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Including a Blog in Your Website: Top Advantages and Disadvantages

This woman is a New Yorker
Business Advice Blogs

Image by Ed Yourdon
This was taken at the intersection of Park Avenue & 50th St, facing east. St. Bartholomew’s church (aka "St. Barts") is in the background.

The woman crossing the street is almost certainly a New Yorker, though I can’t tell whether she’s a businesswoman, housewife, actress, ingenue, student, or something else … but the black dress gives it away: this woman is a New Yorker. The two women behind her might also be New Yorkers, but it’s far more likely that they’re from someplace far away — like New Jersey, or Staten Island.

Note also the guy in the background, busily taking a photo of something to our right, i.e., something further south. He too is likely to be a tourist…

This picture was published in a Sep 4, 2008 blog article entitled "Walking the walk: gait infers sexual history." And it was published in a Sep 17, 2009 blog titled "Beautiful." It was also published as an illustration in an Oct 2009 blog titled "St. Barts Headquarters: All About St. Barts," even though it has nothing to do with that Caribbean island.

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Advice to photographers: if you’re looking for interesting scenes and people to photograph, don’t bother with Park Avenue on the Friday that marks the beginning of Labor Day weekend.

I speak from experience: after taking care of an errand on Third Avenue and 44th Street, I thought it might be interesting to walk up Park Avenue and take pictures of well-dressed business people, fashionably-dressed socialites, kids, dogs, babysitters, and the various other kinds of people that you typically do see on Park Avenue. But not today: it was mostly empty, as I walked north all the way to 86th Street…

And the overwhelming majority of people that I did see, along the way, were … well, what can I say? They were probably all very nice people, and if they live or work on Park Avenue, there’s a good chance that they’re successful, ambitious, rich and/or famous. But they still didn’t look very interesting. In fact, they looked downright dull and boring. I guess all of the handsome/beautiful/sexy/stylish/interesting Park Avenue denizens were already off at the Hamptons for the long weekend …

… well, perhaps things will be more interesting after Labor Day, when everyone is back in town and the kids are back in school. Unfortunately, at that point I’m likely to be far too busy to find the hour or two that it takes to walk this long stretch of the avenue. We’ll see…

Blogs, or to be more precise, Weblogs can be used to make money from your website: a good, well-written blog can keep visitors rooted to your website long enough for some of the actual content of your site to filter through to them. In fact, they could become so absorbed in what you have written in your blog that they return again and again – just to keep up-to-date with the latest activities you are writing about in your blog. A blog, used to advantage can make all the difference to your personal website.

Your blog doesn’t even need to be specifically relevant to your website: I used to write a blog just to blow off steam over various current affairs. One of the blogs I wrote really got certain quarters hot under the collar. So, what are the advantages and disadvantages of including a blog in your website?

Basically, a blog is a narrative that you can add to your website in its original, unedited format – grammatical and spelling mistakes et al!

Advantages

If you are writing a blog yourself, you will know how easy it is to update the information. This can only be an advantage to the business owner who needs to disseminate information about the business as quickly as possible. Many blogs, due to their informal nature, do tend to be quite far-reaching and often get talked about informally. This is an amazing advantage for the owner of a business.

Lucrative traffic can be driven to your website by dropping a few links into your blog. Human nature being what it is, if people see a link there, they just have to find out where it goes and what it says: one of my most lucrative links that I used on my blogs was just a little button that said ‘Do Not Press’. Of course, everybody simply had to press it [which is what I wanted them to do]!

Disadvantages

Unreal expectations of visitors can have a devastating effect on you, as the website owner, if your visitors are expecting a frequent update of your business blog. If you are running a business there are invariably other calls on your valuable time and, fitting a daily blog into your busy day may end up as quite a burden unless you outsource your blog and let somebody else take care of it for you.

You need to be more careful about what you have to say in your blog than you would if you were writing a personal blog. Because you are the face of the business your visitors will be hanging onto your every word so you do need to be careful about the tone of your blog and make sure your comments are not unwittingly misconstrued.

While there are many disadvantages of writing a business-related blog is in letting your pen run away with you and to give away too much information. The best advice I can give on this particular spot is ‘cover your back: don’t give away anything that could be turned to your disadvantage’. In other words, be careful what you write. In the beginning use services of an expert blogger to seek the desired help and learn from their experience.

Will Blogging Help My Business?

Sun Guidelines on Public Discourse
Business Advice Blogs

Image by planspark
Sun Guidelines on Public Discourse

Many of us at Sun are doing work that could change the world. Contributing to online communities by blogging, wiki posting, participating in forums, etc., is a good way to do this. You are encouraged to tell the world about your work, without asking permission first, but we expect you to read and follow the advice in this note.

Advice
By speaking directly to the world, without prior management approval, we are accepting higher risks in the interest of higher rewards. We don’t want to micro-manage, but here is some advice that we expect you to follow to help you manage that risk.

It’s a Two-Way Street
The goal isn’t to get everyone at Sun contributing online, it’s to become part of the industry conversation. So, if you are going to write, look around and do some reading first, so you learn where the conversation is and what people are saying. Remember the Web is all about links; when you see something interesting and relevant, link to it; you’ll be doing your readers a service, and you’ll also generate links back to you; a win-win.

Don’t Tell Secrets
Anything you post is accessible to anyone with a browser. Some sites have a restricted content feature, but keep in mind that external content is NOT as secure as content that resides on a protected inTRAnet — you are responsible for the content you post and the restricted spaces you manage. Common sense at work here; it’s perfectly OK to talk about your work and have a dialog with the community, but it’s not OK to publish the recipe for one of our secret sauces. Content requiring a non-disclosure agreement or considered Sun Proprietary should NOT be published on Sun’s community sites — even in spaces set up to restrict access to Sun employees only. If the judgment call is tough, on secrets or other issues discussed here, it’s never a bad idea to get management or Sun legal help before you publish.

No Comment
Do not comment on work-related legal matters unless you are Sun’s official spokesperson for the matter, and have Sun legal and management approval to do so.

Policies Apply
Sun’s Standards of Business Conduct and other Sun Policies (including export compliance, trademark guidelines, privacy requirements, proprietary and confidential information protection, and anti-discrimination) continue to apply.

Be Respectful
Whether in the actual or a virtual world, your interactions and discourse should be respectful. For example, when you are in a virtual world as a Sun representative, your avatar should dress and speak professionally. We all appreciate actual respect.

Be Interesting, but Be Honest
Writing is hard work. There’s no point doing it if people don’t read it. Fortunately, if you’re writing about a product that a lot of people are using, or are waiting for, and you know what you’re talking about, you’re probably going to be interesting. And because of the magic of linking and the Web, if you’re interesting, you’re going to be popular, at least among the people who understand your specialty. Another way to be interesting is to expose your personality; almost all of the successful online voices write about themselves, about families or movies or books or games; or they post pictures. People like to know what kind of a person is writing what they’re reading. Once again, balance is called for; a community site is a public place and you should avoid embarrassing the company and community members. One of Sun’s core values is integrity, so review and follow Sun’s Standards of Business Conduct in your online community contributions.

Write What You Know
The best way to be interesting, stay out of trouble, and have fun is to write about what you know. If you have a deep understanding of some chunk of Solaris or a hot JSR, it’s hard to be boring or get into too much trouble writing about that. On the other hand, a Solaris architect who publishes rants on marketing strategy or tax policy has a good chance of being embarrassed by a real expert, or of being boring.

Don’t Write Anonymously
If you comment publicly about any issue in which you are engaged in your capacity as a Sun employee, even loosely, you must make your status as a Sun employee clear. You should also be clear about whether, in such commentary, you are speaking for yourself (presumably the normal case) or for Sun.

Business Outlook Rules
There are all sorts of laws about what we can and can’t say business-wise. Talking about revenue, future product ship dates, pricing decisions, roadmaps, unannounced financial results, our share price or similar matters is apt to get you, the company, or both, into serious legal trouble. Stay away from financial topics and predictions of future performance.

Quality Matters
Use a spell-checker. If you’re not design-oriented, ask someone who is and take their advice on how to improve. You don’t have to be a great or even a good writer to succeed at this, but you do have to make an effort to be clear, complete, and concise. Of course, "complete" and "concise" are to some degree in conflict; that’s just the way life is. There are very few first drafts that can’t be shortened, and improved in the process.

Think About Consequences
The worst thing that can happen is a Sun sales pro is in a meeting with a hot prospect, and someone on the customer’s side pulls out a print-out of something you’ve posted and says "This person at Sun says that product sucks." In general, "XXX sucks" is not only risky but unsubtle. Saying "Netbeans needs to have an easier learning curve for the first-time user" is fine; saying "Visual Development Environments for Java suck" is just amateurish. Once again, it’s all about judgment. Using your public voice to trash or embarrass the company, our customers, your co-workers, or yourself is not only dangerous, but not very smart.

Moderating
Some community sites, such as wikis, require a Sun employee moderator. Optional moderation on other sites such as a group blog and forum can add value by maintaining content organization and responding to ongoing decisions and questions. The goal of moderating is to "guide and nurture" not "command and control."

Other People’s Information
It’s simple — other people’s information belongs to them (be it Intellectual Property or Personal Information). It’s their choice whether to share their material with the world, not yours. So, before posting someone else’s material, check with the owner for permission to do this. If you’re unsure, Sun’s copyright experts or Sun’s privacy experts can offer guidance.

Disclaimers
Many employees put a disclaimer on their front page saying who they work for, but that they’re not speaking officially. This is good practice, but don’t count on it to avoid trouble; it may not have much legal effect. Community sites contain material written by Sun employees and are governed by company policies. When employees leave Sun, material written during their employment normally remains in place and is subject to the same policies. Sun Alumni are invited to have their non-Sun blog syndicated on our Alumni Blogs site and may continue to contribute material to wikis and forums, where additional terms and conditions apply.

Rev 2.0, Updated May, 2008
Rev 1.0

www.sun.com/communities/guidelines.jsp

Many business owners in the world today are still trying to grasp the concept of social media and what it can do to help build their brand, as well as extend their customer base and increase customer loyalty. One such method people in all fields-from professional, to academic, to a simple blog-journal-have found useful for achieving their goals is by maintaining a blog.

A blog can be useful in a number of ways: it can showcase your expertise in a certain area, give a name and voice to your business and your products/services; it can provide interesting/important information about your industry to those who read it, and can generally just be a fun way of learning for those who are interested…not to mention, if utilized properly, a blog can increase knowledge of your company and increase web traffic to your main site.

For a small business entrepreneur, maintaining a blog in addition to everything else might seem like an added burden-but when done correctly, you may find blogging to be fun and informative. When creating a blog, it’s important to first determine what your overall theme will be: Business advice? Politics? Technology news? Blogs I personally read deal with incorporating the lessons of yoga into one’s business ventures, knitting, public relations news, and Chinese philosophy.

Creating well-written content for your blog is a necessity. One suggestion: proofread, proofread, proofread! In my opinion, nothing says ‘unprofessional’ quite like typos and spelling errors in any written publication. Depending on the theme you’ve established for your blog, you’ll need to generate a list of important keywords-not only will reoccurring words drive your point home to the reader, but it can be useful for search engines that may display your blog. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or unsure of what to write, don’t worry too much: when beginning your blog, a minimum of one post a week is sufficient, but you’ll want to increase the number of posts over time (anywhere from 2-4 posts a week).

The more knowledge you have and the more you learn over time is a resource to be shared with others; if you have important lessons learned, share them on your blog. Personal stories that readers can relate to is a great way of encouraging debate and discussion, and your responses provide a human element that large companies may be lacking. Creating a blog that promotes discussion is also a great way of generating web traffic and creating interest in your business.

Blogging 101: 6 Reasons Why a Blog Can Benefit Your Online Business.

Hands
Business Advice Blogs

Image by .michael.newman.
I tried to frame their whole bodies but I was too slow and clumsy so this is what I got (after a bit of cropping). I think it’s a happy accident.

This brings to mind three things:

1. "One day…little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today." (M.L. King, and don’t think I’m not aware of the banality of quoting something so significant in this context; I’m just reporting my thoughts here.)

2. "Hand in hand. No don’t ask me to apologize, I won’t ask you to forgive me. If I’m gonna go down, you’re gonna come with me." (Elvis Costello)

3. This article by Stephanie Rosenbloom called "A Show of Hands" from the NYT of 10/5/06, which you can no longer read online without subscribing:

ON a brisk autumn afternoon, in the shadow of the marble arch in Washington Square Park, a couple visiting from Ohio walked along holding hands like two teenagers going steady, decades after ”going steady” went out of vogue.

When a stranger asked why they had chosen to join hands during their stroll, the man, Dave Findlay, looked at his wife of seven years and answered in a word: ”Connection.”

Or as the Beatles sang back in 1963: ”When I’ll feel that something, I want to hold your hand.”

Those simple lyrics turned an expression of teenage longing and first romantic steps into a No. 1 hit. Yet today, when Justin Timberlake is at the top of the charts with ”SexyBack” and the digital airwaves are filled with steamy lyrical declarations (”I’m into havin’ sex, I ain’t into makin’ love” sang 50 Cent in ”In da Club”), couples like Dave and Carey Findlay still intertwine fingers, kiss palms and link pinkies as they meander through parks, cross streets and snake through crowds.

”Hand-holding is the one aspect that’s not been affected by the sexual revolution,” said Dalton Conley, a professor and chairman of the department of sociology at New York University. ”It’s less about sex than about a public demonstration about coupledom.”

Nowadays hand-holding has attracted the interest of scientists who are studying its effects on the body and mind. And sexual health educators say it is a much-discussed topic among gay students who now publicly hold hands more than ever before but still must consider whether they want to declare their sexuality.

”I think it remains more important in an era of perhaps more liberal sexual norms,” Dr. Conley said. ”It remains this thing to be doled out.”

To hold someone’s hand is to offer them affection, protection or comfort. It is a way to communicate that you are off the market. Practically speaking, it is an efficient way to squeeze through a crowd without losing your partner. People do it during vigils, marches, weddings and funerals.

Usually it connotes something innocuous and sweet about a couple and their relationship. In rare instances, it takes on added potency, such as when President George W. Bush held the hand of Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in Crawford, Tex., last year — an act of respect and affection in Arab countries — reminding some people of the film ”Fahrenheit 9/11,” which depicted the Bush family’s close business ties to Saudi leaders and which ignited conspiracy theories.

But, over all, few things are more innocent than a child grabbing the hand of a parent, for protection, direction and, as Mr. Findlay put it, connection. And with many children these days closer and more outwardly affectionate to their parents, chances are you have spotted a mother and her teenage daughter and perhaps even a father and his adolescent son ambling through a mall, scurrying through a crosswalk or strolling along, hand in hand.

Adult children and their elderly parents also hold hands, for balance, support and as a sign of love.

As for romantic couples, the opinions about hand-holding are as varied as fingerprints. But most people agree that it has merely changed, not lost favor.

”I think that for sure college students hold hands just like the old days,” said Sandra L. Caron, a professor of family relations and human sexuality at the University of Maine in Orono.

If they do, it is likely only after they are deep into a relationship — not in those early days of budding romance, when a touch of hands was the first act of intimacy between a couple. That was the hand-holding that the Beatles wrote about. (Followed swiftly by the sexual revolution, whose equivalent anthem might be The Rolling Stones’ ”Let’s Spend the Night Together.”)

Among more than a half-dozen students at the University of Maine, there seemed to be two universal truths: that hand-holding is the least nauseating public display of affection and that holding hands has become more significant than other seemingly deeper expressions of love and romance.

”It is a lot more intimate to hold hands nowadays than to kiss,” said Joel Kershner, 23. Because of that, he said, reaching for someone’s hand these days has more potential for rejection than leaning in for a smooch at a party where alcohol is flowing.

Libby Tyler, 20, said it was ”weird that hand-holding is more serious,” but true. ”It’s something that you lead up to,” she said.

There is nothing casual about it any more, said Rachel Peters, 22. ”Hand-holding is something that usually people do once they’ve confirmed they’re a couple,” she said.

But if that is not complicated enough, where you choose to hold hands also has meaning, the students said.

Drew Fitzherbert, 21, said that public hand-holding ”shows that commitment not only to you and your partner but everyone else in the community.”

Dr. Conley of N.Y.U. agreed. ”In the dark movie theater, in the dorm room, that’s a very different social act,” he said.

Are people holding hands as much as they once did? That’s impossible to quantify. But Gregory T. Eells, the director of counseling and psychological services at Cornell University in Ithaca, said he didn’t think so.

”I see more people on their cellphone than holding hands,” he said, adding, ”To some extent we are trading real face-to-face relationships, where there’s touch and body language, for electronic ones.”

Peter Shawn Bearman, a professor of sociology and the director of the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University, said that hand-holding in crowded cities like New York may simply be impractical.

”Maybe if the proportion of hand-holders has indeed gone down it has more to do with density (of humans) than the devaluing of hand-holding as a romantic signal,” he wrote in an e-mail message.

Whatever degree of hand-holding may be happening, there are good reasons to cultivate the habit — reasons would-be hand-graspers may wish to pass along to their hands-in-pockets partners.

”Based on what we’ve seen, when we get more physical intimacy we get better relationships, whether a mother and an infant or a couple,” said Tiffany Field, the director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine.

Even monkeys understand the importance of a hand squeeze every now and then. In ”Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals,” Dr. Frans B. M. de Waal, a primatologist at Emory University, wrote that some monkeys hold hands in reconciliation after a fight.

James Coan, an assistant professor of psychology and the neuroscience graduate program at the University of Virginia, has studied the impact of human touch, particularly how it affects the neural response to threatening situations, and said the results of a recent study were more dramatic than he expected.

”We found that holding the hand of really anyone, it made your brain work a little less hard in coping,” Dr. Coan said, adding that any sort of hand-holding relaxes the body.

The study, which will be published this year in the journal Psychological Science, involved 16 couples who were rated happily married based on the answers in a detailed questionnaire. The wives were put inside an M.R.I. machine and were told they were to receive mild electric shocks to an ankle. Brain images showed that regions of the women’s brains that had been activated in anticipation of pain and that were associated with negative emotions decreased when their husbands reachedinto the machine.

”With spouse hand-holding you also stop looking for other signs of danger and you start feeling more secure,” said Dr. Coan, who led the study. ”If you’re in a really strong relationship, you may be protected against pain and stress hormones that may have a damaging effect on your immune system.”

Perhaps it is why so many people crave it.

Blogs and online forums are rife with complaints of those who say their significant other does not want to hold hands. ”When we go out, we always have a blast, but the one thing that bothers me is that he never holds my hand in public,” writes a woman on a ”love advice” forum on www.lovingyou.com.

For older couples, letting go of hand-holding may be one more sign that they are pressed for time and too swamped for little acts of intimacy.

”When do we make time to hold hands?,” said Dr. Eells of Cornell, talking about his own marriage of 15 years. ”Not very often.”

The couple is often busy shuttling children to and from school and extracurricular activities, not strolling through parks like characters in a Georges Seurat painting.

Sometimes, though, even errands provide opportunities. Recently, Dr. Eells said, he and his 9-year-old daughter were caught in a downpour after her cheerleading practice. The two grabbed hands and raced off into the rain together. When they finally splashed over to the car, the damp girl turned her face to her father. ”That was awesome,” she sighed.

Blogs have taken over the internet!

Everyone is blogging from politicos to teeny boppers. Many teenagers have resorted to blogging as an outlet for their emotions, a little online nook where they can blurt out their feelings and blow off some steam. However, savvy marketers have discovered that blogging is one of the best Internet marketing strategies available. The best part is that blogging is just a cent or two more expensive than free.

So what exactly is blogging? Blog is just a fancy name for web log and really it is nothing more than an online journal. A blog can be set up for very little cost and it makes a very viable internet marketing tool.

Blogging for your online business is a proven way to enhance the visibility of your business products and services. Below are 6 proven methods for using a blog to jumpstart your online business and start cranking out the cash.

1. Building trust with your customers is key to any successful business. A blog is a great way to get information about your business out to your clientele. Keep your customers abreast on your business and any changes to your web site. Announce your new product line and affiliate programs with the use of your new blog.

2. Your blog is a great way to keep all of your articles and business information. Quality information makes for the best web sites, so put up all of those old articles and anything else you have lying around that makes good content. The content on your blog can be easily stored through archives.

3. As a business owner in your chosen niche you would probably be considered an expert, right? Well since you’re an expert don’t be afraid to give your advice and opinion. Blogging provides you a great opportunity to give product reviews on items that might help your customers. You could make some extra cash by endorsing quality products unique to your niche. Whatever your niche is I’m sure that there are products you can sell to earn affiliate commissions.

4. By posting your articles on your blog you can allow people to republish them as long as they include your resource box. We all know what is included in your resource box, that’s right it is a link to your web site! Before you know it we will start acquiring back links like crazy. As stated in the previous section you can use articles with affiliate links to start cashing in with your blog.

5. Use your blog as a way to gather information from your customers. Have them fill out surveys on how you can improve your product(s). It makes them feel involved and builds trust. Getting the input of others, especially people that have purchased from you is always a good thing. Even if you don’t like the answers! A blog is a great way to get instant feedback from your customers and that is a very valuable tool.

6. Submit your blog to blogging lists and syndicate it so that it becomes a viral marketing machine. When you have a blog that stands out in your niche people will be walking over each other for every new post you make. By syndicating your blog you give notice to all interested parties every time you make a post!

Setting up a blog is easy, you can either purchase blogging software or use a blogging hosting service to do it for you. LiveJournal and Blogger.com are the most popular hosting companies in the blogging arena right now. They are easy to set up and the hosting companies provide you with easy to follow instructions on how to start your new blog.

Take these 6 tips and put them to use in your evolving online marketing arsenal, you will be glad you did.

Small Business Debt Relief – How Small Businesses Can Legally Settle Unsecured Debt

There is no doubt that recession has left people helpless in all manners and has affected everyone in the same way and hence small business debt relief is same as it is for other individual consumers as well as for large business. It is because recession has hit the economy on equal levels. It is a wrong concept that debt relief options for the small businesses are different from the options for large businesses. In this underlined article we will be discussing how small businesses can get relief in their debts.

In case you want small business debt relief then you must apply for the debt settlement deal. For this purpose one will have to hire a debt settlement firm. Financial experts of the settlement firm will study your financial situation in detail. After that they will talk to the credit card company officials. They will tell them that their client is unable to pay back the debt in full and hence he should be given reduction in the debt.

After successful negotiations the owner of the small business gets reduction of almost 50 to 60% over the total amount to be paid. It means that the debtor will be supposed to pay only the reduced amount to the credit card company. This reduced amount should be paid either as lump sum or in the form of easy monthly installments. It depends on the ease of the person that how he wants to pay his reduced debts back to the creditors. Once all the payment is made to the creditor the small business owner can start living his life without any tension of paying the debt all over again.

In short small business debt relief works in the same way the debt relief options work for other people and large businesses. All these ways are legal and they are working to help people in getting out of their depressed lives under huge and unsecured credit card debts. All one has to do is to hire a true and legitimate settlement firm to get rid of his pools of debts in all respects and manners.

If you have over ,000 in unsecured debt it may be a wise financial decision to consider a debt settlement. Due to the recession and overwhelming amount of people in debt, creditors are having no choice but to agree to debt settlement deals. To find legitimate debt reduction help in your state and get free debt advice then check out the following link.

Business Management Tips In Regard To Cash

Stonewall Inn, Christopher St. NYC
Management Tips

Image by dbking
Stonewall Inn, Christopher Street, NYC…birthplace of the Gay Rights Movement, June 1969.

The Stonewall riots were a series of violent conflicts between homosexuals and police officers in New York City. The first night of rioting began on Friday, June 27, 1969 not long after 1:20 a.m., when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. "Stonewall," as the raids are often referred to, is generally considered a turning point for the modern gay rights movement worldwide, as it is one of the first times in history a significant body of homosexual people resisted arrest.

Police raids on gay bars and nightclubs were a regular part of gay life in cities across the United States, until the 1960s, when suddenly raids on bars in many major cities became markedly less frequent. Most conclude that a series of court challenges and increased resistance from the Homophile Movement can be attributed to the decline in raids.

Prior to 1965, the police would sometimes record the identities of all those present at the raids, which on some occasions was published in the newspaper. Sometimes they would even load up their police van with as many patrons as the van could hold. At the time, the police used any number of reasons they could think of to justify an arrest on indecency charges including: kissing, holding hands, wearing clothing traditionally of the opposite gender, or even being in the bar during the raid.

It is important to look back to before 1969 and examine the changing attitudes in New York towards gay bars and gay rights. In 1965, two important figures came into prominence. John Lindsay, a liberal Republican, was elected mayor of New York City on a reform platform. Dick Leitsch became president of the Mattachine Society in New York at around the same time. Leitsch was considered relatively militant compared to his predecessors and believed in direct action techniques commonly used by other civil rights groups in the 1960s.

In early 1966, administration policies had changed because of complaints made by Mattachine that the police were on the streets entrapping gay men and charging them with indecency. The police commissioner, Howard Leary, instructed the police force not to lure gays into breaking the law and also required that any plainclothesmen must have a civilian witness when a gay arrest is made. This nearly ended entrapment of gay men on such charges in New York.

In the same year, in order to challenge the state liquor authority (SLA) regarding its policies over gay bars, Dick Leitsch conducted a “sip in.” Leitsch had called members of the press and planned on meeting at a bar with two other gay men—a bar could have its liquor license taken away for knowingly serving a group of three or more homosexuals—to test the SLA policy of closing bars. When the bartender at Julius turned them away, they made a complaint to the city’s human rights commission. Following the “sip in,” the chairman of the SLA stated that his department did not prohibit the sale of liquor to homosexuals. In addition, the following year two separate court cases ruled that “substantial evidence” was needed in order to revoke a liquor license. No longer was kissing between two men considered indecent behavior. The number of gay bars in New York steadily rose after 1966.

So if in 1969 gay bars were legal, why was the Stonewall Inn raided that night? John D’Emilio, a prominent historian, points out that the city was in the middle of a mayoral campaign and John Lindsay, who had lost his party’s primary, had reason to call for a cleanup of the city’s bars. The Stonewall Inn had a number of reasons that the police would target it. It operated without a liquor license, had ties with organized crime, and “offering scantily clad go-go boys as entertainment, it brought an ‘unruly’ element to Sheridan Square”.

The patrons of the Stonewall were used to such raids and the management was generally able to reopen for business either that night, or the following day. What made the June 1969 raid different was the death a week earlier of Judy Garland, an important cultural icon with whom many in the gay community identified. The palpable grief at her loss culminated with her funeral on Friday, June 27, attended by 22,000 people, among them 12,000 gay men. Many of the Stonewall patrons were still emotionally distraught when the raid occurred that night, and refused to react passively.

The Stonewall Raid and the Aftermath
A number of factors differentiated the raid that took place on June 28 from other such raids on the Stonewall Inn. In general, the sixth precinct tipped off the management of the Stonewall Inn prior to a raid. In addition, raids were generally carried out early enough in the night to allow business to return to normal for the peak hours of the night. At approximately 1:20 AM, much later than the usual raid, eight officers from the first precinct, of which only one was in uniform, entered the bar. Most of the patrons were able to escape being arrested as the only people arrested “would be those without IDs, those dressed in the clothes of the opposite gender, and some or all of the employees”.

Details about how the riot started vary from story to story. According to one account, a transgendered woman named Silvia Rivera threw a bottle at a police officer after being prodded by his nightstick . Another account states that a lesbian, being brought to a patrol car through the crowd put up a struggle that encouraged the crowd to do the same . Whatever the case may be, mêlée broke out across the crowd—which quickly overtook the police. Stunned, the police retreated into the bar. Heterosexual folk singer Dave van Ronk, who was walking through the area, was grabbed by the police, pulled into the bar, and beaten. The crowd’s attacks were unrelenting. Some tried to light the bar on fire. Others used a parking meter as a battering ram to force the police officers out. Word quickly spread of the riot and many residents, as well as patrons of nearby bars, rushed to the scene.

Throughout the night the police singled out many effeminate men and often beat them. On the first night alone 13 people were arrested and four police officers, as well as an undetermined number of protesters, were injured. It is known, however, that at least two rioters were severely beaten by the police. Bottles and stones were thrown by protesters who chanted “Gay Power!” The crowd, estimated at over 2000, “did battle” with over 400 police officers.

The police sent additional forces in the form of the Tactical Patrol Force, a riot-control squad originally trained to counter anti-Vietnam War protesters. The tactical patrol force arrived to disperse the crowd. However, they failed to break up the crowd, who sprayed them with rocks and other projectiles. At one point they were presented with a chorus line of mocking queens, singing:

We are the Stonewall girls
We wear our hair in curls
We wear no underwear
We show our pubic hair
We wear our dungarees
Above our nelly knees!

Eventually the scene quieted down, but the crowd returned again the next night. While less violent than the first night, the crowd had the same electricity that was seen in the first. Skirmishes between the rioters and the police ensued until approximately 4:00 AM. The third day of rioting fell five days after the raid on the Stonewall Inn. On that Wednesday, 1,000 people congregated at the bar and again caused extensive property damage. Anger and outrage against the way police had treated gay people for decades previous burst to the surface. Leaflets were handed out saying, "Get the Mafia and cops out of gay bars!"

The forces that were simmering before the riots were now no longer beneath the surface. The community created by the homophile organizations of the previous two decades had created the perfect environment for the creation of the Gay Liberation Movement. By the end of July the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was formed in New York and by the end of the year the GLF could be seen in cities and universities around the country. Similar organizations were soon created around the world including Canada, France, Britain, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.

The following year, in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots, the GLF organized a march from Greenwich Village to Central Park. Between 5,000 and 10,000 men and women attended the march. Many gay pride celebrations choose the month of June to hold their parades and events to celebrate “The Hairpin Drop Heard Round the World". Many major cities including New York City, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle and Minneapolis hold Gay Pride Marches on the last Sunday of June, in honor of Stonewall. The prominent British gay rights group Stonewall is named after the riots.

The general atmosphere of the days immediately before the riots are dramatized in a 1995 film called Stonewall.

————————————————————————————————————————–
Homo Nest Raided, Queen Bees Are Stinging Mad
Reprinted from "The New York Daily News," July 6, 1969
By JERRY LISKER

She sat there with her legs crossed, the lashes of her mascara-coated eyes beating like the wings of a hummingbird. She was angry. She was so upset she hadn’t bothered to shave. A day old stubble was beginning to push through the pancake makeup. She was a he. A queen of Christopher Street.

Last weekend the queens had turned commandos and stood bra strap to bra strap against an invasion of the helmeted Tactical Patrol Force. The elite police squad had shut down one of their private gay clubs, the Stonewall Inn at 57 Christopher St., in the heart of a three-block homosexual community in Greenwich Village. Queen Power reared its bleached blonde head in revolt. New York City experienced its first homosexual riot. "We may have lost the battle, sweets, but the war is far from over," lisped an unofficial lady-in-waiting from the court of the Queens.

"We’ve had all we can take from the Gestapo," the spokesman, or spokeswoman, continued. "We’re putting our foot down once and for all." The foot wore a spiked heel. According to reports, the Stonewall Inn, a two-story structure with a sand painted brick and opaque glass facade, was a mecca for the homosexual element in the village who wanted nothing but a private little place where they could congregate, drink, dance and do whatever little girls do when they get together.

The thick glass shut out the outside world of the street. Inside, the Stonewall bathed in wild, bright psychedelic lights, while the patrons writhed to the sounds of a juke box on a square dance floor surrounded by booths and tables. The bar did a good business and the waiters, or waitresses, were always kept busy, as they snaked their way around the dancing customers to the booths and tables. For nearly two years, peace and tranquility reigned supreme for the Alice in Wonderland clientele.

The Raid Last Friday
Last Friday the privacy of the Stonewall was invaded by police from the First Division. It was a raid. They had a warrant. After two years, police said they had been informed that liquor was being served on the premises. Since the Stonewall was without a license, the place was being closed. It was the law.
All hell broke loose when the police entered the Stonewall. The girls instinctively reached for each other. Others stood frozen, locked in an embrace of fear.

Only a handful of police were on hand for the initial landing in the homosexual beachhead. They ushered the patrons out onto Christopher Street, just off Sheridan Square. A crowd had formed in front of the Stonewall and the customers were greeted with cheers of encouragement from the gallery.

The whole proceeding took on the aura of a homosexual Academy Awards Night. The Queens pranced out to the street blowing kisses and waving to the crowd. A beauty of a specimen named Stella wailed uncontrollably while being led to the sidewalk in front of the Stonewall by a cop. She later confessed that she didn’t protest the manhandling by the officer, it was just that her hair was in curlers and she was afraid her new beau might be in the crowd and spot her. She didn’t want him to see her this way, she wept.

Queen Power
The crowd began to get out of hand, eye witnesses said. Then, without warning, Queen Power exploded with all the fury of a gay atomic bomb. Queens, princesses and ladies-in-waiting began hurling anything they could get their polished, manicured fingernails on. Bobby pins, compacts, curlers, lipstick tubes and other femme fatale missiles were flying in the direction of the cops. The war was on. The lilies of the valley had become carnivorous jungle plants.

Urged on by cries of "C’mon girls, lets go get’em," the defenders of Stonewall launched an attack. The cops called for assistance. To the rescue came the Tactical Patrol Force.

Flushed with the excitement of battle, a fellow called Gloria pranced around like Wonder Woman, while several Florence Nightingales administered first aid to the fallen warriors. There were some assorted scratches and bruises, but nothing serious was suffered by the honeys turned Madwoman of Chaillot.

Official reports listed four injured policemen with 13 arrests. The War of the Roses lasted about 2 hours from about midnight to 2 a.m. There was a return bout Wednesday night.

Two veterans recently recalled the battle and issued a warning to the cops. "If they close up all the gay joints in this area, there is going to be all out war."

Bruce and Nan
Both said they were refugees from Indiana and had come to New York where they could live together happily ever after. They were in their early 20′s. They preferred to be called by their married names, Bruce and Nan.
"I don’t like your paper," Nan lisped matter-of-factly. "It’s anti-fag and pro-cop."

"I’ll bet you didn’t see what they did to the Stonewall. Did the pigs tell you that they smashed everything in sight? Did you ask them why they stole money out of the cash register and then smashed it with a sledge hammer? Did you ask them why it took them two years to discover that the Stonewall didn’t have a liquor license."

Bruce nodded in agreement and reached over for Nan’s trembling hands.

"Calm down, doll," he said. "Your face is getting all flushed."

Nan wiped her face with a tissue.

"This would have to happen right before the wedding. The reception was going to be held at the Stonewall, too," Nan said, tossing her ashen-tinted hair over her shoulder.

"What wedding?," the bystander asked.

Nan frowned with a how-could-anybody-be-so-stupid look. "Eric and Jack’s wedding, of course. They’re finally tieing the knot. I thought they’d never get together."

Meet Shirley
"We’ll have to find another place, that’s all there is to it," Bruce sighed. "But every time we start a place, the cops break it up sooner or later."
"They let us operate just as long as the payoff is regular," Nan said bitterly. "I believe they closed up the Stonewall because there was some trouble with the payoff to the cops. I think that’s the real reason. It’s a shame. It was such a lovely place. We never bothered anybody. Why couldn’t they leave us alone?"

Shirley Evans, a neighbor with two children, agrees that the Stonewall was not a rowdy place and the persons who frequented the club were never troublesome. She lives at 45 Christopher St.

"Up until the night of the police raid there was never any trouble there," she said. "The homosexuals minded their own business and never bothered a soul. There were never any fights or hollering, or anything like that. They just wanted to be left alone. I don’t know what they did inside, but that’s their business. I was never in there myself. It was just awful when the police came. It was like a swarm of hornets attacking a bunch of butterflies."

A reporter visited the now closed Stonewall and it indeed looked like a cyclone had struck the premisses.

Police said there were over 200 people in the Stonewall when they entered with a warrant. The crowd outside was estimated at 500 to 1,000. According to police, the Stonewall had been under observation for some time. Being a private club, plain clothesmen were refused entrance to the inside when they periodically tried to check the place. "They had the tightest security in the Village," a First Division officer said, "We could never get near the place without a warrant."

Police Talk
The men of the First Division were unable to find any humor in the situation, despite the comical overtones of the raid.
"They were throwing more than lace hankies," one inspector said. "I was almost decapitated by a slab of thick glass. It was thrown like a discus and just missed my throat by inches. The beer can didn’t miss, though, "it hit me right above the temple."

Police also believe the club was operated by Mafia connected owners. The police did confiscate the Stonewall’s cash register as proceeds from an illegal operation. The receipts were counted and are on file at the division headquarters. The warrant was served and the establishment closed on the grounds it was an illegal membership club with no license, and no license to serve liquor.

The police are sure of one thing. They haven’t heard the last from the Girls of Christopher Street.
…………………………………………………………………
This article was posted to GLB News. For more information and for information on other topics of interest, see the Queer Resources Directory.

With sound business management you are sure you will have smooth business operations. For start up, documentation is paramount. Paper work should be kept to a minimum; they are required to protect you and your business.

Some basic business records include:

1. CASH BOOK

Record cash sales and payments made from every cash transactions. Record payments in and out of your bank account. Show VAT on payments as required by the government. (Tax)

2. PETTY CASH BOOK where applicable

Small cash expenses should be kept on impress basis and should show VAT where applicable.

3. VAT RECORDS where applicable

Show how VAT return figures have been calculated. In addition non-retailers must maintain a list of sales invoices issued.

4. WAGES BOOK

Summary information to meet the needs of the employees and Inland Revenue should be properly recorded.

5. ORDER AND DELIVERY BOOKS

This involves purchase and sales orders and deliveries records.

6. OVERDUE ACCOUNT BOOK

Debtors and creditors analysis; which show the records of all credit records.

THE BANK ACCOUNT

Think about bank accounts well before start up, these details should be

How many accounts (do not have more accounts than you can manage) Bank statements Signatories Charges: -discuss with the bank manager what you can sensibly do to minimize bank charges.

BANK RECONCILIATION:

The bank at your request produces a bank statement while a bank position shows your own latest figures of your bank accounts. Also realize that interest on any overdraft and bank charges will be debited to the account automatically.

These are simple business management tips to make sure that your company runs smoothly. It will make is easy for you to calculate your expenditures and thus know whether you are making any profits.

Why Corporate Blogging Matters

Tokyo Photography Tips: Create your own jobs through social media
Business Advice Blogs

Image by localjapantimes
Lots of photographers sit around waiting to get calls. The unfortunate truth is that was never a good way to get jobs, but in the current climate it is impossible. The economy in Tokyo is officially terrible, and social media (even in Tokyo) has greatly diminished the power, influence, and hence profits of magazines. Things are changing rapidly and Japanese companies are finally accepting social media as a viable way to advertise. Even my local grocery store, a tiny hole-in-the-wall place, has a twitter account they advertise to let customers know how much lettuce is this week.

Magazines all around Tokyo are seriously struggling. The ones that survive will be publications such as the Japan Times that saw the change coming and adapted to the new way the world communicates, gets its news, and does business. One look at fashion magazines in Tokyo tells the whole story. Famous models now have larger followings than the magazines they appear in. If you are a Japanese model and regularly appear on the cover of a magazine like "S-Cawaii" you can expect to have an audience around 80-100,000 per day view your blog. Here is an example of one such blog with those numbers by Kana Hoshino.

What does this mean for photographers? Actually it is great news. Everyone now has the power to self-publish, which is exactly what every aspiring photographer should be doing. Use the authority of print magazines in conjunction with the influence and numbers of social media and you can create your own commercial jobs. Not many people are doing this so it is a perfect time to establish yourself as a commercial photographer capable of putting together social media campaigns. Instead of presenting yourself as merely someone who creates images, you can sell yourself as both the creator of great media and the distribution channel via the models you have contacts with. Instead of waiting for jobs, go out and create them.

Example: The video below is an example of a project I put together for Mercedes Benz, Maria Hietanen, Hiroko Mima (Miss Universe Japan) and Metropolis. The media created from this shoot was used by each party in a different way (blogs, print, FB, youtube) for promotional purposes.

Please feel free to contact me for information about how I can help your business take advantage of advertising through social media or if you have any questions or comments.

ryanbruss.com

By ryanbruss – ryanbruss.com

View more at tokyo.japantimes.co.jp/post/en/1330/Tokyo+Photography+Tip…

Companies that have added a corporate blog to their online marketing strategy have noticed that it has an immense positive effect on their business. Corporate blogging allows companies to build a strong presence on the Web and achieve greater online visibility. Compared to traditional communication channels such as newsletters, advertisements and press releases, corporate blog allows companies to reach larger audience of potential customers and partners and deliver their business’ message in a highly informative and less formal way.

Corporate blog is a great platform for companies to interact with current and potential customers and partners, share their expertise, give tips and advice, talk about their products/services, and comment on the current market and industry trends. Due to the nature of blogs that are usually updated on a daily bases, companies can craft their message to their target audience just in time.

Creating brand awareness and loyalty through corporate blog is just one of its many business enhancing capabilities. Through corporate blog, organizations are able to show a human face to their customers and build quality relationships. Blogs are good not only for disseminating information, but also for receiving a valuable customer feedback that can be used for product development, customer service improvement, etc. If written well, blog can serve as a subtle advertising tool for company’s products and services.

Here are some of the ways a company can benefit from corporate blogging:

Corporate blog is a powerful SEO tool

Corporate blog is the best tool a company can use to secure higher ranking on the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo! As new content is usually produced and published daily, in a very short time a company can build up a large archive of keyword rich articles. Blogs that are constantly updated with fresh content with properly placed keywords and links are quickly picked up by search engines.

Position yourself as a thought leader in your industry

Writing about current trends in your industry or niche, commenting on the latest news and industry events, providing valuable insight to your customers and partners, all this will prove your market knowledge and industry expertise and give you a reputation of a thought leader in your industry. This kind of reputation is priceless, as it builds trust among customers who would rather do business with companies that are in-tuned and well informed about all the newest happenings in the industry they operate in.

Blogs are fantastic for dealing with crisis

A corporate blog allows you to publish content at a heart beat. Most companies have found themselves in a situation where somebody tried to tarnish their brand and their reputation and they needed to respond quickly and refute the false claim. Unlike other methods to publish a contra claim, blog does not require an approval period of 24 or more hours, you can instantly publish the response to the false claim and disseminate positive information to prevent losing customers and consequently the revenue. This is why having a corporate blog makes for great update tool for crisis handling.

Corporate Blog promotes transparency

People like to do business with companies who openly discuss the way they operate their business, produce and market their products, bring innovations to the industry, and so forth. A corporate blog allows your customers, partners and potential prospects to see that one of your company’s policies is to be transparent to customers. This is certainly a way to build trust and engage your customers through less formal conversations about your specific niche, your products and services, or whichever topic you choose.

Potential customers will favor your company over your competitors if they are provided with enough information explaining how they can benefit from doing business with you. Corporate blog can provide readers with just the right dose of info on the way your company operates to brake down the barriers your potential customers may have in trusting your product/service. Corporate blog keeps company transparency that is highly valued by existing and potential customers and business partners.

Receive valuable customer feedback

Corporate blog is used for direct communication with customers and it is a way for your company to solicit feedback from customers in order to better understand their needs and requirements. Whether your blog describes your products and services or talks about company culture, it gives your customers the opportunity to express their opinions. Your company can use a corporate blog to discover the strengths and weaknesses of products/services without having to spend a large amount of money on customer andmarket analysis.

Measure the results of your Corporate Blog

The good thing about blogs is that you can measure the results to learn what is working and what is not. There are free online tools, such as Google Analytics that can provide you with different metrics to show you for example what pages visitors enter and exit, how many visitors come to your blog and leave instantly, where your blog traffic is coming from, etc.

The Essential Asset: Solar Portable Power Pack

Portable packs are fantastic to make use of as emergency backup power to jump begins an automobile or to light up a location on a dark road. They are going to keep a mobile phone or perhaps a GPS charged up without draining the car battery. You can find also lots of makes use of which have been just plain entertaining. Bring 1 together for the summer season tiny league game and plug a fan into it. Carry 1 camping and plug an electric cook best into it or use it for extra light. They could energy a stereo for a tailgate or any other outdoor party. In case you use a laptop out in the field, take 1 together to greatly extend your battery lifestyle. The power packs are really not all that pricey with pricing commencing around 0. Throw 1 inside the trunk of your car and also you will probably be prepared for just about something.

Portable Power packs provides a possibility to carry energy where ever you go. Transportable Power packs produce voltage (energy) by making use of the vitality (lighting) from the sunlight. There has always been much hype about creating power in the solar power. Since the law of conservation of power states “Energy may be transformed from 1 form into another form”, there’s always a possibility of converting power from the sunlight. But converting it in an easy and cost-effective way has always been the challenge.

Getting a solar-energized energy generator for mobile energy needs, it is lightweight, long lasting and capable of supplying silent energy. Incorporating solid state, thin-film, Strength FLEX(TM) solar engineering, the Global Photo voltaic P3 Transportable Strength Pack is superb for re-charging batteries, communication gear and cellular electronics. While a primary battery can be employed only once, the secondary batteries may be recharged as numerous times as necessary. This means the fact that P3 solar charger pays for itself in fewer than 15 recharges! You can equate this benefit to hundreds of totally free batteries!

The handheld gadgets such as Laptops, DVD players, Mobiles are more and more becoming well-liked and have to hold these devices is of utmost necessity. Picture you might be an adventurous guy who just loves hiking mountains. You will find plenty of gadgets which you may need for your individual security and comfort and ease. Typically, all gadgets operate on electrical power. You can’t bring a transportable power supply where ever you go. Having a lightweight pack will nurture the vitality in the sunlight and will act like a daylong battery for all of your devices ensuring your individual security and comfort and ease. Lightweight Photo voltaic power will provide you a more pleasurable existence.

Solar power is generated with all the help of a Photovoltaic cell. Sun generates lighting and heat energy. It is the light energy and not the heat vitality which can be employed through the photovoltaic cells. A PV cellular consists of multi-layers of semi-conducting components (mostly Silicon). Electric fees are created when the semi-conducting material is exposed to lamination. These electric charges are employed for various purposes. With plenty of work being taken to possess thoroughly clean vitality from an organizational and international perspective, this really is just a starting. Massive amount automobile firms like Honda is doing study on creating a vehicle which runs purely on photo voltaic energy. It is essential for all humans inside the planet to ensure that our mother earth is clean and green. Bear in mind, electricity saved is twice electrical power created.

What can make the International Solar P3 Lightweight Energy Pack so hard that it can survive and sustain its efficiency even inside the roughest conditions? These military grade units use non-silicon based, C.I.G.S Engineering which can assure self-sustaining energy whenever wherever. Difficult to withstand serious external situations, it’s no wonder the fact that C.I.G.S Technology is also used in the area system. Adding towards the convenience with the user, it has twice the strength to weight ratio of alternative solar generators, which requires repeated mobile power renewal. It folds easily which can make it convenient for storage as well.

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Business Debt Management – Business Debt Management Restores Focus

For whatever reason, the business assets are not enough to pay the monthly bill and business debts are beginning to accumulate. And even worse, you, as the head of this business, now find that you are spending more time thinking about business debt management than about the other aspects of the business. You may find yourself spending the hours in the day that should be focussed upon attracting new customers mired in the quagmire in debt negotiations with creditors. Or the hours you usually provide customer service and backup to your existing customers are being eaten away while you try to collect payment for services that have been provided. In either case, your focus is upon business debt management and not upon your business. With your attention divided in this way, it will not be long before serious business help will be necessary.

Now is the time to browse the Internet for business debt management. There are many services listed that offer counselling regarding business debt management, all forms of business help, solutions for resolving commercial debt, and who offer programs that result in business debt settlement. A business debt management firm will assess the business, the amount of debt and the ratio to assets. Most business debt management consultants will say that bankruptcy is almost never the correct step to take. It further weakens the local business fabric by unloading more unpaid accounts upon it. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get debt relief through declaring a business bankruptcy.

The business debt management consultant will come up with a plan that will reduce the amount of time that you, as the head of the business will have to spend on the worrisome tasks of dealing with your creditors and with those individuals who owe your business. The business help that the consultant provides will be aimed at paying off the commercial debt of the business in the quickest way that will still allow the business to keep running. The business help plan may take the form of business debt consolidation or business debt settlement, or a combination of both, depending upon the individual situation created by the business and its creditors. The debt management consultant will negotiate with the business creditors to develop a new payment plan that is tailored to a budget that is based upon the business assets. Often this payment plan will be accompanied by an interest rate that is reduced for some or all of the payment period.

The business debt management plan will certainly involve collecting at least a part of the debts owed to the business as well as paying those owed, over time. The consultant may offer quite generous terms to the clients who owe your business to recoup some payment assets. The business debt management consultant will put your creditors minds at ease and will institute a plan that will ensure payment in full of the business debts. Most importantly, the business help that you will receive from the business debt management firm will return your focus to the details of growing and maintaining your business, where it belongs.

Check these links to learn more:

http://www.curadebt.com/about.asp

http://www.curadebt.com/settlement/business-debt-negotiation/business-debt-settlement-negotiation.asp

===================

Debbie White is a contributing writer to http://www.curadebt.com and is currently writing some special articles to guide businesses on how to manage debt and avoid bankruptcy. For Business Debt Information and Debt Help Consultation, call toll-free 1-877-850-3328.

www.burtcollect.com — debt collection commercial business agency company collection mistake guide risk management score reports collection video Law League of America SAS 70 settlements negotiations Statutes of Limitations Collection Laws by State accounts receivables
Video Rating: 1 / 5

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Human Resource Management Tips For Business Growth

The ‘Third System’
Management Tips

Image by Alan Stanton
Sunday photostroll 28 December 2008 – 13:47
(Click here to enlarge.)

══════════════════

♦ ♦ What’s this about?

A resident complained to me – as her local councillor – about this pile of dumped waste on Lansdowne Road, Tottenham. So I strolled there. (Seeing a lot more dumping in nearby streets, I also took photos on the way.)

No prizes for guessing that here in Lansdowne Road, the wood and windows came from builders – perhaps saving a few quid on their waste contract and freeloading on Haringey Council and Haringey Enterprise, the waste contractors.

And perhaps the boxes were added to the pile by local residents.

Imitation seems a big factor in street dumping. With a negative feedback loop: the more it becomes the norm, the more other people join in.

♦ ♦ Why take photos rather than just report it for clearance?

Because simply to clear-up dumping does not solve the problem. It doesn’t even try to understand the problem and its possible causes.

Perversely, monitoring and reporting by itself probably makes things worse. Because regular and efficient clearance from dumped streets and corner sites confirms a minority of people’s expectations that it is acceptable to leave stuff there, at any hour, seven days a week. They ‘learn’ that it’s a free and quick way to get rid of smelly waste bags; or an old TV; or any other detritus. Much quicker and easier than keeping it for a week in their own wheelie bin or recycling boxes; or taking waste to a ‘Bring Site’ or Reuse & Recycling Centre.

♦ ♦ The ‘Third System’

My photos support the suggestion that – in large parts of Haringey – the Council’s Urban Environment Department has dismally failed to engage and get co-operation from significant numbers of residents; as well as some traders, landlords, managing agents and builders. And so dumping on the street has become an unofficial "third system" of waste disposal.

______________________
§ Click here for a Map with the
location of all the photos in
this Sunday photostroll set.

Working with sub-ordinates is one of the greatest challenges that most employers have in running their companies. Here are some human resource management tips one has to consider when carrying out your duties as a boss.

1. Have enough knowledge on the duties being carried out by your employees: This is very important because as a boss you will avoid being cheated by lazy employees or the employees taking advantage of your ignorance.

2. Be honest, humble and firm: As an effective employer or manager you must be truthful to your sub-ordinates. When a mistake is committed, correct them in humility but also be firm.

3. Listen to the views and ideas of your employees: Most of the times employees have great business ideas that can help the company grow hence offer them a platform to relay their thoughts and grievances. These idea will help you improve their working environment; enhance efficiency of workers and the business performance in general.

4. Records: As a boss learn to keep all business records and the employees records on their performance and commitment. This will assist you to make necessary adjustments, offer training where necessary and do away with lazy and inefficient employees.

5. Salaries and Wages: A good employer must pay his workers in time as per agreement. This helps to avoid things like strikes, complaining and losing efficient employees.

Employees that are motivated play a major role in ensuring a business succeeds, and hence as a business owner you should take decisive steps to ensure that your workers are well taken care of in all aspects of their working conditions.

For more information about the full length version of this program, please visit: www.seminarsondvd.com Effective time management is one of the most important skills for boosting productivity. In this powerful time management session by Brian Tracy, you’ll learn how to organize every area of your life. You’ll discover several time management tips, including the best ways to eliminate time wasters, time management techniques for maximizing productivity, how to increase your personal power, how to make yourself more valuable, and keys for staying motivated. No matter what you do for a living, this session promises to bring your time management skills and organizational skills to a new level. Brian Tracy is one of the most in-demand speakers in the world on the subjects of effective time management, business productivity and personal performance. He’s a dynamic and entertaining presenter, teaching important strategies on how to reach higher levels of achievement, income and happiness. As the author of dozens of books covering the entire spectrum of human and corporate performance, Brian Tracy has appeared on countless television and radio shows. He is also featured regularly in major publications across the country, and overseas. Brian Tracy has also conducted high-level consulting assignments with several billion-dollar-plus corporations in strategic planning and organization development. MANAGE & ORGANIZE YOUR MOST IMPORTANT PRIORITIES TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR STAYING …
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Compliance Training: Important in Every Perspective

It is quite difficult for anyone to understand the importance of compliance training today. However, if you look at the growth point of view, it has become a significant tool in building relationship with top organizations across the industry. A good training leads your employees to follow the standards set by the industry, which makes the result look even better than what they could have been, had you not been compliant.

Now, since you know the advantage, your next step is to apply for an online compliance training program. While looking for the same, keep it in mind that your choice should have a reputation in the market. They should always update them with the changing policies. And again, they should have associations with client for longer period. The results will be inevitable and you will get the things going in the right direction for you and your company in no time whatsoever.