If you were seeking employment, would you simply throw a dart at the want ads and persue that position? I don't think so. I'll bet you'd look for a specific job description and direct your quest to the best possibility. The same approach applies to obtaining funds for you business. If you think you can walk into a bank and expect to walk out with a loan without doing your due diligence, you may as well stop at the next 7 eleven and buy a lottery ticket. This is why experts like Hawkeye Management exist. They will get you prepared to show how to qualify for everything from an unsecured business loans to an unsecured creit line for your business.

My family owns a furniture outlet store that sits in the middle of a furniture super mall. Ther are seven major sized outlets on about forty acres of prime retail real estate. Each evening my brother finds himself holed up in his office tallying up the day's activities. The sad part is that his window overlooks the rear parking lot where the owners of the business as well as their employees park. He sits there and watches as all the vehicles peel away leaving his car conspicuously all alone in the lot. He keeps wondering what he is doing wrong and why he is always the last to go home. One day he called me and posed the question to me. I told him the three magical words, furniture retail software.

I was so impressed with the story about the Canadian company that changed their entire operation to green printing that I made an unusual decision. I had a job to do for my artist group that entailed a good number of pamphlets to be printed. Of course, the normal action would be to find the best quality and very important the best price. I chose to forgo the research and order the material from people whom I considered pure class and integrity. I may have spent a bit more than I had to, but look at the extra cost they suffered to do the right thing. It feels good to reciprocate to people that are on the same positive wave length you are on.

My wife and I were invited to a very special occassion that combined a wedding reception and an operatic performance by the bride. I, to this day, don't know what she was more stressful about, the nuptials or the singing. The event had a strange aura of stiffness about it. I hate to say it, but it was actually uncomfortable for most of us guests. The overly formal decor and music set us back a bit. Then the best thing that could happen was something that brought levity to the scene and had the crowd roaring. The plan was to present the cake while the bride performed. As she was singing, they rolled out the cake. The kicker was that whoever made the cake accidently switched the wedding cake toppers. Their cake had, not only, a couple on Harleys atop it, but they were also of the wrong ethnicity. Believe it or not, it made the evening.

It's almost here. My favorite week of the year. I get to leave my baggage in life behind and bask in the beauty of BC, Canada. We are holdong our annual art lovers convention at none less than the magnificent Hotel Victoria. I can smell the coffee and croissants already. First thing I do is meditate on cleansing my mind of all the weighty problems at home and get in the mind-set of peace and tranquilty. Then I set off with a thermos of coffee (I'm an addict) and hit the open road. Life,for me, doesn't get any better. I do wonder at times if the anticipation is even more pleasurable than the event. Whichever, I love them both.

My sister was having a birthday party in her backyard for her five year old twin boys. My wife and I felt like splurging and buying them a super special gift. It was tough making a decision between bicycles and a motorized mini-car. We opted to go for the bucks and get them a car to share. This thing was hot. If I had one as a child, it would send me through the roof. The funny thing was that my brother, who squeaks like the Tin Man when he walks, bought them 3 ring binders. They wound up ignoring the super car and playing with the binders for hours. Go figure.

Every once in a while, it becomes obvious that it truly is the simple things in life that bring you the most pleasure. I sometimes am in the midst of very successful and wealthy people and the thing that stands out is how some are totally without joy in their lives. Yet, some are walking with vigor in their step and a smile on their face. One little thing that reminded me to appreciate the little things is when my four-year-old grandaughter got so excited over vinyl binders I gave her for her paper doll collection. Her smile was worth millions to me.

I am seriously considering developing a best sellers category for software writers. They are,after all, writers. Some of the magic they come up with is certainly not less than artistic. When I came across event mangement software that decreased our committee's workload by 60 or 70%, I was absolutely amazed and more than appreciative. What other piece of art has so much to offer? Certainly not Warhol's soup can or Pablo's scribbles. Keep an eye out for my list in the Times. I'll be pushing for these guys to get them the attention and adulation they deserve.

I recently received a wedding invitation from a fellow member of my art committee. Her daughter was marrying a fine young man from Kenya. In addition to the invite, she also wanted to know if I would assist her in creating the wedding decorations. She was aware that I had an associate degree in African studies and thought it would be a nice touch to have the young man have his roots represented at the nuptials. I jumped at the chance. I had some tribal paraphenalia from my my last trip to Kenya stored and was thrilled to uncrate them and put them to good use. When he saw what we did on his behalf, he literally sobbed and wouldn't stop thanking us.

It is difficult these days to secure any type of financial loan or credit with the turmoil in all the markets. To seek unsecured business lines of credit is like having St. George slay a dragon. So when you find an insitution to aid you in this manner, you should thank your lucky stars. If the lending instituions don't lighten up, I don't know how in the world the economy will grow. Isn't it funny how loose mortgage loans were only a few short years ago? Now getting a mortgage is like striking a major vein of gold in your backyard. You have a better chance of winning a lottery in some cases. Giving up your first born won't even work.

I am personally connected to a very famous TV baker. His father and I grew up together in a small New Jersey town. For as long as I can remember his family worked at least 15 hours a day for, almost always, seven days a week in their business. Long before they had air conditioning, they seemingly slaved away by their hot ovens and in rather primitive conditions. The funny part was that they all seemed to thrive in that atmosphere and were a very close knit, loving family. Then one day my friend's son came out second in a national cake decorating contest. The rest is history. His is a top reality TV show. I love watching, in particular, the wedding cake toppers he comes up with that capture the couple's personalities.

Come on now. As a famous tennis pro once said "you can not be serious." Look at this phrase (luxury wilderness resort) and tell me it doesn't appear to be an oxymoron. Why go to the wilds if you want luxury. Just go downtown, save the airfare and book yourself into a five star hotel. After all, why risk the danger of a deer tick or worse yet a callous on your big toe. Let's get real. Luxury and wilderness are not supposed to be of the same world much less used in the same sentence.

I really respect the opinion of my business partner, but listening to her nagging me about some Burnaby condo is wearing me thin. I mean it's a condo not the Taj Mahal. She goes on and on about the amenities, the construction the gardens. I don't whether to shoot her or myself. What really gets her is that I keep refusing to even look at the place. She keeps telling me that I'm unreasonable. I'll tell you what is unreasonable. Unreasonable is asking me to sell a 6000 sq ft designer decorated home with a pool and a tennis court to coop myself up in what sounds like a retirement home.

If I were a blend of poet and software writer with a dash of programmer, I would find a Himalayan cave to reside in and not surface until I developed a piece of software for every business that performs as well as event management software. I have witnessed an associate's business triple in one year because of this little series of discs he popped into his lap top. You can't possibly imagine how invaluable these little pancakes are when trying to compile a mountain of specifics.Upon my appearance out of the cave I would expect a Nobel Prize.

Funny isn't it? We all somehow, someway find it easy enough to slip into our own special worlds and make it seem like it is the only world. Well, to me, it is this kind of narrow mindedness that got the world into the horrible state it is today. If we had the capacity to ascertain that our actions are having an effect on everyone and every thing around us, this planet would certainly be a better place. Well at least one company, I know of, has taken the position to be better for all of us. Metro Fine Printing of Canada has gone the extra mile with their implimentation of green printing to limit toxic waste they were formerly producing. What a better world this would be if all industry followed their lead.

I have been bursting at the seams to move my life to the wonderful city of Vancouver Canada. For years now, I have been travelling up north to absorb the fabulous ambience of Butchart Gardens and all that western Canada has to offer. I can see myself hiring a Vancouver interior design company to create my dream condo in one of the city's enchanting neighborhoods. I would live nothing more than to pack up and leave all my stress and woes behind. Concerts, museums, parks, they have it all to satisfy my thirst for the arts and natural beauty.

A thought occurred to me while I was visiting an art class here at university. Is the blending of the magnificent colors by the masters nothing more than chemical mixing? Were they restricted by the chemicals or resources of their time? Would their works be even more spectacular had they had today's vast selection of materials? It really is amazing how your mind is transported to these types of thoughts when you are influenced by the atmosphere of the arts. There certainly is something to be said about the community effect on the human psyche. It makes me wonder how devasting the battle field arena can be on our young people's psyche.

I recently was visitng a local art gallery managed by a good friend. We arranged to have a drink as soon as he closed up shop. I arrived there at about twenty minutes before closing so as to have time to view some of the new paintings that he recently displayed. We were supposed to leave at aproximately 7:15 pm and have that drink. Well, at around 8 pm I realized he was having a problem in his office. He simply couldn't get the numbers to agree on the shipment invoice. This is when I informed him of the furniture retail software my cousin was using at his dealership. He asked why I took so long in telling him about it. I told him it never occurred to me that his inventory could be as complex as it was.

It seems the internet has finally been around long enough to allow some of us long time hackers to use the term "age old problem." The dilemma I am talking about is search engine optimization. It appears thet every day some new guru pops up with a magical path to riches. Ridiculous claims are tossed around promising instant first page positioning and simple ways to multiply traffic to a site. In my experience, good old-fashioned hard, diligent work is the only way. People that have been practicing steady SEO Toronto methods get sure footed gradual and effective results with highly principled techinques.

Now that it is springtime, I'm all excited and full of energy to spruce up the house, both inside and outside, for upcoming entertainment. I have been so very lucky in the past to find a lot of things that I have needed on become.com. It saves me time and work shopping can take out of your schedule.

I started with painting some of the rooms in the house with new neutral colors to go with some spring bright colored accessories I had. One of the bathrooms needed a shower curtain, but I wanted one that would go with the new paint. I found the perfect Jojo Designs shower curtain. Then I needed some Intex pool skimmer parts to get the pool in shape. After finding what I needed for the inside and outside of the house, I thought it would be nice to find a pretty shimmer dress to wear when I have company and entertain. It would be the icing on the cake. So, I started looking and sure enough, I found a perfect JBS Ltd. ruffle dress. Now, I'm ready to go and enjoy my entertaining.........just working on the menus now.

As usual, I was walking around the town's performing arts center in true bliss, when the thought came to me to oranize a way to catalogue the hundreds of events that were performed there, so as to preserve the deserved history of this fabulous contribution to our community. I immediately went out and purchased a dozen 3 ring binders and a thousand protective acetate sheet covers. Now all I had to do was gather up all the fliers and promotional documents of the past forty years the center has been in existence. This project may take the rest of my life, but it will certainly be well worth it.

What art class have you ever attended where vinyl binders haven't served as a particularly helpful tool in preserving the original quality of your work? There is that empty feeling in your gut when you have two individual drawings in a folder of sorts violating each other as they rub up against each other and result in a disasterous unwanted merge. The PVC or related material used for the purpose of preservation and separartion is the ideal way to protect your hard earned creation. For the finest of these products at the most competitive prices, visit ringbinder.com.

When you are a person who lives for the arts as I do, you find that there is a level of artistic expression in just about everything. Take for example a recent excursion I was on to the fabulous west of Canada, the respect for nature and the incomparable landscapes simply flood my mind with the kind of enjoyment only art can bring. From the great spectacle of Butchart Gardens to the excellence of the Victoria hotels, everything there reeks of artistic splendor. How fortunate are we to have this wonderful nation as our neighbor?

Just saying "hotel Victoria" brings a broad smile to my sometimes gloomy face. Since the great recession started, I am feeling the negative vibe in the air. It seems everywhere I go, the stress is looming like a swarm of locusts over a farm crop. The air is heavy and the atmosphere is dense. Then, I get my annual trip to see the art and hear the fabulous music at a concert in BC. All of a sudden, the clouds lift and I'm in Shangrala. I think of my previous stays at the great hotels in Victoria and the demeanor of the gentle people of the area, and I am ready to take on the world once again.