Austerity

With budget deficit looming in every corner or government municipalities such as in IL and CA, many American feel that the only way to lower austerity and budget deficit by either increasing tax revenue or reducing government debt.

Is it a feasible, really, to ramp up domestic consumption based on solely domestic production and service? Is it truly sustainable to survive only on purely American products and services for American? Likewise, for Italian's for Italian, French's for Frenchmen, Greek's for Grecian?

You can help local economy by, let say, cutting your hair at your local barber, buy meat and produce from localized grocers or local farmers market or to the extreme if truly you have time and do not mind the effort, you may opt to grow your own food in your backyard and breed your own chickens for the poultry and eggs. Still, is it sustainable for a modern country such as USA to go back into traditional agriculture way of life?

Many patriotic slogans encourage people to avoid Walmart, Target, and other big box stores, both brick-and-mortar and online. The new-wave just like Occupy Wall Streeters, demands big government to stay out of business world and be more like a police and weeding out liberalization. Demanding more social equality and more job creation and stop corporate greed.

Stop liberalization of economy? Really, does one think stopping capitalism is the fairest of all ? I do not particularly keen on it since socialism nor  heavy government intervention blocking economy laissez faire. Just let the ball rolls on its own. Just like the government should let the housing price in US fall down further due to lack of demand, lack of jobs that lead to lack of purchasing power. After it falls then it will find the supporting cushion to remain steady or go back up according to economic health.

More governmental intervention will create more policy and jobs within the government itself. Then, usually there is tender bidding for governmental contract and it is usually potpourried with cronyism and favoritism. Thus, will it truly create more job growth to the correct targeted population? If jobs are not created or tax break is given only for those who win the tender then tax revenue cannot be increased. Unless, the government is willing to do more work by chopping the big project into piece-meals and scattered them into several local vendors across regional geography, then it will become more effective.

Economic globalization is inevitable. So to reduce budget deficit that is currently blamed mostly on China, US must export more. Period. Export more intangible services to create more nominal value. When the rest of the world relies on cheaper production cost of daily living necessities such as clothing, plastics, machinery, automotive from China and India, US can create more ideas such as financial derivates products, film and music industry, art industry, financial trading proprietary, education, and more. Export those intangible services and brainchilds to countries worldwide. Let's be honest, every corner of the earth have their eyes fixated and entertained by anything happening in Hollywood. Even Bollywood movie industry is named after Hollywood world-known movie industry.

One country cannot close its own door towards the world and when US impose Yuan (Renminbi) appreciation pressure to China, it won't be beneficial for country such as US nor the world economy as whole. The snowball effect is tremendously devastating.

Start an Urban Clothing Store - Distro or Indie Clothing Store

Urban Clothing Store, widely known as Distro or Indie Clothing Store, sell unique hand-made clothing mostly shirts and jeans. Accessories are also sold under Urban or Indie ' flag such as sneakers or hats, scarves, funky jewelry, shoes, and more.

Simple items that can be home-made in smaller home industry scale such as:
1. Take plain basic t-shirt in white. Tie into a scrunchie and dip into coloring in multiple layers. Untie and dry the t-shirt
2. Take plain basic t-shirt in different color. Embossed with unique wording and catchy phrases.
3. Take any t-shirts in different color. Sew in beads and rhinestone to create abstract pattern or girly wording
4. Take any simple white sneaker and decorate with any creative material that you can think of
5. Take any ethnic fabrics or thread or beads and turn them into clothing and jewelry
etc.

Prepare, plan and execute:
- target market: population, age, demographic
- location: city corner or malls or web presence such as online shop
- brand identity: using cartoon pejorative or hyperbole words, using local ethnic slangs, using sexist or specific chauvinistic or feminist words and or design associated-details
- brand and product pricing
- effective and efficient production
- broadcast, publish and market the business: use marketing from sponsoring local band to putting newspaper or magazine print ads; use social network platforms such as tumblr, facebook and twitter
- sell, sell and sell

How to Protect a Company during a Relocation

Company's relocation is sometimes felt as inundating task. However when the goal finally achieved it would give satisfying result. Relocation is caused by several reasons such as: cost cutting, company expansion, warehouse enlargement, etc. but at the end the purpose is to gain more profit.

Here are several factors that needs to be remember during the process of relocation:

-  Provide new address and forwarding address towards any business partners, suppliers or vendors, banking, insurance, governmental affairs, taxation and customers
-  Maintain a consistent phone number that can be reached at business hours as a customer service base
-  If data or inventory are overwhelmingly large, appoint a moving person-in-charge or project manager to be the specific go-to-person when there is questions to be answered. This person must prepare several plan and even several what-if scenarios problem solution during the company's relocation
-  Shred unwanted documents and purge out unneeded supplies, equipments. You can donate some excess inventory as well if company decides to write them off.
-  Provide email address for customers to reach Customer Service Department in any Company's website or social networking sites.
-  Schedule the moving transporter and new place set up in accordance to the moving plan
-  Be aware of potential hazardous or accidental incident that may be happened due to fire, electrical wiring, and so on during the equipment moving

How to Manage

Managing is more than a deep expertise in the specific field but more in the sense of human psychology. Learning to manage is more by doing rather than by reading theoretical books because we are dealing with human beings who have emotion and needs. Managing without the human side of it will feel too cold and abrasive, hurting team members and treating members not more than a widget maker in an assembly line.

How to manage in a simple way:

1.  Understand your team. We must understand the background and the expectation of each individual member within your team you are leading. For example: the family circumstance that may hinder them from working late at night or start too early in the morning, etc.
2.  Get a clear goal on the overall organization and communicate it towards your team
3.  Break the final goal into several stepping stone that is easier to digest and to achieve within a period of time
4.  Understand individual strength and weakness. Acknowledge when specific individual member has particular expertise in a task and assign the right task towards this person
5.  Delegate appropriately and correctly to the right individual who has the tenacity, skills, ambition and knowledge
6.  Reward achievements whether it is overall team success or an individual milestone
7.  Be professional and respect everyone boundary between personal life and working life

How to Interpret Financial Ratio

Interpreting Financial Ratio actually use simple logic just like understanding fractions.
Financial Ratio is usually derived from 2 factors. The first is usually in the top of the fraction called Numerator. The second is usually in the bottom of the fraction called Lower Denominator. A simple way on how to interpret Financial Ratio:


1.  Anytime you see Financial Ratio called "X" O "Y" (meaning "X" over "Y") we will know that X is the numerator and Y is the lower denominator. The lower denominator is the base of the interpretation. Meaning if it is for example Return On Asset (ROA) then we are interpreting ratio of income on the relationship towards the amount of asset. It means we are understanding how big the income generated by the company or the business compared to the size of asset that is invested in the business process or the company. In short, in calculating financial ratio we are deriving the relationship between the numerator and the lower denominator.

2.  Define each of the numerator factor and the lower denominator factor so that you will clearly understand what the factor function and definition.

3.  Understand that the result could be a whole number (with decimal) positive and negative, but it also can be presented in terms of percentage as well.

For example: Let's take Quick Ratio.  Quick Ratio equals to Current Assets divided by Current Liabilities.  Here, the numerator is Current Asset whereas the lower denominator is Current Liability. Quick Ratio shows how fast the short term asset can be to cover or pay back short term liability if needed. In other words this ratio shows the company's liquidity. The bigger the Asset, the more liquid the business can cover its Liability.

How to Help an Unemployed Person

These days when unemployment is so rampant, anybody could be the next one who got the pink slip due to company's cost saving lost to global competition. If we are still holding a job, no matter how much we dislike or like it, we should be very grateful and try our best to keep it.

When we have a neighbor or friend or ex-colleague who got chopped off we could at least do these things:

1.  Sympathize. We should sympathize but not overtly since we must respect other people's feeling or grieving
2.  If this is our close neighbor and the family is very close to us, we can offer to give them some baking or cooking once every so often
3.   Look at our human resource database to check whether there is any appropriate job opening matches his/her qualification, then forward it to him / her
4.  Encourage him / her to keep looking at different job databases and try to get interviews as many as possible
5.  During this upcoming Holiday Season is the perfect time to start hunting for retail job. No matter how small it is, tell him / her that this could be a good starting point
6.  If money is not a problem, encourage him / her to go back to school or try to acquire new skill
7.  If this person is pretty seasoned and has tremendous experiences, encourage him / her to start an entrepreneurial journal. Moreover if this person has other unique skills such as sport coaching, music, craft, flower arrangement, baking, cooking, writing, music, etc. they can start their self-employment journey such as: selling hand made items on etsy.com, opening a children or baby daycare, opening a cupcake bakery, teaching piano or violin, etc.

Uniqlo vs. Gap The Battle of Non-Luxury Fashion Retailing

Retailing battles is getting more and more fierce in US. According to abcnews.com, Uniqlo a Japanese -brand retailer is expanding and building more square-feet stores presence in big metropolitan cities area such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Unlike Gap, the American brand retailer that is currently downsizing its stores presence, Uniqlo is ambitiously keen on capturing the largest audience, the untapped tired-of-branding-consumers.

American retailers have done top notched job in creating standardized visual merchandising and display to grow brand consistency in the past 2 decades. However, the creation of overlapping smaller niche target new things and in around 2006-2007 Forth & Towne was chopped off soon after its launch. Gap was very diligent creating more sub-brands (such as: babyGaps) and more brands online and brick-n-mortar (such as: Banana Republic, Piperlime, Old Navy, Athleta). Still, some could overlap even though there is differences in style and price points within them each.

Unlike Gap, Uniqlo is selling its non-logo non-branded everyday apparel with its mix-n-match flare depending on personality.  Their items are: all kind of shirts and T-shirts, basics such as underwear, socks and even baby onesies, hats, jeans, pants, colorful basic sweaters and sweatshirts. Personally I found it a bit tad boring but with the reachable mass-produced price point it will be an attractive choice. I call it Walmart staples goes department store. We shall roll the dice and I think it will have major traction in bigger metropolitan areas compared to less traffic areas.

Uniqlo has been expanding vastly outside Japan particularly in HongKong and China. Almost in every Jusco Department Stores or medium-to-large Malls I found in HK and China, I will find a Uniqlo store in it. At first, when I saw the checkered shirt with the baseball-inspired cap on the mannequin I thought, okay this more like a cross between American Eagle and Abercrombie & Fitch. Later,  my husband bought a pouch of 3-pairs of socks and he likes them.

Just like watching the battle between Zara vs. Mango, H&M vs Forever 21 and other non-luxury fashion retailing, shows that surviving the retail battle is even more crucial during the upcoming Holiday season starting this Thanksgiving. And the saga continues...

1 USD = 1 RMB ??? Equilibrium possibility

Just another day I was told that my friend has lost her job in East Coast, at the same time I got news that another friend got millions of USD capital for her innovative social media platform induction by venture capitalists in the Golden State (CA). Apparently there is a mixed signals in global economy as investment have shifted and innovation has accelerated.

South-East Asian countries (i.e. Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and so forth) are warning their export based businesses to guard against the declining demand from European and American. Except countries which still relies on exporting raw material abroad, these countries must accelerate their export to other alternatives such as Middle Eastern and Africa. While China and its territories such as Macao and HongKong is handling their own inflation curbing attempt and intentional housing cooling down policy creation.

Several years ago I still remember when I made a purchase 1USD still equals to HKD 7.78 and equals to RMB 8.6 Then Yuan (RMB) kept strengthening to 1 USD = RMB 7.8 that make HK and China stood equally. Then this summer 2011 was an eye opener when I found a Hongkong merchant so happily received Chinese Renminbi as the payment. I was supposed to pay bill in the amount of HKD500 but I was low on HKD cash on my hand at the moment so knowingly I handed him RMB500. Same color, red! Different pictures! He was so happy... he just makes 20% more on his service and merchant because 1 USD now equals to HKD7.7 and equals to RMB 6.3 .... I consider it tips for him...

So the shift is happening but US still holds the most innovation and creating non-tangible service, rights, patents, etc. that can be used and produced worldwide. Considering the current Wall Street protest, protest by the jobless young people in France few months ago, some demonstrations in other parts of the world, I conclude that unemployment and people's well being is the root cause.

It arrives to the coming of equilibrium, European and American countries must lower their wage standard or strong GDP Asian countries must raise their wage standard.

With the wide spread difference of living cost between continents, one must evaluate carefully but it is coming because it is epidemically global. 

For a simple view: 

A regular corporate accountant with 2-5years experience will make annually around:

USD 55,000 in US, or HKD 200,000 in HongKong, or RMB 120,000 in China, or IDR 48,000,000 in Indonesia

Whereas the price of a loaf of bread respectively are:

USD 5.49, HKD12, RMB 10, and IDR 7,000

So in terms of loaf of bread the accountant can afford as follows:

in US 10,018 loaves, in HK 16,667 loaves, in China 12,000 loaves and in Jakarta 6,857 loaves

Certainly the US accountant makes much more in terms of nominal but HK accountant wins in terms of purchasing power and thus, it leads to a lot of companies, even US companies,  moves their manufacturing, their service center, their supporting office (accounting & financial analysis, IT, etc.) to Asian countries where labor costs are low.

Therefore, in order to remain competitive, US will eventually leveling its salary and compensation structure mirroring other countries and when price of all things inflated, the real purchasing power will decrease and help the coming or closing gap of the equilibrium 1 USD = 1 RMB possibility.

Global Citizen Find a Job in Another Country

Global workforce has become more and more competitive. Often salary and cost of living must be considered in confirming a job offer. Living and working Internationally will enhance your life experience as a global citizen. Additional benefits or perks can also sweeten the deal if you and your family are in agreement to experience big change in your working world.

My suggestions on how to start finding a job in another country are:
1. Internal questioning. Start by questioning internal opening within your company. If you are already working in a Multi-National-Company or Global Brands such as: Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, Motorola, Unilever, P&G, Kraft, Pepsico, CocaCola, McDonalds, KFC, etc. , within the company's internal jobs database you will find many global openings worldwide. After you find it, approach the human resources to inquiry about it and how to pursue it

2. Internet research. If you don't work in an MNC company or you totally want to switch field or industry, you must research in the internet heavily every day such as googling jobs database in your targeted country, where your credentials, your language ability and your working visa will be supporting factors. Example:  jobsdb.com, monster.com and more

3.  Language skill. Prepare your language proficiency specifically the one targeted to your country destination. At the very basic, you can apply as a language translator for many international conference or trade fair held in foreign country

4.  Formal documentation and permit. Prepare your working visa requirements, whether or not you need a sponsor in your targeted country

5. Be open mind and ready to get emotional roller-coaster in your job hunting process as well as your adjustment period as an expats. Even if you do not have the language proficiency, the easiest job you can get is as a Native Speaker English Teacher in the targeted country. You just have to dare to take the step, be adventurous and willing to experience new things

6. Adjust family. Ready up your mind and your family members if you have to relocate Internationally by yourself or with your family. Children are particularly needs extensive preparation especially if they are in school-age since you need to do credit transfers and such

7. Be an entrepreneur. Look at the bright side, it could be your chance to start your own business by offering your service in the targeted country. For example: you can be a hiphop teacher, or opening a wine shop for expat communities for the targeted foreign city, opening a club, teaching classes in a fitness club (requires no language proficiency mostly) or opening flower shop and flower demo class

8. Time and Money investment. Last but not least, be ready to invest time and money in the country even before you have the firm job offer since company naturally prefers local candidate rather than having to give you a relocation benefit package.

Work Multiple Jobs Part Time or Full Time or Combination

With the financial pressure that is getting into nerves more and more these days, many husband or wife or single parents must work more than two jobs. I, myself, used to have 1 full time job in corporate finance and also 1 part time job in fashion retail (totally the opposite) during the weekend and some weeknights years ago. It was fun though, I must say since I was not looking for the financial merit per se, but it was more like a pleasure for me.

Now, when one decides or has to to take 2 full time or 2 part time jobs or more here are my suggestions:

1.  Secure the job offers and evaluate the rewards. Answer yourself honestly are you really in it for long term or just for short term so that your mental health is ready for what you are up to.
2.  Stay healthy. This means managing what food intakes you nourish your body and what kind of exercise you can slip-in in a week.
3. Discuss with family, especially your children and your spouse since you will be away from them more often
4. Time is the main factor that you can manage, by squeezing as many jobs you want to do based on time schedule, unless you work from home, where you might do or run 2 full time or part time jobs simultaneously such as becoming remote data administration for IBM from home and at the same time becoming online-seller in Amazon and Ebay. The key is that, you must manage well.
5. Some examples of 2 full time or part time jobs that can be taken but not worked simultaneously are: corporate secretary during the day and night-auditor in a hotel during night shift; UPS clerk worker during the day and Walgreen night shift supervisor during the night; coffee shop barista during the day and grocery cashier during night shift; running and baking bakery during the day and waitressing in a restaurant at night; etc. 

Some people are so good and ambitious in doing multiple jobs, such as: being a realtor but also multilevel marketing and insurance agent, as well as selling merchandise online. If you can maintain your sanity and manage your time and your family, then by all means, do it and enjoy it. Otherwise, be honest to yourself and take less jobs but do it well and then you can be happy in life.

Delusional and Stubborn Housing Price

Rosier picture was depicted on US economy by the mainstream news broadcaster last Friday, showing the better job number and unemployment number. Drummed up by Q4, consumers are expected to spend and shop more than usual starting this coming Thanksgiving week all the way until Holiday Season and Christmas sale.

The Feds still stubbornly keep depressing the interest rate in order to keep the housing house somehow inflated. On the street, a person with qualified FICO score can easily get 15-year mortgage interest rate around low 3% or 30-year mortgage interest rate around 4% or slightly less.

If truly more people are able to get a well-paid job and secure it theoretically then one can keep the artificial higher housing price. However, the truth speaks differently. The core American workers, aged 30-65, are mostly sandwich generation, who are responsible to put roof on top and put food on the table for their own core family (meaning their children) as well as taking care of their elderly parents. They are at the majority now in limbo, not knowing what will happen with their housing investment and how can their children have better financial condition compared to them.

This sandwich generation who is lucky enough having more affluent parents and well -invested parents are in better condition such as the old-timer Californian passing Proposition 13 (lower property tax) to their heirs.

Many are not that lucky, thus toiling with so much obligation put so much stress to this sandwich generation. If they are quite lucky and not bought into the hype and getting into the housing bubble price between 2004-2007, regardless whether their housing purchase was for dwelling or for investment, then they are still able to stay a bit calm.

For those who were buying into the bubble price, got strapped and have been watching their home value keep drowning. These folks, though not all, are mostly in denial and lead them to be stubborn and on the verge of delusional. Can't take the loss !! That's their main reason.

The predecessors of this sandwich generation is also burdened by the amped-up global job competition. They are mainly the teens college students to the 20s young professional who most of the time must sacrifice their privacy and must go back living in their parents' home in order to save for downpayment while working at entry-level jobs.

source from: NYTimes

In fact, the difference between the entry-level salary per hour (using 2010 USDollar as an inflation-adjusted base), is merely only $2 between 1979 and 2010 for male and female respectively. That is for two decades difference!! To make it worse, the trend is declining.
With the much higher housing price between 80s and 00s then this younger generation are at a disadvantage unless their parents are well off and handing them properties without debts.


Now, let's take a look at this house that I have been watching for quite sometimes since last winter.  It is a townhouse with 4 beds and 3 baths, and located in a typical middle economic level of California city in the greater Los Angeles are. Very spacious at 2046 sqf, ideal to raise a family of 4-5 until the children start college comfortably. West Covina that is, has mixed diversity and quite a melting pot. In last Feb, this townhouse was asking $450,000 and then in May it was reduced to $425,000 hoping to get a bite for the upcoming summer. Now, fall season has started the asking price was reduced again to $419,000

Comparables surrounding the area has a value around $350K-375K but still this house is still stubbornly at the $400K level. We will see what will happen in the next 2-3months.

Again, here is another housing area that is quite delusional which is San Francisco area. It is also anice townhouse located in South San Francisco and overlooking a nice mountainous view at 1660 sqf. Perfect also for raising a family since it has 3 beds and 3 baths. Last winter it was asking to well over $570,000 and then reduced to $550,000 in spring, and now it got foreclosed and asking for $499,900.

Still, with that big gap and chasing-down market price, there are still stubborn sellers or brokers who just fish reaction from potential buyers at lower starting 'asked price' and then reply saying 'sorry, we won't entertain your offer if not more than xxx (much more than the written 'asked prie').... completely delusional...

Setting up an Accounting System for a Medium Sized Company or Agency / Firm

Regardless whether your company / firm offers customers a product or a service, you need to keep tracking your profit / loss.
Don't be too overwhelmed with the details, it starts with category recognition. Simply, accounting made simple.

Here is a simple guideline on How to Set up an Accounting and Bookkeeping System for a Medium Size Company or Firm/ Agency:

1. In general, a medium size company needs at least 3 accounting /bookkeeping systems: Income Statement showing Profit / Loss, Cash Flow Statement showing Liquidity, and Balance Sheet showing your Assets and Liabilities


2. For your Assets and Liabilities accounts you need to keep separate ledger/ account for each categories. Example of Assets are: Cash, Inventory that needs to be sold if you are a trading company or a manufacturer or even running a bakery, the building or warehouse that you own, machinery for production, equipments to perform your service, etc. Example of Liabilities are:  Prepaid Subscription that your agency has received from your customers,  Prepaid membership your firm receive for service that has not been rendered / performed, etc.
You increase and decrease the Assets and Liabilities category accordingly matching with the account on the Revenue / Expense category.
This Balance Sheet statement can be derived at any point in time and shows the balance of your company Owners Equity in a snapshot form anytime.

3. Credit and Debit your Revenue and Expense based on accrual or cash basis. For Tax purpose, many companies use Cash basis but for Financial Accounting purpose, many use Accrual basis to reflect the real revenue earned when product is sold or when service is rendered. For services, a revenue earned through the action of rendering a service and for a paid-subscription (that is a liabilities), a revenue is increased through time lapse as time is the defining factor of how a service or membership is delivered to your customers.
This Income Statement will cover a period of time, given X as a starting point to Y as an ending point. It will show you the fruit of your company / firm's fruit which is your Profit.
Usually, Income Statement covers a fiscal year although some companies such as retail choose untraditional period such as: close fiscal years in March 31st instead of Dec 31st.

4. Last but not least is Cash Flow Statement that is useful in showing where the liquidity of your company / firm goes. Cash Flow activities is categorized based on 3 type of activities: operation activity, investment activity and financing activity. So any activity that affect the in and out of cash due to any of the 3 activities above needs to be recorded and thus at the end Cash Flow Statement will show what is the balance of the cash at an ending of period of time.
 I suggest direct method as a simple method for a Medium size company or firm, so you only need to start with beginning balance of cash, minus / plus any activities related to cash (based on the 3 different categories above) and then minus the ending balance of cash to derive the Net Increase / Decrease of Cash during the year.

Creating an Effective System of Accounting at Home

Whether you are just running a discipline bookkeeping records (for a multitasking homemaker) or running a small home-based business, you can always rely on effective method of accounting to get most out of it. The goal is to be able to know : where your money goes, do you make a profit / saving or do you have a loss/ deficit, and what are the balance of your money.

How to Create a Simple yet Effective System of Accounting at home:

1. Define your Home Accounting Buckets (HAB) separately such as where will go to Revenue / Income (such as: salary, tips, proceed from garage sale, proceed from catering business, etc.), Expense (such as: mortgage payments, children's books and clothing, health insurance, car insurance, property tax, car payments, gasoline, Metra commuter train tickets, groceries for household, groceries for catering home-based business, donations to charities, etc.), and Investment (such as: 401K balance and contribution, stocks, ETF, bonds, gold, investment properties, etc.)

2.  Keep the receipts and put them into separate batches according to your HABs above.

3.  Add and Deduct each activity from the HABs above, then you will be able to get Net Saving / Net Income by reducing Expense HAB from Revenue HAB. If Expense is greater than Revenue or Income then you will end up with a loss or a deficit, otherwise you will be having a surplus.

4.  From a surplus, a household or a home-based business will decide to use the surplus to have activities in Investment HAB. A home-based business can decide to enlarge the business for example a catering business can decide to buy bigger stove or bigger oven or purchase more delivery vehicles; whereas a household can decide to use the surplus to buy stocks and bonds or money markets/ CD or buy gold or buy more investment properties.

Rest In Peace Steve Jobs

One of an outstanding innovators and exceptional entrepreneurs that I admire is Steve Jobs. After a long battle with pancreatic cancer finally he passed away on Wed 5 Oct 2011. May he rest in peace...

pic from ign.com
created by Jonathan Mak 19 y.o. a student at HongKong Polytechnic University - School of Design

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
Steve Jobs 

You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.
Steve Jobs 

You know, my main reaction to this money thing is that it's humorous, all the attention to it, because it's hardly the most insightful or valuable thing that's happened to me. 
Steve Jobs 

You'll see more and more perfection of that - computer as servant. But the next thing is going to be computer as a guide or agent. 
Steve Jobs 

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. 
Steve Jobs 

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. 
Steve Jobs 


There's no other company that could make a MacBook Air and the reason is that not only do we control the hardware, but we control the operating system. And it is the intimate interaction between the operating system and the hardware that allows us to do that. There is no intimate interaction between Windows and a Dell notebook. 
Steve Jobs 

These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I'm not downplaying that. 
Steve Jobs 

Things don't have to change the world to be important. 
Steve Jobs 

This is what customers pay us for - to sweat all these details so it's easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. We're supposed to be really good at this. That doesn't mean we don't listen to customers, but it's hard for them to tell you what they want when they've never seen anything remotely like it. 
Steve Jobs 

This revolution, the information revoultion, is a revolution of free energy as well, but of another kind: free intellectual energy. It's very crude today, yet our Macintosh computer takes less power than a 100-watt bulb to run it and it can save you hours a day. What will it be able to do ten or 20 years from now, or 50 years from now? 
Steve Jobs 

To turn really interesting ideas and fledgling technologies into a company that can continue to innovate for years, it requires a lot of disciplines. 
Steve Jobs 

We don't get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we've chosen to do with our life. 
Steve Jobs 

We hire people who want to make the best things in the world. 
Steve Jobs 

We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them. It took us three years to build the NeXT computer. If we'd given customers what they said they wanted, we'd have built a computer they'd have been happy with a year after we spoke to them - not something they'd want now. 
Steve Jobs 

It's hard to tell with these Internet startups if they're really interested in building companies or if they're just interested in the money. I can tell you, though: If they don't really want to build a company, they won't luck into it. That's because it's so hard that if you don't have a passion, you'll give up. 
Steve Jobs 

It's not a faith in technology. It's faith in people. 
Steve Jobs 

It's not about charisma and personality, it's about results and products and those very bedrock things that are why people at Apple and outside of Apple are getting more excited about the company and what Apple stands for and what its potential is to contribute to the industry. 
Steve Jobs 

It's not the tools that you have faith in - tools are just tools. They work, or they don't work. It's people you have faith in or not. Yeah, sure, I'm still optimistic I mean, I get pessimistic sometimes but not for long. 
Steve Jobs 

Japan's very interesting. Some people think it copies things. I don't think that anymore. I think what they do is reinvent things. They will get something that's already been invented and study it until they thoroughly understand it. In some cases, they understand it better than the original inventor. 
Steve Jobs 

Microsoft has had two goals in the last 10 years. One was to copy the Mac, and the other was to copy Lotus' success in the spreadsheet - basically, the applications business. And over the course of the last 10 years, Microsoft accomplished both of those goals. And now they are completely lost. 
Steve Jobs 

Most people have no concept of how an automatic transmission works, yet they know how to drive a car. You don't have to study physics to understand the laws of motion to drive a car. You don't have to understand any of this stuff to use Macintosh. 
Steve Jobs 

My favorite things in life don't cost any money. It's really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time. 
Steve Jobs 

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. 
Steve Jobs 

Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future. Steve Jobs  First was the mouse. The second was the click wheel. And now, we're going to bring multi-touch to the market. And each of these revolutionary interfaces has made possible a revolutionary product - the Mac, the iPod and now the iPhone. Steve Jobs  For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Steve Jobs  For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through. Steve Jobs  I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. Steve Jobs  I don't think I've ever worked so hard on something, but working on Macintosh was the neatest experience of my life. Almost everyone who worked on it will say that. None of us wanted to release it at the end. It was as though we knew that once it was out of our hands, it wouldn't be ours anymore. Steve Jobs  I get asked a lot why Apple's customers are so loyal. It's not because they belong to the Church of Mac! That's ridiculous. Steve Jobs  I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I've done that sort of thing in my life, but I've always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don't know why. Because they're harder. They're much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you've completely failed. Steve Jobs  I met Woz when I was 13, at a friend's garage. He was about 18. He was, like, the first person I met who knew more electronics than I did at that point. We became good friends, because we shared an interest in computer and we had a sense of humor. We pulled all kinds of pranks together. Steve Jobs  I think it's brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I've ever seen is called television - but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent. Steve Jobs  I think right now it's a battle for the mindshare of developers and for the mindshare of customers, and right now iPhone and Android are winning that battle. Steve Jobs  I think we're having fun. I think our customers really like our products. And we're always trying to do better. Steve Jobs  I want to put a ding in the universe. Steve Jobs  I'll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I'll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I'm not there, but I'll always come back. Steve Jobs  I'm an optimist in the sense that I believe humans are noble and honorable, and some of them are really smart. I have a very optimistic view of individuals. Steve Jobs  I'm sorry, it's true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We're born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It's been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much - if at all. Steve Jobs  I'm very excited about having the Internet in my den. Steve Jobs  I've always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do. Steve Jobs  If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. Steve Jobs  In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Steve Jobs  A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets. Steve Jobs  A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have. Steve Jobs  Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. Steve Jobs  An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator... these are NOT three separate devices! And we are calling it iPhone! Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And here it is. Steve Jobs  And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don't get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We're always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it's only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important. Steve Jobs  And no, we don't know where it will lead. We just know there's something much bigger than any of us here. Steve Jobs  And one more thing. Steve Jobs  Apple's market share is bigger than BMW's or Mercedes's or Porsche's in the automotive market. What's wrong with being BMW or Mercedes? Steve Jobs  As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what's happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don't seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids. Steve Jobs  Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected. Steve Jobs  Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me. Steve Jobs  Bottom line is, I didn't return to Apple to make a fortune. I've been very lucky in my life and already have one. When I was 25, my net worth was $100 million or so. I decided then that I wasn't going to let it ruin my life. There's no way you could ever spend it all, and I don't view wealth as something that validates my intelligence. Steve Jobs  But Apple really beats to a different drummer. I used to say that Apple should be the Sony of this business, but in reality, I think Apple should be the Apple of this business. Steve Jobs  But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we've been thinking about a problem. Steve Jobs  Computers themselves, and software yet to be developed, will revolutionize the way we learn. Steve Jobs  Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things. Steve Jobs  Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works. Steve Jobs  Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. Steve Jobs  Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service. The iMac is not just the color or translucence or the shape of the shell. The essence of the iMac is to be the finest possible consumer computer in which each element plays together. Steve Jobs  Each year has been so robust with problems and successes and learning experiences and human experiences that a year is a lifetime at Apple. So this has been ten lifetimes. Steve Jobs

We think Android is very, very fragmented, and becoming more fragmented by the day. And as you know, Apple strives for the integrated model so that the user isn't forced to be the systems integrator. 
Steve Jobs 

We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn't build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren't going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build. 
Steve Jobs 

We want to reinvent the phone. What's the killer app? The killer app is making calls! It's amazing how hard it is to make calls on most phones. We want to let you use contacts like never before - sync your iPhone with your PC or mac. 
Steve Jobs 


source: brainyquote.com

How to Deal with Terrible Clients or Difficult Customers

How to Deal with Terrible Clients and Difficult Customers:

1. Find out the objectives for both side: your side and client's side. Then, determine the root cause. It could be because of simple miscommunication or misunderstanding.
2. Objectively try to investigate whether client's irresponsible reaction towards your billing or client's complaint is because of your product and/ or service' quality. We must investigate thoroughly the production process and the delivery of the product/ and or service to the client. Check the billing as well, it could have some error from your Account Receivable Department.

3. Apologize when it is indeed your company's mistake that aggravates the client. Give extra service to mend the relationship as well as for public relations.
4. If not, try to find a compromising solution and let the client's have some freebies.
5. Have a bigger heart.....Let it go even though it is not always your fault or your company's fault. Politely try to maintain relationship with your client.

***No matter what, in the business world the norm is 'Customer is the King'

Forecast Sales and Projected Profit Before Starting a Business

Thorough sales forecast is deemed important when an entrepreneur is juggling between limited capital and demand to produce more variety of products and/ or services. In order to accurately produce and replenish products or services in a new business, we can take simple approaches as follow:
1. Determine as many facts as possible from city government/ agency data or from readily available trusted internet data: population of your target city, population demographic, the number of direct competitors or similar company who is doing similar business to yours.
2. Calculate the number of potential customer from the pool of potential consumers who might be interested on your ideas of product or services. Divide by the number of competitors. It will yield the number of potential customers from the pool of general potential 'might be' interested consumers.
Add with the number of existed competitors' customers if this data is available. This number will give you the potential slice of pie's size that you can grab in general
3. Determine the possible frequency of your product/ service consumption.
If your customer is a business instead of end-user, you need deeper analysis on the business customer's end-users such as how many and how frequent they buy the product / service as well. This number multiply by the target slice of pie's size above will be your target production in a certain period of time
4. Manage your budget or capital accordingly by scheduling ingredients' cost, labor cost, sunk cost, overhead cost (such as: space rent, utilities, fixed salary and benefit, etc).
5. Then, you can derive your sales forecast number, projected revenue and expenses, and forecasted profit.

How to Deal With Frenemies

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit


Would you even know if you had frenemies? They're the people in your life who purport to be a friend but do some oddly enemy-like things to you on more than an occasional basis, and in a way that seems pretty predetermined to unsettle you. Spotting them and dealing with them is vital to preserve your own sanity and to know when to ditch the friend who pushes things just a bit too far.

Steps

1. Spot the frenemy in your life. Before you can deal with a frenemy, you need to know you're friends with one. Some indicators might include:
   
   • They are never able to enjoy your good fortune. If something good happens to you, their bottom lip curls into a sneer and they just have to say something derogatory, undermining and barbed.
     
   • They're a master at the art of backhanded compliments, those compliments which sound okay on the surface but actually can be taken another way to mean something less than flattering. And they seem to use this "art" on you a lot.
     
   • They gossip about you. When it gets back to you and you raise it with them, they deny knowing anything about it or lie through their teeth and say that someone misinterpreted what they meant.
     
2. Listen to your own instincts. How does being with this person leave you feeling? Are you uplifted in their presence or do they always manage to take the wind out of your sails and leave you feeling down and unsupported? If you find that whenever you're down and miserable, they're around a lot more than when you're upbeat and in control, this is an indicator that you're with a person who soaks up misery and sees someone down on their luck as a target for control and manipulation. Moreover, if after spending time with them, you're left feeling sapped and bad about yourself, then you're not with a good friend – good friends make you feel good about yourself. Take note of anything like the following and be wary:
   
   • Whenever you try to improve yourself, such as by losing weight, studying harder, going for a promotion, etc., they do their best to sabotage the efforts. Indeed, they may even encourage you to do things that will harm your progress, such as badmouth the boss or eat sweets on the weekend. Frenemies tend to bring out the worst in a person because the relationship is a bad fit.
     
   • They never have your best interests at heart and you know it. In fact, you feel that every time you want to talk about something with them that they're likely to get really argumentative, roll their eyes, make unkind remarks or simply be negative about everything you're trying to do.
     
   • You asked this person to support you on something weeks ago but when the time comes, they have a truly lame excuse for wriggling out of the promise. And they do it time and again to you.
     
3. Make changes. If you're not sure whether or not this person is a frenemy, talk over your concerns with a friend you're absolutely sure about and don't feel unhappy around. This person may throw new perspective onto the situation, perspective that helps you to realize the value of your relationship with the frenemy. Obviously, be certain you're talking to someone whom you can trust and isn't likely to pass this back to the frenemy. A frenemy who suspects you're onto them through talking to other people (and thereby warning others) can be a very unpleasant person to be around.
   
4. Talk to the frenemy outright. Instead of skulking around and carrying this burden on your shoulders, come out and express your concerns to this person. Avoid acting vulnerable or distressed; simply stick to the facts and express how certain things that have happened make you feel. For example:
   
   • "I felt really put down when you suggested my costume was too tight for me in front of our dance class. Did you really mean to be so unkind?"
     
   • "I consider you to be a friend. As such, it really hurt me yesterday when you said I was too ditzy and easily distracted to be a good speechwriter in our group talk. I know you think you said it in a joking and funny way but as I am a bit vague at times, it really struck me as a bizarre way to make a joke, as I felt it came at my expense."
     
   • "I feel really disappointed when you say things that say one thing but mean another, such as telling me the jeans I bought were great... for the price I paid, as if you were intimating that I had bought cheap jeans that didn't really look so nice. Why is it so hard for you to be friendly and frank with me instead of mocking all the time?"
     
5. Expect your frenemy to be surprised or in denial. Being forthright about your feelings is basically calling out the frenemy and forcing them to either own up to their subterfuge or deny it. It could go either way and even if they deny it, they may not stop the behavior and just keep on doing what they've been doing to hurt you. Or, they may become angry with you and refuse to discuss it, in which case you're getting a very clear indication that it's probably time to let go of this so-called friendship.
   
   • Remember that if they blow a fuse, that you're not much into them by this stage anyway. At least the truth is out in the open and allows you to begin focusing more on other relationships in your life.
     
6. Be realistic about the chances of staying friends with the frenemy. While it is important to be compassionate and realize that your frenemy may have gotten into a pattern of difficult interactions with others and see themselves as clever, witty or superior, it's equally important to look after yourself. If the frenemy can only ever interact like this, you're never going to feel safe, supported or happy around them.
   
7. Look to thyself. Is it possible that you have some of the traits of a frenemy too? Hanging around people who use wit and words to denigrate others can soon rub off, especially if there is an attempt to be part of the popular group or the alpha. Be honest with your self-assessment and own up to yourself if you've been carrying on frenemy-like behaviors and attitude with your friends. And put a stop to it.
   
8. Make the break. Once you realize that you are dealing with a frenemy and you've asked for reasons but there is no likelihood of change in your frenemy's behavior and attitude, then withdraw yourself from the failed friendship. Remind yourself that it isn't a friendship you're ending but a round of toxic interactions and that both of you will be better off for being apart and for going your own ways. Above all, remain polite and nice toward them in a distant way. There is no need to rub salt into the wound.
   

Tips

• The word “frenemy” originated in 1977. It was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2009.
  

Sources and Citations

• Adapted from Howcast, http://www.howcast.com/videos/393676-How-To-Spot-Frenemies. Shared with permission.
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Deal With Frenemies. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.