B.The budget should be designed from the bottom up, with input from employees at
all levels.
B.The budget should be approved by the company’s external auditors.
C.The budget should always be designed by top corporate management.
D.All the above statements are true regarding the budgeting process.

B.The budget should be designed from the bottom up, with input from employees at
all levels.

As a physician legislator, I have the opportunity to scrutinize almost every program that Arizona funds. One of the largest is our state Medicaid program, AHCCCS. In the hospital, I treat many AHCCCS patients, but the more I learn about the program in the Legislature, the more impressed I am with it. Arizona may be sitting on the solution to our national health-reform debate.

Public-private partnership

The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System was created in the 1980s to serve as our state Medicaid program. The last state to establish such a program, Arizona used a new model that had not been previously attempted: managed care instead of fee-for-service.

This setup relies on a partnership between the state and private health plans. The health plans have a profit cap and voluntarily bid for contracts. The winning bidder receives a large guaranteed pool of patients.

AHCCCS-eligible patients get to choose an available health plan in their region and a primary-care provider. More than 80 percent of the primary-care doctors in Arizona are contracted. Prescription-drug coverage is broad and low-cost. Members can go to just about any hospital when needed. About 1.3 million Arizonans, 20 percent of our population, rely on AHCCCS for their health coverage.

Quality, efficiency

Unfortunately, some people assume care provided through AHCCCS is of low quality. That assumption is absolutely wrong. AHCCCS covers Arizonans with a remarkable degree of quality and efficiency. In fact, the benefit package for AHCCCS members is as good as or better than most private plans.

Furthermore, AHCCCS requires contracted health plans to focus on prevention, including weight management, immunizations, cancer screenings, blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes checks. This keeps patients out of the hospital, saving money in the long run.

Most efficient in U.S.

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently ranked AHCCCS as the least expensive to operate of all 50 state Medicaid programs, citing the low cost per member per month. Combined with the impressive set of benefits AHCCCS provides, Arizona taxpayers get the most bang for their buck. Overhead costs are among the lowest in the nation at only 3.3 percent, and provider-reimbursement rates are surprisingly competitive.

We have in AHCCCS an efficient government program that provides excellent coverage to qualified families through a public-private partnership within a health-insurance exchange that has won national recognition for its success.

AHCCCS has been working well for the people of Arizona for more than two decades. This model for health-care delivery works. Health-reform proponents would be well served to closely examine AHCCCS and learn from its accomplishments.

Focus on the people

One of my patients recently shared his thoughts about health reform from his hospital bed saying, “It’s time for the human family to come together and take care of itself.” I appreciated the compassion and civility in his words as he assessed our ongoing efforts. If we truly are committed to resolving the problems facing our health system in a meaningful way, we will keep the focus on patients and people, and we will come to a solution. I suggest that we look to AHCCCS as a proven, efficient model for national health reform.

Rep. Matt Heinz, a Dem

Chad
http://www.articlesbase.com/insurance-articles/ahcccs-a-model-for-nation-matt-heinz-1258461.html

Holding bad credit can be quite a bane. Lenders are disapproving towards your loan applications- some turn down the applications outright while others may settle at higher rates of repayment and other unfavorable terms and conditions for you.

At such time credit repair seems to be the need of the hour and you need to resolve to advocate all necessary means and take up all needful measures to improve upon your credit position.

Some self-help tips for credit repair can be suggested in this regard. These will act as guidance for you. You will be helped in taking the right decisions and in following the right steps by being enlightened by such tips.

You need to request beforehand (i.e. before venturing into loan application) for a copy of your annual credit report from the authorized resource online: annualcreditreport.com. This is a free service provided from the tri bureaus the national credit rating agencies. The three credit bureaus Experian, Equifax and Trans Union are the tri bureaus which will supply this valuable account of your credit which can reveal much.

You can check out irrelevant and wrong entries of accounts and account numbers and report them to the concerned creditors. Getting these corrected and notifying them to the reporting agencies will help you a lot. You can avoid the reduction in credit scores and earning the tag of bad credit holder owing to wrong entries by taking this step beforehand.

Then you need to ascertain that you are paying your bills on time. The number of credit cards being carried by you needs to be reduced by writing to the respective creditors requesting them to close down old accounts which you find unnecessary.

The changed status of your accounts after adopting measures is to be notified to the credit reporting agencies from time to time for them to take care of in subsequent reports pertaining to you. It is necessary that you settle any outstanding accounts and debts. Thus, you can start reestablishing your credit. But make sure you avoid bankruptcies, tax liens and collections.

There are a large number of ventures on the web which promise to repair your credit quickly and secure for you a high credit score. However, it is just not legally possible to achieve all that these websites claim. Credit scores cannot improve overnight, nor can credit reports be changed so soon.

Negative indications in your credit report which account for poor credit ratings or bad credit scores need time to ease out even after considerable efforts are extended. It is only you who can adopt the right measures and rectify the situation over time and no one can do it on your behalf.

Barney Garcia
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/credit-repair-self-help-tips-79221.html

One of the fastest way to minimise your chances of web business success is to use a Content Management System (CMS). There are a number of open-source CMS products, such as phpWS, Mambo, Plone, Drupal, Geeklog, Siteframe, and phpNuke etc and and a plethora of proprietary CMS products espoused by individual web design companies as the answer everything from lack of HTML knowledge to rapid shopping cart deployment etc.

Expressing this in simple terms, its said that possibly as high as 80% of online purchases are made from leads generated by search engines. CMS systems place a huge handicap on achievable Search Engine rankings. meaning there is a direct, immediate and practically insurmountable conflict with business aspirations. There are multiple reasons for this.

Duplication of Content
Search engines loathe duplicate content. In the average CMS, there are numerous common design elements, images, HTML and/or JavaScript code blocks etc, which are portrayed across ALL sites using the same system, and this is not a good thing.

Many CMS systems make it hard to impossible to generate unique page Title, Description & Keyword meta-tags, meaning all pages can look identical in search engine results. Many CMS systems do not permit you to assign keyword-rich image names, or apply unique and specific image ALT tags, and the page file names are usually not directly controllable. Few CMS systems allow you to easily add anchors on specific pages, and to link to those anchors from other pages. All of this translates into losing you valuable search engine optimisation opportunities.

Shared IP Addresses vs. Unique IP
Proprietary CMS systems usually go hand in hand with a “total package deal” that includes web design, web hosting and CMS.

The hosting is invariable on a “shared server” meaning your site has the same IP Address as all other sites on the server. Should a situation occur Where another site or sites are offering very similar or identical products and services, there is a potentially serious conflict of interest which the web design & hosting company will probably not advise you of! The first
site is highly likely to be given priority rankings and treatment by the search engines, and all subsequent sites are highly likely to be consigned to oblivion as Search Engines will probably regard them as “duplicate content!” So two or more “Christmas gift shops” on the same “shared server,” or two or more “human resource consultants” face a problem they will be blissfully unaware of. Having a unique IP address assigned to your site is far more sensible!

Usability
Open-source CMS systems are written by geeks and nerds, for other geeks and nerds. It is painfully obvious that none are written by people with the faintest understanding of search engine optimisation, or an awareness of the old adage “form follows function.” As for “usability testing” there is no demonstrable evidence that any research and science has been applied to either the user or the administration interfaces! Unfortunately, the same criticisms can be levelled at the commercial CMS systems on offer.

CMS and Being Held To Ransom
In terms of the proprietary CMS systems, you are also seriously at risk of being captured and held hostage by your web design company, because they now “own” your site and you cannot easily escape without sacrificing your total investment. In this respect, use of CMS demonstrates a complete lack of business risk analysis. From that point on, you can also be
systematically milked like a cash cow for every amendment, change, edit etc that they carry out on your behalf! Believe me, it happens every day… and I’ve seen people charged $90 for a simple edit that took me less than 2 minutes to implement!

CMS Saves You Money?
Yeah, right!!! The overheads of managing a CMS are usually far in excess of managing a conventional site. Content percentage-wise, most sites actually change very little, and the majority of pages are static and do not change at all. CMS is total overkill for the average business site.

Stand Out from the Crowd
To succeed on the web today, you need to be a clearly unique entity, with original content, properly organised, logically described, and all pages must be optimised for a set of specific keyword phrases that accurately describe your products or services. Anything less is a compromise, and is to YOUR business detriment. A CMS system has a direct, negative impact on almost all desired outcomes – from minimising business risks, improving search engine rankings and prompt return on investment.

Ben Kemp
http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/content-management-systems-equal-business-suicide-98350.html

Much has been written of late about Ghana’s oil discovery and the impact that this will have on its economy. However, this perceived positive impact should not be taken for granted because this has not been the story of other oil rich African countries. The government and the people should have a clear vision on how best to utilize the proceeds to the benefit of all. In this regard, there is the need to set out clear goals, strategies, plans and policies that will serve to boost the economy, create the environment for sustainable development, investment and to lift the masses out of poverty. Sustainable development particularly needs to be attained from such exploitation, so that the ideals of economic, environmental and social upliftment (job creation, and others) are attained in Ghana.  After 50 years, this country should not be at the point where many of its parts have no clean drinking water, adequate education facilities, suffer from energy shortages and ecological problems.

The discovery of oil in itself is not enough to promote development in any given economy. Rather, it is the strategies, the economic framework and policy decisions that the government institute, creates the environment for investment, noting that governments by themselves do not create wealth, but the private sector is the engine of wealth creation. Hence, the discovery of oil reserves in Ghana should now enable the government to create economic policies that can help the economy to improve. It is incumbent on the government to provide the security, infrastructure and a tax regime that encourages investment as well as entrepreneurship. This should start with good governance, accountability and a sense of duty and the politicians not seeing this as an opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of the nation and its people The government should ensure that agreements entered into with investors and multilateral organizations are not to the detriment of the country (so far as somebody gets a per centage, policy makers sometimes sell their conscience). They should also adopt a participatory approach to decision-making, bearing in mind the consequences of their decisions. As Ghana contemplates exploiting its newly discovered oil reserves from its Western Region in the post 2010 years, there are some fundamental issues for consideration. The extent to which such production should be effected to resolve relevant socio-economic problems of the country including unemployment must also be borne in mind. This can be done through the development and implementation of prudent fiscal policies human resource strategies and incentives for businesses to flourish .

The government of Ghana should ensure that in the post-2010 era, contractual obligations for the expatriate companies include a good percentage of local Ghanaians who will be hired in the oil industry. In the past, Africa has generally had such problems as far as implementing such obligations are concerned. Such situations also help prevent conflicts as has occurred in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, Equatorial Guinea, Congo Brazzaville and Gabon, where local groups have manifested their anger at the way oil has been unequally distributed. This has sometimes resulted in a great deal of violence and loss of lives.

In the exploitation of the oil, the government should further ensure that there is direct benefit to Ghanaians, through employment and wealth creation. For the past few decades, this country has experienced high levels of unemployment. A case in point is the unprecedented degrees of unemployment when students complete their university studies. One solution they find is to leave the country in search of high salaried jobs and good standards of living in developed countries. This compounds the brain drain problem which confronts this country.

The extent to which employment and career opportunities can be made sustainable is through the revitalization of its educational institutions. The universities and higher education institutions should ensure that the courses taught are relevant to the current market needs of the globalised economy, so that we have the right skills to match the country’s development needs. In this regard, skills which are relevant to the oil industry and its ancillary industries must be incorporated into to the educational curricula, so as to make Ghanaian students employable in this industry. These skills include Petrochemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering and Information Technology. Lecturers and Education Officers at these institutions might need to review the existing curricula and re-train people so as to match them to the new skills of study, as far as such courses are concerned. For those who have already completed some of these courses, it is necessary to upgrade their skills so as to make them more marketable.

Ghana’s government also needs to ensure that companies adhere to ecological principles, for the avoidance of the Niger Delta situation, where oil exploitation in Nigeria has caused some incidents of pollution in this region, and the area still remains under-developed. Furthermore, in Ghana itself, areas such as Ahafo, Prestea, Tarkwa and some mining towns have been polluted by careless disposal of mining wastes and chemical accidents. These areas have still not been developed with schools, hospitals, adequate infrastructure and similar facilities. Hence, it is time for Ghana to avoid repeating this unfortunate trend. In its oil industry, governmental strategy should require that foreign firms provide standard facilities to benefit people in their areas of operation. These facilities should include schools, hospitals, pipe borne water and safe recreational grounds. These firms should also dispose of their waste and chemicals responsibly. These are essential tools which could help Ghana overcome some of its poverty problems, and meet the requirements of MDG1, on the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, and MDG 7 on environmental sustainability. In the event of non-adherence to its obligations, Ghana’s laws also need to clearly stipulate which punitive measures will be made available and how these measures will be implemented for any firms-local and foreign.

The drilling of oil does not mean that Ghana should solely rely on this resource, only to be disappointed when prices fluctuate and the reliance on the use of fossil fuels over the next twenty years declines. If history teaches us anything at all, we should use the past to make informed decisions for the future. Oil might not be the only energy source over the next two decades. The country should not be lured into a false sense of economic security in terms of its sole reliance on this so-called cash bonanza. The oil industry should therefore be used as a platform or a means to diversify the economy by investing in other sectors such as ecotourism which can generate income and create jobs, bearing in mind that the proceeds from oil fluctuate from time to time.

Ghana should be mindful of the insecurity that the discovery of “black gold” can generate. This is because the moment money is gained and not spread equally, it creates a environment for conflict, where people take up arms because they feel that the proceeds of such resources do not have a trickling down effect on their lives.

In effect, Ghana should learn from past experience and ensure that the oil does not become a curse. Ghanaians should no suffer from the curse of the “black gold”. We should have a more mature outlook on how to utilize the proceeds. Our oil level might not be the same as the Gulf Corporation Countries (GCC). However, we could learn from how these countries have used the proceeds from the petrol dollars in a rather shrewd manner, to develop and diversify their economies, to the envy of the developed world. The citizens of Ghana deserve a much better deal that what they have been subjected to, since independence. This is a chance in a lifetime to correct the mistakes of the past and the world at large is watching that the black star of Africa will rise again and shine brightly by showing vision, and prudence in the allocation as well as the utilization of resources.

Ebow Idun
http://www.articlesbase.com/free-articles/lessons-for-the-oil-rich-ghana-2010-and-beyond-691574.html

With your student going off to college and living away from home, of course you are concerned. It is going to be expensive, you already know that, but how to make sure that your student is able to get things taken care of financially without them having to call home multiple times per week to ask for more money. In a lot of different ways, it makes sense to get a college student credit card for your student, which can make things a lot easier on you.

Of course you want to be very careful with it. Depending on your child, you may want to get a card that does not permit cash advance privileges. The temptation for the new college student who is now all of a sudden living away from home is that this now represents “free money”, and I am sure you do not even want to think about what they might spend money on.

But then again, college is a time for growing up and a time for education. There are many advantages of having a college student credit card, such as:

* Your child will learn the responsibilities of financial management. You may insist that they get a part time job to pay the costs that THEY incur which are not related to getting the college education.

* Your child will learn about interest, and how interest can accumulate at an alarming rate if the balance is not paid in full at the end of the month.

* If payments are made late, your child will learn the realities of the “late payment fee” which is assessed by many of the issuers of college student credit cards.

* Your child will become versed in the fine art of budgeting and planning ahead. For example, if there is only $200 of the credit limit left on the student credit card and your child has the option of paying for a kegger this weekend or paying for two textbooks that are required for class, the right or wrong decision can tell you how far along they are getting with the aspect of financial management and budgeting.

There are many card issuers who are very anxious to offer a credit card to college students. Often these come with a lower credit limit, maybe $500 and also since college students are typically viewed as a risk due to a typical lack of experience with financial obligations, the interest rate on the unpaid balance is going to be higher, perhaps MUCH higher than you might expect. But this all goes with the territory.

But if a student shows or learns responsibility with a college student credit card, that will teach the student the benefits of having one and keeping it fiscally sound. The student is rewarded with a good credit score at the credit bureaus, so they are somewhat established already in that area by the time they graduate. And the card issuers are well aware that with that good experience, that college student will very likely be their credit card customer for life.

Jon Arnold
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/find-out-the-benefits-of-a-student-credit-card-113631.html

The appraisal is just as important to your construction loan qualification as your income, assets and credit. The appraisal for a home to be built is even more important than an appraisal for a home that already exists. For a construction loan, the appraiser will do what is called a “plans and specs appraisal,” meaning they will examine the plans and specifications for the home to be built and compare it to existing homes in the immediate area that are similar.

An appraisal is an assessment by a licensed appraiser (an opinion, really) of the value of a particular home at a given time. The appraiser, who is licensed by the state, must follow certain rules regarding how an appraisal is conducted.

They must locate similar homes within a close proximity to your location (usually 1-3 miles) that are on similar size land. This is called finding “comparables,” or “comps.” A “comp” is not a “comp” if the home has not sold on the open market within the last six months. This can be stretched up to a year, but most lenders prefer six month old comps or less.

This means if you are building a 2000 square foot colonial style home on 1 acre, the appraiser must find at least three other roughly 2000 foot (usually within 15% of the size) homes on roughly 1 acre of land. If they cannot do this, there are often problems with establishing value. This could lead to a loan denial or to the lender making adjustments to the value (usually lower).

The best advice is to know the area you are building and not try to build a home that is way out of the ordinary for the area. We often see borrowers who want to build a home that is significantly larger and more expensive than the other homes in the area (called “overbuilding for the area”). They may be perfectly qualified as a borrower, but if the appraiser has problems establishing a legal appraised value, the loan could be denied.

Another issue often arises with large lots. If you find a 15 acre lot in an area of half-acre lots, you may run into problems with the appraisal. Lenders do not want to be stuck owning a property (if you were to default on the loan for some reason) that is out of the ordinary from the rest of the area. They need to be able to sell it quickly and may have trouble doing so if it is not typical for the area.

Here are some other common issues to consider: lot size, type of construction, and location of your intended home.

Most lenders will limit the size of the land on which you can build to 40 acres or less. As mentioned above, there must be comparable lots in the immediate area to justify the larger size. For example, your lender may be able to approve a loan for a home to be built on a 32 acre lot, but there must be other somewhat similar sized lots with somewhat similar sized homes available as comps. If the appraiser cannot find “comps” for this project, the chances are you will be denied the loan no matter how well qualified you are as a borrower.

The type of construction is also an important consideration. This is a common issue with log homes, but it can be problematic with any type of construction that is different than a regular “stick built” home. The appraiser must be able to locate “comps” for the type of construction you are building. This means, if you are building a log home, there must be other log home sales in the immediate area within the last 6 or so months that are similar size and on similar land. See the potential for problems?

Here’s an example from an actual client who wanted to build a log home on land he already owned free and clear. His income, savings and credit were excellent. In all, he was a well qualified borrower. However, he wanted to build a log home, a very nice log home. He said there were several log homes in the immediate area, thinking there would be no trouble with the appraisal.

However, the appraiser reported there were no comps for over 60 miles! How could this be? The appraiser explained that none of the log homes in the immediate area had ever sold, as they were all built by the owners who still lived in them.

What’s the lesson? A comp has to be a SALE of a similar type home, not just another nearby similar house. The second lesson is that many log homes are built as either retirement or vacation homes. The owners build them and never let go of them.

Ironically, this particular client said he could stand on his would-be front porch and see four log homes. But, none of them had sold, meaning they could not be considered comps for the appraisal. Fortunately, in the end, due to his impeccable qualifications and an endless amount of negotiating with the head of the construction lending department, he was able to build his log home without a log home comp. But, don’t count on this happening again.

The other area of concern for appraisals is the location of the property. Your lot will be considered to be either in an urban, suburban or rural setting. This will determine how far away the comps can be. Typically, in an urban setting, comps must be a half mile or less from the subject. This may be stretched to a mile in some cases. For suburban properties, one to three miles is the maximum distance allowed in most cases. For rural properties, the comps should ideally be no more than five to ten miles away.

There are exceptions to these rules, but you should not count on an exception being made. It is best to understand how an appraisal interacts with your loan application and do as much research as you can before you make any financial commitments. Often, if you find a lot and house plan you like, you can hire a local appraiser on your own to just “run comps” for your proposed home. Expect to pay for this service, as appraisers are professionals and should be properly compensated for their time and expertise.

But, this could be the best money you ever spend if there are any questions as to whether a good appraisal can be obtained for your proposed home. It is better to know early instead of spending time and money on plans, deposits, the full appraisal and any other expenses you may incur.

Chris Esposito
http://www.articlesbase.com/mortgage-articles/the-construction-appraisal-what-you-need-to-know-before-your-loan-gets-denied-442230.html

Do you ever feel like there are too many things to do and not enough “day” to do them in?

Do your weekends seem to fly by while your time spent at your day job seems to drag?

Does it seem like you’ve just sat down to do a little work on your business and suddenly it’s 2:00 a.m. and you haven’t gotten anything done?

If this sounds like you then you are one of thousands of over-worked men and women who are trying to start and run a home based business while keeping the day job until you can afford to quit.

Sometimes the stress of trying to do it all causes people to give up their dream of home business ownership – I don’t want that to happen to you!

I’m one of those crazy people who are driven (and I mean DRIVEN) to have my own business. I don’t just run one business out of my home – I run FOUR of them. So believe me when I tell you that I know what it means to be over-worked, stressed out & cranky!

A few things we need to agree on is that:

1) there are only 24 hours in a day

2) You can’t do everything without help – either from other people or from technology

I’ve put together a small list of tips and tricks that will free up some additional time – time that you can spend with your family & friends instead of working. Some of these tips will work for you and some won’t. What I’m offering you is basically a buffet of options. Choose what you want, try it – come back for more if you like! Not all of my suggestions are free – some will cost money, but most, if not all of them will be tax deductible!

Work smarter instead of harder – that’s the first step in giving yourself more time.

Become a multi-tasker. Now, this is easier than you think it might be.

1. Advertise While Doing Everyday Tasks.

• Use magnetic signs on your automobiles

• Wear clothing that advertises your business

• Carry some product in your trunk at all times/if you have a direct sales business, make sure you have Catalogs & your calendar with you at all times, so that you can schedule parties on the fly!

• Keep home party and fundraiser packets in your car

2. Use an autoresponder service such as http://www.OnlineDistinction.com to send out your follow-up emails to prospects, customers & downline.

• Use it to send out monthly newsletters & last minute announcements. Good autoresponder services offer a Mail-All or Broadcast feature.

• Have different campaigns set up and ready to be used when they are needed.

• Create different campaigns for those interested in home parties, fundraisers, business opportunity, products & upcoming sales.

• Updating an existing campaign takes minutes when it’s already created.

3. Use a personal website to your advantage!

• You spend less time explaining your business to prospects.

• Customers know where to find you and buy from you without your direct involvement until they send you an order.

• When prospects are interested in your business, they can sign up for your autoresponder information (business newsletter) directly from your website – no involvement from you! This can happen while you are at work or on vacation with your family.

• Customers & prospects get to know YOU and begin trusting YOU.

The beginning of beautiful relationships starts here – and you are actually grocery shopping while they get to know you better!

4. Use Pay-Per-Click advertising. When you run your ads 24/7/365 people who are interested in what you have to offer can browse, purchase & read all about you while you sleep, attend a dance recital or go out to dinner with your family.

5. Optimize your personal website – put any company-approved presentations online. Point people to different ways to learn about you automatically – then have them come to you via e-mail or autoresponder after most of their questions have been answered.

6. Pay your bills electronically – set it up so that they are paid automatically every month. How much time will this save? How long do you take to write checks, balance your checkbook & make sure everything is paid every month (or every week)? How much does having to pay bills stress you out? There are services out there that will do all the work for you – your bills automatically get sent to them and they keep track of them and pay them – on the day you’ve set up.

7. Delegate, delegate, delegate! Who made up the rule that YOU had to do everything yourself?? Decide right now that your spouse and your children are able & capable of helping. All you have to do is ask – if it doesn’t get done, then it’s their responsibility to do it. Don’t back down from this or they won’t take your requests seriously.

8. Purchase birthday & holiday presents for friends and family once a year if possible – if it’s not possible then do as many gifts all at once as you can. Don’t forget to buy the cards as well. Wrap the gifts, tag them so you know who is supposed to get what. Don’t forget to sign & put cards with them. Now there’s no reason to stress out because Uncle Fred’s birthday party is tomorrow and you’ve totally forgotten his gift.

9. Hire a cleaning service. Even if someone comes in once a month to do the heavy cleaning, it’s a few less things on your mind. Bring someone in to wash the floors, clean the bathrooms & other cleaning tasks that can wait, but still need to be done. When you own a home-based business, these types of services are tax deductible – so take advantage of this!

10. Laundry! Ugh! It can pile up. Once in awhile when it piles up so that you can’t even find the washer anymore, just load it all into the car and take it to a good Laundromat that offers wash/dry/fold services. Don’t forget to take hangers with you if you want certain items hung up. Separate the items that can’t be dried – or leave those at home. Looking at a small pile of laundry is much less stressful that trying to do it all once it’s built up to titanic proportions.

11. Don’t be “Super Home Business Owner.” You can’t do it all. You can’t be everywhere at once. Things will get missed. Don’t get angry at yourself. You are human. You deserve to rest, relax, eat & sleep.

12. Make some time for yourself – every day. It doesn’t have to be hours – even if it’s only 15 minutes, you need time for yourself. Take a bubble bath. Have a glass of wine. Write in your journal. Read a chapter in a novel. Whatever it is that makes you feel good and relaxed – make sure you spend time doing it every day.

Sande Saimond
http://www.articlesbase.com/time-management-articles/twelve-home-based-business-tips-for-overworked-entrepreneurs-87351.html

Author: Max Redd

If you want to make ‘serious’ money from betting on horse racing, then you have to take the whole business of betting seriously. Treat betting as a mere ‘distraction’ and your entertainment will almost certainly come at a cost.

In Part One of this series of articles on sensible money management, I said that much of the reason people will lose money through betting is because of bad habits. How do you overcome bad habits? Discipline, of course!

If you were running your own business, you would treat it as a business and not a hobby. You would get to your desk on time each morning. As well as doing the things you enjoy about your business, you would attend to all the mundane tasks necessary for things to run smoothly. You would file your tax returns on time. You would have a business plan and you would set budgets for attainable growth. You would aim to make a profit by earning more in revenue than you spend in costs. You would not continue to sell a product at a loss. Etc., etc.

To run a business takes a lot of self-discipline, and so it is with making a long-term profit from betting. It is not as easy as some people would have you believe. If this were true, then tens of thousands more people would be placing bets from their laptop by a pool in Spain, and there would be no more bookmakers in your local High Street!

If you are prepared to discipline yourself, then you are far more likely to elevate yourself from the 98% of punters who continually lose money through gambling.

The very first task you should undertake is to set up a separate account for your betting funds. It is essential you keep your betting activities separate from your other financial affairs, otherwise you will find it very difficult to see if you are making a profit, and how much return you are getting on your investment.

No-one needs to be reminded that you should only bet with money you can afford to lose, but the more money you can set aside for betting purposes, the more likely you are to see any worthwhile gains. You should view your betting bank as working capital, and an investment you have made in your own business.

Do not be tempted to place a bet using your credit card, or the debit card on your current account.

Anyone following my betting advisory service will know that I am always preaching about getting value when you bet. My philosophy makes perfect sense to me, but then I’ve been trying to drum the principle into peoples’ heads for years! But going back to the analogy of running a business, you wouldn’t pay £10 for a product from a wholesaler if you couldn’t sell it for any more than an average of £5. You may make the occasional sale at £15 or even £20 but if the average return is only £5 then in the long run you will lose money.

The same principle applies when backing a horse – don’t accept a price of 5/1 when the real chance of the horse winning should be represented by a price of 10/1

If you fancy a horse to win, but you cannot get the price you want, then have the discipline to let the horse run without your money on its back. Horse racing has been around for more than a century — there will be other opportunities. You should not be betting purely for the thrill of risking money, and only putting your investment at risk with the potential of a good return.

Take the time to review how your strategy is working (or not). How much profit are you making? Which systems or tipsters are making you the most? Without continual review, you will not be able to maximise your returns (nor indeed limit your losses).

Your betting bank should be large enough to absorb any losing runs you will encounter from time to time. This is akin to managing your cash-flow of your business. Having a “large bank” does not necessarily mean having a lot of money sunk into your betting account. Moreover, it means you should be staking only a small proportion of your bank on each bet.

The same £1,000 bank fund could be divided into a large bank of 1,000 points, ie £1 per bet. Or it could be divided into a relatively small bank of just 10 points, ie £100 per bet.

As your bank grows, then the same small percentage of your total funds will represent a higher monetary value.

Do not be tempted to increase your stake on any particular bet. Set your proportional stakes plan and stick to it. Yes, review your stakes from time to time, but never alter your stakes on a whim, on hearsay of a strong bet, or for any other irrational reason. Be wary of getting greedy.

This is a good time to warn you of the perils of betting whilst under the influence. Never bet after having a drink. The reasons should not need further explanation.

If your method of selection is losing you money, then stop betting.

Allow me to expand upon the last statement. If you have a losing day, do not be quick to toss your system in the bin or cancel your subscription to your favourite tipster! Everybody has losing days, indeed everyone has losing weeks and bad months. However, after a reasonable period of time you will be fairly certain whether or not a particular source of bets is returning worthwhile profits.

Discipline will play a big part in managing your portfolio of systems. On the one hand you should not be too hasty to give up on a profitable system, if it suffers a downturn in performance. At the same time, you should be prepared to relegate a system from your portfolio if it is consistently losing money.

Always ‘paper-trade’ a system or tipster over a significant period of time (I would suggest at least two months) before actually committing any of your betting funds. If you are then confident enough to risk your own money on a system, then equally you should be prepared to endure two losing months before dropping it.

If you do find yourself starting to lose money at any point, never be tempted to chase your losses. Do not increase your stakes in an effort to re-coup what you have lost, as you may well find yourself with even greater, unnecessary losses.

To summarise, treat your betting activities in a business-like fashion. Develop a plan and have the discipline to stick to it. Below is a list of Do’s and Don’t’s. For those who need help to adopt a disciplined approach, stick by these rules and you will not go too far wrong!

DO’s and DON’T’s

DO have a separate account for your betting funds

DO try to get value in the price of your bets

DO keep records

DO take the time to analyse your betting

DO be wary risking a high percentage of your bank

DO operate with a bank of suitable size

DO change or drop a losing system

Do NOT bet when you are drunk

Do NOT get too greedy

Do NOT bet without paying consideration to the price

Do NOT bet if you cannot get the price YOU want

Do NOT try and get rich quick

Do NOT chase your losses

About the author: Max Redd has been making a living betting on horse racing for over 10 years. He runs the Redd Racing betting advisory service which offers members a FREE trial and a 60-day money-back profit guarantee. Find out more at http://www.reddracing.co.uk

Max Redd
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/betting-on-horse-racing-sensible-money-management-part-4-134694.html

Project management software are used to make large complicated project tasks easier, including scheduling, cost and budget control, management, and communication. It may have several small modules to manage various component of a project and one of them is resource management software. The others can be collaboration software, quality management and documentation or administration systems software. Project Management Software programs apply knowledge, techniques, skills, and tools and thereby aid organizations in planning and controlling resources, schedules, costs, and specific requirements of a project. Resource management is the efficient and effective allocation of an organization’s resources. Such resources include financial resources, human skills, inventory, production resources, and information technology (IT).

Project Management software includes incorporated functions or graphical representation such as charts, calendars, tracking of people and budgets, scheduling, and generating of reports. Desktop applications, web-based application, personal application, single user system, collaborative system, integrated system, etc., are few common approaches to project management software. Depending upon the complexities of projects, project management tools are designed. The tool one intends to use to monitor a project must be sufficient for the complexity and size of the project.

In the arena of project management software techniques, methods, processes, and philosophies have been developed to determine the best approach for allocating resources. One aspect of this is the discussions on cross-functional versus functional resource allocation. Resource estimating and human resource management are both key elements of resource management software. Resource and comprehensive project management software are needed in order to execute and monitor a project successfully. Like all other project management software, resource management software also has tools that enable automatic functions and thereby assist the function of resource allocation to projects. As a result portfolio resource visibility including supply and demand of resources increases. Human resource management is the science of recruiting knowledgeable human beings for various projects.

There are various resource management techniques, one such being resource leveling. This technique aims to smooth the stock of resources in hand and to reduce both excess inventories and shortcomings. The various demands for different resources should be forecasted before a certain time period. Also, foreseeing the supply of the resources in the future is important. The principle is to attain 100 % utilization, which is difficult to reach and invest in resources that have stored capabilities and then unleash the capabilities as, demanded. Resource management software may significantly reduce the overall project cost and time.

Aspects of resource development and conservation are included in resource management software. Investment in resources should be retained by small additional investment so that a new capability develops that is in demand and all this at a lower investment than disposing of the current resource and replacing it with another having the demanded capability. Conservation refers to an aspect of resource management that is a set of practices in order to maintain nature’s system integrity. These kinds of resource management systems are applied on air resource management, soil conservation, forestry, wildlife management, and water resource management. This kind of resource management is called natural resource management or NRM.

Jhoana Cooper
http://www.articlesbase.com/software-articles/resource-management-software-to-enhance-output-741691.html