The Brogue Hog

Do you know how to Make Money Online? Your options are unlimited there are thousands of Online Business Opportunities just waiting for you to sign up and get started BUT that is the problem!

Online marketing used to be quite a simple matter but with thousands of websites springing up daily it is now a challenge. The visitors to your website are now more choosy and don’t sign on the dotted line unless you present them with something that they can’t refuse.

Offering a free e-book used to be all the incentive you needed but now the internet is swamped with them and they are not as effective as they used to be.

It is the same with newsletters every one has the same idea but how many give you new and interesting information that is worth the reading.

Adsense has gone the same way, every website you look at is swamped with Google ads and even they are losing their appeal to the discerning public.

I want to make money online but how ?

You have to compete, face the challenge. If your website is down in the dumps don’t sit there waiting for the visitors to return do a complete turn a round and change your website content. check all those websites that are on top of the searches and see what makes them tick.

If you have Adsense ads on it move them around or change the colour until people begin to notice them. If you have a business opportunities website change the opportunities until you find something that works.

Does your website look attractive ? No not pretty! try and look at it from a visitors point of view, if you landed on that website would it attract you and make you want to stay to check out the ads ?

Writing articles is the all time favourite for when you submit your article to the different forums it is hoped that hundreds of people will place your article on their website that way you get hundreds of links and hopefully more traffic.

Traffic is the answer to making money, the more traffic the more chance of visitors clicking on your ads and of course more chance of them buying what you are selling.

Take advantage of the seasonal trends if it is the middle of Summer no one is interested in what to give their kids for Christmas think outdoor living, holidays, seasonal clothes, sun preparations.

Of course it depends on what countries you are specifically aiming for as well, if your audience is worldwide then it doesn’t matter what you sell as the UK may be in the middle of a heat wave but Australia is in the middle of their winter.

Something different is what everyone is looking for so if you can come up with an entirely new product or an unheard of business you could hit the jackpot.

Spend some quality time on your own, forget the PC grab a pen and paper and start jotting down anything that comes into your head, words short sentences. let yourself wander as you write, it is amazing what is in your mind and what comes to the surface.
Forget time it is not important this is your quality time.

When you have finished go through all that you have written and it is possible something will spring out and hit you and make you wonder why you never thought of it before.

Most people don’t set out intentionally to think up ideas they are something that suddenly pops into their mind from nowhere, writing or jotting down words can quite often trigger something off in your mind.

The word MONEY is a figurehead to every one so write that one word at the top of the page and go on from there.

You may see a program that someone else has thought up, study it carefully and see if there is some way of improving on it, give it a different outlook and make sure that your improvements in the program are quite clear to others it must have your stamp on it.

It is quite true that Google Adwords can conjure up a large amount of money in a short span of time, also you can start earning within fifteen minutes of placing the ad.

You must have a product or a program to advertise and it is not just a case of putting it on and hoping for the best it needs a bit of preparation to make sure that the public can find your product or program by using keywords that are searched often.

Another quick fix for money are traffic surf programs but they are risky, you can make a lot of money on the other hand you can lose a lot if you pick a scam program. If these type of programs interest you then visit the surf traffic forums first to find out which programs are paying and if possible how long they have been running.

With most of these programs people place a certain amount of money possibly with a a good return in a matter of ten or fourteen days, when they make their large profit they will then cut and run without reinvesting so this weakens the programs position.

The ten or fourteen day programs will be lucky if they last out more than a month due to the none re-investors but saying all that a lot of people are still making a living with it.

There are a few long term programs that are worth considering I am in two of these myself and I am quite happy with them, of course the returns are not so high but they beat the banks and most investment companies.

If you like doing lotteries there are dozens of free lotteries on the Internet you never know you might get lucky !

There is also a bingo game that pays out $4.999 it lasts about four or five weeks before its won and then there is just the one winner but its a chance to make Money.

We all know that money is very hard to come by but if we don’t try we will never have any so persevere and eventually you may get lucky.

Sylvia White is the webmaster of http://www.sylviawh.co.uk where you are welcome to email from the site to enquire about any of this information. You can also request a free copy in PDF of “SEO Made Easy” by Brad Callen SEO specialist. She is also the author of http://www.woweeitsfree.com You are welcome to join the affiliate program or purchase the E-book and if you like blogs she is webmaster of http://piggyinthemiddle.blogspot.com

The truth may shock you. It may stir you up. It may make you mad. It may make you doubt. It may make you uncertain.

You may not believe me. In fact, I encourage you not to believe me and do your own research. Read the books, research the journals, and listen to the tapes so that you can discover for yourself the best food and nutrition for human health.

At first you will have many more questions than answers. But as you continue your search for the truth, you will discover the simple, common sense answers to your questions.

The more information you collect on your own, the better foundation that you will build. The better foundation you build, the more likely that you will be motivated to embark upon the journey of changing your eating and lifestyle habitschanges that have the power to transform your life forever.

So what are the real four food groups?

They are:

• Fresh, whole vegetables
• Fresh, whole fruits
• Whole grains
• Whole beans, raw nuts and raw seeds

That’s it. These are all the foods that we need for human health.

Okay. I can feel the cries of resistance. I can feel the disbelief. I can hear the questions. Where do we get our protein if we don’t eat meat? Where do we get our calcium if we don’t eat dairy products? Aren’t we supposed to eat some good fats? What about fish? Isn’t that good for you? If I “can’t” eat meat and dairy, what’s left to eat? Do you expect me to live on celery and carrot sticks alone? I cannot tell you how often I have heard these questions. Do you find yourself asking the same ones?

Dr. Leslie Van Romer is a motivational health speaker, writer and lifestyle coach. Visit Dr. Leslie at DrLeslieVanRomer.com for practical direction, hope and inspiration.

If you are like millions of other people across the world, you know that conventional dieting simply does not work. Your always looking for the next magic pill. Unfortunately, it simply doesn’t work like that. For a healthy, lean body, you must make permanent lifestyle changes.

To get you started, I have listed some powerful tips that will help you transform your body into anything you desire.

1. Reduce saturated fat. There are good fats and there are bad fats. Saturated fats are definitely bad. However, trans fats are even worse. Avoid both of these like the plague.

2. Reduce refined sugars. These foods can put weight on you quicker than you can blink.

3. Eat plenty of fiber. Fiber is one of the most powerful foods on the planet. Fiber can be compared to an appetite suppressant. When you eat plenty of fiber, you just don’t get hungry.

4. Here’s a super tip for you. Eat 5 small meals per day. This keeps your metabolism at maximum levels all day long. Between 10 and 30 percent of the calories you eat are burned up every day simply by digesting your food. Pretty cool, huh? Well, here’s the kicker. Not all foods are created equal. Your body uses more calories to digest protein (about 25 calories burned for every 100 calories consumed) than it does to digest fats and carbohydrates (about 10 - 15 calories burned for every 100 calories consumed). So, by eating more lean, healthy proteins, you burn more calories. Wow. I’m amazed at how a lot of healthy nutrition is simply picking the right foods.

5. Drink tons of water. By drinking plenty of water, you can instantly energize your body. Water increases your muscle contractile strength by 10-15% and allows you to increase your capacity for prolonged aerobic exercise by 20-30%. In addition to that, water helps you burn fat more efficiently and increase your muscular development.

By following these 5 simple guidelines, you will be well on your way to super fat-loss and a lean, trained body.

For a complete guide to fat burning foods and healthy living, visit http://www.healthyeveryday.com

If you’re like me, you’ve got the entrepreneurial bug, and there ain’t no shaking it.

You and I detest the idea of working for “the man” (or “the woman” as the case may be).

We’ll never be happy unless we’re able to live life on our own terms, work when we chose, take plenty of time off to spend with our family and friends, and still have the kind of income we deserve.

Only problem is, this entrepreneurial spirit tends to leave us vulnerable on occasion.

Back in 1999, when I first began thinking about having my own home-based business, this smooth talking guy came through the Seattle area, hosting these live seminars on the topic.

After attending one of his all day events, I was really excited about what I’d heard, and decided to hand over $3,600.00 for his program.

Now I gotta be honest here.

That was a whole lot of money for me at the time. And truth is, if it wasn’t for credit cards, there’s no way I would have been able to afford it.

I sure has heck didn’t have that kind of money lying around at the time.

So imagine my amazement when I call the company about a week later (to get started with their program), and I hear a recorded message that says, “You’ve reached a number that is no longer in service”.

I knew this couldn’t be right, so I dialed the number again.

And sure enough, I hear the same message.

Now I’m starting to get nervous.

I call directory assistance and ask them to put me through to the company.

But once again, I hear those familiar words…

“You’ve reached a number that is no longer in service”.

As I hang up the phone, I’m starting to get angry as I think to myself, “Did this guy just blatantly steal $3,600.00 from me”?

To make a long story short, that’s exactly what happened.

Maybe you’ve had a similar experience.

Kind of puts a bad taste in your mouth, doesn’t it.

After all, not only was I blatantly lied to, but all the excitement I had after attending the seminar was gone.

Over the last several years, I’ve shared that story with countless people, and almost every one of them had a similar experience to share.

And some of them lost much more than me!

I met one gal who was swindled out of $10,000.00 after attending a seminar in Los Angeles.

I met another who lost $6,999.00 at a seminar in Cleveland.

But…

Knowing what I know now, it’ll never happen again.

And by the time you finish reading this, it ain’t never gonna happen to you either.

So let’s get to it.

There’s 4 types of experts out there, yet only one of them is worth listening to.

Let me describe ‘em to you:

The “pretend expert” who offers nothing but theory. This person has absolutely NO real-world experience. While their theory and ideas may sound great on the surface, they’ve never been tested or proven by anyone, which makes it completely worthless

The “pretend expert” who talks about how others may have succeeded in business. But once again, this person has NO real-world experience. They’ve never owned a business in their lives. They merely talk about what others have accomplished, and at best, what they speak of is merely speculation

The “pretend expert” who talks of real estate investing, financial planning, the stock market and other related topics, yet their own financial situation is nothing short of dismal. These schmucks are more than willing to offer you their advice (at a premium price), but a quick look into their financial situation will cause you to turn and run… as fast as humanly possible

But then, there’s…

The “Genuine Expert” who actually takes their own advice. They have a ton of real-world experience under their belt. They NEVER talk about theory, but rather, what actually works.

This type of expert isn’t afraid to admit that they’ve failed in the past. In fact, they realize that their success has been a direct result of their many failures. By trying many things (and failing) they eventually discovered what worked.

In sharing their experiences (both failures and successes), their goal is to put you on the fast track, by showing you how to avoid the many mistakes they’ve made in the past.

Here’s the other big difference…

A “Genuine Expert” will show you proof of their success!

But I gotta warn you.

There’s very few “Genuine Experts” out there.

So when you find one, hold on tight and don’t let go.

After all, if they’re a “Genuine Expert”, they’re gonna have a lot of demand on their time.

That’s why these experts take the time to document their knowledge.

This allows them to multiply their efforts and help many more people.

For example…

When it comes to health, one of the experts I completely trust and recommend is Bill Phillips.

Bill is the man behind EAS (Experimental & Applied Sciences), author of Body For Life, founder of Muscle Media magazine, and he’s truly an expert when it comes to health.

He’s been one of my heroes for a long time.

I recently had the opportunity (thanks to a good friend of mine) to spend a day at Bill Phillips’ Hollywood home, and rest assured, it’s a day I’ll never forget.
I mean honestly, how many of us get the chance to meet our heroes in person, let alone spend an entire day with them.

And though this was the first time I’d ever met Bill in person, I’d been getting his personal assistance for the last several years… through his published materials.

So how do YOU go about finding a “Genuine Expert” to help you build a successful home-based business?

You start by asking yourself these 5 critical questions …

1. Do they have a successful track record with their teachings?

2. Can you see proof of their results?

3. Are you able to speak with or meet other satisfied clients?

4. Does the expert stand behind their materials?

5. Can you get ongoing help and support if you need it?

If they meet these criteria, don’t waste another minute. Do whatever needs to be done so you can start getting their help immediately.

You’ll be amazed at how fast you’ll reach your desired outcome when you have an expert walking you step-by-step through the process.

Oh, and here’s one last pointer for you.

Just because someone offers you a guarantee, doesn’t mean that they’re reputable.

Heck, the company that ripped me off back in 1999 had a guarantee, but it was completely WORTHLESS!

In this day and age, if someone truly believes they can help you with what they have to offer, they’ll do everything within their ability to prove it up front, by offering much more than a guarantee.

Don’t you agree?

Kevin has been a massively successful home-based business owner and sought after expert since 2001. He specializes in systems that put your home-based business on auto-pilot. Get your complimentary copy of his special report “What 99.999% Of Stay At Home Moms Don’t Know, And Will Never Find Out About Making $5,000 To $10,000 A Month With Their Own Home-Based Business” by going to http://www.wahmsystem.com

“Bargains for sale, Unlimited Hosting for only a Dollar.”

“Get your hosting here, 50 cents for the first three months. “

“Use now. Pay later”.

In today’s world of hosting, instead of who’s got the bigger and better thing, it’s who has it for the cheapest and don’t forget that they usually it at an “unlimited level”. But if everyone is offering the same control panel, running off of the same type of servers or even from the same data center, why not get it for the cheapest price you can? The reason is, even though the servers may be the same, the service varies with each company and price. This is not to say that the cheapest can’t offer the best service but always remember the old adage “you get what you pay for”.

Let’s break down the costs involved with running a small hosting company that manages a few, low-cost servers from a reputable data center. The dedicated server business has grown within the last few years and competition has created the availability of unmanaged, low-cost server rentals that can range as low as $49 per month.

For our case study, let’s pretend that Bob has leased a server from a reputable data center at an average price of $89 per month. He was even lucky enough to signup during a special that waived the setup fees. At a cost of $89, he now has his own dedicated Unix server running one of the more popular control panels that regular hosting customers like to use. Like many small one or two-man hosting companies, he runs the business out of his house as it would be almost impossible to actually obtain office space on location of the data center, not to mention that he could be in one state and the server might be three states over. Leasing a dedicated server means that he is not responsible for the hardware and only has to maintain the software. This frees Bob up from the added expenses of hardware replacement and allows him to concentrate his investment on marketing, software, scripts and service.

Bob is an extremely good salesman and has a mature understanding of how to run a business. His best friend Billy has a vast knowledge of managing a server and its software, so together; they will be able to manage most common aspects of the business on a day to day basis.

They have purchased or designed a nice website and spent the average of $600 for support items such as tutorials and a customer forum. With the website design and extras, their initial investment averaged at $1000 which they hope to recoup within the first six months of operation. Now, this may be an added cost that some small hosting companies avoid at the beginning, but try to remember, if they are serious about running a company, they will put some type of investment into it. Taking the initial investment spread over 6 months and adding the cost of servers at $89 for the first one, Billy and Bob are spending more than $250 monthly during the first six months of operation on minimum expenses. This does not include other expenses such as their salaries and outside expenses such as phone bills (if they offer phone support), utilities, advertising expenses, etc.

An average amount of customers or domains to have on an individual server is 200 and since Bob is starting out with a new company and no customers, he can acquire 25-30 customers monthly if he works really hard at it. To fill a server, they would need eight months of growth, and that doesn’t include the costs involved during that time. The cost of operation during those eight months is estimated at $1700, without any extra expenses and no personal income derived from the venture. If they were to charge $2 per customer on a recurring monthly basis and signed up 25 customers per month, they’d make $100 profit at the end of 8 months. Remember, this is done without any personal income made at all. Once they add in an advertising budget and allotment for person income for Bob and Billy, the cost jumps dramatically. They aren’t in the business to make friends, they are in it to make money and $100 spread over eight months is not much.

Let’s start adding a small income for Bob and Billy of $1000 monthly each and an advertising budget of $500 per month in order to acquire those customers and calculate what they need to charge to break even after those first eight months. A safe estimate would be $3,000 monthly to cover salaries, server cost, advertising and other miscellaneous items. If they were able to signup 200 customers during the first eight months, they would need to charge $15 per customer to cover the $3000 monthly overhead. If they charged only $2 per customer, they would need to signup an estimate of 2,000 customers to do the same. Because Bob and Billy decided to charge only $2 per customer, they have to support 2,000 customers by themselves because they don’t have enough profit to hire any more technicians.

As a customer, you need to realize these things before you start shopping for a hosting company. Now that you are educated on the backend of a hoster’s life, you can ask yourself what type of company do you want hosting your website and what kind of website you need hosted. If you are running a small personal site that doesn’t need constant uptime and special scripts, then you could choose one of the many free or low cost hosting solutions available. If the company was to go under or lost all of your information due to hardware or software failure, then you are really not at a lost because your website did not contain critical information.

But what if your site does contain critical information and is the lifeblood of your company? Then don’t go cheap. Research your options, find the one with the best solutions and don’t be afraid to spend more for less. It is very important to find a stable company with quality support and service and that doesn’t come cheap. Make sure that if your information is critical, the company offers reliable backup solutions and has a reasonable uptime.

Phone support is a must for quick response and let’s not forget the numbers 24/7. Hosting companies with higher price tags can afford to hire the extra technicians to hold your hand as you build your web presence and your company, which can be important in today’s market.

But does all of this mean that cheap hosting is a bad venture and should be avoided? Not really, just remember, “You get what you paid for.”

About The Author

Robert Lang

websitehostdirectory.com

mkt@websitehostdirectory.com

The WebSite Host Directory is a resource for webmasters and consumers looking to find a website hosting company or a quality expiring domain name, Robert Lang is a contributing writer for Techpad Agency and PingZine Magazine

This article may be reprinted or published without the authors consent as long as the “About” and “weblinks” are kept intact. If you publish this article, we would love to know the location. Feel free to email us.

Glendale, California is a bedroom comunity of approximetly 200,000 residents, situated between the San Fernando Valley and the San Gabriel Valley. In and of itself it is not a popular tourist destination. There are no amusement parks, beaches, camping areas or famous museums in the city. There are only a couple of hotels, the best one is a Hilton, but there are several high end motels and all of the hotels and motels are very reasonably priced. There are several hundred restaurants, and although there are no high priced restaurants there are dining establishments like Damons on Brand Boulevard that serves aged prime cuts of beef and provide excellant service (They just do not charge an arm and a leg for the meal.) and restaurants like Tony Romas, the Olive Garden and the Panda Inn, as well as numerous high end coffee shops (Try Conrads, they have a brightly lit coffee shop area, a nice outdoor patio and a dimly lit lounge area that will remind you of a good steak house. You can get a filet mingon dinner for under $20.00 thats as good as the dinners served in most high end steak houses. Additionally, their fried chicken is as good as you can find almost anywhere and their service is excellant.) and ethnic cuisine of almost every type.

The best thing about Glendale is it’s location. It’s less than a ten (10) minute drive on Los Feliz Blvd. to Hollywood and on the way there is the Los Angeles Zoo, Griffith Park and the Griffith Observatory And Planetarium. Take a ten (10) minute drive east on the 134 freeway or on Colorado Blvd. and you will find yourself in Old Town Pasadena after having driven past the Rose Bowl and the Norton Simon Museum. Ten minutes to the south you will find yourself in downtown Los Angeles after having gone past Dodger Stadium. Go west on the 134 freeway and you have the entire San Fernando Valley (Universal Studios is also less than ten (10) minutes from Glendale.). Additionaly there is an Amtrak train station in Glendale. Parking is only a few yards from where you board the train, the station is never crowded and you can travel down the coast to the Mexican border or up the coast past San Francisco.

Of course you could just stay in Pasadena, Hollywood, Universal City or downtown Los Angeles but, you will find Glendale to be much less expensive and quieter with less traffic and fewer parking problems.

By the way, if you are into shopping, this city is the home of the Glendale Galleria, one of the largest and best shopping malls in southern California.

For more information about the city of Glendale, California see http://glendale.usacitydirectories.com, a directory of links to city of Glendale, California guides and directories listing hotels, restaurants, resources, services, things to do, places to go and more.

David G. Hallstrom, Sr. is a retired private investigator and is currently the publisher of several internet directories, including http://www.usacitydirectories.com a directory of national, state, county and city guides and directories listing local guides, directories, web sites and web pages providing resources, services and information about things to do and places to go.

ACT NOW

In this day and age so many things are rushed. Sometimes we want
to shout, “Slow down”. But sometimes in our own lives we are
guilty of the opposite extreme Our fears stop us from acting
when we should. I am a prime example. I got divorced seven years
ago. I had been out of the work force for a number of years,
helping my ex-husband in his business. There I was, on my own
and I needed an income. The ideal, I thought, would be to work
from home, but I did not have the self confidence to do that. I
look back now and realize how much further ahead I would be if I
had conquered my fears and started a business. What fears do you
face when you think about starting a business? The major one
is….MONEY. You are afraid you will lose the money you invest in
a new business. You have to be careful. A lot of online
businesses are just waiting to take your money. My first venture
into an online business was with a company that took my money
and then did not deliver what they promised. If that happens to
you, here is a tip. Don’t let up. Keep calling and emailing,
requesting your money back. Don’t back down if they did not give
you what they promised. I did get my money back. That gave my
confidence a boost. There are two websites that you should visit
before investing. One is www.scam.com. The other is
www.rip-offreport.com If a business has a report on either
website, I would exercise caution. Fortunately my second venture
into the online business was a much wiser choice. I kept getting
email about Stone Evan’s PlugIn Profit site. It sounded good. I
could tell that if I became an affiliate, there was a lot of
material available for me to learn from. This was important to
me. I wanted a good foundation. Sometimes my head spins because
I am now putting so much information into it. And there is so
much more to learn.

There are so many benefits of having an online business. Conquer
your fears. Give yourself a chance to grow. Visit my website
www.profitsr4u.com

It could be a good decision for you also.

DNA testing was popularized only in recent years mainly due to having it extremely handy when it comes to high-profile criminal investigations as well as in paternity cases. DNA, otherwise known as deoxyribonucleic acid, is most commonly used in trying to prove the relationship of an individual to another person, that linking is aimed at trying to determine whether or not those two people are related or not.

1. New Testing Methods

There are also various new tests that have been created in recent years, however, which have also turned to DNA testing, a highly popular tool for determining a person’s ancestry. As DNA is passed down from one generation of your family to the next, there are some parts that still remain almost unchanged. This creates the highly unbreakable link between family generations and through DNA testing. DNA testing can also be of great help when trying to reconstruct one’s family history

2. Paternity Tests

However, DNA testing, in spite of its many benefits is not able to provide you with your entire family tree or be able to tell you who your ancestors are. DNA testing can, however, determine if you are related to the other person whom you have the test with. DNA testing can also determine if you and that other person have a same ancestor. DNA testing will also be able to provide you with the information that you will be needing in order to prove or negate the research you have been able to obtain about your family tree. Lastly, through DNA testing, you will be provided with clues in regards to your ethnic origin.

3. How DNA Testing Works

DNA testing has been around for so many years yet is has only gotten quite a following only recently since a lot of people can not afford the incredibly high rates that they will be charged for their DNA testing. However, there are home DNA testing kits which can either be ordered through the mail or even over the internet at a price which is still befitting of one’s budget (less that $300 to be exact) and all you have to do is to just be able to obtain a sample of your cells through a cotton swab or through a mouthwash, it really is fairly easy to do.

Then you have to be able to send those samples back to the lab for your DNA testing wherein you will have to wait for around a month or even two months before you get the results of your DNA testing. The DNA testing results are a series of numbers that represent the key chemical markers within your DNA. These numbers can be compared with the results from other individuals who took the DNA test in order to help you determine your ancestry.

When it comes to DNA testing, one must be extremely patient waiting for the results - and whatever the result you get from your DNA test, just accept it as the tests are over 99% accurate.

For more great dna testing related articles and resources check out http://www.weknowdnatesting.com

Many business people and managers are spending too much time
trying to change the underperforming people who work for them.
They seem to believe that if they train people - tell them what
to do or even threaten them with the sack - then the performance
level will go up.

The successful manager concentrates on developing the strengths
of his team members - not trying to correct their weaknesses.
Sometimes you have to manage around a weakness, but you can’t
make people what they’re not.

Some years ago I decided to improve my golf by taking some
lessons. A friend and I spent some hours with a professional
golfer and coach at a local country club. This was really useful
to me and I did get better. However my friend Robin hadn’t a
clue. No matter what the pro told him to do, how to change his
stance and his grip, he could hardly hit the ball.

If you’d given Robin a hundred lessons and threatened him with a
gun, I doubt if he’d ever have completed a round of golf in less
than two days. Robin is a successful lawyer and makes a lot of
money, however a golfer - he is not.

So if you have a sales person on your team who isn’t bringing in
the sales or a production engineer who isn’t making his quota,
then you have to make a decision. Is this person not producing
because they don’t have the ability - because they need more
training or - because there’s another reason?

You can read more about coaching and other reasons for non
performance in my book - “How to get more Sales by Motivating
your Team” but for the moment it’s important to understand that
the individual may not be able to do the job.

They may tell you they can do the job because they’re unwilling
to accept defeat; however I’ve known people in sales jobs who
shouldn’t be in sales and doctors, plumbers, lawyers and
engineers who were also in the wrong job.

What you need to do is get people who can’t do the job into a
job that they can do or get them out of your team.

I joined three companies as a manager and in each case I
inherited team members who didn’t have what it takes to do the
job. I’d usually find three categories of people in the teams -
The first group were the ‘good guys,’ the ones I knew could do
the job and wouldn’t give me any hassle.

The second group consisted of people who needed a bit of looking
after, watching closely and definitely some coaching.

The third group were the ones didn’t have either the skills or
the characteristics to do the job and no amount of training, or
anything I could do, would change that. I would often find that
these people, due to their lack of success, weren’t exactly
happy in the job anyway and were sometimes only too pleased to
be transferred to another position.

I hear you saying - “easier said than done Alan” and you’re
right. But the successful manager needs to address these issues
for the good of the team and the business.

The successful manager concentrates on strengths not weaknesses.
It’s vital to give your people feedback on their strengths and
also on their weaknesses. However these should only be
weaknesses that you know the individual can do something about.

It’s a waste of your time and effort trying to sort weaknesses
that can’t be sorted. Some people just can’t build relationships
with customers; others can’t work as fast as you need them to
and others can’t write a report to save their life.

Your most productive time as a manager will be spent giving
feedback on strengths and how to develop these even further.
Many managers spend the majority of their time with team members
trying to resolve weaknesses. They then don’t have the time or
sometimes the capability to give feedback on strengths.

Because psychologists relate true happiness to joyous occurrences happening frequently, decorating your home to promote everyday pleasure makes sense. If you’re planning a home makeover, provide for the cumulative total of all the little pleasure moments.

When people rate their happiness, it is the ratio of pleasant to unpleasant emotions and experiences that count. These happy experiences may be simple pleasurable, everyday happenings, not always grand events.

Design Psychology, a new method for residential interior and exterior design starts with planning spaces to support emotional well-being. Homes decorated to support desired emotions create happy spaces for joyful living.

Design Psychology Ideas for Pleasure

1. A tea table in the Main Bedroom provides an intimate space for conversation or individual reflection.

2. A reading nook provides a quiet space for escape.

3. A game table provides a place for playing together.

4. A meandering pathway in the garden provides an enticement to stroll.

5. A garden bed provides the perfect place for relaxing and leisurely afternoon naps.

I mean a real bed, not a flower bed, although you need flowers too!

Let your imagination flow freely, enjoy the process, and focus on your goal of providing pleasurable daily moments at your home.

Joy to you!

(c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.

Jeanette Fisher, Design Psychology Professor, is the author of Joy to the Home eNewsletter. Discover innovative Interior Design Psychology and makeover your home to support happiness, productivity, and well-being. For Design Psychology information, see http://www.designpsych.com/ For more information about “Joy to the Home,” see http://www.joytothehome.com/