As I'm sure we've all noticed by now, the quality of products and services available these days is dropping at an alarming rate. Extremely expensive consumer electronics appear engineered to break, call centers where clients expect competent and timeless conflict resolution are instead outsourced to countries where the Customer Service Representatives barely speak English and read almost everything from a script. And when was the last time you heard about...
Last week we talked about the art of negotiation from the point of view of the person with a product or service to offer. But there are two sides to every coin, and this week we'll be looking at the other one. That of the person trying to do the haggling, trying to score themselves a deal, and as such, hopefully earn themselves a slightly larger piece of PIE. The...
Forget every racial stereotype you've ever heard. Everyone on the planet loves to haggle. Everyone loves to try and get a deal. Some may be more aggressive than others (and again, this has nothing to do with race), but in general, everyone will try to get something from you for cheaper than what it's offered. Make no mistake my friends, this is going to happen to you. It is unavoidable,...
If you’re the kind of person who is interested in running your own business, there’s no doubt you’re a proactive, motivated self-starter. After all, here you are putting in the time to do your own research and get a better understanding of the nature of the business. It is a hallmark of the self-starter mindset to be willing to work hard for a long time – as long as it...
We're just about into August now, the last full month of summer vacation before the young ones head back to school. Feel free to take a moment and breathe a sigh of relief. All done? Okay, good. Now down to business. There are many people out there who do the stay at home parent thing, while their partner works. And that's fine, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. If you...
You’ve probably noticed that we’re big on self-employment around these parts. We know from experience that there is no surer or swifter path to true financial security and independence than securing your own Personal Independent Income, and we’re passionate about sharing that freedom and security with the world at large. However, it is perfectly natural to have doubts. You might think that self-employment is too much work. You might think...
As we're so fond of saying around here, there's an old saying. "Time is money." And it is. Time is definitely money. Time you spend doing other things, is time you could be spending making money. As we've discussed previously, self-employed people are generally the hardest workers, with the longest hours. That doesn't mean spend your every waking moment working. Far from it. But your time is valuable, no matter how you...
It's been a while since I've started a post with this, so here's one for nostalgia's sake. There's an old saying that goes "think outside the box." You'll hear this one a lot in life. Work, school, social interactions, this particular phrase pops up literally everywhere. I'm sure I've even said it on this blog once or twice before really giving it some serious thought. And after doing so, I've...
It won’t surprise anybody to hear that the recent recession caused average wages in the United States, Canada, and around the world to take a beating. Workers everywhere have been suffering through a period of what economists optimistically call “wage adjustment,” with wages stationary or even decreasing almost across the board. With unemployment still elevated in the developed world, there’s plenty of opportunity – and incentive – for corporations to...
Going green is one of the biggest trends in the world right now. A popular topic at summits among world leaders tend to include a lot of debate on cutting carbon emissions and other green initiatives. The film industry touts their efforts to keep productions are green as possible (The 2008 film The Incredible Hulk became the first big budget blockbuster film to earn the Environmental Media Association's Green Seal)....