 |
|
 |
Like most stressed out students it was not uncommon to watch animal and nature shows to unwind at our Bloor Avenue student apartment during the university years.
The lions would sit, lounge, lick each other, wrestle and walk around until they finally pounced on their prey and filled their tummies. In the background the birds would whistle, the trees would sway, and life would flow on for all the other animals.
Seeing the whole cycle of life, and daily goings on of the safari animals was an oddly soothing way to spend time. And it worked. It was so nice to just let thoughts of stress escape my mind and just observe the animal world as a way to decompress.
|
|
|
Today’s post is from guest editor, Julia Stepanova, a local real estate expert who has done some great investments herself, and is on board to help guide us in our wealth building activities.
—
In Toronto the real estate market has not been as affected as it is in the USA. In fact we’ve had a hot market for the past few months. Our 2010 Forecast called for a strong first half in sales and a slower second half due to three factors.
Factor One – the introduction of the HST (which will NOT impact prices in the resale market but will increase the cost of services and new properties over $400,000).
Factor Two – we are expecting a bump in Bank of Canada interest rates in the second half of the year, which will make it harder for some people to afford (and therefore fewer people will buy).
Factor Three – more listings are coming to the market (particularly in the condo segment). Right now the market is still hot but will be softening towards the end of June/2010.
And if you like to take your time looking for a place and multiple offers is not your thing this means it is your time to shine.
If you are looking to get into the real estate market it’s a great time.
But how do you get the most out of it?
First, make sure you’re taking the right steps.
1. Get yourself preapproved by going to your local bank.
2. Decide on the area.
3. Write your wish list.
4. Find an agent specializing in your preferred area.
5. Do not forget to allocate 1.5% of the purchase price towards the closing cost.
If you want a steady return on your money, houses can be a sure bet and it have two strong things going for them as an investment.
First, any capital gains on your principal residence are tax-free. If your house appreciates by 6 per cent, you get to keep every cent of your gains. Now 6 per cent may not sound like much, but in terms of how much you end up with, you’d have to earn as much as 12 per cent on a fixed-income investment such as a GIC to match that return, after tax.
Second, you don’t have to come up with the full purchase price, meaning you’re able to harness leverage. The conventional mortgages require a down payment of 25 per cent of a house’s appraised value. Where as the High Ratio Mortgage, requires only 5% down payment.
For example, if you buy a $200,000 home, you need to come up with around $50,000 for a conventional mortgage. If the home’s value rises to $220,000, that’s an increase of 10 per cent. But what’s really happened is you’ve put up $50,000, and made $20,000. Your real gross return on your invested funds is around 40 per cent. But notice the word “gross”. Don’t forget that your real return will be less.
Buying a home and having a mortgage is also a tremendously powerful forced savings program. You need to pay for housing, whether you are renting, leasing, or paying your mortgage. So why not put your money towards a mortgage, and if you invest wisely when you sell you will get it all back. If you rent, you never get anythign back.
—-
Julia is a real estate agent with Re/Max Condos Plus and you can find her here.
|
|
|
It’s time to get serious about this loose “hide your tummy” kind of trend that’s been around for several seasons. It’s great when you are not feeling feather light, but if you’re like me and you’ve got some curves; big boobs and a small waist, it’s not so flattering. And after wearing loose fitting clothes for weeks on end your friends start to wonder…”is she hiding something”? Naturally after being married a few months it would make sense that there was a bun in the oven.
But it’s quite the opposite! This years goal is to get crazy fit and build a fantastic empire with my company…so if there’s any baby coming it’s more of a business baby!
Oh, I know, it’s so easy to just slip on a loose dress, and then you don’t have to worry about sucking in your tummy or sitting so straight to hide the rollover. But, when everything is loose, at some point you just look like you’ve gained 20 pounds! So, from now on, we want waists, and form, and not so much flowing and hiding!
Photo Credit: Style.com
|
|
|
Yesterday marked the first day of summer. Oh, what joy!
Popsicles, long after dinner walks, bike rides, picnics in the shade, breezy mornings on cottage docks.
There are so many great things about summer. And, with the gorgeous weather we’ve been having it’s the perfect chance to enjoy the nice weather.
So pour a glass of Pinot, sit on your favourite deck chair, and welcome the summer in true summer style.
|
|
|
Recently we tested out jeans to see if the most expensive option really is the most flattering.
Exhbit A: Gap Jeans, approx $90
Exhibit B: Banana Republic Jeans, approx $145
Exhibit C: Seven For All Mankind, approx $235
Are the most expensive pair the most flattering? They do make the legs look thinner so overall they are the crowd favourite, but the Gap jeans make the buns look pretty good too.
Whatd’ya think? Do expensive jeans really make your butt look better?
|
|
|
Yesterday there was some chatter on twitter about guilty pleasures.
Everybody has at least one guilty pleasure…and it turns out for lots of ladies on twitter they share our passion for total rubbish TV like Millionaire Matchmaker, Housewives of New York, and Keeping Up With The Kardashian’s.
What’s your guilty pleasure? Red wine from a can, tannng nude, or eating jam from the jar?
OR
|
|
|
Recently we interviewed Stephen Sager, of Stephen Sager Photography to learn how we can look great in every photo. Watch this short video to find the top 3 tips to look your best in every shot.
|
|
|
For many of us we dream of what our fantasty life is like…we even go down to the details of what kind of food we would eat, what kind of purse we would wear, and what kind of great parties with lovely canapes we would serve while all our guest laughed, mingled and had a wonderful time.
But how can you get that?
Here are some great posts on how to move on to your fabulous life:
Leave Behind The Negative Things In Your Life
Break Up With Your Negative Friends
Negative friends are just miserable themselves but they also affect you in ways you’d never expect. Read on to find out why it’s absolutely critical to break up with your negative friends now.
Personal Success Is Not Just For Rich People From Happy Families
Think that happiness is much easier for everyone else, but it’s not available for you. Think again and learn how the cashmere clutch founder left behind a miserable life to travel the world and find true happiness.
Get What You Want
How Daydreaming Can Help Your Dream Life Come True
How are you going to get what you want out of life if you don’t know what it is. Read on to find out how daydreaming can really help you get your dream life.
Dream Big & Have A Clear Picture of What You Want
We’ve all heard of vision boards from the Secret. What’s on yours…do you have a clear picture of what you want? Read on to see a dream house, and how having a clear idea of what you want, whether it’s a Gucci purse, yacht, or dream home helps you creat something to work towards, instead of just treading water with what you have now.
Women and Weight Loss: Two Women’s Journey From Fat To Fabulous
Being healthy and feeling great about yourself are absolutely crucial to your personal success. Learn how two girls lost fifty plus pounds and discovered a happier life.
Career Success
How To Make Sure People Remeber You At Events
We all know networking is absolutely essential to career success. Read on to find out how you can make a great impression and make sure people remember you after networking events.
Top 10 Lessons From Successful Female Entrepreneurs
Want to be a business superstar? Learn the top 10 lessons from successful (gazillionaire kind of successful) entrepreneurs.
How To Build Your Own Financial Fortune
How to Live Like a Diva on a Dime
Feeling the pinch? You don’t have to settle for Kraft dinner and re-runs even if your bank book is suffering. Read on to find out how you can still have a fabulous life while also saving a bundle!
Investment Success: Condo Sale Pays Big
For women there’s nothing more empowering than financial freedom. Read on to discover how real estate investing the financial goods and ended up delivering some handsome returns.
|
|
|
Today’s post is a guest post from Lily, our new divorcee who’s re-learning to date.
—–
Welcome to the era of online dating. For those of you who are not single and haven’t been for awhile, you will not be able to even slightly grasp how the world of dating has changed, for those single ladies (and gents) reading this you are probably already laughing.
Between facebook, plenty of fish and jdate I can barely keep up with all the accounts I need to check, forget about trying to remember who I spoke to when and about what. But that’s not even the issue, if my biggest problem was meeting too many great people, well this post would be as exciting as watching your friends wedding video! I can deal with the nice people, and the decent conversations that come up every once in awhile but wow are there some weirdo’s out there.
My first forage back into the dating world happened about 3 ½ months after my split. Nervous as anything, but figured I needed to get back in the game. Nice guy, not for me, but a nice intro back into the world of dating and a fabulous first introduction to the world of online dating. Should have stopped while I was ahead…spent about an hour chatting with the great guy one night, give him my email address, he sends a lovely email, I respond. That’s it, end of the story, nothing back (we’ll touch on why I think this happened in another post!). Then there is the complete stranger I was set up with, who decides (prior to ever meeting me) that I am too newly separated to be dating. I am so lucky to have strangers in my life who are capable of making decisions for me! Oh did I mention he chose to pass on this worldly advice via facebook? And then there is the influx of sweet messages, feel free to interpret
• hi:)Your is very nice beam,and I like to meet you…your lifestyle of the great.my name is “sam”… how are you? (please feel free to translate this one!)
• I really like your fantastic smile? (it’s a question?)
And my ultimate favourite:
him: 
me: well I don’t respond because is not words.
him: ?
me: well again I don’t respond because there are no words in front of the question mark.
him: indecisive or technical difficulties?
me: neither, a smiley face and a question mark do not constitute a conversation.
What ever happened to “hello”?
—-
Like this? Check out Lily’s other posts
Men Vs. Women: Who Should Bring The Condoms
What’s Better: Happiness Vs. Contentment?
Photo Credit: SugaryBlog
|
|
|
Many female entrepreneurs struggle to make their businesses succesful, sometimes wondering if it’s worth it. But it doesn’t have to be so difficult! There are a million opportunities for women and also a million lessons we can learn from other women who are successful female entrepreneurs.
The following article is from a post on smartcompany.com – written by Amanda Gome. It’s a great read and provides excellent information that every women will find valuable!
—
Recently I interviewed a young female entrepreneur, Lisa Messenger. Although she had almost 10 years experience working in large corporations, her first venture was a disaster. The reason? She spent all of her time doing favours for other people, and told everyone that she didn’t care about money but just wanted to follow her passion.
Soon after she launched her sponsorship company, she paid $30,000 for a staff member and an office, but took no salary for herself. Of course she went broke before coming to her senses and launching a successful business, Messenger Publishing.
Unfortunately this is a story I have heard many times: the ambitious businesswoman who tells anyone that will listen that money does not matter, shuns any talk of profit and works long hours in low growth or no growth businesses.
Often they start their business because they see a niche and want flexibility and independence. They end up, if they are lucky, barely replacing their salary and wondering what the hell they have done; this was never the plan.
But then there is the breed of extremely successful female entrepreneurs. By successful I mean bringing in revenue of $1 million and $100 million. They operate in a very different way. From day one, they start with adequate funding. They are not afraid to think big, take a risk and borrow.
So what makes a woman a successful entrepreneur? What differentiates her from a struggling business owner? And what traps does she need to overcome – traps that are often specifically related to her gender?
Lesson One: Money is good – talk about it, borrow it, control it, embrace it
Nice girls don’t talk about money. Nor do nice businesswomen. In fact women in Australia have been so indoctrinated that many (like Messenger) try to use an anti-money statement to position themselves in the market.
Entrepreneurs that I interview often proclaim that they are in business not to make money but to “make a difference”.
Even highly successful business women like Amanda Briskin who founded Mimco, refuse to discuss revenue.
In 2006 I researched 100 successful female entrepreneurs and found that 28% say they hate to talk about money, and most agree that most men are far more at ease talking about money than women.
This has profound implications for the business. It can mean the focus is not on the bottom line nor on revenue. It is not on getting money in the door to ease cashflow, and it is certainly not about badgering clients for money. (Nice girls don’t confront.)
About 54% of the female entrepreneurs also admit that generally women in business are more risk averse than men and that they are conditioned to take less risk.
The difference in ambitions and the way this is communicated means women are often misunderstood by financial institutions. They cautiously start smaller enterprises with a longer start up period, often in traditional industries (which may be low growth).
Financial institutions consider them unworthy of investment.
This lack of external financial support means many businesses never get launched or at a later stage, fail to expand. It’s a vicious circle because with so few businesswomen talking money, the culture does not change.
My research also shows that half of them needed between $5000 to $100,000 to start their businesses. When asked what had held them back, 51% nominated lack of money. A third say they struggled because they could not get enough funds at the start. They regret not starting with more and say it held them back.
About 30% say they faced enormous problems getting money to grow while 17% say they tried but failed to get a bank loan.
None got money from a venture capitalist and only one entrepreneur got money from a business angel.
——————————————————————————–
Lesson Two: Find time and brain space to read that BlackBerry brochure
The digital economy was going to increase opportunities for women. Women could embrace new technology, work remotely and combine families with business. So what happened?
The current landscape is characterised by a low uptake of e-business by women, research shows. While women lead in the use of computers, they lag in the uptake of e-business. Women also take less advantage of mobile business opportunities.
A research paper called “Women entepreneurs in the digital economy: What skills do they really need?” by Patrice Braun of the University of Ballarat, concludes that many women with their family commitments and limited leisure time prefer self guided and learner-managed modes of learning.
The report says there is ample research to show that male and female entrepreneurs possess different business profiles – they start and run businesses in different sectors, develop different products and pursue different goals. Yet since the majority of entrepreneurs are males, perspectives based on the male experience have dominated the business skilling arena.
Anecdotally many women also complain about the technical language and time it takes to get used to new technology and programs.
Yet a high proportion of successful female entrepreneurs love their gadgets and are quick to update, knowing that new technology saves them time and gives them the flexibility and independence they crave. Design software and systems that act as an automatic audit check of your work to compensate for times when you cannot adequately focus, was a recommendation from Wendy Erhart of Withcott Seedlings.
Lesson Three: Have a life partner who doesn’t travel
Sad, but true. Behind most successful female entrepreneurs is a very supportive life partner. In my research, the majority (68%) of successful businesswomen, when asked what has been a very significant help in expanding the business, report that their spouse was of enormous help.
Equally, women report that one of the biggest drawbacks is an unsupportive spouse and a spouse that is resentful about earning less money. Successful female entrepreneurs have one word of advice – dump an unsupportive spouse and find one that backs the dream. Lyndal Thorburn, who runs Innovation Dynamics, advised that it was best to have a husband who doesn’t travel.
Lesson Four: Fight discrimination and bullying
Women face a range of cultural barriers that do not exist for most men. It starts when they first enter the workforce; they earn less than men the higher they progress, despite doing the same work.
Women also report that some men, particularly older men, hate having a woman boss. Marie Hatzis who runs Hussy Clothing, said “some men hate the fact that I am dominating at work”. While some say they have no problem, many report that men play power games and “bulldoze” decisions.
Successful women entrepreneurs say they deal with this in several ways. First, they don’t pretend it doesn’t exist. They learn to look for these traits when recruiting or dealing with clients. Many say they don’t recruit older men with entrenched attitudes.
What they don’t do is ignore bad behavior from men. As for direct gender-based discrimination, they confront it head on. My research found that a third of women say they have suffered direct gender-based discrimination when setting up the business, and half say they took action.
——————————————————————————–
Lesson Five: Make the baby part of the business plan
Yeah, yeah, unexpected things happen, of course. But successful female entrepreneurs take a very strategic approach to having their families.
Almost 70% of the successful female entrepreneurs have children. Half of those say it has been very hard combining entrepreneurship with having a baby. But they also say long-term planning is the key. The best time to have a baby is when the business is between six and 10 years old and when the woman is in her 30s.
But half of the successful female entrepreneurs say they deliberately slowed the growth of the business on occasion to cope. While half say they did not mind, the other half say they were not happy to slow growth.
Lesson Six: Don’t feel guilty
Society still has high expectations that women are the primary carers of children.
Carmelina Pascoe from My Coffee Shop sums it up: “It’s bad enough that both mothers and fathers have to sacrifice their time with their families to start a business. It’s criminal that mothers also get a guilt trip laid on them for doing so. We’re already berating ourselves about this without the community’s help.”
The most successful female entrepreneurs are ruthless time managers and are determined to run their own guilt-free race. Tamerlaine Beasely, who runs Beasley Intercultural, said she had learnt to “multi-task, constantly prioritise” and to use “flexibility, use technology and systems and good child care”.
“Ignore the guilt placed on you by the community,” advised Nicole Dickson of Beyond The Square Communication. Margaret Lomas, who runs Destiny Financial Solutions, said: “Don’t listen to others. Do what feels right for you without guilt.”
Lesson Seven: Pick businesses in high growth industries
I have consistently found when researching female entrepreneurs that they tend to lean towards industries that have less financial barriers, less sexism and are less technologically oriented than men. Even successful female entrepreneurs congregate in four industries; property and business services, personal and other services, education, and retail.
In fact the research I did in 2006 showed that none ran businesses in the booming industries of mining, construction, infrastructure or utilities. Only 3% ran information technology companies.
This does not mean you cannot run a highly successful business in traditionally “female” industries such as retail. Janine Allis started the highly successful Boost Juice but came up with an innovation that changed the industry. Diana Williams started Fernwood because of her observations while at the gym that women preferred to exercise away from men.
Besides, many traditional industries are dominated by highly aggressive companies dominated by men. Gillian Franklin, who runs the cosmetics company The Heat Group, with revenue of $75 million, says her competitors are run by men.
——————————————————————————–
Lesson Eight: Join the right networks
Women are great communicators and have extensive networks. Right? Well partly. But are they the right networks?
My survey of successful female entrepreneurs showed what while they rely on mentors, accountants and business people, very few use industry groups, consultants, business coaches or government bodies.
Research from the European Business School in Germany shows that women have a limited access to social networks that are crucial for career development. They also have a tendency to avoid occupational activities, which eats into their individual free time.
Researchers have already noted that the differences in network access between men and women could have a significant impact on the rate at which women start ventures and their subsequent performance.
Another recent study has shown that there is no significant difference in the overall number of networks, with entrepreneurs accessing more than four different networks over the course of a year. However male entrepreneurs did make a more intense use of formal networks while females made more intense use of informal networks (friends and family).
The research says that too much time spent networking with family and friends is likely to be counter-productive. The research, from the University of Western Australia called “Gender Networking Differences” and its association with firm performance, concludes that entrepreneurs need to monitor the resources they devote to networking so the benefits they receive exceed the costs.
Lesson Nine: Don’t wash the tea towels
Women can wash tea towels quicker, better and cheaper than anyone else. So they do. Besides who else is going to do it? A common trap for businesswomen is to take on a whole range of small tasks, from preparing invoices to paying the wages.
Female business owners loathe outsourcing. Money is tight and why pay for something they can do themselves? This is the classic trap, and means they are always working in the business not on the business. A further disadvantage is they spread themselves too thinly, keep the company small to cope with the workload, or burn out.
But successful female entrepreneurs learn to overcome this trap. In fact they become ruthless outsourcers. Cleaners, cooks, nannies, accountants, a top management team and child-tolerant staff are all essential…. and so is a sense of humour. The female entrepreneurs also say they learnt to take on skilled workers earlier and delegate more.
——————————————————————————–
Lesson Ten: Get tough with staff; they are not your friends
Female entrepreneurs are usually excellent communicators. They also prefer a consultative, inclusive style of management to a hierarchical, aggressive style. This leads to a big problem, often acknowledged by the women – they are too soft on staff, who subsequently take advantage of them.
The answer? Don’t adopt the traditional male style of managing. Just learn to manage a lot better and walk a comfortable line between being friendly, but not necessarily being a friend.
This article was originally published here http://www.smartcompany.com.au/premium-articles/top-story/20080214-top-10-lessons-of-successful-female-entrepreneurs.html
