Author: anwaryusef

Anwar Y. Dunbar is a Regulatory Scientist. Being a naturally curious person, he is also a student of all things. He earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan and his Bachelor’s Degree in General Biology from Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU). Prior to starting the Big Words Blog Site, Anwar published and contributed to numerous research articles in competitive scientific journals reporting on his research from graduate school and postdoctoral years. After falling in love with writing, he contributed to the now defunct Examiner.com, and the Edvocate where he regularly wrote about: Education-related stories/topics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Financial Literacy; as well as conducted interviews with notable individuals such as actor and author Hill Harper. Having many influences, one of his most notable heroes is author, intellectual and speaker, Malcolm Gladwell, author of books including Outliers and David and Goliath. Anwar has his hands in many, many activities. In addition to writing, Anwar actively mentors youth, works to spread awareness of STEM careers, serves on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the David M. Brown Arlington Planetarium, serves as Treasurer for the JCSU Washington, DC Alumni Chapter, and is active in the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church. He also tutors in the subjects of biology, chemistry and physics. Along with his multi-talented older brother Amahl Dunbar (designer of the Big Words logos, inventor and a plethora of other things), Anwar is a “Fanboy” and really enjoys Science-Fiction and Superhero movies including but not restricted to Captain America Civil War, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Prometheus. He is a proud native of Buffalo, NY.

How to Encourage Your Kid’s Computer Interest

Two of the focuses of my blog are General Education and Technology. The current younger generations and those that will follow them will all come of age in a digital world. With all of the distractions available online, it will also be important encourage their constructive use of the computers around them. The following contributed post is thus entitled, How to Encourage Your Kid’s Computer Interest.

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Sure, most teenagers wouldn’t need much encouragement when it comes to sitting around in front of the computer all day. Yet, browsing for cat memes and watching funny videos on YouTube isn’t quite what you have in mind for your kids’ career in terms of computer science – and there is a lot more to computers than just popular culture, after all.

Image by: Pexels

If you’d like to help your teenager out with understanding complex computer issues and building up under their interest, you have definitely come to the right place.

Here is a handful of ways to encourage your teenager’s or child’s computer interest and make sure that they stay up to date on everything that is going on in the world of computer science.

First: Make it a social activity

A lot of children who grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s didn’t have many people who help them out with understanding computers. Perhaps you had it the same way – and building your own computer or learning to code was something you had to do on your own.

This doesn’t mean that your kid has to have it the same way, though, and just because you had to learn it this way doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily the best way to learn a new skill. When learning how to code is a social activity rather than something they have to do alone in their room, it’s suddenly a lot more fun – and definitely a lot easier to learn.

These days, there are a ton of people who know a lot about the subject and you can easily find someone to help your kid out in case you’re not a computer nerd yourself. Find a mentor, for example, who can guide your kid – or see if there are any courses around in case one of their friends would like to join them.

It’s going to be a lot easier for them to stick to it when they’re learning together with a friend, after all, and they will learn it a lot faster as well.

Next: Tap into you kid’s passion

Coding is, as we know, applied to a lot of different things and you should try to help and guide your kid in the right direction if they don’t know what their passion is quite yet.

Your kid might enjoy game design more than building and operating a small robot, for example, or perhaps it’s the other way around. They might enjoy building a website instead – or just read up on everything around cyber security.

No matter what they prefer, there are vast resources that you can use to help them explore their way to their talents. Here are some excellent hacker movies you can watch together, by the way, so that you get to be involved in their interest even if you’re not that into computer science yourself.

Another excellent way to encourage your child’s interests can be through introducing educational resources and working on personal development with the help of Principal David Krakoff. Looking into new concepts and content can be just what is needed to spark your child’s passion!

Being young is all about finding your path in life and becoming better at what you enjoy. Help your kid out with finding his or her way and you’ll have built a great foundation for them and their future careers.

The Key Elements Of A Marketing Mindset

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. The lifeblood of any business is its marketing of its products and services. The following contributed post is thus entitled; The Key Elements Of A Marketing Mindset.

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Do you have a marketing mindset?

Sure, you probably understand the basics of marketing, and you should be making efforts already to push your business out into the consumer arena, but how much thought are you putting into your strategy?

Are you putting ads out here there and everywhere, hoping that somebody will notice them?

Have you created a website, hoping that somebody, anybody, will stumble across it?

Or have you put a little more thought into what you are doing, thinking like a marketer, instead of creating slapdash marketing efforts because you know you probably should?

For greater success in business, you need to have a marketing mindset. You need to approach this part of your business in different ways, with various types of thinking. In this article, we will list what we consider to be the key elements of a marketing mindset; giving you the inspiration to think in ways that maybe you haven’t thus far.

The Key Elements of a Marketing Mindset.

Think Big

You have something to offer people, so shout it from the rooftops. Don’t be that quiet voice in the corner that is barely noticeable. Let the world know you exist, pushing your business out there to as many avenues, and in as large a way, as possible.

– Don’t just take out small ads in newspapers and magazines. Pay a little extra to get bigger ad space. And don’t just rely on print media, but consider radio and television too, sending the word out to the masses through these popular mediums. And target the right spots within all of your media campaigns, perhaps outsourcing to the folks at this website to maximise your ad potential.

– Don’t assume people are going to read the flyers you put through their letterboxes, or that they are going to spot your business ads in the classifieds. Instead of posting small, post large. Consider taking out billboard space in a high-traffic area where news of your business will be hard to miss.

– Go beyond your usual reach with your advertising, and consider other demographics. Can you make your product or service appeal to somebody who may not normally consider it? Can you target the international market, above and beyond the communities in your locale? Can you partner with another business, complimenting their service with what you have to offer? Think big about your company’s appeal.

– Do something that will make the media take an interest in you. A publicity stunt, a generous act, or an organised community event, are just some of the ways to raise greater awareness about your business. When people start talking about you, for all of the right reasons, then word will spread, and that can only be a good thing for you.

– When attending business events and conferences, try and raise a larger awareness about your business. Instead of handing out business cards to the people you meet en route, consider a more prominent position. Lead a panel debate, host a seminar, or stand up in front of thousands, and use your elevated status to promote your business.

Think Small

Excuse us for what might seem like a contradiction, but we do have a few points to make. Sometimes, thinking small makes perfect business sense, and this can be applied in the following ways.

– If you don’t have a large marketing budget, you can still market your business for free. From word-of-mouth marketing to using social media to channel your efforts, you can still market your business, despite your small budget.

– You don’t need to market to everybody. While there may be ways to appeal to other demographics, it would be a waste of your time and money trying to market your service to people who are unlikely to buy from you. Narrow down your efforts, and use these ideas to define your target demographic.

– Marketing far and wide is all well and good, but what about the people you meet every day? Those people you sit next to on the bus or train. The people within your own family. The patrons of a local coffee shop where you take your morning break. Think about all those people who make up the small circles of your daily routine. Have 1:1 conversations and raise awareness about your business.

Think Creatively

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Businesses fall into the usual tried and tested methods of marketing, and that’s okay. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? However, there is still room for a little creativity to make your marketing efforts stand out. You will make a stronger impression if you do.

– Going beyond print advertising in your local classifieds, look at other ways to attract the attention of your community. Commission a mural from a local artist to advertise your business (get permission first) on a wall within your neighbourhood. Dress your team in outlandish costumes that reflect your brand and send them out onto the street with flyers and freebies to hand out to passersby. Commission a flash mob to perform a show that is reflective of your business. Try these and any other urban marketing ideas to make an impact in your community.

– When thinking about your content marketing, go beyond basic text. Use plenty of visual imagery to back up your words, with high-definition photos, video clips, and humorous gifs to make your readers smile. Mix up your blog posts with infographics, using this creative medium to get your points across in a more user-friendly visual medium. And be creative with your title posts, with catchy headline titles that your readers will struggle to ignore.

Finally

Think big, think small, and think creatively. These are the key elements of a marketing mindset. Be sure to use some of our ideas where appropriate within your business, and consider other ways to market your business as you think about your strategies for the weeks and months ahead. Be sure to let us know what you think, and if you have any ideas of your own, expand our mindsets by sharing your advice with us. Good luck, and thanks for reading.

How Your Business Can Enrich And Improve The Lives Of Others

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“Simply put, when you run your own business, you can help to change the world.”

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Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. While we typically think of starting businesses in terms of making money and financial freedom, they can also impact the lives of others in ways we can imagine. What are some of these ways? The following contributed post is entitled, How Your Business Can Enrich And Improve The Lives Of Others.

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Running a business is a great way to enrich your own life (even if the busy life of an entrepreneur doesn’t always feel all that enriched); just ask those who have already done it, like David Wallace, for example.. It allows you to shake off the constructions and limitations of your former job and career and allows you to create your own opportunities. It prevents you from wiling away the years in a job where you are overworked yet underappreciated and liberates you from a career that’s begun to look increasingly like a dead end. It can prevent you from feeling frustrated and underwhelmed as though your talents are wasted at work and allow you to achieve your full potential… But while there are many personal benefits to pursuing the path of entrepreneurship it is also an opportunity to improve and enrich the lives of others. If you’re at the start of your business journey, you may not have considered just how many lives you have the power to transform.

Image by PxHere

Let’s take a look at just a few of the ways in which you and your enterprise will one day improve and enrich the lives of a broad spectrum of people…

Build a workplace dynamic that fosters friendship

It’s more than likely that you’ve had at least one job that you hated yet rolled up every morning with a smile on your face. Why? Because of the people with whom you worked and the friendship you shared with them that could buoy you even on the bleakest of days. You can cultivate this (without people hating their jobs) by taking steps to build a workplace dynamic that fosters friendship. When you create an environment that’s conducive to teamwork, shared problem solving, and the open and honest exchange of ideas you can enrich the lives of your entire workforce.

Provide opportunities for oft-neglected groups

Entrepreneurship allows you to create the opportunities for others that you never had. It can empower people who have not yet found the means to empower themselves. Whether it’s simply talented young people at the start of their careers who are undervalued by their current employers or former offenders who never got to find the right lawyer. It can allow you to eliminate the traditional barriers to workplace equality and create a diverse, multi talented and motivated workforce of people.

Providing people with an opportunity when there is nobody else who will is an amazing feeling for you, as you know that you are doing good in the world. But more than that, you are allowing others a chance to get their life back on track. For example, people like David DeQuattro have put a massive focus on helping veterans move forward with their lives after they have served.

Another great option is to set up charitable organizations that can benefit others in the local area and support people who need it, as Tresca Brothers Concrete does with its charitable efforts.

Imbue at the front of innovation

One of the most egregious sins an entrepreneur can commit is failing to develop their employees. If you keep your employees in their own little box and give them only the training, skills and education to fulfil a certain function, don’t be surprised if they run straight into the arms of your competitors. When you run your own business, you can give people the skills to open doors not just in your own enterprise but beyond. If you help your employees to take their careers to the next level, perhaps by offering them a chance to develop their skills outside of work or by training them in objection handling techniques, SEO for handyman services or graphic design, for example, they will see how much you value them and will be much more likely to stick with you.

Be at the forefront of innovation

Finally, as the CEO of your own business you are vitally placed to drive innovation in your chosen industry and beyond. You can challenge traditional assumptions myths and expectations. You can break down the barriers and limitations that people impose upon themselves. You can reinvent or revivify processes and techniques that have begun to stagnate.

Utilizing R&D and pharmaceutical recruiters allows you to attract fresh talent with new perspectives. Utilizing innovative products and services will keep you ahead of competitors and create lasting impactful initiatives in your industry. Breakthroughs in pharmaceutical have produced lifesaving medicines and treatments, while technological innovations have completely revolutionized how we live and work. As a business owner, you have an incredible opportunity to be at the forefront of these innovations and have an important contribution made. Push boundaries regularly as a business leader or pioneer and become known in your field.

Those looking to avoid stagnation can read Christian Business Incubator reviews. These run through some of the tactics you can use to bring a whole new dimension of abundance and prosperity to your activities while aligning them with your ultimate spiritual goals.

Stand up for what’s right

You can also take a leaf out of the Daniel Fung Arrest webpage and stand up for what’s right, whether that’s for your employees, consumers, or society at large. Whether we like it or not, we live in a compromised world. No matter what path we take, we will always face ethical decisions that force us to go one way or another. It’s baked into reality, it seems.

Standing up for what’s right, though, is what helps businesses succeed long-term. Given all the corporate scandals of the last twenty years, it’s becoming clear that behaving badly is simply unacceptable in today’s culture, and you will eventually get found out. However, companies can’t just get away with avoiding the bad. They must also be change agents for the good, building communities and supporting sustainable business models.

Simply put, when you run your own business, you can help to change the world.

Things To Consider When Starting Your Online Business

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. Today most business/enterprises have to establish and maintain an online presence. There a few things to consider when starting an online business. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Things To Consider When Starting Your Online Business.

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Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

Starting a business has become easier than ever before thanks to the internet. The accessibility afforded to you by being online is unique to this era and should encourage you to put your idea into action. So bearing that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the important things that you must make sure that you don’t overlook as well as the useful tools available to anyone at the beginnings of their company.

Website

One of the first things you will want to do is get your company up and running with a website. To do this you will have to make some decisions. For starters, do you want to host a web page on your own domain or use a third party hosting platform? This is a personal decision but the pros and cons of what you want to do must be carefully considered. Security, which we will discuss further later, is supposed to be improved by using a third party host as it separates your website from the rest of your company’s IT infrastructure – this may be more important as you grow rather than first starting out. There are also different costs associated with hosting internally and externally. If you are going to host your website on personal servers, then you will have to purchase the hardware required, whereas a third party host will charge you a monthly fee.

That said, you might prefer to start off by buying a domain name and starting the basics of your website online using some of the many web building tools available to you.

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Security

Security plays a major role across every aspect of your business, especially when you are setting one up online. You will need to make sure that the computer you are using is secured via antivirus and firewalls and likewise your network is also protected. You should look into more about internet security as a matter of urgency when starting your business. Think of it like this; if you were running a shop you would have; security alarms for when you’re not available, CCTV to watch over your store and a safe to keep all of your belongings secure. You should treat your computer and the internet as you would a shop, making sure that it is protected at all cost from cybercriminals.

Security is not just about others attempting to steal from you but also protecting yourself against loss. Making sure you are regularly backing up your hard drive and keeping important documents in more than one place. Consider using cloud storage as a way to secure data online rather than just on your hard drive. Problems do happen, and it is best that you have solutions before they occur.

These are just two example of things you must consider when starting your online business. Remember, there is a whole internet of things (IOC) out there for you to be using, so get learning and turn your plans into something big.

Ohio State 62, Michigan 39: My short take

Okay I’m going to try to keep this short. As one of the many Michigan football fans still hungover from yesterday’s 62-39 loss in Columbus, the idea to write a short take on yesterday’s annual game literally came to me during the conclusion of a church service here in my hometown of Buffalo, NY. I’m not trying to be funny, but it’s true. In any case here goes.

First, I want to sincerely congratulate Head Coach Urban Meyer and his staff, the Ohio State Football Team, and their fan base. They did a great job preparing for the game and they executed their game plan damn near perfectly. Despite the rankings and all the chatter leading up to the game, I had a feeling they were going to play at a high level and they did. I also want to note that the game seemed to be officiated fairly and there was little controversy surrounding this contest as was the case in 2016.

I watched the game with my usual crew at Buffalo Wild Wings on Niagara Falls Boulevard in Tonawanda, NY – our annual spot for watching the two school’s annual meeting. What stood out to me as the game unfolded, was that our team didn’t seem to be prepared for the contest in terms of intensity or scheme. Offensively, the game started off positively with a nice run by Karan Higdon. The second play was a pass play in which Shae Patterson got sacked which was a bit of a head scratcher for me, as I would’ve gone back to the running game.

In general, the offense did what it had done all year long which was to try to pound the ball with occasional shots down field. Throughout the year despite its talent level, our offense was never a consistent force, but instead methodically picked and chose its spots with varying amounts of success – sometimes due to a lack of execution, and at other times due to questionable play calling. This worked well as long as the defense stood its ground and repeatedly got the ball back which brings me to my next point.

Early on it was clear that Ohio State’s approach to our physical and blitzing defense was to get the ball out of Dwayne Haskins, Jr.’s hands quickly using crossing and wheel routes out of the backfield. In instances where Ohio State spread its receivers out and were able to neutralize Coach Don Brown’s pass rush, Haskins which is not known for his mobility was able to run the ball up the middle and slide when our coverage held. In other instances, Ohio State was able to draw pass interference calls on our defensive backs which were left on ‘islands’ by themselves in ‘Man’ coverage – No. 28 Brandon Watson particularly got targeted and torched by Haskins. Their running game by itself didn’t hurt us so much.

Approaching halftime, our Wolverines were down 21-6, and with the Buckeyes getting the ball back after the half, it seemed as though it was going to be a maize and blue ‘blood bath’. A special teams fumble by the Buckeyes helped put us in position for Chris Evan’s touchdown late in the second quarter. If not for that gaffe, we would’ve been in serious trouble. That said there was a potential touchdown that we missed out on because Zach Gentry couldn’t secure the ball after a Buckeye defender slapped it out of his hands.

On both sides of the ball as the game progressed it seemed that Jim Harbaugh and his coaching staff were being outcoached by Urban Meyer and his. Our offense started slow, interestingly didn’t seem to be taking advantage of our three talented receivers: Donavan Peoples-Jones, Nico Collins and Tariq Black. I also wondered why our 6’8” tight end Zach Gentry wasn’t getting targeted more. In a game of this magnitude, we needed to challenge the Buckeye defense more downfield especially when they were ripping our defense to shreds and scoring at will. This brings me to my next point.

My comments on many of the postgame YouTube press conference footage mostly involved my surprise that Don Brown seemingly didn’t look at what Indiana and Northwestern had done his defense and planned for Ohio State to do the same thing or more. During the game, I wondered if he would adjust his blitzing style, and go with more defensive backs, like how Bill Belicheck and Bill Parcells did to my Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXV where they slowed down the Buffalo Bills’ powerful offense. Instead he seemed to stick with the same game plan which he used all year which brings me to my last point.

It’s very easy for us as fans and commentators to criticize what’s happening on the field and I acknowledge that. I’ve also never coached a sport though it’s something I’d like to try one day. That said, I know enough to know that in athletics, particularly in big games it’s important to be able to adjust your plan of attack if necessary – or to anticipate having to do so. I discussed this in my interview with legendary Niagara Falls high school basketball Coach Pat Monti, who thoroughly scouted his opponents and figured out what he needed to do to give his teams the best chances to win even if meant making games ugly and unwatchable.

As we’re closing in on the end of Jim Harbaugh’s fourth year, this is something I’m wondering about, and something I wondered about during yesterday’s game. As much fanfare as there was when he got hired, how well can he and his staff really coach when going head to head with opponents like Urban Meyer and his staff on the opposite sideline? I asked myself this for the first time as yesterday’s game unfolded. One of my buddies I watched yesterday’s game with came down hard on defensive end Rashan Gary who was the top high school player five years ago and with good reason. That said it’s the coach’s job to motivate the players and put them in position to succeed. While we support him, right now, me and others in the fan base are questioning the ability of our coaching staff to do this on the biggest stages.

What’s going to happen from this point on? I honestly don’t know. I’m going to close by saying that I feel bad for our players, some of whom may have been looking ahead to Indianapolis and beyond – some of whom who have never beaten Ohio State which is something they’ll always have to live with. As we got closer to the Ohio State game, I became weary of talk of the “Revenge Tour” and Karan Higdon’s guarantee of victory as the team, the program and the fan base might suffer a black eye like we have now. Anytime ever I’ve competed, I’ve never been a trash talker and am a firm believer in just letting your play do the talking.

Like Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls teams who couldn’t get over the hump, for the remaining players and staff, perhaps this humiliating loss may be a part of their growth process that will eventually push them over the hump. We’ll have to wait and see. This year the Wolverines will once again be in Ann Arbor during the College Football Playoff. Hopefully Coach Harbaugh and his staff will ready first for their bowl game, and then when the Buckeyes come back to Ann Arbor in 2019. There’s a whole year to think yesterday’s game over.

Thank you for taking the time to right this blog post. If you enjoyed this one, you might also enjoy:

• Michigan loses to Ohio State 31-20: Reflections on the 2017 game and the season
• John U. Bacon presents his new book Endzone to Michigan’s D.C. Alumni Club: A look back
• Michigan defeats Maryland 35-10: Two weeks until the 2017 Ohio State game
• Michigan beats Florida 33-17: A recap of the maize and blue’s season opener
• The 2016 Michigan-Ohio State game, the Big Ten Officials, and the College Football Playoff

If you’ve found value here and think it would benefit others, please share it and/or leave a comment. To receive all of the most up to date content from the Big Words Blog Site, subscribe using the subscription box in the right-hand column in this post and throughout the site, or add my RSS feed to your feedreader. You can follow me on the Big Words Blog Site Facebook page, and Twitter at @BWArePowerful. Lastly, you can follow me on Instagram at @anwaryusef76. While my main areas of focus are Education, STEM and Financial Literacy, there are other blogs/sites I endorse which can be found on that particular page of my site.

Teaching The Youth How To React To Authority

Two of the focuses of my blog are General Education and Mentoring. In recent years, there are have been several publicized fatal encounters with Law Enforcement. In these instances, there are a lot of dynamics happening at once and the wrong actions or words can impact the outcome. As civilians coming into contact with Law Enforcement, are there actions that can be taken to avoid escalation? The following contributed post is entitled, Teaching The Youth How To React To Authority.

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For many young men, a figure out authority is seen as a figure of oppression. It’s an easy way to think because that person is telling you what to do. However, without the authority figures in their lives, children grow up to behave in a manner that is reckless. Mentoring the youth is something every adult should be trying to do and help in achieving. You can’t expect the government to be the parent of children that are lost and come from a rundown home. That is a big problem in many cities and towns where there are young boys and girls that have never had a father. Even if they did, sometimes fathers can be aloof and not very interested in what they do so children seem to not care what they are told to do. If you can mentor a young child how to behave, you will give them the mental tools to be successful in like. They can take that attitude and put it into business, be their own boss and respect authority. Law and order, the courts, common courtesy are all things that need to be respected as they are effectively neutral. So how do you instil respect within the youth for authority?

It works for them too

Here’s a very simple mental exercise you can do with the youth that you meet, whether it’s in school, your own children, or with the local youth groups where you live. Sit them down and ask them what would they do if there weren’t any police or laws? Most of the time they will say that they will have to take care of each other as there is no singular rulebook that is followed by everyone. This is going back to the tribe way of living which is the early beginning of civilization. Next ask them how would they take care of each other in the circumstance that one of the tribe hurts another? They will eventually say that there needs to be a trial and evidence before they mete out justice. This is when you interject and show them that, this is what law and order is about. It works in their favor too, it’s not about targeting someone, but making sure everyone plays by the same rules.

Don’t panic

Sometimes you also have to teach the parents along with the youth what they should do to help each other. It’s common for youth to be arrested and taken into custody for doing minor violations such as causing a disturbance due to loud music. However, all too often members of the youth can lash out at the police and this causes their charge list to grow into something major. Inform the parents to consider bail bonds if their child has been picked up and held in jail. Bail bonds are there to be used by people who don’t have enough money at the present time to pay for their son or daughter to be released from a holding cell.

The youth and parents need to talk about authority and what law and order is. More people need to mentor the young and show them that they need to think about society’s early beginning.

The Essential Guide To Honing Your Company Finances

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A to running any business/enterprise is efficiently and properly managing its finances. The following contributed post is thus entitled; The Essential Guide To Honing Your Company Finances.

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Ask any entrepreneur what their biggest concern is when they are launching a startup, and the chances are that they will say their finances. The financial health of any business is crucial to its success. If you are just starting out along the road of self employment, it’s imperative that you get your monetary situation sorted out. There’s no point leaving your nine to five with excellent promotion prospects, a steady wage, and superb colleagues if you don’t have the financial readies to make your ideas practically viable.

Before you hand in your notice, you need to have constructed a business plan for your proposed venture. This needs to detail your sources of funding, your potential future investments, your cash flow projections, and your profit calculations. Going blindly into the world of entrepreneurship without financial certainty means your business will be doomed to failure.

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Funding Sources

If you are setting up a business that sees you working from home and with minimal overheads, the chances are you will not need to raise much capital. However, if you need to seek premises, you have to build up stock, or you are looking to import and supply products to consumers, you will need to source funding.

The number one port of call is usually the bank. Specialist business managers will assess your plan and listen to any presentation that you wish to give to convince them that your business is a worthwhile investment. Just because they are large corporations and you have been a loyal customer for a decade or more doesn’t mean that this is a sure fire source of investment. You need to dress smartly, know your figures like the back of your hand and enthuse them with your pitch.

The bank isn’t the sole source of funding in the twenty first century. With the advent of crowdfunding, sole traders from across the globe have one online platform in which to convince professional and amateur investors alike to claim a stake in their business. This is a novel and exciting way to raise capital. Hundreds if not thousands of people from across the planet could be investing in your business. This also allows your brand to claim a global reach that your bank manager simply doesn’t possess.

If you’re after expert advice and contacts as well as financial acumen, you might like to consider a business angel. These (not quite) celestial beings are experts in their fields and have made a small fortune using their business knowledge. They will have a ridiculous amount of guidance and advice to impart, and they are worth tapping into. If a business angel is willing to back your idea, this validates your business venture. To maximize your chances of gaining investment from a business angel, you must be passionate about your ideal and be ready to answer a variety of questions. The pitch will be more demanding than if you were presenting to a bank manager. Remember, a business angel is investing their own hard-earned cash, so they need to be certain of a return.

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Cash Flow

When your business is up and running, it’s important that you don’t attempt to run before you can walk. It’s vital that you build slowly and grow at a manageable rate. In principle, it sounds fantastic if a product was to garner a huge following and the appetite for it is almost insatiable. The orders will flood in. However, if you don’t have the cash flow to import the goods and distribute them, your supply chain can stall, you will have dozens of unhappy customers, your reputation will slide, and your business can fail.

To avoid this situation, you need to employ the best ecommerce for b2b by setting up a software package that can control the way your products are marketed to customers. From one platform, you can hide or show certain products or services to your customer base, giving you more control over your ecommerce website. From here, you can also set up the credit terms and analyze your accounts information. This interface is ideal for more complex business and financial needs.

When you set up your business, you are hungry for success, and rightly so. But you mustn’t allow your startup to become a victim of its own success. You must ensure that your business is always in a position to fulfill its obligations, by ensuring that your capital remains buoyant, your cash flow is healthy, and you have the finger on the pulse of your company finances at all times.

Business Unusual

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Whenever starting any business/enterprise, it’s important to be proactive about anything that can go wrong and proactively come up with contingency plans. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Business Unusual.

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Business, as usual, might sound boring, but there are times when you might long for it. When things go right, you never really consider what might go wrong. But as the saying goes, you should fix your roof when the sun is out. Here are some business calamities you might not want to think about, but you should, before they happen.

Employees being swept by a sickness bug. It’s not something you want to think of, but what if an epidemic erupts that wipes out whole teams? Sure, you can deal with one or two, but what if the fall back of the fall back falls ill? They key here is prevention. Make sure your employees have facilities to wash hands when needed and promote hygiene where relevant. People get sick when they are weaker, also more so during colder months. Ensure that employees who are coming back from illness are indeed fit for work. If you have the capacity, perhaps a final day working from home will ensure they don’t bring back any disease to the office.

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Someone on your premises getting hurt. This falls under the category of the unthinkable. But what if this happens despite diligently making sure signs are put up when the floor has been mopped, and the appropriate signs are put up? The key here is to get legal representation, for example, Simon Law Group can be a lifesaver navigating the tricky waters of injury law. And it’s not the case you can wait till things actually happen, time can be of the essence. So make you are prepared and know exactly who to call when as soon as things happen.

Cash flow is not sufficient to pay ongoing bills. The worst nightmare of any financial controller or accountant. What if your invoices aren’t getting paid fast enough, which affects your ability to pay your own bills? The key here is to audit often and early. You should continuously monitor the debtors lists, flag and take action when needed. Review your terms of payment when required and in extreme cases negotiate payment plans when invoices can’t be paid in full. It might just be that debtors struggle with the entire sum, but a payment agreement is just precisely what they need. The same goes for suppliers required payment, negotiate. Having a full payment, in the long run, outweighs a business going bust and not getting paid at all.

Imagine your key employees who have a fundamental knowledge of operations leave. The significant brain drain could be one of the most negatively impactful things to happen to a business, especially operating in a service driven industry. You might not only lose essential operational knowledge, but people might move over to a competitor! The core thing here is to ensure you have NDAs and non-compete’s set up from the get-go. Ensure you know what the value and processes are these key employees bring and ensure that this knowledge is codified in some form. Sure, no one likes creating handover notes or complete process sheets, but investing this time will safeguard your business long term. There is also a secondary benefit, really understanding and valuing the input of critical employees might bring you closer to them, and you might uncover any doubts their end that made them consider jumping ship in the first place. You might not be able to stop people from leaving, but at least you can part on good terms.

A major incident at your office forces you to shut down for the day. You might hear of these incidents from time to time. Someone smelled gas, or there is no water. Health and Safety usually dictate you need to shut the office until this is resolved. Do you actually know what to do in these type is situations? Get an emergency plan in place. Know what to do with emails, phones, ongoing work and suppliers that will assume business as usual. Do you have a core team that can relocate to a temporary office space nearby and can you reroute and supplies or clients coming in? Do you have a phone tree ready to inform employees? As you would practice fire drills, so should these type of incidents be trained for. Ensure that a core set of employees knows what to do in which situation.

Most of these calamities require some scenario planning and establishing rules and procedures. It’s a time and resource investment you will have to make upfront and keep up-to-date with regular reviews. Just do it, you’ll be thankful just in case business as usual turns into business unusual.

Your Say Matters On Election Day, And Don’t Let Conspiracies Convince You Otherwise

One of the focuses of my blog is Current Events. Over the last 30 years politics in the United States have regularly been linked to some speculation of corruption. In the past, big corporate money and the wealthy have been suspected of controlling our elected officials. In the most recent elections, foreign countries have been suspected of tampering with our elections. Should either case affect whether one votes? The following contributed post is entitled; Your Say Matters On Election Day, And Don’t Let Conspiracies Convince You Otherwise.

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It’s been nearly two weeks since the midterm elections here in the U.S. As with any election, there’s been name calling, close calls, and unhappy members on either side of the political line. The results have seen democrats gaining control of the house by hitting the 218 seat mark. Other monumental events include a record 99 women serving in the house of representatives. Oh, and an astounding 114 million voters turned up on the day. That’s 31 million more than the same vote garnered during 2014. All around, then, this midterm election has been a huge achievement for people finally having their say when it comes to the biggest problems facing the country.

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Of course, not everything ran smooth. This election, like any other, was shrouded in conspiracy theories. They ranged from the expected to the ludicrous, and they all had one thing in common: every single conspiracy suggests that we’re powerless in the game of government. And, that’s what we’re taking exception to, because it’s about time someone stood up and noticed the damage conspiracies like these can cause.

As we’ve already mentioned, the turnout for this election was astounding. The results prove how things change when people turn up and make their mark. This is a crucial message to spread. If Trump’s presidency has proven anything, it’s what happens when people don’t make the effort to vote.

But, then we have conspiracies, which do nothing more than fuel the fire of the people who think ‘there’s no point voting’ anyway. One minute, we’re told that Russia is rigging our elections, so our votes aren’t even our own. The next, we’re facing yet another of the endless Soros conspiracy theories which tell us our votes won’t even count unless we make them by paper ballot. Then, we’re told that representatives like Beto O’Rourke and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are manipulating us to ensure we vote in a certain way. While each of these is entirely unfounded, they can do a great deal of damage.

It should come as no surprise that many of those who didn’t vote chose not to in part because of conspiracies like these. We spend so long convincing ourselves that higher powers control our votes, that many of us truly believe we don’t have a say. And, if you don’t have a voice either way, what’s the point of going out of your way on election day? Let’s not forget, either, that conspiracies also give the other side a springboard on which to discard the relevance of opposing views. If some higher-power rigged the vote, then that opinion is null and void. Right?

No. We’re here to say that it’s time to put conspiracy theories to bed. While they’ll always be there in some form or another, we need to realize the power our ballot papers hold. Russia isn’t pulling the strings of our elections; we are. And, the sooner we take responsibility for that, the sooner we can work towards a country which suits our needs.

A Look at Careers: The Federal Government’s General Schedule Pay Scale and Salaries Revisited

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“When I first moved here, a couple of men told me they had achieved their ‘14s’ when we first met and I didn’t know what that meant.”

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The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and some of its focuses are: Career Discussions, Education, and Financial Literacy/Money. I originally published this piece in 2015 on the Examiner as I started to understand some of the nuances of being a federal employee. While the employment in the government is relatively stable in comparison to the private sector, there are some other unique differences which I thought were worth discussing. If you or someone you know is considering a federal career, this is a good and insightful read.

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My last article gave an overview of my experience as a federal employee in a general sense. This article will talk about one of the more intriguing parts of being a federal employee; the General Schedule (GS). The GS is particularly relevant when one is looking to get hired into the federal government and it takes on more significance when seeking promotion within one the federal government’s many agencies.

The General Schedule is a payroll scale which dictates the salary of each federal civilian employee. The scale spans from levels 1-15, with 15 being the highest paid and most senior. The only levels higher than the GS are the Senior Executive Service (SES) and then becoming an elected official.

Within the GS some promotions to the next grade are automatic without competition. Within grades, there are ‘steps’ where one automatically gets a raise periodically. There are 10 steps to each grade, and the first four step increases are automatic annually. Afterwards they are every two years. This seems like a really good deal right?

Reaching the GS-14 and 15 levels from the 13 level involves competition. That’s assuming that there’s money in the federal budget or ‘continuing resolutions’ for those promotions to become available in the first place. Another caveat is that one cannot jump to a higher grade without proving that they adequately performed the functions of the grade below it – going from a 13 to a 15 for example. A 13 must first become a 14 before reaching a 15.

While the GS is standard across the board for all federal employees, the cost of living for geographic location varies. For example, a GS-14 in my hometown of Buffalo, NY would make slightly less than a GS-14 in the Washington, DC metro area due to the vast difference in the cost of living.

What does all of this matter? As with everything, it isn’t a perfect system depending on your point of view, and there are pros and cons to working in the public vs. the private sector vs. academia. As described in my Earning a Ph.D. series, ascension within the federal government isn’t entirely dependent on one’s degree level. Having a Ph.D. for example doesn’t guarantee a promotion or even favor within an agency, and there are scenarios where Ph.D.’s can end up being supervised by master’s and in some cases bachelor’s level staff, something that would almost never occur in the private sector or in academia.

“We have Ph.D.’s.!!! We shouldn’t be making the same amount of salary as those filing records or who are doing administrative things,” a former colleague who has since gone to the private sector often lamented. That’s another caveat, tenure is an important component to federal employment. Specifically, there are instances where someone with a lower level of education who has been in the system longer, can make equal or more salary than someone with greater academic credentials who has been the system for less time. Ponder that.

“I wanted to move to Washington DC, so that I could get my 11,” a friend with a background in Human Resources who was a GS-9 said upon moving to the Washington, DC. Because the federal government is centralized in Washington, DC, the opportunities to get promoted are more plentiful there. Likewise, once promotions are achieved, that level is typically maintained wherever one goes afterwards throughout their career.

“When I first moved here, a couple of men told me they had achieved their ‘14s’ when we first met and I didn’t know what that meant,” a female acquaintance shared with me about her early dating experiences in the area. A funny but true and in some ways disturbing aspect to all of this is that in the DC Metro area, your GS-level can have huge social implications. In the minds of some, it represents: power, prestige and status in addition a considerable salary, the latter probably being the most important though they are generally lower than comparable private sector positions.

In closing, none of this information is confidential so I won’t get in trouble for sharing any of this. The salaries of federal employees are readily available to the general public online. Thus, when you know someone’s GS-level, you have an idea of what they earn, unlike in the private sector – an unsettling thought in terms of privacy to some degree. Nevertheless, it’s one of the cons that come along with being a public servant. The bonuses tend to also be more robust in the private sector.

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There are other aspects to being a federal employee such as the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) which is the retirement plan/system for civilian employees. I will probably discuss it in a subsequent post about retirement as it’s something I didn’t quite understand when I started my federal career.

I’m going to close by going back to stability, but in a different way. In some instances, federal employees may perform at low levels for their given duty for any number of reasons. This likewise can earn consecutive poor ratings at their annual performance appraisals. This is difficult for supervisors because it’s classically hard to fire federal employees as there’s a long and involved process for letting go of them once they’ve passed their probationary period – again something very similar to academia.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. If you enjoyed this one you might also enjoy:

• Perspectives of federal workers caught in the middle of the 2013 government shutdown revisited
• The myth of the stability of being a government employee revisited
• Father’s Day 2018: Dad’s doctor and his lawyer, and a discussion on careers
• Applying School To The “Real World”: Turning Subject Knowledge Into a Career
• Staying Relevant In The Workplace: The Tips To Help
• Common Mistakes When Choosing A Career
• Making The Most Of Your Education

The Big Words LLC Newsletter

For the next phase of my writing journey, I’m starting a monthly newsletter for my writing and video content creation company, the Big Words LLC. In it, I plan to share inspirational words, pieces from this blog and my first blog, and select videos from my four YouTube channels. Finally, I will share updates for my book project The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story. Your personal information and privacy will be protected. Click this link and register using the sign-up button at the bottom of the announcement. If there is some issue signing up using the link provided, you can also email me at bwllcnl@gmail.com . Best Regards.