Revenue Tracking

As business owners, new products come up and should be tracked for profitablity. A chapter in my book demostrates a method used to track the revenue produced by a division or a product.

In this picture, the owner may want track the sales of the various tire brands sold in his business. While tracking revenue, the costs will also be followed to record the appropriate expenses involved in the purchase of the various tire brands.

Chapter Highlights

It has been a good amount of time since my last posting into this blog. I have been very busy with my book, Desperate for Dollars. Attending worshops, sending queries, and gathering research materials.

In my book, I write about business owners who have successful business practices. As you can see in this picture, OSHA would be clapping their hands over and over. These two worksers are making many dangerous working conditions and most likely are contractors hired by the building owner or building management company.

In today's working world, we need to take steps to become safe. These two workers are missing safety netting, cones or markers to mark off the area, so no customers would accidently walk into this work area.

Original Designs

Brenda's first designer line of home/office desk accessories.

Jim and I enjoying pizza in Chicago.

Starbucks was just around the corner from our hotel. It was great!

Lee and her mother sat next to me at the Country Living Event. We both are designers and were in Chicago to "pitch our product".

Country Living Event

Yes, Tea Time Consultants has a new line of home/office desk accessories. Shown here are the accessories in the pink floral pattern. What a great way to organize your office. All desk accessories are manufactured here in the USA.

Family Budget

My days are formed with checklists. Checklist for groceries, checklist for the airplane, checklist for house chores and calendar updates. So the task of the family budget must start with a list. To begin, start with a budget of $200.00 weekly. A very small amount for today's family, but you have to start somewhere and most people are frankly just overwhelmed with the idea of a Budget.

Main items to begin with on the list:
Food $30.00
Gas 20.00
Savings 10.00
Utilities 40.00
Beauty/Health 5.00
House Note/Rent 65.00
Repairs 30.00
Total $200.00

You will note, items not included are cable tv, cell phones, gym memberships, credit card payments and starbucks just to name a few. A big expense which can be dropped is health insurance. I know, listening to the media, you would believe no one could live in the USA and not have insurance. However, I can tell you differently. As tax payers we have set up county health centers all across the USA. It is not advertised. You can even check with your doctor to see what he/she would charge if you had to pay cash for your visits or medications.

Unemployment has hit many families during this time. However, do not let your shoulders droop or your hygiene suffer just because you are miserable. You are a role model for your children.

Plan your meals together, plan and plant a garden together. Instead of dinners out, plan movie night in or board games. Popcorn is a good snack! Visit with neighbors, plan a potluck dinner. Everyone brings a dish and a resume.

Get involved with community activities. Do some charity work, help at church. I have helped clean the church pews and placed sharpened pencils, just so the church would not have to pay someone to do these tasks.

The checklist will become a very handy tool. Pratice and you will be surprise how you really can control your costs and main your family budget.

Homebuyers

Do you know someone who is considering buying a used home? One of the pricing factors of the used home can be the age of the appliances. In 2006, a home component study was conducted to determine the life of certain appliances. The study showed these findings:

Appliances-gas ranges have the longest life expectancy at 15 years;dryers and refrigerators live about 13 years. Other smaller appliances were compactors at six years, dishwashers-nine years and microwave ovens nine years.

Kitchen Countertops-natural stone lasts a lifetime. Cultured marble-shorter-20 years. Faucets and fixtures will last 50 years. Faucets may need gaskets replaced at 15 years and bathroom shower enclosures will last for 50 years.

As a potential homebuyer, you can find out the age of the appliances and use this information as part of your bargaining tool.

March Hare

Good Morning fellow bloggers. With many years, +30 of finance experience, I feel I should share some of my tips of wading thru the deep waters of a downturn economy.

First tip I would like to offer is to assess your current situation. What do you like about your life, what would you like to change. Purchase a spiral notebook, better yet, clean out your desk, you most likely already have a used notebook with some blank pages. See you have already saved yourself some money!

Label the top of one page "Wish List" and the other page "Current Assets". Start a ramdom list, no particular order, just write it down. Add to the list a little each day. End of the week, you should have an idea of what valuables you may already have but had forgotten over the years.