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“What’s the big deal with designer bikinis?” I hear you ask! In recent times designer bikinis have gained massive popularity with women around the world. With the millions of different styles and colour combinations available the choices seem really endless. These bikinis can range from the standard one-piece swimsuit that covers most of the body, to g-string bikinis to suit women with exotic tastes, and also two piece bikinis that complement any body type, size and skin tone.

Contrary to common belief, G-string bikinis are growing more and more popular every year, even during winter! This type of swimsuit can make you look super sexy on the beach and also help avoid the dreaded tan lines that the one-piece swimsuit seems to have no solution for.

A great advantage of opting for designer bikinis is that you can mix and match the top and the bottom. So go ahead and explore different colours, sizes, shades, and designs and before you know it you have a winner that is guaranteed to turn heads in the beach. With summer not too far away this may be the best time to get in shape and do your homework to find the perfect bikini, and who knows, you may even consider entering a bikini contest and showing the competition what being sexy is all about!

Other options include string bikinis (also known as micro bikinis ), which cover very little of the body. As with choosing a regular designer bikini you should try out different colours first. Keep this little tip in mind… if you are already tanned then opt for lighter colours (I find the lime or hot pink looks really good with a tanned skin). Lastly, if you feel uncomfortable wearing your string bikini in public then don’t as it defeats the purpose of why you bought them in the first place.

For a great range of super sexy designer bikinis head to www.zannebikinis.com and see what is in store this season!

Here is a quick reference guide to refreshing your awareness of safe food preparation. Pointers and information to always keep in mind when preparing food or storing it away for future use.

Most conscientious chefs use common sense when preparing or storing food. But common sense in food preparation doesn’t just happen, it is learned. This learning happens and when we forget where we learned it, we call it common sense.

Here are just a few pointers to refresh and reinforce your common sense as you are preparing your current meal or storing it for future use.

Food safety actually starts with your trip to the shops. Pick up the packaged or canned foods. Do the tins have dents? Don’t buy them. Is the jar cracked? Leave it. Does the lid seem loose or bulging? Pick up another. Look for any expiration dates on the labels, they are there for a reason. Never buy outdated food, even if it is on special. Check the “use by” or “sell by” date on dairy products and pick the ones that will stay fresh the longest. Sometimes they may be at the back of the shelves.

After grocery shopping, put food into the refrigerator or freezer right away. Better yet, put your refrigerator foods straight into one of those insulated freezer bags in the shopping cart and in your car.

Make sure to set the refrigerator temperature is set to 40 deg F and the freezer is set to 0 F. Refrigerate or freeze perishables, prepared foods, and leftovers within 2 hours. Raw meat, poultry, and seafood should be placed in containers to prevent their juices from dripping on other foods. Raw juices could possibly grow harmful bacteria. Eggs always go in the refrigerator.

Always cook food thoroughly until it is done. Red meat should turn brown inside. Chicken, when poked with a fork, should have clear juices. Fish, on the other hand, when poked with a fork, should flake. Cooked egg whites and yolks should be firm and not runny. Be sure to use a food thermometer to check the internal temperatures of your poultry, meat, and other foods. Leave it in long enough to ensure an accurate reading.

Wash your hands and cooking surfaces frequently. Germs can be spread quickly so this will ensure that it will not take hold and grow onto your food. A solution of one teaspoon of bleach in one quart of water is all that is needed to sanitise washed surfaces and utensils.

Cooked foods should definitely not be left standing in the kitchen counter or table for more than two hours. And if you must leave them out of the fridge, cover the food so bugs can’t rest on it. Bacteria tends to grow in temperatures between 40 and 140 deg F.

Foods that have been cooked ahead and cooled should be reheated to at least 165 deg F. (This just so happens to be one of the most overlooked areas in food prep).

Chill Leftover Food Promptly. Place food in the refrigerator and leave room for ventilation. The cold air needs to circulate freely to keep food safe. Divide the food and place in shallow containers. Think about date labeling some of these containers so you don’t lose track of how long they’ve been refrigerating.

These are just a few pointers that you already know, but need to keep remembering. If you follow these basics you will avoid most food spoilage problems.

Food safety training is available through Southbank Institute of Technology. Search for food safety online on the SBIT web site.

A mailing is often the most cost effective way to reach many donors. Sending letters also is a simple way to raise money. There is no need to recruit, train, manage and motivate a large team. A few talented individuals can run the entire operation. And you will find you will get a lot more volunteers to fold and stuff envelopes than to cold-call potential contributors. That’s not to say all one must do is write a letter, post or e-mail it, and wait for the returns.

What makes mail fundraising campaigns difficult is that they are one-sided. No allowance exists for a campaign worker to personally motivate prospects. The most enthusiastic letter simply cannot match the give-and-take between a skilled advocate and an open-minded potential supporter. Lacking aggressive salesmanship, only minimum gifts can be expected, no matter how well written the solicitation letter and enclosures may be.

Here’s another angle to think about. Assume that I’m a small-gift prospect with some interest in your charity. There’s a good chance that I’ll donate generously to your appeal if you knock on my door or phone because your enthusiasm and presentation will be hard to resist. And how many other organisations will solicit me in these ways? Very few. But send me a solicitation letter and you place your request in the midst of enormous competition for my same donation dollar. And because it’s a letter, I have little problem withstanding its impersonal nature. If your organisation is not among my very favorites, you won’t receive a contribution of any consequence.

You see, although I think highly of your organisation, I have a desk covered with fundraising letters, from the best known national charities to all sorts of noteworthy sporting and local groups. I am saturated with mail appeals. After sorting through them and making my top-ranked selections, I find my charitable budget is about depleted. But I still care about your cause, so here’s ten bucks to show you my heart’s in the right place.

With these factors as a downside, mail solicitations produce highly profitable income derived from small-gifts for organizations that plan and carry out meticulous programs. However, first-class mailing programs get extremely involved, both creatively and from a marketing standpoint. There are six elements to understand before considering a direct mail campaign:

1. Mail solicitation is an ongoing component of annual giving programs. In capital campaigning, letter writing is a tool for wrapping up an appeal and giving thanks.

2. Ongoing mail appeals focus equally on retaining and upgrading present contributors while discovering and cultivating new prospects to make up for donors lost to attrition and to enlarge the group of donors. Present givers won’t always be an available source of funding.

3. Donors via mail don’t come free. Depending on the package, to obtain a new contributor, you can spend from $1.30 to $1.60 (or more) for each initial dollar raised from that person.

4. Mail programs are long-term propositions and instant financial rewards are very rare.

5. Be clear who you designate as a donor and who you label a prospect. Donors are people currently contributing to your cause. Someone who gave you a gift two years ago or a person who once contributed a painting to your auction are prospects, not donors. Get used to thinking of three distinct groups: current donors, past donor prospects, and new prospects.

6. Some prospects have more interest in and knowledge about your organisation than others. Cultivated potential donors are first approached because they represent the highest rate of return. For instance, a past donor prospect is a better bet to send you a new donation than someone who once came to a special event that you held. The person who came to the special event is more likely to fund you than someone who never heard of your group.

In planning a full scale mail campaign, don’t lose sight of the fundamental fundraising requirements. Make sure your project has compelling goals, high visibility, specific, attractive, and timely needs.

Additionally, make sure your group has start-up funds on hand for what can become a relatively large investment to get the program rolling. For example, depending on the scale of your operation, you might want to engage a letter shop or mail house to provide the many functions necessary to get your direct mail package to recipients. This is an expensive proposition.

Or you might opt to subscribe to an online software provider to help drive your mail program. Since the highest percentage of return comes from current contributors, they are the first group to target. If a goal is reachable by only contacting these people, expenses will be minimal and your problems will be solved. If that’s not realistic, additional prospects who might fund your project would need to be reached. That’s fine so long as you realize that their percentage of return will be far less than supporters.

For instance, you send a letter to current donors and perhaps {30|40|50} percent of them respond with {donations|gifts}. A letter sent to brand-new {potential donors|prospects} typically yields responses of around 0.5 percent to 2 percent. Until you’ve won over a new potential {donor|giver}, don’t expect relatively large {donations|contributions}. A return of 5 percent to 12 percent can be expected from present donors.

If your group, school or {sports club|club} is looking for fundraising ideas and easy fundraisers, have a look at Goldstar Gifts and Stationery’s easy to manage ideas for fundraising.

Unless you are considering keeping your old car and passing it on to someone else, you will eventually need to sell it. There’s many ways to sell your vehicle, but first let’s talk about the preparation of your vehicle prior to advertising or trading.

Presentation is the key factor
The first thing one should consider when selling an old vehicle is how you can sell it for more money. The technique, which most people seem to overlook, is to simply make it look absolutely fantastic!

This does not mean just washing and vacuuming it, although that’s a good start. It is the overall preparation and detailing that counts. This is a well-known secret of most used car dealers.

You would be surprised to see the condition of some of the vehicles they purchase, but after a few hours in the detailing shop you wouldn’t think it was the same car! The best advice to anyone selling his or her car, is to have a professional car detail carried out. This will cost you around the $200 mark and it will be money well invested.

It will, in effect, save you hours of hard work trying to do it yourself with nowhere near the same result. This alone will add hundreds of dollars to your vehicle, particularly when selling privately.

I know of people who have had their vehicle detailed and fallen back in love with their car deciding not to go ahead with the sale.

Once the detailing has been completed you should make sure any minor flaws are fixed. It is also important that you have the service logs and any relative mechanical history at the ready, as this is now becoming a major factor when buying or selling a used vehicle. If a service is due or near due, make sure you have it done prior to selling. This will give a prospective buyer a good idea of how well you have kept your vehicle.

What is your car really worth?
Before you start selling your vehicle, either privately or to a dealer, you must know its market value. There is nothing worse than advertising your vehicle with a highly inflated price tag.

One way to find out the approximate value of your vehicle is by studying the motor section of your local newspapers, which will give you a reasonable guide. Another way is to look in dealership yards to see what price similar vehicles are being sold for, but you must remember these vehicles have margins built into them to cover the dealer’s operating costs and over-stock.

Alternatively, the internet can provide a wealth of information on vehicle valuations. This is only web-based information and is generalised, so it does not give you accurate pricing on your own vehicle because of the specific condition and accessories fitted.

Web sites where you can gather this type of guidance are the individual dealership web sites and vehicle pricing-guide sites such as www.redbook.com.au and www.glassguide.com.au

This information is purely to assist you in making a qualified and rational decision when buying or selling your vehicle. Remember, these sites are to be used only as a guideline, they are not entirely accurate as they do not take into consideration the individual buying or selling trends within the different states.

There are always variations to the rules about pricing, so you should follow your intuition when setting a price and be sure to leave room for negotiating in your asking price. Your starting price should be higher than the price for which you really want to sell your vehicle.

For classic car hire and vintage car rental, check out http://egocars.com.au

Some investors have a different view on stockmarket falls. They see the low stock prices as a chance to buy a bargain.

During times of economic volatility, it is our natural instinct to guard our investments and distance ourselves from risk. While this reaction is unsurprising, it can also mean missing out on profit opportunities created during crazy times.

Warren Buffet, one of the world’s best professional investors, sees market slumps from another viewpoint, saying “Look at market swings as your friend rather than your foe; profit from folly rather than participate in it.”

Generally when we see a cheaper price for something we want we rush in for a bargain, however it can be quite the opposite with shares. Why is it that we treat shares that have dropped in price with dread? Stock prices of a listed company can fall for a number of reasons.

Lately we have seen the share prices of a number of blue chip companies with sound balance sheets be negatively affected due to a rush to sell as a result of the economic crisis.

Despite the uncertain trading environment, professional investors are always checking the market for buying opportunities. Many fund managers are searching to find stocks in sound companies with strong balance sheets and dividends. For example Australian companies such as household names like David Jones have delivered strong profits after tax and dividends in 2008. However during 2008, David Jones’ share price fell by more than 30%.

Identifying opportunities
Not all businesses will be affected by the global economic crisis in the same way. Some industries are more susceptible to the economic cycle than others.

Companies who deal in of basic goods and services continue on almost unchanged, for example we all need to eat - so supermarkets aren’t as affected as much as tourism, motor vehicle sales or luxury goods.

Australia’s population growth is at a 19 year peak and growing at 1.7% per year. Australia’s growing population provides increasing demand for goods and services as people need food, housing, cars, etc. Unlike many overseas countries, Australia benefits from two key factors: a high population growth rate and a high demand for housing.

Population growth is nearly twice that of the US while Germany has negative population growth. In the US there is an over-supply of housing while Australia suffers from a lack of supply. The combination of limited housing and a rising population will create growing demand for housing which will support further building and provide opportunities for the building industry.

The value of companies
Many people view companies with falling share prices with fear, but we need to take a look under the hood of these firms to determine why. Have they borrowed heavily?

What industry are they in? Are they competitive against their peers? Only by answering these questions, can we know if their stock value has fallen for valid reasons or if the company is indeed on sale.

When investing, many fund managers seek firms with high and maintainable dividends, strong balance sheets and substantial cash flow. These companies are more likely to outlast the volatility storm and may give you a greater return when the market moves into the next phase of recovery and
beyond.

Before you consider changing your investment, you should see a professional. Having a financial planner and a long-term financial plan can give you confidence to manage the effects of market cycles. With the right advice you can ensure your investments are cut to your risk profile and time horizon, giving you the certainty of knowing you’re doing what’s right for you. This article brought to you by a Brisbane business consultant who offers sales training and a web designer brisbane. Distribution by seo packages. BS1004

Powered candle brackets with wrought iron or aluminium holders and brass or timber candelabra with small individual fabric shades in imitation American colonial or mission style were common during the 1920s and 1930s. They were hung in Spanish mission or neo-colonial styled homes and also in Californian bungalows.

It was quite often the case that different styles of light fittings were mixed in one home. The entrance hall and internal passages could have wrought iron lantern fittings either circular or rectangular in shape. The dining room might have one or more American colonial style wrought iron candelabra; the lounge, French revival chandeliers; the master bedroom, a floral ceramic rococo light fitting. All these rooms might have wall sconces matching the central piece. The children’s rooms usually had English styled Arts and Crafts fittings; the bathroom a modern fitting — similarly the servants quarters — and the kitchen, fluorescent strip lighting.

By the 1950s the standard or table light had become a major centre piece in a room with the new television and blinds. Sometimes a metal standard lamp came incorporated in a side table or large ashtray. The background lighting was very faint. Except for the table lamps little attention was drawn to the light fittings.

Mass production churned out cheap plastic, plaster, metal and buckram lamp bases and lamp shades. The traditional colonial designs had been replaced by a plethora of folksy designs and do-it yourself instructions on how to make ballerina lamp-shades or African and Fijian raffia shades. The style was kitsch: a multitude of designs for table lamps was-available, from Russian ballerinas, Spanish matadors, Chinamen, happy Mexicans with cacti, Arabian snake trainers, African dancing girls, happy couples and leopard or tiger skins. The colours were gaudy and beautifully ugly. For football player agents and sales training options, visit digitalbrands.com.au.

You have found a business for sale, you have bought it, so what now? With all the pieces of your new business just about in place, there is a crucial Issue to discuss, You. The most important ingredient in small business is the owner, and the most important ingredient in the owner is their attitude to both the business, and their customers.

Your attitude will to a great degree govern your success in business. Some people when they leave their jobs to start up their own business, unravel and get lazy. This is probably due to the fact they are no longer intimidated by the boss into doing the right thing. Self discipline can be a real problem with some people, they just can’t motivate themselves without some degree of external pressure. This, I believe is the biggest problem you will face.

You should watch for the warning signs, opening late, closing early, having long lunches, never getting jobs finished on time or at all, not returning calls, letting accounting paperwork lag behind, taking days off because you couldn’t be bothered working and so on. It is so easy to slip into bad habits, so be aware.

Try and remain accustomed to at least working the same hours as you were in your employed job and set yourself targets. Targets and goals will impose pressure on you to perform.

The next attitude problem comes from lack of determination.

Some small business owners fall to pieces every time there is problem or a crisis. This style of attitude will also assist you to go out of business very quickly.

You must never give up, for your own sake you must push on because you will strike plenty of problems and go through several serious crisis’s before things settle down, this is common to all new businesses.

The best thing to do is work through the problem in a calm and systematic way. Whilst you may feel at the time “this is the end” and “I’ve had enough”, this is a normal reaction that will pass. It often helps to join business groups and talk to other business owners about common problems.

You then must solve the problem and keep going. I’m sure attitude and determination has a lot to do with the 90% of businesses that fail. It’s ridiculous to think that a business goes down the drain because the owner had a poor attitude or “had a wobbly”, but it does happen. Make sure you’re not one of them.

The last issue to discuss is your attitude to customers. Keep this in mind, regardless of whether you like the particular person, all customers contribute to your profitability and success so treat them with respect and courtesy. It’s amazing how quickly customers will desert you if they feel you are rude to them. No customers - no money — no business! Always remain courteous, helpful and above all friendly, never allow personal or business problems to raise their heads in front of customers.The future of your business is in your hands.

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If you are looking for a business for sale have a look at what http://www.business2sell.com.au/ has to offer. There is a huge range of businesses for sale listed, by both owner operators and business brokers. STB2S090309

The use of tax havens in day to day business life has grown to be almost mainstream these days. To the small businessman and the private investor, the use of tax havens still probably seems a little shady.

This shouldn’t be the case any more as the use of tax havens to reduce tax or just defer it for a while is now accepted practice all over the world with many of the largest Australian accounting and audit firms having departments advising major corporations how to structure their operations offshore.

Tax havens have a strong appeal for many multi-national companies established in foreign countries because of the advantages they offer for the legitimate reduction or deferment of taxation on certain profits earned offshore. Profits harboured in a tax haven enable working capital to be used in the cheapest way possible.

Traditionally, the tax haven has been used as a central point for handling paperwork and preparing and processing international trade documents. Many companies utilise tax havens for the passage of title of goods, so these transfers can proceed without the need for mountains of regulations and fees.

Tax havens are also popular as places to administer patent, trademark and royalty agreements. Because of the intangible nature of patents, trademarks and royalty agreements, they are easily moved from one jurisdiction to the other and the cost of doing this is very low in tax haven jurisdictions.

For instance, if a company with branches and subsidiaries overseas is a resident of a country with strict foreign exchange regulations, it may not want to repatriate the profits simply because if it did, it may have problems being able to transfer the funds back out if it wanted to reinvest them offshore. To solve this problem, it establishes a foreign intermediate holding company in a tax haven, not for tax reasons, but to avoid the foreign exchange control problems that its own country has imposed.

By simply interposing a tax haven company in a corporate structure does not result in the reduction of onshore taxes in most cases, but it may allow tax deferral. Eventually, the parent company will receive the income and when it does it will be taxable and possibly without the benefit of foreign tax credits that may have been available had the profits been repatriated from a tax treaty country. Most tax havens don’t have tax treaties with major countries such as Australia, which prevents the favourable use of lower withholding taxes that would have been available had the country been a signatory to a tax treaty.

Offshore Licencing and Patent Holding Companies

Royalties or licence fees can be, in certain circumstances, can be feed of tax obligations by using an offshore licensing company. For instance, the owner of a patent can incorporate an offshore licensing company and assign the rights to that offshore company. In turn the offshore company then has the right to licence the patent to a foreign subsidiary. By having the royalties paid to the licensing company in a tax haven, profits are effectively shifted from the foreign subsidiary to the offshore patent owning company, which pays little or no tax on the royalties that it receives.

Income from other intangible rights, such as trade marks, copyrights, know how and franchising rights, can be earned without incurring withholding or income tax if a tax haven company is established to sublicence other companies in various countries. Tax savings can be made also on patent royalties by combining tax havens.

Australia only deducts 10% withholding tax on Dutch companies. Therefore, if a tax haven company was established in the Netherlands Antilles with a Dutch subsidiary, and licences its Dutch patents to the Dutch company, the Dutch company, in turn, can licence to the Australian manufacturer.

The Australian company can then pay the Dutch subsidiary patent royalties incurring only 10% tax. The Dutch company can then pay the royalty to the tax haven company (which is the patent owner), thereby avoiding Dutch withholding taxes on dividends. The Dutch company is not taxed in the Netherlands, and the tax haven company avoids any further taxation. Total tax is 10%.

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If you have a business for sale, make sure you visit http://www.business2sell.com.au/ This Australian business sales portal lists many quality businesses and is used by buyers, sellers and business brokers.

If you are looking for a business for sale, visit business2sell.com.au

This web site is for buyers, sellers and business brokers. Categories include food, retail, automotive, transport and every other imaginable category. There’s businesses for sale there at all levels of investment.

With the uncertain economic climate it make sense to investigate owning your own business.

Although running your own business can be very hard work, your future is very much in your hands. With the risks involved often go the rewards.

According to the ABS, in 2006 there were over 1.12 million small business in Australia employing a total of over 2.5 million people.

Small business is an attractive option for those who want to leave the corporate grind and build an asset that they can pass on to generations.

Business2Sell.com.au is 100% free website for business brokers. Brokers can join the service and add unlimited businesses.

If you are and owner selling your business, a 3 month listing is just $45. Note that at the moment business2sell.com.au are running a special offer. If you get a listing with business2sell for three months, they will run your listing for unlimited time or until it is sold.

As a buyer, you can search by location, business type and keyword. You can also search by price range.

So if you are looking to buy a business, sell a business or if you are a business broker, visit business2sell.com.au today.

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Your brand image is primarily an emotional construct. Emotion is probably always more powerful in swaying people than reason, but people like to be able to rationalise their choices. This is where awareness of another advertising theory - the USP - can be helpful to you.

The USP, or unique selling proposition, formula was developed by Rosser Reeves, an ex-copywriter who became head of the Ted Bates agency in New York. He wrote an excellent book, largely dealing with this theory but also covering other aspects of advertising, called Reality in Advertising.

To establish your USP, you compare your product or service with your competitors. Then you determine one feature you have which no one else can offer. This is your unique selling proposition. It is this which you must promote single mindedly.

A 1987 issue of Marketing Week, the British trade paper, gave a wonderful example of how little the average marketing executive understands the phrases he deploys with such gay inconsequence. The subject was ‘Store credit cards’. A bank executive said: The whole point of a Marks & Spencer, Boots, Dixons or even Fortnum & Mason card is to bring people into the store - and to provide a bit of a LISP’ (my italics).

How a credit card can be a unique selling proposition when the same facility is offered by any number of retailers is difficult to comprehend. It reminds one of people who refer to things as being ‘rather’ unique, or ‘fairly’ unique. Here are some typical USPs:

‘Cleans your breath while it cleans your teeth.’

Colgate toothpaste. ‘The too good to hurry mint.’ Murraymints. ‘There’s more for your life at Sears.’ Sears Roebuck. ‘It ain’t fancy but it’s good.’ Horn & Hardarts. ‘The mint with the hole.’ Polo Mints. ‘It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.’ Perdue Chicken

And, finally, another gentleman in the chicken business: ‘It’s finger lickin’ good.’ Colonel Sanders

One of the problems with the USP is that you sometimes have to rely upon some pretty trivial points of difference to arrive at your proposition - as you can see from the list above. And although, for simple products a good USP may often supply a successful selling idea, I think it is difficult to arrive at one for complex services such as American Express or The Consumers Association.

However, comparing yourself against your competition to discover what USP may exist is a great aid to clear thinking. For example, I was able to improve results for Odhams’ Kathie Webber Cookery Club by writing a headline which was simply a personal way of expressing a USP: `My cookery cards mean you control your weight without giving up luscious food you love to eat.’ This did well in the UK, and even in France, home of gastronomy. Moreover, subsequent approaches to selling this product revolved around this original thought. ====

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