The more home business owners I talk with tell me that besides the money they can make the second reason they started their own home business was the freedom it gives to travel and enjoy life.That is no surprise to me, we all desire a work life balance and a home business gives you that ability. It’s also why the travel industry is an 8 trillion dollar industry and expected to double in the next 5 years.OK, so I do listen to the news and I do fill up my car periodically with gas, so I hear about the high cost of gas and how that is affecting the airline industry, travel and resort destinations. But I also heard, at least here in the West, National Parks, lake resorts and hotels in prime resort areas were full over the past two holidays. So what’s my point, people will find a way to get away and enjoy their free time no matter what the economic situation.However, in these economically challenged times people are searching out more deals than they ever have in the past. Timeshares are out of reach for the average household so the next best option is travel memberships to all those same four and five star communities. And with the drastically reduced costs that people can obtain with these memberships makes taking a vacation affordable even in today’s economy.The Global Resorts Network membership allows their members to travel anywhere in the world, stay at four and five star resorts for eight days and seven nights for less than most people would pay for a week’s groceries. This lifetime membership also offers values on cruises with all the top cruise liners.If that product wasn’t enough the business opportunity is so lucrative it has many people wondering just how they can do what they are. As a home business opportunity it is the ability to pay well and give the business owner something they are telling me they are looking for; freedom to travel…Cheap!So if travel is something you love to do or are looking to do in the future Global Resorts membership and business opportunity is a great value.
How a Web Based Employee Scheduling Software Helps Your Business Grow
Arranging schedules for any size group of employees takes a lot of time out of the busy day of any manager. If there are two or three shifts of workers to be coordinated, it is even more challenging. Tracking schedule changes for even a small workforce using paper, whiteboard or even a spreadsheet can prove to be a daunting and error prone task. Employee scheduling software can solve the problem.As any manager knows, wasting time is wasting money. Profits are negatively impacted when too many employees are on the schedule. Employees become unable to handle the volume if too few are scheduled. Additionally being understaffed will most definitely impact the quality of service that business provides to its customers. The software makes such decisions automatically or can assist the manager every step of the way.Such a program does everything a manager can do and at a speed above his or her capabilities. A database is developed to track vacation and sick days for each employee and save those records. The payroll can be calculated and prepared based on those records.Availability includes simple record keeping programs and more complicated ones that can track vacation requests, healthcare costs and manufacturing or distribution details. It facilitates easier gathering of information needed each year at tax time.Many businesses do employee evaluations and the record of each worker can be added to the database. If bonuses are given out, this is a quick way to determine who deserves what. It may also contribute to major decisions on who to promote and who to let go.Additional benefits include implementation of ways to respond to weather conditions for a business that does outdoors work, for example a lawn service or construction company. Use of company vehicles in an economical way and keeping administrative costs to a bare minimum is easily accomplished.Many employee scheduling systems have the capability to incorporate a module with mobile capabilities. During deliveries or sales calls, employees can be quickly contacted for any exchange of information or emergency. When a meeting or sales call is cancelled, this can avoid wasting time driving to the location for the meeting and all the way back to the home office without making contact.A scheduling software that integrates with company’s bookkeeping software such as QuickBooks will provide an additional bonus by automating client invoicing and employee payroll processes.Few scheduling solutions on the market also offer integrated electronic visit verification (EVV) functionality that allows employees to clock in and out when they start and end their shifts. Integrated EVV system greatly reduces the time it takes to reconcile employee time sheets and allows business to invoice their clients faster.
What Are The Greatest Changes In Shopping In Your Lifetime
What are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime? So asked my 9 year old grandson.
As I thought of the question the local Green Grocer came to mind. Because that is what the greatest change in shopping in my lifetime is.
That was the first place to start with the question of what are the greatest changes in shopping in your lifetime.
Our local green grocer was the most important change in shopping in my lifetime. Beside him was our butcher, a hairdresser and a chemist.
Looking back, we were well catered for as we had quite a few in our suburb. And yes, the greatest changes in shopping in my lifetime were with the small family owned businesses.
Entertainment While Shopping Has Changed
Buying butter was an entertainment in itself.
My sister and I often had to go to a favourite family grocer close by. We were always polite as we asked for a pound or two of butter and other small items.
Out came a big block of wet butter wrapped in grease-proof paper. Brought from the back of the shop, placed on a huge counter top and included two grooved pates.
That was a big change in our shopping in my lifetime… you don’t come across butter bashing nowadays.
Our old friendly Mr. Mahon with the moustache, would cut a square of butter. Lift it to another piece of greaseproof paper with his pates. On it went to the weighing scales, a bit sliced off or added here and there.
Our old grocer would then bash it with gusto, turning it over and over. Upside down and sideways it went, so that it had grooves from the pates, splashes going everywhere, including our faces.
My sister and I thought this was great fun and it always cracked us up. We loved it, as we loved Mahon’s, on the corner, our very favourite grocery shop.
Grocery Shopping
Further afield, we often had to go to another of my mother’s favourite, not so local, green grocer’s. Mr. McKessie, ( spelt phonetically) would take our list, gather the groceries and put them all in a big cardboard box.
And because we were good customers he always delivered them to our house free of charge. But he wasn’t nearly as much fun as old Mr. Mahon. Even so, he was a nice man.
All Things Fresh
So there were very many common services such as home deliveries like:
• Farm eggs
• Fresh vegetables
• Cow’s milk
• Freshly baked bread
• Coal for our open fires
Delivery Services
A man used to come to our house a couple of times a week with farm fresh eggs.
Another used to come every day with fresh vegetables, although my father loved growing his own.
Our milk, topped with beautiful cream, was delivered to our doorstep every single morning.
Unbelievably, come think of it now, our bread came to us in a huge van driven by our “bread-man” named Jerry who became a family friend.
My parents always invited Jerry and his wife to their parties, and there were many during the summer months. Kids and adults all thoroughly enjoyed these times. Alcohol was never included, my parents were teetotallers. Lemonade was a treat, with home made sandwiches and cakes.
The coal-man was another who delivered bags of coal for our open fires. I can still see his sooty face under his tweed cap but I can’t remember his name. We knew them all by name but most of them escape me now.
Mr. Higgins, a service man from the Hoover Company always came to our house to replace our old vacuum cleaner with an updated model.
Our insurance company even sent a man to collect the weekly premium.
People then only paid for their shopping with cash. This in itself has been a huge change in shopping in my lifetime.
In some department stores there was a system whereby the money from the cash registers was transported in a small cylinder on a moving wire track to the central office.
Some Of The Bigger Changes
Some of the bigger changes in shopping were the opening of supermarkets.
• Supermarkets replaced many individual smaller grocery shops. Cash and bank cheques have given way to credit and key cards.
• Internet shopping… the latest trend, but in many minds, doing more harm, to book shops.
• Not many written shopping lists, because mobile phones have taken over.
On a more optimistic note, I hear that book shops are popular again after a decline.
Personal Service Has Most Definitely Changed
So, no one really has to leave home, to purchase almost anything, technology makes it so easy to do online.
And we have a much bigger range of products now, to choose from, and credit cards have given us the greatest ease of payment.
We have longer shopping hours, and weekend shopping. But we have lost the personal service that we oldies had taken for granted and also appreciated.
Because of their frenetic lifestyles, I have heard people say they find shopping very stressful, that is grocery shopping. I’m sure it is when you have to dash home and cook dinner after a days work. I often think there has to be a better, less stressful way.
My mother had the best of both worlds, in the services she had at her disposal. With a full time job looking after 9 people, 7 children plus her and my dad, she was very lucky. Lucky too that she did not have 2 jobs.