Unfair Transaction
Yesterday, I went to market to buy some coconuts. Unfortunately I didn’t had any money with me, but I had a bagful of bananas so I thought of paying using good old barter system.I went to a grocery store and asked shopkeeper to give me one kg coconuts, and according to exchange rate printed on board I had to pay ten kgs of bananas for one kg of coconut.The shopkeeper weighed coconut and gave it to me. I gave him bagful of bananas to weigh and take his share in that. To my amazement, the shopkeeper started to remove cover of banana and he weighed only eatable part of banana to keep for him.I protested, "You weighed coconut, with its shell and now you are removing cover of bananas which I am giving it to you, I am at loss, this is unfair!”"I don’t care", the shopkeeper yelled."When I give coconut to you I am concerned with what I am giving to you, I don’t care what you are receiving, it depends on type of coconut and how you remove its shell","Also when I accept bananas from you, I don’t care what you are giving, I am concerned with only the eatable portion I receive, I don’t want its useless covers and I won't give you additional coconut for the useless covers of bananas."The adamant shopkeeper offered no choice for me. I searched all the shops in the market, but of no use. All shops had this same practice. What do you think? Isn't this transaction unfair? If you haven't guessed it, put yourself in my position, shopkeeper is your employer and coconut is CTC, cost to company, and if you remove its shell, eatable part - inhand salary is very less. The banana is TFC, time for company, time you spent for your employer which includes your travel time.Now, Is THIS a fair transaction? We need to ponder over it. All shopkeeper follow the same rule doesn't mean

Truck Wash Equipment Purchases Considered
In the Truck Wash Industry we see many makers of truck wash equipment and personally I think many of these units are over priced and often under perform. In other words they do not get the whole truck clean you see? And whereas many manufacturers of truck wash equipment have good synergy and distributors around the country, I am not sure I trust their units to clean trucks.Some manufacturers of truck wash equipment and their sales teams act real professional and all and say the right buzz words. But I personally think they are full of it sometimes or I should say I think they blow too much smoke in their sales pitches. You see often their product is Okay, but needs refining and does not completely clean the truck. A Bus maybe, but a truck only 90% or so, you have to finish it up with brushes and that means labor.I have found only a couple companies that manufacture truck wash equipment that actually know their stuff and the rest? Well, they do not listen to the market place and think they are know-it-alls, which in its self is okay, but they in my opinion do not know the reality of the truck wash game. We are in business to clean trucks, not piss on them, call it good and then try to collect from the companies. Some day robotics will rule the industry of truck washing but for now, human labor is needed. Consider all this in 2006.

Independent Professionals: What Paradigm Are You Weaving? Part 1
So we've heard the well-worn statistic that we're exposed to around 3000 advertising messages per day (personally I think it's A LOT more). Ever consider what each of these messages is really asking you to consider?I just opened up the web browser on one of my PC's. Straight away I'm faced with an ad from Virgin Credit Cards "Things get more exciting when you say yes!" presumably that means saying 'yes' to debt - in this case it's by clicking on the word 'yes' which opens a musical jewellery-box. A ballerina proceeds to leap out from her fixed spinning and start gyrating like a mental raver! Is this what Virgin mean by things getting more exciting??..Must be.The animation ends with a billboard announcing "The Virgin Credit Card, Say Yes." Plastered underneath is the virgin logo with the word "Money" next to it.We're faced with thousands of such notifications daily, each one is asking us to consider something from a specific frame. Each one is asking us to consider what the advertiser would have us believe and value about their service. Each and every one is offering changes.I've found it very useful to see every ad as its own unique little paradigm. A reality that entices us to consider beliefs, values and changes that can frequently be out of alignment with our personal standards. Sometimes these paradigms are so far removed from the truth of the product or service too. Take McDonalds. What would the ads have us consider about the product? What paradigm does would McDonalds present to us? That happy clowns will entertain our kids? That the social interaction found in the restaurant will enrich our lives? That we'll laugh more? Look more healthy and vital? I mean jeeeez!!And don't get me onto the cosmetics firms!! What would they have us believe? What would they have us value? What changes do they offer?So getting back to the ballerina - if I don't click

Plastic Fundraising Cards: Powerful and Profitable
Plastic fundraising cards are proving to be very effective with many different types of businesses and organizations. These wallet-sized wonders are being created as a tool to raise money for charitable organizations, in addition to the flexibility of producing cards for gift, loyalty and membership marketing purposes.Plastic fundraising cards usually include a variety of discounts that are accepted through the participation of local, regional and national merchants in your target marketing area. A typical plastic fundraising card could retail for $10 and offer unlimited usage of special offers. In addition, special one-time or limited time offers can be provided by the merchant through the card. This type of offer frequently covers half the purchase price of the product or service.Some of the more popular retailer promotions that have been launched include free drinks with fast food orders, discounts on sandwiches, money saving offers on video rentals, haircut discounts and more.The results produced through the use of plastic fundraising cards can be impressive. It is not unusual for individual sellers to achieve five to ten sales.Leading plastic card manufacturers can customize these cards for further impact. Your school's name and logo can be placed on the card. In addition, any design you choose can be printed on the front and back side of the card. The business or organization's name and message is effectively branded and retained through the perceived value of keeping and using the card.Plastic fundraising cards are usually good for one year and display an expiration date on the front. The dating of the card creates a sense of urgency and helps to build a market wherein the card is used for repeat sales.Popular UsesPopular uses have included the use of plastic cards with the participation of a pizza or fast food chain. These usually

Saving Companies Money and Healthcare Costs
The Resilience FormulaAnyone can argue the accuracy of the Millions and Billions now purported spent each year by business and healthcare on stress-related illnesses and workplace absenteeism. Nevertheless, whatever the correct number is… it’s BIG! …and it is, in the Billions!In a new global economy where every cent is crucial to corporate survival, governments and business can no longer afford to ignore this costly and ever-growing crisis.The phrase Employee Burnout is common in this new millennium’s lexicon. Sadly, so is the phrase Long-Term Disability. What can be done about this?Whether it’s stress on the job, at home or a combination of both, most everyone understands and accepts that responsibility and stress are simply a fact of life. What most people do not recognize, however, are important things like:• What exactly causes personal stress and how it diminishes their quality of life, • The [predictable] physiological and social, negative outcomes from uncontrolled stress, and • The significance of learned Resilience and its relationship to Peak Performance!Psychologists tell us that behavior of any kind – positive or negative - is learned through repetition. Learning to be more resilient is every bit as behavioral as learning to succeed. It is an integral ingredient for health, wellness and peak performance.As one learns to Recognize the unfeigned motivations for their stress and imbalance, so too can they learn to Respond with strategic tools, designed to minimize the destructive aspects of stress. Breathing exercises, energy-management methods, psychological behavioral-triggers and priority-listing techniques are all integral parts of a proven Resilience Formula that teaches people ways to re-galvanize their time, focus and energy. It ensures an enhanced quality of life whilst saving business and healthcare, money.The ex

Power Teams and Web Support
Since a Power Team is a loosely knit organization, it is difficult to give potential clients a way to see all the expertise at the same time. You would not want them to go to each site to learn about the people on the project. The best way to deal with this is to set up a central location that gives bio information for each team member. This doesn’t mean that the client will use every team member but at least he will be able to see the strength of your group. I have such a site for my Power Team under www.ekearneyalliance.com This team has an emphasis on business management and therefore everyone posted is in that arena as well. Reserving a dot com is not all that expensive. Putting up the website may take a little more time and money unless someone on your team volunteers to put it up. You will need to make sure that contact information for each person is available. Each partner should have equal billing on the website but there should also be only one central number to call. If you are doing a lot of business this way, I would suggest getting a separate phone line that can be answered with the name of the group. This will give you a "brand". We will talk about branding a little later. Selecting the location of the phone line is entirely up to the group and it should not make any difference who it is as long as it is a group expense. When working in the team environment, you will be doing many things together that relate to projects. The team, however, needs to operate beyond just doing business. There are many marketing and public relation activities that should be examined to further the amount of business. Once such thing is to collaborate on writing a book.