Information Junkie

With the unclear financial outlook for our economy, investing makes sense like never before as a strategy to save for retirement.

Social security’s future is uncertain; and since everyone wants to make sure that their retirement is one which is financially stable, investing can help to protect you from bad economic times which may be on the horizon as you look towards your retirement years.

You might have been setting aside money for retirement in a low interest savings account and want that money to start growing more quickly. Maybe you’ve come into some money and want it to grow; whatever is the case, investing can make your money work for you.

Investing lets you make the money you need to make your goals a reality. Whether it’s a new home, a college education for your child or the good life for yourself, investing is the way to go - your individual investment strategy all depends on your goals.

You can go for high risk investments if you find yourself needing to make a lot of money quickly. There is a risk of course, but you can make a large amount of money in a short time frame. If you want to put aside money for your retirement, you need to instead make long term, safer investments.

The whole idea of making investments is to increase your financial security over a long time. Remember that someday, you’ll have to stop working; but your bills won’t stop showing up in your mailbox once you leave the work force.

The social security system may or may not be there for you when you retire, so it is best not to count on it. As we saw in the instance of Enron, you may not be able to depend on your company retirement plan either - this is why investing is the way to go to make sure that you will be provided for in your retirement. Good luck and invest wisely!

The practice of cash gifting has been around for decades. It’s based on helping others by giving. This process has helped people get their first home, start their own business, bank roll weddings, pay education expense, and more.

So what is cash gifting? Cash Gifting is when someone freely gives someone else cash as a gift. Cash gifting programs take it to the next level. To participate, a person gives a one time gift to the person that invited them to the program. They are then able to start receiving gifts too. Cash gifters are immediately acknowledged and honored for participating in the giving process through cash gifting programs.

60% of all money generated in the home-based business industry is attributed to cash gifting. It is one of the most powerful cash leveraging systems for ordinary people.

People are most often interested in participating in cash gifting programs because:

NO products or inventory to keep track of

There are no monthly meetings or conferences to attend

There are no quotas to meet

There is no begging people to join

There are plenty of cash gifting programs to choose from, the good ones use cheat proof automated systems to keep track of your activity. Some programs offer varying levels of participation to fit any budget.

Finding the right cash gifting program involves doing some research and knowing your own strengths. Some programs provide minimal support. A person experienced in internet marketing can easily thrive with a program that offers little to no support. An internet marketing newbie needs as much help as possible and should join a program that offers extensive support.

The Overnight Cash System is a well established and accomplished cash gifting program. Participants in this program get their own website so that they can invite people interested in cash gifting to read how the system works, listen to audio recordings, see testimonies, check out movies, receive a toll-free number to call for more information, or submit a callback request to get more information.

The Overnight Cash System also provides:

Detailed Step-by-Step Instructions

Advertising and Marketing tips

Pre-written ads

Pre-recorded information line accesss

Ability to track interested prospects

Pre loaded autoresponders

Ability to track Gifts

The Overnight Cash System provides step by step fool proof instructions that anyone can follow. There is no guess work with TOCS. Its perfect for newbies and seasoned pros.

By knowing the law of attraction, you know everything centers on what you think. By having the right mindset, you can materialize anything you want. Because of what people read in books they think that there are many laws of attraction. They maybe right. The belief here is that the law of attraction works every time if you follow it.

Creating a healthy wealth-attraction mindset is so vital to attracting success for yourself. Even if you want to start a motivational speaking business, which happens to be one of the best speaking businesses you can get into, all you have to do is think about it, put feelings into it, and before you know it, you are in the process.

If you are speaking as a professional business, or you are just involved in public speaking, using the law of attraction will get into the speaking frame of mind and will put you into the position where you will have created the mindset you need to become a successful public speaker. But remember one point here. It doesn’t matter how many leads you have, or how easy leads are provided to you. It doesn’t matter how many people sign up to hear your speech you are about to give. Without the proper mindset to guide your thinking, you won’t be successful and may just flop as a speaker.

You still have to learn public speaking tips so you will know what skills to develop, even if you use the law of attraction to get you there. After you master some public speaking skills, you can create the wealth-attraction mindset that will allow you to create and keep a successful speaking business for years. You will be able to achieve more than you ever thought possible for yourself, just by learning and developing more knowledge, opening your mind even more to the law of attraction.

Whether you think that there is one law of attraction or several laws of attraction, the main concern is to use the law of attraction to influence your mind, so you will shape it to be in a healthy wealth-attraction mindset, which when trained properly, will put you in the driver’s seat, and allow you to be a successful public speaker. Only you can do it. Only you can use your skills to become a successful public speaker. But having the universe work in your favor is surely a huge bonus. Don’t take the law of attraction for granted, nor take advantage of it either.

Sounds implausible? Well it actually happened to Jason Murphy who found himself sitting in seat 1A, the most sought after seat on the plane.

Little did Jason know at the time, when shortly after being upgraded to his new seat, he’d be asked to move over and give it up for an unnamed VIP. But as you’ll read in Jason’s own words, it was none other than entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson who took his place.

During the course of the flight, Jason (who was about to start a new business in Australia) had the perfect traveling companion and business mentor who could give him invaluable advice and encouragement.

Here is Jason’s own account of that now infamous flight.

This is the story as I recall it…

After many years working in the UK, I had looked at a failed business in Australia. In my opinion, it was not the business which had failed, but it was the people in the business. At the top level, they just didn’t have the right ‘mindset’.

I was in Australia traveling around, looking to inspire the people of this failed business, and restart it with a new focus. On this particular flight, I was traveling to Adelaide. I’m quite tall (over 6 ft), so I asked at the check-in desk if they could give me a seat with extra leg room. I was delighted when they allocated me seat 1A.

I’d only just sat down when the stewardess approached me and asked if I could move seats. She explained that there had been a mistake. Seat 1C was still available, so I asked if I could move there, which she said would be OK. I moved up two seats, and was happy to still have the extra leg room. We were just about to take off, and I remember having that smug feeling that I’d got the whole row to myself!

With seconds left before the stewardess closed the door, a familiar looking man boarded the plane and sat down in the seat I’d just given up. I thought to myself, ‘What makes you so special?’, but when I took another look, I realised that it was none other than Sir Richard Branson, one of the owners of the airline!

Once I had caught my breath, I wondered what on earth I would talk to him about, if indeed he would even want to talk to the likes of me!

Australians are not renowned for overly appreciating ‘poms’, but to my total amazement the Australians on the plane clapped and cheered Richard Branson?s arrival.

It soon became evident to me why. Richard was confident, warm, cheerful and genuinely interested in my future business plans and goals. He and I chatted away like we had known each other for many years, and I’ll never forget the respect he showed me.

This chance meeting has proved to be one of the greatest inspirations of my life. I decided from that day forward, I was going to treat everybody with the same respect, whether I was dealing with a refuse collector, or the MD of a multinational company. Everybody in the company needs to know that ‘THEY’ are important.

On the back of this ‘mindset’ we have taken a failed business to a business that is currently on track to invoice some $25m (?10 million). Our new business is called ‘Penny Miller Pty Ltd’ and sells household products throughout Australia. (We changed the trade name from Betterware Australia)

Only in the last month we launched a similar business in New Zealand, and are currently looking to expand into other international markets.

Jason’s story was the inspiration for the best selling business book, Millionaire Upgrade: Lessons in Success From Those Who Travel at the Sharp End of the Plane.

This book tells the story of Tom, a frustrated employee who gets upgraded on a plane and finds himself sitting next to Michael, a self-made millionaire entrepreneur. During the course of the flight, Michael shares with Tom his own secrets for business success. Millionaire Upgrade has been translated into over 10 languages, and is a regular Amazon top seller.

Referrals are an amazing and effective way to grow your business and add to your income. The trouble is that most of the tips and articles give you bad advice on how to get referrals. Here, I’m revealing to you my tested way of when and how to secure more referral business.

The normal advice given is to prove your worth, make sure the customer is happy and then ask for a referral. While it’s sounds good, this is a really just a great way to eventually wonder why you get so few referrals. You understand if you’ve ever tried it.

The problem with waiting until you have proven yourself with a customer lies in the human brain. Through evolution, the brain adapted to pay attention to what’s immediate, and to ignore things that are finished.

This results in examples like waitresses, who while serving you can remember lots of detail about who was sitting where and everything you just ordered. Studies have shown that the moment she delivers the check, she struggles to remember anything about serving you. She’s on to the next table.

There is an area in your brain labeled the reticular activated system (RAS). It’s been called the attention center of the brain. One of it’s numerous jobs is to selectively direct attention to things that are significant to you right now.

You can fall asleep watching TV and not pay attention to those sounds but immediately snap awake when your dog starts barking or someone opens the door. Or if you want to find someone in a crowd and they call your cell phone to let you know they have a red hat on, suddenly all the red hats appear. The RAS developed to instinctively choose what you notice.

Some people advocate that the time to bring up referrals is after a product or service has been delivered and the customer is happy with the outcome. However, if you do it this way, your customers RAS will not automatically work with you. Your customer has gotten their result and their mind is on to the next thing - you are automatically forgotten.

You prime the pump by talking about referrals right away.

Example of a Referral Request

The first meeting is the prime time to let customers that referrals are how you do business. Here’s a way to ask for a referral on the first meeting.

One of the big reasons I do that is because I get more of my business by referral.

So, if we do business together, there will be a time when you are thrilled with who we are and what we do. We actively set it up that way.

When this happens you will probably want to talk about us to your friends, colleagues and associates. This is a good thing. As I mentioned, our business grows by word of mouth, so it is important to us that you are happy enough with our services to pay us for our work. We also want you to be so thrilled that you become one of our biggest allies and fans.

So It’s really important to my business to do a good job. I’m relying on impressing you enough that you are happy to be an ally and do some promotion of my business. I don’t give rewards or trips for business referrals. I make sure that my prices have no hidden charges and that they offer a great value.

Part of the value that I provide is that I offer very good pricing on my services. So I don’t offer cash or prizes in return for referrals, just a firm commtment that I’ll provide you with the best service at a great price.

I make sure that you get a ton of value so that you want to send friends and associates to get the same results.

I only have one request: If we work together, may I periodically check with you to see if you are thrilled yet?”

When you prime the pump like this, your customer’s RAS gets a chance to start looking for ideal candidates for your service, while you are important to your customer. Doing it this way, your referrals will be much more effective.

Give it a try!

Hiring the most qualified erector to assemble your prefab steel building is a key decision that will affect the overall success of your building project. Many different problems for your steel building project may be the fault of an incompetent steel building erector. The most obvious potential problem is, of course, incorrectly erecting the building.

You have to contact with someone who is trained and practiced in the type of building you are having assembled. Not every steel building system may be included in an erector’s experience. Think about the following guidelines when you will have to choose an erector. If you are unfamiliar with steel building construction, then there are qualified steel building consultants who can help you in finding a professional erector.

Talk with someone for guidance in finding the erector you need. The first step to take when looking for a prospective erector is to look over past work. Look at least one recent and one older project. See to it that the work on these building projects was acceptable and to see if any mistakes that came up were addressed.

Did they fix all concerns with these projects? A good erector will have done so. It is very important to find out if the erector is certified by a professional steel building supplier to erect your type of building and to verify if he and his crew have recently attended training sessions to update their various skills.

There is a valuable need to have someone oversee the project and serve as a liaison with everybody else at the job site. This is the duty of the project superintendent. Remember to keep this in mind, as well. Do not make it a practice to just blindly go with the lowest bidder for a project. Low bids sometimes are red flags of poor performance.

The most expensive erector could very easily have initially been the least expensive. The person you are thinking about has to present a copy of an OSHA-approved safety program. The erector must be up to date on all safety requirements and hold frequent job site safety meetings.

Locating an erector is a necessary part of the procedure of gathering all the necessary pieces in order to start construction. Yet, it is only the start and there are further concerns to deal with. Substantiate that instructions and erection drawings are accessible for the job. Either you or a professional consultant should look at all of the jobsite drawings to be sure they are complete. And, once again (it’s so important, it’s worth repeating) be sure there will be an on-site, full-time superintendent to take charge daily of the job site and take care of whatever problems that may occur during assembly. Design changes should not be allowed without cautious consideration. If you do make changes, it could complicate mattes more than help.

Finally, it’s a really good idea to analyze the work regularly and make sure that the proper tools and equipment are being used, that temporary bracing is being utilized constantly throughout the building site, that design bracing requirements are followed for the permanent bracing, and that the appearance is not “out-of-plane.” Finally, adhering to these guidelines will help make sure that your building is erected properly and thus give you many years of satisfactory use of the new building.

We hope that this article has been helpful. Clearly, it’s just a brief overview. If you have further questions, then we recommend calling a reputable steel building supplier. If a company is listed with the Better Business Bureau (B.B.B.) or the Metal Building Manufacturers Association (M.M.B.A.) then that’s a good endorsement. A little homework now can save you thousands of dollars later.

Don’t start off on the wrong foot with your new business. Getting organized can make a tremendous impact on your bottom line. Business productivity is closely related to sales. The more productive we are, the more successful we become. Yet if we are not following up on leads, returning emails on time or identifying the right opportunities, how can we expect to see long-term profits?

I’ve taken the time to list what I consider to be the top contact management resources to help you stay organized and keep your business model efficient so you can focus your energies on building relationships and increasing your revenue.

1. VTIGER (www.vtiger.com) - A great open source software that can be installed on your server.

2. SUGAR CRM (www.sugarcrm.com) - The best part of this software is that you can delete duplicates, which is a handy feature to have when uploading multiple contacts at once.

3. ZOHO (www.zoho.com) - I recommend this for the web newbies who are not tech-savvy or brave enough to take on an open source application and install it on your web server. This is hosted on zoho.com and offers the same features as most contact management systems. You can give up to 3 users access before you have to start paying monthly fees.

4. PLAXO (www.plaxo.com) - Think LinkedIn meets Facebook. Plaxo has improved its features by integrating a social networking aspect to its’ site. Sync your other email accounts to it and it will update your calendar, address book and to-do list.

5. HIGHRISE HQ (www.highrisehq.com) - Another excellent contact management system that links with other services such as web chats, project management, etc. The solo plan is only $29 a month and is great for the solopreneurs who need to stay organized and on top of their game.

In addition there are:

www.bosscrm.com, www.salesforce.com, www.bigcontacts.com, www.freecrm.com & www.batchbook.com.

Closets are always used to store things, they are normally a very large cabinet which is sometimes recessed into the wall. Different people use closets in different ways depending on their preferences.

Some closets are quite small, however others are large and are used to store everything you could imagine. Many closets have lots of things stored in them which are why they often get mixed up and it quite easily becomes disorganized.

There are many different ways that someone can organize their closet, but first it is a very good idea to look through the closet and take out anything that doesn?t belong in there. Also remove anything which doesn?t fit anymore, or isn?t needed. You should immediately get rid of these so that the clutter doesn?t spread to the rest of your house.

It is possible to buy complete closet systems, the beauty of these are that they can be customized and are suitable for any size and type of closet. If you don?t have much storage space then you can create a custom designed system. Already designed closets are suitable for people that have standard closets. You will only need a few items from your tool boxes to assemble them.

Some tips to consider when organizing your closet:

1. Shoe Racks

When storing shoes on the floor they quickly get mixed up which can cause your closet to look cluttered. It can also make it difficult to find both shoes which can be very frustrating. Shoe bags may seem like a good idea, however they?re not. I would suggest a shoe rack instead. However steer clear of slanted racks as these will cause shoes without heels shoes to slide out of place. Go for racks which are flat and have a couple of shelves.

2. Organize your Drawers Drawers always tend to get into a mess when you put all of your little odds and ends into the drawer. You can get round this by using drawer organizers, these help you keep track of where everything is.

3. Clothes Storage

Winter clothing such as coats, hats, scarves and jackets normally get left on sofas or hung on the back of a chair because they are so bulky there just isn?t enough room for them. You should sort out your coat closet to make sure that there?s nothing in here that you never wear any more. If you do find anything that you don?t want any more then you should consider throwing it away or giving it away. Make sure that you have enough coat hangers in your closet to store everything neatly.

You can find many different types of hangers which can hold much more weight and still only take up a small space.

Gloves and hats should be stored in plastic bags so you can see what?s in there. Make sure you have a separate bag for each member of the family so that nobody loses their gloves.

4. Extra shelves

An easy way to get some extra storage space is to install an extra shelf. The wall is commonly not used at ceiling level or at eye level, this means you could add two shelves to store things that you don?t need access to on a regular basis.

5. Arrange things Based on Season

You should put things that you currently use at the front of the closet, anything that you use in a different season should be placed at the back. Rotate these so you have access to the things that you need.

Everybody wants to organize their closets, and it is actually possible. By simply following the tips above you can improve your storage space substantially.