I have my first free tee shirt winner for my Free Tee Shirt Contest on ThePunchBuggyGame.com! In case you missed it, I am giving away free tee shirts every week or so until January 11, 2011. On that date, I am picking a GRAND PRIZE WINNER for $50.
The first winner is Mark Sierra from the Darn Good Reviews blog. Congratulations, Mark!
It's a shnazzy tee shirt:
I hear it every day on the radio, the TV and from patrons at the Hot Dog Truck: we are in a deep, nasty recession.
The stock market is tanking, people are losing their jobs, major financial institutions are near collapse and homes are in foreclosure at record numbers.
We are in deep doo doo.
So we need to get out of this funk so everyone can get back to being solvent and happy.
How do we get out of this, the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?
BUY SOMETHING!!!
A couple of hot dogs would be a nice start.
Yesterday I replaced my tip bucket with a bucket that says "Hotdogman's Bailout Fund." Tips were surprisingly good!
Now I don't think we'll get $700 Billion in tip money in time to save the Wall Street weasels, but it brought a little levity to the situation.
I have been reading a lot of theories about how the $700 Billion could be disbursed , and most of them are flawed. My solution is for the Feds to make me, the Hotdogman, the sole trustee of the bailout funds.
Instead of giving the money to the crooks who have already stolen that much (now they want to steal more to "save" the economy), I would take half of it and pay mortgages for folks who are having trouble. I'd start paying off the highest interest rate mortgages first and keep going until I ran out of the $350 billion.
With the other half, I'd give an equal share to every US citizen over age 18 with one caveat: you must spend all of it on products made in the USA.
I think the economy would do just fine with me in charge. The hot dogs would be good too.
When I was in college, "Forex" was a condom. Many of you probably know about the FOREX market, but for those who don't, it's short for FOReign EXchange. Basically FOREX is a currency trading system using margin that allows virtually anyone to trade currencies. If you haven't seen a ridiculous ad claiming you can get rich overnight trading currencies, you probably aren't paying attention when you're online.
I have been trading FOREX for a few years now. I have a mini account that I originally funded with only $500 and I started out trading in small lots. I have made money and probably could have made more had I had a larger account to start with. I treat my FOREX account like I treat playing BlackJack: only come to the table with what you are prepared to lose!
The reason many people fail trading FOREX is they try to trade too much without knowing what the heck they were doing. They put a bunch of money into an account and trade willy nilly until their account is gone and then they say the whole FOREX thing is a scam. They don't take being STUPID into account. You need to LEARN what you are doing and take some time to study about how the market works, terminology, money management and a whole host of other details. You should also practice trading with a Demo Account so you get a feel for how everything works. I practice traded for nearly 18 months before I opened a real account.
I tried many different kinds of Forex software with different companies before I funded an account. This allowed me to find a trading platform I was comfortable with.
I recently became aware of eToro, a Forex software provider and retail FOREX broker. They have a very web 2.0 approach to FOREX trading. The site explains the workings of the FOREX market very clearly and conciselyLike every other FOREX broker out there, they offer a Demo account. I downloaded it and the interface was pretty easy to navigate and the transaction interface looked easy to understand for beginners. I wasn't too crazy about their charts-I like to plot all sorts of indicators and time frames on my charts and they don't have this graphic capability on their platform. Of course I have my own custom charting feed and software so I wouldn't need it, but it is rather vanilla.
One cool thing eToro has is Monthly Championships where you trade your Demo account with a $2000 "virtual balance." The person who makes the most money trading wins $500! You have to fund an account with the winnings, but what better way to get into FOREX trading than with "house money!"
I'm going to give the March Championship a whirl. Stay tuned....
The recent hassles with my current location have forced me to look into alternative sites. While I have been looking at alternatives, several new opportunities have surfaced and I am considering all of them. I could end up with multiple sites for Hot Dog Trucks AND a brick and mortar restaurant. If I go the multiple location route, I'll need a Business Loan to fund expansion.
I have a few months over the winter to wrap up the locations for Hot Dog Trucks, but I'll need to move quickly on the brick and mortar restaurant. The location I'm scouting is turn key and I'll need to move fast if it becomes available since there are three or four others interested in it. Working with a lender who offers a Business Loan with Easy Processing,Fast Funding and Great Service will be important.
If all falls into place, I'll need a new hot dog truck or trailer, a hot dog cart and some money for inventory on the restaurant. I've got SOME cash lying around, but I'll most likely be looking into EZUnsecured.com for my Business Loan needs.
Writing effective sales copy to increase your sales is the name of a site I found. It has to be one of the funniest sites I've come across in quite some time.
If you have ever clicked on a "Make 8 gazillion dollars online with no work" type of ad, you have landed on a "sales letter page" designed to part you with your money in exchange for the "secret" to wealth and fortune.
For 39 bucks.
Does anyone ever buy this stuff? After reading "Writing effective sales copy to increase your sales" you will NEVER buy another e-book again.
You'll get a good laugh too.
Everyone knows I like to make a buck. I came across a great way for high school or college kids to make a few bucks, $10,000 to be exact, for college.
We've all probably opened a greeting card and thought "hey, I could write this stuff." Now is the chance to do it and WIN A $10,000 scholarship!
Gallery Greeting Cards, the folks who print business Christmas cards (the ones you get from your Realtor, your insurance company etc. at Christmas time) are having their first annual greeting cards scholarship contest. All you need to do is design a business Christmas card. The contest is open to high school and college students over age 14 who are legal US residents. Sorry, no entries from Maine accepted-Maine always gets the shaft! The entries can contain original drawings or photos and text. A creative, witty would be college scholar can get an extra ten grand for school if they win!
I used to send out hundreds of business Christmas cards when I was in the mortgage business. Each broker had a budget for the cards and the postage and we were REQUIRED to send cards. We'd spend the better part of a day getting our mailings together. We'd even pay the office admin a few bucks to sign them for us. I believe my company ordered our cards through the Gallery Collection. Little did I know that my kids could get money for college from the same company!
If you are a kid (or have a kid) over 14 and college is in the future, you should check out the greeting cards scholarship contest and give it a whirl. You have nothing to lose and $10,000 for college to gain.
I'll be needing a new location for the Hot Dog Truck next spring. In fact, I'll most likely need a new truck. I could use available cash or I could get an Unsecured Business Loan to buy a new truck. Another option is to get a storefront location. Either way, I'll need money to get things rolling.
EZUnsecured.com is a lender I've been scouting in case I need to get some cash fast. They offer great service, easy process and, most importantly, FAST FUNDING. With a 680 FICO Score, they can get money to a borrower quickly and at very competitive rates.
Being able to move quickly when there is a business opportunity is tantamount to being successful. Like the old saying goes, "he who hesitates is lost."
There are a lot of unemployed mortgage brokers out there. I personally know quite a few. The crash in the housing market and the subsequent downturn in mortgage financing has caused some mortgage lenders to go out of business and left a lot of folks with sound financial experience looking for work.
Lots of displaced mortgage professionals will use an executive job search firm. There are still jobs in corporate finance for people with a sound financial background. There are even entry level corporate finance jobs for people who are smart and willing to learn.
Even if you haven't been displaced by the market, if you are a finance professional looking to improve your station, you should seek out an executive job search firm to help you identify the best opportunities available to you.
The cash advance industry is alive and well on the internet. These types of loans, sometimes called payday loans, require no credit check and require that the borrower has a job and earns $1000 per month or more. Folks use these loans to keep their checkbooks balanced during financial shortcomings, to fix their car or any number of minor fiscal crisis's.
Pay back terms on these loans are usually between a few days to a month. Payday loans can be a good way to bridge a short term money shortage, especially if you're expecting a nice sized paycheck shortly.
The "dark side" of a cash advance or payday loan is that interest rates can be very high. I've seen advertised rates as high as 95% on some of these loans! Even the local loanshark doesn't charge THAT MUCH! If you are considering a payday loan, make sure you read the FINE PRINT.
Regular readers know I used to broker Mortgages. I know a little bit about the subject. I know about money too. (I know I never seem to have enough!)
Personal loans are another form of borrowing. Basically a lender loans you money if you: a. have enough in the bank to pay them back or b. have really good credit. There are a lot of Personal loan companies that have really loose terms and high rates. You need to be careful with many of these loans or you could end up paying a prohibitively expensive interest rate.
Sometimes it's better to go with a secured loan to get a lower rate. Just be sure you can afford to make the loan payments so whatever you are offering for security isn't put at risk.
Whether you are looking for a secured loan, a personal loan or a Mortgage, be sure you understand the risk, rates and payments. You should never "sign on the dotted line" unless you understand what you are paying for the money you're borrowing!
My 14 year old is doing a walk for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation in a few weeks. She asked if she could sell cookies at the Hot Dog Truck to help her raise funds for her walking team. Since she was so busy and the irony finally sunk in, she asked if I could take a collection at the truck.
Thus Fundraising Fridays were born!
I took an empty tuna bucket and wrote this on it: "Fundraising Friday. Please help support the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation." I placed this new bucket where the Hot Dog Operator's Relief Fund normally is.
I collected $33.00 for her today and I promised she could have the spot for the bucket next week. Once her walk is completed, I plan on putting the bucket out every Friday with a different cause every two or three weeks.
I'll keep you posted.
At the end of every month there is a scramble to pay the mortgage, insurance, and all the other bills. I'd like to be able to get the best car insurance rates and one of those cheap mortgages so I could save a few extra bucks!
Most of us are one or two "bad months" away from fiscal crisis. When something goes wrong with a job or a business, it is easy to fall behind on bills. And you can't keep getting loans to get back on track.
It's a good idea to have at least 6 months living expenses socked away for a rainy day in case bad luck befalls you. I have found the "passive income" from my blog to be a nice little cushion each month against potential financial setbacks.
While you may not be able to use EZUnsecured.com to START a business with an Unsecured Business Loan, you could certainly expand your business with one. Getting money is tough if you don't have any, but if you have a going business concern, like the Hot Dog Truck, that has demonstrable cash flow, obtaining an Unsecured Business Loan is fairly straightforward.
Getting money isn't quite as easy as getting lunch at the Hot Dog Truck, but you should look for the same things from your lender: easy processing, fast funding and great service. EZUnsecured.com offers all this and more-more money that is.
If you have good credit, getting a loan to expand your business is easy peasy lemon squeezy. You can do a no doc loan with a 700 fico score or better! While the mortgage lending industry is pulling back and making money harder to get, small business lending to prosperous businesses is thriving.
So get to EZUnsecured.com today and get things rolling with an Unsecured Business Loan for your business.
If you own a home, you have a mortgage. Mortgages have been very easy to come by for most people in the beginning of this millennium-if you had a pulse and a job you could get a mortgage. Money was pretty easy to get in the past 6 years or so.
Unfortunately, remortgages are becoming less common as banks and mortgage lenders have tightened lending guidelines do to increasing defaults. Homeowners are being foreclosed on at records rates to to the free and easy lending practices of the past 6 years. In the U.S. dozens of mortgage lenders have gone belly up, but they have only their greed and poor judgement to blame. Borrowers who took mortgage payment protection plans with their mortgages are glad they did. These plans pay your mortgage when you can't.
More banks should have pitched mortgage payment protection plans when they were playing fast and loose with their lending guidelines-maybe there would be fewer defaults if they had. Unfortuneateley for most borrowers, high interest adjustable loans obtained 3-7 years ago are adjusting NOW and payments are through the roof. The lenders are partly to blame for this mess and borrowers who KNEW they were overstating things are to blame too.
My Winning Football Picks site had a GREAT DAY SUNDAY! Our Sunday plays went 8-2-1! We'll be posting Monday Night Plays too, so if you like money, you need to check out Winning Football Picks!
When I was in high school I took a production printing class as an elective. We'd do print jobs for local businesses and we got experience in printing and running a business. We also got to print stuff for ourselves. I made up a thousand business cards that simply said "My Card" along with my name and home phone number. I handed them out at college and I'd give them to girls in clubs. It was a cute ice breaker and I got many a phone call from those little cards.
Once I got out into the wonderful word of sales, I always had business cards. When I owned my duct cleaning business, I had a $20.00 off coupon on the back of my business cards. My wife, who works in a Real Estate Office is always bringing home broker business cards with football and baseball schedules on the back. These always grab my attention. I even had magnetic business cards when I was in the mortgage business; they are like mini billboards on my customer's refrigerators.
One of the coolest business cards I ever saw was one of those picture cards that looks like it's in 3D when you wiggle it back and forth. It was from a guy in the printing business who printed all my business cards! His cards grabbed my attention so much I order all my cards from his company to this day; I can even order my business cards online from his company now!
I remember reading a book by the self professed "World's Greatest Salesman," Joe Girard, and he used to go to football games with a couple thousand business cards. Whenever the crowd would rise to its feet and cheer, he'd throw a few hundred business cards into the air! I wonder if the printing lobby paid him to write that?!
When I was in the mortgage business, I was going through about 500 business cards per month. They went into every envelope I sent-marketing mailers, customer correspondence, even my bills! I even put the old "My Card" gag on the back of my "official" business cards to help make folks remember me. Most customers found it amusing and it definitely set me apart from other mortgage brokers.
I have business cards for the Hot Dog Truck, but I don't hand out many. They have the "My Card" gag on the back too. I still send them in with my bills as a goof and I hand them out to customers who want to call ahead for an order. These business cards have my cell phone number on them, so they come in handy for all sorts of situations.
I used to drive fast. Wicked fast. Everywhere. I had the wheels to do it too. My favorite car was a 1987 Lincoln Sport Coupe Mark VII. Ultra luxurious and faster than poop.
Nowadays I drive slow. Speed limit slow. My wife gets on me for driving slow. My kids get on me for driving slow. I was driving my grandmother home last Christmas and she said "could you pick it up a little?"
Here's my reasoning:
I used to get a lot of tickets, now I don't because I drive slow. I drive slow because I thought about it.
If I am traveling 100 miles doing the speed limit of 65 MPH, I'll arrive at my destination in an hour and a half or so. If I go 75 MPH I'll get there about five minutes faster.
If I get pulled over for speeding going 75MPH, I'll get a $100 ticket ($10 for each MPH over the limit) PLUS a $50 surcharge on my insurance for 7 years. That's a total of $450 to save 5 minutes on my trip.
Not even factoring in the time lost while pulled over, I would need to earn $5,400 per hour to justify the ticket cost/time saved quotient.
So when I earn $5,400 per hour, I'll drive as fast as I want.
Until then, grandma will have to be more patient.
Will you live in the two? The top two percent of income earners that is. Well, will you? If you want to find out about how self improvement can help you be one of those top two percent of income, then go to Live In the Two dot com and take their test. I did.
I found out what I already know because I am a highly enlightened Hotdogman. I am disciplined, I have a passion for my work, I don't fear risk, I am an eternal optimist (I like to think of myself as a pragmatic optimist), and I have good interpersonal skills. I already knew this about myself, but it's nice to reaffirm things for yourself sometimes. Having these traits doesn't guarantee you'll be amongst the top two percent of income earners, but if you think this way it is more likely you will be.
I guess folks who focus on self improvement will always be striving to be better at what they do. Most people who are good at what they do are well paid and the more well paid you are, the more likely you'll be a big earner, perhaps you'll even "live in the two!"
I have applied these principles to my hot dog truck, as I have in my former sales career. While the hot dog truck isn't as lucrative as some of my past endeavors, I am passionate about my dogs and I make the best damn dogs in my area. That has earned me a steady regular clientele and has in turn increased my business (and my income)!
Why not take the test for yourself and see if you have what it takes to "live in the two."
