Personal Improvement

“The best contribution one can make to humanity is to improve oneself.” –Anonymous
Have you ever really stopped and thought of that statement? Everyone out there seems to have an agenda and wants to change the world, but how can you, I or anyone else change the world if we can’t change ourselves? Personal Improvement is one of those areas that could definitely use a lot more attention from all of us on this little blue planet.
It is not a matter of how good or bad, smart or stupid you are, there is always room for improvement. There is only one thing on this planet that will allow you to make better decisions about your life and the things that will affect those around you, and that is education. I don’t necessarily mean a formal college education or degree. Don’t get me wrong, they are important to many, but aren’t necessarily the only way to get a useful education.
The type of education that you receive is completely up to you. If you feel it’s useful to you, then study it! Don’t feel embarrassed, or like you’re wasting your time if you aren’t going to use what you learn every day. Study it if it interests you. You never know when it may actually come in handy. Whether it is in a job, or a conversation, or if something needs to be fixed. If it interests you then study it.
I try to make it a point in my life to try to figure things out. It doesn’t matter what it is, if I have a question about it, I’ll try to figure it out. I take a lot of flak over it too because I bounce from one thing to the next because my brain is so curious. But I love the thought of a new challenge. If there is a book on it, I’ll read it. If there isn’t, I’ll scour the internet trying to find as much info as I can about it. But whatever your interests may be, seek to learn about them.
I recall a conversation I was having once with a fellow who said that if he could do life all over again, he would like to study politics and political science more. I thought to myself, “why don’t you start now. It’s not too late.” He of course thought that it was too late. I thought that this was ridiculous because he wasn’t even 30! It’s never too late to educate yourself further. All it will do is help you to get to the next step quicker and have the ability to help others when they need the help.
I’ve never known anyone who has died from educating themselves in a way that was useful to the world. So just think about the opening line to this article, The best contribution one can make to humanity is to improve oneself.”

A Mans Word is His Bond (using contracts)

So many times in my life I have looked back on decisions that I have made and wondered why in the world I did that; or why didn't that turn out as great as I had planned it to?
Thankfully, the invention of 20/20 hindsight has helped many of us to figure out why the idea never worked out the way we planned. As I have thought about some of these events I have noticed that I am not the only one that these mistakes have ever happened to, and so with that I would like to share with you some pearls of wisdom that everyone who starts a new business or is currently running a business needs to know.
That wisdom is "Why you need to have a contract."
I have titled this article "Do you really know what your are getting" because it seems that all too often we get into a situation, usually involving another party, expecting one thing, and of course they interpret the agreement differently and expect another. I'm sure that has happened to many of you out there.
Allow me to tell a story or two of my experiences. When I started out as an entrepreneur I thought I knew it all and I didn't need anyone to tell me how to do things. I didn't believe written contracts were necessary because I still had this belief that people were still inherently good. (I was still young, what can I say.)
At any rate, one of the businesses I started required the use of a building for manufacturing our product. We had a close acquaintance that had a building and let us rent it from him at a reasonably low price and no signed contract. We didn't have any terms or conditions. So we believed that we could do anything we needed to, within reason, and within our ethical and moral boundaries, to make our business successful.
Needless to say, when he came by he didn't approve of some of the equipment,(some heaters and shelves and molds) that were set up that were needed to manufacture our product, and it was not kept to a clean standard that he felt it should have been.
So we had a situation where we felt we were fine because there were no terms set forth, and he felt we were in violation, although there were no terms set forth. Who was at fault? I believe both parties because of the simple fact that there was no contract. The deal should never have happened.
This was just one instance where a lot of headache could have been avoided and business could have gone on interrupted.
So allow me to urge you at this time, before you get into any situation with a business, or another individual, take the time to determine if a contract is in order. If there is any question in your mind, then you probably need one. Otherwise, you never really know what you are getting.

Sponsored by www.investmentbuildinginc.com

Make mine a Double!

In an interesting but not overly reassuring economic forecasting document I was privy to read this week, I read this dreary phrase; "The U.S. still faces the possibility of a 'double dip' recession that would begin in late 2010 or early 2011. Wow! How great is it to hear that our officials have spent billions just to send us into another recession. And on top of that, you hear whisperings of tax hikes! These people just don't understand, for whatever reason, that taking money out of the economy is not the way to fix it. And this supposed stimulus is not a stimulus. It is once again taking our money from us and giving it to someone else. I don't know about you but I didn't get a stimulus check this year personally, or for my business. I'm not the first to say it, and I know I won't be the last, but if you want to turn this around we need to keep the money in the actual system of business, not in the system of government. The people need to have it. The people need to spend it. The government can't take it and redistribute it at will to those of whom they please. If your business is to succeed you need capital. You need it to work, to produce, to hire and to succeed. If you are being taxed to death to try to create more government spending,(lets face it, taxes arent' going to pay off debt), then your business won't grow, or at least quickly. So please, we're begging you Mr. President, congress, and whoever is in the shadows controlling your moves, cut the taxes and let us continue to grow in wonderful capitalism and keep America strong and thriving. When you take our money supply, its like taking our oxygen, we will turn RED.

Your business and Debt

Use leverage. Borrow money so that you don’t have to use your own. Just get a credit card for emergencies. You can get credit for your business that won’t show on your personal credit report.
Have you ever heard any of these little quips and thought to yourself, yeah that’s a good idea. Well, if you’ve ever started a business then I’m sure you have. The truth of the matter is that it is stupid, and will do more harm than good in most cases.
Why is it bad to have a loan out to start a business? That is quite an easy question to answer.
When you get a loan from the bank, from a credit card, from a family member, or wherever, the loan brings with it a few tagalongs called interest, origination fees, late fees, and other penalties if you are late. The biggest tagalong is of course interest. The banks try to fool you with supposedly low interest rates but how low are they really. Let’s do a little math to find out what your business loan is really costing you.
Say you obtain a loan to start a construction company. You need tools and a truck. You can’t just have any truck, you need a new truck. So you go to the local dealer and you find a shiny new truck for $35,000.00 and it is perfect for your business. So you sign on the dotted line and let the money start rolling in, right?
So here’s how it breaks down:
• 72 month loan for a new truck,$300 per month payment,6% apr
• Total interest paid over the life of the loan is $10,798.89
• Total paid for the truck $45,798.89 over 6 years
Now let’s see what else you could have done with the $300 per month.
• Save for 5 months and find a truck for $1500 and pay cash. (yes it will be a beater but it will be paid for)
• 67 months left to invest the same $300.
• You invest $300 mo. @ 12% in a safe mutual fund
• You will have $25,045.00 in the bank.
• Leave it in the bank for another 5 years adding nothing and you’ll have $44,137.85
• Leave it for 30 years and keep paying the $300 per month instead of paying a truck payment and you’ll have $1,723,399.63.
Why did I put 30 years on there? Because most people will have car payments their whole life and not give it a second thought. But if you notice, just a car payment will cost you almost $2 million dollars, not just the $45,000 over 5 years because you will trade it in after 2 years and do it again!
Not to mention that’s that much harder you have to work each month. One more headache to deal with. So think of that will all the debt your business is carrying. What is it really costing you. Wouldn’t you be able to make more and work less if you were running debt free?

This post Sponsored by www.investmentbuildinginc.com