"B" Is For Budget

No matter what we do in life -- buy a new home or car, take the family on holiday, or splurge at Jimmy Choo's -- we're best served when we establish a budget. (Unless of course you're a Trust Fund Baby, but that's a topic for another article!) The same thought process and adherence to a budget must come into play when you're ready to outsource.

Don't look at your outsourcing budget as something to keep up with The Joneses. Remember, your outsourcing budget doesn't come close to what would you spend on a full-time employee for salary and benefits. Your budget is just that: YOURS! Keep your eyes on your own paper, and don't worry about what the other business owners are spending.

The next, and inevitable, question is always, "But Lori, how do I start to determine my budget?" Good question, my Killer Sharks. The first place to start is not in terms of a monetary amount, but instead to determine what you can realistically outsource. Your mission, which you will accept, is to make a list of:

* Those things which consistently fall through the cracks.

* Those things which you despise doing.

* Those things which are best left to an assistant.

* And most important of all -- those things which you're handling right now which are preventing you from keeping your business in business.

Here's a brief list of some of the tasks and projects many small business owners need to outsource:

* Appointment Setting and Confirmations (always more professional when your Assistant calls on your behalf!)

* Calendar and E-mail Management

* Shopping Cart Management

* Article Marketing

* Website Updates (Adobe Contribute, Dreamweaver, FrontPage, HTML)

* Blog Administration

* Craig's List & Backpage Campaigns

* Proofreading

* Data Entry Projects and Word Processing

* e-Newsletter Management

These are the same things which you're doing (and not very well, I might add!) that are sucking up your precious mental energy. You're the Big Kahuna in your business and your goal is to keep your eye on the big picture and not the administrative details. Think of all the things which comprise your back office administration; chances are nearly 100% that most of that stuff can be outsourced. With this list in hand, we can then begin to determine your approximate budget each month.

The Formula

Here's the formula I use with prospects who are interested in outsourcing:

HBR X NFTQ X 30 Working Days = $X,XXX.XX

HBR = Hourly Billable Rate

NFTQ = Non-Face-Time-Quotient (guestimate of the number of hours each day you spend on your backoffice administration)

Whatever the $X,XXX.XX total is, it's too much! That's money that's not in your pocket, and that's an indication of how much of your sanity you're leaving on the floor at the close of business each day.

Take the total number from above and either use it as a baseline, or divide it by 1/2, 1/3 or 1/4, depending upon how much you want to spend each month.

Take the total number from above and realize, once and for all, that you are throwing away a significant amount of money each month.

If your budget is on the lean side, that's just fine. That means you'll outsource a combination of big stuff and little stuff and then as you begin to bring in more money and acquire more clients, you can offload additional tasks and projects to your Virtual Assistant.

Outsourcing can make a profound and positive impact on your business, your life and your sanity! However, don't feel that you've got to spend Fort Knox each month to make it happen. Crunch your own numbers, let loose of the fears you're holding onto, and do something good for your business.

5 Budget Gift Ideas

Many people love to say that Valentine's Day is becoming too commercial, and claim that it is just another way for card and gift shops to make money. Personally, I feel it is lovely to have just one day out of 365 where people in love are reminded to celebrate one another and the special relationship they have. After all, I think it can get to the point where we begin to take each other for granted.

There are so many little things that can make someone's Valentine's Day. You don't have to spend a fortune on Valentines gifts, even if you have the money. It's more about the token of love and the thought that has gone into it, that makes a gift truly appreciated. The fact you can do so much, even if you have no money is what's so beautiful about Valentine's Day.

So here are a few gift ideas to inspire you to make Valentine's Day a special one.

Making an effort

For starters, the simple idea of a Valentine's Day card is always guaranteed to bring a smile to your partners face on Valentine's Day morning. It needn't be big or flashy, it doesn't even have to be shop bought. What can make a token of affection into something truly special is making it unique. Why not make the card yourself? Just some coloured card, a pen and a little imagination is all it takes. It could be as simple as a drawing of a heart with both your name inside, or maybe glueing a favourite picture of the two of you onto it, which can then be framed for posterity.

If you find you don't have time to make your own card, why not try and compose a little poem or message during your commute to work, or during lunch, which you can write inside your shop bought one. The gift idea is the same - it just needs a little thought and effort.

Cook a romantic meal for 2

Can't afford a meal out in a fancy restaurant? Then why not treat your girlfriend, boyfriend, husband or wife to a night off and cook a meal for them instead? It can be just as romantic as a restaurant meal - if not more so. Think of your partners favourite foods and drink and spend a few hours preparing a delicious meal. Think delicious, sexy food such as oysters or scallops for starters, a creamy pasta dish for main and chocolate or strawberries for pudding. Top it off with a bottle of bubbly, flowers on the table and a lit candle in a bottle and bob's your uncle. Even if the meal doesn't come out perfect, the fact you put so much thought into the gesture will make all the difference. It's an ideal way to celebrate if you cannot get a babysitter either.

Enjoy a night in and be pampered

This year, Valentine's Day happens to be on a Thursday - a very unromantic weekday. Many people will be at work during the day and it can be hard to find time for one another. With our busy lifestyle, it can be hard to get a chance to spend quality time together, just the two of you. So instead of thinking about making a day of it, how about making a night of it? Get prepared to enjoy a magical Valentine's night together. After a hard day at work, what better than a luxurious soak in a hot bubble bath? Light a few candles or get some floating spa lights, some soft music to relax too and help get you in the mood for a nice bathe together. Massage each others aching spots with some perfumed oil, whisper sweet nothings to one another and enjoy your time together.

I.O.U. tokens

A simple but effective idea that works a treat and costs you nothing at all. Simply write an I.O.U on a piece of paper or card offering to do something for your partner at anytime. It could be as romantic, sexy or simple as you like. Some examples are: I.O.U 1 massage, I.O.U the next choice what we watch on TV or I.O.U a washing up session. Alternatively you could suggest a night out for example I.O.U a visit to the cinema. This something cheap and cheerful, but it'll take you back to the days when you first started dating and holding hands. The only limitation with this Valentine gift idea is your imagination!

Games for two

Spending time together is crucial to your relationship together, and that is why I think Valentine's Day is an opportunity to bring couples closer together. How often do we get to spend time and do little things like play games or spend 2 hours exploring each others bodies and indulging in our pleasure zones. You can make up your own game, massage one another or get an adult game such as Nookii which costs under £25. The great thing is this game doesn't just last for the night, but for a lifetime, as you can use it over and over again. These games can be as fun, adventurous or sensuous as you wish. The key thing is to both enjoy it.

Hopefully these gift ideas have inspired everyone to have a fabulous Valentine's Day this year and in years to come.

Perfect Budget Car Rental

Frequent travelers are often the greatest users of budget car rental as they know the convenience it provides; if you use taxis regularly you will not need reminding how expensive this form of transportation is, so perhaps it is time you tried something else. However, the rental car market can be fiercely competitive so be careful you are not given a car with an engine that would be better fitted to a bike. Well maybe not that bad, but sometimes, well most of the time, the people that assist you in car rentals just doesn't have your best interest in mind, so you end up paying a truckload of money for a pool of frustrations. To avoid this here are a few tips to get the budget, out of your rental car.

One way that can help is to use a web site for budget car rental that allows you to set your own upper spending limit. These companies will try and get you the best deal available and often offer other upgrades or incentives to get your custom. It is not unusual to find that package deals that incorporate a flight and rental car, provide other incentives such as a vehicle upgrade for instance although this is rarely the case if you book with one of the airlines directly. Unfortunately, airlines although convenient aren't really the more economic way to go, their car rental prices are hardly budget, and tend to be higher than those of outside firms.

Just remember that you are likely to come across some amazing budget car rental deals on the internet if you look. Internet only bookings are fast becoming the only way you are able to receive a discount on your car rental. Shopping around on the internet can be fun and save you money as there is almost always a special offer available with one car Rental Company or another. Don't forget that the only effort required to find these car rental deals is to logon to the internet, how easy is that.

Another thing to ask is whether your credit card company has negotiated special discounts with the budget car rental company you are going to use. Perhaps your frequent flyer program or military service can help reduce the cost of renting a car; it's a long shot but it's worth a try.

Most rental cars are low on maintenance so when you rent a car, check all sides for damage. I mean every side and every nook and cranny of that car, make sure to inform the renter of these so that you wont have to pay for damages once you return the car. In addition to a physical check for collision damage, make sure everything works as it should or you might find yourself paying for something that wasn't your fault.

One other thing to remember is to check your vehicle insurance policy as you will more than likely find that it provides rental car insurance cover so that's another saving. Even though rental car insurance isn't going to cost you a fortune, there is no point in paying it if you are already covered; always make sure you have auto insurance anyway, as the penalties for driving without adequate cover are severe.

So don't think that it isn't an important aspect either because insurance is still required by law.

Budget problem

What the hell is burning in here?" my wife demanded.

She didn't wait for my reply. She had smelled the block of wood burning in my home office all the way from hers. She left the room, retuned with a fire extinguisher, placed it on the floor, and went back to her office without another word.

A recent client of mine named David McInnis had just launched a startup company building parts via Stereolithography (SLA) and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS); two bleeding edge technologies designed to build parts directly from 3D-CAD files by using lasers. This technology enables users to create these renditions without using any additional tools.

I submitted a proposal to the Air Force outlining a plan for David's company to make parts for the F35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) using the SLS technology. The Air Force specifications presented an obstacle; they needed the parts to function at elevated temperatures of up to 270°F. This specification required that we use some new materials that Roger Spielman, the Director of Operations, and I had recently developed. We needed to test "tensile specimens" made from this new material, commonly called dog bones, at these elevated temperatures.

The problem was this: we were a startup company and we didn't own or have access to any tensile testing machines or a way to test the specimens at elevated temperatures. The testing machines are very expensive, so purchasing one of these machines was out of the question.

A company intern, Mike Sherwood, informed us that the local university, BYU, had one of the tensile testing machines on campus. We figured that his idea was worth a shot. After all, we had nothing to lose. We picked up the phone and called one of the professors at the college. We explained our situation and asked if they would be interested in letting us use the machine at a reasonable rate.

Dr. Brent Strong gave us the go-ahead to start using the machine, and even said that the school wouldn't charge us a dime right then. He added that down the road, if we needed to use the machine a lot that we could pay a very small fee.

Problem solved... or at least one of them. Now we had a machine, but still no way to test the specimen at elevated temperatures. The manufacturer of the testing machines does sell an environmental chamber accessory that would have allowed us to measure the effectiveness of the specimen at high temperatures, but the accessory cost thousands of dollars.

So, the next challenge was determining how to test the specimens at 270°F with no budget. What resources did we already have available to accomplish this objective?

I thought about my oven at home. The appliance reaches temperatures of up to 425°F - I know because I do all of the cooking in our family. The oven is more than twenty years old and we need a new one anyway, so I figured I could just cut the oven in half, and clamshell the oven around the tensile specimen while we tested them. That probably would have worked, but tearing my oven out of the wall sounded like a hassle. I know that your first idea is rarely your best idea, so I kept thinking, "What else might work? Is there another right answer?"

Then I thought about my photography lights. I wondered, "How hot will these lights get?" I know that they get pretty hot when I use them to shoot my videos, but I was doubtful that they could reach 270°F.

Since I am always curious, I decided to try the lights out in spite of my doubts. I'd never measured the temperature of the lights before, so I thought that maybe, just maybe, the lights would work.

I jammed a metal rod into a block of wood I'd found in my garage and stood the wood up vertically in my office. I went downstairs, got my photography lights, turned them on, and shined them directly at the piece of wood from about three inches away.

In order to track the temperature readings, I retrieved my laser thermometer from the closet. I know what you are thinking: "Ha-ha look at that engineering nerd and his laser thermometer," but in my defense, the LT does have some real, practical uses like measuring the temperature of the air in my hot air balloon, checking the peanut oil temperature when I'm deep frying a turkey, and other things like that.

I pointed the laser at the wood to measure the temperature and watched the readings climb: 150°F, 200°F, 250°F, 400°F ... When the wood reached 650°, the smoke started. I quickly turned the light off before I set my house on fire. I didn't want to have to use the extinguisher my wife had placed on the floor.

Wow. A simple photography light can heat a block of wood to temperatures over 600°F? I would have never guessed; and I never would have known if I hadn't been curious enough to test the lights out. I'd found my solution. I simply turned the lights on my specimen, adjusted the lights' distance from the sample until the temperature stabilized at 270°F, and voila: mission accomplished.

My plan worked like a charm, and best of all, it didn't cost us a cent.

Have you ever tried this exercise yourself? Conduct a brainstorming session to accomplish your task assuming you have no budget and only current available resources to get the job done. You will think it is a waste of time, but in my experience it almost never is. You can almost always find some creative and innovative approaches assuming you have no budget to work with.

In the end you may end up spending some money, but by coming at it from this viewpoint you can often save you bookoo bucks.

Budget Deficits By Increase In Tax Revenue

A budget deficit occurs when Government spending is greater than tax revenues. For political reasons a budget deficit often occurs. Politicians never gain votes by raising taxes and cutting spending. With many major World economies facing a large budget deficit. It is worth considering the main economic disadvantages of Government borrowing.

Increased Borrowing

The govt will have to borrow from the private sector, in the UK the government does this by asking the Bank of England to sell bonds and gilts to the private sector.

Higher debt interest payments

Selling bonds will increase the national debt, this is currently £300 billion. The annual interest payments is approximately £23 billion, this has a high opportunity cost because it requires future generations to pay higher taxes.

Increased AD

A budget deficit implies lower taxes and increased G, this will increase AD and this may cause higher Real GDP and inflation.

Higher Taxes and lower spending

In the future the govt may have to increase taxes or cut spending in order to reduce the deficit. This may cause reduced incentives to work

Increased Interest rates

If the govt sells more bonds this is likely to cause interest rates to increase. This is because they will need to increase interest rates in order to attract investors to buy the extra debt. If govt interest rates increase this will push up other interest rates as well.

Crowding Out

Increased govt borrowing may cause a decrease in the size of the private sector (see fiscal policy)

Inflation

In extreme circumstances the govt may increase the money supply to pay the debt, however this is unlikely to occur in the UK

If the govt sells short term gilts to the banking sector then there wil be an increase in the money supply, this is because banks see gilts as near money therefore they can maintain there lending to customers. However they will also be increasing the money supply by lending to the govt.

note the effect of a budget deficit depends to some extent on the cause. For example in a recession a budget deficit may be necessary to get the economy out of recession. If the government is borrowing to invest in infrastructure and education this can benefit the economy in the long term.

Effects On Federal Expenses Through Federal Budgets

After studying the regional economic collapse of the last several previous recent decades, I see unfortunate turbulence that will disturb our in flight movie this evening. Why you ask? Well, because the Federal Government has over spent, some was due to irresponsible fiscal policy and much was due to the outrageous cost of the Iraq War.

When money flows from the Federal Government, those areas that are in the flow of those expenditures see a huge economic benefit and this scenario has been repeated many many times over the last century. Within the last three decades I have had the pleasure of watching the rise and falls of such areas. I watched Southern California tank after all the aerospace workers got laid off (88,000). I have I watched military towns collapse when the government stopped spending on National Defense and BRAC closed bases.

Yes, this also happens when private sector money stops flowing. For instance, The Dot Com bubble burst in Silicon Valley or the many large cities hit by the Telecom Crash, the S&L debacle and those are just a few. Right, now our Online Think Tank is reviewing the proposed Budget coming up for the Federal Government, and we see some economic fall-out that is actually long overdue, from a fake economy propped up by wasteful spending.

Indeed the biggest issue I see is that the areas in and around Washington DC will be hit hardest and that will affect real people, folks who live there and work there. Does that mean Washington should keep spending? Heck no, spending must come under control. Nevertheless, this will cause the housing markets there to go thru a much longer bottom that is projected. Something to contemplate in 2008.

Budget Policy With Insurance Companies

Newly registered drivers or persons who move into the area are often at a loss when searching for car insurance. Locating a friendly insurance agent can be done by visiting multiple companies, or engaging in protracted phone conversation. Another method, however, of searching for coverage is Budget car insurance UK.

Budget Car Insurance is one of the leading providers of insurance in the UK. It provides policies for vans and bicycles as well as automotives. Budget also provides specialist classic car insurance to persons with classic cars. This company has a strong online present and maintains an excellent website.

Budget car insurance's website provides affordable insurance to residents of the UK. It offers a user the ability to search approximately 20 different companies simultaneously. The website has also contracted with these companies to provide discounted rates to individuals who purchase their policy through the site.

If you are searching for car insurance, be aware of your needs. First and foremost, many UK companies will not insure a car that is not made by a UK-owned manufacturer. If you are considering purchasing an import car, be aware of this potential difficulty and even consider securing a policy before finalizing the sale.

Many companies also offer a no claims discount to those who have not had an insurance claim within the last three years. Proof of eligibility for this discount must be submitted. In addition, only drivers who have earned this discount within the UK are eligible for the discount.

Another feature of Budget insurance is that it provides optional extra insurance features. For example, it provides motorist legal protection in the event that a driver is sued as a result of an accident. Breakdown assistance is also available, as well as rental car insurance, in the event that the insured car is in need of repairs and cannot be driven.

When searching the website for an insurance quote, be sure to have your car registration available. The vehicle registration number is required to obtain a policy premium quote. In some cases, persons may be searching for a provisional quote before actually purchasing a car; this is best done over the telephone or through a live agent.

Those who reside in the UK should consider shopping for insurance through this excellent company. Ranked as one of the top insurance intermediaries, Budget car insurance UK provides trustworthy information from reliable insurance companies. Shop this website now for affordable, quality car insurance!

Budget Policy For Health Care Coverage

The cost of health care has increased substantially over the past decade, so it should be no surprise that the cost of private medical insurance has followed suit. With premiums up from around annually to 18 according to Data Monitor, it is becoming harder for many people to afford private medical insurance at all.

There are ways to cut costs and still get quality cover and quality medical care, though. Here are a few suggestions for getting quality health insurance for you and your family on a budget.

Downgrade from comprehensive cover

If you've been paying for comprehensive PMI, you may reduce your costs by downgrading to a budget plan. There are a number of budget plan types available. One of the most common methods of reducing costs on PMI is to exclude cover for some types of treatments. Those treatments may include tests, complementary health care and psychiatric care. Exclusions are one way to cut costs t if you end up needing tests, scans or physical therapy, or any other type of treatment not covered, you could wind up paying far more out of your pocket than you would have paid for the extra cover. Agree to a higher excess

Another popular way to lower premiums is to opt for a higher excess. You can lower your premiums by well over 50% if you choose to accept a high excess. If you do choose to take on a higher excess payment, be sure to check how the excess is charged. A per claim excess can wind up being far more expensive than a full cover excess.

Share the responsibility

A third way to cut the cost of your premiums is to share the cost of your medical expenses with your insurance provider. Rather than paying a fixed excess cost, you agree to pay a percentage of your treatment cost up to a predetermined cap.

Pay for your own treatment

A new class of payment type for private health care costs is to pay for your own expenses without insurance. There are private hospitals that offer fixed rate operations to allow you to shop around and budget for an operation rather than wait for your turn on the NHS.

Private treatment at NHS facilities

If you opt to pay your own medical expenses, one option to look into is using private facilities at NHS hospitals. The cost may be cheaper than the same treatment at a private hospital.

Employer based PMI

Check to find out if your employer offers PMI as a company benefit. Group rates for private health insurance are considerably cheaper than individual, so even if your employer requires you to make a contribution, it's likely to save you a good amount of money on your health insurance policy.

Depending on the policy and the company, you may also be able to get cover for your spouse and children. In some of the larger companies, you may even be able to get cover if you have a pre-existing condition.

Shop around for the best deal

Comparison shopping will always get you the best deal, so do shop around and compare premiums. Ask for quotes from several insurance companies but be sure to know before hand what type and level of cover you want so you can compare like with like.