Gregg Elberg asked:


Most people intuitively understand the time value of money from first time they received an allowance from their parents. All other things being equal, you would rather get your allowance today instead of having to wait for the weekend. Go to the movies today instead of waiting for the money. Instant gratification.

In business, if you have the money today you are positioned to increase the future value of your business by increasing sales of services or products over a period of time. There are several mathematical concepts to compute the time value of money such as present value, future value, present value of an annuity, and future value of an annuity. These computations are beyond the scope of this article.

Uneven cash flow is a challenge to B2B businesses that have to meet regular obligations such as payroll, rent and supplies. One solution to this problem is accounts receivable financing which is also known as factoring, factoring receivables and asset based lending. With accounts receivable financing you can get cash for your invoices immediately and give terms to your customers to pay you in thirty, sixty or ninety days.

The financial markets today are exceptionally volatile. There are grave concerns regarding a meltdown in the mortgage finance market and several major providers of home mortgages than have declared bankruptcy or exited this market. The secondary market for certain types of mortgage securities has virtually closed the door on securities known as subprime home loan securitizations which makes these types of bonds, not having any liquidity, virtually worthless. Why is this relevant to accounts receivable financing?

A little known fact is that many commercial finance firms that provide accounts receivable financing are not using their own money to fund their transactions. This is sometimes called “refactoring”. Their funds may be available from three sources: bank lines of credit, investor participations and the equity of the firm. Bank lines of credit, or asset based credit lines from major non-bank commercial finance firms are by far the largest source of funds for most firms that offer “refactoring” accounts receivable financing.

These firms are under more pressure from their lenders to make safe and sound loans. The pressure comes from Banks, Federal regulators such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve Banks. This may affect how long it takes to get financing.

There is a process called due diligence which is a pre-requisite to accounts receivable financing. Several components are: analyzing the credit of the borrower; analyzing the credit of their customers, and running a UCC-1 search in each state where the company operates. The UCC-1 search and filing is required to give the lenders the legal right to collect the accounts receivable that are being sold or pledged for the financing. This can take 5 to 10 days depending on the state bureaucracy and how busy they are with such requests. If the UCC-1 report is not “clean” meaning first lien status is not available to the lender, there will be no financing. Tax liens, legal judgment liens, and earlier financing liens can delay financing until they either are paid or subordinated.

When a B2B business is growing rapidly and needs more cash flow for operations the time value of money becomes critical. There is a common answer the question: “When do you need the money?” Answer: “Yesterday”.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney understood the time value of money and more importantly for them, the money value of time. They were the primary songwriters for the group, The Beatles, from 1960 to 1970. The group experienced major cash flow difficulties because of poor financial management of recording contracts, out of control costs of running their record business, Apple, and the pressures that caused them to renounce public performances (which was a major source of income). Some of their greatest songs (and a source of substantial future income) were created while they were on a hiatus to meditate with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India in 1965. In 1970 The Beatles disbanded because of personality differences, the stresses of mass popularity and financial problems. Paul McCartney’s song, Yesterday, is considered to be the most recorded song in the history of popular music, if not the most popular song of all time. Here are the lyrics to Yesterday:

Yesterday,

All my troubles seemed so far away,

Now it looks as though they’re here to stay,

Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly,

I’m not half the man I used to be,

There’s a shadow hanging over me,

Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why she

Had to go I don’t know, she wouldn’t say.

I said,

Something wrong, now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday,

Love was such an easy game to play,

Now I need a place to hide away,

Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Why she

Had to go I don’t know, she wouldn’t say.

I said,

Something wrong, now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday,

Love was such an easy game to play,

Now I need a place to hide away,

Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm-mm.

The bottom line: If your B2B business needs money yesterday accounts receivable financing may be the answer to your cash flow challenges.

Copyright 2007 © Gregg Financial Services

www.greggfinancialservices.com



Brandon

Gregg Elberg asked:


Success is not an overnight occurrence for most businesses. Years of hard work and struggle are a common denominator for most enterprises. Success as a concept can be complicated because it may involve more than profits on a balance sheet. The MSN Encarta dictionary defines success as:

1. Achievement of intention: the achievement of something planned or attempted;

2. Attainment of fame, wealth, or power: impressive achievement, especially the attainment of fame, wealth, or power;

3. Something that turns out well: something that turns out as planned or intended;

4. Somebody successful: somebody who is wealthy.

What is business failure? It may be that most businesses don’t die or fail; the owners close them for reasons unrelated to whether the business is making money. According to David Birch, former head of a research firm specializing in studying small business data, would-be entrepreneurs don’t realize what’s truly involved with running a business. He estimated survival rates:

• First year: 85%

• Second: 70%

• Third: 62%

• Fourth: 55%

• Fifth: 50%

• Sixth: 47%

• Seventh: 44%

• Eighth: 41%

• Ninth: 38%

• Tenth: 35%

“Once you’ve hit five years, your odds of survival go way up,” Birch said. “Only two to three percent of businesses older than five shut down each year.” Hard statistics on business success vs. failure rates are hard to establish. Mark Twain once said, “The news of my death has been greatly exaggerated.” The same may be true for many businesses.

Accounts receivable financing can help to make the difference between success and failure for many B2B businesses that need capital to grow. The terminology: invoice financing, invoice funding, factoring, factoring receivables and accounts receivable financing are all terms that mean essentially the same thing: the process of selling your invoices, your accounts receivable, to a commercial finance company to accelerate cash flow. You sell the account receivable. The commercial finance company advances you 70% to 90% of face value. Your customer pays the invoice to the commercial finance company. They rebate to you the difference between their fees and the remaining cash. If your business sells products or services to other businesses or to the government, with a gross margin of 25% or more you can grow profitably with accounts receivable financing; and you can give terms to your customers.

Asset based financing is a form of accounts receivable financing for larger transactions. The main difference between asset based financing and accounts receivable financing is price: larger transactions may be priced with a spread of 2% to 4% over the prime rate plus an administrative fee compared to factoring fees of 1.5% to 4% per month. The actual amount of charges depends on the contract terms which vary widely. In this author’s article, Financial Myths vs. Financial Facts there is an extensive discussion regarding various pricing methods and outcomes.

Imagine if your business were like a flower with the chance to bloom the first time in years. There is a plant known as Agave parryi, also known as the Century Plant. They often take forty to sixty years to flower. Then they die. Few businesses can wait that long to flower.

The asset based lending industry is a multi-billion dollar business. Companies large, small, and startups participate in accounts receivable financing and asset based lending. Purchase order financing is available to pay for the cost of goods when purchase orders are too large for the business to self-fund the product. If you need help with capital to grow, these are important financing techniques to consider for your business’ success.

In August 1965 The Beatles released a Studio Album called: Help! The song was a number one hit single. The song was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. At this point in the career of the Beatles, they had not personally made much money and they may have been on the brink of failure because of artistic differences and financial naivety. John Lennon said that the lyrics to Help! were a cry for help and a clue to the confusion and despondency he felt. He also regretted the commercial pressures to make a successful upbeat record that compromised his artistic sensibilities. The Beatles succeeded in writing many of the most popular songs in music history; they were one of the most successful recording artists of all time. Nevertheless, the Beatles failed to stay together as a live performing group after 1970. There were only ten years of live performances. Decades of royalties and riches followed.

Here are the lyrics to The Beatles - Help! by John Lennon and Paul McCartney:

Help, I need somebody,

Help, not just anybody,

Help, you know I need someone, help.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,

I never needed anybody’s help in any way.

But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured,

Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Help me if you can, I’m feeling down

And I do appreciate you being round.

Help me, get my feet back on the ground,

Won’t you please, please help me?

And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,

My independence seems to vanish in the haze.

But every now and then I feel so insecure,

I know that I just need you like I’ve never done before.

Help me if you can, I’m feeling down

And I do appreciate you being round.

Help me, get my feet back on the ground,

Won’t you please, please help me.

When I was younger, so much younger than today,

I never needed anybody’s help in any way.

But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured,

Now I find I’ve changed my mind and opened up the doors.

Help me if you can, I’m feeling down

And I do appreciate you being round.

Help me, get my feet back on the ground,

Won’t you please, please help me, help me, help me, oh.

The bottom line: if you need help with your cash flow for your B2B business, accounts receivable financing may be the answer for your success.

Copyright © 2007 Gregg Financial Services

www.greggfinancialservices.com



Tonya

Ricky Sharples asked:


Left handed people can become guitar players but there are some adjustments you need to make to your guitar and your outlook. First if you think that you “should” be right handed because that is how guitars are designed, think again. If the hand that keeps telling you it wants to perform actions is your left hand, you are better off listening to it. This is your active hand, which makes your right hand passive. So in a way, your left hand tells your right hand what to do. Paul McCartney is one guitar player who tried to make his right hand do the picking and it did not work. He only started to get anywhere with playing the guitar after he changed the strings around and started picking with his left hand. There are lots of left handed guitar players who have mastered their instrument and gained fame and fortune. I have already mentioned Paul McCartney, and there are many others like Curt Cobain, Tony Iommi, Jimi Hendrix and Slim Whitman.

Dick Dale, “King Of The Surf Guitar” is one notable exception to this rule. The first guitar he learnt to play on was a normal right handed guitar. So he forced his hands to learn to play without changing the order of the strings on the guitar. Even after he was able to buy custom made left handed guitars, he still played with the strings in the right hand positions because that is what he was used to. Bobby Womack and Albert King also play like this.

So what changes need to be made to a guitar to make it suitable for playing left handed? Well, when you hold a guitar in playing position the sixth string - the E string which is the thickest guitar string needs to be on top of the guitar, that is closest to your shoulder. To achieve this the order of the strings needs to be reversed. If you hold a right handed guitar in front of you and look straight at it, the sixth string is on your right hand side. To string the guitar for left handed playing, the first string should be on the right hand side.

Also, the two parts of the guitar that actually hold the strings on - the bridge and the nut need to be changed around. If you look closely at these parts you will see that they have slots cut in them to hold the strings. Naturally the nut and bridge will need to be turned upside down to fit the strings in the reverse order.

Now for the question of buying left handed guitars. Many guitarists complain that left handed guitars cost around double the price of right handed guitars, so you will need to do some serious shopping. Tokai and Vintage make serviceable mid-range left handed guitars for a reasonable price,. Fender make all the ‘basic’ model Telecasters and Stratocasters for leftys, and Gibson make left handed versions of all their flagship guitars.

Now let us look at another challenge for left handed guitarists - chord charts. If you do a search on the web you will find a range of printed left handed chord charts and chord generators. A good on to start with is “Left Handed Guitar Chord Chart”, by Robert Tarchara. There are also books that are written especially for left handed guitar players:

Mel Bay Left-Handed Guitar Chords, by William Bay, 2005

Guitar Case Guide to Left-Handed Chords, by Rikky Rooksby, 2001

Guitar Case Guide to Left-handed Scales, by Rikky Rooksby, 2006

Fortunately there are many left handed guitar players who have been willing to share the knowledge and experience on line. Some can be found on forums, others have set up their own websites. Among other tips they can help with where and how to buy left handed guitars.



Cody

Scott Michaels asked:


John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 - 8 December 1980) was an iconic 20th century composer and singer of popular music with Paul McCartney as Lennon McCartney throughout the 1960s, and was the founding member of The Beatles.

Lennon’s songwriting was an integral part of The Beatles’ profound commercial and critical impact. His melodies, written during the Lennon-McCartney era, and later, in his solo career, are distinctive and unashamedly romantic.

Lennon’s lyrics reflected his personal and career demands, philosophical outlook, his unease with his fame and current events. He and McCartney popularized the use of electronic effects in rock music.

Lennon, on television and in films such as A Hard Day’s Night (1964), and by press conferences and interviews, revealed his rebellious, iconoclastic nature and quick, irreverent wit. Lennon channeled his fame and penchant for controversy into his work as a peace activist, artist and author. He was murdered in New York City in December 1980.

In 2002, the BBC polled the British public about the 100 Greatest Britons of all time. Respondents voted Lennon into eighth place.

Lennon had a profound influence on rock ‘n’ roll and in expanding the genre’s boundaries during the 1960s. He is widely considered, along with McCartney, to be one of the most influential singer-songwriter-musicians of the 20th century.

Many of the songs written exclusively or primarily by Lennon, however, are more introspective — often in the first person — and more personal than McCartney’s.

His most surreal pieces of songwriting, “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “I Am the Walrus”, are examples of his unique style. Lennon’s partnership in songwriting with McCartney involved him - many times - in complementing and counterbalancing McCartney’s upbeat positive outlook with the other side of the coin, as one of their songs, “Getting Better” demonstrates.

Lennon had a profound influence on rock ‘n’ roll and in expanding the genre’s boundaries during the 1960s. He is widely considered, along with McCartney, to be one of the most influential singer-songwriter-musicians of the 20th century. Many of the songs written exclusively or primarily by Lennon, however, are more introspective — often in the first person — and more personal than McCartney’s. His most surreal pieces of songwriting.



Teresa

Andri Irawan asked:


 

When you talk about classic rock, surely you will be associated with the Beatles. The Beatles is one of the best and biggest pop rock bands that the world produced. John Lennon, James Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Richard Starkey (also known as Ringo Starr) were born during the 1940s in Liverpool, England. During the post war period, Liverpool was a dirty depressed town and money was rarely to meet. Two decades later, these four men would shock the world with their musical breakthrough. Their music contribution is beyond question. Beatlemania, the fanatic fan of beatles, are spread in entire world, even until today.

One their best masterpieces, yesterday, is considered as one of the best classic rock song ever produced. It was McCartney’s masterpiece that he recorded on June 14, 1965.

This is probably Paul’s most successful song, as Yesterday has been recorded more than 2500 times by other artists over the years, being the most recorded song in music history! The tune for Yesterday came to him during the night. As he awoke, he went straight to the piano and played the complete tune. So easy this was, Paul feared that the tune must be from another song or belonged to another. No one had heard it before and consequently, yesterday was born.

When Yesterday was initially released, it received some critics and controversies from the press, when they learned that it was a purely McCartney recording, without the other three Beatles’, yet released under the name of The Beatles. People feared at the time that this was McCartney’s break into a solo career, but this was not true, not at least for another five years. Yesterday was still be part of the Beatles’s history instead of merely McCartney’s masterpiece.

Simple And General Blog



Paula

Marvin J Markus asked:


d was the last studio album The Beatles recorded. There’s some confusion over this bit of trivia because Let It Be was released in 1970 and Abbey Road was released in 1969. But Let It Be had actually already been recorded, it had just been shelved due to the band being unhappy with it. It wasn’t until Abbey Road had already been recorded and released that the band hired Phil Specter to “salvage” Let It Be with his production work.

Abbey Road was a huge critical & commercial success. It remains one of The Beatles most popular albums to this day.

Abbey Road has also been critically acclaimed. For example it was ranked #14 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the top 500 albums of all time. And it’s currently ranked as the 2nd best album of all time by the users of the Rate Your Music website.

Track By Track:

#1 “Come Together”

This is one of the most well known songs on the album. Complete with John Lennon’s signature vocal and weird lyrics, George Harrison’s great lead guitar licks, and Paul McCartney’s swampy bass part that really puts the song over the edge.

It’s one of The Beatles coolest sounding songs, but strangely enough - it’s also one of their songs that’s been ruined the most in cover versions. In fact I’ve never heard a cover version of “Come Together” that wasn’t awful.

A disturbing bit of trivia about “Come Together” is that John Lennon is actually saying “shoot me” during the little musical breaks between the chorus and the verses. That lyric always gets to me a little bit considering Lennon’s fate in 1980.

2. “Something”

“Something” is another one of the best known songs on the album. It was written and sung by George Harrison and is one of his signature songs.

Frank Sinatra once famously commented that “Something” was his favorite Lennon-McCartney song. I’m not sure if that was an insult aimed at Lennon-McCartney or if Sinatra really didn’t know the song was written by George Harrison & not Lennon & McCartney.

3. “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”

A somewhat disturbingly childlike tale of a serial killer, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is one of The Beatles songs has both it’s detractors and it’s supporters. Among it’s detractors was apparently John Lennon who is said to have despised the song (which was written & sung by Paul McCartney.)

The song is one of the first to feature the Moog synthesizer.

4. “Oh! Darling”

While Lennon hated McCartney’s “Maxwell Silver’s Hammer,” he loved his “Oh! Darling.” In fact he was so enamored with the song that he wanted to sing lead on it.

5. “Octopus’s Garden”

Ringo sings lead on this one. He also wrote the song (with some help from George Harrison although Ringo Starr is credited as the only songwriter.) It’s basically a rewrite of “Yellow Submarine” which The Beatles had recorded 3 years earlier.

6. “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”

This epic, mostly instrumental, track finishes off side one of Abbey Road in grand fashion with it’s amazing white noise buildup trick which blows my mind every time I hear it.

It really features some of The Beatles most interesting innovative work musically.

7. “Here Comes The Sun”

This is another George Harrison classic which is the perfect follow up to “I Want You” in the CD/iTunes/iPod format and the perfect opener to side two in the old vinyl LP format. The song, like “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” features the Moog synthesizer.

8. “Because”

This stunning song features some of The Beatles most beautiful harmonies. Lennon, McCartney, & Harrison’s vocals were triple tracked to make them sound like 9 voices.

The chords of the song were inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven’s classic piano piece “Moonlight Sonata.”

The song also features the Moog synthesizer.

#9 “You Never Give Me Your Money”

This was the first song of side two’s medley. Some of the melodies heard in this song were echoed later in track 15 “Carry That Weight.”

While the song is just the beginning of side two’s medley, it’s really a medley in and of itself as it contains a few very different sounding sections that sound stitched together.

#10 “Sun King”

This beautiful slow motion song features more beautiful harmonies from Lennon, McCartney, & Harrison. The song’s lyrics include words from different languages, both real and imagined.

#11 “Mean Mr. Mustard”

This short Lennon ditty leads directly into the next “Polythene Pam” and mentions “his sister Pam” in the lyrics.

#12 “Polythene Pam”

“So good looking but she looks like a man.” This is a great rock n roll track that clocks in barely over a minute long.

#13 “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window”

“Polythene Pam” segues smoothly into this song which starts off with it’s title as the first lyric. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album.

#14 “Golden Slumbers”

The lyrics to this song were actually taken from a 17th century poem by Thomas Dekker. But the music was composed by Paul McCartney.

#15 “Carry That Weight”

The chorus of this song features all four Beatles. One part of the song references the melody/lyrics from “You Never Give Me Your Money.”

#16 “The End”

Features a drum solo by Ringo Starr (the only drum solo on any Beatles song) and short lead guitar solos by McCartney, Harrison, and Lennon - one after the other, in that order. They go through that sequence twice before the final “And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

#17 “Her Majesty”

This 23 second acoustic guitar ditty by Paul McCartney was originally intended to go between “Mean Mr. Mustard” & “Polythene Pam” but they had decided to leave it off the album. It was actually tacked on to the album at the end by sound engineer by mistake, but The Beatles decided they liked the mistake and left it on the album.



Christopher

Tyler Longenecker asked:


I was on my way home from the office tonight and I caught an interview on the radio with Paul McCartney.  Usually I’m not very in tune to these kinds of things but the title to his new album “Memory Almost Full” caught my attention.  He went on to say, and I loosely quote…”When I talk to the business people in my life I always tell them…I’m an artist, I need a significant amount of empty space in my head to allow a song to find it’s way in there”.  As a small business person I thought to myself “how convenient for you Paul!”  A little jealous I suppose, I got to thinking about this feeling that there are no such conveniences in the small business world, and that perhaps, there should be.  If we go beyond the point of “memory almost full”, or perhaps more appropriately to our technological advances, “virtual memory running low”, and lose site of the creative process could we be allowing the onslaught of technical information to “crash” our success?

 

What percentage of small business owners would say that they face exponentially greater demands for technical production today than they did two years ago?  What percentage would have said the same thing two years before that?  Even those of us (myself included) who have prided themselves on a neat and tidy worldview seem to be at a cross roads between a calm, happy lifestyle on one hand, and being consistently “frustrated” with the competition and complexity of a maturing on-line marketplace. 

 

When it comes to the challenge of succeeding in the face of technical adversity and simultaneously successfully managing our private lives, how can we tell if we are on the right track?  What can our frustrations tell us about the direction of our small business in relation to the general marketplace?  Are we on information over-load or are we simply chargning down the path to success?

 

Allow me to innocently suggest a barometer for judging when to say when to the demands of life, put your feet up and kick back into a looser mode of thinking.  Just as the thermometer isn’t either hot or cold but rather tells us what the temperature is, allow me to propose a modern day thermostat that can shed light on how small business owners might be able to draw a line between the need for production, and the need for sanity. 

 

Ask yourself this right now—>  How many minutes or hours of television (or reading) does it take to unravel your thoughts and put you in a mode where you can actually fall asleep?

 

The first clue that we could be over-taxing ouselves is when it takes more than 5 minutes of mindless television to calm down from the last 15 hours of positively brain-thumping thought patterns.  If it’s going to take a steady drip of digified ignorance just to catch some ZZ’s it might be time to consider adjusting our modus operendi.  Increase this demand for mindless activity to an hour of television and it could be time to consider therapy.

 

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

 

BUT!     IF EVEN THAT WON’T CUT IT AND YOUR MIND JUST DOESN’T WANT TO SHUT OFF AT NIGHT, AND YOU CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT YOUR NEXT MOVE, AND WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THAT, AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF GOING IN THIS DIRECTION VS. THAT DIRECTION…AND SO ON AND SO FORTH….

 

My friend, congratulations!  You crossed the threshold and are hanging in their with the best of the best creative minds.  Now all you need to do is cut out the mindless television and find better ways to relax!!!

 

What!?

 

What I am pointing to with this article is this:   If we are insensed about tehnology and technical information as small business owners we are probably on the right track, despite what we might recognize as “frustration”.  Think supply and demand.  What if there is a strong demand for something, but there lacks an equally strong response to meet the demand?  There’s an imbalance.  When things are “out of balance” it’s naturally going to take a stronger effort on the supply side of the scale to make things right.  In this particular case we are discussing a complex marketplace that demands quality technical production.  What we typically view as frustration and feeling behind the 8-ball, is simply our natural tendency to want to gain control over our surroundings and reclaim our position as masters of our domain.  In this market, it’s going to take quality technical production to achieve that, and for most of us, we just aren’t where we want to be.

 

Allow me a few more closing points (as if I’ve even made one yet!) before I close ———————

 

The best example of supply and demand frustration is illustrated through our innate supersensitivity to ’quality’.  Everywhere throughout our lives we can see a very strong demand for ‘quality’.  This yearning has been with the human race since the beginning and it’s one of the great blessings that God our Creator has given us.  Our need for ‘Quality’ is one of the strongest demands that we will ever face.  Every encounter, every interaction, every bite of every burger across our blessed nation demands ‘quality’.  We demand ‘quality’ products, ‘quality’ service, ‘quality’ friends and ‘quality’ leadership.  When we don’t get ‘quality’ in whatever we are dealing with we have an almost supra-natural tendency to spin ourselves into an assortment of negative emotions.  Someone throws us a weak response to our demand for quality and it literally puts us in a whirlwind!  If we really think about it, how many times throughout our day can we trace back our frustrations to a lack of ‘quality’?

 

Now let’s refrase the original question.  What percentage of small business owners would say that they face exponentially greater demands for QUALITY technical production today than they did two years ago?  Duh!  …So what’s the cause of this?  Simple, it’s greater complexity.  We live in a world where it’s getting harder and harder to keep things simple.  It’s the great challenge of our day.  We’ve all heard “keep it simple stupid” (KISS) but how many times do we find that it’s not quite that easy?  If we can understand a balance between two very opposite pieces of advice we might just have the answer that we are looking for.

 

First we are told to “keep it simple” and then we are told “if your not frustrated you’re probably on the wrong track.”  So what gives?  The truth is nothing truly gives.  We run small businesses and we run the risk of failure if we can’t find our niche in this “e-world” type marketplace.  We have to be masters of both principles if we want to be at our best.  We have to take the complex and make it simple, but not be swayed by the frustration we will encounter in the process.

 

We could sum this all up by saying that greater marketplace complexity equals a greater demand for ”quality technical production”.  Sounds innocent and detached but what cuts deep is the reality that the results inevitably fall on us.  It’s easy to associate ‘quality’ and ‘lack of quality’ with other people and the products and services that they provide.  It’s easy to make excuses about our B2B solutions and the inefficiency we are getting from our vendors.  What’s not as easy to swallow is the fact that whenever we talk about frustration over quality we are likely missing the point.  In the end it’s the quality of our own production that we are really frustrated with no matter how many hands are in the pot. 

 

If you’ve felt these same frustrations and ever wrestled with yourself over gaining control and balance over your business life and your personal life, I can only tell you what I think has helped me tremendously.  Work hard, play hard, and take whatever time is necessary to keep your head clear and your thoughts in the right direction.

 

Now, I can’t pretend that I am going to Paul McCartney’s next small business seminar, but I do feel that when “memory is running low” it’s time to take my frustration and turn it into something useful like every successful business person does.  It’s time to step back, take a deep breath and think about what I’ve been thinking about.  Am I using my frustration well?  Am I improving on my own production?  Am I learning fast enough?  More importantly though, what about my faith and my family?   And you know, once in a while it’s not too much to think — what about me?  How’s my thinking?  What do I need to get tuned in?  What do I need to do to prepare myself for market?

 

Depending on how well I can answer these questions I can start to feel out if it’s maybe not such a bad time to be out of balance or if it’s high time for a family vacation or even just a long walk or a good movie. 

 

Maybe I might learn something, have some fun, or even get some good sleep that night… and who knows it might be nice to wake up from sleep rather than trying to wake up from being awake.  Perhaps Paul McCartney has given us a new motto to consider when he said “I’m an artist, I need a significant amount of empty space in my head to allow a song to find it’s way in there”. 



Hector

Nor Nan asked:


es is the music band that has great reputation as well as very long and interesting history. There is no doubt that this group has made significant success for their career and it is still good to learn more about how they get such a success. The following article covers a topic that includes a short history of them. You may find that before they become The Beatles they have to face so many problems and obstacles, which require patience and a lot effort to struggle. If you want to learn more about it, here’s your opportunity.

The guy named John Lennon, who has very strong inspiration from the rock and roll music of Elvis Presley, created the Beatles. John Lennon and his friends had formed up the music band named Quarry Men in the year 1957. At the end of the year 1942, John met Paul McCartney, the guy from Liverpool, and persuaded him to join the band after he finished seeing John’s performance.

Afterwards, in the year 1943, The Paul’s schoolmate joined the band on leading guitar and also changed the name of the band to Johnny and the Moondog. In early 60’s, Cliff who was the schoolmate of John Lennon, joined the band on bass guitar despite the fact that he had no knowledge about music and notes. Tommy Moor was replacing Pete Best for drums and the band used the name Silver Beetles. Soon after, the name of the band was changed again from Silver Beetles to The Beatles.

After that, the new Beatle music band had the first concert to welcome new member, Pete. In December 1943, Harrison was arrested by German police and sent him back to his hometown because he was too young and after him, the guys from Liverpool were also sent back to their home country.

In the year 1960, the Beatles started their concert performance again in Cavern Club in Liverpool, and this place was the beginning of their success story. They had almost 300 performances at this place and then they decided to go back to German in April 1961. At this time, one of the band members decided to leave the band to be full time artist and they became four instead of five.

Paul compulsorily had to play bass guitar as well. After that, the Beatles performed concerts in Liverpool many times until 9 November 1961, Brian, the owner of music record, came to see their concert. Brian’s customers had asked him for “Bonnie” which is the song that The Beatles had made the record in Germany few months ago. Two months later, Brian became the first band manager for The Beatles who changed the look of all members of the band including their hairs



Lewis

Merryl Lentz asked:


The devil is said to appear in countless forms, and many people were convinced he appeared in the form of rock bands when they began backmasking their lyrics in the 60s.  Backmasking, or backward masking, is a technique of recording song lyrics backward onto a track that is played forward.  What started as an innocent accident by John Lennon swirled into a frenzy of controversy, record-burning protests, proposed government legislation, and a witch hunt for bands whose lyrics were deemed satanic.

Backmasking of song lyrics was one of the Beatles’ many musical innovations.  While high on pot, John Lennon accidentally played the tapes for the song “Rain” backwards, and liked the sound of the reversed lyrics.  The rest of the band agreed, and incorporated the effect into the tune, making it the first to contain backmasked lyrics:  “Sunshine….rain.…when the rain comes, they run and hide their heads.”

At the time, music was recorded on vinyl, which could be manually played backwards on a turntable.  A disc jockey, intrigued by rumors that Paul McCartney was dead, played the tune “Revolution 9” backwards, and heard the lyrics “Turn me on, dead man,” as well as the lyrics “Paul is a dead man, miss him, miss him,” when playing “I’m So Tired” backwards.  These lyrics appeared to confirm the “Paul is dead” rumor, which popularized the backmasking of rock music lyrics.

This led to a fierce backlash from Christian fundamentalists in the 70s.  They accused Led Zeppelin of planting satanic lyrics in “Stairway to Heaven.” They also alleged that bands, including the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Electric Light Orchestra, Queen, and Styx were cooperating with the Church of Satan by backmasking messages from the devil into their song lyrics.  The religious right pushed for legislation to place stickers on these bands’ albums warning about lyrics inspired by Lucifer, but the bill was defeated.

In retaliation, several of the accused bands recorded albums containing intentional, ridiculous backmasked lyrics.  ELO fired back with an album called Secret Messages, containing the backmasked lyrics, “Thank you for listening,” “Look out, there’s danger ahead,“ and “You’re playing me backwards.”  Styx took jabs their critics with the album Kilroy Was Here, whose lyrics parodied an imaginary group called “The Majority for Musical Morality,” which outlaws rock music.

Heavy metal song lyrics reeled from some of the hardest hits.  In his 1988 trial, serial killer Richard Ramirez testified that the lyrics of “Night Prowler,” from AC/DC’s Highway to Hell album, drove him to commit murder.  Judas Priest was sued in 1990 because two Nevada boys had made a ******* pact that was allegedly inspired by the subliminal lyrics, “Do it,” in the band’s song “Better By You, Better Than Me.”  The case was dismissed for insufficient evidence that the lyrics played a role in the boys’ deaths.

Like inkblots and clouds, lyrics played backwards can be interpreted as anything if you concentrate long enough.  Or, as comedian “Weird Al” Yankovic joked in the backmasked lyrics of “I Remember Larry,” “You must have an awful lot of free time on your hands!”  Elcitra siht deyojne uoy epoh.



Joel

Gerry McDonnell asked:


Saying goodbye to the football season is very much like giving birth to a ginger child: after nine months of optimism, hope and anguish, you’re left with a genuine feeling of disappointment.

The final day is often emotional. Who could forget Arsenal pipping Liverpool to the title in 1989? Well sadly, my old man. In fact, if you see a small befuddled pensioner roaming the streets, you’ll be better off avoiding football trivia altogether; senility is no picnic.

I’m absolutely devastated that I have to work on Sunday as the drama unfolds. The gaffer has offered me double time and a day in lieu though, which I’m reasonably happy with; but it hasn’t gone down too well with Louise.

Lou hasn’t been this upset since Liverpool were beaten by Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final. Liverpool supporters are like Paul McCartney on his wedding night; they’re struggling to get over a disappointing second leg.

Steven ‘more dives than Glasgow’ Gerrard will hope to inspire his team-mates to a win over Spurs, but I fancy the Tottenham boys at 9/5. They can be heroes, just for Juande.

Manchester United are on the verge of winning the title and I’m particularly pleased for Paul Scholes. There was a worry that Paul’s career was over as a result of blurred vision, practically confirming what my mother told me. I’ll have my head in my hands if Manchester United fail to beat Wigan at 1/4.

As is often the case in such a high profile match, there has been plenty of early activity in the first goal scorer market. Bookmakers have already seen a monkey on Ronaldo, a pony on Carlos Tevez and an old dog on Wayne Rooney.

A recently discovered tribe of Congolese pygmies have admitted knowing absolutely nothing of western civilisation, other than the fact that Steven Gerrard is better at football than Frank Lampard.

Frank simply isn’t that great a player, most of his goals come from his close relationship with the O’Shea family, notably Rick. Frank would need 29 attempts to score on an 18-30 stone holiday.

Frank will not be happy about Chelsea finishing second best to Manchester United. I remember how upset he was when I first suggested that he had a weight problem - he sent me a text that read, ‘gbvsdfabdsb’.

Ashley Cole will also be unhappy with a runners-up spot. The overrated full-back is desperate for success to cement his role as a celebrity. He’s already been offered a spot on next week’s Jonathan Ross show, he just needs to find three pals and a piano. Chelsea are certainties to beat Bolton, i’m all over the 1/6 like John Terry on a referee.

I’m no stranger to disappointment; I once watched all of Soccer AM. Alex McLeish can empathise, he would give his right arm for Birmingham to avoid relegation, but a trade of that magnitude has only ever come off for Heather Mills. I’m backing Blackburn to beat the Blues at 3/1, but be warned, the price is dropping quicker than Steven Gerrard in a penalty area.

Reading are a lot like Princess Diana, they used to look good, but they’ve hit a wall.

The wife is praying that the Royals stay up, as she’s supported them ever since her English teacher wrote ‘reading difficulties’ on her school report.

I also hope that Reading beat Derby, as I’m not a great fan of Robbie Savage - I can’t forget how he kicked me off the waltzers when I was young. I can’t let my heart rule my head though, I’m going to be like Robbie and mark the coupon with an ‘X’ at 7/2.

Portsmouth are currently wobbling like a jelly on a drunken Sumo wrestler - they haven’t won in their last handful of games. Actually, they haven’t won in their last four games, so it’s more of a Jeremy Beadle handful.

I’d like to see Pompey beat Fulham as I have an enormous amount of sympathy for Harry Redknapp; he’s been the subject of more enquiries than the 118-118 guys.

Hollywood should make a film of Harry’s life, they could call it ‘The buying, the twitch and the fraud probe.’

A case can be made for backing Portsmouth at 5/2 to beat Fulham, but it has more holes than Pete Doherty. I’m going to be like David Cameron in college; and get stuck into the draw at 11/4.

Hopefully, my son will become a professional footballer. The last time we had a kick around in the back garden, he nutmegged me twice; nobody’s regretted opening their legs on two separate occasions since Mrs Neville.

Phil Neville is like the sun, you should never look directly at him. The lesser of two evils is surprisingly quite bright, he can quote the old Chinese proverb: ‘Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day; give him twelve cans of lager, and he’ll think that Newcastle are worth a bet at Goodison Park.

You don’t have to be Stephen Hawking to realise that Everton are nailed on at 10/11, even Mrs Hawking could work that one out; if she wasn’t down the gym working the bags.

I once said that Benjani couldn’t hit a cow’s **** with a banjo. If we were ever to meet, he’d probably want to hit me; i’d better change my name to Annette.

On a related note, I once tried to hit a cow’s **** with a banjo - at least that’s what I told the police officer, although the lack of a banjo aroused some suspicion.

Middlesbrough are a riddle, wrapped up in an enigma, shrouded in mystery, situated in a hole. The 11/10 for a Boro win over Manchester City is the most enticing proposition since Ulrika Johnson offered Sven Goran Eriksson a little slice of Swedish fish pie.

Is it wrong for me to continually speak of my admiration for Cesc Fabregas? Apparently, it is during lovemaking.

Cesc is a little magician. He’ll have a great future in the game as long as he avoids Debbie McGee. Arsenal are a great bet at 10/11 to beat Sunderland, it’s as clear as the chin on Frank Lampard’s chin.



As an Aston Villa supporter, i’m a huge fan of Randy Lerner. I’m not ashamed to say that all it took to make me happy was just one little Yank.

I did read that a healthy male averages 20 minutes when expressing his love physically; I’m assuming that includes the taxi journey and the queue for the cashpoint. I’ll be throwing my cash on a West Ham win over the Villa; the 12/5 is positively pulchritudinous.

The Premier League remains my true love, but I’ve occasionally strayed into the arms of the football league, the SPL, the conference and the Paralympics. I’m a little bit uncomfortable about watching football at such a poor level though, but Rangers have made it into the UEFA Cup final.

I’m often asked why I appear reluctant to share my expertise on the Scottish football scene. I can assure you it’s not a result of xenophobia; some of my best friends know Scottish people. I know that a Celtic win over Hibernian at 1/4 will practically wrap up the title for the Bhoys.

My computer is a lot like the wife, if the information is punched in correctly, positive results are guaranteed. My spreadsheet plays a sound if the odds offered on an accer are greater than the actual probability of success: when I placed 16/1 next to Middlesbrough, Tottenham and West Ham, it whipped out a guitar.



Edwin