Day 8 - Not So Great

I did avoid ice cream and alcohol yesterday, but I did have pop tarts (800 cal) and buttered popcorn.  I also had quite a few chocolate-covered pomegranates.  We were at my sister-in-laws house last night and there was a whole lot of easy food and drinking so I guess I should be happy I didn't do worse.  I also didn't exercise yesterday.  I spent a lot of time on the computer and in front of the television.  I'll see if I can do better today.

Day 7 - Thank Heaven!

Today was my weigh in day and I was down over 7 lbs this week.  I did figure that my first 10 lbs would be the easiest.  Yesterday I had cereal for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly on wheat for lunch, and my wife made chili for dinner.  In the evening I had quite a few chocolate-covered pomegranates.  I had coffee, one diet pepsi at lunch, and tons of water the rest of the day.  I did turn down cake in the afternoon.  For exercise I did a couple of different walks around the warehouse.

I didn't really do much unusual the first week.  I seriously increased the amount of water I drank.  I cut out the regular pop.  I stopped eating lunches out and took my lunch to work instead.  I tried to cut down on the deserts and alcohol with varying degrees of success.  I tried to increase my exercise but I only walked.  My second week goals are to *virtually* eliminate alcohol and continue to follow the other good habits from week 1.

Some of you may think by my week 1 writing that I am an alcoholic.  Usually I can take or leave alcohol, i.e. beer, but I had gotten in the habit lately of having several drinks in the evening.  When I was taking classes last year I couldn't do this so I kind of feel entitled to a good beer.  That is going to have to go.

Jessica Is Taking A Break From School

For anybody that is interested, Jessica will be taking a break from school and hopefully working full time.  She will be staying in Los Angeles and get her general education credits from a community college.  I am hoping that she won't go into her grace period on her existing loans, I guess we'll see.

Thank you for all of your support.

Day 6 - Dinner and Whiskey

I had a good day yesterday except that I didn't do any extra exercise and I went to the bar with the guys last night.  I had dinner out and a couple of whiskeys.

The rest of the day I managed to do better.  I did have some hot chocolates in the morning but skipped breakfast.  For lunch I had vegies, a banana, and peanut butter.  I piled on the water in the afternoon.

Please make sure you check out the following post: Your Urgent Help Is Needed!

Your Urgent Help Is Needed!

Please see: http://bigfishrants.blogspot.com/2010/01/jessica-is-taking-break-from-school.html

Day 5 - No Beer, Pizza, or Pie

For day 5, I was able to abstain from beer.  I did have breakfast, lunch, an dinner but all mostly healthy.  The main thing I'm really trying to do at this point is to not eat out at Taco Bell, McDonalds, Chipotle, or really any other restaurant, and avoid empty calories.  I know that the simply action of not eating out loses weight for me.  Of course, if you are going to eat out there are healthier choices than the ones above.  My family did get ice cream in the evening but I did abstain from it.

For drinks I had coffee in the morning, one Diet Pepsi at noon, and tons of water the rest of the day.  I limit the number of diet sodas because I found that they will make me more hungry.  Water is the best to avoid hunger, and since when you diet you are usually dehydrating yourself, it will also make you feel better.  Too much water, though, can leave you waterlogged so you want a good balance.  Most people do not drink enough water.

I know to get all the way to my desired weight, I will have to lower the calories in my meals but at this point, I'm just trying to get rid of the bad stuff.

I did walk for 20 - 25 minutes yesterday around our warehouse.  I was not able to get out because I was in meetings all day but this was actually better because it takes time to leave and come back, time I could be spending walking a little further.

I did feel very hungry in the evening but I countered that with water.  It mostly helped but I still felt a little jittery, didn't sleep well last night, and am up early today.  I am also battling my psychological demons, the ones that tell me that I'm a guy and I should eat what I want.  I also hear that little voice in my head telling me to finish what's on my plate and not waste food... that there are starving children in China... you know that kind of stuff.  My ego and sense of entitlement are in there also.  Will keep battling.

I will post my weight each Saturday but I have been weighing myself daily.  I just know I'm going to fluctuate up and down during the week but the weekly interval should show my true weight loss.

Day 4 - I'm Becoming A Bore

Day 4 was somewhat like day 3.  I had to go into the office yesterday, so I ate cereal and took my lunch.  I didn't want to "starve" myself and be shaky in the office.  In the afternoon I switched from coffee to water, although I did have a Diet Pepsi.  For dinner we had leftovers, which for me was stew.  In the evening I did end up having two beers.  I guess I'm going to have to do without the drinks because it is seeming to have an impact on my weight loss.

For exercise I did a couple of rounds in the mall yesterday.  The tendons on the back of my leg were a little sore from Monday's walk.

Beer Is My Downfall, Day 3

Today I ended up having two beers after learning that the kind of beer I drink is (only) 160 calories.  That puts me at 320 for the beer but the rest of the day went very well.  I drank coffee in the morning and water beginning at noon.  My first eating was after I did a two mile walk on our Centre track.  I do have a free track membership so I didn't cheat.  For lunch I had an orange, handful of carrots, yogurt, and water.

Dinner was healthy as my wife made wheat pasta with tomato sauce, asparagus, and bread.  I was expecting something a little more hearty as she does like to cook.  So I went for the two beers after dinner.

My excercise for the day was some twisting and a two mile walk.  Does waking around the house and up and down the stairs count?  I also did laundry and put away the clothes while watching the latest Heroes episode.

I am writing this early so I am hoping I made myself a lunch today... guess we'll see if I got up this morning to do it.  I'll keep drinking water like crazy and see if I can keep my eating in check.  Hope you are doing well with your weight loss plan if you're doing one...

Better Day, Better Control

Yesterday was a better day (day 2).  I drank lots of water and kept my eating mostly under control.  The worst thing I ate was a scoop of vanilla ice cream with bananas over the top, not too bad.  My exercise could be better, I really did very little.  I watched the two NFL games and worked with my computer most of the day.  Even just an hour of movement would help me.

I think my first week is going to be fine ultimately but I will need major improvements in my lifestyle to get down to my goal weight.

Colts And Saints Move On To Superbowl

The Indianapolis Colts topped the New York Jets in the early game today, winning by a score of 30-17.  The Jets looked strong in the first quarter, scoring two touchdowns early but failed to capitalize on it later in the game.

http://www.nfl.com/playoffs/story?id=09000d5d815ef4e6&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true

The Saints took the later game after Brett Farve threw a interception when he really should have kept it on the ground for a little better field position.  A field goal was almost a certainty without the interception.  The game went to overtime, with the Saints driving down the field.  They also had the help of some penalties and bad calls.  Hartley kicked the fieldgoal from 40 yards out and the game was over.

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2010012401/2009/POST20/vikings@saints/recap/full-story

The Superbowl teams were no surprise as both teams went deep into the season undefeated.  The surprise to me was that the early game was decisively the Colts, and the later game was never more than 7 points different and tied many times.

Couldn't Avoid The Sweets

Day 1 is over and I have to admit, that dispite good intentions I couldn't avoid the deserts last night at my nephew's birthday party.  The night got a little long and wild for some adults, although I avoided the alcohol for the first time in a week.  I also avoided soda pop.  So I can give myself those two successes for the day.

I drank a ton of water in the afternoon which leads to the bathroom a lot, I guess I need to get used to that.  Today I'll try to continue avoiding soda and beer, but I'll also try to get throught the day without cake, pie, pop tarts (maybe), and heapin helpins of anything.  I'll just try to eat reasonably.

As far as exercise, I am going to see if I can do a bit this morning.  I'm not going to beat myself up, though, if I can't get a two-hour workout in.  If I can do anything that'll be great.

We had gotten a new scale yesterday so I re-weighed myself and posted the weight.  Our old scale did measure a bit high.  Chelsey actually wanted Chris to get a new scale so she did.

Ideal Weight Confirmed

Being at 145 is an ideal weight for my height based on this chart: http://www.rush.edu/rumc/page-1108048103230.html, at least it falls at the midpoint of my range.  I did weigh myself this morning and my weight has been posted, so that is my starting point.

Before we get going, we need to make sure we are healthy enough for exercise and diet, and I am.  I see my doctor every 6 months for my high blood pressure and she always says to work out and lose weight.  She also says I am healthy enough to do whatever.  Just take asprin for any chest pains :).

My first few weeks should be reasonably easy as I've been able to lose the first 10 lbs before with minor changes to my lifestyle.  Getting beyond that is going to take work.  Do make sure to drink tons of water as any weight loss program is bound to make you more dehydrated than normal.

Ok, so the goal the next couple of days is to eliminate soda pop and beer, and you do know I like my beer.  That would go for any other alcohol.  I'll probably pass on the birthday cake today.  Over the weekend I plan to do some easy exercises.  We'll see how it goes.

I'll post my new weight on a weekly basis.  Oh, by the way, some ground rules:

1. No health club memberships or Jenny Craig (i.e. no spending gobs of money)
2. No unusual methods, pills
3. No gastric bypass
4. Nothing dangerous

Losing Weight Is Simple, Right?

Losing weight is the supposedly simple task of reducing the amount of calories you take in and increasing the number of calories you burn.  For those of us that really like food, cutting the calories can be... well... difficult.  Perhaps the worst strike against me, I sit a lot at work and when I'm working on my blogs.  So how in the world am I going to lose weight?

My goal is to lose down to 145 lbs in one year.  I have never been below 165 since I have been above it, and I probably weigh between 220 and 230 right now.  So I guess that puts me between 75 and 85 lbs I want to lose, in a year.  Get out the little calculator and we see that is about 1.6 lbs per week, which is reasonable.

I am going to learn how to eat better, work out more effectively, adjust my life, and do whatever it takes to lose those two pounds each week.  I'll blog about my experiences while blogging about everything else in the world also here on my Rants blog.

Weight Loss Goal?

I am thinking I need to lose weight.  Actually I know I do.  So, I was thinking, I should write a blog about attempting to lose weight over a year.  I don't know if it would be a good read... and if I am writing three blogs and working full time, will I be able to burn enough calories in the remaining time?  This is going to take some thought.

Please let me know what you think about this idea.  Perhaps I could just include it as part of the Rants blog?

Am I Out To Steal Distributors?

I had read that another blog writer has been dissing other multi-level marketing companies and pitching their own where in the past they had been strictly an MLM trainer.  I am not going to tell you that I don't want to make money from my small business blog, but the last thing I want to do is take distributors from other companies.  In fact, I'll say it now: If you are part of another multi-level marketing company, don't join mine.  I have also said this in various places on my blog.

Having said that, I do publicize the company I currently belong to.  I have been an associate of the company for 20 years now and I am proud of the association.  I am a little sad that I didn't work harder in the past to build business with the company.  Mainly, though, I publicize the company because I want customers to find me.  There are many people out there that love the product but can't find a local associate.  So if you live in Elgin, look me up.

You can feel safe that I am not out to steal your distributors.  If you don't currently belong to another multi-level marketing company, check mine out.

Chelsey and Owen Picture

This is a picture of my grandson Owen and my daughter Chelsey.  This was taken when Owen was a bit younger.

Brittany Murphy's Mom And Husband: Drugs Didn't Kill Her

According to an article published by API and Yahoo (link to follow), Brittany's mom and husband say that drugs didn't kill her.  I have to ask, if you die at 32 of cardiac arrest, how did you die?  The article talked about a heart valve problem that Brittany had, and she did have diabetes, but the doctors said that she should live a long life.

From past early deaths of celebrities, the typical cause of death is drugs: Michael Jackson, John Beluchi, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Bon Scott, and Brian Jones (drowned but was taking drugs).  Jim Morrison died of alcoholism.  Some have died in small airplane crashes.  A couple have died from suicide.  We know this was not some sort of "accident", she had to have been sick in some way.  And her health issues could have been enough of a problem, but the likely problem?

I have to wonder what the motivation is to even come out and talk about Brittany's death at this point in time? If you want privacy, don't talk about it.  The news is covering other things at this point, the only motivation to do a news story is to keep the story alive.  That seems kind of goulish to me.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100120/ap_en_ot/us_people_brittany_murphy;_ylt=AjjwULn4OJ54MDswRiv6q7as0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFrYzh0ZDVlBHBvcwMxNjgEc2VjA2FjY29yZGlvbl9lbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50BHNsawNicml0dGFueXNtb20-

How To Improve Your MLM Results - Rants Version

If it is in my Rants Blog, it can't be too serious right?  Ok, here are my 10 ways to improve your MLM results:

1. Dust the kit off once per week
2. Stop letting primetime TV always take priority
3. Pitch to somebody besides your mom
4. Pay your telephone bill
5. Wear something besides the white t-shirt with the barbecue stain (go Tim!)
6. Take your depression meds
7. Don't drink before, during, and after the meeting (pick one instead)
8. Stop criticizing your prospect's judgment for wanting to sign up
9. Respond to your email asking for more information
10. Sales materials with coffee stains are a no-no

Using Google Reader To Follow Other Blogs

I use Google Reader at http://www.google.com/reader to read the various blogs that I want to track and comment on when something strikes me.  Generally, you just tell it what RSS feeds to subscribe to and it will let you know when there is a new post to read.  You can then click through to the web site or read the headline and decide you are not interested in the article - or anything in between.  It makes following other blogs much more organized than trying to visit all of their sites each day.

To subscribe to a blog, you need to find their RSS feed, which can be out in the open, hidden, or non-existant.  The link to the feed on this blog is at the bottom of each page, look for Atom.

Sunday NFL - Vikings and Jets Move On

The early game was the Minnesota Vikings versus the Dallas Cowboys.  I wore my Cowboys jersey today hoping for a Minnesota loss.  Unfortunately, Brett Farve and the Minnesota Vikings dominated Dallas with a final score of 34-3.  The Vikings played tough and Dallas could not seem to get it together.

The late game today was the New York Jets versus the San Diego Chargers.  San Diego kept it close but ultimately the Jets won the game 17-14.  The Chargers had been looking hot late in the season but three missed field goals were ultimately the difference in the game.

A Photo Of Jeff And Jessica

Jeff and Jessica met at AMDA as they are both Sophomores pursuing their BFA degrees. They both want to be actors. Jeff wants to be a screen actor and Jessica wants to do musical theater.

An Update On My Daughter Chelsey

My son Jeffery and my daughter Chelsey are a little competitive but they wound up pursuing different paths, which is wonderful. Where Jeff is trying to be an actor, my daughter has aspirations of becoming a Country Music Writer and hopefully an artist. She has already written countless songs and has performed many of them at open mike nights, in front of her friends, and at the South Elgin Riverfest.

Chelsey has been trying to persuade us to go to Nashville in March. We are hoping to go and look at colleges as she is hoping to pursue a business degree in Nashville as she hones her craft and seeks a publishing contract. She really wants to go to Belmont which has both business and music.

Chelsey received a guitar for Christmas in 2008 and by March of 2009, performed with her guitar in front of her class to a rousing ovation.

I'll try to provide updates on her activities as they happen.

Jeff Is Finishing His Second Year At AMDA

In February, my son Jeff completes his second year at AMDA and will be a Junior.  AMDA is American Musical and Dramatic Acadamy in Los Angeles.  As he begins his third year, he is now able to try out for parts in commercials, television shows, and movies.  He was restricted by the school from trying out for parts before now.

He really does not want me talking too much about his school so I'll try not to.  I just say that he is working towards his BFA degree (Batchelors in Fine Arts) and is hoping to work as a screen actor.  His school is at Yucca and Vine street, about two blocks from Hollywood and Vine, so he is right there in the mix.  He has personally seen many famous actors and musicians, and has been on Jimmy Kimmel Live himself as part of the audience.  He has had many opportunities to go to premieres and, at one, sat in the row behind the actors.

At his semester break we are going to take his car out to him in Los Angeles.

His girlfriend Jessica is part of the musical program at AMDA and is hopeful to do acting in musical theater once she graduates.  They are moving into an off-campus apartment next month with another couple from the school.

Jeff has gotten a lot of positive feedback on his acting skills from the teachers at AMDA and is very excited about his future opportunities.

Saturday NFL - Saints And Colts Move On

The Saints overcame a 14-0 deficit to defeat the Arizona Cardinals by 45-14, which means that the Saints shutout the Cardinals except for the first two minutes of play.  I knew that the Saints would be tough to beat in the postseason and was a little stumped as to why they struggled the last few weeks.  I remember the New England game where they just walked all over New England.  As for this game, I was only able to watch it to halftime, but the Saints had moved decisively against the Cardinals by then.

The Colts played the Ravens and won by a score of 20-3.  The Ravens really could mount no offence against the Colts although the first quarter of play the score was 3-3.  The Ravens defence sounded like (I listened on radio) they were keeping the Colts in check but ultimately they could not keep Payton Manning down.  I was concerned about the Colts because they benched their first string players during the last games of the season and strategy that had not worked out for them before.  Now I am a believer and I think they will be tough to beat in the post season.  Could we see the Saints against the Colts in the Superbowl?

Our Saturday In Chicago

Yesterday we went to Chicago to the Chicago Boat, RV, and Outdoors show at McCormick Place.  I was a little surprised because it took up less floor space than I expected, but there was a lot packed into that floor space.  They had boats of all sizes, from canoes to 42 foot yachts.  The boats were actually my favorite thing to look at, and I think my wife Chris was impressed as well.

They also had all sizes of motor home (RV).  They had trailers, third wheels, class A, and class C RV's.  We looked through all of them.

We were only there to look so we didn't buy anything big.  We did have lunch, a drink, and Chris bought a ceramic dip holder.

After the show we went to a bar on the north side, played pool, and watched the first playoff game.  At least half of it.  We then went to a fondue restaurant and had dinner.

It was a fun day and we don't get out by ourselves often enough.

Business Blog Update

Twitter has been the most effective place to promote my blog by far.  People do look for news coming across and read what they are interested in.  After Twitter, I get most of my new visitors from some paid advertisements (stumbleupon), direct url entry, and Google.  If I were to start over again, I would want to be listed on Google and Yahoo, Yahoo because it increases your search rankings in Google.  I also believe buying old domain names is worth the $10 per year as it gets me more new traffic than Google does.

Other than this, posting relevant comments on other blogs is the way to go.  So, in other words, spend your money on domain names and Yahoo, use Twitter, get listed on Google, and post on other people's sites.  Everything else you do is gravy.  Free is best.

I noticed there is a lot of blog directories out there that will list you for free.  This is a good way to increase the number of links to your site.  Be careful about putting too many of their graphics on your site though.

Up Early Today - Can't Sleep

I'm going to the Chicago Boat, RV, and Outdoors show today at McCormick in Chicago today and don't know if I can't sleep because of the idea of the show, or if I can't sleep thinking about the movie we watched last night: Julie and Julia.  In the movie, the woman writes a blog about cooking all the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook over an entire year.  Towards the end of the movie, her blog is so popular that she gets people calling her to ask her if she wants to write a book or what her future plans are.  It is always a nice dream to believe that your writing could be popular and that people would be on the edge of their chair waiting to read what you are going to write next.

Of course, writing my blog, now blogs, didn't start out that way.  They were probably more therapy just to talk out some of the things that are on my mind.  I'm not really doing a lot of extra right now and it's just nice to write.

Everyone have a nice day and I will probably write more on Sunday.  My small business blog will update today at noon central with another episode of our business story.

Google Analytics

Ok, I can't live without Google Analytics so I put back the code for it.  The load speed problem I associated with Analytics actually came from Internet Explorer doing who knows what.  I cut the number of posts down to 4 on my home page and eliminated most of the external graphics.  I am also only putting on the one line of text for Google Adsense rather than allowing graphic advertisements.

Load speed is extremely important to me as we have people overseas that look at the site and they just will not wait around for graphics to load.  I think that sub-4 second performance is good but 8 second performance is horrible.  Now I have to figure out a way to make up for the advertisements I took off.  I guess we'll see what happens.

Using Too Many External Graphics

I have come to the realization that my small business blog uses way to many calls to external sites and I was able to speed up it's page load time to 3 seconds from 7 - 8 seconds.  I was also using Google's analytics but it was registering way too slow so it's gone too.  I see so many other people using similar graphics but it doesn't seem to have a major effect on their pages... So what am I doing wrong?  Any suggestions?

Earthquake In Haiti

I think the United States government is doing the right thing by helping out the people of Haiti.  No doubt they need our help, and no doubt should we provide it.  Still, I wonder how many disasters we can afford to get involved with?  We did a horrible job of being prepared and helping the people of New Orleans after a hurricane wiped them out.  So I guess it's good to help others but we should neglect our own people in their time of need?

Right now we need a government that can eliminate waste and more than balance the budget, budget for the unexpected.  Because the unexpected happens yearly several times.  We cannot afford to be overbudget every year, and deficit spend every year.  It is time to get real and axe the programs that are doing us no good.  Axe the foreign aid if it's not giving us a return on our investment.  Axe the war in Iraq as soon as possible, and think long and hard before we get involved with the next one.

I have no intention of supporting myself with Social Security in my old age, but there will be millions of people who will.  We need to get our act together and take care of the old and disabled.  We need to do this without borrowing against our children's futures.  The time is now.

Get A Life?

It has nearly been a year since I got my MBA.  My time before that was spent writing papers on a weekly basis, research, reading, and doing classwork.  Since then I have enjoyed having a beer or two or three many nights, spending time with my grandson, and actually enjoying the noisy house.  Of course, I still enjoy writing, but now I get to write about what I want to write about.

I have also enjoyed television and hulu, spending time away from the house at family, with my mom and dad in Iowa, or going to a show as I'm doing this weekend.  The show is actually the Chicago Boat, RV, and Outdoors show at McCormick.  It'll be cool to see all the boats in person.  I had actually been trying to get myself to read Yachting magazine, although I find the business section or Money magazine a bit more interesting.  My eyes are not what they once were, as I now need reading glasses to enjoy any reading at all.

I have aged nearly 10 years since I started going back to college.  I enjoyed each and every single class, grudgingly, but I am really glad it's over.  Or is it?  Maybe someday I'll go for my PhD.  Until then, I'll just sit back and enjoy this Sam Adams.

Conan or Jay? How about Jimmy Fallon?

I don't know why we have to fight about who should be on NBC after the local news (that's 10:30 here in the Chicagoland area).  Conan was pretty dull for the Tonight Show and Jay really isn't that much better.  David Letterman must be loving this quandry that NBC has.  Personally, I like Jimmy Fallon.  Move him up to 10:30.  He couldn't really be that much worse.

We have been watching "Two and a half men" on WGN at 10:30.  Even these reruns are more interesting than the other options.

Almost Hit Bambi On My Way Home

I was going north on 25 towards South Elgin, Illinois when I caught a deer in my headlights.  The little guy was square in my lane pointed left, and he moved when my headlights caught him, but I layed down a bit of rubber as I tried to avoid him.  I must have scared the crap out of the person who was tailgating my son's 1991 Toyota Corolla at the time.  Luckily I didn't get hit or hit the deer, and I proceeded to continue driving with the guy/girl continuing to tailgate me.

Be careful out there in the dark and please give the guy ahead of you pleanty of room, even if he is going the speed limit.

Rants Blog - What is it?

My rants blog is simply a place for me to speak my mind about anything.  I am not limiting myself to any particular subject matter.  It is also more "private" as I am not really publicizing it as much as my small business blog.  So by reading this, you are in on the secret.  I do publish these blog postings to twitter so my twitter friends can see what's going on with me.

My postings on this blog may be hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly depending on when I feel like ranting about something.  My small business blog, on the other hand, will be updated daily when possible.  So there you have it.

This blog may also publish insider type information about what's going on with the business so make sure to check back.  Currently our corp had about $3000 in revenue during 2009, mostly from IT consulting.  This year may be better or worse as we have business on the horizon but I'm not sure where it will fall.

The Best Thing You Can Do As An Investor

Do you like to buy and sell stocks?  If you have money to invest right now, you should be doing lots of research into the companies you're thinking about buying.  And take your time because the market is way up since March of 2009.  Otherwise, the best thing you can do is to not pay attention to the market.

I buy a lot of different stocks that tend to all go up as the market goes up and all go down as the market goes down.  The only way you can profit, assuming you have a lot of money invested, is to slowly shift to cash or bonds as the market goes up, then slowly shift back to stocks as the market goes down.

Lately, the market has been going up and up and up.  Where should your money be right now?  A big chunk should be in cash equivilant investments or stable investments, but you should continue to hold some of your investments in stock (just in case the market continues to go up).

This is all my opinion as an amateur investor.  I am not a stock broker.  I do know that the stock market changes have very little to do with the value of the underlying companies.

Wow - I Just Got A Lead Out Of The Blue

I actually had somebody approach me about doing marketing consulting for a web site.  I had not really expected to find consulting work but it certainly sounds interesting.  The lead came from somebody seeing my blog that knows me - they asked if it was ok to give my name to somebody that's trying to do business on the internet.  It sounds like somebody with personal connections too... very cool.

I had to share this with you all.  I'm kind of a grumpy negative person sometimes but this is something positive that I'm happy to share.

Is Multi-Level Marketing Really The Way To Go?

I had this one important question come to mind as I have been working on my small business blog.  Is multi-level marketing the right kind of business to start?  Well, it really depends on a lot of factors.  For instance:

1. How much money do you have to invest?

Selling somebody else's product is usually a way to keep your startup costs down.  They have usually invested the time and money to devise marketing plan, sales materials, advertisements, and approaches, so all you have to do is apply what they have already done for you.

If you have money to invest, developing your own product, your own sales materials, your own advertisements, and so forth might be doable.

2. How big are your ambitions?

Are you looking for a full-time income in sales or are you looking for the billion dollar payday?  Having your own product allows you the opportunity to grow huge, but selling for a multi-level marketing company can still delivery you a six or seven digit income.

3. How much risk can you assume?

The more money you invest, the bigger the risk that it will either not pay off or that it'll lead to complete destruction.  Are you willing to risk everything you have?

Multi-level marketing distributorships usually involve very little risk.  The worst thing that usually happens is that the distributor will quit and lose their small investment.

Personally, I would prefer to be the MLM company than be an MLM distributor.  The benefit would be that you would control your own destiny, you are not at the whim of somebody else.  On the other hand, being an MLM company requires much start-up capital because MLM companies are information intensive.  You have to know how much each distributor sold and be able to compile that into commissions to pay everyone.  Then you need to cut checks and mail them out.  There is lots of IT infrustructure involved there.

So it's up to you.  What do you think?

Join My Program, It's The Best

It seems that everyone is pitching their business opportunity.  We get emails, messages, and telephone calls from many people that say that we should join their MLM.  That's all fine and good, but we really don't want to.

In 1990, we signed up with Watkins Incorporated out of Winona, Minnesota.  By 1992, we basically did nothing with this business but let it sit, and buy products for ourselves.  After 20 years, we have a handful of customers that include many of our family members.  Every once in a while, somebody will call and say they can't get the products anywhere else and that they need vanilla today.  Typically, this is towards the end of the year around Thanksgiving and Christmas, so we always make sure to stock enough.

I'll be honest with you, we have no downline and are making no where near a full-time living with it.  But we sell $200 - $300 worth of products in November and December to family and people that find us somehow.  There is no advertising involved.  We were not promoting the business until now.  People just find us and buy from us.  Today it is even more interesting because many Watkins Representatives have moved or dropped out and there are still customers who rave about the product.

Is this a good business to be involved in, selling Watkins products?  I think it is a great business.  Products we want to buy.  Customers who are raving fans.  Dwindling number of competitors.  And the compensation plan pays out 60% of the product's value.  We just need to be committed to the business. 

Many of the Watkins Representatives that signed up at the same time as us are manager level or above.  One that we know of is making over $250K per year.  Too bad that isn't us.

As for any other program, we are really not interested in anything else.  If nothing ever happens with Watkins, that's ok, we're fine the way things are.

How Is My Blog Going To Do?

As my audience is starting to increase, I still do have some doubts as to if I am going to be able to grow a large enough audience for it to pay for my time.  I always had the same doubts as our business was growing, always wondering why things don't progress faster.  Now I know that you can't really control your growth one way or another, you just have to be prepared to handle whatever you get.  I mean if you can do things better great, otherwise you just have to let things play out.

I am actually surprised at the growth of our audience.  I've cut way back on our paid advertising as our target for visitors is being taken care of by non-paid visitors.  There is actually still quite a bit of opportunity out there if you are willing to work and be patient.

Our Alexa number is pretty good.  I should really feel very good about things but I wish we would grow faster.  I guess I'll just have to learn to accept things as they are.

Cardinals Beat Packers In Overtime

Final score 51 to 45.  Cardinals strip Aaron Rogers on a third down and run it in for a touchdown.  Cardinals move on to play New Orleans next week.

Packers And Cardinals Head To Overtime

In a game that saw the Cardinals up three scores, the game ends the 4th quarter in a tie at 45 all.  Aaron Rogers took the Packers offense to three scores in the forth quarter versus one for the Cardinals.  A last minute field goal attempt went left.

New England Loses To Baltimore

With 5:30 left in the game, Baltimore is beating New England by 33 to 14.  This is the third wildcard game of the weekend with one left to go.

New England seemed to have problems getting their offense going and Baltimore looked brilliant both on offense and defense.  Next game is the Green Bay Packers versus the Arizona Cardinals on Fox at 3:30 central time.

I Really Need To Practice

My wife Chris and I had our once a month bowling league last night.  Of the four of us, who included my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, only John (brother-in-law) bowled well.  And he was smashed before we even began.  He had been watching the wildcard game at a friends house and had been drinking a few.

Chris was in pain.  She had taken a nasty spill on our stairs during our New Year's Eve party and she's got the bruises to show for it.  She has also been suffering from pain in her hip.  She's really going to have to see the doctor I think.  Her bowling really suffered from her pain.

Theresa (sister-in-law) was not bowling her usual either but I'm not sure why.  I know she wasn't too happy.  And then there was me.  I bowled in the 140's and 150's but when I was warming up I was bowling strike after strike.  Then as we got into our bowling, I get weaker and weaker, and then my arm starts throwing all over the place.

I was lifting weights a couple of years ago and I found that doing this, but abstaining from weight lifting on bowling days worked out pretty well.  But even better than that, practicing twice a week seemed to help improve my game significantly.  I haven't done that in about 10 years but maybe I need to take it up again.

As always, practice at anything does improve how you do at it.

What I Think About "Retirement"

I have had the good fortune of retiring once in my life, and having two other summers off during my adulthood.  I am 46 this year, so I have 21 years left until my official full social security retirement age.  When I was 35, I quit my job and had no other job to go to.  I quit to run my home-based business.

I loved the first six weeks of being away from work.  I played golf, bowled, and worked out.  I shopped during the day, spent time with my kids, had alone time with my wife.  It was great to begin with.

Then, I found myself walking my kids to the bus and meeting them at night.  In between, I rarely left the house.  I was somewhat busy with my business but it was getting colder out and there wasn't much to do outside the house during the day.  Nobody my age was around although I did often golf with sales guys during the day.  After a month or two, I started looking for a job.

So how the heck does anybody truly retire?  I am still trying to figure this out.  And to say you can start a business and retire, well that is just silly.  Having a business is hard work and it never stops.  Go on vacation?  Very tough.  You have to have business objectives that somehow allow you time to do the things you want.  It may require employees or somebody else to help.

The idea of retiring with nothing else to do also stumps me.  I want to be active.  I like to work, I just want to be financially free of an employer at some point.  I wouldn't mind living in warm weather and traveling a bit, but other than that I really want to have some sort of past time.

What about you?

New Blog - Welcome

Welcome to my new blog where I am free to rant about anything.  Right now I am watching Hancock on Starz with my laptop in my lap, drinking a pepsi, and not doing a whole lot.  I don't really have much on my mind right at this moment, but I had been following the health care stuff, the wars, and the guy who tried to blow up the airplane.  You know, stuff like that.