REPOST: A higher level of productivity | LinkedIn

Richard Branson shares some views on being a successful entrepreneur.  Click the link below:

A higher level of productivity | LinkedIn.

The Splurge Surge: Luxury Spending on the Rise | TIME.com

Getting easy on spending might be a great idea nowadays.  This great read is from Time Magazine:

The Splurge Surge: Luxury Spending on the Rise | TIME.com

Small Business Tips To Beef Up Your Cyber Security - Forbes

Here's something that budding entrepreneurs can pick up from:

Small Business Tips To Beef Up Your Cyber Security - Forbes

Entrepreneurship is an Art Not a Job - Forbes

All budding entrepreneurs, read on ...

Entrepreneurship is an Art Not a Job - Forbes

REPOST: Economists Say Raising The Minimum Wage Is Worth It: Poll

Even after weighing all the minuses against the pluses, economists say raising the minimum wage is worth the cost.

A majority of economists said the benefits to low-wage workers of raising the minimum wage outweigh the possible negatives, which include potentially making it harder for low-wage workers to find jobs, according to a recent poll from the University of Chicago’s IGM Forum.

The issue is back in the news after President Barack Obama proposed raising the minimum wage to $9 from $7.25 in his State of the Union speech earlier this month. His plan was met with skepticism from conservatives like Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner, who argue that raising the minimum wage would make employers less likely to hire, hurting job growth.

Economists haven’t found a conclusive answer as to whether raising the minimum wage hurts job seekers. The Washington Post’s Wonkblog recently noted that many studies link a higher minimum wage to higher unemployment, but there’s also research indicating that raising has no effect at all on the jobless rate.

Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote in a blog post earlier this month that there “just isn’t any evidence” raising the minimum wage would hurt employment prospects. And for their part, two-thirds of job-seekers say raising the minimum wage would increase their quality of life, according to recent data from the American National Election Survey.

Even if raising the minimum wage does nothing to hurt job seekers, it could have another effect, corporate chiefs warn. Subway co-founder Fred Deluca told CNBC this week that raising the minimum wage would cause franchisees to raise prices.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/28/economists-minimum-wage_n_2782488.html?utm_hp_ref=business

The art of saving money: Baby steps

There is a truth universally acknowledged by every man that money is in fact the greatest power on earth.   People need money, as much as oxygen. While people cannot inhale a large amount of oxygen (as it is lethal) they can however spend so much money to the point that they need to gulp in a lot of oxygen.

Image credit: www.karma-free-cooking.com

Most people know how difficult it is to spend money, which is why when the monthly pay check comes along; they can’t wait to spend it.  Some people will try to rationalize that the amount they will spend goes out for the bills and what not, and what’s left would be used to treat themselves.  However this kind of rationalizing actually works for the short term, but is terrible in the long run.

People are more often inclined to spend rather than save, because they are more focussed on the happiness they can achieve right now. They do not realize that by saving money they can have a bigger possibility to be happier in the future.

The art of saving money is relatively easy, the basic principle of which is to save an inconspicuous amount of money for a long time, on a regular basis.   For example; a person has 150$ a day, he or she can easily take off 50$ of that money and keep it somewhere, if done on a three-day pattern he or she can save up to 150$ per week, 600 $ a month and 7,200 $ a year.

The trick is to save the amount of money you can live without, or the amount you usually use to buy a coffee at Starbucks.

Image credit: www.cathe.com

With the country still under recession and the world-wide oil dispute, saving money is the only sensible solution for people who want to survive until the real apocalypse comes along.

The diary of a would-be businessman

Hi, I’m Dylan Maverick. I don’t know why I am introducing myself to you (whoever you are), but I figured as it is my first blog post I should be polite.

What does it take to be a good businessman? It’s the first question I asked myself when I entered Harvard. Does it have something to do with education? If that’s the case, then I made the right choice. But later, I found out that education can only get you so far.

For some reason this seems strangely accurate.

I mean sure, they’ll teach you accounting, market strategy, organizational behavior, and financial marketing, but they don’t actually get to the nitty gritty part.

Don’t take this the wrong way, I enjoy my classes, heck I’m even good at them, but at the end of the day there’s this vague feeling of emptiness that something’s missing.

So I decided to take matters in my own hands and educate myself properly on what it’s really like. The Internet is a cornucopia of information and I figured it’s time to stop watching… erm… the latest season of Fringe and start learning.

 So I thought I should make my own blog to contain everything that I think is worth learning about businesses and so I could share my own experience of what having your own business actually means.

I even came up with my own definition for business:

“A business for an entrepreneur is the equivalent of a book for a writer; it first starts off as an idea, and then it takes shape; it has many ups and downs and a few errors and it can sometimes be frustrating, and just when you think you have an entire grasp of the whole concept, it suddenly procures a mind of its own and all you have to do is to watch it take flight only to be slaughtered by the public.“

Well that’s my idea of what a business is, but I’m pretty sure it’s completely different from what the textbooks say.

 Well that’s all for now… Have an awesome day!

“The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way. “

-          Robert Kiyosaki