Making Lists And Following Them

Running Errands........not my favorite thing to do!

I have not been able to open my  business bank account as I said I would in an earlier post. Why? Because I am not organized enough yet. I have been uncluttering certain areas of my home. Getting rid of anything I have not used in the last year or so. If it doesn't fit it is out of here! If I read it then it goes too, unless it is a book I use for reference. You know you keep those books you loved thinking you'll reread them. But do you? Rarely. I have read my Gone With The Wind book at least ten times, but not in the last 20 years now. Maybe I'll take a peek at it again..........so I will keep that one. LOL

Today I have errands to run, laundry to wash, zucchini bread to bake, groceries to pick up, horse feed to buy, go to my father's and pick up my son. He is coming home after spending a week with his 91 year old grandfather. Then he will be staying with us until he can find an apartment in Greene, NY, the small town near us.  So no time to do those jobs like going through my papers and filing them. But I KNOW those are the very jobs I should be doing as they hold me back. That has even cost me some money. Twice I was late filing a paper for NY state sales tax and it cost me $50. each time! Only because I forgot about it and lost the paper in the mounds of paper that needs to be gone through and filed or thrown out.

So AFTER, I get home and have done my errands, I will be going through one of those boxes. Then I will update my goal list and my to-do list. That is my starting point for the new month that is coming up. The roladex needs updating as well as the calendar on the wall.............one in the kitchen and one in here above our computers. So we can see it all the time. My brand new address book that I bought two years ago is waiting to be used. I normally carry one in my purse, in case I need an address or phone number when I am out. I have missed that and I used to always carry one.

One thing I have actually done..............I keep our credit card accounts in a check book register for each card. I carry them in my purse so that I can always check how much is available before I use the card. That way I have avoided over-the-limit fees. I have always gotten in trouble with the cards that have a yearly fee and they sneak in when I am not aware or remember it. Because we are paperless, my husband has one card that has a fee and I don't get the email or see the statement when it is due. It seems to not be due at the same time every year. Sneaky!

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Changes Even When You Don't Agree

Photo Source: Sam Mugraby

As you can see I have been experimenting with changes in the templates for my blogs. Everyone on The Blog Frog says they hate black or dark backgrounds with white writing. Can I help it that I love that look? Musicians seem to like that too. I have been to many musicians' sites because I sell guitar strings and that is what I see the most. So they like that and the mommy bloggers don't. Who do I try to appeal to? I don't really know, so here I am experimenting again with templates. I loved the ones I had but if no one comes to them because of the color of the backgrounds or the color of the fonts what should I do?

You can see that many times you must make changes in your life. Changes of the way you do things even if you would rather not. I want people to come to my blogs and read them. If they all want them in black writing on white background I will try to please them. It is what I consider good customer service.

My biggest problem in doing this though is that some of the bloggers said they hated pastel colors for the font or the background and then they turned around and said they could not read white writing on black or dark backgrounds..................?????????????????? So what do they like? Do they know? There isn't much to chose from if it is not pastel, not dark and not white. Okay, so mine are now white background with black writing but the links and other stuff are orange mostly. Whew! If I don't see an increase in readers I will go back to what I like best. At least I tried.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Wordless Wednesday At Little Steps

Wordless Wednesday is here in the blogland today!

Photo credit: Sam Mugraby

Essential for today's business world!

You deserve a star for not giving up no matter what!

When we speak of mice now.............it's a whole different thing!

I could not stand to live one day without my laptop!

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Making A Change Is Not Easy

Photo Credit: Sam Mugraby

If there was only one thing you could do this month to change your life or financial life.......since that is what we are talking about here, what would you do? Or what could you do? I have to open a new bank account and have been putting it off. I intend to do that this month, On the 28th. I will do it for sure.

My business needs some fine tuning and that is where I will start. I have been selling guitar strings for some time on my website, Larry Gene Music. On that site I also have my husband's music cd, Larry Lupole's Classic Fantasy for sale as well as my eBooks.

The guitar strings though are biggest part of my sales though and now I have added another site, String Baby. Curt Mangan guitar strings are available on both sites as well as S.I.T. Strings. Soon I hope to add more brands. But this business takes a lot of time to develop and promote. In January, I went to SCORE to get some advice for my business. It was very helpful and I came home with a list of things to do. Have I done them? NOPE! And that is where I really need to start!!

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

If Money Were No Object

Photo Credit: Sam Mugraby

Yesterday on Face Book, Kim Kiyosaki asked if money was no object what would you be doing right now? I answered that I would be finishing the remodeling of my house and buying a brand new Tesla Model S car. But in all reality that might not be what I would be doing. Maybe I would be working on my business if that was gave the money to begin with. You have to keep working at it or it could be lost.

Having a business means you have to keep working or hiring someone to work for you. I know that would be the way to establish the passive income I so desire. But I also have a problem with depending on others to do things I feel I can do better than they. It seems to me that is when you get in trouble with people stealing from you or not doing their job correctly. Or maybe you are paying them and they are not doing their best because they feel they should be paid more. It is hard to just hand over your business to someone you hire.

That is another reason for your many streams of income. You make money from many different things until you have a little empire. I see it with so many people. Most of the stars do it. They make movies or television shows and then they do advertisement endorsements and then next thing you know they have a pet food company (Dick Van Patten), a salad dressing company (Paul Newman), a grill (George Foreman), a perfume company (Elizabeth Taylor), a jewelry company (Joan Rivers), a cosmetics company (Naomi Campbell), exercise equipment company (Suzanne Somers), a diet book (Suzanne Somers), etc.

So make a list of all the things you can do to earn money. The types of skills you have and what kind of income those skills could bring in. Or do you have something growing on your land that can be harvested and sold? Can you do a service for someone that would bring in a little money? All those things can add up a good sized income over time. So really think about it.

Be Careful On Financial Sites

Photo Source

Did you ever do something by accident by clicking a link on a website and then couldn't get out of it? I did that recently. I was paying our credit card bills when I came to this link that said "Make money every time you pay your bill." That got my curiosity up! Pay my bill and make some money back? What was that about anyway? So I clicked and found out it was a special agreement between the company and you to help people pay off their credit card debt. I figure it was not for us. Besides this card is a low amount card and only used for little things and paid off every month or so. So I clicked to leave and said in big letters, "Thank you for signing up for whatever it was called, I can't remember right now." 

So I go back and look at it. It was an agreement to pay more than your minimum payment for six months and not use your credit card in that time period. To help you pay it off. I think it is probably a good thing if you have a large balance. But this is low amount card and we use it for gas mostly since we can pay at the pump. I emailed them and finally heard back from them. Well today.........relief finally! A woman called and said she took care of it for us. Oh boy! So from now on I will never click a link on any credit card website out of curiosity. I learned my lesson!

I see that many times you sign up for something and then that company acts like you never signed up. But here is a site that tricks you into signing up without actually doing anything except reading the page on their site. Not a good way to do business. Makes me very cautious of them from now on. So be careful when you click any links on any credit card or bank sites. They are sneaky to say the least.