The Tak Team Blog

Comments of the disadvantages of owning a Timeshare like RCI and our recommendations for luxury traveling.

In its beginning Timeshare was probably, along with franchising, one of the most revolutionary concepts of its time. But as good as Timeshare sounds, it comes with a set of disadvantages.

The whole idea is to buy one single week and never pay again. But it is here where the first problem arises, would you really like to travel to the same resort every year for the rest of your life? Maybe it’s a resort you love and you say to yourself: “No problem, I love coming here”.

So then the industry made some changes, now you can buy Timeshares on a resort that is part of a group of resorts, and they offer you the advantage to travel different places. But is it really that great?

Even if your resort is allied to others, are they resorts from around the globe? How many resorts can you really choose from? And did your read the small print?

Timeshares are highly expensive, regardless of the timeshare membership you own, you will be charged with an annual fee at around $700 usd year, and it doesn’t matter if you use your week or not. Can you afford this?

And above all this, more often than not, there are common restrictions with timeshares: blackout weeks, no chance to travel more than one week a year. And did you remember the advantage to travel different places? Well swapping comes with a lot of difficulties, and sometimes swapping resorts comes with a high cost.

And what happens if you would like to give your friends or family and great present and send them away to travel for a week? Well, that means that you won’t be able to travel in the same years as you just blocked your week.

But not everything is black when it comes with traveling at low prices… is now time for our recommendations.

Imagine a travel membership that didn’t had any of the disadvantages a timeshare has.

A membership that allows you to travel fifty-two weeks a year. A membership that lets you choose your travel destination from over 5,000 resorts around the world, that include golf resorts, ski resorts, family resorts, in fact all the type of resorts you can imagine. And it includes cruises!

A membership that didn’t have annual fees, maintenance fees or any kind of annual fee.

The wait is over, because this membership has arrived. This membership is taking the travel industry by storm and is making the timeshare industry shake.

What is the deal with this membership? Until a few years ago this membership was sold exclusively to a select executives, but now this travel membership can be owned by you or anyone who wishes to travel the world year after year for unlimited time.

Name: Email: Phone:

The world of business startups is rife with option. You can take on a franchise or start your own business from the ground up. each approach has its pros and cons.

The world is rife with franchise opportunities.Your local town center is probable full of franchises. Franchises are typically founded on a tried and tested business model. When you buy into a franchise, many aspects of the business including marketing are taken care of off. There are many different franchises available. Some will give you the business name, equipment and everything you need for start up, others only give you the basics and you still have to buy or lease a location, purchase equipment and the inventory you will need.

Some key drawbacks of buying a franchise however are that they are typically inflexible in terms to making it your own, and you must pay for the privilege up front. Visit the Key Mergers website for more information or if you would like to f you would like to buy a business or even to sell one.

Building your very own company from the bottom up however means that you can grow the business organically over time, you can limit your initial outlay and you can be as creative with the direction of your business as you like. Depending on how novel your new enterprise is, it is possible that your will have a steep testing curve and will have to make all of your own connections.

At the end of the day, the rational for choosing whether to buy a franchise or start a business from scratch are dependent on what your want to get out of the enterprise. There is no one size fits all advise.

In home with kids which haven’t still grown up, we often want the flooring to be as less smooth and as highly gripping as possible. We don’t like taking chances with slippery flooring making our kids or babies fall or not letting our babies learn to walk correctly, do we? Thus anti slip flooring has advantages here and in many more places such as play areas of kids, patios, garages, warehouse floors and the like. Anitslip flooring is usually made from hygienic plastic and is a slip resistant sort of a surface. Anitslip flooring has a relatively high durability, in fact even military vehicles can also often run over it!

Some of the advantages of antislip flooring are that it is slip resistant, durable and UV stable, attractive, absorber of sound, comfortable to work and stand on, has no downtime, relocatable and reusable, doesn’t need much maintenance either. Antislip flooring isn’t bad too look at either. However it isn’t just about meant for any purpose. You wouldn’t find people using it much in their homes. However you might find antislip flooring used in high grade swimming pools to prevent swimmers from slipping, especially from the shallow to the deeper end. Antislip flooring is surely a grace to those who need it, it isn’t that it is very uncommon either, so it should be well within the reach of those who really need it!

If you have decided to get rid of you excess unwanted hair, then you have several choices available to you. The first thing that you have to do is to choose whether you want a permanent solution or a temporary one. Especially for men, usually temporary solutions are more sought out as it allows them to change their minds later on.

Thus if you are more inclined toward temporary solutions, then you will have to choose shaving, waxing or depilatory creams. If you are thinking of using shaving or depilatory creams, then you will have to make sure that you shower with warm water before the hair removal process. In the case of waxing, you don’t need to take a shower as the area that is going to be waxed must be moisture free. Also in all the tree methods stated above it is usually a good tip to have your partner assist you in the process.

If you are looking for a more permanent solution, then you should think about solutions like laser hair removal or electrolysis. These can allow for more permanent hair removal, but it is best that you get some professional advice from an expert to see if they are suitable for your skin.

More hair removal tips and advice on this page

You want to write your own resume, but you’re stuck…like with your name. How do you get past the advice and books and the FEAR?

Sit down and relax. It’s ok. You can do this.

Let yourself think about what it is you want to accomplish. Where do you want to work? What do you want to do for a living? Oh, you already know that?

Well, how about you jot that down then. That will be a part of your objective statement.

Where have you worked before? Write down who you have worked for and when. What did you do while you were there? What was your job title? Did you accomplish anything of major significance? These items will be mentioned in the summary of qualifications section. Employers love to know why you’re successful. It’s a part of their overall goal to hire people who like to accomplish things - like making them more money.

Once you have all that, you need to spend some time thinking about school. Ugghh. Not your idea of fun? Ah, c’mon. School wasn’t that bad, was it?

Where did you go and what did you study? Even if it’s high school, there have to be some subjects that were of greater interest than others. What did you like about your classes and why? Write it down. List the dates you attended, too. That’s another thing about employers. They like to know the details.

So, you already have a lot done. It’s time to focus on your other activities. Is there anything you do outside of work that complements your work? Like, volunteer activities or hobbies? Think about all of the groups that you belong to or things you are interested in. Write them down. You may not need everything, but it’s ok to brainstorm them at this point.

Well, that’s the main thinking part. Aren’t you glad that’s over?

Now, it is time to put it all in a cohesive unit. You can either do this on your computer or on a piece of paper.

Figure out where you want each section to go on your resume. It’s ok. You can do this.

Your name and contact information will, of course, go at the top of the page. Next, you’ll probably want to list your objective statement. Make sure it isn’t just focused on you, though. Let the employer know how you’re going to apply yourself to their goals - their needs.

After that, a summary of your qualifications would be great as you need to let the employer know right off just what you can offer. Sell yourself in this section most of all. The employer wants to know if you do the job and will you fit in well with the rest of his/her staff. Your goal is to make that fact apparent in your resume. Yes, you can do the job well - better than anyone else, in fact. Then, give some details and examples of how you have done such a great job in the past.

Next, you can either list your education or your experience, depending upon which one is the strongest. Everything should be ordered according to how much it will help you achieve your desired goal - a job interview. Keep that as your focus. If you are better educated and don’t have a lot of experience, list your education first. On the other hand, if you have a lot of experience and not as much education, list that first.

Note: Try not to repeat anything. If you state something in your summary of qualifications, either don’t list it in the experience section or reword it.

Last thing on the resume is your “other information”. Again, remember that if it contributes to your overall goal, use it. If it doesn’t, then discard it. You don’t want to distract the employer from your target.

From here on, it’s mostly a matter of revising and refining.

Look for words that will add vibrancy and sincerity to your resume. Always try to be as professional as possible.

Looks like you are well on your way to a great resume.

Hey, that rhymes!

Good luck!

Carla Vaughan
Owner/Webmaster

Professional-Resume-Example.com

To read more about resume writing, click here… Resume-Related Articles
- OR - click here to read additional Resume Tips

Report writing is not the easiest of jobs and one of the biggest mistakes made by many report writers is to neglect the final stage of their task - which is to edit and proof-read their report carefully.

It is almost inevitable that your report writing will contain textual errors. It is far better for you to find and correct those errors than for your readers to spot them and possibly become irritated by them. So often this final task of editing is done casually, if at all, whereas it should be done carefully and systematically.

So, how do you actually do it? Different writers will have different approaches, but most professional writers are likely to use the following seven techniques.

1. Print it! Read it! Fix it! Many people find it easier to edit a printed document than one still on the screen, so print and read it. If you stumble then your readers will almost certainly do so too. If you, the writer, cannot read your report without hesitating, then what chance have your readers got? Fix the obvious problems.

2. Shorten it! Draft reports are always too long. Remove anything that does not add value to your report. In fact, nothing like that should be in there but there will be something, maybe several things, so find them and delete them. Just because you sweated blood to discover a certain piece of information does not mean your reader needs to know it. If they do, include it; if they don’t, leave it out. Be ruthless about this.

3. Keep your paragraphs and sentences fairly short. Try to achieve average paragraph lengths of around 5 or 6 lines if printed on A4 paper and aim for an average sentence length of just under 20 words. Short paragraphs and sentences look more inviting and are easier to read than long ones. Obviously some will be longer and some shorter than these guidelines.

4. Try to use plain English when writing reports - if your reader has to get a dictionary out to understand your report then you have not used plain English. When writing a report your job is to get your argument across to your reader, not to expand his or her vocabulary.

So replace unusual or obscure words with ones that are easier to understand. For example, don’t talk about a ‘paradigm shift’ unless you really have to, instead tell them about a different approach or change of attitude or process. Also, delete unnecessary words. A crisis is always serious and dangers are always real so you do not need to say ’serious crisis’ or ‘real danger’. Are there trivial crises or imitation dangers?

5. Tighten up your writing by preferring active to passive sentences. This point of grammar can seriously improve your report writing! Active sentences will usually have a subject-verb-object structure whereas passive ones have an object-verb-subject structure. Clear as mud? Forget the grammar and just look at some examples.

For example, ‘The dog chased the cat’ (5 words) is an active sentence whereas ‘The cat was chased by the dog’ (7 words) is a passive sentence. Active sentences are normally shorter and a bit more direct. It is usually a good idea to aim for about 70-80% of your sentences to be active when writing reports. In technical reports you may have to lower your sights a little. Here are two examples from real reports:

Three sites were visited by the inspectors. (Passive - 7 words)

The inspectors visited three sites. (Active - 5 words)

Children were encouraged to use exploratory play by their teachers. (Passive - 10 words)

Teachers encouraged children to use exploratory play. (Active - 7 words)

6. Do the obvious checks. It is surprising how many people appear to skip the basic checks on punctuation, spelling and grammar. Grammar checkers are far from perfect but they will provide some help if used intelligently.

Most punctuation problems can be avoided if you use short sentences. Short sentences need fewer punctuation marks and the grammar checker is more likely to get things right too.

Set the spellchecker to the right version of English for your readers but do not rely on it. You must also check spelling by eye. A spellchecker cannot check your meaning. If you mistype a word so that it ends up as a correct English word it will not spot it (such as typing ‘work’ instead of ‘word’).

In grammar, ’subject-verb-agreement’ usually means that you have muddled up singulars and plurals. Remember that ‘collective nouns’ such as ‘the board’, ‘the committee’ and ‘the industry’ are actually singular and take singular verbs despite referring to lots of people or organisations. So we write ‘the committee is very concerned,’ not ‘the committee are very concerned’.

7. Finally, take a good look at it. Does it look good? Adding some white space in sensible places (such as an extra line space after sections) can make a report look more inviting.

Editing any document, but especially when you are report writing, is an important part of the production process, not an optional extra to be done if you have nothing better to do with your time. With any writing, especially a lengthy report, no matter how careful you are there will still be some errors. Careful and methodical editing can find most of them. It is far better for you to find them and correct them than for your readers to notice them and wince.

Report writing is not necessarily easy, but it can be rewarding and a good report can build your reputation. A bad one can too!

Author: Tony Atherton
© Tony Atherton 2005

About the author:
Tony Atherton is a freelance trainer and writer based in England. He has had four books published and about 90 of his articles have appeared in various magazines and journals. After an earlier career in industry he now runs in-company training courses in business writing, report writing (including technical reports) and taking minutes, as well as negotiation skills and time management. Over 6000 delegates have attended his courses. Further details can be found at http://www.tony-atherton.co.uk/reportwriting.htm

As program chairperson of my SCORE ** chapter I am always looking for new presenters to address the group. I frequently ask my fellow business counselors to give me some ideas for topics of interest to them.

In August one member approached me with an idea. He suggested inviting some of the clients that the counselors had worked with this year to one of our meetings to give us some feedback on our counseling techniques -both the highs and the lows.

Five clients were invited to our meeting and they were asked the first 5 questions of this Top Ten list. We learned a lot from the answers we got.

As 2005 comes to a close and we begin 2006 perhaps you are interested in finding ways to get clients to give you feedback about the products and services you offer. Here is a list of 10 questions you could use. Select a few that suite your situation. The key is to ask the question and then allow the client uninterrupted time to answer. Your job is to just listen!

1. What was the greatest benefit you derived from my service***? This question helps you to understand what is working. Sometimes you will be surprised by the answer. Our SCORE chapter has a limit of 3 counselors at one location to counsel one client. Our client panelists said the more counselors the better! We have now eliminated the restriction on the number of counselors.

2. What would you like to see more of when you work with me? For our session the panelists told us some counselors introduced themselves by telling about their business background during the sessions while others did not. The clients said they wanted to hear the qualifications of the counselors who were working with them. Are you forgetting to be consistent when delivering your product or service to your clients? We were! ☺

3. How could I improve my service? Clients often have ideas that are easy to implement but somehow you haven’t thought of. SCORE does both email and face to face coaching. These were face to face clients who wondered if they could get support between sessions through email. Easily done now that we know it might be helpful. (Our email addresses are already on our SCORE business cards!)

4. Is there anything you would like to see me stop doing? This question gives the client the opportunity to tell you about something that isn’t useful to him or her. It was suggested in our session that sometimes it is difficult for the business owner to meet with the counselor because the owner can’t leave his/her place of business. The SCORE clients wondered if it would be possible for the counselors to occasionally meet them at their own place of business. The answer was “Yes”. Again not something we had thought to offer consistently.

5. Is there anything you didn’t get from my service that you were looking for?
Here is an opportunity for the client to tell you other services that you might provide. If you are looking for ways to expand your offering this question is important. In the SCORE session one client wanted to know how he might get a counselor who actually worked in or owned the specific type of business that he had. Access to a database of the counselors in our chapter and their background would be helpful to the counselors and our clients. We will be putting one together. (We did have one counselor with exactly the right background for this client.)

6. Has my staff treated you with care, attention, and courteousness? This would be an important question for a service provider with an administrative staff to ask. Clients don’t always complain about their experience with your staff but might share something significant when asked.

7. Is there an issue that I have not spent enough time on for you? Sometimes clients allow you to move forward but are still thinking about a previous issue. This kind of question helps them to revisit areas they may have not understood and still have an unanswered question.

8. Am I doing what you want me to do? Most of the time we are doing what we think the client wants. It is good to check once in a while to find out if you are actually doing what the client wants.

9. Where have we been less than proactive in addressing your concerns? It may be that the client is expecting you to move into different areas that you think are being covered by other vendors or staff members. “Being proactive” may have a broader definition to the client than you are using. Asking this question might uncover new business.

10. Is our billing clear? Are you getting value for your money? The bill is often a source of anxiety for the client. He/she needs to know exactly what he/she is being billed for. Does your bill show that? This final value question is critical to insuring your client is satisfied with your product or service.

**SCORE - This is an organization that is part of the Small Business Administration in the US. SCORE volunteers are experienced managers and business owners who counsel small business owners without charge.
***I have used the word service here and also client. You could just as easily substitute product and customer.

About Alvah Parker

Alvah Parker is a Business and Career Coach as well as publisher of Parker’s Points, an email tip list and Road to Success, an ezine. To subscribe send an email to join-roadtosuccess@go.netatlantic.com.

Parker’s Value Program© enables clients to find a way to work that is more fulfilling and profitable. She is both a Practice Advisor and Coach to attorneys, managers, business owners, sole practioners, and people in transition. Alvah is found on the web at http://www.asparker.com. She may also be reached at 781-598-0388.