It’s almost Christmas and the year is coming to an end. A customer asked me today what were my plans for the new year - and I told him I was going to do better with my store. And as for him - he wants to take an Online English degree so that he can go overseas to teach. If I loved traveling and were any younger - I would definitely take that route - it seems that Western English teachers are welcome in the Asian country and to spend a few years going for an upgrade is worth every penny because I have seen many of our customers here travel abroad to teach English as a second language. Isn’t it awesome that we have the internet and we can do just about everything and anything. Well, Happy New Year and a Blessed Christmas to all.
It is that time of the year again - where your local hospital is raising funds to get new Howard Medical cpu cart, computers and other medical optional products they may need. And although I don’t mind donating - I wonder why the hospital still need to raise so much funds because they are already charging a lot for consultation, staying in the hospital etc. If they are really raising funds to buy better equipments for the patients than I have no qualms giving but if they are raising funds for partying - then I’m totally against it. So instead of giving money - I prefer to check with the hospital’s spokesperson and find out what they need and are going to buy with the money. I prefer to donate something useful like those medical carts, then I will gather some of my rich friends and get them to help me with the donations and buy the equipments for them/ for the patients to benefit the patients.
Every year, we get calls from the local high school here - asking if they can place some students at our store - for job placement. Most of these students aspire to do tech work or go into the IT profession - but they can’t make up their mind if they want to be a software programmer or an IT support technician. But they do know that they are very interested in Legacy System Programmer Jobs but not the exact field they want to be yet.
Therefore, the school’s counselors always tries to get them into a computer store or a place where they can work on web designing or repairing computers. And since we do a little bit of web-designing, lots of computer sales and repairs - it’s inevitable to get a few calls for students to be placed in our store for sort of internship during the entire year. The school tries to bait us by telling us that these student comes as free labor and we can use them at whatever time we can and train them a long the way if we can. And truth be told - we’ve done the mentoring part for a long time but not anymore.
Why? because they usually turned out to be not as good nor honest - so it defeats the purpose of trying to teach them or spend time with them. It’s like a school project and the mandatory to do the placement to graduate well. And most of these kids have a very high expectation and with a store so small like ours - there is no way to train another person. So nowadays, we politely refused to babysit anyone - well unless they pay us lots of money. I would rather pick someone who is genuinely interested and pay them than some kid graduating from high school and thinks he is smarter than you.
Many years ago - you don’t see many small businesses like ours having a barcode scanner - but now that they are so affordable - we are looking into getting 2 for our own business. Honeywell Barcode Scanner was recommended by a fellow business friend and he had been using this one for a long time and they are very affordable now. I loved that they are wireless and they have the best warranty amongst other Barcode brand names. Coding initially will be tedious but after which - we don’t have to worry about staff pricing goods wrongly. In the future - it will still save us a lot of money and it’s time to make our retail store look more professional.
Yesterday, Steve Jobs announced to the entire world that he is resigning as CEO of Apple and will continue to be on the Board - if the Board permits and the director for the Apple’s employees. So how did you take the news? to some - not so well - to others it was expected as his health haven’t been the best. Apple’s stock plunge slightly after the announcement but that’s to be expected. So will Apple survived without its CEO?
A cottage by the sea - for just the two of us this summer was what the spouse had asked - and it doesn’t need to be expensive she said. She suggested looking for houses for rent on the internet and we can get away for a few days - and watch the sunrise in the morning and sunset in the evenings. Curled up and watch a good movie - and have some quiet time together. So you see a romantic weekend need not be expensive in Caribbeans - get yourself a few bottle of good wine - and find yourself a romantic cottage - and you are all set to make the spouse a very happy lady.
So I’ve heard that the unveiling of the Wii U had caused Nintendo a 10% drop of their share - now that was a big hit - if I may say. But Nintendo’s CEO Satoru Iwata was adamant that it wasn’t because of the unveiling. So what does the Wii U do? besides not having a DVD and blue-Ray playback? According to what I know - it’s not just a console with a tablet peripheral and it will be available next year I think? And it is supposed to be all types of gamers - but not many people know the full potential of the Wii U as of yet. But I hear that the controller is actually the wow factor of the console - with a 6.2″ screen - which can be used to make calls. But graphics are said to be better for the new Wii U - so we will all wait and see.
I pride myself for being a savvy shopper and I tell my kids I never buy anything unless they are on sale - the spouse also teaches the kids the same way. The other thing I do to save money when shopping or get a better deal is through coupon codes - I’m addicted to them. I shop at walmart very often for all my things from a trampoline to goggles for my children - so when I saw these walmart coupons at dropdowndeals i just had to bookmark this page - it’s awesome!! and every little bit counts I tell you ! Whether it’s for shipping or for 5 - 10% - they are still savings one cannot ignore. Buying smart is the way to go in this economy of ours.
Who doesn’t? but seriously what do one do if you need money like now or yesterday? can’t go to your friends or family - in case they look down on you and think you are a loser and can’t support your girlfriend and kid right? Luckily for us here in the West - there is this payday loans you can go to as long as you have a job. I know what you are going to say - you crazy ? don’t you know about their high interest? of course I do - but if this money can tide me over for now - I will be able to budget better - for emergencies like this. And yes ! it can be done - I’ve done it before and paid off my high interest loan - survived it - and make a turn around - so don’t blame anyone else - except yourself if you go deeper in debt.
Owning a small business is no easy feat - not only do you need to have money for all your products and inventory - you need to have good business acumen. And one of the things I had been meaning do is get an online data backup for the store - now that would definitely be a lot easier for us - in the future. The software isn’t expensive at all - and it would definitely make your small business a lot more efficient and no more worries about losing important information. From backing up your music, photos, documents and spreadsheets - great for home user and better for small business owners.
