In order to know where you are going, you have to know where you have been. This concept has been a key component to our business services ever since we made the jump from a single man home based business to a multi-employee company.

The team here at Firstbase has been operating out of a small office on Gladys Ave just off the beaten path in Abbotsford, BC for the past 5 years. Over the past few months, we have spent considerable time building a new company identity,both from a visual and deliverable perspective. Having raised our profile and challenged our previous limitations, this new look and feel into our culture has fostered innovative thinking and increased our client base tenfold.

With the increase in sales and demand for our creative services, Firstbase has grown too big to fit into our own proverbial clothes. But instead of hitting the pavement for some hard cardio in an effort to trim down, we decided to hit the weights to bulk up. If you didn’t couldn’t quite follow the paraphrase, don’t worry, it’s probably not just you. So for all you laymen out there – We are moving offices!

As of September 15, 2010, you can find us at Unit 201 – 34609 Delair Rd. just off of Sumas Way in Abbotsford. This new B&M building will offer significant
upgrades to both employees and clients, including but not limited to:

With so much to do in the next month and a half to prepare, we could have probably scaled back the fluff and bunnies and just come straight out and said it.

But let’s be honest – you enjoyed the read.

Tradex, 1190 Cornell Street, Abbotsford – click here to view map

1) Flawed Strategy

Perfect implementation and marketing cannot save a flawed business plan. Business Planning is critical to a company’s success and too many business owners attempt the DIY approach resulting in a bad plan and faulty assumptions. A study of more than 2,500 business failures over the past 25 years showed that almost half of the failures stemmed from poorly designed strategies.

2) Underestimating the challenge

Taking the time to validate your assumptions can save you billions of dollars in the long run. Many entrepreneurs overestimate their ability to penetrate a new market or launch a new product and fail to take the time to do the research prior to pressing the ‘go’ button.

3) Lack of Governance

In a small business of only a few employees and the owner it is easy for the owner to make decisions on their own without consulting the rest of the staff. This can result in flawed decision making practices and a lack of accountability. Owners should always run their ideas past another employee who is actively involved in the running of the business or discuss their ideas with a business coach to make sure their idea will be well received and is in focus with the companies overall direction and aim.

4) Refusal to Adapt

Having the ability to foresee change in your market place and embrace it can set your business apart from your competition. Not everyone welcomes change but if you can accept it and embrace it you will be well on your road to success.

5) Failure to Plan – “Fail to plan and you plan to fail”

An idea is just an idea unless you put it to paper and develop an implementation plan. Many entrepreneurs have a go-go-go mentality and fail to take the time to plan out their new business venture or idea and simply ‘roll with the punches’. Failing to plan properly can have catastrophic effects such as: not having enough cash flow, and not meeting industry requirements just to name a few. It is important to consult a professional when exploring a new business idea.

6) Poor Leadership

Motivated and passionate employees are often a critical part to a company’s success. Failure to motivate and lead your employees can result in lower productivity and quality of work.

7) Poor Communication

A common example of poor or miss communication is the failure to communicate between departments.  One department can design a launch of a new product but can fail to communicate it to the department that will be instrumental in carrying out the plan once it has hit the market.  Another example is if the marketing departments takes months coming up with a new promotion but fails to communicate it to the target market it was all for not and can end up costing the company thousands of dollars.

Operation Christmas Child is organized by the Samaritan’s Purse Organization. For over 35 years, Samaritan’s Purse has done their utmost to assist the suffering, by going to the aid of the world’s poor, sick, and suffering. The Samaritan’s Purse is an effective means of reaching hurting people in countries around the world with food, medicine, and other assistance.

Angel Tree is organized by the Salvation Army. People who are unable to buy gifts for their children may register at The Salvation Army Centre of Hope. A tag is created for each child and hung on the Angel Tree at Seven Oaks Mall in central Abbotsford. Shoppers visit the booth manned by volunteers, choose a child’s tag, and then shop for Christmas presents for that child. When they are finished, they bring the new, unwrapped gifts back to the Angel Tree. More volunteers transport the gifts to Cascade Church where the donations are sorted and organized. On the appointed day, grateful parents come to the church to pick up the gifts for their children.

Published on:
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Written by:
Martin Hutchinson

The International Monetary Fund revised their estimate of 2010 global growth upward, although, they are not optimistic about countries like the US and Britain. Which economies will see the most growth in 2010? See the following article from Money Morning to learn why it may not be who you expect.

Markets were cheered Wednesday when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected global growth of 2.5% for 2010, a slight increase from its earlier forecast of 1.9% growth.

That’s good news for investors – but consumers in the United States and investors focused on it may not see much benefit.

The IMF forecast for the United States does not sound like a lot of fun: The organization is projecting growth of only 0.8% for this country next year. That forecast runs contrary to currently optimistic rhetoric about the recession bottoming out, and may account for the stock market’s weakness over the past year or so as the very real prospects of a sustained economic bottom begins to sink in with investors.

My own view is that the IMF is about right for 2010, largely because the U.S. economy may not yet have bottomed. While economic indicators have certainly improved from their dreadful levels of the first quarter, forward-looking signals – such as consumer confidence – are still at very low levels, indeed. And that signals a moderate decline, rather than stabilization of economic output.

What’s more, the U.S. federal government is running deficits far beyond the records ever seen in peacetime. That has already had an effect on the bond markets, which have seen a substantial rise in yields from a low of 2.07% in December to around 3.4% currently – not a usual feature of an economy whose gross domestic product (GDP) is declining substantially. That suggests that the normal healthy bounce from the bottom of recession may be muted by financing difficulties from the huge federal deficits, with the economy continuing to decline for longer than expected and recovering only feebly thereafter.

In that context, the Obama administration’s $787 billion stimulus may have been misguided, based as it was on economic theories that make very little sense. Such a large amount of extra federal spending has to come from somewhere, and if the government is running a budget deficit, that shortfall has to be borrowed. While a country with a modest fiscal deficit can afford a certain amount of stimulus, that’s not the case for a country whose budget was already in deficit by more than $1 trillion – or 7% of GDP – when President Barack Obama came into office.

By enlarging the deficit so much, the administration may well have destabilized the bond market, preventing the rapid turnaround in the economy that could otherwise have been expected. As a side effect, the stimulus may also have made it more difficult to pass President’s Obama’s hoped-for packages on global warming and healthcare, making it counterproductive politically as well as economically.

Beyond the U.S. borders, the outlook is somewhat brighter. Some countries – such as Britain, for instance – are in much the same mess as the United States, with excessive deficits and a money-printing central bank. Indeed in Britain, the central bank has for the last three months been buying enough government bonds to monetize the entire British budget deficit, reducing the upwards push on bond yields, but managing to re-ignite the British housing market, which had become even more overvalued than its also-overvalued U.S. counterpart.

The IMF forecast for Britain is worse than the projection for the United States – a decline of 4.2% in 2009 GDP, and a rise of only 0.2% in 2010. That looks about right, though some of the 2009 decline may be pushed into 2010 by the Bank of England’s actions.

In China, the picture is unclear. The IMF estimates growth of 7.5% in 2009 and 8.5% in 2010, by far the best performance of any major economy, but this both takes Chinese statistics at face value and underestimates the risks facing China’s economy.

Bank lending in China was more than $800 billion in the first quarter and was again running at record levels in June; it is thus likely that China is over-indulging in real estate projects with no tenants, as well as subsidies for hopelessly unprofitable state enterprises. This means there is a substantial downside risk for China’s growth, and 2010 may be much less pretty than 2009.

This is also true for India, where the IMF estimates 5.4% growth in 2009 and 6.5% in 2010, but does not take account of the out-of-control expansion in Indian government spending – up by 36% this year to spawn a deficit in excess of 10% of GDP.

In the past, India’s economic expansions have at times been choked off by credit crunches that surface when government deficits cannot be financed. This time around the same outcome is likely. As with China, I would expect 2010 to be much less likely than 2009.

Finally, there are two countries I believe the IMF is being overly pessimistic about: Brazil and Germany.

For Brazil, the IMF is forecasting a 1.3% GDP decline in 2009, followed by 2.5% growth in 2010. This looks too low. Brazil’s trend growth rate is around 5%, and it has little trouble selling its commodity-and-energy exports when China’s demand is still growing.

Furthermore, Brazil’s budget deficit is modest and its interest rates are just below 10% — still substantially above the country’s inflation rate of 4% to 5%. I would thus expect Brazil to considerably outperform the IMF’s forecast, showing little net decline in 2009 GDP and growth close to its 5% trend in 2010, with domestic demand joining exports as a source of strength.

Finally, the IMF is exceptionally pessimistic on Germany, forecasting a 6.2% decline in 2009 GDP and a further 0.6% decline in 2010. Since German industrial production rose by 3.7% in May and its trade surplus rose to a record 10.3 billion euros (about USD $14.4 billion), this is far too pessimistic.

Germany has been notably cautious in its stimulus, and the German budget deficit is still only around 3% of GDP. Consequently, that key European nation is likely to find expansion easy to finance, and will outperform significantly the rest of the EU in the months ahead, showing a brisk recovery from its sharp downturn. I would expect Germany’s 2009 GDP decline overall to be a mere 2%-3% and its 2010 growth to be substantial, at least 2.0%-2.5%.

The IMF and I agree that the world economy is once again decoupling, with 2010 growth much stronger outside the financial-services-oriented economies of Britain and the United States. However, we disagree on where growth would be strongest; my picks would be Brazil and Germany, not the IMF’s fashionable China and India.

This article has been republished from Money Morning. You can also view this article at Money Morning, an investment news and analysis website.

Published on:
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Written by:Jason Simpkins

Oil prices have rallied since February, and could continue to rise as countries start to emerge from the global recession. However, few if any individuals correctly predicted that the price of oil would fall as dramatically as it has over the past year. Where will oil prices go from here? Jason Simpkins from Money Morning aims to answer this question.

While the long-term outlook for oil prices remains bullish, don’t be surprised to see a near-term correction.

After tumbling to a low of $33.98 a barrel on Feb. 12, crude oil more than doubled in price, soaring to $69.82 on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nasdaq: CME) – before tumbling nearly 4% on Thursday on a worse-than-expected jobs report.

Indeed, Money Morning predicted precisely that kind of a run-up for crude oil, first in January and then again on April 16.

As a basis for those previous analyses of the oil market, we cited the declining value of the U.S. dollar, falling production, and the possibility that demand for oil would soar as the global economy emerges from the worst financial crisis since World War II. And those factors continue to suggest that the price of oil will rise over the long-term.

However, while we still believe the long-term outlook for oil prices is bullish, it’s important to note that the recent oil price rally is not supported by supply/demand fundamentals. It is the result of a shift in market sentiment and a corresponding reversal in U.S. stocks, not a material change in the global economy.

And because the five-month rally has proceeded at an exceptionally quick pace, it’s made prices more volatile. That means prices could experience a significant correction in the short-term.

So here’s what you need to know as we approach a major inflection point for one of the world’s most volatile commodities.

What to Make of Oil’s Recent Rally

Prior to Thursday’s stumble, oil prices had soared about 106% since sliding below $34 a barrel in February. The main reason for this jump has been the so-called “green shoots” of economic recovery led investors to believe oil was oversold and that the global economy will return to growth much sooner than originally predicted.

This is highlighted by the fact that the U.S. stock market has experienced an almost simultaneous recovery. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up about 5% from February, and 30% from mid-March. Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has climbed about 11% since Feb. 12 and is up more than 30% from its March lows.

“Historically, equities have been a leading indicator of economic growth and commodities have been a coincident indicator,” Hussein Allidina, head of commodities research at Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), told CNNMoney.com. “Right now, you’re seeing commodities and equities move up together as money comes back in at the same time.”

However, there are other factors at work, including the declining value of the U.S. dollar and a shift in the futures market.

Because oil is priced in dollars, any decline in value of the U.S. currency drives crude oil prices higher.   During last year’s huge run-up in oil prices, the U.S. dollar fell to a record low of $1.59 against the euro, though it subsequently rebounded. Since oil began its current rally on Feb. 12, the dollar has fallen about 10%, declining to about $1.40 against the euro.

Additionally, many speculators reversed their positions on oil from short to long, and that can also pull prices higher.

“Prospects for equity markets and the global economy, backed up by exchange rate fluctuations, expectations about future oil market tightness, and, by inference, a shift of money into or out of futures markets can all influence short-term prices,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its June Oil Market Report. “Indeed, it is tempting to conclude that the shift in [New York Mercantile Exchange] WTI noncommercial positions from a net 11,000 short in early May to 40,000 net long a month later is sufficient explanation for the surge in prices” of more than 20% during May and into early June.

On top of that, some $3.8 billion has flowed into oil-and-gas exchange traded funds (ETFs) this year, compared with $1.4 billion in the first half of 2008, Goran Trapp, head of global oil trading at Morgan Stanley, told BusinessWeek.

“Considering that supply seems ample and demand is weak, the fact that oil is going up looks kind of weird,” Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE: DB), told CNN. “But those factors are being overwhelmed by a huge sigh of relief that we’re not going to have the Great Depression. A lot of money is coming out of mattresses.”

But while investors’ perceptions of the economic recovery – and, by extension, the oil market – have changed, the underlying supply and demand fundamentals have not. There is still a glut of oil on the market and not enough demand to soak it up.
Investors seemed to undergo a min-epiphany of that reality on Thursday, when disappointing jobless numbers raised concern “about the strength and timing of a recovery,” James Williams, an economist at energy-research firm WTRG Economics, told MarketWatch.com.

August crude futures dropped $2.58 a barrel, or 3.7%, to settle at $66.73, the lowest closing level for a front-month contract since June 3, MarketWatch said.

That development supports the conclusions put forth in some recent research.

In its five-year forecast for the worldwide oil market, the IEA last week cut its five-year forecast for global crude demand and predicted that consumption won’t rebound to last year’s levels until 2012 – at the earliest.

“The deep economic recession that has spread worldwide in the past year has taken a severe toll on oil demand,” the IEA said in its Medium-Term Oil Market Report. “This marks a break after several years of strong oil demand growth.”

The IEA cut its oil demand estimates for every year through 2013 by about 3 million barrels per day (bpd). According to the agency, world oil demand would grow at an average annual rate of 0.6%, or 540,000 bpd, annually over the 2008 to 2014 period, reaching 89 million barrels a day by 2014.

Those estimates are based on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast for global economic growth of about 5% a year between 2012 and 2014. In the IEA’s “lower GDP scenario,” in which the global economy expands by 3% a year, demand won’t reach 2008 levels until 2014.

With oil demand not expected to reach 2008 levels for another three years at least, the fact that oil prices are climbing more rapidly than they did in last year – when demand was high, supplies were tight, and the U.S. dollar was trading at significantly lower levels than it is today – is a red flag for many analysts.

“There may be enough momentum to carry us up to just $72.50 [a barrel], but then I think the correction is going to be just that dramatic,” Guy Gleichmann, president of the United Strategic Investors Group, told The Wall Street Journal.

Additionally, a continued rise in oil prices could threaten the economic recovery by raising production costs and hurting consumers at the pumps.

Oil prices between $30 and $40 per barrel were like an “additional stimulus package,” Fatih Birol, the IEA’s chief economist, said last month. “But now this stimulus package is losing its strength and it will be definitely a problem for the global economy if prices continue to rise.”

Prices at above $70 a barrel “may well strangle the economic recovery,” Birol said.

If that’s true, oil prices, should they continue to rise, would only be setting themselves up for a bigger tumble when the economy slips back into recession later in the year.

Still Bullish Long-Term

While the short-term outlook for oil remains murky, if not bearish, the long-term outlook for crude is still strong, thanks to the weakness of the U.S. dollar and the probability that demand will eventually return.

In fact, the IEA estimates that oil demand will strengthen in India and Saudi Arabia this year, despite a 3% decline in global consumption.

And China, which has been using low commodities prices to stock up on resources, plans to increase strategic crude oil reserves by 160% to 270 million barrels during the next five years. Citing an unidentified official from China’s National Energy Administration, Nikkei English News said that Beijing would spend $4.39 billion (30 billion yuan) on stockpiling facilities with a capacity to hold 169 million barrels of crude oil.

“The wild card is really the Chinese,” said Money Morning Investment Director Keith Fitz-Gerald. “Don’t forget the Chinese are trying to diversify away from the dollar, and there are only two ‘non-currency currencies’ on the planet: gold and oil.”

And with the expansive monetary policy being employed by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the value of the dollar seems destined to retest the lows it reached in 2008.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has cut its benchmark lending rate to a range of 0.0% to 0.25%, and the central bank plans to purchase up to $300 billion in long-term U.S. Treasury securities and $750 billion of mortgage-backed securities as it pursues a policy of quantitative easing.

“Our forecast has been that oil will be at $100 in 2015 and it could happen faster if the economy recovers,” Deutsche Bank’s Sieminski told CNN.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) raised its 2009 oil price forecast to $85 a barrel from $65 and said prices would reach $95 a barrel in 2010. Other analysts agree.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) lifted its forecast for the average price of oil in 2009 to $55.63 a barrel from $49.38, though the investment bank noted “global demand and inventory levels look horrendous.”

“We’re concerned about oil prices rising so rapidly in the near-term,” Hussein Allidina, head of commodities research at Morgan Stanley, told CNN. “But the bet in the long-term is one way, and that’s just up.”

This article was republished from Money Morning. You can also view this article at Money Morning, an investment news website.

TORONTO, Ontario, June 15, 2009 — The Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry, today announced that the Government of Canada is providing $450 million to the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) in support of small and medium-sized enterprises and innovative firms.

The funding will include $100 million to establish the Operating Line of Credit Guarantee and $350 million over three years to help drive venture capital investment in promising Canadian technology businesses.

“The health of the Canadian economy depends greatly on the vitality of Canadian businesses, which often need credit to finance their growth,” said Minister Clement. “The Operating Line of Credit Guarantee will allow BDC to work with financial institutions to make it easier for Canadian businesses with strong balance sheets and business fundamentals to access the credit they need to get even stronger. The funding for venture capital will assist growth-oriented firms to get the funds they need to innovate and boost the Canadian economy.”

The Operating Line of Credit Guarantee will be delivered under the Business Credit Availability Program as part of the government’s Extraordinary Financing Framework announced in Canada’s Economic Action Plan, and it will improve access to financing for Canadian businesses during this period of economic uncertainty.

“Working together with Canada’s financial institutions, BDC will help ensure that creditworthy businesses have access to the short-term financing they need to remain successful and grow in the months ahead,” said Jean-René Halde, President and Chief Executive Officer of BDC. “Innovative firms will also have greater access to funding to bring their innovations to market.”

The Operating Line of Credit Guarantee is a time-limited facility that allows BDC to guarantee lines of credit that financial institutions already extend to their clients. This guaranteed portion goes above and beyond what the banks are already committing. Through the program, financial institutions and BDC will share the risk while providing increased support to their clients. The Operating Line of Credit Guarantee applies to operating lines of credit with authorized limits of a minimum of $400 000 and a maximum of $40 million. This funding will have a total market impact of at least $300 million.

The $350 million in funding for BDC’s venture capital activities will allow it to make additional direct investments of $260 million over three years in Canadian businesses already in the BDC portfolio, as well as investments in new seed technology companies and later-stage technology companies. It will also allow BDC to commit $90 million over three years to private, independent Canadian venture capital funds. This funding is in addition to the $75 million in venture capital funds allocated in the Government of Canada’s Budget 2008, which is being used to support the creation of a privately run venture capital fund.

BDC is Canada’s business development bank. From 100 offices across the country, BDC promotes entrepreneurship by providing highly tailored financing, venture capital and consulting services to entrepreneurs.

To learn more about Canada’s Economic Action Plan, visit www.actionplan.gc.ca.

Backgrounder
Business Development Bank of Canada Financing

The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) aims to accelerate the success of entrepreneurs and help develop Canadian businesses by providing financing, venture capital and consulting services with a focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The BDC does not offer grants or subsidies; rather, it seeks to earn a return from the business financing it provides, while extending financing into market niches that would not otherwise be served.

The BDC is mandated to be a complementary lender in the market, offering loans and investments that supplement or complete services already available from commercial financial institutions. Its financial activities include secured and unsecured loans; subordinate financing, which incorporates elements of debt and equity financing; direct and indirect venture capital investments with a focus on early-stage high-technology ventures; and customized business consulting services.

The BDC’s role is magnified during economic slowdowns. Since the start of the credit crisis, the BDC has introduced a number of remedial measures. Since August 2007, it has:

• increased overall financing activity;
• extended repayment terms on new authorizations;
• offered postponement of capital repayment, accepted by 2200 clients;
• increased support to manufacturers and dedicated a team to help Ontario auto parts manufacturers in particular;
• seen a significant increase in referrals from financial institutions; and
• launched a new working capital loan for expansion projects abroad.

In fiscal 2007–2008, the BDC authorized $3.1 billion in financing, subordinate financing and venture capital investments.

The Operating Line of Credit Guarantee will be delivered under the Business Credit Availability Program as part of the Extraordinary Financing Framework announced in Canada’s Economic Action Plan. The $100 million in funding for this program was announced in the 2008 Economic and Fiscal Statement, along with the provision of $250 million for additional term lending by the BDC. This total funding of $350 million will allow the BDC to make available at least an additional $1.5 billion in financing for Canadian SMEs.

The funding will lead to financing for Canadian small businesses in all sectors, including manufacturing, science and technology, construction, tourism, forestry and fishing. It is expected that a large proportion of this support will be extended to the manufacturing and tourism sectors, which currently represent about 45 percent of the BDC portfolio.

As well, the Government of Canada is providing $350 million to the BDC over three years to help drive venture capital investment in promising Canadian businesses and build an industry that is sustainable over the long term. The funding will allow the BDC to make additional direct investments of $260 million in Canadian businesses already in the BDC portfolio, as well as investments in new seed technology companies and later-stage technology companies. It will also allow the BDC to commit $90 million in investments over three years in private, independent Canadian venture capital funds. Venture capital fundraising refers to funds raised by venture capital firms in order to make investments in companies, whereas venture capital investment refers to the actual disbursements made by the venture capital firms.

Of this $350 million in funding, $125 million will be provided in 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 and $100 million will be provided in 2011–2012. This is in addition to the $75 million allocated in the Government of Canada’s 2008 Budget, which is being used to support the creation of a privately run late-stage venture capital fund.

The BDC holds a loan portfolio of about $11 billion. Broken down by industry sector, this translates into 31.3 percent of its loans for the manufacturing sector, 21.5 percent for wholesale and retail trade, 12.4 percent for tourism, 6.9 percent for construction, 5.5 percent for transportation and storage, 5.5 percent for commercial properties, 4.6 percent for business services, and 12.3 percent for other industries.

The BDC has both a physical and a virtual pan-Canadian presence, serving over 28 000 Canadian entrepreneurs through 100 branches in all regions of the country. It provides advice and financing to entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds, venture capital for start-ups, and working capital to help small exporters bridge the gap between the Canadian market in which they operate and their targeted international market. The BDC is well positioned to help its clients and will continue to support Canadian entrepreneurs as a whole.

Today, 2.2 million people use Dimdim’s online conferencing tool, many of them staff or clients of Canadian small firms. One such user shares why Dimdim is the right and “bright” choice for his online tutoring company.

By Nestor E. Arellano

“Dimdim” may seem an odd name for a firm whose prospects seem so bright.

But settling on that name was a “no-brainer,” according to Steve Chazin, Ottawa-based chief marketing officer of Dimdim Inc.,

It’s “catchy and easy to remember.”

The three-year-old Web conferencing firm was, in fact, called Cummuniva during the first six months of its existence.

But by whatever appellation, the firm’s witnessed impressive growth, in both revenues and customer base.

Since its launch, in 2007, Dimdim has garnered $8.4 million in investor funding, while more than a million users take advantage of its Web conferencing capabilities.

The company offers a cheaper alternative to enterprise-grade online conferencing and collaboration tools, such as Cisco’s WebEx and Microsoft’s Live Meeting, Goto Meeting and Goto Webinar from Citrix.

And that’s Dimdim’s major selling for at least one of its Canadian small business customers.

TutorJam in Waterloo, Ont. provides online coaching to students from the kindergarten to the college level, harnessing Dimdim’s Web collaboration and conferencing features.

Those coupled with “very reasonable pricing” are among the most attractive aspects of the offering, according to Nathan Arora, vice-president of marketing at TutorJam.

Arora said the Dimdim product is significantly cheaper than other offerings on the market.

There is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400.

It carries over no balance from day to day.

Every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day.

What would you do?

Draw out ALL OF IT of course!!!

Each of us has such a bank.  Its name is TIME.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.

Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.

It carries over no balance.  It allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you.  Each night it burns the remains of the day.

If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back.  There is no drawing against the ‘tomorrow’.  You must live in the present on today’s deposits.

Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success!  The clock is running.  Make the most of today.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade to realize the value of ONE MONTH.  Ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby to realize the value of ONE WEEK.  Ask the editor of a weekly newspaper to realize the value of ONE HOUR.  Ask the sweethearts who are waiting to meet to realize the value of ONE MINUTE.  Ask a person who just avoided an accident to realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND.

Ask the person who won a silver medal at the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special … special enough to spend your time.  Remember that time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history; tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift; that’s why it’s called the present.

Unknown.

“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.”

Peter F Drucker

Management Author

Time management is the key to accomplishing any complex task.  It puts you in the driver’s seat, giving you control over your life.  People sometimes react negatively to the notion of time management, arguing that it is impossible or even wasteful to try to organize their time, but I am absolutely convinced they are wrong.  Time management is the foundation of self-mastery.  It allows you to live your life “on purpose” by giving you control over your destiny like nothing else can.

Think of a scale.  On one side are the hours you “spend” running your business, and on the other side are the hours you “invest” improving your business.  If you are like most business owners, then right now the scale is probably tipped in favour of your “spent”: time.  Your day is likely spent making sales calls, handling customer complains, and producing products.  Our goal through this program is to slowly but surely, tip the scale in favour of your “invested” time, freeing you to do more valuable work.

“Work smarter, not harder.”

To make this happen, you first need to get a hold of your daily schedule.  If your daily routine varies, depending on whatever seems to be most important at any given time, then setting aside time to invest in your business will remain a low priority for you.   Something else will always take precedent. A customer will need to be called back, your employees will need your help, a package will need to be delivered, and so forth.

The backbone of time management is scheduling. Operating on a schedule forces you to make time for the things you know are important, but have trouble getting around to.  This does not mean you can never break your schedule.  You are in charge, not the schedule.  If something new takes priority then by all means, make an adjustment.  Just don’t make it a habit.  When you adjust your schedule you are making a proactive decision.  This is still a form of time management and is completely different from operating without a schedule.  When you deal with things as they come, you are reacting to, and consequently being controlled by, your environment.

There are plenty of things we have no control over, but one thing we can control is the way we spend our time.  It may seem as if you have little control over this as well some days, but in truth, this is the one place you have ultimate control.  Certainly you will be influenced to spend your time in certain ways, but the final decision to act is always up to you.  Cherish that authority; it is the key to personal and professional success.

Track your time

Before we can begin scheduling any of your time, we first need to find out exactly what you do with your time right now.  No doubt you are busy, but what exactly are you busy doing and when are you busy doing it?  To get clear on this, you will spend the next two weeks tracking your time.  It may take a little work, but it’s only for two weeks and what you will learn will be more than worth the effort.

“The first step towards saving time…is to find out how you’ve been spending it.”

William Ruchti

American Management Association.

At midday, the S&P/TSX composite index was down about 155 points, or 1.8 per cent, to 8,405, on track to see its first daily loss since Monday, March 9.

The heavyweight sectors of energy, materials and financials led the declines, and big-cap representatives from these areas, like Suncor Energy Inc., Barrick Gold Corp. and Royal Bank of Canada, were seeing declines.

Commodity prices were down, and there was some nervousness over what the U.S. Federal Reserve would say Wednesday afternoon, though most weren’t expecting any movement on the key interest rate, which is effectively at zero.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil was down $1.56 to $47.60 U.S. a barrel, and gold was off by $31.80 to $885 U.S. an ounce.

The Canadian dollar was down 19 basis points to 78.62 cents U.S..

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was down about 65 points, or 0.9 per cent, to 7,330. The Nasdaq composite index was just a little better than flat at around 1,465.

European markets were mostly down, including the United Kingdom’s FTSE index, which lost 1.74 per cent. Figures released there Wednesday showed unemployment had risen by 138,400 people last month.

There were some gains on Asian markets though, including a 1.86 per cent rise on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index.

On Tuesday, the S&P/TSX composite index up 172.89 points, or 2.06 per cent, to 8,559.60.13. The Dow closed up 178.73 points, or 2.48 per cent, to 7,395.70, and the Nasdaq gained 58.09 points, or 4.14 per cent, to 1,462.11.
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