Uncategorized Archive

Successfully Obtaining a Small Business Loan

Working with a bank to obtain a small business loan can be an easy or difficult process, depending on how prepared you are to meet with the lender and discuss your business’ situation and needs.One of the leading causes of business failure is insufficient start-up capital. Ironically, though, lenders rarely approve loan requests for the businesses that have the highest need for a small business loan. Instead, lenders tend to prefer to offer small business loans to those businesses that have been in operation for two or more years.According to All Business, it is estimated that 95 percent of all entrepreneurs opened their businesses with capital from their own pockets, or from money they borrowed from relatives, friends, or another person in their community. Lenders want to see business owners risk their own funds in the business venture, and often require that the business owner or owners provide a minimum of 25 percent of the capital needed to start a business, and at least that much equity in the business if the business is already in existence. Simply stated, lenders aren’t as willing to take a risk when a business owner doesn’t even risk their own money in the investment. Businesses with a history demonstrating success in paying their bills for two and a half to three years will have the easiest time obtaining a small business loan because they’ve proven their ability to meet financial obligations.Preparing a Small Business Loan ProposalWhen preparing to apply for a small business loan, be prepared to face the facts that are against you, and use them in your favor. Persistency is necessary if you want to land a small business loan. Lenders follow certain criteria to determine if the small business loan is a wise investment for the bank. Most importantly, the bank will determine if the small business loan is likely to be repaid. As with other businesses, banks and other lenders must answer to their investors and stockholders, and unpaid loans show instability in the bank or financial institution.Items compiled into a small business loan request include the following:- Amount of money requested- Likeliness of business profitability and demonstration of cash flow needed to service a small business loan- Collateral, if any is owned by the business- A reasonable balance between debt and equityKnow Your BankerWhether you have a start-up small business or an established small business, the first step in obtaining financing through a small business loan is to develop a business relationship with your banker. Consider asking your bank’s manager to open a file for your business, and provide quarterly or yearly profit and loss statements. When your business is in need of financing, the bank will already have a file and will be at least somewhat familiar with your operations. When the time comes to apply for a small business loan, approach the banker with a solid business plan to inspire the lender’s confidence in your business. Provide information on business operations, marketing efforts, management ability, and financial projections for three years, as well as a cash flow projection and personal balance sheet demonstrating the worthiness of the business.To prove worthiness for a small business loan, prepare proper documentation. Keep your credit reports as clean as possible. A lender will assume that you operate your business in the same manner that you manage your personal finances. The lower your credit rating, the slimmer your chances are of obtaining a small business loan.When applying for a small business loan, search for a lender by first approaching the bank or banks in which you currently do business. Since you’ll need to share all of your personal and business financial information, it can be beneficial to apply with a financial institution that already has that information on file and is perhaps familiar with your profile and spending habits. If your credit rating is high, your changes are good of being approved for the small business loan.If you are unable to work with a bank or credit union in which you currently do business, or if you’d prefer not to work with your bank or credit union for your small business loan, look for a lender who wants your business. Search the business section of your local newspapers for special financing offers on small business loans and other loans. These lenders are actively looking for people needing small business loans, and the process of obtaining a small business loan with these types of lenders may be easier and faster. Additionally, check into credit unions. Because credit unions tend to be smaller financial institutions, you may be able to speak directly with a loan decision maker. Larger banks and other types of large lenders may have more rigid rules for small business loans, and the processes that they employ may be more complicated for small business loans.If, at First, You Don’t SucceedIf your first attempt at obtaining a small business loan fails, don’t be discouraged. Small business loans are often not approved with the first lender that you approach, and be assured that you’re not alone. Especially if you have a start-up business, lenders don’t always approve small business loans, even in the most ideal situations. Search for other lenders, or become resourceful and look into other sources for loans rather than a small business loan, including home equity loans and personal loans, both of which can be used for business purposes.

International Business Site – Get Help With International Business Negotiation

For many business owners the prospect of trading internationally for the first time can be a very worrying experience. The choice to locally source products has always been a favoured method of conducting business however in today’s day and age there is simply so much money in international trade that businesses often cannot afford to miss out. Due to lower labour costs, lower tax and generally lower production costs countries such as China, as a small example, manage to produce high quality products at a fraction of the price; something which could seriously increase your businesses profits.The first thing that many people have to realise is that international business negotiation is never going to be exactly the same as local business negotiation. As you travel around the world various different countries and business communities have various different business principles. Being able to adapt to these principles is therefore a must if you wish to trade in those regions of the world.An international business site offers a very in depth look into the cultures and business principles of the most common countries where international business takes place and aims to help those new to international trading get a head start. It will teach you not only about the culture and common practices in the country, but also about the business etiquette and how you should move towards international business negotiation.Common things you need to know about the country before you start international business negotiation.The chances are that if you wish to conduct international business negotiation you will be flying out to your country of choice. Even if you find a company you would like to trade with online this is a certainty. Here are some of the things you should know before you make your initial visit:1. The business practices for greeting / meeting a new person such as handshakes and hellos.
2. What the general business attire is in any given country. Some countries will keep the idea of wearing a suit whereas some may be more relaxed on what you can where to a business meeting.
3. Different countries have different practices when presenting business cards or exchanging credentials. For example in Asia you are meant to treat a potential partners business card with the up most respect, meaning that you receive it in two hands and place it careful in your inside jacket pocket.
4. You should learn about the rules when eating in said country as the company you are negotiating with may take you for a meal. This is important in places such as China, where cleaning your plate is considered an insult; very different to countries such as the UK where it would be a compliment.
5. Look into the countries culture and what they like to do for business entertainment.Using the international business site will help to learn all of the things mentioned above about various different regions of the world. This will give you a head start when it comes to travelling abroad when looking to kick start some sort of international business negotiation.

Social Bookmarking Tips For The Best SEO Results

One of the earliest off page SEO methods.Social Bookmarking is one of the earliest off page SEO methods in our text books. Well simply like any other technique, there are approaches to use Social bookmarking niche sites as well, and there are techniques to use it proficiently. If you only use it, you’ll get benefits, while applying it effectively will get you remarkable results. Let’s begin from the fundamentals.What is Social Bookmarking?Social Bookmarking is the exact as regular webpage bookmarking, think about it as the cloud variation of bookmarking. Once you bookmark web pages on your web browser, it is typical bookmarking, however, when you do the equal over a Web-based page, it is social bookmarking. It actually wasn’t created as a Back Linking or SEO Strategy. Rather it was merely a greater method for people to keep the links they prefer so that they may access it later on. It’s really like the Yellow pages of links, yet with time people started to understand that back links are one of the generally essential SEO elements, and bookmarking sites should get you back links. So from listing web links, it started to be a SEO approach. People began listing sites not since they desired to store it, but just because they desired to have a hyperlink from that website to their websites to increase their ratings.Gains of Social Bookmarking.Now you understand what Social Bookmarking is, nonetheless why is it significant? It’s prevalent understanding they’ll get you back links, nevertheless what kind of back links, why are they unique?Direct Traffic.Persons visit social bookmarking sites for a number of motives, one of them certainly is bookmarking their personal websites, the additional is to checkout other web pages. So that’s a lot of direct website traffic you’re looking at.Do-follow web links.The best social bookmarking sites from the beginning of days have provided dofollow back links, it’s one of the various causes why they’re so well-known.Easy links.Even if the links are nofollow on several social bookmarking sites, what is important is that you obtain those web links quickly, there’s no mailing, guest publishing or trouble. You simply have to sign up, which will might be non-obligatory in some instances, and list your hyper-links. Search Engine robots crawl social bookmarking sites regularly as well, indicating your links might get listed the moment a bot crawls it.Employing Social Bookmarking for SEO Successfully.Therefore social bookmarking is useful, let’s make it rewarding. Since linking carried out wrong can harm your projects fairly bad.Shift Anchor Text.The one error almost everybody makes while producing any kind of web links is using the exact anchor text repeatedly again. Very well it may well have worked well half a decade back, these days? Not really much. Anchor text variation is one of the fundamental and just about all crucial actions you can take whilst building links for your site. Here’s a live case in point showing what I indicate:Main Keyword: Best Android App.First Anchor text: Best Android App.Second Anchor text: Brandable Web links, Website name.Third Anchor Text: Amazing Android apps.Fourth Anchor Text: Read more.And so forth.Proceed Slow.The moment you 1st land on a Social Bookmarking web page, you experience like striked the goldmine. A system where you can certainly lay off as many links back to you as you prefer and there’s no one to prevent you. Good there is, and the devil will go by the company name of Google. It won’t quit you from establishing links, it only has its very own ways of displaying discontentment. So my recommendation is, go slow. Do not produce more than 2 links/day for one web page from one Social Bookmarking site on a limit.Do Follow Links.This one goes with no saying, if you’re attempting to complete some link juice, you’ll require a dofollow over a nofollow virtually any day of the year. That’s specifically what you’ve got to do whilst bookmarking your internet site. Try to use websites online which provide dofollow links, yet also ensure that you aren’t solely pursuing dofollows and ignoring the nofollows, since well this matters as link variety as good.Exact Description and Profile Data.Various times, when generating a profile or composing a description, you are likely to copy paste the equal data over and over again. And then you’re just like, Google won’t go through the entire article, merely the anchor texts. Well that’s so erroneous, Google does pay interest to the encircling keywords of virtually any anchor text as perfectly. So using the exact data over and over obviously transmits a duplicate flag which in turn isn’t precisely healthy for your web links. So try to use as many new data as possible with every link. Even though fresh data doesn’t suggest evolving your registered identity, if you’re producing links as Mr. X, you can maintain using the corresponding name over and over again, it in fact works toward establishing authority.Be Legit.When ever you open an account on a Social bookmarking webpage, most of the times you simply sign up, put your web links and by no means go back again. Perfectly, the basic idea ought to be to build a Real profile generally there, make it look much like you aren’t there for the web links but for actually using the framework. Try to socialize with additional bookmarks, pages, and persons on the website, if they’ve such a community, do not place links every single day and so on.Be Specific.Just about all Social bookmarking sites enable you to decide upon category for your bookmarks once you’re setting up them. The greatest thing you can do is, go for a category as particular and narrow to your internet site as feasible. It’s not accurately a SEO element, but it nonetheless counts. And anyways, all those other groups which may possibly seem like having millions of site visitors will be over crowded in any case.Don’t be a Script Kiddie.On Fiverr, you can easily, very easily discover that some folks can build 10000 social bookmarks for you for $5 gigs. Very well, don’t go for them. Nor should you go for all those conveniently available, inexpensive automated link building methods. In fact, you shouldn’t go for any kind of tool doesn’t matter how high quality it is for link building. Not really for social bookmarking, not for web 2.0s essentially not for any sort of type of link building. Do it by hand and your site would say thanks to you permanently.

15 Reasons Why You Should Start a Blog Today

Every day many things occur around us. Some things are good, and some things are wrong. Blogging offers us an opportunity of sharing our thoughts regarding those things. In addition, it is a good way showing your creativity to the world. You can write whatever you think, and blogs have a much better impact than social networking posts. You can encourage people for good things, show them a right way of doing something and raise your voice against something bad taking place in the world. Here are some impressive reasons why you should start a blog today.1. To help others:It is true that many people search for the solutions of their problems. Some people want to know health tips, some search for better career options and some love to read about new technologies. You can address those readers through your blogs. There are many attractive topics to choose from. Pick your favorite one and start writing. If your ideas are good and helpful, you will get many readers for your blog and thus you can help others. It is a way of helping others because your offered solutions and ideas can provide readers with better ideas and helpful solutions.2. To improve your writing ability:Practice makes man perfect; it is a renowned quote, and it is true. Probably you may think that you are not a good writer, but you should write. In starting you may get failed in tempting a large number of readers, but you will get some readers for sure. You can improve your writing skills with regular blogging and become a great writer. You will get better ways of presenting your thoughts in the blogs and articles if you continue blogging. That’s what many bloggers did and today they are succeeded in this field.3. To face new challenges:Some people think that blogging is easy and just a hobby, it is not true. Blogging is quite challenging, especially if you have never done it before. You need to think very deeply before you write for any topic. You also need to think about its impact on readers. Today’s world needs bloggers, who can help in making this world a better place to live. It is all about choosing words carefully and set them in the form of a blog to send a right message. You can take it as a challenge and challenges are good for life.4. To make some money:Blogging is not only done to help the readers for their needs but also done to earn good money. Probably, you may know that there are many writers and bloggers, who make hundreds of dollars weekly by their blogs. You can be one of them if you get a large number of readers. It is quite easy to start a blog on any blogging platform and make it live. You can write on hot topics and let people read your blogs. It will fill your account with bucks, which will encourage you to write more on new things.5. To increase you knowledge about the world:Whenever you write on a new topic, you need to learn new things before writing. You may plan to write on new technology or the cure of any disease or any other thing. You will have to read about that thing to understand what it is and then turn those details into your words. That’s how you increase your knowledge about a new thing. A blogger is not only a good writer but also a good reader who learns something new about the world every day.6. To be a better thinker:Blogging makes you a better thinker. Whenever you write about a social issue or health problem, you try to put your words in a more meaningful way. It means you try to represent your thoughts in a way that it can address the targeted readers. It seeks good thinking, and that’s what people do as a blogger. You try to get more details on the topics you write so that you can decide what you should add to your blog and what should you avoid to write in the blog.7. To promote yourself as an expert:Whenever we read something online, we read it like we are taking some good ideas or suggestions from an expert. Other people also think in the same way. So when you become a blogger, you become an expert of things which you write for the readers. People consider you as an expert and follow you on the social platform. Blogging is an easy way of becoming a famous personality and gets some followers with earning good money. Thus, you can sit at home and share your thoughts as an expert.8. To work at home:Don’t you think it is an excellent idea to work at home? For sure, you will say yes. Every person wants to spend some good time with family, and that’s what you can do as a regular blogger. You get some clients online, who will ask you to write on particular topics. You will get the freedom to write anytime you want and work at home. It is a good way of earning impressive amount at home. Whether you are at the home or on vacation, you can write anywhere and make good money through blogging.9. To live a healthy life:You may think that there is no connection between blogging and healthy life, but it is. As mentioned at an earlier point, blogging offers you an opportunity of working at home. Thus, you get more time to do exercise, eat on time and meet your friends. These things help us in living a good life. You will not sleep late on the nights plus you will get enough time to enjoy vacations on your favorite holiday spots. These things bring satisfaction from the life, and that’s what lead to a healthy life.10. To get connected with new people:Every blogging platform offers comment section below the blog. It is up to you that you want to get comments from your readers or not. If you want to see people’s response about your blogs, allow them to comment. You may find some good and some bad comments on the blogs. Thus, you can reply to their comments and get connected with your readers in a much better way. People may or may not appreciate your responses, but they will start knowing you. That’s what blogging does for the bloggers. Make them famous among readers and promote them on social platforms.11. To inspire people:Certain situations come in life when people lose hope and get depressed. These conditions may occur because of a significant loss in business, bad breakup or because of losing someone special. Blogging offers you an opportunity to become an inspiration for such people. You can write about how to handle big business losses and get back to the market with full power. You can also write on dealing with social life issues like how to recover from a bad breakup. There are a lot of issues, which you can pick to write and help others by inspiring them for a better life.12. To reduce stress:People become good thinkers when they are in stress. You may or may not agree with it, but it is a fact. You think quite deeply and see life in a different way. People take medications and try many ways to reduce their stress, but blogging is a very simple way of reducing stress. Write on things, which are depressing you. Write about how bad things can be and how to overcome from bad situations. People need ideas to move on and get back to life, and you can help other stressed people by writing on such issues.13. To endorse useful things:Ever since the online shopping has become a trend, people search for what they should buy and what they should not buy. You can become an online shopping expert by suggesting people about good things. You can write new blogs on newly launched products like smart phones, laptops, medicines and all other things people buy online. People regularly read bloggers, which endorse useful things. You can be one of those people, who fairly support useful products and prevent people from buying faulty things. Thus, the manufacturers will contact you to promote their products, and they will pay you a good price for it.14. For better success of your business:Whether you are running a small company or a large organization, your business must have a blog to exhort the prospects. Many buyers want to know more about the retailers and manufacturers. You can take the support of online ads and promotions, but these advertisements contain quite small content about the product. A blog can be a great way of explaining every new product you launch or sell. Thus, you will not need the support of other writers and promoters to promote your business, and you can get better leads consequently.15. To get a large number of followers on social network:Social networking has become one of the most fundamental needs of people in this age. Billions of users are using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can gain a large number of followers on these social networking platforms if start blogging. Even you can promote your blogs on social networking sites for free and get more readers. A large number of followers mean a large number of readers, which in turn increase your revenue from the blog.How to start blogging?Probably, above mentioned reasons are enough to explain that why you should start a blog today. If you are ready for it, now it is the time to know how to start blogging. First of all, you have to choose an excellent blogging platform. There are many blogging platforms, which offer free and premium blogging opportunities. You can choose any of them to start a blog and then sign up to create a blog. You can create a blog yourself by selecting available themes and tools, or you can take web design tips and ideas from the experts.Hiring an expert for developing a blog:There are multiple web design agencies, serving people to meet their demands of blogs and websites. If you want to make your blog an appealing platform for readers, take the support of a good web designing service. It will offer you a fully featured blog with easy content management tools and features. Thus, you can write and post blogs quickly and hope to get better ranking in organic search. Your blog can gain better only if it has a good ranking in organic search. For this, you need the support of a web designing service.Promoting the blog:Nowadays hundreds of bloggers are sharing their thoughts online. Many of them write on same things in different ways. A well-promoted blog gets the larger number of readers in comparison to simple blogs. You should check some SEO tips and online promotion ideas if you want to make your blog the main source of your earnings. There are websites, which provide latest techniques to promote a website or blog online. Get in touch with those websites and try your best to promote your blog.Blogging brings many new things to the life with a good chance of making good money. Writing can become your hobby and a way of sharing your thoughts with others. Starting a blog is quite easy, but it takes an expert’s mind to promote it and draw the attention of readers. Online promotion can help you, but you should be active on social networking platform to gain more readers. Thus, you will get readers for your blog, and then you can sort out many issues of their life through your blogs. People love reading and blogs are free to visit and read. You can make it a source of expressing what you think and that will be valuable for your readers.

Entertaining Out of Town Guests With Dinner & Entertainment Restaurants

When you have guests coming to Los Angeles to visit, you can have a wonderful evening that offers both dinner & entertainment in the same location. There are many different sorts of entertainment to choose from with these fabulous fine dining restaurants.A murder mystery evening is a fun way to entertain your out of town guests. Some of the restaurants offer dinner and some great live entertainment where you become the suspect in an exciting murder mystery. These dinners are a wonderful time for those who enjoy trying to decipher clues and figure out who the killer really is in a homicide investigation. These restaurants will also offer weekend packages for a fun filled weekend of mayhem and murder.A Jazz bar and grill is another great choice for some dinner & entertainment while you are enjoying the city. There are some fabulous restaurants that feature fine gourmet foods with some cool jazz playing in the background. There are a number of restaurants in the Los Angeles area that feature music while dining and this is a wonderful way to introduce your guests to the city.You don’t have to love jazz to hear some great music while enjoying some dinner & entertainment in Los Angeles. There is a wide variety of musical styles and types to suit any taste in music. Many of the restaurants will feature entertainment that is a part of the culture that influences the cuisine in the restaurant.Check with the restaurants early to make sure that you can get a reservation at your chosen dinner & entertainment restaurant. It may be difficult to get in to some of these restaurants if a special event or performance is scheduled. Most restaurants will provide a calendar on their website where you can get information on upcoming events to plan your night on the town with your out of town guests.There are also a number of restaurants that are in close proximity to entertainment venues. You can plan an evening of fine dining and entertainment by visiting any of these outstanding restaurants.
Los Angeles is home to some of the most unusual and luxurious restaurants in the world. The best chefs in the world practice their art in the city of Los Angeles and those looking for a unique dining experience are sure to find it in this entertainment packed city. The talents of many world famous chefs are available to you in this spectacular part of the country.The variety of cuisine in Los Angeles is amazing. Italian from the various regions of Italy, Japanese, Mediterranean, Latin, Indian and French are only a few of the different types of cuisine you will have at your fingertips in this city. When planning your evening of dinner & entertainment, enjoy the talent of the chef and the entertainment on the stage in the many fine establishments in the Los Angeles area. These restaurants are best equipped to give your out of town guests a night that they will never forget.

Lessons From a Tide Brand Manager – Brand Building

Procter & Gamble has had the reputation as the premier brand builder over the years. Their methods have been copied by many companies, not only in consumer packaged goods, but across a wide variety of industries. The company has a full dedication to providing its consumers with brands and not just products. What does that mean? It means that they are committed to establishing their products and their performance as promising something specific to consumers and then delivering on that promise. Consumers get a product that not only works and works better than most, but also the confidence that the product will do exactly what is claimed.There are a number of significant lessons that have been learned over the course of a 23 year career at Procter & Gamble like I had. This is part of a series of articles which will share some of those lessons.Here are some thoughts about brand building:A great brand can be in any industry.
As I said above, it isn’t just consumer packaged goods brands like Tide, Olay, Pampers and Crest that have recognized the value of brand building instead of product selling. Some categories may lend themselves to branding better than others, but almost any product offers an opportunity to create a frame of mind that’s unique. Nike, for example, is leveraging the emotional connection that people have with sports and fitness. In the technology industry, most people do not know what Intel processors do or why they are superior to their competition. All they know is that they want to own a computer with “Intel inside.” And are willing to pay more for it.A great brand understands what and who it is.
To build a great brand you have to understand who you are. Go to consumers and find out what they like or dislike about the brand and what they associate as the very core of the brand concept. That gets you started. To keep a brand alive over the long haul, to keep it vital, you’ve got to do something new and reenergize it. It has to be related to the brand’s core position. Many mistakes are made by trying to make the brand something that it is not and more importantly, what customers do not believe it is.A great brand is relevant.
Knowing oneself leads to establishing relevance. It meets what people want and performs the way people expect. The delivery of the message may change to stay current but the basic promise stays unchanged and relevant. Consumers are looking for something that has lasting value. There’s a quest for quality, not quantity.A great brand changes the game for the entire category.
Procter & Gamble brands have dramatically changed their categories – Tide in fabric care, Crest in dental care, Olay in beauty care, Pampers in baby care. Other brands like Disney, Apple, Nike, and Starbucks have made it an explicit goal to be the protagonists for each of their entire categories. Disney is the protagonist for fun family entertainment and family values. Apple wasn’t just a protagonist for the computer revolution but a protagonist for the individual becoming more productive, informed, and contemporary. They have changed information flow with the IPhone and IPad. A great brand raises the bar — it adds a greater sense of purpose to the experience.A great brand capitalizes on emotions.
The common ground among companies that have built great brands is not just performance. Emotions drive most, if not all, of our decisions. Not many people discuss the benefits of the high performance Mercedes engines. But they do picture themselves sitting behind the wheel of this luxury automobile. A brand reaches out with that kind of powerful connecting experience. It’s an emotional connection point that transcends the product. And transcending the product is the brand.A great brand has design consistency.
Fashion brands may be the most obvious example. Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, for example. have a consistent look and feel and a high level of design integrity. They refuse to follow any fashion trend that doesn’t fit their vision. They’re able to pull it off from one season to the next. Strong brands like Levi’s, Gap, Disney and Procter & Gamble consumer brands have a design that supports the brand image in the minds of the customer.A great brand operates for the long term.
Many of Procter & Gamble brands are close to a century old and in the case of Ivory soap, one hundred and fifty years old. These brands are based on solid value propositions. Conversely, in the past two decades, many companies stopped building strong brands. As a result, there were a lot of products with very little differentiation. All the consumers saw was who had the lowest price. Many of these products are off the shelves and many companies are out of business.There is a key lesson from Procter & Gamble who have a stable of billion, yes billion dollar world wide brands. In an age of accelerating product proliferation, enormous customer choice, and growing clutter and clamor in the marketplace, a great brand is a necessity, not a luxury. If you take a long-term approach, a great brand can travel worldwide, transcend cultural barriers, speak to multiple consumer segments simultaneously, create economies of scale, and earn higher margins over the long term.ThanksJohn

Is Online Education the Right Choice for You?

Online education has gained a lot of popularity in the world in recent years and has been known to provide enhancements to face-to-face learning systems.Online learning programmes can help you find multiple advantages that you cannot get even through on campus learning. A web based education course is sometimes less expensive and much more flexible than an on campus course. It can enable students to get a degree right from their home with the same quality of education you get from traditional on campus colleges.Take a look at a few things to see whether an online education is right for you or not.· A student’s job opportunity increases as they go for higher education. This means better salaries, more job offers from big companies and more opportunities for organizational growth. A student will have to research to see what kind of degree he would like to pursue and whether it is available through online course or not before deciding on online learning programmes.· The quality of a traditional brick and mortar classroom and a virtual classroom is the same. You follow the same course subjects and finish it in the same time length, so don’t believe people who think online learning is a waste of time.· Most students prefer online education because they do not have to travel miles to reach the academic venue; rather you can access the virtual classroom through your computer. The time not spent in travelling can be utilized in learning.· Before selecting an online college from a myriad of virtual platforms on the internet, check the credibility and experience of your online institute. Enroll in those online education programmes that are accredited and can increase your resume’s value.· Before making the decision to join a college, make sure that the university meets all of your requirements, be it the budget, location, courses and subjects, and even accreditation. Make sure that the university you sign up in provides the best option for you and can help you get training to advance in your chosen line of career.· Before starting your online classes, take out the time to familiarize yourselves with your university’s learning management system (LMS) and exactly how it works. Also brush up on your basic computer skills like spreadsheets and presentation slide creation. Since you will be spending most of the time on the internet when taking your class, ensure that you have a fast and reliable internet connection.

Obama’s Custom Social Network

The recent years have seen a lot of entrepreneurs moving to online platforms to grow their business. Specifically, by using social media websites to establish a profile and brand for their company online. The importance of using social networking sites has become apparent to business owners, but unfortunately a lot of bad advice is out there on how to grow a custom social network.I’ve spent five years studying and participating in social networking websites, and can tell you that most of the “new” advice out there on social media marketing is wrong! In fact, “experts” are having you chase around things that can have little growth affect on your business. So what’s the key to social media success? To use social networking websites to build and foster a community!One of the most important justifications I’ve ever seen behind this was with Barack Obama’s 2008 political campaign. The election was the first to massively use social networking sites to connect with people. No matter what your political views are, his case is a case worth studying when trying to figure out how to launch your social networking campaign.His campaign leaders recognized the importance of social networking (which later polls would show was one of the key reasons he won) early on in the election. They went out and actually hired one of Facebook’s co-founders, Chris Hughes, to run the online portion of their campaign. Now remember, we are dealing with a people who had millions of advertising dollars at hand, and almost unlimited resources and technology to reach out to people. Hughes, however, knew what Facebook (and all social networking sites) was designed for and launched a different campaign idea.His main focus was to build a strong social community around Obama. He set up the main website for Obama as its own custom social network, allowing people to register and design profiles based around the candidate, and to invite their friends to participate. Hughes knew the importance of viral marketing, and the importance of giving people the controlled power to promote their thoughts and ideas (centered on the candidate’s ideas). Hughes made sure that all of Obama’s Facebook, Twitter, pod casts, and other social media forums reflected the same goal, to build an online community for the offline election.Now, Hughes did use paid advertising on Facebook, but only after the initial community had been set up. The secret to Barack Obama’s online success was through building an online community around his ideas and campaigns. Hughes knew that social networking websites were designed for people to interact in online communities, and structured Obama’s presence accordingly. When you build a community around your business, you’re giving people the power to do all the work for you, like in Obama’s case.As Obama’s campaign ended, Chris Hughes came forward with the numbers he generated for the campaign. The users on his website had created more than 2 million profiles, partook in the planning of over 200,000 offline events, formed 35,000 separate groups, posted nearly 400,000 blogs, and raised $30 million on 70,000 personal fund raising pages.Instead of trying to sell to the community that is already online looking for your product or service, you need to become a part of that community, as the expert (or a expert) in your niche. Once you have established a community around your business, you will be able to grow (and sell) your business in ways that people only imagined before.-Jerry Nihen

Commentary: Current Education Tramples the Mind

INTRODUCTION:Not a day goes by there is not an article in our local paper on our local Public School System. If it is not a cry for more money, it is complaints over poor attendance, or that many local teachers are not fully qualified. While some schools are being “demoted,” others are being “promoted.” First, one thing and then another. Obviously, there is something amiss in our current approach to educating our children.Other articles in the local newspaper carry reports of the increased interests and energies being expended by the “little” people to end the imminent threat of our own government by the increasing invasion of our private rights in the name of protecting the people from inside terrorism. People are grouping at the grass roots level to petition their respective government representative, the President and members of Congress, to end these daily threats to our lives. They are sick to the bone of living in daily fear of imminently undermining the guarantees of our Constitution. We need to adhere to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s, Four Freedoms: Speech, Worship, Want and Fear.With all of this bombarding our brains, consider “holistically” the relationship of education to the many efforts of a given society to prepare its young for adult responsibilities; responsibilities of learning to control our own individual natures as well as contributing to the future of human evolution. Apparently, nearly all the fuss over our imminent demise is being conducted by adults in whom we’ve given our trust to govern and lead us. Obviously, something is wrong with this world’s political and educational systems.DISCUSSION:Some minor research will tell us that the word, “education,” derives from the joining of the Latin, “e”, meaning “out,” with the Latin word, “‘duco,” meaning to “lead” or “take out from.” Simply, it means to draw out of the pupil the inherent wisdom that lies within him or her. This word, education, has many implications given a little thought. One such implication is that the newborn brings into this world from previous incarnations a past history of acquired experiences and knowledge of the true value of things. The trouble is most educators and parental caregivers are ignorant of this fact. The newborn is flooded by the events of its immediate environment from the very moment of birth and forwards; as it grows it forgets to remember what it already knows! More people the world over believe in reincarnation than those who do not; mostly those seeped in the Judeo-Christian ideals.When formal education begins, the pupil is bombarded with facts and figures that are supposed to be memorized. And all these things being taught to the pupil are things to be grasped by the senses and are restricted to an empirically material and concrete world of so-called knowledge, whereas it is the world of Meaning that needs stressing.The current methods of education markedly contrast with a true “educational process,” as these words were originally intended. The existent model is more of a “putting into” than one of self-discovery. The students are being inculcated (from inculcare= to stamp into, or tread upon) with a body of pre-determined and quite mundane information of questionable validity, especially for the bringing into existence of a new “world order,” which the new Aquarian Age promises us. Such a new world order needs to be one based upon the ideals of world peace and the consistent application of goodwill, altruism and true brotherhood by each individual to every other individual upon this earth.The educational process must begin with an honorable and purposeful goal. It must go beyond the mere imparting of facts to be remembered to one of searching inwardly for the true meaning and causes behind the facts, which eventually should lead one to look within the self for such meaning. One anonymous educator has expressed it thusly: “Education can be an adventurous quest for the meaning of life, involving an ability to think things through.” (Emphasis added).The goal of education should be to promote the full self-realization and potential of every student; to encourage the goal of the person’s ultimate relationship with the universe, as stressed by Abe Maslow; that noted psychologist who died before his time. Self-centeredness must be transcended so the person develops a realization of his position relative to the whole of existence. To properly teach is to draw out of every student the potential wisdom which he or she inherently possesses. Teachers, conditioned by their own inculcated experiences need to be helped (but by whom?) to realize and accept the fact that the child, every child, has a body of universal wisdom at the core of its being, as they themselves do, waiting to “inform” the student who can be helped to make contact with this accumulated body of eternal truths which will vary with each student.EAST AND WEST NEED UNITING:The need in today’s world is to combine the ancient wisdom and spiritual concepts of the East with the intellectual know-how of the West. These two in combination will eventually bring to humanity the needed spiritual love-wisdom for the solving of all human problems.THE NEED FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL REHABILILTATION:Psychological rehabilitation essentially means bringing the individual personality into line with the evolutionary pattern of the Soul; the “God Within.”Every nation as well as each individual has its own Soul or individual psyche which demonstrates as its character or culture. Historical facts and the past conditions of every individual and nation have determined its current relationships; there is a consistent nationalism or selfishness when what is needed is for education to teach the student the need to take self-responsibility, and to grasp the need for a selfless international participation. Every student needs to give serious consideration to his or her “place in the universe.” Every individual and every nation needs to solve its own personality problems, which are mostly self-generated. And behind all human endeavors are a psychological motive and goal. Anyone who can “think truth,” can help to shape public opinion. Educators should be in the vanguard of such “truth thinking.”In the historical East, education was limited to a few outstanding individuals who showed their potential for a deeper understanding of the purpose of all existence while the masses were ignored. This was also true in the West up until rather recently in our history when education was legally required for the masses. Since that time the goal has been to bring every student to a defined standard by which the educational process would supposedly be “fair to all.” Every individual is different, and wise teachers should be sensitive, understanding and attuned to the wide differences of each child under their tutelage. Remember, teachers and caregivers of every description cannot teach their “charges,” what they themselves do not know.In the future when the psychology of the western world catches up to the Esoteric Psychology of the historical East, the universal Law of Birth and Rebirth will be accepted. Such a needed psychology has been in the public domain for over seventy-five years. (See, Esoteric Psychology, Volumes I and II, Alice A. Bailey, Lucis Press, Publishing House of World Good Will Organization, N.Y., London and Geneva, 1937 and 1941.) In these volumes the human Soul and the chakras and the “etheric envelope” through which we distribute our individual energies are discussed in detail; none of which western psychology or education has yet discovered, although there is a dire an desperate need to do so. How can psychology or education teach a human entity when it does not understand the true nature of the “Constitution of Man.” (See, A Textbook of Theosophy, Ch. V, International Theosophical Publishing House, Madras,(now Chennai), Adyar, India, 1927.)In the East reincarnation, which along with karma, the Law of Retribution, or the Law of Cause and Effect, has been readily accepted and applied to each individual student. “What so ever ye sow, so shall you reap,” Saint Paul tells us. We are each on our own previously earned position on the evolutionary arc (back to the House of the Father), and we each have a Soul Age, which must be discovered and accepted by the wise educator. Our soul age determines our readiness for exposure to the world of meaning; the world of Causes behind the world of Effects. Not only should “advanced” students be given special consideration and culturing, the masses should also be exposed to the spiritual idea that our materialistic world is one of Effects; a mere reflection of a higher world of Truth, Beauty and Reality. Religion is not an issue to be considered here. (See, Education In Light of Theosophy, by Annie Besant, Ibid, 1912.)EVOLUTION IS A CONTINUOUS EXPANSION OF CONSCIOUSNESS:The only difference between an earlier world savage and a Savior, like our Christ, is one of an expansion of consciousness. Like the f-stop on a camera the more open the slit the more light comes in. From the Instinct of the savage, we are now at the more advanced human stage of the Intellect. The next expansion of consciousness leads us to Intuition, or Pure Reasoning and Direct Knowledge, which should be the goal of all modern education. All symbolic, indirect knowledge is merely the interpretations of so-called authority figures, and that based upon their own prior educations. (See, From Intellect To Intuition, Alice A. Bailey, Lucis Publishing Company, World Goodwill, N.Y. 1932.)Intuition develops when our consciousness is not hindered or limited by facts of questionable importance, or restricted by a world of sensory empiricism. Truth can never be discovered by a mind imprisoned in a world of Materialism. The pupil must be left free to expand his or her consciousness without interference from anything or anyone outside the inner self of the pupil. There is in truth a Real world behind this limited world we refer to as the materialistic and physical world. It is the goal of every human entity to discover that inner world for him or herself since Truth cannot be communicated; only Self-discovered. The true purpose of education should be to support that effort.CHILDREN GROW FROM WITHIN OUTWARD:Let us take an example from the vegetable kingdom. A plant grows from a seed; it grows from within outwardly when exposed to the proper environment. Every child grows and develops internally, from within outwardly just as a plant does. That is, if given the proper environmental “nutrients.” Education is one of the major “nutrients” for that growth, or at least should be. Correct understanding of the child, a loving attitude and an encouraging environment by the parents are yet other major “nutrients” for the proper blooming of the inner child seed. What incarnates from one life to another is an “Egoic Seed” which needs encouragement and a nutritional environment to flourish and bloom.It goes without saying that correct education proceeds by way of the human mind; an expansion of consciousness. But it is not the relative contents of the educational materials as absorbed by the mind, no matter how stimulating, which should concern educators. It is rather the very process of thinking itself that requires their rapt attention. (See, The Use and Power of Thought, by C.W. Leadbeater, TS, Ibid, 1911.)It needs to be remembered that to inculcate is to trample on the minds of the young with information of relative value, thus keeping buried the very essential truths of life so needed for the living of a peaceful and harmonious existence with one’s fellow beings. There is a real issue here which educators should consider: from whence comes the most reliable and trustworthy knowledge needed to guide humanity toward its ultimate realization? Remember, teachers cannot teach something they do not know themselves. It should also be remembered that it was the East and not the West which has given to humanity all of its outstanding Avatars for Humanity: the Buddha, Zoroaster, Sri Krishna, the Christ, and others. These earlier Eastern founders of our world religions, the Teachers of our human race and their spiritual concepts, reincarnation and karma among others, have remained with humanity for thousands of years whereas the teachings of the West are forever changing and are restricting, limiting, unstable and temporary. Real Truth is immutable, permanent and everlasting. Western concepts limited to a materialistic world are ephemeral, transitory, mutable and restricted to a world conceived of by our empirical senses. Modern western society generally speaking has no idea of the Truth of Life, or the spiritual meaning behind human existence. How many have honestly tried to turn inward and discover their true Being; their spiritual origins? The inner discovery of eternal Truths, Spiritual Truths, should be the ideal of all educators; not only for themselves but for every pupil. The first step to discovering Truth begins with these questions: Who am I, and what is the meaning of Life?The most appealing answer discovered comes from the injunction of theDelphi Oracle: Man, Know Thyself! (Greek=Gnothe Seauton). This implies, of course, an inwardly directed search for a guiding wisdom; one arising from a source deep within the creative wellspring of the individual seeker.CONCLUSION:In conclusion, altruism, universal Brotherhood, peace and goodwill toward others, are internal spiritual ideas stemming from the inherent wisdom amassed through the countless trials and tribulations undergone by the whole of humanity throughout the eons of time. Each individual, searching deep within the self, striving diligently and persistently to truly know thyself will come to discover the same unerring truth. We are all parts of a larger spiritual Whole. There is only one humanity, one Life, one Universal Mind consciousness. We are inseparable and the ideal of separateness held by the western world is perhaps the greatest illusion humanity has imposed upon itself. This one idea has led to more “Inhumanity to man,” continual warfare, and more human misery than any of the many other false ideals humanity as a whole entertains.To behave cruelly toward any portion of the whole is to injure oneself. Our choice regarding peace is quite simple. We survive as one humanity or we destroy the whole. Now, the question is, Why does it take most would-be authority figures so long to discover this fact? Could it perhaps have something to do with the way they were educated- by INCULCATION?The End

S&P 500 Rallies As U.S. Dollar Pulls Back Towards Weekly Lows

Key Insights
The strong pullback in the U.S. dollar provided significant support to stocks.
Treasury yields have pulled back after touching new highs, which served as an additional positive catalyst for S&P 500.
A move above 3730 will push S&P 500 towards the resistance level at 3760.
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Pfizer Rallies After Announcing A Huge Price Hike For Its COVID-19 Vaccines
S&P 500 is currently trying to settle above 3730 as traders’ appetite for risk is growing. The U.S. dollar has recently gained strong downside momentum as the BoJ intervened to stop the rally in USD/JPY. Weaker U.S. dollar is bullish for stocks as it increases profits of multinational companies and makes U.S. equities cheaper for foreign investors.

The leading oil services company Schlumberger is up by 9% after beating analyst estimates on both earnings and revenue. Schlumberger’s peers Baker Hughes and Halliburton have also enjoyed strong support today.

Vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna gained strong upside momentum after Pfizer announced that it will raise the price of its coronavirus vaccine to $110 – $130 per shot.

Biggest losers today include Verizon and Twitter. Verizon is down by 5% despite beating analyst estimates on both earnings and revenue. Subscriber numbers missed estimates, and traders pushed the stock to multi-year lows.

Twitter stock moved towards the $50 level as the U.S. may conduct a security review of Musk’s purchase of the company.

From a big picture point of view, today’s rebound is broad, and most market segments are moving higher. Treasury yields have started to move lower after testing new highs, providing additional support to S&P 500. It looks that some traders are ready to bet that Fed will be less hawkish than previously expected.

S&P 500 Tests Resistance At 3730

S&P 500 has recently managed to get above the 20 EMA and is trying to settle above the resistance at 3730. RSI is in the moderate territory, and there is plenty of room to gain additional upside momentum in case the right catalysts emerge.

If S&P 500 manages to settle above 3730, it will head towards the next resistance level at 3760. A successful test of this level will push S&P 500 towards the next resistance at October highs at 3805. The 50 EMA is located in the nearby, so S&P 500 will likely face strong resistance above the 3800 level.

On the support side, the previous resistance at 3700 will likely serve as the first support level for S&P 500. In case S&P 500 declines below this level, it will move towards the next support level at 3675. A move below 3675 will push S&P 500 towards the support at 3640.