Meet the Info Crowd

Developing a home-based business requires a mixture of hard work and motivation. Research of business ethics and practices is also a necessity as you devise a viable strategy. When creating a service or item, there are several things that must be taken into consideration. Potential consumers, competition and promotion are just a small number
of the various factors that must be studied when writing a business plan.

Research Your Potential Market

One of the most significant elements in any business is the consumer. You must discover what areas of the population will be interested in your home-based business, and where
you can find them. Produce a list of possible consumers that need your product or service. This listing could include individuals, groups, or even other businesses. A brainstorm with friends, family, and associates will assist in locating all potential consumers. Market research is of great importance in contriving a business design. Through this extensive research, the overall composition of your market will be established. Your potential customers will also be identified, and you will discover their desires and buying habits. A local or college library is the ideal place to collect statistics for market research.

Research Your Competition

When composing your business scheme, you must factor in the competition to analyze how you will adapt into the local marketplace. It is wise to create a unique home-based
business, a service or product that is much needed and wanted in the community. This will relieve the pressure of fierce competition, and give your business the edge. However, if you do decide to market a trade equipped with bold competitors, be prepared to research your commerce contenders. Think about pricing; will your product be more or less expensive than the competition? Is your service trustworthy, more reliable than others in town? There are several other factors that must be pondered when the subject
of competition arises. Safe, suitable location and desirable business hours to name a few. The more information you can gather about your competitors, the easier it will be to
formulate your marketing plan.

Promote, Promote, Promote

Proper promotion of your home-based business is crucial for goal achievement. Create an extended plan that establishes your company’s overall image, while communicating with potential customers. Make sure your business image is posted everywhere; this includes the company logo, business cards, stationary, e-mails, signs, brochures, and paid ads. Verbal or word-of-mouth advertising has currently has alway been a popular form of marketing. The online version of word-of -mouth is positive testimonials about your business from satisfied customers. Happy customers are the best form of
advertising and promotion any company can have.

Creating a profitable home-based business does not come easy. However, with determination, planning and sustained effort, you will be on your way to financial freedom
sooner than you think. Get started today.

About the author:

Dr. J. E. Burke, an educator and entrepreneur, has been involved in various business enterprises via his business, Burke Publications for 11 years. Dr. Burke is an educator, writer and motivational speaker on a variety of topics. He is also known for his expertise on nonprofit organizations and grant proposal writing. Dr. Burke can be contacted at http://burkepublications.comor http://news.burkepublications.com

It is undeniable that Cambodia is changing. When I arrived in Cambodia in 1995, one in three Cambodians I met carried a weapon. Arms were for many the only way to ensure security. Yet, in the decennium I live in Cambodia, I have never seen one used against me or anybody, except for one: a policeman shot some game in the forest but didn’t catch it.

I’ve collected weapons. 5 years ago, I travelled to Dey Krohom village in Kratie province along roads which the year after were de-mined because the road was part of what once was the National road from Phnom Penh to Kratie and Stoeung Treng and is was going to be rebuilt into what Cambodians cal a “speedway”. I’ve seen the mines when a year later, I travelled the same road again to inspect my development projects.

Each one might have killed me. Do you know that mines tend to float under the soil and move where no-one expects any mines.

>From 2000 to 2004, I worked for the EU ASAC, an EU weapons management programme for establishing weapons security to the country. My job was to help collect weapons from the civilian population which was only a small part of a much more encompassing programme. My job also included implementing police support regarding to security as a complement to the weapons collection.

The programme was implemented on the request and with the full support of the Cambodian government. Next week, the government will destroy some 8,000 weapons and thus bring the total of destroyed weapons since the start of the EU peace plan to more than 175,000 weapons.

These weapons include not only weapons from the civilian population, but also military surpluses. Some argue that it is the oldest weapons that were destroyed, but all of the weapons in the destruction were usable. Being usable - if only for spare parts -, they could be sold on the black market and used in other conflicts in the region.

By destroying those weapons, the Cambodian people acts as true Buddhists, choosing for Peace in the Region. “Put down your weapon, take up the Dharma” edified the Buddhist Teachers. And that is what Cambodians are doing.

The EU has been the initiator of the multi-facetted peace programme. Two Japanese organisations are fulfilling the promises of European initiators: if you make peace development will come. Cambodian people have turned their weapons. JSAC and JCCP, two Japanese organisation now offer development projects to the villages, communes and districts that have surrendered all their weapons and are proven weapons-free. Clean water wells are in some places the highest priorities, elsewhere schools or school toilets were built.

The principle of the weapons collection project was not to pay for the weapons, but to offer community-owned projects instead. Every weapon that was collected from the civilian population had to be destroyed and was.

The military surplus weapons are those that are left over from the EU ASAC Weapons Registration and Safe Storage project. Here safe storage buildings for weapons and computerised registration system have been provided to the Cambodian Army and Gendarmerie.

The weapons are destroyed in public ceremonies in the presence of the population. These ceremonies are called “Flames of Peace.” EU, Cambodian or Japanese experts count the weapons as part of the process and check that no more ammunition remains in the weapon that could turn the celebration into a tragedy.

The EU assistance programme has also supported the National Committee for weapons management, the draft of a new arms law and oversees the implementation of that law.

Next week, two of those bonfires take place in Cambodia. On Monday 26 September, 3,430 weapons will be burned ceremoniously in Siem Reap province with Japanese support and on Tuesday about 4,500 in Sihanoukville with European support.

The Japanese destruction ceremony will take place in Angkor Chum district, there where the people have turned them in. The ceremony in Sihanoukville will take place on Ochheuteal Beach and is open to any visitor. If you happen to be in Sihanoukville, this is a unique occasion to witness the Cambodian contribution to peace building.

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Calling the tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg. — Abraham Lincoln

Whew! I almost wrote a really long article about the Social Security System and what it means to Black folks.

Fortunately, I fell asleep while writing it just like you would have reading it. I can’t think of anything more boring then an in depth analysis of what is wrong with Social Security.

I think that one thing the under 40, Black American, internet savvy crowd already knows is that the Social Security system is in trouble and that it won’t be there for us when we retire the same way it is for our parents and grandparents. Something has to give.

One thing is definitely true, the Social Security system won’t exist in the same form and with the same level of promise that it has now.

So, with all the boring stuff out of the way, I want to say a few things about private accounts and what I think they mean for African Americans. I’ll start with the bottom line up front. I think that Social Security private accounts are a good deal for African Americans but with some very serious reservations.

First of all, a private account is the government’s attempt to add an ownership component to the system. However, in this case, your ownership rights will be severely restricted.

I can invest MY money in stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, businesses, mutual funds and any other investment vehicles I so choose. The private accounts system will likely offer a limited range of choices in nothing but paper assets like stocks, bonds and money market accounts that are managed by large Wall Street brokerages and mutual funds - the so-called experts.

Ownership with restrictions is merely the illusion of ownership. Very few things you own will have as many complex rules, restrictions and legal entanglements as private account will have attached to it.

Second, the government is forcing every American to become an investor without committing the resources to raise the level of basic financial literacy in this country. Alan Greenspan has said that basic financial literacy should be taught in our public schools.

The government did this very thing before when they created the 401K retirement system. That system has been a boon to Wall Street, Corporate America and many fellow Americans. However, the pain felt when the 401K gets hurt is not shared as freely as the benefits. Ask employees at Sun Microsystems, Enron, Martha Stewart Omni Media and other companies that have gone belly up or otherwise taken a brutal pounding in the stock market because of mismanagement and corruption.

Who will get hurt when Social Security private accounts take a beating? Will the average citizen be the last to know, as is already the case, when their private accounts hit rock bottom? Without a major, national effort to boost the financial literacy in this country, how will people react to negative news about private accounts? Will the government restrict our ability to react to negative news?

Third, what will the government do should you out-live your private account? Because the account only offers limited ownership not real ownership, I expect that we won’t be able to bet their private account at the casino on the day they retire. I do expect the withdrawals from our private accounts to be amortized over a period of time based on something like the average life expectancy. What happens if you are the lucky somebody that lives a long, healthy life to 120 years old? If your account goes broke, what will the government do for you? If you enroll in private accounts, you agree to a cut in your benefits. Will you suffer if your private account suffers?

Fourth, the new promises are just as shady as the old ones. Private accounts will salvage the system for some time but ultimately will become plagued by their own, new and different challenges that will need to be fixed by a future generation.

No one in either political party wants the truth to get out about Social Security. Socialism is a miserable failure. Taxes will ultimately have to be increased on us no what fix we decide today for the system. When and by how much are the only questions that need to be answered. Cuts and elimination of some benefits are inevitable. Retirement will become anathema in the future.

In the past 10,000 or so years of human history, retirement didn’t exist in any way, shape or form as it does today. People either got too sick to work or died. We’ve tried to change history with our current system but we can’t change humans.

If you send someone a check and tell them they don’t have to work anymore, they won’t work. There are able-bodied and able-minded senior citizens that are not working because the governments sends them a check every month regardless. The truth is, a system set up like this will collapse one day on its own because its not the way of humanity.

I think its good that my generation believes more in UFOs then in Social Security being there for us when we retire. maybe that belief will be the motivation we need to save outside of Social Security to secure our own retirement.

So, with all of these reservations, you may wonder why I think that Social Security private accounts are a good for Black Americans. The answer to that is simple math.

Simple Math Reason Number One: Black males live to an average age of 66 years old. The average Black male now collects one year of full Social Security retirement benefits. The age of full retirement for the under 40 crowd is now set at 67. Watch for proposals to raise that age even more. The average Black female has a live span of 72 years meaning that she collects 5 years of benefits. The average White male and White female have life spans of 76 and 78 years, respectively.

Personally, I would rather pass my life time of Social Security tax dollars on to my children and grandchildren then to a little, old white lady I’ve never known in my life like we do now under the current system. You may not like this truth but that is who is getting your benefits now.

Simple Math Reason Number Two: It is not hard at all for the to earn more then the 2% return on investment that Social Security provides now. A money market mutual fund is paying anywhere from 3% - 5% interest at this time. You could easily and safely earn double what Social Security offers.

Simple Math Reason Number Three: The average Black American has a net worth less then $5,000 and that is only one-tenth of the average White American. Social Security private accounts, because they are form of forced savings, will add to the net worth of Black Americans. All other Americans will see their personal wealth build also so I don’t expect that private accounts will close the racial wealth gap. I do believe that private accounts will inject much needed wealth into the accounts of African Americans and we need the boost most of all.

Also, because we don’t live as long beyond the retirement age (which I hope will one day change), more of the wealth in our private accounts will get passed to our children, helping them to build wealth. So, a legacy of wealth will begin to grow from the seeds of investment into private accounts.

Simple Math Reason Number Four: This relates to what I said about bucking human history by creating this artificially constructed, man-made system of retirement and actually believing that it will sustain us unchanged in perpetuity. The system is breaking down. We need to start taking complete ownership - and control - for our retirement security.

Partial privatization is a step in the right direction. Even if the step is one small incremental one, we must begin somewhere.
I don’t think the destitute and disabled should be left out in the cold without our help and support. I do believe that the truth needs to be told and that no one is telling it today.

So, here is what I have to say: make a plan to provide for your own financial independence, invest heavily into your own financial education, invest your money wisely, prepare for the absolute worst and hope for the absolute best.

God Bless

Bret Searles wrote the book titled “The 7 Simple Secrets to Wealth Building: An African American’s Guide to Wealth Building in the 21 st Century and Beyond” and publishes the ezine Black Wealth Now at http://www.blackwealthnow.com

President George W. Bush has unofficially won his re-election bid defeating Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry. The election was close, no doubt, but it was by no means a re-run of the 2000 election drama. Because this time, Bush bagged a convincing victory by winning both Electoral College and Popular votes.

The election which was heralded to be the most important in America’s recent history ended up being an “as-usual-election”, where Democrats and Republicans relied heavily on respective party’s supporter-base for victory. This means, even though the election was thought to be an election where people will vote outside party lines based on issues like war on Iraq and the economy, at the end of the day people voted avidly in line with party affiliations.

Liberals, atheists, pro Choice groups, environmentalists, blacks, gay-lesbians, voted over-whelmingly for Democrats whereas Religious, Church going populations of the Central, Southern and Northern America voted overwhelmingly for the Republicans.

Although it was thought that the Iraq war and the state of the Economy and to certain extent terrorism will decide the outcome of the election, none of these issues seem to have any major impact. For example, exit polls showed that among the New Jersey voters, who lost most lives in the 9/11 attacks, 86% believed that another terrorist attack is coming but they still voted for Senator John Kerry. John Kerry had a landslide victory in New Jersey. This proves, terrorism did not actually prove to be a election winner for George W. Bush.

What actually impacted the most is moral issues, ethics and religion.

In America, “religiousness” has its own political dimension. Certain not-so-obvious issues having potentials to damage religion are considered as contentious religious issues that can win or lose votes in America.

At the forefront of these so called religious issues are Gay-Lesbian marriage, Pro Choice abortions and stem cell research.

Americans saw a spree of gay marriages in San Francisco and Massachusetts in the early part of the year 2004, and President George Bush was first to call for a constitutional ban on Gay-Lesbian marriages by defining marriage to be a sacred institution only to be nurtured by men and women.

Then there was the lingering issue of abortions, which is now a few decades old, without any visible indication of a settlement. President George Bush has always had assuring words for people who oppose abortions.

The issue of Stem-cell research, although not understood scientifically by average Americans, is very much understood politically by every Dick and Larry, thanks to the sermons from the Churches.

Senator John Kerry, a devout left leaning liberal in American politics, failed to redress the worry of Religious Americans about his stance on these highly contentious so called “moral issues”.

He wavered and equivocated on numerous occasions regarding his stance on Gay Marriage and Abortions.

During his election debates, he repeatedly said he “personally” believes marriage is between a man and a woman, but then he assured gay-lesbian groups by stating that he is not going to impose his personal religious beliefs over somebody else. Now it appears, such politically correct and appeasing words aimed at soothing both gays and straights did not actually win votes among religious Americans.

The religious Americans perhaps took John Kerry’s apparently politically correct words as direct indications for his support towards anti religious agendas such as Gay-lesbian marriage.

Same is true for the issue of abortion. John Kerry failed to replicate Bill Clinton’s successful mode of addressing this issue.

Bill Clinton used to say that he will make abortion “rare, restrictive but available for those who has no choice but to go for it”.

John Kerry took a more liberal stance in the debates over abortion by more or less admitting that he is pro-choice, and pro-abortions.

Regarding stem cell research, however, Kerry took the most daring and clear stance. He openly claimed that if elected president he will open up funding and legal avenues for stem-cell research. He did not stop there; he kept special seating arrangements for Michael J. Fox besides his wife in one of the presidential debates. Mr. Fox is a known advocate for the cause of stem cell research.

Kerry perhaps thought that at this very modern age, Americans must have become more liberal and accepting when it comes to scientific knowledge. May be he was right. Perhaps the 252 Electoral College votes that he got would have been much less had he not played to his liberal base.

But the fact of the moment is that in America there are more religious Christians than there are so called open minded, progressive liberals.

The Electoral College map will illustrate this fact the best. In the Electoral College map, entire Central America is Red, bearing the symbol of Republican victory, where as the two coasts along with certain North Eastern states are Blue. This means, the central, Southern and Northern American population, who are often called the “Bible Belt”, voted overwhelmingly Republican.

A CNN exit poll further showed that 56% of total voting population of Americans attends Church service at least once a month and among those Church attendees, almost 60% voted for George W. Bush.

Perhaps that was the end for Senator John Kerry’s presidential aspirations.

In sum, this election showed to the Americans and the world that even in the year 2004, American people have appeal for religious issues much more than social, economic or foreign policy issues.

And showing disregard towards the cause of the religious population can be a smart choice for academics or the media, but certainly not for Presidential candidates, not even in America.

About The Author

Shafquat Rabbee is the Bangladesh News Editor of the Bangladesh Journal. www.bangladeshjournal.com

editor@bangladeshjournal.com

When this president’s father was in the Oval Office, he was fond of singing the praises of the “New World Order” that was to arrive. The phrase carried a lot of baggage, especially with conservatives who had long heard the term associated with a one-world government with little room for individual rights. Some believe the first George Bush’s attachment to this term hurt his chances for re-election, and contributed to the movement that brought Ross Perot into the fray and split the conservative vote.

The current president has steered clear of the specific terminology, but only an ostrich with his head in the sand would say that we are not moving headlong toward a reorganization of the world system, and it has become clear that individual rights are at risk. The war in Afghanistan was not only inevitable, but was probably desirable. Iraq was no ones’ friend, and even those of us who questioned the wisdom of invasion had difficulty opposing the end of such an abusive regime. However the trend is disturbing as we now speak casually of invading Syria, Iran, or North Korea. Not only does the war posturing make us globally unpopular (and therefore unable to extol the virtues of free markets), wars also bring with them serious limits on freedom at home. We’ve begun to see some of that.

Laws like the Patriot Act are so comprehensive that most of us are likely violating a half dozen edicts without knowing it. The difference this time is that conservatives are largely supportive of all these actions. Strangely, all the things that Bill Clinton could never have gotten past the Republican Congress are sailing through with little forethought.

Meanwhile, we have lost the attention of nations around the world. We imagined that the menace of communist based philosophies died with the Berlin Wall, but now we are faced with socialists winning elections worldwide. The new look of the “World Order” is not a pretty one, and clearly not one that values freedom. Yet we have no voice in world affairs, where many smaller nations have begun to view America as a bully. The fact that we are “in the right” isn’t important in this area, as one cannot force freedom’s acceptance. It is a tenuous choice that a nation must make for itself. The approach we’ve taken recently has limited our ability to offer our wisdom.

In light of these world changes, it may be wise to consider our investment strategies. It is fair to say that investing overseas may meet with some difficulty, but if trends continue, we may see trouble here as well. Alas, so much of American business success is due to exports, yet we’re faced with protectionist barriers coming up against us in many nations. Some of this is justified, because although other nations tend to have much higher barriers, America has recently begun to impose rather restrictive tariffs as well. The idea of a free-trade zone, such as NAFTA, actually is an enemy to true free trade, because it actually prevents free trade with nations outside the limited trade bloc.

All of this may eventually impact American companies, as they find international trade opportunities severely restricted. The past two decades were a time of relative freedom internationally for travel, trade, and discussion. That may change, and if it does, the impact could be devastating. The last time we restricted world trade to this extent, the period culminated in the great depression. We’re a long way from that today, but without some wise leadership, we may find ourselves facing further difficulties. Thus far, sadly, this administration has shown little strength in economic issues.

Changes in the world make our investment strategies critical to our future. More than ever, a careful plan is vital to our ability to weather the storms that may come in the economy.

To send comments or to learn more about Scott Pearson’s Investment Management Service, visit http://www.valueview.net

Scott Pearson is an investment advisor, writer, editor, instructor, and business leader. As President and Chief Investment Officer of Value View Financial Corp., he offers investment management services to a wide variety of clients. His own newsletter, Investor’s Value View, is distributed worldwide and provides general money tips and investment advice to readers both internationally, and in the U.S.