Year Archives - TODAY INDIA

Work Only 8 Months Per Year and Play for 4 Months With Your Own Window Cleaning Business

Are you an outdoorsy person? Or do you dream of traveling for months at a time? Or maybe just someone who appreciates long periods of down time. Whatever the reason, starting a window cleaning business may be the answer you’ve been looking for.

While working only 8 months out of the year might seem like a pie in the sky dream, it is in fact more attainable than you probably think. I should know because I’ve done it, as have many other window cleaners from around the world.

In most parts of the world, the window cleaning markets boom for a little over half the year and then slow down through the winter months before picking up again in the spring. Therefore by operating a window cleaning business you have roughly 8 months (or more in some places) to rake in the money with steady window cleaning jobs.

But can I really make enough money in 8 months to live on for the full year?

The answer is a resounding YES! Of course, knowing how to live within your means is required. Let’s look at some basic numbers to explain how it is possible to only work for 8 months out of the year.

Most people in the US could live quite comfortably on $50,000 a year, in fact a large percentage of the population would kill to earn this much in 12 months, much less 8. So we will use $50,000 as our required income for the example.

Nobody wants to work 24/7 at any job, no matter how much you love it. Most good paying jobs require you to work 5 or 6 days a week, so we will use these numbers in our example.

Full-time solo window cleaners typically earn between $300 and $400 a day. Sometimes they may earn as much as $500 per day working by themselves. Simply by hiring a laborer to work with you can jump your daily income by 80% or more.

Now that we’ve got all of our criteria nailed down, let’s see how it all breaks down in our 8 month time frame:

– Working 6 days a week for 8 months, means you would be working a total of 192 days per year. And with our required income of $50,000, that means that you would need to earn an average of $260.41 per day.

– Working only 5 days a week for 8 months, means you would be working a total of 160 days per year. And with our required income of $50,000, that means that you would need to earn an average of $312.50 per day.

Looking at the above examples, the goal of working only 8 months out of 12 is looking more tangible by the minute and considering that the average residential window cleaning job is around $200, earning $50,000 in eight months could easily become a reality.

15 Ways For Teachers to Get Organized For the Beginning of the School Year

All teachers need a user-friendly system to help stay on top of the endless marking, checking and workpages. Plan as thoroughly as you can and if you don’t already have one, develop a system of organization. It’s truly amazing how much paperwork and marking goes into the first year. It’s easy for a new teacher to feel overwhelmed and confused. Try to avoid these initial feelings by planning your lessons ahead as much as you can. Rely on a system that is easy and user friendly. Consider these tips when organizing or opening your classroom for the fall semester.

Remember, being well organized and having well prepared lessons are also important to having a well-managed class.

1) Have a computer backup plan. Purchase a flash drive, a hard drive, or consider creating a Google documents account.

2) If you use a paper-based program, prepare everything you need for a smooth entry into the school year. Prepare important calendar dates; wait until your class is established to copy in the students. If you’ve working with an electronic system, decide on the grade weights or averaging system and establish the formula in the software.

Make sure you have a storage plan.

3) Have a plan for storing handouts like a stacking/filing system and a specific location for finding those stacks. Keep only 1 master copy of each file and recycle last year’s bulk copies. Make sure you have a copy on your computer!

4) Prepare a make-up work plan and location that is ready for action by the first day of school. You never know when you’ll need it!

5) Choose a location for this year’s paperwork. If you keep an individual student file for each student, have an organizational system for each class. If you keep a separate file for each course or section, organize by that system too. Try really, really, really hard to have an empty file cabinet drawer for this year. You can at least lay the papers down in the file cabinet and close the drawer, even if there’s no time or perhaps need to file in folders.

6) Old pictures and newspaper clippings tend to yellow and turn brittle. Laminate colorful pictures and recycle the rest. Libraries are a great place to donate unwanted textbooks and old readers that students no longer need.

7) For teachers in a staff teaching the same grade(s), a communal file or folder can be helpful for quick and easy access of workpages. Again, these should be divided into skill-sets and subjects.

Organize your own supplementary resource material. This can be a teacher’s checklist that you consult and use frequently, some uplifting words for bad days, or a a list of reminders.

9) Have a folder with the school policies and regulations. You should especially know where you stand in terms of how your school deals with discipline problems. Having this file within easy access will definitely help you when you are confronted with difficult and unanticipated classroom situations, which undoubtedly will happen.

10) If you are a reading teacher, you might want to have a folder for informal reading comments as you listen to your students read the first week. Pre-assessments e-assessments) during the first weeks of school are especially important for getting to know your students.

11) Have folders with letters ready to send home on first or second day to parents. You may consider a separate drawer with different letter folders.

12) Keep a folder with the necessary handouts for any new student that may arrive a week or a month later. There’s nothing worse than running around the room looking for important handouts for a new student!

13) If applicable, hang a bus list. Keep an extra copy in your folder.

14) Make sure you have a schedule for lunch and PE posted. This is VERY important to the students. Again, keep a master copy in your folder.

15) Have a folder with blank journal templates for the first day of school. Younger students can write a letter to their parents telling them all the things they learned that day. Older ones can write a list of goals setting their intentions for a good school year. Keep additional folders of blank seating charts, blank papers and other templates.

Trollbeads 2008 – A Year in Review

Trollbeads 2008 – A report

Trollbeads hits the mainstream with steam and keeps on growing!

Trollbeads is a line of interchangeable jewelry hailing from Denmark. Their long 30 plus years of development and design has positioned them to be the next best selling collectable and interchangeable bead and accompanying jewelry line on the market. Their history in the United States is only about 6 years long and it’s been an exciting and interesting path for Trollbeads U.S. and it’s just the beginning.

Morten Petersen, who was originally from Denmark and the head of Lund Trading Inc., a distributing company he founded in Maryland, brought this line over from Denmark to distribute in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. At first the line was slow to grow here. Perhaps it was the representatives bringing it to market, or the market they were aiming for or maybe American women just weren’t ready for them. Each year the product was introduced to new venues and to new areas of the country and their growth became steady. Each year and with each growth level, the office at Lund Distributors was fine tuning its procedures to a more efficient level. A business that has steadily plodded its course, has just in the last year and a half, exploded on the American jewelry scene. Just recently the news is that November ’08, a month where everyone was debating on bailouts and relief packages or watching as houses were auctioned off, Trollbeads saw its highest single month increase ever. In the most recent issue of the jewelry trade magazine “In Store” Trollbeads was #2 on the list for the most exciting line retailers wanted to carry and Rolex was listed #6. It was my understanding that Lund has blown away 2007 sales figures but to excel in a month that for others was so bleak, points to one very obvious fact. The collecting of Trollbeads is recession proof. It’s the small things that count when times are difficult and these beads have a humorous side and a highly spiritual side. What better combination could there be in times like these?

For the most part Trollbeads collectors are unique from other bead collectors and are comprised of many kinds of people. If you compare the two major bead lines and compare their collectors, you will find that Trollbeads attract a more sophisticated customer than Pandora or Chamelia brands. The inspiration for the designs in Trollbeads comes from flora and fauna, mythology, spirituality, fairy tales and cultural diversity. The motto for Trollbeads is “Every Story has a Bead”. The Trollbeads artists strive to create small intricate sculptures and the beauty or uniqueness is evident in every bead. This differs sharply from the other bead lines as it where it was the first interchangeable bead line on the market in Europe and was the inspiration of many since.

This next year will be an interesting one to follow with Trollbeads. I believe it will be another record breaker but keep in mind the competition has taken its gloves off. Pandora has given all of its retailers an ultimatum. Starting immediately, they must drop any and all competing brands of beads or be dropped by Pandora. I know of some stores that have had to keep Pandora, because it’s a broader line and they sell more dollar wise and have had to, very reluctantly, drop Trollbeads. As a dealer of Trollbeads I can tell already, from my point of view, this was a bad decision for Pandora. Even before the deadline occurred many customers entering my store were aware of the situation and had very negative feelings toward Pandora. Today the consumer is savvy and educated and they do their homework on anything of value they are considering to buy. When a company is purchased by a large conglomerate, as Pandora has been, the focus is only on the numbers and nothing else. There is no concern for what this ultimatum will mean to many of its stores. I know for a fact that if a store has carried both lines, they have done well with both lines. They support the sales of each other because many people collect both lines. Small retailers forced into dropping a line, such as Trollbeads, means cutting their revenue by a huge portion. In this economy it may be devastating to small retailers. Read the news, it’s the large conglomerates that are bringing this country to its knees. Small businesses employ more people in this country and through no fault of their own, will be brought down by also.

It doesn’t take long to discover the differences in both of the company’s artistic and technical standards. It also doesn’t take long to understand the differences in management. I hear day after day, “My wife used to collect the other beads and now she is switching to Trollbeads.” Just yesterday I helped a couple of customers who also had Pandora beads, talk about Pandora and how difficult it is for stores to deal with the demands Pandora puts on the stores. Dealers who are holding on to their Pandora accounts are angry at the demands Pandora is making on them. Pandora is turning itself into the “bad guy” and should be worrying more about its image and less about the numbers and less about trying to be the only “like” brand in the store. Haven’t they ever heard that competition is a good thing?

Keeping in mind Pandora has forced a number of retailers to drop Trollbeads, I still believe 2009 will be another record breaking year for Trollbeads. The negativity produced by Pandora will mean that Trollbeads will fare better in the long run.