June
15
business knowledge

With today’s job market constantly being cut by outsourcing, many individuals are suddenly finding themselves unemployed.

Simply sitting at home all day and worrying about what to do when all your savings are gone is defiantly not a positive thing, and with the amount of online opportunities available for starting your own home business growing continually, many individuals find themselves becoming self employed by default.

The problem is finding a business that you can run from your home will take some looking and research and should be aligned around things you know and are interested in. Once you start a home online business, you will have to treat it as a traditional 9-5 job because the income you make is what will be paying your bills and keeping you and your family from starving. It will also take up lot of your energy and time so try to make it something that you are interested in and love.

Most individuals hear, that the best job you can have is one that you would do freely if you didn’t need to study about paying bills. This same principle applies when starting your new online home business. Make it something you love to do and will work hard at in order to pay all your bills. If you don’t it will be just like another job. A great online business to consider is Affiliate Marketing.

An affiliate marketing program could assist you in setting up a free website and give you allot of free promotional products and goods to get you off and running. Affiliate marketing simply put is promoting and selling big companies goods or services for a commission. What makes this very attractive is that the affiliate deals with all the technical stuff like deliveries of goods, collecting payment, goods returns etc, and if you don’t have allot of business knowledge 99% of them help you with support and training so all you have to do is advertise your website, promote products, sell the goods and then collect commission cheques this is a simple way to make money online.

In most cases with an online business of the heavy work can be done from home while telecommuting with customers. In some other businesses, you might have to go meet with some clients or visit shows where you can sell your services or products.

Before you decide to open an online home business, it will be wise to check with the local zoning department to ensure that there are no laws that can stop you from operating your business from your home. Most of the time, if the company has no reason for customers to visit and there are no signs hanging in front of your yard, there should be no problems with your home business. If when customers visit your shop it creates allot of traffic or block the sidewalk you might need to rethink your company idea if you would like to know more on this topic check Dotcomology the art of making money in the attached link.

Andy The Home Biz Wiz recommends for more information subscribe to my FREE Internet home business tips newsletter and get hundreds of money making tips and tricks along with FREE Software delivered to your inbox. A $147 value, yours
FREE: http://www.MakingMoneyFromHomeOnTheInternet.com

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June
15



“I can hear (too much noise from) my neighbours, how can this be improved?” is one of the most common questions asked of acoustic consultants. People are understandably sensitive to and intolerant of noise between dwellings. Increased noise is partly a consequence of modern living e.g. powerful stereos, high density living, housing stock formed by the conversion of unsuitable buildings. In addition failed building regulations compounded the issue and led in 2003 to compulsory sound testing with the introduction of Approved Document E to the Building Regulations.

Has compulsory sound insulation testing improved the sound insulation between dwellings? Yes, definitely, but the situation is not as black and white as it may initially seem.

To put the problem in context a brief historical overview can help. In the late 60s, building regulations included sound insulation performance standards for the first time on a national basis – prior to this they were dealt with locally. These regulations had varying, but similar, incarnations up until the introduction of Approved Document E in 2003. Essentially the regulations pre-2003 specified a number of building designs and materials that if followed were assumed to provide satisfactory sound insulation in residential dwellings. Dwellings built using this approach were declared as “deemed to satisfy” and issued with a completion certificate by the building control body as having complied with the sound insulation regulations.

This, almost self-certification scheme, was flawed and failed on a number of counts:



If a builder used an alternative design method, the sound insulation properties of the design would require testing. Providing the test results met the requirements this report could be used in any number of subsequent constructions even though the site conditions would be very different and the design not suitable.

Certain published designs offered inherently poor sound insulation performance!

The sound insulation properties of a construction depend largely on the quality of the workmanship.



A consultation paper prior to the 2003 regulations highlighted the failings of the “old” regulations with a massive 40 % of separating floors, and 25% of separating walls failing to achieve the performance standards required. This led to the introduction of the 2003 regulations and compulsory sound insulation testing.

The 2003 Building Regulations do not apply retrospectively and therefore only new builds and conversions after this date are given this heightened level of regulation protection that hopefully offers the enhanced quality of life one would expect. Problem solved? You would think so, but unfortunately the Building Regulations and Approved Document E arguably fall short of the mark. Approved Document E recommends that only up to 10% of the rooms in a development require testing. Typically this is fine for a small development, as it covers most living accommodation areas. However, it can be a flaw in larger developments where the potential occupier has a 90% chance of occupying a dwelling that has not been tested and may fall short of the required levels of soundproofing.

The other potential shortcoming of the Approved Document E is the procedure if a test fails. A failed test should raise questions regarding the party walls/floors in the development that have not been tested and the following process should take place:



An investigation into the reason for the failure.

Remedial work once the problem has been identified.

If the failure is attributed to the construction and/or the associated flanking elements, remedial work should be carried out on the walls/floors that have not been tested.

The developer should demonstrate to the satisfaction of the building control body that the other rooms meet the performance requirements.

After a failed set of tests, the rate of testing should increase until the building control body is satisfied that the problem has been solved.



In reality this increased level of tests rarely happens. The single wall or floor that did not achieve the required sound level performance typically has the appropriate remedial measures, a re-test is commissioned and the appropriate certificates issued by the acoustic consultancy. Building Control receives the certificate and signs the building off none the wiser that there may be a fundamental flaw with the soundproofing in the rest of the development.

To summarise, buying a property that was newly built or formed by the conversion of an existing dwelling prior to 2003 Building Regulations significantly increases your chances of being disturbed by your neighbours. Developments completed since 2003 are much more likely to have far greater sound insulation, although, as this article has tried to highlight, not a guarantee. As an acoustic consultant my advice would be to ask the “noisy neighbours” questions before you rent or buy the property, or even commission a sound insulation test prior to procedure. Yes, it is an additional expense, but can you put a price on a good quality of home life?

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June
15
car insurance quotes


The quickest way to get a car insurance quote is online, and it is also the best if you want to find the cheapest price available for the type of insuring agreement that you are looking for. However, online is not the only way to get a quote, and people were buying car insurances long before computers came on the scene.

The snail’s pace equivalent of an online quote was the telephone quote, whereby you would telephone auto insurance companies and request a quotation. Either they would post you a form by snail mail, or they would take your details and provide you with a quote over the phone: no toll free numbers then, so the quote was anything but free. In fact in many cases you had to pay for the quote, on the pretext that it cost the insurance company time and money to provide you with a quotation. No mention of what it cost you in telephone charges!

If you wanted to compare prices you literally had to walk the streets from office to office (you couldn’t drive your uninsured motor vehicle!) and it was not easy to negotiate for discounts. Now, however, it is much simpler with the internet and most auto insurance companies offer automobile insurance policies online. You can get the quote online and accept it online. It is also a lot easier to negotiate the best auto insurance rates possible by comparing the prices of a large number of companies from the comfort of your home. You needn’t deal only with insurers that have branches in your home town, but nationwide – even international!

Before applying for online quotes you are advised to decide in advance what level of cover you want in your automobile insurance policy. If you want to carry out real comparisons, each insurer should be given the same information. If want to see the difference in price with and without collision coverage, for example, you can do that later. Right now you should be checking out the cheapest for the basic type of insurance most relevant to your needs. Collision and physical damage coverage can be added later once you have a short-list.

Your initial insurance quote should be for the state minimum liability cover, and you can include collision here, but only if you do so for all insurers and only if your car warrants it. Collision coverage is a waste of money if your car is going to be totalled after a small bump! Comprehensive fits into the same category. However, you might want personal injury coverage to pay for your medical expenses if you are injured, but again state it for each quote and also state the same amount for each motor insurance company.

Where at all possible keep all the information you provide exactly the same across the board. Each form will be different, so it might not be possible to keep them exactly the same, but it should be as near as you can, otherwise your comparisons will not be valid and you won’t necessarily get the cheapest quotes. The idea is to get a car insurance quote from each auto insurance company that is based upon the same information, and then to decide which are the cheapest: i.e. which provide the same level of cover for less money.

These will form your final list from which you are going to select your choice of motor insurer. The final choice will be based upon by how much you can beat them down using the various factors that can be used to get discounts. Factors such as your deductible – never include your maximum deductible in the initial quotation form. Keep some up your sleeve for future negotiation.

The general idea is to get a final three or four, and then to get further discounts from each of these. That’s when you tell them about the driving courses you have taken, or the extra safety features on your car. Tell them about your car being garaged and locked up every night and anything else you can think of that might get you a discount. They won’t offer you one, but if you ask then you can get reductions if they are warranted.

Your objective is to get a car insurance quote that is as cheap as possible while not sacrificing any of the cover that you feel you need. You can achieve that much easier by comparing a number of different insurers online.



(c) Copyright 2008 – Brent A. Kenny.

auto insurance

This extraordinary resource has information on everything from the most important auto insurance terms to practical advice for finding car insurance right policy.

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June
15



The National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA) is an organization whose members are tax professionals with an EA license. The mission of NAEA is enhancement of the role for Enrolled Agents. To achieve this goal, NAEA is a taxpayer advocate and leader in establishing public understanding of the value Enrolled Agents provide.

NAEA is dedicated to maintaining a high skill level for its members by emphasizing enrolled agent continuing education. Members of NAEA complete a minimum of 30 enrolled agent hours annually as NAEA CPE.

Any tax agent course for a member of NAEA also applies to EA CPE requirements of the IRS. However, the NAEA CPE requirement exceeds the IRS standard. Tax preparers registered by the California Tax Education Council also complete annual CPE. CA enrolled agents meet the CTRC CPE by completing courses required of NAEA membership.

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June
15
business plan


Business planning is an extremely enjoyable, ongoing process for me — now. But I remember when it was a struggle, a “should”, something I felt I “had” to do as a business owner, but that didn’t give me much joy. I had spent years creating successful plans as a fund raising professional (quite easily, I might add), but for some reason, I felt a great deal of resistance within me when it came to creating a plan for my own business. That resistance ended up being complex and required a lot of clearing.

Part of my resistance to business planning was because I really loved working with the spiritual laws, and I didn’t want to get caught up in some of the “negative” energies around business and money I witnessed in the material realm. And, of course, I associated business planning with these energies!

But, gradually, my polarized way of thinking changed. Reading this sentence in Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer’s book, Creating Money, assisted that transformation: “It will take less of your energy to attract, save and create more money if you are in harmony with both the spiritual and man-made laws of money.” And, if you’re a business owner, one of the man-made laws of money is business planning. So I set out to develop a business planning model for myself that harmonized the physical and metaphysical laws of commerce.

A Manifestation Tool

Many wonderful dreams and business ideas never materialize because they have not been clearly envisaged and grounded. A written business plan enables you to get very clear about your vision for your business, to ground this vision in the physical world and to align/focus your energy as you act on your plan. It’s a fabulous manifestation tool!

Inspired business planning integrates both the spiritual and man-made laws of business development together. Specifically, it:

- connects you to the higher purpose of your business;

- helps you clarify what you desire for your business;

- supports you in clearing any resistance to having what you desire for your business;

- anchors you in a consciousness of faith and love;

- gives you a space in which to receive guidance from your highest levels;

- translates that guidance into the action steps of your plan, as you discern what business-building strategies to use and structures to put in place that will allow you to receive what you’re desiring; and

- quantifies the financial aspects of your business.

The Seven Steps to Inspired Business Planning

Inspired business planning is a continuous process that will help you develop your business naturally, utilizing both your intuitive and intellectual capacities in an integrative way. As you go through this process, you’ll notice that you feel more balanced and aligned, that the steps to build your business become clearer and you’re more trusting and relaxed about the results. You’ll experience much growth and expansion.

Inspired business planning is a seven-step process:

1) Determine the higher purpose of your business.

From a spiritual perspective, what function is your business meant to serve? What’s your role in the evolution of humanity and our planet, and how will your business allow you to fulfil this purpose?

2) Create key intentions for building your business.

Like clarifying the higher purpose of your business, intentions are part of the “visioning” aspect of your plan. They are the broader goals you establish that will help you fulfil your purpose. What are your intentions?

3) Identify specific objectives and targets you desire related to each intention.

Also part of visioning is defining objectives and specific targets you aim to achieve for each intention. Objectives are more narrowly-defined goals; targets can be both the quantifiable or unquantifiable results you desire. What are your objectives and targets?

4) Tap into your guidance system to determine the action steps associated with each intention and corresponding objective(s) and target(s).

Spending time quieting your mind through meditation or other techniques and thinking/receiving ideas from your highest levels will lead you to the action steps of your plan. What action steps are you guided to take?

5) Clarify your financial inflow and outflow.

How much will it cost you to operate your business, create your offerings and get them out to the world? What level of revenue are you open to receiving on a monthly and/or yearly basis? How will you price your offerings to match that revenue level?

6) Clear resistance that may come up as you create and implement your plan.

Resistance is a belief, thought and accompanying feeling that disallows your natural state of well-being. The intention of building a prosperous, fulfilling business can bring up any number of fearful, resistant thoughts and feelings. These can prevent you from creating a business plan in the first place or from taking the actions your plan describes. What resistant beliefs, thoughts and feelings do you have about creating and implementing your business plan? How can you release this resistance?

7) Operate from love and faith by using prayer, visualizations and affirmations.

When you operate from love and faith, your actions are more joyful and inspired and you more easily attract clients and customers. Prayer, visualizations and affirmations are powerful tools that will anchor you in a state of love, trust and surrender. What prayers, visualizations and affirmations will support you as you build your business?

The real gifts of inspired business planning are in the process of creating the plan and implementing it, without being rigidly attached to the plan or its outcomes. So it’s helpful to remain flexible and allow your plan to change and evolve as you gain more knowledge, guidance, perspective and clarity. Keeping your inner focus on higher essence states such as joy, generosity and gratitude is also important. As Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer say in Creating Money, “the process of getting there is the quality of being there.”

Copyright 2008 Mary C. Davis



Entrepreneur, Coach and Prosperity Guide Mary C. Davis helps spiritually-oriented wellness professionals build prosperous, fulfilling businesses. Get tips on how to build your wellness business, with ease and joy, by subscribing” target=”_blank”>www.anamturas.com”>subscribing to her FREE e-zine, The Prosperous Healer, at http://www.anamturas.com

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