Anyone knows why its necessary for you to have emergency funds in case of layoff/redundancy etc, but have you ever considered that you may need surplus funds, because business is going extremely well?

A sudden influx of cash may be required to upgrade existing premises, buy new computers for additional staff members, the business may even have need of a surplus of cash in the event of a travel emergency. Perhaps you’re shooting a wedding in some exotic location i.e. St Barts, but the weather takes a turn for the worse, and there’s a hurricane headed your way, and you need to upgrade your air ticket in order to change the flight dates to a few days earlier etc. Or perhaps a family member takes ill, and you have to fly back unexpectedly.

There are any number of reasons why your business should have emergency funds available, but hopefully all of them are good reasons!

Have you, or are you planning on designing a house from scratch?

Is it your dream to build a house from the ground up, choosing every last nut and bolt? I must admit I find it a daunting task, and would probably be more comfortable with renovating an existing property, and then picking out new fittings for that, rather than designing one from scratch.

What are your must have items? Mine include, green power sources (so in other words, wind and solar powered ambient appliances with hopefully no need to draw from the national grid), a power shower, swish german kitchen appliances, although I’ve thought of going with the more traditional copper kitchen sinks, a smart home system that can be programmed to change the colour and type of lighting according to the various times of day/amount of available light etc. As well of course, as everything that I’ve listed in my Ultimate Mac Office series of posts…let’s not forget those!

I learned a very valuable lesson today. If you find a great supplier, it pays to keep looking around.

You see, I have this supplier, we work well together, we often barter services to one another, complementing one another’s businesses. It works well for both of us, and if I have a rush job (for example) I know that without a doubt this person, will be there, to help me out, and get the work out on time, no matter what.

But I also learned a valuable lesson.  Never become complacent, with the work you receive from people, even if they are friends. Ultimately, it is YOUR name that is on the line with your clients.

With that said, I recently had to go and find a new framer. I turned up at my old framers shop, only to find out that they had closed down! I desperately flipped through the yellow pages, calling framer after framer, to find one that could do the kind of framing that I needed.

I finally got someone on the line, who was not only very helpful, but just around the corner from my previous framer. (It’s not in what I would call a ‘great’ area, and is frequented with cars with custom paint jobs and too many spoilers!  They said they could do the job quickly, quoted me a very good price, offered me a brokers discount (as I am re-selling their service) without me even asking, and promised to text message me when the job was done.

Now had I driven past their premises previously, I would not have even given them a second glance, but because of my desperate situation, I had found them via the yellow pages, and found an absolute gem in the rough. A business, run by three generations of the same family, experts in their field, who not only did the job at the price quoted, but offered me some very valuable advice on the thing in question that I was having framed.

So lesson no. 1, never rely on just one supplier for the same thing, no matter how good they may seem

Lesson no. 2 never judge a business by it’s appearance.

Lesson no. 3 friends are friends, but business is business

It is quite insane, just how gorgeous the new iMac is.

Its like trying out the so-called best eye wrinkle cream, and then waking up, the next morning, looking in the mirror, and looking ten years younger.

That is what looking at the new iMac is like. It is B-E-A-YOOtiful folks!

Don’t believe me?

Look at this…

Mmm. The last iMacs were already perfect. It’s hard to believe that a team of people would have looked at it, and said, “How can we make this better?” then actually making it better.

I think I would like to work for Apple. There is no end to their brilliance.  I mean the mighty mouse looks like it has been designed by a technologically advanced alien super-species! Like recent visitors to Apple HQ were leaving in their flying saucer, dropped something as they were leaving, went ‘Doh!’ and decided that hey, it’s okay, because they were leaving it in good hands.

Seriously.

Good luck with your market share PC!! ((cackles maniacally))

An important lesson, when striking out on your own as a freelancer (in the non-baseball sense of the phrase), is to walk before you can run.

That, in a nutshell, means stick to the basics, lay the ground rules, and be absolutely meticulous in your planning.

If you lay the groundwork out in the beginning, and create the frame work within which you will begin to operate once you open for business, you will save yourself a lot of frustration in the long run.

Many freelancers simply begin taking in work (or more accurately, looking for work) without even having written a simple business plan.

I say, take it one step further and actually meet with a business plan consultant and really get your money’s worth. Set out your short, medium and long term aims, and then fill in the blanks on how you plan to get there.

This will make it a lot easier to find the necessary start-up capital if you haven’t already saved it, and will also keep you on track, instead of surprising you at the end of your first month, when you suddenly realise you’re nowhere near your intended target.

Think ahead, be smart, and enjoy yourself, it’s all part of the grand designer plan.

I never finished my university degree.

I didn’t like what I was studying at the time, changed courses twice, and decided to call it quits. I realise in hindsight that at the tender age of 17  I was simply not emotionally ready to be facing university.

Nowadays one has SO many more choices than we did when I was leaving school. Had I had the opportunity to do an online degree I would have jumped at it!  I have browsed many course catalogs, from numerous universities over the years, always tempted to return to my studies. I was really interested to find the online teaching degree offered by Western Governors University.

The number one point that really stood out for me, is that they are a fully accredited online education institution, and as a non-profit organisation they are much more affordable than other online universities.  Now while earning a degree is an intense process, knowing that this one is more affordable, makes it all the more interesting.

One thing I have learned in the last few years is that if you want to take on a project like this, finish your degree, earn one from scratch, or develop your life by educating yourself, then the only thing stopping you, is you. If you really want something badly enough, then there is absolutely no reason not to give it your all.

Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, either way you’re absolutely right!

What kind of car would you buy, if money were no object?

I often have this day-dreamy conversation with my husband, the ‘if we won the lotto‘ chat. We had it again, the other day, on a lazy afternoon, when I was perusing some real estate websites check out our ‘dream home’, or at least a selection of dream homes!   We found one that we really liked, and then I jokingly told one my husband that  if we won the lotto, I’d surprise him, and buy him a GPS for Christmas. Pre-programmed into the GPS would be a mystery address, which of course would lead my husband directly to our dream house, which I’d already purchased and furnished, and then in the garage he would find his dream car.

He smiled, and then asked me, “What is in the garage for you?” Meaning of course, which dream car would I choose to put there for myself.

I was-completely-stumped.

I hadn’t thought about my dream car in so long, it’s actually quite ridiculous.  Perhaps it is because I’m already happy with my car right now, even though it’s nothing particularly special. Perhaps it is because my priorities have changed since I became a parent.

Rather than a particular model of car, I have a ‘set of requirements’ which I would like to have in a car, and it wouldn’t matter what brand it was, provided it met these requirements, which included things like: nice looking, fuel efficient, clean energy, zero toxic emissions, safety features for the kids, space for the dogs, space for luggage, comfortable to drive, awesome sound system etc etc.

Then I thought about it some more, and I thought I’d like to add a couple of features not ordinarily found on a suburban car! Like James Bonds car, it would be really cool if I could equip it with missiles (for blowing up those pesky taxis), or with an ejector seat for when I have unwanted passengers, or get hi-jacked, it should come equipped with an AED, in case I have my vodka martini poisoned by an money-laundering conman, during a card game in Montenegro, and I need to defibrillate myself before returning to surprise him with my resourcefulness.

Ha ha. Anyway, it was interesting to think about.  How about you? What’s your dream car?

It constantly amazes me, how something which may appear negative on the surface, actually turns out to be a total and utter blessing in disguise.

Perhaps there are no negatives in life at all (at least not the little ones), merely detours, which take us on another course in life, which ultimately leads to a better place.

People often ask themselves would they change anything about their lives, decisions that they made in the past, and if you have to answer quickly, the answer is often yes. However, giving the idea time for further reflection, my answer always turns to no.

It turns out that even the tiniest of negatives ‘way back when’ have ultimately turned into postives in life. Even those worry lines that we accumulate over the years, requiring numerous anti wrinkle treatments of varying costs, turn into a blessing, because they force us to evaluate the inside a bit more and to value the outside of ourselves just that little bit less.

While looking good should probably remain a priority, perhaps it needn’t be the highest one on the list, and who we are, is a far better goal to improve on.

From time to time I like to showcase awesome cool stuff that I find on the internet.

Gearzap.com is one such website!

If there is one thing that this girl geek likes to shop for, then it’s laptop accessories! I can spend hours looking at awesome notebook covers, in all shapes sizes and colours, and Gear Zap is one such place where you really can browse for a long time, because of their huge range of  laptop bags and laptop cases.  They have all sizes available too, so if you’re a netbook user (you know those tiny laptops that measure like 9″ or so), or whether you have a 17″ aluminium Macbook Pro, then these guys have the range to satisfy your craving for all things hip and cool.

Something really important that I’d like to point out is that these guys accept PayPal! This really counts for a lot in my book, because so often funds sit in our PayPal accounts accumulating, and then we go off shopping excitedly, and can’t find a thing to spend it on. These days its so important for online retailers to offer Paypal as an accepted payment method, because it really expands their customer base. I’m glad to know that these guys are one such place!

It is not just laptop accessories though, they also offer other cool gadgets like mobile broadband booster aerials, ultra portable wireless mice, and mini portable speakers.  In fact just about anything that you could need to be productive and stylish!  Right now I am browsing their really big range of covers for external hard drives and other small items that I normally put in my laptop case hoping that they make it to my destination unscathed, and if I’d known about this site, I may well have gone shopping here sooner!   If I had stored my MacBook in one of their hard cases, it may have averted the disaster which happened to me this week, which ended up with a Macbook with a broken LCD amongst other things.

Anyway, if you’re looking for this type of item, please give these guys a try, so far I’m really impressed!

After this week, I could really use a mazatlan all inclusive holiday!

It started with my Macbook being unceremoniously thrust to the floor by my 18month old toddler (shame, as heartbroken as I was I couldn’t scold him, he didn’t understand what he’d done), and with me needing to begin the insurance claims process (yes – thank god for insurance, which is money for nothing unless something like this happens and you need it!) in order to either repair or replace the machine.

Personally I’m holding out for replacing because the sum that it is insured for, is the same as the cost of a new 20″ iMac!

I could really use the screen realestate, rather than the mobility right now.

So I made do with borrowed machines this week, for deadline after deadline that popped up out of nowhere. I’m so glad I managed to nail everything too!

Oh well, we’ll see what happens this week!