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Buzz: Never Be Ashamed When You Promote Your Business

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100 1020As many of you know, I’m a TESOL Teacher working and living in Taiwan. But I don’t work in a regular school, I own what’s generally called a supplementary education language school teaching TESOL to children. I’ve done this for many years, and I love the job. I love the challenge, but would appreciate a holiday… Anyway, today’s story!

On the left you can see one of my favorite classes (but shh! don’t tell them that! they might get ‘big’ ideas! and then I’ll have to double their homework!!)

It was many years ago, when I first hit the streets touting my old boss’s business. She was needing advertising and straightforward word of mouth at that to increase enrolments, so we hit the schools with demos and performances, etc. to increase our visibility. But I remember being vaguely embarrassed doing that kind of work… I don’t know why. I think it was ‘beneath me’ in some way.

Recently, I had the ‘opportunity’ to witness other people handing out flyers, and when I looked at them, it was obvious that they hadn’t done this before! They were stiff, unnatural, perhaps trying to get out of doing, and definitely not enjoying it! It took me straight back to the times I used to feel similarly embarrassed! Looking on from the outside still provided me with little insight!

100 1280Today, however, we went to a local school to hand out flyers! And I had to do the same thing! And it was great! We passed out over 100 flyers in twenty minutes! They were flying out of my hands, and they weren’t THAT attractive if you know what I mean! But the fact that we enjoyed ourselves really helped to soothe our self-concsiousness about this.

Then I realized: I had nothing to be ashamed of, nothing could harm me! And it was all good fun! So go ahead! Tell people about your good works, your fun, and your business! Do in good humor! Don’t apologize for doing it and NEVER, EVER be embarrassed! People need to hear your good news… and there is NO ONE better qualified to tell the story than YOU!

We had a great time last Halloween! As we really did go out and show people who we were… some very scary ghosts! Look at the photograph to see if you can see some of our ‘little devils’!

Or ME, as it was today! So, go out and tell the world the great things you do! And if they don’t want to hear, MOVE right on to the next person! Some will want to read or listen to what you want to tell them! But be polite, be sensitive, push when you can, but stop when you sense you’re getting nowhere (sometimes rather quickly!).

And always, always SMILE! Your positive humor, excitement and warmth will radiate out and people will come to you!

‘Free Money’: What do you do with it?

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It’s tax season in many countries in the world: U.S., UK, and here in Taiwan, too. It’s time to pony up our share of our ill~ (well?!) gotten gains for the previous fiscal year, and that got me started thinking about ‘free money.’What is ‘free money’? Well, in some cases, it’s really free. You win the money in a competition, you inherit some money, you earn a surprise bonus, a stock suddenly bounces, whatever. This money came to you from the Goddess of Fortune. In other cases, ‘free’ money isn’t quite so free, but still it can be a big benefit.

‘Free money’ like that may come from many places, money that you dropped under the sofa, lay hidden in a bank account that was forgotten about, you loaned to a friend that was unexpectedly returned, a tax rebate… the list goes on. The key point to such money is that it is yours, but it was not available to you to spend or invest until you reclaimed it some how.

The temptation when you find such ‘free money’ is to spend it, because you want something in particular, and didn’t have the money for a purchase. In reality, this is a bad choice, because saving or investing ‘free money’ will always produce a bonus of some kind in the form of interest or dividends or capital appreciation. Also, over several years, such little amounts of ‘free money’ can, in fact, add up to quite a large some, larger than you might otherwise expect.

An example: in 1999~2000 our landlord, for various tax reasons (I don’t quite understand) returned our full year’s rent, that was about $8350. Then when we mortgaged and remortgaged our house a few years ago, because the paperwork took a while, we didn’t have to pay a mortgage payment for one month. That saved about $600. About three years ago, a relation returned our $3,500 loan now that they had the means to do so. Adding up all those amounts, we get about $12K. That’s not bad for free money.

Of course, there have been other occasions when we have received such ‘free money’ in smaller amounts, but the money has been spent or invested without us knowing or being able to account where it went.

So, this year, if you get a rebate or inheritance, don’t go out and buy a boat or a 2nd car or remodel yourself or your house. Think intelligently, and if you really want any of those items, work out a way to get the money from your regular budget. Put the ‘free money’ to use in your investments, whether it is tax free or not. It will add up quite quickly, and produce a loot more!

What kind of ‘free money’ did you receive? How did you manage it? Well or badly? Share your story with us!

Going Green: Help to make some green $$$ for a charity!

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Many of us work at home kind of bloggers use Laser printers a great deal! Even though we live in the digital age, we seem to produce even more papers than ever! So those old cartridges tend to lie around my office for ages, before I can figure out what to do with them! It’s not that I’m lazy, just forgetful! I know which stores have a recycling program! But when I go there, I always forget to pack up the old cartridge!

Now I’m guessing with the money available for recycling such items, a lot of volunteer groups could easily generate additional revenue to fund their activities, just by going round to small offices and homes and publicizing a pick-up service! FundingFactory will provide all the promotional materials and shipping. So there’s no real cash outlay at the beginning, but a nice check at the end!

Sponsored Post to promote a greener world!