Positive Thinking is the Key to Surviving Tough Times

With our current economic crisis and hundreds of thousands of people getting laid off across the nation, it is troubling to think where we are headed. Our nation is in a full blown depression. The fall of our economy was caused by greed and dishonest people that worked at the top of major corporations refusing to accept accountability. I refuse to buy into the political schemes of these companies that are seeking bailouts. The majority of these bailouts have not been used to recover losses or save jobs. They have been used for the wrong reasons to cover there own ass-ets. There is a way to turn this around. POSITIVE THINKING, and helping others.

I am determined to make the best of my own resources, while educating myself to find creative ways to make money and utilize every resource that is available to help everyone where ever I can. Recently I have posted a job board on my website www.LayZDaisy.com/jobs.htm I hope by having this job board on my site it will help those find a job that needs one. I think when ever we can help someone else, it is this kind of thinking that will turn around our economy. Here are some other tips that will help.

1. Stop the worry and have POSITIVE THINKING. If you worry it will take you ten times longer to accomplish something than if you have POSITIVE THINKING. Worrying is a waste of time. POSITIVE THINKING will get you a lot farther in life and you will reach your goals in less time. POSITIVE THINKING will help you accomplish anything that you desire by attracting these good thoughts everyday and sharing your good thoughts with others. We need to lift each other up and filter out the negetive.
2. Be Creative and find other ways you can make an income with NO investment. Some of these ways can be selling a product or service you can provide through free internet classified advertising. www.craigslist.org
3. Prioritize the things that are most important. By prioritizing I mean prioritizing everything in your life starting with your finances, cleaning your house etc. Prioritizing will also relieve a lot of stress and you will be able to look at everything with a clear picture.
4. Cut expenses and be frugal, you can live with less. When times are tough financially being frugal is way to cut the expenses you don't need without being cheap. If you remember to recycle and reuse this will in becoming frugal. Then when ever you can prepare for the future.
   
5. Share the lessons you have learned with others. Be willing to help someone and share your POSITIVE THINKING. Then if everyone helps someone else it will spread like wild fire.

Questions You Should Ask an MLM Company Before You Join.

How many people out there signed up for an MLM company with big expectations of making money then find out later that it’s a very hard way to succeed. There have been many times I have been sucked in the pretty picture they paint. I hate when some of the people working with these companies lie to you just to get as many people as they can underneath their organization, then offer you no help once you join. The majority of MLM companies make it sound easy and say “anyone can be successful”. I don’t want to knock all MLM companies out there. There are some good ones that are legitimate. There are details you should look at with every company before you spend the money to invest. One of the most important things you should do is research. You will need to find out how stable each company is are and compare them to their competition.

1. What is the start-up cost and what does it include? Beware of huge upfront fees, the risk is usually much greater and make sure you are getting a good value for the money.
2. What kind of training do I get once I start? Make sure if you sign up that you sign up with someone that has proven to be successful and is willing to spend the time with you to properly train you.
3. What type of service or product will I be selling? Is this something you can truly believe in and feel good about selling?
4. Will I be expected to put in a minimum order every month or every quarter? Make sure you can sell more than the minimum amount required each month or quarter.
5. Will I be expected to recruit a minimum amount of people? Many MLM’s require you to recruit a specified number of people in order to make money in your downline.
6. How much commission will I make?
7. If I want to purchase something do I get a special discount off the retail price?
8. Is shipping & handling additional or does it come out of my commission?
9. How long do items typically take to ship to my customer?
10. What kind of Guarantee or Warranty does the company have on their products?
11. Will I need to purchase supplies such as Catalogs, order forms, etc.?
12. What other company benefits or incentives does this company have and how easy is it to achieve those goals?

Something US Auto Makers Have Forgotten

It seems that today many companies and their officers are driven by greed. The Government bailouts are not being used in the proper manner to save these companies from failing. This is disturbing to me that General Motors plans to close 500 dealerships and layoff thousands of jobs. Even more disturbing is that GM officials say that without the second installment of $5.4 billion dollars they will run out of money by March 31, 2009. It makes you wonder what are they doing with all that money that would make them run out? With $5.4 billion dollars you could save a whole lot of jobs. I think this is poor management to get this far into debt and not be able to pay your bills and save jobs.

When the whole auto industry is in trouble, instead of looking at the bottom of the food chain to cut costs, they should start from the top. This rather large house cleaning project should begin at the home corporate offices and look at over spending that is unnecessary, then go down to the branches of the company. Top executives refuse to take a pay cut when there are families that have worked in the Auto Industry for years living from paycheck to paycheck. Chrysler and GM need to take notes from a few competitors take some responsibility for their actions and realize it is their employees that are the core of the company and it’s what makes a company better.

As I was browsing around the internet I found a quote that I think the US auto makers have forgotten about. “There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.” ~ Henry Ford

BMW makes a strong statement that they take responsibility for their actions and they exist to make the world a better place. They wouldn’t be where they are today if it weren’t for the employees that make up the most important part of their company.

The information in the blog is the opinion of the writer, articles were provided from the following sources;

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEBxMmCfl0xY

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20090121/gm-henderson/

CES: The Most Exciting Place to See Cars

The CES show (Consumer Electronics Show) is the largest convention held in Las Vegas every year. I have frequented to many Auto Shows, but none of them compare to the mobile electronics section at CES. You can see everything from the absolute wild to just your everyday car. There are many exciting things to see, but my favorite part is always the cars. I have posted some of the most popular exhibits.

Aston Martin

Kit - Knight Rider 2000 from the 80's Show

Nissan GT-R

Black Death - The Extreme

A New Year's wish for Everyone!

It is new years day. A time to start new. Although everyday is a new day. Why not make some new years resolutions that will impact your life as well as the life's of others. This is what I hope to do this year. I am very grateful of what I have. Even though the economy is in some tough times, I wish everyone the very best of New Years to have a great year of good health, prosperity and happiness. This is a great time to reflect on the good things you have in life and remember there is always someone else that has things worse than you do. I think if you smile and be grateful, more good things will come to you.

Selling Products Online: Writing a Good Ad

In my years of experience in the print and advertising industry, I found that writing a good ad is one of the most important keys in advertising. If you are currently selling products on eBay, eBid, Etsy, Bid Owl or other auction websites, it is important to write a good ad. This works well especially for advertising a business, or for informational advertising. Your ad can make or break a campaign. It's important that you have good content; All of the information in the ad should give an accurate description with correct information. Get to the point and give as much detailed information as you can without making it lengthy. If you are going to sell a product, here are a few tips how you can start writing your own ad.

1. Have a few key words to make your ad catchy.
2. Have a good design. If you can't design a good looking ad yourself hire a professional.
3. Keep your ad short and sweet, with good content.
4. Give accurate and detailed information.
5. If you're going to sell a product, more pictures are always better.
6. List contact information in case anyone has any questions.

Bailouts: First the Banks, now the Auto Industry?

Over this past year many national banks have been in trouble. This happened because of bad investments and bad judgments of people that worked for these banks that did unethical loans. Because of the giant loss of banks across the country, the Federal Government decided to step in to bail out these banks in an effort to save the economy. Unfortunately it wasn’t a very well thought out plan. There were banks that used the money to pay themselves big bonuses and pay for luxury vacations, instead of using the money for what it was intended for. Then there were banks that used the money to pay for new investments, some of these banks didn’t even need the bailout money. Now the auto industry is seeking bailout money from the Government. Should these companies be bailed out? Or should they be held accountable for their actions, and file a Chapter 11 while they clean up their act.

The Government I think is going to go about this in a smarter way this time. Some things to consider are what will happen to the economy if they give the money to the auto industry? What type of stipulations will be enforced? We as tax payers do not have a choice. When ever the Federal Government gives a large sum of money to anyone, we pay for it, and usually the money comes from one of two sources, they raise taxes to pay for it or it comes out of social security.

Here are some additional articles related to this post.

How the Feds will Govern GM and Chrysler

Potential GM Bankruptcy Catastrophic for Economy

Wallstrip: Does the Auto Industry Deserve a Bailout?

Making a Difference in Your Community

We have been faced with difficult times in our economy. Especially this year. The unemployment rate is high and may only get worse with all of the companies going bankrupt these days. Even if your not unemployed many peoples finances are tighter than ever this year. I have been thinking how can I make a difference in these difficult times? Here is a website I came across for additional ideas to make a difference. Charity Guide Even if you don't have money to donate, chances are you have something in your house that you can donate. All of these organizations welcome volunteers you can donate your time.

There are a number of charities looking for things you can donate that can be used items. Some items I never would have even thought of. There are many families living in shelters or apartments that have nothing.

• Big Brothers Big Sisters - This organization will take used clothing, bedding, books, toys, recreational items, motor vehicles, boats, motor homes, airplanes, construction equipment,
  
• Local Food Bank - I have donated food from my pantry. I look at the items in there and if they have been sitting there for a few months and it's not expired than I will give it to the food bank.
• Local Shelters - Many of the local shelters will take clothes, bedding, toys.

Money saving tips in today's economy.

With the the stock market down and the unemployment rate rising, we are now in a recession. There are many things in our future that could be uncertain, and there are many different things we can do to tighten our budget without giving up our way of living.

I have decided to share a few small things that I do that are ways you can save money. You may not all agree with these things but when you implement these things into your daily living habits, the pennies will add up and can make a big difference in the way you spend money.

• Cleaning - Over this past year I have discovered I can make my own cleaning products much cheaper than buying them. My home made cleaners I have found that there are many other benefits as well to using them. The cleaners are organic which means less fumes and I think they work better than what I buy in the store. Some basic household products you might need are; Baking Soda, Borax, Vinegar. To make your own cleaners here is a website that has a few recipes.
  

• Meal Planning - I haven't always practiced this, but when I do I find that I don't spend nearly as much at the grocery store. By making a list of the ingredients you need for meals ahead of time this will eliminate the unnecessary things that you throw into the shopping cart that you don't need. When grocery shopping I try to do enough shopping to last for a minimum of 2 weeks to eliminate the need to go to the grocery store more than 2-3 times per month.

• Shopping - When doing any type of shopping make a list of the things you need to get and plan a budget for your trip so you don't overspend. When your shopping take a look at different brands of items and choose what is the most economically correct thing for you to buy. Most store brand items it doesn't make a difference when you compare to that name brand product. By purchasing more generic items you can often save money, but you should always do what's right for you.
  

Making Money with Photography

There are many ways to make money with your Photography. I am going to share with you some things to help give you some ideas on different ways you can sell your work.

You could do an online shopping cart. This can be an effective way to sell your products, but will require more work on your part because you will have to ship the items you sell. You may find that this may be an excellent solution for some products, while it may not be worth the effort for other types of products because you may have to have some inventory to sell your products. For ecommerce solutions this is what I recommend. Vstore

If you only have a few things to sell or a whole bunch of things to sell, I recommend opening an Etsy Store. This is a much better alternative to eBay. Keep in mind that Etsy is limited to the types of items you can sell.

The the most popular is online stores. You can create your own products and sell them in a variety of online stores that give you the versatility of creating multiple different products. Some of these stores offer everything from T-shirts to posters and books.

1. Cafe Press
2. Zazzle
   
3. Spreadshirt
4. LuLu

If you only want to sell your photos as prints or in a digital format, you can submit your photos to stock photography websites. These sites will pay you every time someone wants to use your photo. Some of these sites will only except specific types of photographs at specific times of the year. If you would like LayZ Daisy to use your any of your photos, this is the easiest way you can submit your work and get money. Please read Call for Entries for more info.