You’ve been dreaming about what it would be like to start yourown small business. It has been on your mind since you were inschool, and there are times, especially on Monday mornings, thatyou daydream about it. But, you’re not really sure what it wouldlook like. You don’t have the first clue how to get started, andof course, you’re afraid that you would put your heart and soulinto it, only to fail and look like a fool. You barely even talkabout it out loud, because you don’t want family and friends tolaugh at you.

But, anything is possible! The only limitations we have are theones we put on ourselves! With planning and learning the steps,and doing your homework, if this is something you really want todo, you can do it, AND succeed greatly at it, too!

I’m not saying it’s easy! Nothing worth having is. I have hadto learn a great deal; about myself, about business, about myclients and potential clients. And it never ends, because myinterests and passions change with the years. But, how exciting!

When my daughter started kindergarten, I returned to school. Ittook me five years to get through school, but I had a vision: Iwanted to help people become healthy and fit in the privacy oftheir own homes. After school, I didn’t have that plan fully inplace, even in my mind, but after six years of working in ahospital, I was ready. I opened MEG Fitness in June, 1996. It’sbeen an incredible ride! I’ll never look back at my life withregrets that I didn’t pursue my dream. I really have learnedthat the only limits are those I impose on myself, too! So, Icontinue to dream bigger and allow my vision to become moregrand. Why not? What’s the worst that can happen?

That’s what you have to ask yourself. If you never try, willyou be happier? If you never try, how will you know if you couldhave done it? Consider some of the well-known names in sports,such as Michael Jordan, the basketball player; he has thrownmore MISSED shots than those that have made their mark. What ifhe had not taken the chance to see what was possible for himself?

Okay, so now you’re ready to take the next step! First, inorder to help you focus, I recommend that people start workingon their business plan. The Small Business Association hasinvaluable resources on their website (www.sba.gov). This wasthe route I took. A year before I quit the hospital, I startedworking on my business plan. It helped me determine exactly whoI was, what I offered, why, who my ideal client was, who mytarget market was (at that time), who my competition was, whereI would offer my services, how I would offer them, and so on. AsI coach other health professionals who want this dream, I nowuse a 3-page business plan for clients who don’t plan to lookfor outside funding. Regardless of the type of business plan, itwill help answer many hard questions for you.

There are resources specific to most specific fields, too,including other professionals who help others get started. Doyour research to see who you can contact for support and to askquestions of as you progress. Once you have your business planin place, it’s not time to celebrate, yet! How are you going toaccomplish the goals you have come up with in that plan? Younext need a marketing plan. Now, although the marketing plan isalso part of a business plan, it’s really just the intro! Themarketing plan will become your template, your schedule, andwill spell out the actions you will take to make those goalsreality. If you use it seriously, it will be your day-to-dayguide to making your dreams come true!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/first-steps-to-starting-your-own-small-business-3337.html

About the Author

Marjorie Geiser is a nutritionist, registered dietitian,certified personal trainer and life coach. Marjorie has been theowner of a successful small business, MEG Fitness, since 1996,and now helps other health professionals start up their ownprivate practice. To learn more about the coaching servicesMargie offers, go to her website www.marjoriegeiser.com or emailher at margie@megfit.com.

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Hello Kitty is an animated cat that was created by Sanrio more than 30 years ago. Since her creation, she has become the most popular of the Sanrio characters and the idol of millions of young females in Asia and everywhere else. Today she appears on thousands of different things ranging from teddy bears over toothbrushes to pink electronics.

Hello Kitty was born on the drawing board of Sanrio in Kobe, Japan in 1974. She was designed by the Sanrio employee Ikuko Shimizu, but later the responsibility for her was given to first Setsuko Yonekubo and later Yuko Yamaguchi. In 1975 did she appear for the on her first item, a small plastic coin purse and soon other small items for young girls followed.

The Hello Kitty items was a big success and started to sell very well. Soon after followed American Sanrio shops with Hello Kitty and other popular characters. The first Sanrio shop in America appeared in 1976. Today there are more than 120 official Sanrio shops and more than 3000 affiliate shops.

A special team at Sanrio lead by Yuko Yamaguchi takes care of Hello Kitty, introduces new designs with her image and removes old designs. Every year thousands of new items appear, while an equal number of old items disappear. Most of the items feature Hello Kitty, but it’s also possible to find items with her family and friends.

There are several films, books and more about Hello Kitty and she also have her own fan club. In 1990 did she open her own theme park, Sanrio Puroland, in Japan and there she currently receives around 1.4 million visitors a year. She has even become so popular that she has been named junior ambassador to UNICEF.

Today there seems to be no limitations to the popularity of Hello Kitty. Famous western pop starts and actors have recently started wearing Hello Kitty jewelry, so might easily become in more popular in the coming years. Some of the western pop stars and actors that have been seen with Hello Kitty jewelry include Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Cameron Diaz and Paris Hilton. Even famous men like Ricky Martin and Steve Tyler have contributed to Hello Kitty’s popularity.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/careers-articles/the-history-of-hello-kitty-59783.html

About the Author

Hello Kitty seems to be everywhere. Just take a look at Planet Hello Kitty, one of the most popular websites about Hello Kitty. On this website you can read all about her and see the examples of Hello Kitty products (including several cars and a plane).

A home for the 21st Century is not about the latest in gadgets and wireless alarms, internet connections or top of the line intercom system. It is about strength, comfort and energy efficiency.

Baby Boomers are buying their last home and they know what they want.

Enter a new type of home. A home that stands up to fire, noise, sun, wind, rain, snow, bugs, mould and inevitable acts of God like, earthquakes and hurricanes; a home that gives you unprecedented comfort and a breath of fresh air 24 hours a day; a home that can resist hurricanes in Florida as well as sub artic temperatures in the Canadian North.

Imagine an airtight, steel reinforced concrete cube with about 3 inches of styrofoam insulation on both sides of the wall and body temperature heated floors.

Fresh air from the outside enters the house through a series of pipes buried 5 feet below the ground where there is always a constant temperature ??” 8 Degrees Celsius.

If you really wanted you could open high efficiency Low-E Argon filled windows, but why would you want to?

During the summer the incoming air is pre-cooled; during the winter it is pre-warmed. The flow is strictly controlled, pre-conditioned and filtered for a breath of fresh air – 24 hours a day.

Computer modeling of this type of air pre-conditioning shows that just this one idea saves 11% on heating and cooling costs comparable to conventional venting system.

This new type of luxury home is built as a combination of some of the newest technologies in modern home building: Insulated Concrete Form (ICFs), radiant floor heating, a tank-less water heater and a low energy consumption air conditioning system (that that you may need to use but very rarely).

The outside walls, which are built out of steel reinforced concrete make this home wind and fire resistant, bug and mould resistant and provide excellent protection from hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes.

Outside voices, traffic noises and police sirens are muffled by the walls thickness which allows you to sleep soundly every night. Gone are floor squeaks, drafts and the rattling of glass in your china cabinet.

Because of the exceptional insulation of insulated concrete forms, there is significant ongoing savings in energy costs and greatly increased comfort levels for the homeowner. The savings are anywhere from 35% to 60% depending mostly on the style of home and the size and type of windows.

Features, such as a high (92%) efficiency tank-less water heater heats the whole home, while providing an endless supply of potable hot water. It turns itself on when you turn your hot water tap, therefore there are no standby losses as with a conventional hot water heater. This equals approximately 25% of energy savings just to heat your hot water.

It is also easy to incorporate a full solar heating, so you can achieve a complete independence from the grid.

This type of home costs only about 10% more than a comparable wood framed home and considering a long term savings, comfort and security why would anyone build homes differently is a merited question.

If you are thinking of building, or simply want to see for yourself what all the fuss is about, the model home can be viewed on Jan 15, and every Saturday after that until the month of April. It is located on 252 Pearson St. by the golf course in Meaford, Ontario.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/a-new-type-of-home-that-leaves-your-wallet-fatter-and-your-life-easier-to-manage-9718.html

About the Author

Harvey Juric CEO of ICFhome.ca has been building Insulated Concrete Form custom homes in Ontario since 1995. For more information about the model home, Insulated Concrete Forms or Radiant Floor Heating contact ICFhome.ca by telephone 519 843-7612, e-mail info@icfhome.ca, or visit their web site at Ontario Home Builder or Luxury Home

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After creating your email newsletter, you face the challenge ofdelivery. With a printed newsletter, there’s usually only onemethod of widespread distribution: the post office.

Fortunately, though, publishers of email newsletters haveseveral choices. Let’s now work our way through this smalljungle, and try to remember that although these choices force usto do extra research, they also give us many more options thanwe have with printed newsletters.

The first choice is between manual and automated mailmanagement. The manual approach is how many, if not most, emailnewsletters get started. And, it’s a good system as long as themailing list remains small, say something less than 100 or 200names (depending on how efficient you are at managing your emailprogram). You can do this with an email program like OutlookExpress or Eudora.

But, if your list is growing, you’ll soon grow impatient withthe amount of time it takes to manually add and removesubscribers, as well as to send the newsletter. For example, youmight need to divide your list into parts, and send out a seriesof mailings rather than just one, to keep the size down.

That’s when it’s time to check out the automated approach, usingmailing list managers. These programs and services come inseveral forms. By the way — and you’ll need to know this whenyou go looking for an automated service — the differencebetween an announcement list and a discussion list.

An announcement list is essentially one way, which takes in mostregular newsletters, or ezines. You are the only person allowedto send a message to the people who have subscribed. You’re alsoprobably the only person who knows the email addresses of thesubscribers.

However, if you want to make it interactive, with recipientsallowed to post contributions, as well as receive them, then youneed a discussion list. For most of us, though, an announcementlist is the best starting point for a newsletter.

Now, if you have chosen to automate, you need to decide whetheryou want to do it yourself, or have someone else do it for you.If you plan to do it yourself, then you need a dedicated mailinglist program. A couple of well-known providers are Dada Mail andMailLoop. To find other mailing programs, enter the phrase”mailing software” (with or without the quotation marks) in asearch engine.

Of course, it’s much easier to have someone else do the mailingfor you, and that’s where we’re going next, since few of us havethe expertise or time to do it ourselves.

Full service providers take care of all, or almost all the workfor you. You fill in a few forms, make a few choices, and thenthey take over and do the rest. Those duties include adding andremoving names, sending the mail, and handling mail that can’tbe delivered (expect as many as 5% of messages to ?bounce’ backafter each mailing, once your list begins to grow).

So, if you’ve decided to use a full service provider, you nexthave to decide whether to use a free service or pay-for-serviceprovider. Again, free generally works well when your list issmall, and grows more problematic as the number of subscribersincreases.

Free services offer many of the same services as the commercialservices, but don’t charge a fee. The catch? They place an ad inyour e-mail newsletter. If you sell advertising the free servicetakes away a revenue spot. Or they restrict the number ofsubscribers or the number of mailouts. Services I’ve usedinclude Topica, MailerMailer, and at the moment, I useResponseBot. Again, you can find other services by using asearch engine or directory.

One of the great advantages of using free services is theopportunity to try out different services before making acommitment. Test drive each one for a few issues to find outwhether or not you like it, then make your choice.

Summing up, finding your way through the delivery choices can bea big job. But, be grateful for the choices, and use freeversions to find out which works best for you.

Robert F. Abbott, the author of A Manager’s Guide toNewsletters: Communicating for Results, writes and publishesAbbott’s Communication Letter. Read more articles about Internetcommunication, as well as email and printed newsletters at:http://www.communication-newsletter.com/ic.html

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/email-articles/delivering-your-email-newsletter-1160.html

About the Author
Robert F. Abbott, the author of A Manager’s Guide to Newsletters: Communicating for Results, writes and publishes Abbott’s Communication Letter. Read more articles about Internet communication, as well as email and printed newsletters at: http://www.communication-newsletter.com/ic.html

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