JohnAnDeva

Retirement Plan

I visited my parents the other day.  They are near their retirement days and I wonder if they are ready for it.  Retirement can be a fun experience and can also be the most difficult time in someone’s life depending on how prepared they are for it.  It is when a person can no longer be part of the labor market or will probably be too weak to become part of it.  I have known some people who are enjoying their retirement years - travel, bonding with family, all the fun activities that one can enjoy because they have the time to do so.  While some are actually at their lowest points - no money for this and that, struggling to get by, or are sick.

I did some research on the types of individual retirement account or IRAs that one person can have to prepare for those years.  Since I was talking about gold earlier, I decided to look deeper into this option as a possibility.  A gold IRA is possible, thanks to the 1997 Tax Payer Relieve Act that allowed the inclusion of precious metals in IRA accounts.  Gold that will be included in a gold 401K or gold IRA must be 99.5 percent pure gold.  IRA gold can be gold coins, bullion, or gold stock.

During my research, I found this company called Gold Coins Gain, a precious metal asset management company that helps investors with their precious metal investments.  They also sell a wide array of pretty looking gold bullion coins. They also have the coins in silver and platinum.  I personally like the Chinese Gold Panda, the Austrian Gold Philharmonics and the Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf.

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MBA or No MBA

I studied communications in college but now working as an operations manager.  The shift has been quite drastic and operations management is really not my forte.  It is totally different from what I am used to.  I never really understood how operations work - the KPIs, metrics, process flows, etc.  I had to study hard on operations management while doing the actual work.

I remember, a couple of years ago, my bestfriend actually invited me to take up MBA.  I was hesitant since MBA takes a lot of time and money at the same time.  I never realized the value of MBA until that time when I was crumbling and needed the knowledge that MBA could have provided me in order to do my job well.  When my friend invited me, I thought, why would I need an MBA when I already am on top of the ladder.  I was already a senior manager at that time and things are running quite well.  Little did I know how little I know about business and common sense may not be enough all the time especially when your team has grown from a hundred to a thousand.  You need to use some scientific ways in order to keep the team running and have them work together.

I was a fiction writer and getting into business was not something I dreamed about nor prepared for.  When I was there, yes, I was able to get by but it was not enough to just get buy.  Although my position is already what other people will call dead end, an MBA would have prepared me for all the challenges that a growing company face.   An MBA would have increased my value in the company a lot more.  It would have prepared me for other options outside the company.  It would have opened a lot of opportunities.

Well, it is never too late.  I am now taking up MBA and already on my second year.  It is a journey and the good thing is I am able to apply what I learn from my classes at work.  Operations Management in the company has been a lot better than it was before.  Structures are now in place, metrics and KPIs were set up.  I am doing well and I am getting better each day.

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All that Glitters

My boss went on a European trip for eight weeks which left me doing almost everything in the office.  As a reward, he brought me a gold bullion from Germany and some chocolates from Belgium.  It was a really amazing gift and I find it rather thoughtful although I know that the gold coin is more of a replica and not really a real one.  The gesture actually led me to thinking about the gold investments I recently heard about.

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Let’s Rank

Search Engine Optimizationor SEO has become an important business marketing function.  Companies have become more and more aware that they need to have their websites rank high in the search engines in order for them to tap into a market or increase their market share.  A good ranking in Google, Yahoo, MSN and all the other search engines on keywords that your customers or prospective customers use to find your company is crucial for any business to earn bigger profit.  A company can choose to hire their own in-house SEO specialist or can hire an SEO company to do it.  Hiring an in-house specialist may be good for cutting costs but at the same time, since SEO is a tedious job, hiring an SEO company to do it may be more beneficial for some, especially bigger companies.

SEO companies have a team of experts who can share their expertise or knowledge to each other which can further help your company rank higher.  The two heads are better than one principle applies here.   In-house SEO specialists rely greatly on SEO forums for them to upgrade their knowledge which can also be good although a face-to-face discussion about a subject matter always works better.

The company can decide on hiring their in-house SEO Specialist or can hire an SEO company to do the SEO for them. At the end of the day, it is always dependent on the company’s budget and goals on which one they choose.  Some may even combine both - like an in-house SEO to be in-charge of coordinating and monitoring the output of the SEO company they chose.

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Weekend Market for a Cause

My sister was born with a congenital lung problem which is bronchiectasis. It is an irreversible and lifetime disease and she had to deal with a lot of infection, medication and sometimes hospitalization. She had experience some rough times but thanks to my families support she was able to accept it and is now living an almost normal life. My sister’s condition led our family to think of ways on how we can help others with the same condition and came up with an idea of a fundraising activity. We are thinking of having a weekend market on July and August since weekend market is starting to be popular in our area. We are still on the planning stage and we are still gathering a list of what we need for the weekend market.

First on our list are the suppliers and locations, we already have two options for the location but we are still trying to look for a cheaper location. I already contacted some suppliers that want to participate in our weekend market and hopefully we’ll have enough confirmations by mid June.  Once we have decided on the venue and have enough participants, we need trade show booths for the participant’s products. We need a nice booth design that can help attract more buyers.  Next are table skirts where we can also print the logo of the supplier for advertising purposes. Another advertising tool is the banner stands that are retractable so we can set it up fast. We are still not sure if a lot of people will visit our weekend market but I think we also need some Pipe and Drape for crowd control and also to give our participant some privacy in their booths.

We are hoping to raise money that can support at least ten people with bronchiectasis and if things will turn out well, we will continue doing the weekend market and hopefully help more.

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Practical Gift

My cousin graduated from college recently. She is now a nurse, I think not officially since she still needs to pass the licensure exam. I’m very happy for her and I believe that she deserves a gift. My cousin and I used to be really closed when we were kids but her family moved somewhere really far and since then we only see each other every two years. But thanks to our mobile phone we’re still able to catch up from time to time. And I just learned from her that her family is having some financial difficulties. Her sister went into a business but mismanaged it and incurred a lot of debts. Thankfully she already graduated from college but she still needs to pass her licensure exam to be able to find a decent job and help her family with their problem.

Her current situation inspires me on what gift to give her. The first gift is an inspirational book that I love. We share almost the same interest and I know that she will love it too. Then the last gift is something practical, I was browsing the web to find something that nurses use and I came across this online shop http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/. I was able to find some nice things and decided to buy two sets of soft cotton scrubs. I gave her a blue scrub which is the color that they usually use and the other one is lilac because that’s her favorite color. I almost bought a third set but I decided to postpone it until her birthday. I don’t want to spoil her and I might find other things that she might like.

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Trying to Get Out of Credit Card Debt

I used to have 4 credit cards and accumulated a big amount of debt in two years. We are experiencing some financial difficulties those days and it is quite unavoidable to use the credit card. But, I must admit that I also gave in to some temptations that added to my debts. I didn’t really notice the accumulation of my debt during the first year; I thought it is not much. I only owe less than half of my credit limit on three of my cards and more than half on the other one. One mistake that I made is I look at my credit card debts individually, I didn’t add them up until after a year. And that’s the time when I realize that it is already big. I still incurred some debt on the second year but I really tried not to add much to my debt. My problem then is paying more than the minimum amount of my debt since we’re still having some hard times with our finances.

Finally after two years of accumulating all my debts, I started to really pay it. Thanks to my promotion and better pay. Paying debts is not easy, especially if you’ve accumulated a big amount. I tried different ways of paying it, but the one that works best for me is: paying first the card with the smallest debt. I was able to get rid of one card after four months, then the second one after 10 months. I still have two cards and I was hoping to pay off one by September and the other one hopefully by December. I’m planning to keep the two cards but I’m more conscious now of my expenses and I won’t allow myself to be buried in credit card debts again.

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Trade Shows and Exhibits

The company I am working for will be launching a new product and as part of the launch, we plan to join an upcoming trade show.  I have never really done a trade show before but I guess, I can manage.  The venue will be inside a mall so people can easily come to the trade show.  I hope to get the spot near the entrance so visitors can easily see our exhibit booths.  Maybe some logo floor mats will help so they have some sort of track to follow.  The trade show displays should be catchy.  I think using truss will be helpful in achieving an eye-catching effect.

I am quite positive that the product will be a click.  All we need to do is inform the market about it.  Joining this trade show will help us in introducing the new product to a targeted market.  The company should try to still explore other channels though.  Online media might be another way to promote.

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Outsourcing in the Philippines

Outsourcing is contracting another company or person to do a particular function.  Outsourcing may now be directly related to the call center industry but the term actually covers an even larger perspective and almost every company outsources in some way.  What companies normally outsource are those functions that are non-core to the business.  This may include legal consultation, accounting services, or janitorial jobs.

Outsourcing may be categorized into inshoring/onshoring, nearshoring and offshoring.  Inshoring is when your provider is from the same country.  Nearshoring is when, for example, a company in the US outsource a business process to a provider in Mexico. And offshoring is when a US based company outsource to a Philippine-based provider.

The Philippines has become a very popular offshoring destination.  This is basically because Filipinos are well-versed in the English language and are pretty much adept with the western culture.  The Filipinos are also very creative which makes the Philippines the best destination for creative works like graphic design, web design, flash design, creative writing and other artistic work.

I have come across this website MicroSourcing.com which pretty much covers everything about outsourcing and seems to be a rather pleasant outsourcing provider to work with.  Looking at the pictures of the members of their management team, they seem to exude a rather fun yet professional working environment.  With their very transparent pricing structure, I know that I am working with an honest company who is not all profit but puts more emphasis on values, efficiency and effectivity.   Judging from the website,  I can say that should there be a need for me to get into offshoring, I will definitely choose to Outsource in the Philippines and with MicroSourcing.

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Job Market

Human resources is perhaps one of the most important aspect of everyone’s business. Without employees, you will be out of business. Finding the right people for the position may be tough since it includes a lot of factors. First factor is the education and work experience. Another factor will be the personality and character of the employee. Personally, I never had a hard time looking for people with the right education and work experience. We have a lot of graduates out there every year, and all of them registers in online resume databases and apply online. I have come across TruGreen and they have an online list of openings in their company, which is pretty much the same as what most companies do nowadays.

What is more difficult to find is the person with a good work attitude. There are a lot of intelligent individuals out there, yet only a number of them has a good work attitude. Either they are too full of themselves that they do not listen nor respect authority anymore or they just jump ship after getting a better offer from another company. Finding someone with the right attitude and the right education can be tough at times. In this cases, you have to weigh your options very carefully: will you go for someone who has great skills but with a bad attitude or for someone who has lesser skills but great attitude.

Posted in Employee Relations | No Comments »