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Your resume is extremely important. Think about it. In the span of a few pages, you need to convey that YOU are worthy of at least being considered for that job vacancy. It really doesn’t matter if you are applying for a manager job or an executive position, what’s important is that the resume contents and resume layout fit the position at hand. Sadly, many ruin their chances at job success because they cannot format their resumes properly. Don’t be one of them. Follow our resume tips and you’ll get the chance you deserve.

Resume Tips to Help you Get that Job Interview Call

Before you go on your hunt for great job interview tips, you should first focus on writing a great resume. After all, the job interview will come IF your resume says you deserve it.

Resume Tip No. 1 – Different resume types require different resume formats.

Your resume is really your ‘first impression’ and just like any real, one-on-one interview, it’s important that your resume conveys the right ‘image’. For instance, an executive resume is best presented with a cover letter outlining the highlights of your career. For the succeeding pages, it’s best to list your work experience in reverse chronological order (i.e., most recent first). For mid-level positions, a cover letter is not really required. For new graduates, it’s best to start your resume with your educational attainment and any related ‘on-the-job’ training or seminars even if you are currently employed.

Apart from the above, you can’t go wrong with using a clear, easy-to-read font like Times New Roman 10 pt or 12 pt. Also, assuming you send in your resume via email, use general Word processing software like Microsoft Word. Don’t use the latest version as it may not yet be used by those handling recruitments, rending your resume un-openable and thus, useless.

Resume Tip No. 2 – Include a no B.S. executive summary.

Job recruiters get really annoyed when they’re fed with Executive Summaries that are VAGUE. The Executive Summary must answer the question on why you are the best candidate for the job. The best resume layout for this would be to enumerate your skills in a bulleted list. Each skill should be written so that it clearly shows how that skill makes you a perfect fit for the job vacancy in particular, and the company in general.

Resume Tip No. 3 – Do NOT lie.

Who doesn’t embellish his resume to get that job interview? That’s true… but don’t exaggerate to the point of lying either. For instance, you know that figures are great in resumes, but don’t say “Managed a $50 million dollar publishing project…” if it you cannot back up that figure. Don’t forget that job recruiters, especially for managerial and executive positions, really do check up with previous employers.

Resume Tip No. 4 – What about online resumes?

A great resume tip that doesn’t cost anything at all is to view sample online resumes! There’s a lot of information out there for different types of resumes with samples to boot so do give them a try. Apart from free samples, there are also ready-to-use online resume templates you can purchase where all you need to do is just ‘fill out the blanks’. If you opt for this, just ensure that the template really fits your resume needs.

Resume Tip No. 5 – Hire a professional resume writer.

When all else fails, or if you don’t have the time, or the job is simply too important that you want to go in with your BEST chance at landing a job interview, then by all means, get the services of a professional resume writer. Not everybody is blessed with having that special way with words so a professional CV writer can definitely help you. Note too that such a person can help you ‘smooth out’ some job history problems you may have such as employment gaps or ‘job hopping’ trends (i.e., moving from one job to another in relative short periods of time).

When it comes top writing resumes, you should always put your best foot forward so you get called for that job interview. Hopefully, the resume tips we’ve provided here helps you achieve exactly that.

About this Author

Belinda Sinclair empowers men and women to increase their Wow Factor through personal development and image makeovers. Visit http://www.novawhite.com/?source=ea16 for amazingly affordable professional tooth whitening systems.

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WHAT ARE “UNTAPPED PROSPECTS?


Untapped prospects are a) accounts and sites with the same characteristics as your best customers, but are not in your marketing database, and are therefore invisible to you, and

b) unidentified key player contacts within accounts and sites

you are already targeting who are in the decision-making group for your product or service. These contacts are especially

significant, because they represent a segment of your market you may now believe is visible to you but in fact, is not.

HOW THE STAUTS QUO CREATES BLIND SPOTS


Many marketing and sales techniques in use today practically assure that your company is overlooking major parts of

your available market, missing viable prospects in the part of

the market you are actively targeting.

DATABASE BUILDING BY DRIVE-BY


Sales people, including those that work for channel companies, generally build market knowledge through referrals and drive-bys. A “drive-by” is a situation in which a sales person

is on their way to an appointment and notices a large building

with an impressive logo and thinks, “They must buy what I sell somewhere in there.” The sales person adds the company name to a list of cold-call accounts. When business is slow, they might pull out that list of cold call accounts. Sales management works diligently to keep sales people from spending any time on untested accounts, and that is an absolutely correct posture for them to assume. Ideally, it is a salesperson’s job to close deals, not find and cultivate new opportunities.

RELYING ON LISTS


Rented lists are one of the most common ways that marketing tries to build market knowledge and generate leads on behalf of sales. Have you ever taken the time to look at those lists? Massini Group has, and what we see is not encouraging. We’ve found that even list sources with relatively strict selection criteria can be 50% or more off target from how they were described. If you doubt this, look at the list of respondents

to your latest email or direct mail using rented lists. In one particular case, an enterprise software company found 53%

to 76% of its respondents were “off target”. In another, a

storage systems company found that eight in nine of the respondents was “off target” even though selection criteria were very strict and the source deemed credible. Worse

yet, you have absolutely no leverage to push list owners to develop contacts at accounts that are not presently in their list.

Another appealing source of information to tackle the problem of gaps in market visibility is a commercially compiled list or database. However, like rented data, in and of themselves they are not comprehensive.

A computer hardware company that uses a major provider of IT-installed base data recently estimated that the source had detailed information for just one third of its market.

COMMERCIAL DATA SOURCES ARE AVAILABLE TO YOUR COMPETITION TOO


Also remember that your competition has access to the same commercially available sources. And so does every other company that is marketing and selling any product even remotely similar to yours. This translates to a massive amount of competition for mindshare among the unfortunate individuals whose names appear in those databases.

“AUTOMATING THE PROBLEM” WITH CRM AND SFA


A growing number of companies are investing in CRM or SFA solutions with the expectation that they will improve marketing and sales operations. Unfortunately, these tools generally

only increase the velocity of the status quo. If no specific effort is made to change the culture, improve the methodology

or advance the science of market penetration, then a system

to automate the processes will not help–it will only automate and accelerate a flawed and ineffective process.

In our experience, these tools take significant time to implement and are initially focused on late-stage pipeline accounts and customers, thereby providing no assistance at all to individuals trying to grow their business, generate leads, or meet aggressive sales targets beyond the installed base.

SHEER NUMBERS ARE NOT ENOUGH

No single source of market information can assure you

comprehensive market visibility, coverage and penetration.

But even a variety of sources of accounts, profiles, attributes

and contacts do not necessarily solve the problem. If all of

the sources that you acquire essentially offer overlapping

views of the market, you have not gained a thing, except maybe a false sense of security. For instance, having 100 contacts

at one account and none at 99 other accounts is not helpful.

In another scenario, having detailed knowledge of 10% of

the installed base of a complementary product is necessary,

but not sufficient.

The key is to develop a single data set built from multiple sources, and then develop metrics that illuminate the gaps, both in terms of overall scope and of depth of knowledge. This is an on-going process, and additional sources should be reviewed and added as they become available. The biggest returns are realized as gaps are filled and marketing and sales efforts are directed at the newly discovered accounts and untapped prospects.

FINDING BETTER POINTS OF ENTRY


Tired of fighting to get past gatekeepers? Wouldn’t it be better for you to locate a different individual within the same target company that is not constantly subjected to such a barrage? The response rates that most email, direct mail and telemarketing generate might suggest so. Massini Group definitely believes so. This is not to say such sources of information are not useful. Use them to clarify your vision of the available market, but seek a more fruitful path of entry into the target company.

Most sales process training available today makes it a point

to differentiate between the individual within your target

company that can make the decision and those that prepare

the decision maker to do so. Called the point of entry, or

point of receptivity, this individual lives every day with the pain that you seek to remedy.

Depending on the industry, this individual is probably not

someone whose name appears in SEC filings. But they are

the key to your ability to get your foot in the door. They can identify all of the players in the process and provide your

sales people with the internal intelligence needed to advance the process. Your challenge is to find them. This is where

alternative sources and data gathering techniques should

be used to fill in the gaps left by commercially available

sources of information. For example, by first seeking the

individual with operational responsibility for the solution they were offering, a data warehousing company increased its appointment-setting rate five times over, making it possible

to utilize a face-to-face, scheduled meeting to get past the

CIO’s phalanx of gatekeepers.

INCREASING MARKET VISABILITY: THE MASTER TARGET SITE LIST


The key to successful market penetration lies in exposing untapped prospects by improving the quality of the data

upon which you base your programs. This is not accomplished simply by “buying a better list.” It is done by qualifying existing data, verifying it, identifying and filling in the gaps, and engineering an improved system that allows you to continually improve and augment the data throughout the sales cycle–all while furnishing your sales force with higher-quality, on target leads. The result is greater market visibility in the form of a Master Target Site List that accurately represents your full potential market.

Creating a Master Target Site List is a process, not an event. If your current marketing practices are based on sales-force or third-party data sources, the steps are straightforward:

o Build a comprehensive list of members (sites) in each market segment.

o Assign a value to each member that is shared by sales and marketing.

o Identify and quantify additional information gaps (e.g., incomplete data in title field).

o Methodically gather data to fill the gaps.

o Maximize the value of new visibility to untapped prospects by aggressively communicating to those companies and individuals.

Once developed, the Master Target Site List provides the following critical benefits:

o Guarantees the list contains only those companies your sales force agrees are valuable. Therefore, any time or money spent to develop a lead or sale will be on target in terms of company/site.

o Guarantees you are seeing the entire list of companies or

sites within a given geography that correspond to your target

market criteria. Thus your untapped prospects are minimized, and you are calling on a much greater percentage of the overall market. Each lead will be truly incremental to the current sales force funnel.

o By knowing your entire universe through your Master Target Site List, you are taking a critical step toward being able

to market efficiently and effectively, and in alignment with

the needs and expectations of your sales force.

o Sales force resources are not wasted qualifying leads;

the sales force can concentrate on converting quality leads into sales.

The payoff potential is enormous in terms of the efficiency and

effectiveness of marketing operations, alignment between

marketing and sales, and the ability to rapidly sequence actions based on an objective understanding of the gaps in your

knowledge base.

PROOF: MASTER TARGET SITE LIST = BETTER RESULTS

Example #1: Fortune 1000 Storage Company

ASSIGNMENT: This company was seeking to substantially

increase penetration of their storage products among the

4,000 largest hospitals in the U.S.

MEASURE: Gain initial responses from qualified targets in order to initiate a marketing dialogue.

KEY STRATEGY: Compare traditional direct marketing with the Master Target Site List approach while gaining initial responses. The incumbent approach involved use of direct mail targeted using rented lists. The rented lists had exactly the selection criteria they wanted and were generally known to be the best sources available. The direct mail seemingly produced good results, generating a 4.5% response in a market generally known to produce only 0.5% response. However, of the 450 responses, only 100 actually hit the target list of 4,000. The remaining responses were from a) hospitals that were too small, or b) allied industries (companies selling products to hospitals). Of the 100 in the target list, 50 were from hospitals with previous sales processes underway and thus did not present new sales leads. This left only 50 new hospitals that would be considered “good” prospects for the sales force. Thus, the “successful” direct mail program really only generated that same anemic 0.5% response the market “expects.”

ENGINEERED PROCESSES: Using the Master Target Site

List approach to achieve the same objective, the company purchased an unlimited-use list of contact names and cross-

indexed them with the target 4,000 hospitals. There were

2,500 of the contact names that connected to the target

hospitals. The remaining names, those not on the target list, were discarded for a lack of fit (prior to any further investment by marketing or sales). A telemarketing effort was directed at the 2,500 names, and 900 offers were accepted, representing 600 of the target 4,000 hospitals. All 600 sites were in the Master Target Site List of 4,000 hospitals and none of them had a prior sales force relationship (both of those factors were confirmed prior to the telemarketing effort).

RESULTS: The Master Target Site List approach resulted in

12 times the number of accepted offers by qualified prospects, compared to the previous direct marketing approach.

To further emphasize the value of the Master Target Site List

approach, the cost of the rented list approach was three times the cost of the Master Target Site List of 4,000; therefore, the overall benefit of the target universe base approach in terms of cost-per-outcome was 36 times better than the standard approach.

The tremendous improvement experienced by this company exemplifies the rationale for using the Master Target Site List approach. If you allocate some of your marketing funds to developing and maintaining the complete target universe, your marketing programs will perform better in terms of achieving sales goals, and will easily pay for themselves.

Further Proof: Fortune 500 Computer Company


ASSIGNMENT: A leading direct-sales computer manufacturer had been given aggressive new objectives for the expansion of PC and server sales in several markets: K-12; higher education; state, local and federal government; and healthcare. This

directive came on the heels of this business unit having achieved only 91% of their revenue objective in the previous fiscal year. Massini Group helped their marketing team discover

untapped prospects–the set of prospective customers who were currently not being engaged by their direct sales force. The challenge was to first identify these customers, then form

viable relationships with them, and bring them all the way through the sales process–into the company’s online store

to purchase products.

MEASURE: To meet or exceed sales goals by growing the revenue from the small/midsize segments in excess of targeted levels.

KEY STRATEGY: Rapidly increasing visibility to untapped

prospects through the use of Master Target Site Lists focused on each key market segment.

ENGINEERED PROCESSES: Overall, the company needed to gain control of their complex sales process, and Massini Group teams worked with them to accomplish this goal. A four-phase, end-to-end marketing and sales funnel program was implemented, based on the Massini Group’s Dialogue Strategy.

1. Created Master Target Site Lists (master list of target sites), starting with an extensive analysis of the business unit’s existing sales database. This process confirmed 69%

of their target sites were untapped opportunities–target sites and contacts with which they had not established a measurable relationship.

2. Identified key decision-makers at a much higher

percentage of the Target Sites, using telemarketing assets

(the idea is not to use inside sales resources to create your

Master Target Site List, but to use them later to exploit it).

3. Secured email opt-ins among known decision-makers, by using a combination of telemarketing, direct mail and

email, supported by a Web-based resource center.

4. Followed-up the opt-ins with aggressive e-marketing,

to either cause interested prospects to visit the online store,

or motivate the prospect to establish a relationship with an account manager for near-term sales.

RESULTS: Since the Dialogue Strategy methodology was

implemented in mid-2001, our client has increased their

coverage of targeted sites to 100%, and their

contact coverage (identification of at least one decision-maker at a target site) from 31% to 88%.

Additionally, they converted high percentages of their untapped prospects into partially and fully engaged relationships* with target accounts over the six measured quarters. A significant percentage of those relationships converted into business, and their all-important revenue performance ballooned to over

130% of target.

CONCLUSION


Many companies are experiencing underwhelming sales figures because their database marketing programs only effectively target and sell to one third of their market potential. The remaining untapped prospects must be identified, targeted

and cultivated to produce the sales figures necessary to keep companies competitive.

Developing a Master Target Site List, which includes previously unidentified accounts and sites, and previously unidentified key players, is the key to:

o Increasing market visibility.

o Developing programs that yield a greater number of higher quality leads than traditional marketing and sales-funnel strategies.

This is true whether companies depend on ad hoc sales,

drive-bys, rented lists, internally developed marketing lists,

or automated sales-funnel systems. Combined with the

Massini Group Dialogue Strategy, the Master Target Site List

methodology enables strong ROI, and sales growth superior–by orders of magnitude–to other industry practices.

The net result of this engineered approach is greater market visibility, increased operational efficiency, improved alignment and relations between marketing and sales, and clear action directed by concrete gap analysis.

ABOUT MASSINI GROUP
Massini Group is a full-service Business-to-Business database and relationship marketing firm specializing in complex marketing and sales processes. The company enables clients to gain control of complex marketing processes through the development and improvement of key marketing methods. “Engineered processes” developed by Massini Group can dramatically improve the results of database marketing initiatives, in both implementation time and execution. Massini Group has a proven track record of significantly improving sales results for its clients.

To learn more about how Massini Group helps companies engineer marketing and sales processes for maximum results, visit massini-group.com, or contact Sarah Harrington (503-274-7335) to schedule an introductory meeting with a Massini Group partner.

Since stations became required to broadcast high-definition TV signals, televisions that can pick up these signals have been in popularity. High definition televisions offer viewers clearer images, better and sharper surround sound technology and most importantly, pictures that have superior resolutions. This article discusses why high definition televisions are the way to go.

Why High Definition Televisions?

1. Superior Picture Resolution

Televisions that are able to pick up and transmit HD signals offer a much higher picture resolution than most of the televisions that use digital technology and not high def. This results in a sharper picture quality if you have a high definition television.

2. Increased Aspect Ratio

Digital televisions currently available feature an aspect ratio of 4:3, whereas the aspect ratio for high definition televisions is much higher at about 16:9. An aspect ratio is the height and width of the screen.

This means that a 4:3 ratio features a screen that is four feet in width and 3 feet in height and the same for an aspect ratio of 16:9 found on high def television. This higher aspect ration on high def televisions mean that these TVs have a much crisper and clearer image quality than digital televisions.

3. Surround Sound – Dolby A3 Digital

The Dolby A3 digital surround sound is featured on these televisions and is the standard on most high definition televisions. This means that high def televisions offer independent channels (5.1) of stereo surround sound that is of a compact disc quality which is frequently referred to as AC-3.

4. Decrease in the Motion Artifacts

Motion artifacts, a few of which are dot crawls and ghosting present on less technologically advanced televisions are reduced on HD televisions which makes high def televisions a viewing pleasure for most if not all of those with these televisions.

Additional Considerations High Definition Television Purchase

1. Input and output jacks on high def televisions should be paid attention to by potential buyers which must be compatible with other equipment to be attached to the television such as DVD players, consoles for video games, cables connections, etc.

2. High def tuner compatibility to the high HD television is crucial. Check the compatibility to the satellite or cable service used before purchase.

3. Will the buyer need an external antenna for any off air broadcasting. First check to ensure that the HD television can receive off air broadcasts. If the HD television cannot easily receive these broadcasts that are off air, the buyer may need to use his/her own antenna that is external.

HD televisions are the way to go and you should be able to find one that meets your desires and your budget easily. High definitions televisions [http://th103pf10uk.info/] means that you will have superior viewing capacity. Visit my website for discussion of some of the best HD televisions for every budget. Visit [http://th103pf10uk.info/] for more information.

There are many reasons you may want to use one of the many outdoor cooking methods for your meals. Maybe you are going camping or you just want to grill outside in your backyard. Whatever your reason for using the outdoor techniques for cooking you need to understand what a few of them are and how they are can help you cook the proper type of food for you and your family.

You can choose from grilling with a few different types of grills to cooking over an open fire. It all depends on what you want to cook and why you have decided to cook outside. Below you are going to find a few different ways for cooking outside to choose from.

1. Gas Grill Cooking

One of the most popular methods of cooking outside is with a gas grill. This grill will take either natural gas or propane, which will be your main source of fuel for cooking. You may want to supplement the gas heat with wood chips so you can get more flavor since you are cooking with gas.

There are many advantages you will get when you cook with gas. It is one of the most convenient ways to cook because all you have to do is uncover your grill, flip a switch, and start cooking. It barely takes 10 minutes for your grill to get hot enough to cook on and compared to other outdoor cooking methods this is very fast.

Another great thing about cooking with a gas grill is the cleanup. It is very easy to clean a gas grill because there are no ashes or mess from charcoal dust or wood. You can let your grill stay hot for ten minutes after you are done cooking and scrape it down a bit and you will be all set. The heat will clean the grill on its own quite well.

The only downside to cooking with a gas grill is that you are going to taint the flavor of the food you cook with the gas a little bit. This doesn’t bother most people and you can use wood chips to help give your food a bit more flavor. If you use wood chips make sure you soak them in water for a while before you put them on the grill.

2. Charcoal Grill

A charcoal grill may be a better way to cook if you don’t want to taint the flavor of your food. There is nothing like getting that good smoky flavor into your food from the grill. Plus charcoal grills are much cheaper than gas grills because they are much simpler. There are many benefits to using a charcoal grill.

You can still use wood chips to help add flavor to your food and if you get the right tools you can light the charcoal and be ready to cook in about 20 minutes. This is a great way to cook outside if you don’t want to use gas, but you want to grill out anyway. You can lock in the great smoky flavor by using a charcoal grill and in most cases it is not as expensive.

Clean up is a bit more strenuous than using a gas grill, but most charcoal grills will have a way that you can dump the dust and ashes pretty easily. This is not much different than unhooking the tank from a gas grill every time it needs to be filled. You will have better tasting food with a more natural flavor with this outdoor cooking method.

3. Over an Open Wood Fire

If you are camping or you have a fire pit in your backyard another choice would be to cook over an open flame with a wood fire. This can allow you to keep the food tasting wonderful and cook in many different ways. You can take advantage of cooking things like cobblers in a Dutch oven or cooking many other dishes with the tools that are made for cooking over an open fire.

When you are camping and you are using a fire to cook most of your meals you can boil many things with simple pots and pans that are made for cooking. However, there are also tools that will allow you to build a pocket style sandwich and put it into the fire to cook. This is great for a pizza type of sandwich or anything else that can be toasted.

Many campers prefer to boil most of the food, but with an open fire you can roast marshmallows, hotdogs, and many other foods with a simple skewer that is long enough to put into the fire without burning your hand. There are many tools to help you cook food while camping and the most natural way to cook outside is over an open fire.

The outdoor cooking method you choose will have a lot to do with what you plan to do with your food. If you are simply cooking outside in your backyard choosing a grill type and cooking is much different than if you are camping out. Campers need more equipment and they have many choices for the tools they can use to cook over an open fire or even with gas burners.

If you want to keep your food tasting as natural as possible you will want to avoid using gas and stick with an open wood fire or charcoal. This is also the way you want to go if you are going to be smoking some type of meat. The smoky flavor comes from the charcoal or the wood you are using and if you use gas it will taint the flavor of the meat you are cooking.

It is up to you what type of cooking you want to do outside and if you are looking for something that is convenient and fast, then a gas grill is the best choice. However, if you are after flavor and you are not concerned about saving time you can either use a fire pit or a charcoal grill for your outdoor cooking needs.

If you want more helpful cooking articles like this one, check out our website’s blog. We also provide great information about food processor reviews and how to choose the best food processor for baby food.

When you begin your search for a childcare provider, particularly if you are using an online nanny site, you will quickly find that there are many different terms that are used within the industry, including “nanny,” “babysitter,” “au pair,” and “home childcare provider.” These terms may not always be used correctly by a childcare provider, but it is important to understand the true definitions of each and what they mean for your family.

Babysitter

A childcare provider labeling him or herself as a babysitter tends to be a young person who is available to watch children on occasion, usually in the evening or on weekends. The babysitter may also simply be someone with limited time to offer childcare services and may or may not have a great deal of experience in home childcare. This person may not charge very much for the services offered, but if a family is looking for a nanny to take care of children on a regular basis, this is not the right type of candidate for that situation. However, for the family that would only need a childcare provider for special circumstances, a babysitter may be worth investigating further.

Nanny

A family needing extensive home childcare services will ideally focus on listings for nannies. A nanny is traditionally a childcare provider with two or more years of experience and possibly a college degree related to childcare as well. This person will have references that can easily be checked relating to previous home childcare positions and can offer a great deal of stability to a household. A family with a newborn is likely to be particularly drawn to a nanny, as she may have experience that goes beyond that of the new parents and can be very helpful in the first few months of being home with the baby.

Families can find live-in or live-out nannies, as well as nannies who are available every day of the week or who are available limited days. Many nannies will also be able to handle light chores related to the children, while some nannies will also offer a full complement of housekeeping and cleaning services in addition to home childcare. Nannies encompass the broadest category of childcare provider but the designation is also the one that means the most to a searching family.

Au Pair

An au pair, by definition, is a foreign student who has come to the United States on a specific visa to work as a childcare provider for a specific period of time – usually one year. Hiring an au pair can bring a new culture and new language to a family’s home, making this an appealing home childcare option for many families.

However, it is important to use caution when answering the ad of someone advertising herself as an “au pair” on an online nanny or au pair service. A childcare provider who is advertising her services on a listing site by calling herself an au pair is likely to have completed her accepted time in the United States (and so may have great childcare skills and references) but is now looking to stay in the U.S. beyond her visa, either legally or, possibly, illegally. In addition, this type of au pair may not say up front what her intentions are for staying in the U.S. – she may be looking to settle down in the country permanently, and thus might be an acceptable choice for a family in need of home childcare services – but she may also be looking simply to extend her stay by a few months, which would mean that at the end of the time she would be leaving the family to start the search process over from the beginning.

The bottom line is that if a family wishes to hire an au pair as their childcare provider, it is best for them to go through the licensed au pair agencies that exist and that can handle the paperwork and the legalities of the process, rather than to find an au pair independently listing herself online.

Daycare or Home Childcare Provider

Finally, when searching an online listing site, a family may come across someone listing him or herself as a daycare provider. This means that the person is offering home childcare at his or her residence, rather than at the family’s home. The most important thing to find out in considering this type of childcare provider is if the person is licensed. If he or she is not licensed, the family should walk away. An unlicensed daycare provider may offer the lowest rates, but he or she also brings the highest amount of risk. In addition, even if licensed, a daycare provider must be investigated thoroughly in terms of credibility and trustworthiness, particularly if he or she will be looking after a pre-verbal child. When dealing with this type of potential home childcare provider, not only should references be checked, but the family should also visit the daycare provider’s facility – possibly multiple times – to assess the situation.

Conclusion

When searching for a childcare provider, families must be careful to understand the terms that are used to describe different types of positions. Most families will be looking for a nanny – someone with experience who provides home childcare at the family’s home – but there are other home childcare options available that should be investigated as well. With careful, in-depth research on each childcare provider before making a final decision, a family is sure to find home childcare that fits in perfectly with its needs.

About the Author

Steven Lampert is the president of eNanny Source, an online nanny service [http://www.enannysource.com/nanny/background-checks.aspx] that brings together families and nannies. Lampert previously ran a successful, award-winning nanny agency in a major city for over 10 years, during which time he worked with thousands of families and nanny candidates. Through this experience, he became familiar with the important steps in a nanny search, which he continues to apply to his business today. To learn more, please visit http://www.enannysource.com.

Many people who collect celebrity art are interested in starting small businesses that fit into a specific niche. The niche market of celebrity art is a great way to preserve history and keep track of your favorite celebrity. This market includes the work of various actors, musicians, singers and athletes, who have taken time to create celebrity art photographs, paintings and drawings. Celebrity artists such as John Lennon, Jerry Garcia and Paul McCartney as well as many different artists have created tons of outstanding works.

When collecting these works of art it is very important that you check to see if this celebrity art is authentic. You can also find the works of celebrity in some of the largest celebrity art collections in the world. Many of these art collections have the works of people such as James Dean and Frank Sinatra, who even though they are busy entertaining the world still find enough time to create works of art that show just how creative some celebrities are.

Many celebrities have made a ton of money in the niche market of art sales making as much as $50,000 on a painting or a piece of sculpture. Others have found their niche doing work in more contemporary and mainstream celebrity art genre. In some cases, art in this niche can be found at auctions, by people who take celebrity art seriously. These celebrity auctions as well as galleries in places like Las Vegas, Hawaii, New York, and Beverly Hills where celebrities live. In addition, some celebrities in a stance of goodwill may also send autographed photographs for free when they sell a piece of their artwork.

Buying celebrity art online can be done through one of the many art stores that have an online gallery or through auction sites. Artists such as Peter Falk or Marilyn Manson have art being sold at online auction. Some charity auctions are also places where celebrity art can be found. In this niche many collectors are looking for high quality, autographed celebrity art to sell to their clientele or to keep in their private collections. The celebrity art that collectors have is usually authenticated and signed by the celebrity, they ensure the quality and the originality of these pieces. You can buy these products to create your celebrity collection and be able to share them with the world by showing them in a gallery or selling them online.

Another thing you can do in this niche is to organize a celebrity charity auction using these pieces of art so that you can raise money for children or for people needed surgical procedures done. With the money earned by this money, people will get the help that they need and many times the celebrity themselves in an effort to help will come to the gathering in order to lend support to the validity of your art and to help raise the funds. If you are into celebrity art, you can find many different ways to use them to make money and many ways to collect them for your own collection.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for autographed celebrity photos, celebrity collectibles, and autographed art. You will find it all at these sites for autographed celebrity photos, celebrity collectibles.

The principle of variance at first glance may seem counter-intuitive when it comes to conditioning athletes. However, team sport athletes encounter wide and varied stimuli within the context of competition in their sport. When you actually analyse the nature of these sports and the needs of the athletes, it makes perfect sense not to implement segmented training strategies.

Conventional training suggests that an athlete performs separate sessions for strength, power, speed and endurance. This is usually conducted within the confines of a set programme with progression. Makes sense right? Well sort of. Athletes need this specific training, however they need to apply it under circumstances they might encounter within their chosen sport. This is more specific to this type of athlete than a programme.

So what is variance?

Variance means continuous variation of the training stimulus from one session to the next. This can be seen in training methodologies such as CrossFit and our own Personal Evolution methods. Each and every workout is different from the last. It is not often you will encounter the exact same workout within a short period of time.

Now this sort of training may seem somewhat random and a hit-and-miss approach, but not if it’s applied intelligently. You wouldn’t just go out and get team sport athletes doing random, irrelevant drills and exercises. The training still needs to utilise the energy systems and movement patterns that are applicable to their sport. Soccer players need to run a lot, so the varied training sessions will include strength and conditioning, but it will also include a lot of running in an endless combination of drills. A rugby player tackles, jumps, gets tackled, drives scrums etc. This athlete needs a lot of strength, speed and power workouts.

So how do you apply variance in an athletes conditioning programme?

• First of all identify the movement patterns they need to develop and the energy systems constantly used within the context of competition.
• Begin creating workouts that utilise these patterns in a constantly varied fashion. One day you might be doing Olympic lifts for high reps, the next might be a timed workout with four or five different exercises performed continuously at high intensity, the next day could be maximum dead-lifts using single reps.
• Begin with a build-up phase, don’t just jump straight in. This sort of training can be potent and may result in injury if the athlete is not prepared.
• Have each athlete record their results in a note book. This goes for timed workouts, loads lifted etc. They can then track their performance over time.

Remember, intensity is the primary variable to aim for here. Intensity is what controls the adaptations that take place, more so than frequency, type and duration.

Variance is king, apply it intelligently, track progress and train as hard as possible. This will result in athletes being prepared for anything and everything.

For specific information visit us at http://www.endlesshumanpotential.com

My name is Chris Lyons, founder and director of Personal Evolution Training Systems. I am a qualified, registered and experienced fitness professional and athletic conditioning coach.

Visit our site at http://www.endlesshumanpotential.com

(please include our site as a link and not just text if you wish to use this article)

Do you remember the first time you saw your favorite Disney movie?

How would you like to relive the magic and be able to see your favorite Disney movies any time you wanted to?

Movies On VHS And DVD

With movies available on VHS and DVD, you can enjoy your favorite Disney movies any time you want, in the comfort of your home through the convenience of the Disney Movie Club.

The Movies You Love – The Best Movies On The Planet

Enjoy classics like Mary Poppins, Swiss Family Robinson and Alice in Wonderland or more recent movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, The Chronicles of Narnia and Chicken Little. The Disney library of movies and videos is one of the very best libraries of family entertainment on the planet.

Walt Disney Had A Dream

Years ago with pen in hand, Walt Disney drew a character he called Mortimer Mouse. Mortimer was a cute and happy little fellow with an endearing voice (Walt’s).

Then Mortimer’s name was changed to Mickey — and Walt Disney and the world would never be the same.

Walt Disney movies and the Disney Studios have given us wonderfully animated entertainment, exciting True Life nature films, movies that transport us through incredible adventures, enchanting tales and beautiful worlds of fantasy.

Disney’s high quality, state-of-the-art production values have given us movies that have come to mean so much to generations around the world.

Remember The Magic

As a kid, I still remember how excited I was when the latest Walt Disney Movie came to town. The stories were wonderful, the characters were always fun and memorable and the music always fit the movie perfectly. And I could hardly wait to see them.

And as I sat in the darkened theatre magically transported into the story that was flickering up there on that big silver screen, I had no idea that so many of Disney’s movies would become cherished classics that I would never forget.

Movies Today

You’ve heard it… You may have even said it…

Its getting harder and harder to find a really good movie playing at a local theatre.

There are exceptions, but for the most part, the art of good story telling in movies seems to have been replaced by movies that are loud, violent and laced with profanity. And as a parent you really have to be careful about what your child sees at the movie theatre.

The Disney Movie Club

Imagine being able to choose a wonderful classic family movie you’d like to see again, or a more recent movie release you’d like to add to your library.

Enjoy your favorites once again AND introduce your children to these excellent movies for the first time. Oh, and the Club delivers the movies right to your mail box.

What a great way to build your home movie and video library with a fantastic collection of movies and videos your entire family will enjoy.

The Disney Movie Club features all the great Disney classics (except for titles that are “in the vault”), and just looking over the list of their movies is exciting.

Another great feature is their videos for all ages. From the incredibly popular Baby Einstein series (a favorite of my youngest granddaughter), to preschool sing-a-longs and Disney originals.

Family Movies Are Best

Great Disney movies continue to thrill audiences world-wide and isn’t it interesting that many of the best and most popular movies are family films? And again, its the stories and characters we remember.

Your Favorites

Walt Disney had a dream. And that dream has given us so many wonderful memories, memories we can easily share with our children.

Do you remember your favorite Disney movie?

Relive the magic… You deserve it… And hey, share some of the magic with your child. They’ll love you for it.

Have fun

Mike Dougherty is a screenwriter and champion of family movies. For a FREE kid’s activity movie script visit http://fun-kid-birthday-parties.com/birthday-movie-adventure.html

Corporate marketing groups – especially bandwidth-challenged small-to-mid-sized departments – can be so focused on tactics and fire fighting that they jeopardize their marketing investment. There is a tendency to overreact to events, to tackle symptoms rather than underlying fundamental problems and to jump at the opportunity to please the boss. Many times, this kind of tactical knee jerking may be fatal.

Without great marketing, companies won’t flourish, especially those in highly

competitive markets. Yet the chaotic nature of emerging or dynamic growth

companies and the tendency to place the marketing burden on too few individuals is

a setup for failure. Promising companies may be left in the dust, or at least

handicapped at the starting gate.

Marketing Operations is emerging as an important discipline for improving

performance and measuring ROI in admired technology companies (like Intel, IBM

and Amazon) who have refined and fine-tuned their marketing organization with an

operational focus. Given the demands that these organizations face today, an

innovative approach is central to solving critical issues like results measurement,

bandwidth constraints and creativity limitations, and building value-added

outsourced supplier relationships and effectively managing budget. Many of the

best practices, efficient processes and systems approach from large company

Marketing Operations can and should be applied by emerging companies that are

serious about their marketing investment. Here’s why:

PROBLEM #1

Ill-defined metrics

Today, more than ever, corporate marketing departments need to justify their

existence. The need to measure results is unavoidable. However, the instincts and

skills that make an outbound marketing practitioner great-action-orientation,

verbal and written acuity, persuasiveness, the ability to build strong relationships-

often don’t translate into an ability or willingness to scientifically and objectively

evaluate success. Add in broken systems and the organization’s unwillingness to

pay for marketing evaluation, and it’s no surprise that many marketing departments

are unable to define meaningful success metrics.

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations ensures that the right processes are in place to establish

meaningful metrics at the front-end of marketing process, enabling the

measurement of success at key intervals, and as each program concludes.

PROBLEM #2

Slammed resources

The prevailing attitude of “doing more with less” can leave key people discouraged,

overwhelmed, near burnout, and eventually, circulating their

resumes. The consequences for organizations are costly mistakes, high turnover,

and collapsed programs when key people leave, and missed opportunities to

leverage the “ugly-stepsister-Cinderella-in-waiting” programs that never get off the

ground because of a lack of ownership.

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations addresses these resource limitations by ensuring workload is

effectively allocated, roles are clearly defined, interdependencies are understood,

team members feel satisfied with their jobs and the programs and additional

resources, whether through additional headcount or outsourcing, can be

successfully justified to executive management.

PROBLEM #3

Sketchy institutional memory

Marketing is dependent on accurate information, a historical view into past

successes and failures, and the ability to recognize patterns that link seemingly

unrelated data points. Unfortunately, knowledge in many marketing organizations is

scattered all over the company. It’s in the heads of individual workers, on shelves,

on people’s hard drives, in long forgotten filing systems. When people leave, a big

piece of organizational knowledge goes with them. Information loss is a huge

productivity killer for marketing teams. Lost insight that must be regained or

reacquired wastes previous marketing investments.

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations facilitates knowledge sharing, an enduring repository of

information and greater decision-making based on fact, as opposed to hunch.

PROBLEM #4

Constrained creativity

The best creativity comes from many brains working together in collaboration. A

consequence of the age of the “individual contributor” director is constrained

creativity. When the entire creative burden falls mostly on one outbound marketing

person, the ability to think out of the box can be severely impacted. Creative

synergy results from many minds thinking as one.

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations enables the creative process to benefit from the synergy of

team.

PROBLEM #5

Failed supplier relationships

Most successful companies can point to strong, long-term marketing supplier

relationships as integral to their success. Likewise, a pattern of failed supplier

relationships is often an indicator of marketing department failure, rather than poor

vendor performance. Unfortunately, companies that have had consistently bad

relationships with outsource suppliers often react by seizing control and bringing

everything in house. While this strategy may provides the illusion of control, it lets

marketing managers deflect blame for failures, rather than teaching them how to

manage their outsource suppliers by taking responsibility for the results. In

addition, this strategy won’t scale with the growth of the organization.

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations helps set realistic expectations and mutual accountability

between suppliers and the organization, increasing the effectiveness of outsource

partners by empowering them to act as an extension of the internal team.

PROBLEM #6

Lost discretionary budgets

Use it or lose it. Misuse it and lose it anyway. Many corporate marketing

departments are leaving discretionary budget on the table or allocating it to

the wrong initiatives. This discretionary marketing budget “Catch 22″ occurs

because:

o It’s very time consuming to manage the budget effectively, especially in companies

with broken financial systems

o Each marketing spend-decision creates more work for the one-person or small-

team

marketing department in terms of project management, measurement, supplier

management, etc.

o Doubt persists about the ability to successfully justify the expenditure to

management

o Focus is instinctively on high-visibility marketing activities and C-level executive

“requests” over fiscal management (marketing people are more inclined toward

marketing than finance)

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations facilitates implementing the system support infrastructure

and financial management discipline needed to protect precious marketing budgets.

PROBLEM #7

Narrow marketing mix

Many companies align their fate with the success of too few marketing programs.

Whether it’s lead generation, public relations, trade shows or advertising, the over-

reliance on any one particular program can derail a company-especially if a key

program unexpectedly loses momentum. In the meantime, programs that could

have had strong leverage never get a chance to prove their mettle and are forever

relegated to the “B” list.

SOLUTION

Marketing Operations puts the means in place to launch potentially high-value

marketing programs that would never otherwise get out of the starting gate.

The Bottom Line

In a nutshell, Marketing Operations is an organization’s best bet to:

o Ensure that success can be measured and replicated

o Leverage systems and processes to enable consistently excellent performance

o Encourage great marketing departments to stay together

o Allow the marketing organization to flourish, despite the unexpected, but often

inevitable, loss of a key employee.

Gary M. Katz, APR, is president and CEO of CommPros Group, a Santa-Clara, Calif.- based firm that provides marketing operations services to help companies leverage their marketing investment, plus a variety of outsourced marketing program management services to support lean marketing departments. Gary is a veteran with more than twenty years of experience in the technology industry where he directed corporate marketing, communications, public relations, lead generation and qualification, investor relations, and employee communications programs. He has served as director of communications for ShoreTel, director of corporate marketing for Aplix Corporation, senior manager of corporate communications for Insignia Solutions, and as a director, account supervisor, or preferred subcontractor for more than a dozen leading public relations and marketing communications agencies. A past president of Silicon Valley PRSA, he holds a master’s degree in organization development from the University of San Francisco and a BA degree in public relations from San Jose State University.

Thinking of traveling with your pet internationally? Here are the TOP TEN international destinations to travel with your pet, and information that will make entering these countries easy and without quarantine.

We are also including information that will help you pass through immigration with ease if you are visiting another country. Keep in mind that this information is subject to change. You can always send an email to Pet Travel inquiring about the latest requirements for travel to an international destination with your pet.

The travel industry knows that pets mean profits. The airlines also want your business as many as 95% of the world’s airlines will now transport your pet. If your dog or cat is small enough you can even take it in the cabin with you on many airlines.

The grand cities of Europe are all very pet friendly. Here are four countries and cities that deserve to be on the top ten list.

Belgium, France, Switzerland and Italy are four of the most pet friendly countries we have visited. Traveling with your pet in Europe is easy as there are no longer any borders, so you can travel freely. Distances are small between the cities and even between countries. Getting around is easy as almost all European trains, buses and ferries accept pets on board.

PARIS is easily the most pet friendly city we have visited in Europe. You can dine at any of the thousands of sidewalk cafes in Paris, and you will see pets sitting by their masters or under the tables in nearly all of them. What’s more, in this the city of lights well behaved pets can dine inside the restaurant with their owners.

On a Sunday morning you will see well-dressed men and women walking with their very well-groomed pets on a leash out for a Sunday stroll and headed for the nearby park.

Visit the Montmartre district where artists have set up their easels on the sidewalk. For a few francs an artist will create an original painting of your favorite pet.

Immigration into France: To take your pet into France from the United States, Canada, or Mexico, you need just three things. Your pet must be micro chipped with an ISO 15 digit microchip, be vaccinated for rabies, and have the EU form of a veterinary health certificate for France. The immigration officer will just pass you through.

LAKE LUCERNE in Switzerland is well known for its beauty and the quality of its skiing. Rent a chalet for you and your pet near the lifts and you will have a great ski vacation. Just down the street will be a sidewalk cafe with a pet under nearly every table. If your pet does not have a thick coat, you will want to purchase it a nice warm coat to wear.

While visiting Switzerland you will want to see the famous banking capital of Zurich. But Zurich is famous for more than banks it is the home to many of the famous watch makers and chocolatier’s.

Switzerland is one of those countries where pets are just a part of everyday life. Due to its location it is just a short drive in a rental car or by train to either France or Italy.

Immigration into Switzerland: To take your pet into Switzerland from the United States, Canada, or Mexico, you need just three things. Your pet must be micro chipped with an ISO 15 digit microchip, be vaccinated for rabies and have the EU form of a veterinary health certificate for Switzerland. The immigration officer will just pass you through.

BRUSSELS is also on our list of top ten destinations. Although your pet may not be welcome in the museums, it will be welcome almost everywhere else. This is a walking city, and if you stayed for a month you would never run out of different places to visit with your pet. There are magnificent parks everywhere, take a walk through the famous antique flea markets, or stroll into Belgium’s past at Cinquantenaire Park.

Have you ever ridden a Segway? They look like an oversized skate board with a handle and an electric motor. Brussels is famous for the availability of these little devices that will scoot you around the city at a speed suitable for your pet to run alongside.

Brussels is also known for its exotic night life but you will need to hire a pet sitter as pets are not allowed in the night clubs.

Immigration into Belgium: To take your pet into Belgium from Mexico you need just three things. Your pet must be micro chipped with an ISO 15 digit microchip, be vaccinated for rabies and have the EU form of a veterinary health certificate for Belgium. The immigration officer will just pass you through.

MADRID is one of Europe’s oldest cities and worthy of a ranking in our top ten pet friendly places to visit. This is a city of plazas with fountains and statues everywhere. Spaniards love their pets, and they will love yours too if it is well behaved and friendly.

Take your pet on a walk to the Plaza Mayor the so-called “aristocratic centre” of Madrid, home to the stunning Royal Palace, a 17th century monument that combines Baroque and Classical styles. Next to the palace you can find the Plaza de Oriente (square), the Opera House and the modern Almudena Cathedral, consecrated in 1993 by Pope John Paul II.

Another option while visiting Spain is the beautiful Costa del Sol with beautiful white sand beaches running as far as the eye can see. And yes, your pet will be welcome on most of the beaches in the area so if you have a water dog, they will have a chance to sample the warm waters of the Mediterranean.

Immigration into Spain: To take your pet into Spain from the United States, Canada, or Mexico, you need just three things. Your pet must be micro chipped with an ISO 15 digit microchip, be vaccinated for rabies and have the EU form of a veterinary health certificate for Spain. The immigration officer will just pass you through.

The hotels in Europe are much more likely to make your pet welcome as it is such a common practice to take ones pet along on holiday. Or, you can book a lovely home or apartment, which are readily available if you are staying for a week or longer.

PLAYA DEL CARMEN in Mexico is a great destination for the lover of brilliant blue waters and white sand.

My little Shih Tzu named Ruggles and I lived there for a while, and there was virtually no place he was not welcome. If you need exercise there is a small partially outdoor gym where Ruggles would lie in the shade and wait for me. Down at the beach were dozens of small patio restaurants where Ruggles and I would share lunch.

On at least one occasion, we took the deluxe inter-city bus from Playa Del Carmen to Cancun. Ruggles occupied the seat next to me. Not sure if it was legal but no one said a word about it either way.

Nearby by are the Mayan Temples of Chichen-Itza. I do not believe that pets are allowed inside the grounds.

Within two or three kilometers are several caves with underground pools of water. I saw several pets during my visit to these caves.

COSTA RICA is a popular destination for traveling pet owners. Going through customs with your pet is little more than a wave of the hand. If you are looking for exciting gambling and night life, then San Jose is the place for you. There are plenty of pet friendly hotels in the city.

Most people who visit Costa Rica head for the rural areas where tall trees, beautiful birds and magnificent waterfalls are around every corner. Of course, don’t forget the rain forest where the brilliant blue butterflies flitter about the lush vegetation. Accommodations in these areas are less elegant but you will find several who will welcome you and your pet.

Immigration:

To enter pet friendly Costa Rica you will need a certificate of good health indicating that your pet if free from disease and has been properly vaccinated. Dogs must be vaccinated for rabies, distemper, hepatitis, lestospirosis, and parovirus, and cats must be vaccinated for rabies.

Rounding out our top ten favorite pet friendly destinations, we travel to the United States. You can bring your pet into the US with only a health certificate stating that it is healthy and has been vaccinated for rabies.

KEY WEST is probably the most pet friendly city in the States. This small town can only be called “laid back” where life goes at slower place. Your pet will be welcome in virtually every hotel, bed and breakfast and motel in the city. Every restaurant has an outdoor dining area where your pet will be welcome and some restaurants even allow small well behaved pets inside.

I visited the city a few years ago and while Ruggles and I were out for a walk I stopped in front of a somewhat elegant restaurant. I was studying the menu and the maitre de came out to speak to me. I asked if Ruggles would be welcome and his response was: does he like beef or chicken?

THE BIG APPLE – NEW YORK deserves a place on our list. It seems that everyone living in this bustling city has a pet. There are so many that the pet walkers will each have six or eight at one time on leashes out for their morning stroll. Sunday in Central park is doggie heaven. Your pet will meet and greet a hundred other pets during your stroll. Then you can stop at one of the outdoor cafes for “coffee and a roll”.

This is also the city for the elegant hotel and nowhere is pets more welcome than in an elegant hotel. The higher the price of the room, the more welcome the pet. However, there is a wide range of places where your pet will be welcome. Pet Travel lists over a hundred hotels that welcome pets.

A few years ago Ruggles and I stayed at one of the nicer hotels on Central Park. Late in the afternoon I went down to the bar for a cocktail and took Ruggles along. We were sitting in the bar when the manager came in. He gave Ruggles a little pat and said “I would much rather have a well behaved pet in my hotel than a small child who is not well behaved. ” This hotel, like many others, sent a bellman up to my room each morning to take Ruggles for a walk.

Some of the hotels in New York even have room service menus for pets!

ASHEVILLE, North Carolina well deserves a place on the top ten list. More than 50% of the accommodations in Asheville accept pets attesting to its claim as one of America’s most pet friendly cities. For the traveling pet owner who loves golf this is a top choice.

During the summer Asheville features a number of outdoor concerts, street fairs, and festivals where your pet will be welcome.

SAN DIEGO is only a short distance from our border. This metropolitan city on the ocean has not one but two “doggie beaches”. There are hundreds of pet friendly accommodations in the city and in the surrounding areas. On a recent visit with my new pet also a Shih Tzu whose name is Bear; we stayed at the Sophia Hotel which could not have been more pet friendly. The young women who manned the front desk always stopped to talk with Bear and even offered to babysit him.

Each day we walked to one of the dozen or so outdoor cafes for lunch or dinner. Almost the first thing they would do was to bring Bear a bowl of water.

BEING A COURTEOUS TRAVELING PET OWNER

The range of accommodations and traveling options available to the traveling pet owner continues to expand because these businesses recognize the value of your business. However, you have a responsibility to be a courteous and caring pet owner. Don’t let your pet be a nuisance by letting it roam loose or by barking. And, rule number one, be sure to pick up after your pet.

Visiting these pet friendly cities will make for a vacation that you will never forget. Be sure and book your airline tickets early if you are traveling by air. Most of the airlines have a limit to the number of pets per flight. In addition, call or email the pet friendly hotel you are staying in to confirm their pet policies so there will be no surprises at check in. Email us at info@PetTravel.com with any questions. We wish you nothing but happy travels.

PetTravel.com is the pet traveler’s resource for information about traveling with a pet. We have been serving the traveling pet public for over 12 years. Over 26,000 pet friendly hotels and services, and pet passport and immigration information on over 190 countries worldwide can be found on Pet Travel. Our Pet Travel Store has must have items for the traveling pet: microchips, scanners, in-cabin and cargo carriers and much more. Whatever you need for traveling with your pet can be found on Pet Travel.

A loose definition of the word improvisation is to invent, compose, or perform something extemporaneously. For example if you’ve ever seen a Woody Allen movie, laughed at a sketch on Saturday Night Live or heard Miles Davis play notes of music not bound by this earth, you’ve experienced improvisation in action. As it is in movies, sketch comedy or jazz the joy of improvisational cooking is in the results that spring forth from inspired creation.

How do you use a recipe? Do you follow each step and measure each ingredient with the precision of a chemist? Do you nervously meter out the baking time of your cookies by tapping your foot to the cadence of the timer? We perform this culinary art to please more than our stomachs, the reasons too numerous to mention. Whatever the reason we usually approach it with recipe in hand. Often times a recipe we don’t understand. The essence of Improv Cooking, with it’s somewhat Zen like approach, demands you’re imagination and instinct to help you solve the riddle of the recipe.

The Steps Towards Improv Cooking

Improvisational cooking is not so much reading and following a recipe as it is using skills and techniques to take a recipe to another level or create a recipe out nothing more than a larder full of ingredients. You have to possess a certain amount of skill and understanding before plunging in to any kind of cooking. Improv Cooking is no different. It forces you to trust your instincts as well. Follow these seven simple steps and you’ll soon be free to open the fridge and just start cooking.

#1 Taste As Many Different Styles of Cooking as Possible

This is probably the simplest of all the Improv techniques to learn and master. Just eat as many different cooking styles as you can. The axiom is straightforward. The more you’re exposed to, the more imaginative you’ll become. Fill your headphones with nothing but Britney and it certainly would be difficult to imagine Charlie Parker’s saxophone. Consequently, eat nothing but the same restaurant or home cooked food all the time and your cooking vocabulary will reflect it.

#2 Understand the Basic Fundamental Techniques of Cooking

You can’t pick up a trumpet and expect to sound like Miles Davis without knowing a few things first. I won’t go into all the things that could and will go wrong. I’m sure you get the picture. Well, Improv Cooking follows the same rules. You can’t expect to be able to whip out a perfect Coq Au Vin without knowing the techniques involved to do so. But, the rewards will be greater once you do. The following list is more than just the basic fundamentals though. I’ve listed all the techniques and methods that matter to the experienced cook.

The Oven Group

Roasting – Cooking with dry heat that surrounds the food with as much direct heat as possible.

Pan Roasting – The wary little secret of every professional kitchen. This is a combination of method of starting the food in a hot sauté pan then finishing in a hot oven.

Broiling – A cousin to grilling, this is direct heat cooking with the heat source above the food instead of under it.

Braising – Moist heat cooking usually achieved in a sealed container like a Dutch oven, tagine or stoneware crock.

Baking – A dry heat method of cooking usually referring to breads, pastries etc.

The Wet Group

Boiling – Cooking in a large quantity of liquid, usually water.

Steaming – Cooking in a sealed container with a small amount of liquid (usually water but not especially) with the food suspended over the liquid so that it only comes in contact with the steam vapors.

Poaching – Best known as a method to cook egg, fish and perhaps chicken. This is cooking in a hot still liquid where the liquid never reaches more than a bare simmer.

The Frying Group

Sautéing – Cooking in a hot pan with little or no fat (butter, oil etc.)

Pan Frying – Very similar to sautéing, except done with more fat. Sometimes enough to almost immerse the food.

Stir-Frying – The Asian method of cooking in an extremely hot pan, usually a wok, with very little fat while keeping the food almost in constant motion.

Deep-Frying – Cooking by totally immersing the food in hot fat. The fat does the job of cooking by encircling the food with heat, thereby allowing it to cook faster sealing in natural juices and flavors. If done properly it’s not the health demon most people assume it is.

The Outdoor Group

Grilling – Cooking over direct heat with the food usually supported by a grate of some sort. This method can be performed indoors as well with the right equipment.

Smoking – This is actually two sub groups. Hot smoking is cooking at temperatures that will cook the food at the same time it infuses the food with smoke flavor. Cold smoking is done with the heat source separate from the cooking chamber so the food is enveloped in low temperature smoke that will infuse flavor without cooking.

Rotisserie – Like grilling, this method does not necessarily have to be done outdoors for the lucky few that have the capability in a well-equipped kitchen. Either way this is cooking with the food suspended over or next to direct heat and rotated via by some mechanical means.

The Sauce Group

Here’s where it gets a little dicey and can separate the cooks from the pretenders. Some of these techniques are best learned at the elbow of someone who’s been there before. But don’t let that stop you from digging in and trying on your own. You may come with some pretty awful stuff, but the attempt will teach you a lot.

Stock – A cornerstone of cooking, whether, meat, fish, poultry or vegetable. A low and slow cooking that’s meant to draw the true essence of flavor into a liquid form.

Brown Sauce – Usually made with beef or veal, but can be made with any brown stock made from roasted bones, flavored with aromatic herbs and vegetables.

Demi-Glace – Similar to brown sauce only made without a thickener and reduced to thicken and intensify flavors.

White Sauce – Also known as Béchamel, made with milk and or cream and thickened with a roux (flour and butter paste)

Veloute – Constructed very much like white sauce, except the milk is replaced usually by a light colored stock of either meat or poultry. It is often enhanced with egg yolks and butter at finishing.

The “Aise” Family – This includes Hollandaise and all its progeny like béarnaise, choron etc. and mayonnaise and all its descendants like aioli, remoulade etc. These are all emulsion sauces with egg bases and a body made mostly of oil or butter.

Other Emulsions – This can range from aiolis or butter sauces to vinaigrettes, to pan sauces that are thickened or finished last minute with butter and or cream.

Gravy – A sauce in loose terms only. Gravies are usually made with the juices collected from roasting meats or poultry. The non-thickened varieties are sometimes called “Jus” in modern menu vernacular.

The Soup Group

The Hearty Family – This includes all the varieties you want to serve in meal-sized bowls like beef stew, chicken and dumplings, chili, chowder and minestrone.

Bisque – Usually and intensely flavored soup that’s been thickened with rice, potatoes or a flour paste called panade.

Purees – Similar to bisque in nature but usually made with a single vegetable flavoring and thickened by pureeing the entire mass via some mechanical or manual means. Often times these soups are finished with cream.

Creams – Any soup, thick or thin, where a significant portion of the liquid is either milk or cream.

Broth – Often confused with stock, both are liquids that have been flavored with aromatics. But the basic building block of stock is bones whereas broth is composed from pieces of meat giving it more collagen. This is the lip sticking quality that gives broth its viscous body.

Consommé – A broth that’s been clarified with egg whites

The Miscellaneous Group

This is a hodgepodge of techniques that will give you a little more depth to your creativity.

Papillote, Packages and Pouches – This is where the food is wrapped and sealed in paper, foil or sometimes a natural wrapper like corn husk or banana leaf. The packages can be cooked by baking, steaming, boiling or grilling.

Dumplings – This is a very broad category of foods and methods that includes many varieties that I’m going to break put into two families. The filled dough variety and the nothing but dough variety. The filled dough relatives have names like ravioli, dim sum, kreplach or pierogi. After filling, these succulent siblings can be steamed, boiled, baked or fried. The nothing but dough relations generally just go by the name “dumpling” but sometimes have the main flavoring preceding their surname such as apple or onion. Also on this branch of the tree are hush puppies, zeppoli and matzoth balls.

Croquettes – Usually a fried delicacy, but sometimes baked. A soft filling of any manner of meat, cheese, vegetable or fruit encased in a crisp shell.

Brining – Very popular these days. Besides turkey at Thanksgiving, it’s an essential step in the process of smoking certain foods, like salmon or ham. But will often stand on its own in foods like gravlax or prosciutto.

Paté – A French term to describe a dish made with forcemeat (ground) of innards or any kind of meat. But the technique occurs in other cuisine and has recently been tagged to concoctions of vegetables or fruits as well. Cold meatloaf is technically a pate.

Charcuterie – Pardon my French, but they did have a huge influence on the world of cooking. This term covers all manners of sausage making and preserving of meats.

The Baker’s Group

This group of techniques is where the art of cooking meets the science of food. Precision in measurement, combination of ingredients and technique is of utmost importance. Discipline and a strict adherence to formula must replace the looser attitude you can give to other areas of cooking. But, as in life, there are no absolutes. Once mastered, these techniques will reveal many ways to tweak and stretch a recipe to your will.

Yeast Breads – These can be savory or sweet, loaves, rolls or doughnuts. They can be baked, fried or steamed.

Quick Breads – The “Quick” generally refers to the active leavening that’s achieved with eggs, baking soda, baking powder, and any combination thereof. These can be baked in loaves or cups (then they’re called muffins). Or steamed in molds which will change their name to pudding.

Pies, Tarts and Cobblers – Be they one crust or two, hand held or deep dish, cream filled, fruit filled, custard or meat. The basic construction varies very little.

Cakes and Tortes – The basic building blocks of flour (usually wheat but can be any variation), sweetener (sugar, honey whatever) and leavening (very similar to quick bread) rarely change. The differences all come in the flavoring and final construction.

Icings and Frostings etc. – Really a sub group of cakes and tortes, but for this purpose it stands alone. I’m including in this arena fondant, buttercream, ganache, boiled icing and all the wondrous creations done with pulled sugar.

Soufflés and Mousse- A seemingly daunting hurdle to the novice, but once the simple construction of flavoring base lightened with egg whites in the case of soufflé or whipped cream for mousse is mastered the sky is the limit.

Custards – Learning how to manage both breeds, baked and stir-cooked over heat, opens opportunities for both sweet and savory variations.

Puddings – A difficult process to pin down because of the wide range of foods that can be called puddings.

#3 Learn the Relationships of Aroma, Flavor, Texture and Color

The relationships of aroma, flavor, texture and color are possibly the most important aspect of improv cooking. In order for any dish to be cooked well, the dish must be whole. It must appeal to all the senses completely and with harmony. Webster’s Dictionary describes these elements in the following way;

Aroma – A pleasant characteristic odor

Flavor – the taste experience when a savory condiment is taken into the mouth

Texture – The distinctive physical composition or structure of something, especially with respect to the size, shape, and arrangement of its parts.

Color – That aspect of things that is caused by differing qualities of the light reflected or emitted by them.

To make all of this work in harmony is no small task. Whether from recipes or you’re imaginations it’s the crux of all cooking. To neglect or diminish anyone of these elements would result in a dish that’s not complete. And by contrast, to enhance or over emphasize anyone of these elements as well would result in a dish that is off balance and probably not very appealing. So how do you know when you get it right? Is there a formula or system of measuring these elements that can insure all the pieces of the puzzle are in place? No, you just know when it works. Even though the balance of these elements is crucial, the right answer is up to you. Let your self go and become the dish or as was first said in Caddyshack “Be the ball!” Let your senses tell you what’s happening in that pot or pan. Smell, taste, look and even listen to the food as it cooks. It has a great story to tell if you let it.

#4 Learn the Art of Accompaniment

Very few things we cook stand-alone. Even the most well-crafted stew or soup becomes even more complete and interesting by what it is served with. The gamut of choices can range from side dishes to condiments to beverages and even to the choice of lighting or music. In fact there are too many choices to discuss in detail. The best way to approach this dilemma is to first understand the goal. Because there are huge differences in these as well, a simple lunch for two suggests a different set of choices from a large family gathering or an elegant supper. Throw this into the mix along with your own level of ability or comfort with certain techniques and dishes and well I think you get my point. Perhaps the best way to approach this step towards Improv Cooking is to begin with what you know, because just as the right accompaniments can make a meal, the wrong ones can just as easily destroy it.

#5 Cook With Others

“One can acquire everything in solitude except character.”

Stendhal, On Love, 1822

Unlike jazz, comedy or any of the other improvisational arts, where the act of improv is rarely done alone, you rarely think of cooking as something that can and should be done with others. Yet there are the accidental improvisational sessions that happen all the time.

While developing the skills of Improv cooking, you should plan several intentional cooking sessions centered on a specific dish or meal that two or more people can prepare together. Cooking with someone else can magically open a door to your imagination.

#6 Taste Analytically

I started cooking because I wanted to understand the magic behind the food I was eating. Tasting smelling and analyzing ingredients to understand the effects each can have within a dish is an essential improvisational skill. The more you do it the easier it becomes to unlock the magic of a dish. This skill coupled with a solid understanding of technique will enable you to accomplish great things in the kitchen.

#7 Break the Rules.

Without a sense of exploration, which is the ultimate rule breaker, we would have never walked on the moon or experienced Nouvelle Cuisine. The space program produced hundreds of modern conveniences we enjoy today. Yet many food writers and Chefs look upon Nouvelle Cuisine with the same disdain as the embarrassingly wide collars and polyester clothing of the day. Nouvelle Cuisine left us with a legacy of pushing the envelope. Unlike any other period in cooking, Chefs were taking the expected and giving us a whole new way to see it. The foods, techniques and presentations that seemed far out and strange then have today become not only the norm for many Chefs, but a jumping off point to even wilder ways to cook. Breaking the rules is the mantra in many kitchens today. Savory foams, laser printed edible paper, carnival midway snacks served in the palaces of high cuisine are just a few of the ways rules are being broken. If something feels like a rule the next time you’re in the kitchen, then break it. You may create something inedible, but you will learn a valuable lesson. I can’t emphasize enough that once you combine your increased knowledge of techniques, flavors and construction your imagination will be free to see new avenues to explore. Soon the rules will start disappearing.

CHICKEN BREASTS IN MUSTARD PAN SAUCE IMPROV

Chicken Breast, boneless and skinless

Unsalted Butter

Kosher Salt

Fresh Ground Pepper

Veloute Sauce

Good Grainy French Mustard

Egg Yolks

Lemon Juice

Chives for garnish

Butterfly the chicken breasts or pound them to 1/2″ thick. Season each liberally with salt and pepper then set aside. Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium high heat until it foams and begins to brown. Add the just enough chicken to the pan so its not too crowded. Brown the breasts on one side then turn and cook for about 4-5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and lift the chicken breasts to a warm platter. Repeat the process again if you need to cook more chicken. If not, return the pan to the heat and add the veloute sauce. Stir in the mustard and reduce the heat to low. Scrape the pan to lift all the little bits of browned chicken stuck to the pan. Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl. Add a little of the warm sauce to the yolks to warm them then stir the mix into the warm sauce. Return the pan to the heat, but do not let the sauce boil. Finally, stir in the lemon juice and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the sauce and warm briefly. Serve the chicken topped with a little sauce and garnished with some snipped chives.

Improv Hint: The veloute sauce in this case should be a little on the thin side. The simmering in the pan, the mustard and the egg yolks will have an affect on making it a little thicker. Plan on about one-third cup of sauce per chicken breast.

Tobie began his career as part of a restaurant and tavern family in Chicago. As a student of liberal arts at Kendall College he discovered his calling in the restaurant industry. Leaving school before graduation, he accepted an apprenticeship under Chef John Snowden at Dumas Pere L’Ecole de la Cuisine Francais. The classic French apprenticeship prepared him for a career as Chef and consultant. Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises’ re-opening of the legendary Pump Room in 1977 was his first project. Since then, he has used his creative talents working with restaurants all over the country. He currently resides in Minneapolis working with an active list of consulting projects including, The Sample Room, a renovation of an old bar to a modern eatery Ike’s Bar and Grill, classic dining in downtown Minneapolis, Monkey Dish Bar and Grill ; an outrageous fun concept in suburban Chicago among others. His articles have appeared in various local publications and he makes regular appearances on radio and TV. He is working on a book called “IMPROV COOKING”.

Searching the internet for a “summer camp” can yield an overwhelming number of results. Unfortunately, the best camp for you may not be anywhere near the top of Google’s picks; your perfect camp might be hidden on page ten. Right at the top of the search results will be camp directories. Directories appear here as they put the most money into their sites, into their web-ranking. A directory won’t know which camp is best for you.

In the search results there will be web links that relate to one specific camp. You may chose to look at some of these as well as the directories but going camp page to camp page will take too long, limiting your exposure to the camps available. As long as you are aware that the directories are a resource and not an authority, they are the most easy-to-use resource to be found. To understand why they are a resource and not an authority, one should understand how they exist. Directories charge the camps you find on their website for the services they provide. Most have a free listing but these are little one liners with limited information and often in black and white. To be noticed, directories charge camps for top placement, for color, for logos, for video, for ads on the side of the page and ones at the top. Quotes to camps run into the thousands of dollars per year for a listing.

Since your time is valuable, here are some benefits of the directories: you can find camps broken down by religion, by activity, by geography, by residency or day camp. Once you have a general idea of what you are looking for, use the internet to research specifics. For example, if you have decided you want to go whitewater rafting, but you also want to visit a different part of the country, you should hop onto a search engine and type in “whitewater rafting camp in California” (or whatever area you want to visit). Look at each of the sites that come up and make contact with those camps. Find out if they offer shuttle service to and from the local airport (this is something our camp offers). By doing so, you might get to have your proverbial cake and eat it too! This article would be no good if we didn’t have some recommendations to get your questions flowing, so here are some to consider:

1. Is a resident summer camp (one where you stay overnight) for you? If you haven’t spent much time away from home, this can be a scary thought. Feeling nervous is normal. It helps to know that no one is a “pro” at being a summer camp resident – everyone else is nervous, too! So, if this is something that’s exciting, I encourage you to give it a try; you’ll probably love it! If not, if this is simply something you cannot get into, then you should look for a day camp. Day camps can run multiple days but you’re picked up and dropped off each day.

2. Is a church-focused camp a main factor? If yes, then you must make sure you’re searching with the specific church focus in your query. Even the most devout of campers can enjoy a non-church focused camp. Directors and counselors alike have great respect for people of all backgrounds, so don’t allow this factor to keep you away if the camp is perfect in all other respects.

3. Does the camp need to be an all-boys (or all-girls) camp? If so, then make sure you are searching for all-boys camps. If coed is preferred make sure you keep an eye out for this as well. We cannot say which, if either, is better, as we have had experiences with both types of scenarios.

4. This is your summer vacation, so if there is something you want to explore, then look for that in a camp. If you want underwater basket weaving, then you should not enroll in a sea kayaking camp. With this in mind, it is important to look at the activities different camps offer, especially as you begin to narrow your search. Similar camps can still pose great differences. For example, here, in Northern California, there are two water-based camps that are not far apart. One camp is on a lake, the other on a river. They are both priced nearly the same. The river-based camp does nearly all that the lake-based camp does, but the river-based camp also rafts, has off-site excursions such as water parks, pro sporting events and local attractions, at no extra charge! Be sure to really take a look at the camps and compare. And as we always encourage, contact the camps and ask them questions. You can tell quite a bit about the camp by how they respond to you. Always choose the one that makes you the most comfortable.

5. Most importantly, don’t assume that you cannot do something. If you find something that peaks your interest but you are unsure of whether it is a good fit for you, then ask the camp! Most camps were designed with your joy in mind; therefore, the activities they offer are ones they are pretty sure you would enjoy. So, if you think a rafting adventure camp sound exciting and somewhere you would like to be, but you are not confident in your ability to participate, then contact the camp. Ask them what is required, tell them your concerns, and dialogue with them. If you are getting the feeling that they would rather not talk with you, then that is a place you do not want to be. If, however, you find they are engaging and care about your concerns, it is probably a good fit.

6. Email the camp, call the camp and dialogue with the camp! I cannot stress this enough. Anyone can write about how great their camp is, and everyone WILL write about how great their camp is, but the decision as to which camp fits you is yours and yours alone. The only way you are going to answer questions and get comfortable with your decision is to make contact. Camps should welcome your email and/or call. You are important, and so is your summer vacation. The right camp will recognize this and help you to find the best fit. The tips above are a good starting point toward finding that camp that is going to help you make BFFs and provide you with memories for years to come. As you see, there is a tremendous variety in summer camping from adventure overnight camps to day camps focused on arts and crafts. This is your time to live it up, take the time to research, be bold, and take a risk on something new. Reach out via email, and go with the camp that responds in a way that speaks to you.

Christopher Pyle is the owner/director of adventure summer camp and whitewater rafting company in Northern California. His entire company philosophy focuses on creating the safest and most encouraging environments for campers and rafters alike. We focus on TEAM, we focus on KINDNESS, we focus on SAFETY, we focus on personal EMPOWERMENT, we focus on COMMUNITY, we focus on SUPPORT. We’re family run, family oriented and wanting to share our place with you.

Cooking is one of my specialties. While in the US Army Reserves I learned about Cooking. Indoor, outdoor and cooking using a utensil over an open flame was fun and easy with cast iron cookware. I remember the outdoors and the smell of cooking, accompanied by the chorus of the squirrels, crickets and birds, during bivouacs.

The most ordinary form of cooking is campfire cooking. For families it is particularly well fitting, it is an activity which presents an opportunity for pleasant evenings and outings. It has its own taste and fancy. Skill and knowledge is required, but both are easily acquired. Cooking is a tradition in itself and some cooks have years of experience both on safaris and at home. It is one of my favorite things in life. It is great; however, most open flame cooking is done in campgrounds. Credit to improvements in camping cooking gear and a horde of easy-prep and in-store ingredients, it need not be limited to burgers, dogs and smokes. Another unique way of cooking is to cook some food items inside of other foods. Another unusual cooking, using a utensil over an open flame method, is cooking in paper. An unfussy and simple way of outdoor cooking is to set a large coffee can on the coals. The days of utilitarian campfire cooking of yesteryear are gone. Try out a few odd techniques the next time you’re out camping.

For the tools and tips, place in your favorite search engines: campfire grill, campfire ring, propane in the ground campfire with a cast iron pot, campfire grill, campfire tripod, campfire in a can , California campfire fireplace, little red campfire , cooking steamer, induction cooking, cooking tripod, cooking strainer, cooking smoker, cooking station, cooking table, cooking pot, cooking twine, cooking thermometer, cooking rings, bistro cooking, plank cooking. Search for some prime cooking on the web or books on tips and tricks for Dutch oven cooking. Buy books which are specifically written for the camper who wants to make this method of cooking easier, safer, revealing how to make outdoor cooking grilling and RVing easy and fun in camping. I learned years ago from a relative that most pans will do well.

If you’ve never done any open flame cooking or camp cooking before, one of the things to be aware of is that you’ll need to monitor food closely from start to finish because it can burn quickly. Placing a marshmallow or hot dog on the end of a good stick and holding the food at just the right distance from the heat. One of the disadvantages to this kind of cooking is that cookware gets much dirtier than it does when cooking with a stove. So most likely open flame cooking will require less clean-up. Although campfire cooking can take a little more time than simply firing up the stove, it is more rewarding. If on the other hand you’re in the mood to take your time and enjoy the experience, cooking using a utensil over an open flame can be relaxing in a way that a stove can’t begin to match.

Here are some items that you will need to have to be prepared : Camping Cookbooks containing all the unique and fun camping recipes to make open flame cooking enjoyable. A large barbecue grill or rack will let you enjoy the full flavor and aroma, using either wood or charcoal briquettes. On a Campfire a simple and easy way of cooking is to set a large coffee can on the coals.

This method of cooking is the most common form of outdoor cooking. There is definitely more to It than just scorching marshmallows and making smokes. Have an outdoor party. Guest or spectators may soon become participants as the host or hosts divide their guests into teams and turn them loose for an afternoon of supervised scorching Spurred on, in part, as they are getting hungry. It is gaining in popularity because it brings friends and family together at the same time.

Attend a cooking using a utensil over an open flame class. There are conducted nationwide tours or clinics held every year at different campgrounds across the country.

While some view cooking using a utensil over an open flame as a survival skill, most people do it for other reasons. this method of cooking is a way to bring groups together. It is a method in which to lure kids away from their video games or as a way for divorced dads to entertain kids on weekends, It is an ideal way for families to reconnect. Everything tastes better roasted over an open fire. Maybe that is why with kids It is so popular. When you are done with your kid’s , make sure the fire is totally out.

How about Breakfast Muffins, fried or poached eggs, Chopped Ham, Shredded cheese, Diced potatoes, for example. Try cooking in a black skillet or even a 12 hole muffin pan. Salt and pepper half of muffin tin placing 6 eggs in 6 holes with 6 muffin mix muffins in the remaining 6 holes. Campfire popcorn can be popped in foil: Popcorn Kernels and oil or butter with salt for seasoning. Tear off an 18 inch square of tin foil. The first lesson to be learned about campfire cooking is that you do not cook over an open flame all the time. Try to have all the latest and greatest campfire gear on hand. Purchase only cast iron products. Browse products of campfire gear to find those goods that will work the best for you. Dutch oven Campfire Cooking is almost an ancient form of making food but is very prevalent today.

Select the relaxed comfort of your living room fireplace; staring into the embers as your banquet cooks, or watching the flickering flames dance and play while toasting your choice dessert; is a great way to generate memories with your family.

Whether camping with the family, hunting with friends or merely achieving that wood-grilled flavor at home is easier than you might think. Dutch oven cooking is one of the best ways to make meals on camping trips. The secret of any open flame cooking is to try and maintain steadily glowing coals, but once you have your fire in this state, you can gage its approximate temperature by using your hand. The single most indispensable piece of gear for open flame cooking is the cast iron skillet. open flame cooking is something of a science, much like cooking on the stove at home. In the days of automatic coffee makers and microwave ovens, it is somewhat of a step back.

If a departure from this method of cooking is your desire, There are some area restaurants which offer a wide range; from fast food right up to Traditional campfire cooking.

Please leave your comments.

Roger Hardieway is a retired Engineer and Amateur Radio Operator

Every true auto enthusiast has one dream in mind if they are given enough money to spend and even with all of the options and varied choices available when choosing a car. What is that dream? -getting a sports car. In the minds of sports car lovers, however, there is one basic standard that all sports cars are based on and that is speed.

According to diverse critics in the automotive industry the fastest vehicle is the 1994 Dauer 962 LeMans. This neck breaker accelerates quickly with a time of 2.6 seconds from 0 to 60 mph. In comparison,the fastest Ferrari is the 2002 Ferrari Enzo, and this particular speedster can accelerate from 0 to 62 miles per hour with a time of 3.5 seconds. Some other notable fast cars include vehicles from Dodge, LeBlanc, Renault, Audi, and of course Corvette, all of which have rapid starting times of less than 3 seconds from 0 to 60 miles per hour.

So what is it that makes sports cars fast? Why can’t all cars be fast like the high end sports cars?

The very thing that makes the sports car so appealing to the eye, the sleek aerodynamic styling also establishes for a very high standard for performance when choosing a sports car. The very sleek and streamlined bodies of the elite super fast sports cars actually contribute a great deal to the phenomenal aerodynamics. This also makes it much easier to drive the cars as fast as they were intended without worrying about resistance, air pressure, etc. Effectively, the attractive and sexy design of these beauties actually makes for more than eye candy, but is responsible for a great deal of the speed and performance of the automobile.

Still another key characteristic that adds to the speed of a particular vehicle is its reduced weight in comparison to other automobiles. It is obvious in the minimized cargo capacity that is found in most sports cars. Fortunately, this isn’t so much of an issue with sports car lovers. Also closely rlated to cargo capacity and reduced weight is the reality that many sports cars might have smaller seating capacities, and are generally known for firmer, tighter rides, in comparison to the roomier and more comfortable rides of S.U.V.s or luxury sedans.

One of the last things considered in speed, however, is its general dynamics, especially in relation to handling and resistance when driving. If it can’t sustain its straight-line speeds while driving in tight curves and finishes up crushed after it hit a dead end a sports car has very little value if any. This is the exact reason that even the absolute fastest sports cars are typically rear-wheel drive instead of front-wheel drive, due to the fact that rear-wheel drive offers greater traction and permits the weight to be evenly distributed as the automobile makes a turn.

Although there is a great deal more to a quality sports car than merely speed, it definitely doesn’t hurt matters that your sports car is also fast. Even in the new hybrid and electric market there are pioneers in that arena such as Tesla Motors who are focusing on speed and performance.

Gregg Hall is an author living with his beautiful wife and family in Navarre Beach, Florida. Find more about sports cars as well as tires and wheels at http://www.tiresandwheelsdirect.com

Many people would love to get a better job. And most of these same people have the proper training and skills to achieve this goal. Unfortunately, so many job hunters have very poor communication skills. They are unable to clearly tell potential employers about their job qualifications. In short, they do not have good job seeking skills. In many cases, this prevents them from getting a high paying job that they could easily do. Often, the job will go to someone who is less skilled but who has written a eye-catching resume. Often, job seekers have a few mistaken opinions about potential employers. They believe that employers are able to easily separate the qualified job applicants from the less qualified applicants. But this is likely not true. Sometimes there are from 30 to 300 resumes for the same job. So the interviewer first does a fast screening of all the resumes to eliminate as many as possible. The “good” resumes usually make it through the screening process. Many times the best job candidate is screened out due to a poor resume. In today’s business world there is often many qualified applicants applying for the same job. What if, out of all of those who apply, one job seeker turns in a skillful resume? Who do you think stands the best chance of getting the job? It’s the one with the “best” resume, of course. This is so often true even through some of the other applicants may be better qualified for the job. In order to get a good job you must communicate to the employer that you are ready, willing, and able to do the job. So if you are capable of producing a top notch job resume, you definitely increase your chances of getting a better job. Virtually every potential employer will want to see a resume from you. The resume will determine who gets a job interview. Your resume is a mini-statement about yourself. After reading your resume the employer should have a better “feel” for you as a person and as a potential employer. It serves to get acquainted with the employer so that they can decide if they want to know more about you. The resume is the first step, your introduction to an employer. First impressions really do count. If you make a poor first impression, you’ll never get to step two — the job interview. To the purpose of your resume is to make a good first impression. In effect, your resume should tell the employer that you have good abilities and are truly interested in working. This report will help you make that good first impression. And it could very well help you to get the better job you’re looking for. RESUME BASICS All good resumes follow the same general basic guidelines. While there is some flexibility in these guidelines, you don’t want to stray too far from them. You want a resume that is bold, exciting, and enticing. But not too much so. You also want a resume that is somewhat conservative. In other words, it must be bold. Not flashy. You must show that you have confidence in your abilities, but not sound like a braggart. You must sound eager to do the job, but not desperate. So there is a fine line that you must walk in order to produce the best possible resume. You want to use intelligent language. However, you don’t want to try and impress the employer with long, flowery, or uncommon words or phrases. Use everyday language whenever possible. Of course, if you are applying for a highly technical position, it’s acceptable to use some of the special terms used in that particular profession. But as a rule you should keep it simple and straight to the point. The word resume comes from the French word “resumer” which means to summarize. So the exact purpose of a resume is to summarize your experience, knowledge, and accomplishments. Therefore, you must avoid being too wordy. Say exactly what you mean in the least number of words possible. The length of your resume is important. Resumes should be from 1 to 3 pages long. Don’t be tempted to make your resume longer than 3 pages, even if you have a lot to tell. Remember, a resume is supposed to be a summary. A resume that is too long simply will bore the reader. There will be so much material that nothing will stand out and be remembered. RESUME APPEARANCE The overall appearance of your resume is also important. A sloppy looking resume will greatly lessen your chance of getting a job interview. The first thing that an employer, or personnel manager, evaluating your resume will notice is it’s appearance. There are several different things that can be easily done to increase the overall appearance of your resume. The first of these appearance factors is the paper that your resume is printed on. There are many different kinds of paper other than regular typing paper. You could make an improvement by using a colored paper. I suggest a subdued color like brown, off- white, or gray. Next, you could use a better grade of paper. Go to a local office supply store and examine the different types of writing paper. You’ll notice some big differences. Pick out a nice looking, more expensive grade of paper for your resume. The next thing to consider is the quality of the material that is typed onto the resume. Never use a low quality typewriter to type your resume. If necessary, rent a good quality typewriter. Then make certain that it has a fresh ribbon in it. It’s very important that you make sure the writing on your resume looks good. This means clean, crisp, and sharp looking letters. Another good way to produce a top looking resume is by having it typeset. If your resume was produced using a computer and saved on a disk, you can hire a commercial typesetter who can use this file. Or, you can locate another computer user who owns a laser printer. Laser printers can produce a good grade of typeset documents. The other alternative is to find a local word processing service that can typeset your resume for you. You can use the typeset master copy of your resume to make more copies. But be certain that you use a top notch copying machine. Otherwise, you’ll still end up with poor looking resumes. Another alternative is to have the typesetter produce as many original copies as you need to ensure that they all look good. A third aspect of your resume’s appearance is more subjective. It takes into account such things as the letter spacing, how each section is arranged, and it’s overall appearance. Some resumes simply look better because of the way they have been designed. At the end of this report, you’ll see an example of a properly prepared resume. Never overcrowd the resume. Leave some “white space” so that important points can appear to pop out. Never submit a resume with handwritten corrections. You can highlight sections of a resume by using a different typeface or size or by using “bullets.” If possible, use larger letters for the headings used in the separate sections of the resume. Never try to be too fancy by using wild colors, cute graphics, and so forth. Don’t be overly creative. A simple, straightforward, factual resume will do nicely. Make it stand out, but stay conservative. Another phase of your resume’s appearance is it’s accuracy. Make sure there are no misspelled words! Mistakes will create the wrong image. Make sure that the punctuation is correct. And make sure that all of your columns line up. See that all of your facts are correct. Don’t say you attended 3 years of college, but only show two years worth of grades. Potential employers will note all inaccuracies and wonder why they appear in your resume. OPTIONAL DATA There is a variety of personal data that may be somewhat controversial if included in your resume. In the past it was acceptable to include all kinds of personal data, but times and laws have changed. Affirmative Action laws have made it illegal to discriminate based on such things as age, sex, marital status, race, religion, and so forth. Therefore, most experts recommend against placing this kind of personal data into your resume. Your salary requirements should not be listed in the resume, if you can avoid it. The reason is that if you put too low of a salary, you might be paid less than the real value of the job. If you put down a figure that’s too high, you may not get considered for the job. If an employer likes you, it may be possible to negotiate a higher salary during the interview stage. Another thing that your resume doesn’t need is your photograph. Potential employers can decide if they are interested in you after reading your resume. They can see what you look like during the interview. RESUME STYLES There are several styles of resumes along with numerous variations. Your experience and the kind of job you are applying for will help to determine the style of resume you use. The two basic styles are: Chronological Resumes and Functional Skills Resumes. Some of the variations include the main themes of business, academic, general, student, standard, professional, or engineering. A Chronological Resume lists work experience in reverse chronological order (the most recent experience first). It includes some descriptive text about each position, usually described in about one paragraph. This type of resume offers several advantages: it is widely accepted, they are easy to read, and they show a clear pattern of your development. The disadvantages include: it does not highlight your major accomplishment(s), nor do they effectively show your other skills. Functional Skills Resumes highlight your skills and accomplishments rather than providing a chronological record of your job history. Your accomplishments and skills are listed at the beginning. Your job history is listed at the end of the resume. This type of resume allows you to call attention to your achievements. The major disadvantage is that employers may find it difficult to follow your work experience. Many people discover that a combination of these two kinds of resumes is the best way to go. You may want to try several different types of combinations before settling upon a final design. WRITING YOUR RESUME Some specific topics that your resume should cover are: (1) Job Objective — lets the employer know that you are interested in a specific type of work. This can be done in 2 or 3 sentences. Example: work in an analytical chemistry laboratory that focuses on environmental samples. Oversee and coordinate the activities of other lab technicians. (2) Summary of Qualifications — is a short paragraph that summarizes your experience and skills. Example: I have 8 years experience working on all p samples for metals C. Used CLIP and SW846 methods hases of analytical chemistry. Including work with a wide variety of instruments and computers. Was second-in-command of a lab with 8 technicians. (3) Professional Skills — is the section where you give specific details about your qualifications. Example: INSTRUMENTS OPERATED A. Atomic Absorption Spectrometer B. Microwave Digestion System C. Polarograph D. Laser Fluorimeter E. IBM Computers ADMINISTRATION A. Supervised 8 technicians when the Department head was absent. ANALYSIS A. Waste oils for metals B. Water and soil (4) Work Experience — in this section you give a one paragraph summary for each of your previous jobs. This should include starting and ending date, reason for leaving, job title and duties, and any special accomplishments for each of the jobs. (5) Education — gives a summary of all schools attended, degrees earned, and special seminars or training courses that you have attended. (6) Honors and Awards — it’s a good idea to list any special awards you have received. (7) Personal — information about your hobbies and activities should be included. (8) Others — professional organizations that you belong to, computer or programming skills, articles or books published. (9) References — you can state something like, “references available upon request,” or list at least 3 on your resume. It’s important to include all of the basic information on your resume. But, what is also important, is the way you say it. Don’t use dull, lifeless statements. Instead use action words. Here are some typical action words: Accelerated, achieved, advised, approved, assisted, built, calculated, completed, conceived, controlled, coordinated, created, decreased, defined, designed, developed, directed, earned, edited, engineered, evaluated, found, generated, implemented, improved, invented, managed, operated, organized, planned, proved, revised, scheduled, tested, trained, verified, wrote. These words give the correct impression that you have been responsible for do different kinds of jobs tasks. In other words, you weren’t just a follower. Of course, you should always be truthful. Don’t try to oversell yourself by claiming you did things that you didn’t do. As you can see, a resume is really a very simple document. It is not that difficult to produce a good resume, if you follow the simple steps outlined in this report. By dividing it into sections it becomes a much easier job. These different sections also help you to stay organized. If you have worked on a special project or had a lofty responsibility on a previous job, you may want to include that in a section all by itself. Example: “I organized a training department for AMCO Scientific and was responsible for overseeing the production of training lessons.” Another good way to get familiar with proper resume writing techniques is to review a good resume. There’s an example included in this report. You can use it as a model. Then produce several different resumes for yourself until you find the best possible combinations for your specific skills. You may also want to have a friend to read your resume and point out any problems. UNCOVERING JOBS Many people do not have good job hunting skills. They are not experts at locating job openings for which they may be qualified. Here are some ideas to help you uncover those jobs. NEWSPAPER ADS — usually draw the greatest number of applicants, so you’ll end up with a lot of competition. If you have no geographic restrictions, you may want to check out of state newspapers. Find a way to make your resume stand out so that it isn’t lost among the many applicants. Here are a couple of ideas: (1) Send a customized cover letter with your resume. (2) Call before you send the resume in. If possible, talk to the person who will be doing the interview or who you’ll be working for. If this isn’t possible, talk to the personnel director about the job and let them know that your resume is coming. This will help them to remember your name and may help you get through the resume screening process. PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES — these are agencies that try to match employees and employers. These agencies vary in the way they work. Some can be very helpful. Others are somewhat unscrupulous. Your best chance is to go with an agency that specializes in your field. Beware of agencies that continually run the same ad because, often, they are just trying to build a list of candidates. I recommend that you only use agencies that don’t require you to pay a fee. TRADE JOURNALS AND PERIODICALS — Are often the best places to look. This is one of the primary means of job advertisement for some types of professions. Example: The magazine Environmental Science continually carries ads for environmental professionals. Other good places to look include: trade shows and professional conventions, personnel offices, college placement offices, friends you have who are in the same profession as you. Another method is to simply go through the yellow pages and look for companies which may need a person with your skills. Then contact these companies by phone and follow-up by sending in your resume. Job seeking is a skill that requires persistence. You must not become discouraged. Keep making plenty of contacts. Sooner or later, you’ll find the job that’s right for you. THE JOB INTERVIEW Most people are nervous when they go to a job interview. However, by preparing beforehand you won’t have anything to worry about. Believe it or not, occasionally the person conducting the interview is nervous, too! Most interviewers will make a decision within the first 5 to 10 minutes of the interview. There are a number of steps that you can take that will greatly improve your chances of getting the job. The first (and perhaps the most obvious) thing to consider is your appearance. No matter what type of job you apply for, you should dress appropriately. A nice suit is your best bet. Dark blue or a gray pinstripe are the best colors. Don’t wear a loud tie. Make sure all of your clothes are wrinkle free and that your shoes are polished. Women should wear a conservative suit dress. Avoid excessive jewelry, make-up, perfume and bright nail polish. Interview do’s and don’ts: (1) Arrive early. If you arrive late, you’ll be rushed and the interviewer may consider you unreliable. (2) Walk briskly, with purpose, and stand up straight. (3) Don’t smoke, chew gum, slouch, read a novel, or other similar activities while you are waiting in the lobby. If some of the company’s literature is available, read that instead. (4) Give the interviewer a firm handshake, and don’t be afraid to look him or her in the eye. (5) Be prepared. Carry an extra copy of your resume and academic record. (6) Don’t talk too much … or too little. (7) Above all, try to be natural and relaxed. Be yourself. Questions that the interviewer may ask you include: what are your career goals? How many sick days have you taken in the past two years? What are your strong points? Do you have any hobbies? Why do you want this job? Tell me about yourself. What did you like most or like least about your last job? Do you have any questions? She or he may also ask you some specific questions that relate to equipment or procedures you’ll need to use on the job. This is a way of determining your overall knowledge and skills. Before and during the interview … (1) Be positive and enthusiastic. (2) Try to focus upon your accomplishments and achievements in past jobs. (3) Find out as much as possible about the job duties and requirements of the position you are applying for. This will help you to be able to ask further questions. (4) Find out as much as possible about the company. (5) If you are really interested in the job, let the interviewer know about it. (6) Questions you need to ask include: when will the job start? To whom do I report? What would a typical day be like? (7) Don’t be too concerned about salary and benefits at first. If you are selected, they will make you a salary offer. Toward the end of the interview you can ask about benefits. AFTER THE INTERVIEW There are a number of things that you can do after the interview that will make you an even more attractive job candidate. Here are a few tips: (1) Write a thank you letter. If you really want the job, say so in the letter. (2) If you have not heard anything within 8 to 10 days, you may want to call. Assure them that you are not trying to be pushy, but that you are just interested. If you aren’t hired, you can still send a thank you letter to the company and ask them to keep you in mind for any other similar job openings. Also, you may want to ask the interviewer for a specific reason as to why you weren’t hired. This information will help you as you search for other jobs. CONCLUSION Getting a good job that you want is not always easy. There are many qualified people after every top paying position that is available. But if you use the strategies described in this report, you’ll stand a much better chance of success. Be persistent and don’t sell yourself short. You could end up with a much better job in a very short period of time. AMPLE RESUME

Jerry Jobseeker

12345 Main St.

Anytown, U.S.A.

555-5555

SKILLS

Professional Skills: Experienced in operating a wide variety of analytical instruments including, Flame and Furnace AA, Microwave digestion, Laser flourimeter, and more.

Familiar with the full range of EPA and CLIP methods and protocols for inorganic analysis

Expert with IBM-PC computers and have over ten years of computer experience.

BUSINESS

EXPERIENCE

1971 to 1977 Austin Powder Company, McAuthur, Ohio

Chemistry

Chemist:

Performed a wide range of chemical analysis on raw materials, finished products and competitor’s samples. Used classical wet chemistry methods.

1977 to 1982 Mead Paper Company, Chillicothe, Ohio Mead Research Paper Technologist: Worked to improve paper formulations, solve problems, and improve quality using pilot plant and mill studies. Performed a wide range of paper tests, wrote reports, and evaluated results.

1982 to Present Martin Marietta, Piketon, Ohio

Senior Chemist: Performed a full range of analytical methods for metals on all types of samples (soil, water, air, waste samples). Responsible for quality control and in charge of department supervising 14 technicians when supervisor was absent.

EDUCATION

Ohio University, Athens, Ohio

BS in Chemistry, 1971

Minor: History, Math

GPA: 2.4 Concentrated in inorganic chemistry

PROFESSIONAL

SOCIETIES

1975 to Present American Chemical Society

PERSONAL DATA I am very active with a number of hobbies including: golf, gardening, baseball, computers, and writing. I have authored a number of books about computers and various chemical related subjects.

REFERENCES Available upon request.

———————————————————
Julia Tang publishes Smart Online Business Tips, a fresh
and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people
like you! To find out the best online business opportunities,
and to discover hundreds more proven and practical internet
marketing secrets, plus FREE internet marketing products
worth over $200, visit: http://www.best-internet-businesses.com
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When you’re all alone in the privacy of your home office, surrounded by your

computer, your phone and your business idea, have you ever asked yourself,

“Where’s the line between me in my business and the business in me”?

With hundreds of thousands of home-based businesses starting every year, and few

ever flourishing, the topic of branding has become hot, hot, hot. And thanks to

experts touting the need for a personal brand in sole proprietor businesses the

confusion is growing. It’s no wonder.  Business… personal… personal… business–

what IS the big difference any way?

Last week, I was guiding a client (a service-based sole practioner) through the same

step-by-step process that I take every company (sole practioner, entrepreneur or a

business of any size) through to develop their brand and I noticed that as we got

deeper and deeper into the process, she was having more and more trouble coming

up with answers.   The very answers that would separate her from other people

engaged the same exact business and distinctly establish her brand.

In the middle of working on the most important step in the branding process– the

brand statement–I asked her the simple question, “Why does she do business she

does?” she burst into tears. Halfway into the box of Kleenex she finally, revealed the

most amazing answer as to why she was in her chosen field in the first place.

Honestly, I think she stunned herself. We both sat silent for over a minute in awe of

the power she had tapped into with her discovery. (Don’t let anyone fool you, this is

from where the true power of branding comes.)

Then doubt reared its ugly head and like a butterfly emerging from a new cocoon, a

series of questions poured out of her: “Is this my business or is it me?” “Is why I do

what I do really that important?” “Why is it so hard for me to stand in the power of

my business and really make something of it?”

You get the picture? You may even be standing in a similar picture, even wrestling

with the same questions yourself. Bless you if you’re not.  Let’s look at the

difference between ‘your business’ and ‘you the person’ and see if we can clear up

this question once and for all.

A business: (be it Niketown or Bob’s Shoe Bonanza)

Delivers a product or service to fulfill a customer need.

You:

Deliver a product or service to fulfill a customer need.

A business:

Establishes a certain value that a customer can rely on from every contact with their

product or service.

You:

Establish a certain value that a customer can rely on from every contact with your

product or service. (If not, get on it immediately!)

A business:

Communicates consistently to reach the customers that have a need for their

product or service.

You:

Communicate consistently to reach the customers that have a need for your product

or service. (If not, what are you waiting for?)

A business:

Enjoys a financial reward equal to the amount of customers that it serves, AND a

personal reward for the creator/C.E.O.

You:

Enjoy a financial reward equal to the amount of customers that you serve AND YOU

get to experience the personal reward yourself.

If you look at just these four basic, bottom-line points, the difference between a

business and you as a sole business owner is… nothing; unless you count the added

bonus of you getting a financial AND personal reward.

At the start of every single business, throughout history, there has never been a

separation between the person starting it and the business itself. If you asked any

business figure-head today, Bill Gates of Microsoft, or Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, or

if they took over a company like Meg Whitman for Ebay, or Carly Fiorina for Hewlett-

Packard, they would tell you that there is no difference in who ‘they are’ and what

‘they bring’ to their business. Why? Because there’s no room for a difference.  It’s the

alignment that makes it possible to reach the highest of the heights.

It’s challenging enough to make any business succeed. It’s tough enough to make

any business reside in the mind of a customer. Why would you remove the very

power of ‘you’ in every shape and form from your business?! Why not every day do

the thing that moves you the most?   You are the only thing that sets your business

apart– you just need a process of tapping into your power, connecting it  to your

business, and a systematic way of communicating it to your customers over and

over and over again.

When developing your amazing business as a brand, throw the doors wide open.

Create it as you would if you were reaching millions.   You can always decide exactly

how many millions later. Thinking of your brand as just a ‘personal’ one will do the

opposite.  Keep it small.

If you work for yourself, be it your own business, network marketing, or even an

agent/broker condition under a corporate umbrella, you are the CEO of

your business. Every CEO brings themselves personally to their business. The great

ones bring every thing they are to their creation, every moment.

The majority of our lives are spent doing what we call work. As an entrepreneur or

business owner, you have the wonderful opportunity to make it more. Make it your

creation. Think of yourself as the Creator of an Entrepreneur Organization. When

you wake up tomorrow, instead of saying to yourself, “I’m going to work” say “I’m

going to create.” And the operative word is I’m. The true power of really making

something in your business will come from investing in it the most valuable

commodity you have– you.

There is no separation on the road to big business success: just because you’re

personally on it. True big business success comes to those who know, it’s not

just business– it’s personal too.

Written by Kim Castle, the Co-founder of BrandU™ — the home of only step-by- step process for developing your business as a brand from the inside out!

To get information on upcoming BrandU one-day workshops: http://www.whybrandu.com/Public/events/workshop/index.cfm?semID=13“>http:// http://www.whybrandu.com/Public/events/workshop/index.cfm?semID=13

Get your Why You?!(sm) monthly ezine for easy-to-read tips and informative insights on branding. To subscribe: http://www.whybrandu.com/

“BrandU™ — Big Business Success No Matter Your Size”

Every summer, thousands of American kids go to summer youth camps to enjoy not only time away from home, but to learn or experience new things. Summer youth camps have been part of American summers for generations and show no signs of slowing down any time soon. A summer youth camp offers a wealth of possible adventures or learning experiences for kids.

Summer camps can be religious based or adventure camps, swimming camps, horseback-riding camps, or wilderness camps. The sky’s the limit when it comes to the number of activities and duration of camps, and parents can choose from several day, to several week to month long stays.

Most camps offer openings to children seven to eighteen years of age, and depending on location and time of year, anything from cabins to tents to under-the-stars arrangements can be made. Some camps emphasize wilderness skills and camping while others are stable communities that offer swimming, crafts and other base-camp type recreation like tennis, soccer or other sports. Some camps focus on horseback riding or hiking and mountain climbing while others cater to indoor pursuits.

Summer camps offer kids of all ages the opportunity to meet new people, make new friends, and learn skills that they wouldn’t necessarily learn at home. Wilderness skills are a big part of most camps, but others teach different skills. Most summer camps offer a wide variety of activities for all age groups, and camp counselors oversee small groups of kids for each portion of their camp life experience. Most camps offer cabin dwelling in dorm-style quarters, with separate sections for boys and girls, who then come together for meals or group activities or games. Other camps cater to one gender or even focus on particular aspects of a summer camp experience, such as horseback riding or hiking pursuits.

Summer youth camps also offer a way for children of all ages and backgrounds to broaden their horizons and experience new situations, especially when children from different parts of the state or country come together under one roof. City children mingle with those raised in the country, which offers a unique way for each to appreciate different cultures and ways of living.

Most camps also teach children leaderships skills as well as learning how to get along with one another, in addition to learning positive skills in adapting to difficulties or problems. Religious based summer camps offer campers focused religious lessons while a wilderness adventure camps will enable campers to get out and enjoy the great outdoors to their heart’s content.

Camps can be expensive, but good deals are always to be had if you know where to look. If you’re thinking of finding a summer youth camp for your child, make sure you check things like child to adult ratio, camp counselor ratio, first aid facilities, and anything else you’re concerned about. Summer camps offer unlimited choices when it comes to keeping kids happy and entertained every summer, and memories of a good summer camp can last a lifetime.

Still looking for the perfect summer camp? Try visiting http://www.aboutcamps.com – a website that specializes in providing camp advice, tips and resources including information on summer youth camps.

With many people struggling to make ends meet and TV adverts with catchy jingles tempting you to sell your car for quick cash, it can seem appealing. Your car (next to your house) is probably your most expensive piece of equity and with this in mind, it can be tempting to sell it, purchase a cheaper make or model and pocket the difference.

Car auctions, whether they be physical or on-line, can be a good way of selling your car, safe in the knowledge that an experienced auctioneer has yours, and the auction house’s, best interest at heart. You may think that these things do not always necessarily go hand in hand but bear in mind that the auction house will take a percentage of the purchase price (buyers fee) as commission so it is in their interest to get you as much money as possible!

So, let’s start with the basics:

What is a car auction?

Car auctions have a long history within the automotive industry with many different types of business using them to either sell excess stock or purchase new stock for resale.

They are extremely popular in the USA and Japan and are gaining popularity in the UK where they are no longer seen as dirty places. This is mainly thanks to the industry making a concerted effort to change the reputation of the sector and make it more appealing to all people, not just those ‘in the trade’.

Car auctions sell cars, commercial vehicles, motorcycles, plant equipment, and some of them will also sell large goods vehicles and possibly caravans and motor homes.

Auction houses do not own the vehicles which they sell. They merely act as a shop front for many different types of seller. These can include leasing companies, fleet management companies, dealer groups, banks and financial institutions, governmental bodies, police, and of course private individuals.

Let’s look at each of these different sellers more closely:

Leasing Companies

Leasing companies rent vehicles to companies or private drivers for a set period of time (sometimes as little as 1 year) so the vehicles put into auction are usually young models with a good mileage and because the cars are usually leased from new, they may have only had one person driving them whilst going to a meeting twice a week! When the lease or rental period ends, leasing companies will enter their old stock into auction as their customers are more interested in leasing brand new vehicles. These companies are usually owned by banks or financial institutions.

Fleet Management Companies

These are similar to Leasing companies in that they lease their stock to organisations but differ in that they will supply their customers with a whole fleet of cars and manage that fleet on behalf of their client. Again, when the rental period for the fleet ends, the companies wish to take advantage of the capital wrapped up in their stock in order to replace it with new models.

Dealer Groups

If you have ever part exchanged your old car at one of the large, glass fronted dealers or showrooms, chances are it has subsequently been put into auction and sold. Dealer groups will also enter old or unsold stock (known as overage) from their forecourts in order to keep their showrooms looking fresh with the latest that the manufacturer(s) have to offer. Of course, buying a vehicle at auction which has been entered by a dealer group can be a bit riskier than the leasing or fleet companies as if someone has part exchanged their old car, you have to ask yourself why did they do it, what sort of person where they, how well did they keep it and how many previous keepers has it had?

Banks and financial institutions

Banks and financial institutions can fall into fleet and leasing companies as many of them have these elements within their respective corporate families and follow the same trends. However, banks can also enter cars into auctions that have been repossessed from their customers after defaults on loan or mortgage repayments. Obviously a car itself is of little or no interest to a bank, they are only interested in the value and the money which can be made from it.

Governmental bodies

Government bodies will run fleets of cars for their staff and key executives and will update this fleet on a regular basis with the old stock being put into auction. Separate Government departments will also enter a wide range of vehicles at auction from ex-defence Land Rovers or staff cars, to lawn mowers and diggers used on the local playing fields or in the local cemetery! Local Government may also enter cars into auction that have been seized by bailiffs follow non payment of bills such as Council Tax (depending on the Local Authority in question, these can be quite high end models).

Police

Police forces will auction vehicles seized from convicted criminals to either compensate victims, break up an illegal estate or regain public money gained fraudulently. The police also auction a variety of other items seized for similar reasons and may do this through an auction house or by holding their own property auctions. As well as these lots, all police forces will also run a fleet of undercover or unmarked vehicles and these will need to be constantly updated, with the old stock being put into auction to raise funds for the force.

Private individuals

This is the category of seller that we are really interested in. Private sellers can enter and purchase cars from auction and if their car is not sold first time round, they can tell the auction house to keep putting it in until they receive an acceptable bid. Be warned though, auction houses will charge you for each time they enter the car so if you have sold your car after a couple of sales, you may want to check your reserve price or rethink your options.

How does it work?

Most auctions work on the same principal; your prospective buyers bid against one another, raising the amount which they offer with each new bid they make until their competitors drop out and they are left as the highest bidder. All of your bidders will be in the auction hall (although an online element is becoming increasing popular) and all bids are made in the open. This type of auction is known as an ‘English Auction and its formula applies to the majority of vehicle auctions.

When your vehicle arrives at the auction centre, it will be inspected by the auctions technicians who will highlight any scratches, dents, scuffs, rust, etc and value the overall damage costs. It can be important to consider this when you think about your reserve as trade buyers will have a good idea of the vehicles value and of the damage costs and will factor this into their bidding. The damage cost will not be shown to any buyers, it is purely for the auction house’s records.

Your car will then be photographed and ‘lotted’, the process whereby your car is entered into a sale. It will be assigned a lot number and will be placed in the auctions yard to be viewed by the buyers.

At the same time, your vehicles details will be published online for buyers to look at before they arrive at the auction. This is a good way of building interest in your car and most auction houses will send our copies of their latest catalogues to their buyers.

You should do your best to ensure that you car is entered with all of the paperwork and material which you have relating to it:

• V5c Registration Document
• Hand book
• Any other manuals (SatNav, radio, etc)
• Service book
• Historic garage receipts of details of work carried out
• Locking wheel nut key (if your car has one)
• Any other information or items that came with your car when you bought it

All of these things are important to buyers and if you were buying a car, you would expect to have everything that you could have relating to it so think of these when you enter your car.

Of course, you will also have to leave your key and any spares with the auction.

In the auction halls…

When your vehicle is lining up to be driven into the auction halls, buyers will start to look closely at the car, looking for any damage and they may open the doors to look at the interior. Buyers are not usually allowed to test drive cars or look under the bonnet so this process of final inspection is important to them.

Once your car is in place in front of the auctioneer, the cars details and any special features, such as extra interior features, alloy wheels, etc, will be read to the audience. The auctioneer will then start the bidding with an opening bid below your reserve. If there is a great deal of interest in your car, bids can rise fast with many people competing. Eventually, the auctioneer may drop the increases in size to amounts that the last couple of bidders feel more comfortable with. This could mean that you see increases of £50 for your car rather than the £500s you were seeing right at the start. The buyer with the final highest bid has now bought your car as long as their highest bid was over your reserve. At this point the buyer has entered into a legal contract.

If the final highest bid did not quite meet your reserve, the auctioneer may class this a provisional bid and the auction will then attempt to negotiate between you and the buyer. At this point, you can ask for more money or demand that your reserve be met. If you go too high and the buyer pulls out, the sale will fall through. It is a balancing act between what the buyer is prepared to offer and the minimum amount you are willing to accept.

If you reach an agreement, the sale will go through as normal.

If agreement cannot be reached, you have the option to take your car out of future auctions and keep it, or enter it again in the hope of getting a better bid. Hopefully this won’t happen and you will sell your car but if you have to consider this you should remember that many auctions are used by motor traders who attend most weeks and if they see the same car go through each week, they will be less inclined to offer a high bid. Auctions will also charge you for each time you enter your car, with some also charging storage after a certain amount of time and sales, so you should consider these costs when thinking of the money you intend to make from the sale.

How much will it cost?

The fee to enter your car in an auction can range from £15-£30 depending on the size and reputation of the auction house and will be deducted from the total sale value of the car. This fee will be payable each time you enter your car in to a sale if it does not sell.

On top of this, there will also be commission deducted from the sale price. This will be on an increasing scale and will depend on the sale price of the vehicle in question. Always check with the auction house before you enter your vehicle and shop around the auction houses local to you to get the best deal.

After the sale

Assuming that a deal has been reached or that your vehicle sold straight away, the auction will not give any of the vehicles paperwork to the new buyer until full payment has been made. Once this happens, the auction will pass all material relating to the car to the buyer.

Most auction companies will also deal with the legal change in ownership on your behalf and will communicate the sale to DVLA Swansea with the vehicles V5c Registration Document on your behalf, as you do not know the buyers details. Some auctions charge for this service so check at time of entry.

Car auction companies are usually pretty quick in sending you the money for your car and can be as quick as a couple of days after the sale, usually by cheque or bank transfer. The entry charges and commission taken by the auction will usually be details on a remittance advice sent to you once your money has been sent to you.

Other things to consider:

When you are thinking of putting your car into an auction, you may want to think of these things which can increase your chances of getting a sale:

• Is the interior clean?
• Having crisp packets, drinks bottles or cigarette ends n the ashtray is not appealing and you would not by a car like that so why would anyone else?
• Do you smoke in your car?
• If you smoke in your car, try to banish the smell of stale smoke as best you can. Smoking in cars can also lead to burns on seats, trim and just about anywhere else so be aware of them.
• Have you got a complete or good service history on your car?

Buyers look at the service history on your car to see how it has been kept. A good service history usually mean that the rest of the car has been looked after properly. Main dealer stamps are highly sought in service history but your local approved garage will suffice.

Is there any tax left on your car?

Selling a car with tax allows the buyer to drive away with that car on the day they bought it. If your car does not have tax, they buyer will need to insure it, then sort out the tax before they can drive it. Since auction houses will not pass any vehicle documents to the buyer before full payment is made, this can lead to a great deal of hassle for the buyer as they will have to go away, sort the insurance, come back and pay for the car, go away and sort the tax (now that they have the MOT certificate), come back and finally drive away.

Trade buyers buying many cars will not worry about the hassle factor too much as they will get their new cars delivered by transporter, it mainly matters to them for the resale value which tax can add onto their forecourts.

When does the MOT run out (or does it even have one?)

Selling your car with MOT gives your car a boost in auction as buyers will just see it as an added expense if it does not have one. Your buyer will also need to have a valid MOT before they can ensure the car!

Are there cosmetic things that could be tidied or corrected before you enter it?

Are there stains on seats or interior trim that can be removed? Is there a brake light bulb that could be replaced? Are there stickers on the windows that could be removed?

Is it worthwhile sorting out that scratch before you enter it?

Getting a small scratch or dent repaired before you enter your car can increase the chances of it selling as it will not be noted on the damage report (as long as it is a good job!)

Do you have a spare key, SatNav disk, or old garage bills in the back of a cupboard somewhere?

You should do your upmost to ensure that you give everything associated with your car to the auction along with your vehicle. Things like spare keys add to the value and old garage receipts let your buyer know exactly what has been done, added, changed or mended to their new car as well as who done it.

Obviously, if your car has built in SatNav, you should include the disk for this along with any instruction manuals.

Remember, auction houses will inspect your car and so will our buyers sonly sort out scratches or other problems if you feel you can be a good job of it otherwise it just means that someone else has to redo your attempt meaning more cost and time!

This article is only meant as a guide as all auction companies have different processes, fees, client base and ethos but I hope that this article has given you some insight into the considerations of selling your car, van, lorry, tractor (or any other vehicle) at a car auction and if you do decide to follow this route, good luck!

In my next article, I will be talking about how an auction works from the buyers side.

T. Mapes
tom.mapes@sky.com

If you are just starting out with your first aquarium you may want to know what the essential fish tank supplies are are. This will include such necessities as water filters, air and water pumps, cleaning equipment, and lighting systems. The choice of fish tank supplies that you need will depend on the shape and size of your fish tank.

One of the first items on your list for fish tank supplies should be a fish tank stand. Fish tank stands are available in many materials with metal and wooden tending to be the most popular. When picking out a stand try to choose one that will blend in with the design of the rest of the room.

Fish tank hoods are equally as important, and should be at the top of your list of fish tank supplies. They are necessary to prevent the fish form jumping out of the tank and also to reduce the evaporation of the water. The highest quality hood tends to be those that are made of aluminium. They are fitted with a window for feeding the fish, have a condensation tray, a compartment for installing the lighting unit, and are light in weight.

A critical item on your list of fish tank supplies for medium and larger tanks should be a high quality water filter and pump. This will ensure an effective and efficient disposal of waste, water circulation and, recycling of the nutrients. Fortunately, many of the custom designed fish tanks will be come pre installed with pumps and filters so this is usually something the beginner need not worry about. A simple tap water filter can be used to deionise the water making it safe, and is a useful part of your fish water supplies

It may be a wise investment to select a water testing kit when you are picking out your fish tank supplies. This will enable you to determine the nitrite, PH and salt content in the water. If any problems are detected these can than be quickly corrected.

Lights will add different colours to you fish tank, and form another important part of fish tank supplies. They are available in three colours red, green or blue, and will add an attractive tint to the fish tank. Fluorescent and metal halide fish tank lights seem to be by far the most popular choice.

No list of fish tank supplies will ever be complete unless an assortment of corals, rocks, driftwood and maybe some battery powered toys are included. These accessories include battery powered wheels and divers. Ice shells, ice crystals and tiny fountains are also very popular fish tank supplies and will make your tank look more beautiful. When including any ornaments in your fish tank make sure that they are specifically labelled and intended for use in aquariums.

Do not forget to give your fish tank a green touch by installing some plant life. The plastic plants which are easy to install in your fish tank come in various designs, such as arrowhead, green and yellow spike, hair-grass and many more. They should definitely form a useful part or your fish tank supplies.

Cleaning the fish tank will be more problematic than it needs to be if you do not have the necessary fish tank supplies. Algae growth on the sides of the fish tank and collection of waste material can pose as a threat to the fragile ecosystem if not removed from the tank. Also, your fish tank will look much more attractive when it is not covered in dirt. Your fish tank supplies should therefore include an algae scrapper and also gravel cleaners, which will allow you to clean the tank and remove any dirt that sinks to the bottom of the tank.

It is important not to let the thought of cleaning the tank put you off buying your first fish tank as the pleasures of owning your own aquarium will greatly outweigh the limited amount of time needed for a cleaning routine. An ideal schedule to perform regular fish tank maintenance is every two to three weeks.

The great thing about fish tank supplies is that they are so easy to obtain with so many specialist online stores and local pet stores around, making it simple to set up an aquarium.

Darren Lintern is the author and owner of Aquarium Supplies World. For more information on Aquarium supplies, visit Aquarium Supplies World [http://www.aquariumsuppliesworld.com] where you will find a wealth of information on Fish Tank Supplies including Filters, Gravel, Heaters, Lights and other Aquarium supplies [http://www.aquariumsuppliesworld.com/Articles/Fish_Tank_Cleaning_Tips_Cleaning_20_Gallon_Fish_Tank_And_Accessories.php] for a vibrant thriving Aquarium.

It’s that time of year to start planning your child’s adventure to summer camp. You go to websites to obtain summer camp information and your head starts to spin. There are so many choices out there, that you really have to do your homework. You need to ask yourself and your child many questions. What do you like to do? Is there anything of interest that you would like to know more about or learn something new? Do you want to go to a sports camp or an adventure camp? These are just some of the questions you will have to answer.

Some of the types of camps your child might attend are listed below with a brief description to give you some kind of idea what is out there and then giving you and your child some ideas of questions to ask yourself, what does my child want to do and which camp will my child get the most out of.

Sports Camps:

If you child is very athletic, this might be an excellent choice of summer camp. This type of summer camp will focus on sports. There are also summer camps that focus on one particular sport. Most if not all NFL teams have a summer camp. If you son is an avid football player this might be the camp for him. They will also have the opportunity to meet some of the NFL players.

Academic Camps:

If you child is more of an academic achiever this might be the summer camp for them. If you child loves to learn, there will be plenty of opportunity at these types of summer camps. The summer camps range from Archaeology to Astronomy, Biology to Business, Math, Marine Science, Geology, Robotics and Science. This is just a short listing on some of the academic camps. What ever your child’s interest, be rest assured that there will be a camp available.

Art Camps:

If your child is more of the artistic type, an art camp might be the right summer camp for them. These types of summer camps can cover anything from, Liberal Arts, Computer Arts, Performing Arts, Dance, Photography and Music. These are just some examples of what is all out there.

Adventure Camps:

If you child is the outdoor adventure type, this might be the camp for them. These types of camps will have hiking, rock climbing, kayaking and canoeing, scuba diving and wilderness adventures. So if your child is the outdoor enthusiast, this would probably be the best choice for them.

Special Interest Camps:

These types of summer camps consist of anything from circus camps, cooking camps, farming, fitness, magic, space & aviation, yoga or stunts. So if you child is interested in these types of activities, do a search on the internet to find specific summer camps that cater to these types of activities. The suggestions given here are just a few examples of what is all out there for Special summer camps

Special Needs Camps:

There is such a wide range of summer camps in this area. What ever your child’s special needs are, there is a summer camp available to them.

I hope this gives you some idea of what kind of summer camps there are available for your child. It is a good idea for the both of you to sit down and discuss what your child’s interests are, what they would like to do or learn and how long they would like to attend a summer camp. If you child is smaller they might not want to be away from home as long as an older child. The main idea of summer camp is that your child come home with a feeling of having a wonderful time, having learned new things with having so much fun that they didn’t really realize they learned something new.

Check out Dean’s summer camp themes website