Brass Domain

Archive for August, 2009

It is a well known business truism that one bad employee can undo the work of two good employees without even trying! They can be your worst nightmare or they can be almost as valuable to your business as you are and sometimes more so. Controlling them and directing their energies is a demanding and challenging task and one that has baffled and concerned me on more occasions than wish to remember.

The problems with employees are varied, overstaffing, understaffing, disputes, low morale, misdirected enthusiasm, delegation, job suitability, hiring, firing etc.

Right about now you’re thinking “I don’t need employees they’re too much trouble!”. Wrong, if you are going to expand and grow you will eventually need help, employees provide that help. As I have found over the years, some of my employees have saved “my bacon” on more than one occasion and literally can’t do without them.

Many successful companies regard their employees as their most valuable commodity and even some countries will claim their most precious resource is their people, Japan for example. This is a philosophy that you should adopt, because if your customers are treated well by your staff the profits will look after themselves, because remember, it doesn’t matter how cheap you are, if you treat customers badly, you will never see them again. And disgruntled customers have big mouths – remember that.

Again with anything, it requires planning and employees are no different. A staffing plan should consider the following:

 

• The present and future requirements of the business.

 

• The business functions required to meet your objectives.

 

• The number of employees required to perform these functions.

 

• The type of people needed (skills, qualifications, personality type).

 

• Where are you going to find these employees (competitors, friends, family, advertise)

 

• Do the jobs allocated have a practical and worthwhile purpose.

 

• Can the jobs allocated, be done in a more efficient way.

 

• Holiday staffing requirements, which employees can go on holiday at the same time without throwing the business into total chaos.

When considering these issues remember you should always find the person to fit the job not the job to fit the person. The trickiest part of employment issues is hiring. One of the main contributors to staff turnover is poor staff selection by employers.

The lesson here is to be careful, be very careful when it comes to selecting the right people and at the same time make yourself aware of the anti-discrimination legislation otherwise you may find yourself on the losing end of a dispute.

I’ve heard that 80% of employers lose these disputes and must pay damages or offer the person the job – great isn’t it? – your idea, your business, your risk, your personal choice., your money and “they” dictate who you can and can’t employ!

Here are a few tips to help you through the “staff selection minefield”:

 

• Before placing an advertisement, ensure that it is clear and straight to the point as regards experience and job description.

 

• Leave personal preferences out, don’t mention age, sex, marital status, race or anything like that – it’s not allowed.

 

• Define the job role on paper stating very clearly the functions to be performed including any menial tasks as these are the ones that seem to cause the most problems. Also, state things like hours and any unusual conditions and experience and/or qualifications required. so there can be no dispute on what was agreed to at the interview. Give a copy to each interviewee.

 

• Pre-plan the interviews by listing relevant questions to ask each interviewee so you get an “apples v’s apples” comparison.

 

• Always reference check, ask questions about personality, attitude to work etc.

 

• One thing I always thought worked well was asking a few technical or test questions. If they were offended by your asking these questions then they should be avoided at all costs as they are probably people who are too tightly wrapped or can’t handle a little pressure and you don’t need employees like that. If they answer the questions and get them wrong they were obviously either nervous or they didn’t know the answer.

 

• If you think they were nervous give them a little longer and reassure them that being nervous won’t harm their chances at getting the job and this generally produces positive results.

Once you have completed the interviews and made your decision, advise the successful applicant by phone and then send a letter of confirmation with details like salary, starting date, position etc. Also, send each unsuccessful applicant a letter thanking them for applying and for their effort. Courtesy goes a long way to building goodwill within a business.

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Increasing radio and television volume is usually the first sign of possible hearing loss. This practice is generally more noticeable to others around you than to the one turning up the volume.

Difficulty in hearing when there is background noise can be the first sign to any individual that there is a possible problem with hearing. A person can cut up the volume to hear satisfactorily but there is no way to cut down the volume on noise in the background.

Asking people to repeat sentences can also be a clue to yourself and others that there may be an issue with hearing loss.

Missing key points in a speech or sermon or any public place where the spoken word may be echoed or muffled or simply drowned out by others in the crowd.

Misunderstanding words, names, numbers or other spoken dialog from others at a distance or even up close. Frequently the inability to see the face of the person doing the speaking can cause those with hearing loss to misunderstand what was said.

Constantly straining to hear what’s being said in any situation is a sure clue that there is a problem with ones hearing.

Finally, a family history of hearing loss can almost always be a early indicator of possible hearing problems at any age. Though not entirely hereditary, hearing loss can be genetic.

Carolina Hearing Doctors, a North Carolina Audiology practice, wants you to be aware of possible signs and causes of hearing loss as soon as signs begin to show themselves. Carolina Hearing Doctors provides hearing aids to the residents of Winston-Salem, Clemmons, Bermuda Run, Advance, Mocksville, Kernersville, Lexington, King, Yadkinville, Pfafftown, Mt. Airy, Rural Hall and Tobaccoville North Carolina.

It has been another depressing week for bonds. As the stock market seeks new hights (although, I’m not really sure why?), Bond prices have gone down and yields risen (bond prices and yields have an inverse relationship). This happend in June as well. Last month, some CD rates moved up, but that hasn’t really taken place here in July.

The highest online 1-year interest rates are in the 2.50% range. Competitive rates are in the 2.00% to 2.25% range. The curve is fairly flat on terms of 1-year to 3-year. There is usually a tiny uptick for purchasing a 2-years Certificate of Deposit. Most 2-year CD rates are about 0.25% higher than the 1-year, and the 3-year is usually another 0.25% above that, around 2.75%. Good 5-year rates are near 3.40 to 3.60% APY.

Typing the year and rate will produce some interesting rate data. This usually brings up a list of web pages with current online yields. And if, for instance, you are trying to find the hard to find 3%, you’ll probably find it within the highest twenty or so positions. You can also search by state. For example, you could type cd rates nj for interest rates in NJ – New Jersey

Over the next few months, the stock market and bond market will likely continue this current give and take. Since the banks also know it is a back and forth, give and take, they probably won’t respond with greater online CD rates. I think it will take the FOMC to raise Fed Funds to seriously affect CD rates. It may be 9-months before that happens. Keep in mind that short-term rates will probably move up faster than longer-term rates, at some point leaving us with a flat or mostly flat yield curve. If at some point the curve inverts again (as it did in 2006/2007), I would lengthen your terms on your certificates. An inverted curve usally means lower rates are around the corner. Yet, I think we are in for a enduring time of awful interest rates. The economy isn’t improving. Everytime people talk about a greenshoot, data comes out that it in reality was a brownout.

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The ways to build a downline you are about to learn are going to be your key to success. When it comes to network marketing, you need to find the best downline building methods available to find success quicker.

When learning how to market your multi level marketing business there are several methods available. All you have to do is know where to look.

The cool thing about network marketing is you can find ways to build a downline that fit your personality. You do not have to build a business like your upline does although some will try to convince you that you do. Below are several ways you can use to build a downline. Pick two or three ways and master them for ninety days.

1) One of the ways to build a downline are message boards or also called forums. They give you the opportunity to find others who are interested in the same product or service you are marketing. There are forums just for network marketers such as betternetworker.com. If you go to google and click on “groups” you can actually do a search for any topic known to man. This will pull up groups that you should be participating in to grow your business.

2) Blogs are another method that will market your business. They are more keyword oriented than regular articles. Since people like to basically skim through the things they read on the Internet. This offers a way to get people to your site.

You will want to use a popular free software called WordPress to build your blog since search engines spider this software very well.

3) Write a few articles and submit them to the top sites. Sites like EZineArticles.com are great for getting the word out about your business. What you want to do here is find out the keywords people are typing into the search engines and write articles around those keywords. At the bottom of your article will be a resource box with a link to your site.

What if you wrote 10 articles that sent you 5 visitors a day? That would be 50 visitors daily and I can promise you that you will see your business grow if you start using article marketing as one of the ways to build a downline.

4) When it comes to building your downline, there are many sites such as MySpace. This is a great place for exposing your website to millions of people. Don’t be fooled, it isn’t just 14 year old kids playing around. You can do very well on this site. With the number of visitors to MySpace every day, the potential for getting hits on your website is very good.

One tip here is to create a profile that is attractive. Not just physically but the way your write should catch peoples interest so they will ask you about your network marketing business.

5) Facebook is another excellent resource for generating traffic to your mlm site. The key here is to build up a large network and add value to peoples lives through posting notes and videos on your profile. Keep in mind, it is all about relationships. That is the key to network marketing.

6) Shoutlife – If you are looking for a nice social networking site that is free of things that you may find undesirable from other sites, then Shoutlife is the place to go. A feature rich site that has many resources, Shoutlife is great if you want to focus on the Christian market as well.

7) Another one of the ways to build a downline is to become a member of an online CEO network. The benefits that are available through the company when you sign up are numerous and the CEO network can do a lot for your business. This is a great system for getting referrals.

Squidoo is another of the network marketing tools that you will have access to for building your downline. This is one of the most powerful tools on the Internet to get traffic to your website. You literally can be set up within minutes and there are some cool tricks to get your “lens” as they call it, listed in the search engines very quickly.

9) YouTube is another tool to build your multi level marketing business.In fact, just last night I spoke with a prospect who found a video I did on youtube about my business. The cool thing is I have not created a new video in months! Just by uploading your video to YouTube you can share with millions of viewers the information about your mlm business.

The video clips that you put here will help those who are interested in your product or service to find it easier and this means profit for you. The key with youtube is to put the keywords you are trying to rank for in the headline of your video and in your description. As far as shooting the video, always have the best interest of your prospect in mind. Give value. Do not pitch your company in the video.

10) Home Parties are another way of creating a downline for your business. If you have a business that sells something, by having a home party with demonstrations of your product as well as prizes for attending you will be sure to have plenty of visitors. They will learn the latest about your product, usually a large percentage will buy something and your network marketing is born.

Even in 2009, home parties still work and can be fun. I am big on building a downline online but having local parties to build a downline can increase the stick rate of your new team. The key with parties is to make it fun for people. Be yourself. DO NOT pressure people. One cool little side note though about home parties is when people see others start buying from you, others will
soon follow.

To discover how others are building a downline, visit the link in the resource box below…

Absolutely Free…20 Successful Network Marketers Reveal Their Most Successful Downline Building Strategy. Discover ways to build a downline that are fun and actually work for you.

Any warm blooded creature, such as your dog, cat or even you and your family are the perfect hosts for fleas, the fleas are parasites that need a host to live off, they jump onto the host as the fleas are able to jump many times their own length.

Flea bites are normally just an irritation that causes a small red mark perhaps with dried blood on the top but fleas and flea bites do have the ability of passing diseases between people and occasionally between species, this makes flea bites potently extremely dangerous and something that needs to be addressed as soon as it is noticed.

There are a number of tactics that can be used when it comes to flea control, using a combination of anti flea medication for your pets, flea bombs or flea foggers and natural remedies such as ceder wood chips and herbs around the possible entry points for the fleas to eliminate the chances of them reentering in the future.

A flea fogger is mainly going to be used when it is clear that your home has a flea infestation, many people only use the flea fogger as a last resort, this is because of the chemicals it uses, the chemicals are extremely toxic and need to be so as they penetrate the egg shell of the flea eggs that are laying around your home.

With the penetrative power of the flea fogger, it gets right in to the carpets, under furniture and into all the corners of a room that you can miss using other methods of flea control, the flea fogger can kill the fleas in their eggs before they get the chance to hatch and this can stop the next generation of fleas from hatching and causing you lots more problems in the future.

Every child born has at the instant of birth a greater potential intelligence than Leonardo Da Vinci ever used – Glenn Doman.

Fathers and mothers can produce intelligent, gifted and competent child in the first six years of life by using techniques of infant stimulation.

Function determines structure. The brain grows by use. Intelligence is the result of thinking and Fathers and mothers are intelligent because baby uses his brain.

Early stimulation promotes neurological development.

The critical factor here is age — the first three or four years of life, during the time of maximum neurological development. baby learn more, fact for fact, prior to six years of age than they learn the rest of their lives, and that the ability to take in raw facts is an inverse function of age. If parents understand the development that is or should be taking place in these first few years, they can greatly enhance and increase the chances for the child to fulfill his desire to learn. This is the way to  advanced kid . Early reading is one of the best ways to capitalize on this stage and significantly increase intelligence. Learning different languages is also highly encouraged like Learn Chinese via flashcard.

The human brain grows most rapidly from conception to three years after birth, and then growth slows down till by age six it has tapered off, and it becomes difficult to affect its final level of development. It is during that growth spurt between 18 months and three years that the two functions of language acquisition (speech) and pattern perception (reading) are best developed and enhanced. After age three it becomes progressively more difficult to learn a language of learn to read with ease and fluency.. According to such leading researchers as Bruner, Kagan and Burton White, if by age three the child has not had the opportunity to develop fully his neurological functions, he has missed the boat. Using another metaphor, by age six the ball game is definitely over. From then on it requires much more radical intervention to improve the kid’s mental functioning.

Brain growth and development is a dynamic and everchanging process. It may be stopped, slowed or most significantly, speeded up.

All we do is speed the process is to give child visual, auditory and tactile information with increased frequency, intensity and duration in recognition of the orderly way in which the human brain grows.

Traffic is very important to any website and no traffic means no sales. But how do you drive more web traffic to your site? Well, the truth is that there is no single answer. You need to employ a multi-pronged strategy in order to get more traffic to your website. There are some methods that you can employ to increase your website traffic using these simple yet effective techniques.

The first technique is to actually pay for advertising for your website. This can be done using services like those provided by Google, Yahoo and MSN where you pay to have your website listed in their sponsored links section when a user searches for a key term. This will get traffic to your website almost immediately. It is important to refine each ad campaign to find out if you can maximize the return on investment.

The second technique is to write articles and content. Include content on your website that is appropriate to the products and services you are providing. Make sure you use website analytics to find out what search terms people are using and then write about those topics. If you have the time or expertise then you could write these articles yourself. Alternatively, you could pay a freelance writer to do it for you. This is certainly one of the most effective techniques of getting more web traffic to your site. You should also make sure that you publish some articles to syndication sites that will allow other website owners to benefit from your experience and knowledge.

The third recommend technique is to submit your website to the top search engines. These include Google, Yahoo and MSN. This will get increased traffic by users searching for content that you have developed using the above methods.

The fourth technique is to partner with somebody else on the web that is selling similar complimentary products. Exchange links with these partners in order to increase your rankings on the search engines.

The fifth technique is to find forums that are relevant to your products or services and participate in the conversation threads. Try not to oversell your products or services as you will most likely be banned. Rather, only answer the questions that people ask to make yourself the true expert in the field so that people will visit your website.

Another technique is to purchase web traffic in bulk. There are various websites where you can buy website traffic in high volumes and at relatively low cost. This can be a very cost effective method of getting exposure for your site within a small budget.

These techniques are low cost methods to get people to visit your website. While not the only methods out there for driving traffic to your website these are some of the most effective techniques that will help to get your website noticed.

Machines tend to break down. That’s just how they are. They tear, waste, use, overheat, fail, etc. Microsoft’s second entry in the video game console industry, the Xbox 360, is no exception. And it’s also known for its hardware failures, the most common being the Xbox 360 three flashing red lights, also known as “the red ring of death.”

The primary cause of Xbox 360 failure is related to a design flaw in the launch version of the console which uses 90nm technology. Essentially, the Xbox has an inadequate cooling system which results in damage to the components. This damage leads to glitches and eventually the so called “red ring of death”. Don’t worry: Your Xbox Live Account and your Xbox 360 achievements are not broken. Luckily, later version with 65nm technology are not affected.

The Microsoft Xbox 360 console has several ways that tell technicians what the problem probably is. One is through the four green lights that are around the power button. When they change to red and flash, they are trying to tell you something. If there’s only 1 flashing red light, then your Xbox 360 is pretty much dead. If you see 2 red lights, it means your Xbox 360 overheated and you should turn it off for a while to let it cool.

If this happens often, you might want to get a fan accessory to help it ventilate. If there are on your Xbox 360 3 flashing red lights, it means that something is wrong with the hardware, but don’t worry. It can be fixed. Finally, 4 flashing red lights just mean that you didn’t connect your cables properly. The 4 lights won’t flash if you connected the Xbox 360 wifi in a wrong way.

And one can identify Red Ring of Death (RROD) problem with their Xbox if they find any of following problem with their console:

* Disc Error problems
* Xbox freezing problem
* Abnormal sound from your Xbox
* Unable to play your Xbox

Once your Xbox breaks down you are left with very few options. Microsoft states that the average wait time for a repair is 4-6 weeks and that the cost of the repair would be $140. That’s in addition to shipping and handling charges! Another option will have you up and running again in less than an hour. This involves purchasing a do-it-yourself repair guide online. The top repair guides are very impressive and cost less than $30. These repair guides will focus on the how to fix your red ring problem and how to make sure it does not happen again.

The easiest way to do an Xbox 360 red ring fix is to prevent the problem from happening at all. If you bought your Xbox 360 within a few months after launch day, do yourself a favor and buy the fan. Also, never, ever place your Xbox (or any other electronic device) next to a heat source. Some people tend to cram all their devices together, TV, DVD player, CD player, VCR, Xbox 360, Playstation, Nintendo Gamecube, etc., which causes them to heat each other. Always leave some space between your Xbox and everything else. This will not only keep it from receiving heat from other devices, but it will also keep the ventilation holes open and with plenty of space to operate.

It’s also a good idea to clean the back of your Xbox 360 from time to time. Just brush off with a dry cloth all the dust and dirt that accumulates in the back of it. It will not only prevent the red light problem, but it will lengthen the life of your Xbox 360.

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Recently, the exotic car market has bloomed with the trend to very powerful cars. The emphasis has been on power combined with elegance in a semi-racing coupe.

Here are a few of the exotic cars now for sale:

Ascari A10 – 650 bhp semi-sports racer, race-developed, great roadholding
Pagani Zonda F – 7.2 liters, 650 bhp, and sports-racing appearance and performance with superb build and component quality
SSC Ultimate Aero TT – currently the world’s fastest car in a straight line thanks to 1,183 bhp in a two-seater coupe?
Caparo T1 – actually very small, but quicker round a track than anything.

Notice that these are all mid-engined exotic cars, because that is the design that gives the best handling, traction and all-out speed. Put another way, where performance is everything that is what you need.

Move to smaller, eco-friendly exotic cars

But once you have the most powerful car in the world what do you want next? Something even sleeker, still very quick, but with a bit more practicality and ease of handling. Also, it might be a good idea to at least pretend that your exotic car was eco-friendly. The trend is to power it with bio-fuel – so long as it is second-generation bio-fuel which is genuinely environmentally friendly.

The next step is to make your exotic car lighter, maybe with a 5 liter engine with 500 bhp rather than a 6.5 liter. Or you might opt for a 3-liter twin-turbo producing 500 bhp. This sort of car would be closer in concept to a sports car like the Lotus Evora, but would still be an exotic car.You could either provide rather more luggage space or room for two adults for short journeys.

If you want to go somewhere and are not too picky about where you have to go, a good way to get dirt cheap airline tickets is to bid for them on Ebay.  Travel agents, who have to get specially Trust E certified just to put up listings on Ebay, often list cheap airline tickets to various hot spots around the USA and around the world on Ebay.

You can save lots of money this way if you bid for and win the cheap airline tickets, up to 40% to 50% off the published price.  Some tickets are specific, like today I see one from NY to London in business class for $2398.  That is a super deal since often these tickets cost 2x that much.  Since it is business class and not a super saver coach fare, there is no set date you need to go and can book at any time.

Other tickets have more restrictions but are still good deals and the restrictions, like a Saturday stay, or booking through Orbitz, are  not overly burdensome.  One I saw was for anywhere in 50 states of the USA on United Airlines with 5 months to complete travel.  That is not a tiny window at all.

One caveat often is that exchanges or date changes are not allowed, so make sure you are willing to lose your ticket should something come up.

Ebay has trips to popular places like Las Vegas, Hawaii, Mexico and Europe.  It also has very cheap international flights and packages to more exotic places like Chile.