Without getting into the core basics of philosophy, I will make a few statements about happiness. Happiness is probably the most sought after emotion, and the hardest to retain on an ongoing basis. We all can experience moments of joy that make us happy.
I have found that I am most consistently happy when I am trying to help others to find happiness. The word “service” comes to mind.
In our own relationships, we are the happiest when we are doing things for each other. And they don’t even need to be big or grandiose things. Just little things. Things like a simple compliment for a thoughtful act. A word about how dinner went so well. “How was your day?”…and then listen to what they say.
It is being together when you are together., and wishing you were together when you are not. It is always praising your partner and never saying anything bad about your partner to anyone.
It is encouraging one another to higher education. Encouragement to improve talents and skills and hobbies. Encouragement to follow one’s dreams. Dreams are the catalyst of real passion.
Real passion does not happen over night. Real passion is not a destination. It is a journey. A journey one cannot follow, with any degree of true satisfaction, if they are on the path alone. Real passion was meant to be a shared journey.
Give a simple “I Love You”. Don’t assume they know it. SAY IT. OFTEN. Now, don’t kid yourself. All relationships are a continual “work-in-progress”. There are the ups and the downs. The good times and the not-so-good. We must decide, for ourselves, that we are in this for the duration.
Look for and give the “glance across the room” to your partner. Give them a kiss in the twilight. Take a casual walk together in the cool of the afternoon, “just because”. Brush the fingertips of your hand across their shoulders or down their arm as you are talking to them or as you pass them by, whether in private, or public.
Give them your smile; your warm, radiant, and sincere smile.
These will all repay you immeasurably…and often!
Bob Curtis has been writing articles, short fiction and poetry for over 30 years. He has been a personal counselor and confidant for much of that time for many individuals. He is currently the managing director of people4people.blogspot.com, and is the president of Nexus Publishing, nexus4u.blogspot.com, in Midvale, Utah.
Sales are up and the money is flowing into your bank account.
Think all that money is yours? Think again! If you’re tracking
any taxes such as GST or PST, a portion of those funds belong to
the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency).
On the one hand it’s easy to remember GST and/or PST when we
include it on our invoices and when making purchases. But it’s
another thing to remember when we’re making deposits or looking
at our bank balance and thinking that it’s all ours. A second
bank account to hold those funds can be a great help and it’s as
easy as making a transfer on your bank’s website.
Payroll and WSIB taxes can be another source of frustration. You
should have an idea how much your payroll will be each month.
It’s easy to calculate the taxes. CRA provides free of charge
payroll tax table books or a stand-alone tax table program to
calculate the taxes for each employee. Don’t forget to include
your company’s portions of CPP and EI. Reserve a portion of
these taxes each time you make that bank deposit.
Do you have the information at hand when it’s time to send in
the remittance report? Keeping your bookkeeping up-to-date means
you have the numbers ready when you need them.
We procrastinate when it comes time to send in the remittance
reports, but CRA will hit you hard with penalties and interest
if you miss that due date. It is easy to get into arrears and
can be very difficult to get out of that ever-deepening hole.
Think bankruptcy will fix your problems? Think again! Tax
arrears are not swept away with bankruptcy. Tax arrears will
still be owed long after your other problems are gone.
What is the solution?
* Having a second bank account to hold those funds until it’s
time to remit to the government
* Transferring funds to the second bank account each time you
make a bank deposit
* Having your bookkeeping up-to-date so you have the numbers
ready when you need them
A very important factor in any real home based business is how you manage risk - yet it is a factor that is often ignored by many work at home business.
You have to realise that any time you start a home based business, you are taking the risk that the business might fail. Be realistic that it may not turn out to be the most successful home based business. What experienced people do is shield themselves from risk at every opportunity, to make sure that they can keep a business going for months on the brink of disaster, and wind it down gracefully if it really has to go under.
You need to have a plan for what you’re going to do if your business looks like it’s going bankrupt. Are you going to borrow more money, if you can? Sell your car? Raise prices? Get rid of staff? Done right, you should have a good package of ‘rescue measures’ that really do have a chance of rescuing the business.
Borrowing.
If you need to borrow more to keep your business afloat, take great pains to avoid looking desperate. Act like your business is moderately successful but needs more investment, and you’re far more likely to succeed in getting more funding.
Bye-Bye Staff.
This is a bad idea, but not always a terrible one. In a work at home real home based business, you presumably only take on staff because you have enough business to cover it, don’t you? So it makes perfect sense to get rid of the staff when things start to go wrong and go back to doing it all yourself.
Price Hike.
When your business is in trouble, there are few things guaranteed to destroy it faster than a price rise. Just don’t do it, however tempting it might be - cut costs instead. If you absolutely must raise prices, do it by scaling back what you get for your money in each of your price ranges, without actually raising the prices.
I know of a struggling bus company that kept its fares the same for years but gradually started to run fewer buses and send them all over town, making journeys take longer. People reacted a little badly to the longer journeys, but it was nowhere near the scandal that there would have been if prices had risen.
Keep Staff Pay Aside.
Whatever you do, make sure to keep staff pay separate from the other business finances, and pay it out immediately if the business looks to be heading for trouble with its creditors. It is far better to be paying your staff on the last day than to be giving all that money to the creditors. Leaving staff unpaid will destroy your reputation, not to mention hurting a lot of innocent people.
The ‘Closing Down’ Sale.
If you plan it well, your last day in business might not be so bad. Just make sure everyone knows that you’re closing down for real, but still price everything ever-so-slightly above cost. In this way, you can avoid the drastic loss-making ‘Everything Must Go!’ mentality, and come out of your business the same way as you would if you’d decided to shut it down that day for some other reason.
Selling Your Business On.
If you’re shrewd about it, you might be able to keep your business going long enough to sell it to someone who could turn it around, perhaps to be the most successful home based business. There’s nothing dishonest about this route - it’s the one most big companies take if things start to go wrong. You might even find that one of your competitors is willing to buy, even if only for your established customer base.
It’s Up to You.
Disaster plans are very personal, and they depend a lot on how much risk you’re willing to put on yourself. If you do things the sensible way, then you’ll go as far as you can to avoid selling or borrowing against any of your own assets just to keep a business afloat. On the other hand, if you’re really determined and a bit of a risk-taker, putting some things of your own at stake might buy you enough time to recover from whatever hit your business.
It’s a little like playing poker: are you going to be the guy who walks away and leaves his money on the table, or are you going to throw your car or house keys onto the table and raise the stakes? That’s risk management for you.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Thomas Choo is the self-styled Internet Entrepreneur specializing in Internet Home Based Business Opportunity. He owns several popular websites in various niche markets. His flagship web site http://www.officialhomebusiness.biz also features quick steps to building niche web sites, as well as a special article series on work from home businesses.
For more information about starting home-based businesses, home business ideas, and work from home businesses in general, check the other articles at the work from home businesses index page.
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