General clean-up at the store

Another busy day for us...

We had a general cleaning of our store (FYI, we have a store that's divided into two sections: one as a gift shop/boutique, and the other one for electronics supplies) today. We were able to take out a lot of unwanted boxes, plastic containers, plastic bags, papers, and yes, dust and dirt. To my surprise, what used to be a very cluttered, "limited space" work area of mine became more spacious and organized. Well, not a hundred percent organized though, as I still have to re-arranged my table which is littered with spare parts I used for my experiments, papers with student orders (I design electronic project kits for students who buy it), parts containers, and tools.

I can't seem to have it all cleaned up completely, because from time to time students would come in and buy parts. I even have to combine parts and package them into a kit, along with diagrams and descriptions. Before I know it, it's evening already.

Arrgh! That pesky rat has been biting its way into some of my papers. It even chewed on a Styrofoam board that houses the parts I need in my microcontroller designing. Hmm.. maybe I'll lay down that rat sticky trap somewhere near my work area and see if it would work....

Oh well, let's call it a day. I still have to come back here tomorrow to do some more work (have a computer tutorial in the afternoon and a microcontroller-based design to work on).

Tataaa!

Budget Tips 2

I told you I'll drop some more tips, and here it goes....

• Accept a lower standard of accommodation
• Accept generous offers from family and friends
• Account for the entire cost of a meal
• Act early to find child care, since many day-care centers have waiting lists.
• Add extra insulation to your water heater
• Add foods from the other food groups to complete main meals.
• Add the new numbers to your budget—income and expenses
• Add up what you spend for entertainment and make a list of all the different types of entertainment
• Adding up your monthly income is easy, but totaling up all your expenses takes a little more effort.
• Adequate insurance coverage for your life, health, and property is a wise investment.

Till next time.

Budget Tips

Talk about hard times! Everyone sure needs some ways to manage their finances nowadays. Incidentally, I won a bid at RAC (Rentacoder) to create list of 3000 tips and hints on Budgeting. I found some real interesting sites and tips, even got to share my own.

I was thinking, why not share a few tips here on my blog? That would be nice and would sure be helpful for readers out there.

So here's what I'll do, I'll drop a number of tips now and add some more on the next days to come.

Here it goes!!!

• "Cute" items are often useless. Do not buy an item just because it is "cute".
• A beach wedding may need standing-room only (hence no rental chairs or overhead on tents.)
• A budget is not set in stone.
• A budget should never be a financial starvation diet.
• A good budget is a spending plan that includes everything you will spend money on and stays within your income.
• A good budget tells you when it is ok to make a major expenditure.
• A good plan for preparing for little mishaps in life is to build an emergency fund.
• A home swap can be an affordable way to visit another city or even international locations.
• A kitchen or bathroom fan left running for an hour can remove an entire houseful of warm air.
• A little creativity will stretch your budget a long way.
• A rule must be set regarding purchases.
• A small investment in good-quality insulation will go a long way toward conserving warmth. Your local utility company can advise you about the type of insulation needed for maximum energy savings.
• A suite-type hotel or vacation condominium that includes a kitchen can be also prove to be a money-saver.
• A trove of candles in various shapes and sizes but in one color (such as cream or peach) can decorate an entire backyard with a romantic and inexpensive theme.
• A very easy way to buy no-cost airline tickets is to switch from a direct route home on a business-class ticket to an alternate route with a stopover in a city you would like to visit.
• A well-planned budget is when you can tell when it maybe dangerous to make a major expenditure.
• A wise budget includes everything you will spend money on, savings for a 'rainy day', savings for large purchases, giving, savings for kids, and investment for retirement and still stays within your income.
• Accelerate deductions.
• Accelerate your savings.

I'll give you some more tomorrow, and maybe the next day, and maybe the next week, and maybe.....

Seminar Accomplished!

Last night I was still at lost as to how go about my presentation on "Money Making through the Internet". I tried downloading a copy of my previous presentation, one that I presented in another school under the same theme, but realized it wasn't of much help because most of the topics deal mostly on I.T. application. I have a different audience to face, college studs who are taking accountancy and commerce.

After hours of moving back and forth (it's a mannerism I inherited from my Dad!), I was finally able to get something running on my computer. I took a quick glanced at the clock.. what! it's already 2:30 in the middle of the night. After some more typing, I finally got it right, with a few more empty slides to fill in. I need to get some sleep, I thought.....

When I woke up, the clock says: 7:05am. Yeah right, my seminar time is 8:00am and I'm still trying to compose myself. Fast forward...............

I'm still sleepy when I got to the venue, my co-league was already doing the preliminary presentation. Good thing he was assigned to talk for some time, gave me enough time to prepare and to condition...........

That's strange, I didn't felt that nervous when I started my talk, must have already fade away from several minutes of waiting.

Talk, talk, talk, click, click, click... I keep staring at my cellphone time, don't want to go beyond the time. I started around past 9am, ended past 12nn. I didn't even notice the long hours I was presenting. The students seemed to be attentive (what a relief!), listening eagerly to what I'm saying. A day before, I requested that small pieces of paper be made available to students so that they can write down questions instead of having to stand up and speak out (students hate that!). Well, it proved to be the right thing to do: I got several papers with questions....

One asked about how to ensure that when they work online, they get paid and not cheated:
I explained to them the process of escrow, wherein the website who acts as mediator between workers and clients would ask clients to deposit the money which is intended for service rendered. These escrow would remain with the site until the worker would be able to finish the job, with the money in escrow released to them. So even if the client suddenly disappears, money still remains in escrow and would be awarded to the worker later on.

Another question, about sample sites that offer web templates so that they can easily create one with ease. I recommended webs.com, and told them they can search more using google.

Another question, how to advertise one's product on the web. I said it's better that they put up a virtual store to showcase their products. They can also place ads in sites that offer free posting of classified ads like sulit.com.ph

What else can I recall.... ah yes, someone ask about marketing products or inventions, and about being safe from being copied by others. I told them they should have it patented or copyrighted first before they market those products.

Another question was about which money transfer method is best (I explain to them about Western Union, Payoneer, and Paypal). I told them that paypal is best at present because it's most convenient and cheap.

One more question was about disadvantages of E-commerce. Well I told them that it all depends on how much awareness they have about policies on the net, rules and guidelines of online transaction, among others. The more informed and aware they are, the lesser it becomes for disadvantages to pop out.

What a day! Although we finished at past 12, it was like a whole day, or maybe it was because I was too tired (and starved!)

It was a great morning for me, sharing what's new on the Net, and specially giving students actual ideas on how they can start earning on the Net. The best part was the "after part": I got a big treat for lunch.

I'll try to talk about other key topics I discussed during the seminar. I have to go, still a lot of things to do.....

How to Make Money Online: An upcoming seminar

What a way to start my blog!!!

I was invited to present a morning talk to CAC (College of Accountancy and Commerce) at the Universidad de Santa Isabel tomorrow (2.18.09). My talk will focus on how to use the power of the Internet to earn money. In such hard times, I'm sure it would be wonderful to make students realize that they don't have to keep on spending money in Intenet Cafes, but could even make money out of it!

Sound cool? You bet! I'm really busy right now preparing my slides, searching for the latest trends on the net aside from the those that I am already using at present.

Good luck to us all!