a fixed dividend for their investment dollars and getting this payment before any common shareholders and stock certificate owners get theirs.

To own stock in a successful company or to have share certificates in a corporation is doing well is a great feeling for any investor. They have the stock certificates, the proof of ownership in the hands or in their safe, and they relax in knowing that their investment is well protected. Having shares in a corporation and holding stock certificates is a great way to be involved in the wonderful world of investing and business. If your stock is not doing so well you may feel that your stock certificates are becoming worthless. But don’t despair, if your stock completely tanks then you will always have your stock certificates to paper the walls of your office, reminding you that investing is a gamble and that just having stock certificates is no guarantee of financial or business success.

David Gass is President of Business Credit Services, Inc., founder of http://www.SmallBusinessConsulting.com and co-developer of the Corporate Manager Software which manages the records of a Corporation or LLC. For a Free Trial of the software visit http://www.corporateforms.net

With all the emphasis on a college degree, the fact that a high school diploma normally precedes entry into a college or university is generally an afterthought. But for tens of thousands of college-age individuals, that high school diploma is something that is definitely not taken for granted. That’s because they haven’t earned it yet.

Fortunately, the Internet provides the opportunity to earn that high school diploma online.

There are as many reasons for not graduating from high school as there are non-grads. Perhaps the academic requirements were just too challenging or a family circumstance interfered. Economics, health, learning disabilities and maybe just plain old immaturity can trip up even the most well-meaning students. But that is not a reason to sit and watch the rest of the world prosper while you settle for less.

Pursuing a high school diploma online opens the door to greater career options and higher earning potential. Federal government estimates indicate that a high school diploma can be worth as much as $280,000 during a wage-earners lifetime. That alone should be an incentive to investigate the programs that offer the courses and testing online that can result in the award of an accredited high school diploma.

By studying for your high school diploma online, you can fit your classes into a schedule that allows you to continue with your daily obligations. Your spare time is still your spare time. But you will be putting it to much better use. Plus you can work at a pace that is comfortable and not feel pressured to keep up with a class. More than likely, you will be able to earn credit for courses you have already completed plus there is the possibility of receiving credit for work experience.

It is never too late to complete a formal education. Earning a high school diploma online also insures that it will not be too late to earn more, be more and maybe even continue that education into college. That online diploma could lead to an online degree. Who knows what the future holds and what your real potential is!

Terry McDermott is the author and administrator of a portfolio of specialized websites with a primary focus on the category of online education including Access Online Degrees at http://www.accessonlinedegrees.com

If you are an employee, then, one of these things will happen to you soon: you resign, get retrenched, or retire. Gone are the days when good performance on the job guaranteed job security. Today, a computer, software, or an experienced hand from another company or country could replace you.

Many businesses are under intense economic pressure. The company you work for would downsize anytime, perhaps somebody is taking over it or it is reorganizing. The easiest way for businesses to cut cost is to eliminate human beings.

How than does one secure his job and ensure that those paychecks come in? If you want to protect and fortify your finances, fire your boss now and be your own boss.

If you have little kids or if you are young, your financial future is very important. If you are old, do you want to use social security paychecks to train your children or fund your retirement?

Rather than remain an employee, working practically all your life, resign now and start your own business and become an instant CEO. To own your company is an achievement on its own. And it guarantees steady and secured income for life. Decades ago, wealth were all individuals, today, it is corporate. The businesses generate the big moneyBill Gates is not the richest man, Microsoft is.

You are always self-employed, working for yourself and you are always the CEO of your life but you never fully pursued it. You need to fire your boss now and be your own boss. But being your own boss is a hell of a challenge, and as the day goes by, the challenges don’t go away, they become bigger. Also, the reward gets bigger too hence a CEO should develop the habit of carrying an army knife all the time so that whenever there is a loose screw or broken stuff he could fix it or whenever he sees an erring employee or a fierce competitor, he could stab him.

Visit http://superriches.com/linkdw.htm and download Secrets of billionaireshow to be super rich free and learn how to start and prosper a business.

Bright Johnson, a money writer and researcher, is the publisher of http://www.superriches.com

There are various types of fences and they can be made in a variety of ways. One of the more popular forms of fences is the picket fences. These are made a certain way. Below is a detailed description of how to make a white picket fence.

1. The materials needed for this fence will include the following, bags of concrete, galvanized nails or screws, clamps, hinges and of course you will need all safety gear. Safety gear will include safety glasses, gloves and mask.

2. In order to assemble the fence you will need the following tools: post hole diggers and a shovel, a level, circular saw, cordless drill, chop saw, tape measure, framing square, plunge router.

3. Before you start building the fence then you should plot out the area where you will be building your fence. This can be done by conducting a survey.

You can buy fences that come in easy to assemble kits. These can be found at your local hardware store. In some cases they will have the tools and needed nails and screws included, if not you will be provided with a list of necessary items that you will need. If you do not own the tools yourself you might want to consider getting them from a friend as they can be very expensive to buy yourself, especially all the one time.

If you do not buy a kit then you will have to buy the wood and cut the stakes or posts yourself. The key to having a perfect looking fence is to ensure that all posts are the same height and distance apart. If you are a first time fence builder then you should keep it simple and have each post square across the top. If you know your way around tools and machinery then you might want to try rounding the tops or having them peaked in a triangle shape. This always makes the fence look better when you can add more to it.

James Hunt has spent 15 years as a professional writer and researcher covering stories that cover a whole spectrum of interest.
Read more at http://www.best-in-fences.info.

Passion. Passion alone can make your business successful. As an
entrepreneur, you are a passionate person. For why would anyone
invest such incredible amounts of time and energy on something they
have no REAL desire to do? If you do such a thing, then it’s just bullshit.
You have built an unreal, superficial way work environment and based
on that you most likely are not very satisfied in what you do.

Being passionate means having the inner drive, desires to make your
goals and achievements real. An entrepreneur is passionate at heart.
He/She loves everything they do and when they work, they do wonders
for the world and it shows. Look around at some of these businesses
that we are all familiar with. Bath and Body Works, Jamba Juice, Bill
Gates, Friendster and so on. They are all fellow entrepreneurs and they
are all obviously very successful.

What’s made them successful? Let’s look at these basic factors. When it
all comes down to it, they had an idea. They grew their idea to fruitation
and then over time, why just look at what has happen. Turning basically
nothing into something is worth some credit. They provide services we
as consumers want. But how did it all begin in the first place? With the
idea of course. They took the idea and they ran with it. But an
entreprenur is passionate about their idea. Why, if these people did not
have this passion within them I am sure these businesses would never
be existing today.

A passion for making your business happen is what drives the
entrepreneurial business. It’s a known fact. Passion is a sense of
personal power. It is needed for your fuel. It is needed for when you are
facing tough challenges, passion is there to help you through. It shows.
Just look at the business models of some of these above mentioned
companies. A lot of their strategies and successes were based on
passions. A passion to grow the idea to fruitation, a passion to open up
more businesses, a passion for their customers and so on. When you do
your research and break the business models into detail a simply
fundamental element that lies behind all these inner workings of the
company is based on passion alone.

Without this inner drive, the want, the need for your company, the
foundation is nonexistent. Every single successful entrepreneur has had
a passion for their idea. And depending how much you have within
yourself to grow this passion, mold this type of passion and show it off to
the world will determine ones level of attainable success. I can’t think of
one business that was built without some source of passion. Can you?

About the Author:
Jennifer Lynn is an ecommerce entrepreneur,artist,writer,musician
based in New York-Chicago.

She has written and contributed numerous articles online about adult
entertainment, entrepreneurship, ecommerce, technology, pop culture,
generation x, quarter life and city trends & news.

A highly creative entrepreneur with focus in web marketing, business
development and ecommerce. Presently, she is involved in JMR, an
online referral biz for artists in the entertainment industry. She also runs
other ecommerce sites including an interactive entertainment hub and
her own personal site.

Before startin’ JMR, Jennifer Lynn was a tech recruiter with a Chicago
based start-up company. She’s also a professional pianist. Jennifer
Lynn received her degree from De Paul University in liberal arts.

When she’s not workin’ away, you can find her lofting on a beach, into
travel, and dabbling in new creative ventures with artists &
entrepreneurs around town.

Jennifer Lynn believes passion in doing what ever it is you love to do is
the key to one’s personal success.

In 1827, A 56 year-old man died with his belly, arms and legs swollen like balloons. At age 22, he had developed belly cramps and diarrhea, which continued to occur for the rest of his life. He drank alcohol regularly, and whenever he drank his belly pain worsened. Two years before he died, his legs stayed swollen all the time. He started to lose his hearing at age 28 and became totally deaf at age 44. This made him miserable because he was a musician. He was so upset by his loss of hearing that he became depressed and as he aged, he started to spend long periods alone and when he was with other people, he acted crazy. He let his hair grow to his shoulders and he stopped combing it. He wandered around Vienna wearing an huge top hat and a coat that touched the ground. He walked around humming off-key and carried a notebook on which he scribbled all the time. He complained constantly about pain in his joints and his big toe would swell up again and again.

After he died, his autopsy showed that his liver was extremely small, and that he had kidney stones that destroyed his kidneys, to cause him to retain fluid, and die of kidney failure. You are correct if you recognize that this is the true story of perhaps the greatest composer who ever lived: Ludwig von Beethoven.

He died of kidney failure, but what caused his kidney failure? Stones in his kidneys! But what caused his kidney stones and intermittent joint pains? Gout! But what causes gout, pain in joints, and damages the nerves to cause deafness and craziness? Lead poisoning. Somehow he was poisoned with lead.

Beethoven died in 1827 and no tests were available to prove or disapprove whether he was poisoned with lead. After Beethoven died, hair was removed from his head and kept by his admirers; it is still available today. In November 2000, a study from the Health Research Institute in Naperville, Illinois, showed the concentration of lead in Beethoven’s hair was more than 100 times the amount found in healthy human hair. The source of the lead contamination remains unknown. Researchers are certain that Beethoven’s exposure to lead came as an adult, because he did not have vomiting and brain damage as a child and his disease worsened progressively as he aged. Lead directly damaged his nerves to make him deaf and crazy. Lead raised blood levels of uric acid that formed crystals in his joints to make them hurt and stones in his kidneys to damage them, causing his arms and legs to swell and eventually kill him of kidney failure.

Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com

Free weekly newsletter on fitness, health, and nutrition.

Many people within the UK have come to find that they have bad credit and with bad credit come the shocking realization that it is extremely difficult to obtain any type of loan. These same people may feel like they are doomed to a credit less life forever. This could not be further from the truth. There are many ways, any person with bad credit can obtain a loan; you just may not realize which way you should turn. If you have attempted to get a loan through various applications before and have been turned down, you do still have options. These options could be extremely easy if you know just where you should look.

Some of the different types of bad credit loans could include, Title Loans, Pawnbrokers, as well as banks and finance companies. Many people do not realize that you may have equity within your vehicle. A very popular type of loan for those with bad credit is a title loan. These particular types of bad credit loans enable you to make use of a vehicle that you possess the title for and turn it into much needed money. No matter what type of vehicle you own, a truck or a car, if you own the vehicle outright and possess the title you will qualify for this type of loan.

What happens is this, you take your title in, along with your vehicle, they will ensure everything is in working order and offer you an amount. You can both choose to accept it or deny it, if you accept they will give you a loan, and keep your car title. You will still be able to keep your vehicle though; you will be required to make payments on this loan. If you should fail to make payments, the title loan company has the right to take your vehicle and sell it in any manner possible in order to get their money back.

A pawnbroker, is very much similar to a title loan company, they will make a loan to you based on the value of the property you present to them. However, you will not be able to maintain the possession of your property they will keep it. You will have a certain length of time to repay the amount of the loan they have given you. If you fail, and ninety days has passed since the due date, the pawnbroker has the right to make your items available for sale.

Those are not your only options, you may also be able to qualify for a bad credit loan with a finance company or a bank. Many of these types of businesses offer loans specific to those with bad credit. There are several ways you can go about this, by using something of value as collateral or obtaining a co-signer. Anyway you go, by obtaining a bad credit loan you could be well on your way to having better credit and a better quality of life as a result.

For more great information visit our
Debt consolidation
loan uk website.We are a great resource for loan,
mortgage, and finance articles and information.

Metrics fraud is a subject which is not discussed but I feel will come into mainstream conversations as Internet Advertising matures. I have been in the Internet marketing industry for five years now and I have seen many numbers come and go. The single ubiquitous truth, however, is that these numbers are often never questioned.

I have learned that in the age of Internet time, where decision-making processes are considered obsolete if they take more than 3 days and everything needs to be done yesterday, companies are spending millions of dollars on Internet ad buys without consideration towards fraud.

While we would all like to close our eyes and wish that any online business will deal with is respectable and would not deceive us we must realize what is actually occurring behind the scenes. In an economy where business valuations can gain millions of dollars in a short time based on trafficking analysis an unscrupulous businessman may be tempted to inflate his site’s statistics for personal gain. Even though many Internet sites have their web trafficking numbers audited by third party vendors there are numerous sites on the Internet that police their own numbers. We are simply to trust these sites, on their good faith, that they will not deceive us.

Since the Internet is a wild land with no rules many sagacious and forward-thinking individuals are pushing for standards. Not just standards of a programming language but standards that can be applied to most facets of e-business. While we are all waiting for these standards however, we should be responsible consumers and questions where are ad dollars are going.

I know of one large Internet company that was spending several hundred thousand dollars per month for online advertising and was not even aware that almost a quarter of their ad buy was going to unaudited websites. These websites could have inflated their numbers or demographics to justify a higher CPM and there is no way to verify it!

I recommend that you apply a degree of common sense to ad buys for your site or your clients. When I organize ad buys for my clients I make sure I know where every dollar is going and who it is going to. Before I commit to a network buy I get a complete site list of every site that I will run on and I scrutinize each site individually. One of the questions I ask every site individually, yes I do contact each one individually, is whether or not the sites traffic is audited. I then discover which company audits that site and I verify that statement with the auditing house.

This may seem time consuming to some of you but I must insist that you consider the consequences. If you spend your clients ad dollars on websites that have the potential to over inflate their trafficking numbers then you have the potential to loose a client. Treat your client’s money like your own money and learn where it is going and learn about what sites it will be spent upon.

I have run into roadblocks while seeking this information. Some networks see you as “just another customer” and if you being asking questions that they do not have a canned response for, they may begin to focus on easier customers. The key here is to be persistent. Explain to the network that you are not going to make the network money without answers to your questions. Many networks nowadays, particularly DoubleClick, have so many clients that they may not perceive you as important - when compared to PepsiCo who is spending millions a month with them. You need to open your mouth and use your voice and do not hesitate to switch to another sales rep at that network. The people working at the networks work on commission and if you threaten to shrink their wallet, they suddenly become more attentive to your concerns and needs.

Be sure to write everything down and try to verify the information that is given to you. Just because a website claims that they are audited by ABC Interactive does not necessarily mean that they genuinely are. Call the supposed auditing agency and verify their relationship with the website. Do some investigative work to ensure the facts are indeed facts and not fiction.

Just remember, it is a wild Internet right now and there is a great deal of money to be made or lost. Regardless of your capacity in purchasing online advertisements, it is your responsibility to spend that money in a wise manner. Scrutinize your ad buys and scrutinize whom you deal with. If a company is honest then they will have nothing to hide from you. If a company is dishonest then your simple investigative work should not only save your reputation bur ad dollars as well - and in this digital economy ROI is all that matters.

About the Author

Rob Emerick
Freelance International Internet Marketing Council
Director of Internet Marketing
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