Learning to dance at home

Learning to Dance at Home

There are many ways in which a person can learn to dance if he or she is of the mind to do so. The problem is that many people shy away from learning to dance, despite a sincere desire to do just that out of fear of being seen in the learning process. This is such a sad reason to avoid bringing the joy of dance into your life and one that can be so easily avoided if you are willing to make the efforts that would be required.

First of all, you can learn to dance within the comfort of your very own home. You do not need a dance hall or studio with mirrors to learn to dance even though they are helpful to the process. In all truthfulness it is quite possible to learn to dance at home without even procuring a teacher.

There are many DVDs and instructional tapes and videos on the market that can teach the basics of many different styles of dance. If you aren't sure what type of dance you are most interested in, it isn't a terrible idea to begin by ordering some DVDs in order to find out what specific type of dance interests you most. The really neat thing about doing this is that you can being the learning process in your very own home with the curtains drawn and no one will ever need to be any wiser.

Of course if you are going to learn at home you might want to clue your spouse or partner in and see if he or she would like to join you on the path to discovering the joys of dance as a form of entertainment as well as a means of bringing an extra level of physical activity into your life. The really good news is that this sort of physical activity won't feel like exercise and if you play your cards right with your partner it just might lead to other forms of physical activity. Keep in mind that many people find dance to be a very romantic precursor to other romantic pursuits.

Backing away from the romance department you can even find a great and occasionally merciless audience in your children. They also make great practice partners and guinea pigs and if you control the allowance, then you might even manage to squeeze out a compliment or two to help your potentially wounded ego through the event. Kids are great fun though when it comes to dancing and (younger kids anyway) are almost always willing to kick back and have a laugh at mom or dads expense. If you want to make a really fun afternoon of things, challenge your kids to a 'dance off' you just might be surprise at who is the last one standing.

Learning to dance at home can be a rewarding experience if you apply the things you learn. Not only do you get the benefit of a new hobby but also you manage to do so without the uncertainty and insecurity that is often a common part of lessons. Having an audience can be a frightening thing, however, once you've passed the child test you should be ready for the most ruthless audience any dance studio can give. You should also keep in mind that other students in the class (should you ever decide you are ready to take an actual class) are probably just as nervous about their level of skill as you may be.

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Computer consulting should you work with micro businesses

When it comes to computer consulting with micro businesses, look at the margins issue. You will always have a certain amount of hours that you’re forced to eat because you can’t bill for it. When you have a larger base of computer consulting clients to spread it over, a loss is a lot easier to swallow.

"Eating" a Loss is Easier with Big Clients Than Small Ones

For example, if you have a customer that’s billing $2,000 a year with you and you’re forced to eat a $500 job, you’ve sacrificed 25 percent of your billing for that customer. If you have someone that’s billing $10,000 a year with you and you’re forced to sacrifice a $500 job once a year, that’s no big deal.

That’s a very small percentage. The bigger the client, the more you can afford to do things like that.

Are Micro Business Distracting You From Finding "Sweet Spot" Clients?

Is computer consulting for micro businesses taking away valuable time from cultivating more lucrative business? Only you can answer that question.

You have to make sure that you have enough time to go after the solid B2B small businesses where there’s at least 10 systems, a real server and they can afford at least $5,000 to $10,000 in IT services a year on an ongoing basis.

Focus On The Larger Computer Consulting Clients

Phase out your dependence on micro small businesses. As you start taking on additional larger clients, you’re going to find you have to make tough decisions anyway.

Copyright MMI-MMVI, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

Retirement planning 04

Up until recently, my retirement plans involved daydreaming and no serious thought. Just like anyone else, I relished the idea of one day living in some tropical paradise, but I had never seriously thought about how I was going to accomplish that goal. Retirement planning is a pretty easy thing to put off, after all. For many people, money is tight on a day-to-day basis. Why think about the future when you are having enough difficulty coping with the present? In reality, however, a little bit of extra planning can help you prepare for a secure future without making things too much more difficult in the here and now. Put away a little money here and a little bit of money there as part of a coherent retirement plan, and soon you have a fortune growing.

Of course, the first few steps of retirement planning can be pretty difficult. When it comes down to it, there is a lot more to planning your retirement than saving small change in the piggy bank! There are different long-term investment options, retirement benefits from employees, and of course health and life insurance to consider. I'm not saying that planning a retirement is one of the most difficult challenges you will face in your life, but it does require sound financial advice. Hiring a good retirement planner is well worth the cost. No matter what you think you know about investment, unless you have advanced credentials in it, you had better leave it to experts.

When I first started working on my own retirement planning, I didn't really know what I was getting into. I made some medium risk, medium-term investments with my wife. Some of them did well and others did poorly. We made a little bit of money, but we were no closer to having our futures planned out than before. There was no coherent strategy to it all.

Fortunately, we have a close friend who is a financial planner. Over drinks one day, he casually asked about our retirement planning, and we told them. He was pretty surprised that we had not been more serious about the whole thing, and offered to work as our financial advisors. We took him up on it, met formally the next week, and began to iron out the details. It took time, but eventually we were able to work out a real, viable plan for the future.

Tracking your way to the top

I often wonder how people without a plan know where they're going. Or, how they know when they've arrived at their destination.

Think about it.

If you never specify what your goal is, how do you go about achieving it? And how do you know when to celebrate?

Step One

Having a clearly defined, and written goal is the first step in creating a successful business.

How Will You Measure Your Success?

Whether you choose to measure your success in number of clients or revenue per month or year, or in any other terms, is up to you. The point is to establish a measurable goal.

Step Two

The second step to creating a successful business is creating a plan to achieve your goal. This is your marketing plan and it ensures all your time, energy and money are focused on achieving whatever it is YOU want to achieve.

But it doesn't stop there.

A Goal And A Plan Are NOT Enough

Just having a goal and a plan are not enough. You must track your progress so you can determine if it will require more or different effort to achieve your goal.

So how do you track your progress?

You Need Two More Things ... One

First, you track your progress toward your overall goal. I recommend you evaluate this at least every couple of months.

But why not just make a habit of doing it once a month?

Make it a practice to review your marketing plan and how well it is moving you toward your goal, at the end of every month. A good day to do this is the day you take care of your end-of-month administrative tasks (things like paying bills and running sales and financial reports).

If you break your goal down into twelfths, you can easily tell each month if you're on track. And, if you're not, you can easily make adjustments, like increasing your level of marketing if necessary, to get back on track.

By keeping close tabs on your progress toward your goals, you greatly increase your odds of achieving them. Partly because you give yourself time to make adjustments and take a different route if necessary.

And, partly because you are constantly reminding yourself of your intentions.

And ... Two

The second way to stay on track is to track each of your individual marketing activities. This is how you'll know if each activity is moving you toward your goal.

For Example ... Tracking Your Web Site Stats

If you're generating your prospects or clients via your web site, do you know how many visitors you need to generate the number of clients you're shooting for?

It's pretty easy to determine if you utilize web site tracking reports. Your web host should provide tracking reports to let you know how many visitors your site is getting, and ideally you can track this for each page of your site.

WebStat is a great tool that provides detailed reports on web site traffic. I use it as a supplement to the reports provided by my web host, and I love it. You can try it out at no cost, plus there's a free version, or you can subscribe for a very low monthly fee. Learn more about WebStat here.

If you have a newsletter or special report that web site visitors can subscribe to you can then determine what your conversion rate is: Total Subscribers divided by Total Visitors equals your Conversion Rate.

Do You Know What Your Conversion Rates Are?

You can then take this one step further by determining what your conversion rate is, from subscribers to clients. Or, to measure what your sales conversion rate is if you are selling products or services on your web site.

Once you know your sales conversion rate, you should be able to calculate how many web site visitors you need to generate to achieve your sales or "number of clients" goal.

This will tell you pretty quickly if you're on track to achieve your goal, or if you need to generate a lot more web site traffic to do so.

A Little Bit Of Math Upfront Will Guarantee Your Success

While at first it may be disheartening, especially if you're way off the mark, at least you have a clear picture of what it will take to reach your goal. Then it's simply a matter of finding ways to generate the traffic. And then it's only a matter of time until you achieve your goal.

Track Your Speaking Engagements or Teleseminars

You can track other marketing activities in a similar way. For example, with speaking engagements or teleseminars, what percentage of your attendees typically subscribe, and then what percentage of those typically become clients or buy?

You can determine how big of an audience or how many speaking engagements or teleseminars you need to do to reach your goals.

Track Your Public Relations Efforts

For public relations, how many people do you need to reach, or impressions do you need to achieve to generate the return necessary to meet your goals? You can then send your releases out more frequently (just make sure they're newsworthy) or to media with a larger audience.

Again, if you monitor your results every month, you'll have a very good idea if you're on track to meet your goals. And, you'll have plenty of time to make adjustments to your plan if necessary.

So, What's Your Goal For This Year?

And do you know if you're on track to achieve it? If you haven't committed your goal to writing, I encourage you to do so today.

If you're not sure what you can achieve, then take your best guess and work towards that.

You Can Track Your Way To The Top!

Put some tracking practices into place and stay on top of them every month. If you do this, I guarantee you'll achieve a lot more than if you just "wing it!"

If you'd like some help creating your goals and developing a marketing plan to help you achieve them, check out The 10stepmarketing™ System. It walks you through the process in a simple, step-by-step manner, making it easy. To learn more, visit www.10stepmarketing. com

(C) Copyright 2005 Debbie LaChusa

The world does not revolve around you

“Listen, you spoiled little cretins, the world does not revolve around you,” I patiently explained.

“You’re kidding right?” hooted my students derisively.

“Pick up your instruments, start together on the downbeat and count carefully.”

How many music teachers have had the first part of that conversation? Almost none, at least not out loud. The second installment is an every day plea for many.

Our youth-obsessed culture seems to make a liar out of me, but lest you think your work is in vain, let me present you with a few ideas.

One of the things adults commonly complain about in their later years looking back on school, aside from a lousy prom, was that they felt ‘alone’ and like an ‘outsider’. The band and orchestra students that I have canvassed don’t often feel that way. Isn’t that interesting? I’m lobbying to have my son do a graduate research project on this issue. I’d love to see the results, wouldn’t you?

Common sense, that harbinger of things ‘everybody knows’ insists that if you learn to be part of a group that needs you in order to get something done, you will feel valuable and worthwhile. Anecdotal evidence supports this concept.

Our sports-mad country feeds us with stories of the scrawny child who becomes Mr. Olympia seven times, makes multimillions in movies and then governs California. What is often overlooked is that music serves many valuable parts of the maturation process that sports do not.

Let me elaborate briefly. Most people involved with music know the statistics. Music makes you brighter, helps you focus in all areas of study, gives you greater mastery over fractions than heretofore thought humanly possible, etc.

But here’s a thought for all those guitar players strumming alone in their garrets. When you have to listen and fit in, when there is the tyranny of a written part to play you are going to find yourself learning new musical concepts at light speed. Why? For the same reason that learning say, mathematics, is easier with some formal guidelines. Reinventing multiplication or discovering every formula newly takes a few lifetimes of inquiry, just check your history texts. Solitary inquiry is necessary and good and I hope it has a place of honor in everyone’s intellectual pantheon, but it cannot be the only method of realization.

One thing ensemble music instruction teaches you is that you must ‘make nice’ with others in order to get the job done. “So what?” you say. It gets back to the heart of both of our issues.

One of the signs of maturity, which my adorable dumplings in the lower grades find difficult to exhibit, is one’s place and involvement in an activity. In spite of what our youth worshipping culture and media would have you believe individuals are generally not the most important things on the program. In music you learn that you can have a part that is vital to the results, but so are the other parts. Together you all help to create a whole that is satisfying to everyone.

This is something that musicians learn and team players discover, but many other people miss completely. Unlike sports where there can be a competitive factor to be the ‘best’, music requires everyone be good to make the whole creative performance satisfying. This is an even higher level of sophistication than sports because creating your part well and thoroughly gives you no personal glory but makes the whole experience better for all the other players and the audience. And all without someone else having to ‘lose’.

A good musician must practice alone but still be able to play with a group to create something larger than themselves. The product of this collaboration? All of us have favored pieces of music associated with the times

of our lives, and a majority of those pieces were created within a group, rather than by a solo artist.

Both musician and listener profit from this synergy. With recordings you can hear your favorites repeatedly extending the memories for a lifetime. So, although the world doesn’t revolve around any one of us, the extended fruits of our conspiracies are definitely worth striving for. Go forth and make music for yourself and for all of us.

Orlando real estate the importance of picking the right broker

All markets have their ups and downs, and for real estate it's been mostly down for some time now. However, according to a study and forecast by Attorneys' Title Insurance Fund Inc., Orlando real estate continues to be the strongest real estate market in Florida because of the area's strength in fast-growing industries such as healthcare, tourism, education and defense. If you're a seller, there have been better times, even in Orlando. If you're a buyer there are some terrific bargains. Either way, in these trying times it is especially important to work with a real estate agent who specializes in the local area. This is a lesson I learned the hard way.

When I bought my first home, I had no clue about real estate or even what MLS stood for (Multiple Listing Service). However, I lucked into working with a local real estate agent who knew the area and its listings inside out. Even though I more or less knew what I wanted, he insisted on showing me a variety of properties in several areas. He said I needed to know what was out there so that I could make an informed decision. While driving me to see properties he explained the pros and cons of every area, location, and building type. His advice proved invaluable as I ended up buying a home that was just perfect.

A few years and two promotions later I was ready to move up and saw a house that I really liked. Unfortunately, I had forgotten how important it was to get the right agent and simply called the number of the listing agent. Real estate was booming back then and I had no problem selling my first home at a large profit, but my new broker either didn't care or simply didn't have a clue. As a result, I overpaid for my new home and the entire buying process was a nightmare. The agent knew nothing of the neighborhood, the property was neglected while I waited for the closing, and the agent did nothing to help me at all.

When I was ready to move again, all this came back to haunt me. While I had thought my property was a dream home, it turned out that it had several flaws that made it unattractive in a declining market. The agent had never mentioned that to me. And once again I was stupid enough to enlist an inexperienced part-time broker to sell my home. The national realty firm she worked for was no help at all and, after what seemed like forever, I ended up selling at a large loss.

I had learned my lesson the hard way and resolved to never make the same mistake again. When we finally relocated I drove around the area, spoke to homeowners, interviewed several agents, and finally found a local realty firm that specialized in the part of town I was interested in. They helped me in my search and the difference was dramatic. Like that very first broker of mine, the agent took his time explaining local market conditions, listening to my requirements, going through the Orlando MLS with me, patiently showing me various options, locating a great place, helping me close a good deal, and then assisting me with local laws and paperwork.

They say real estate is location, location, location. In my experience, that's only partially true. What it's really about is agent, agent, agent. Orlando real estate remains an attractive and potentially lucrative proposition, but only if you pick the right agent. Whether it's preconstruction, construction, investment or just advice, getting someone who truly knows Orlando and its markets is essential.

Iguana tattoo

Iguana Tattoo

Some Things to Consider before Getting an Iguana Tattoo

When you're thinking about getting an iguana tattoo, you should definitely try and ponder the implications of it first. Here are some factors to consider when you want to get an iguana tattoo:

1) Symbolism – iguana tattoos and other types of lizard tattoos are usually used to symbolize the human soul's search for light. However, there are other symbolisms attributed to this type of tattoo. Before getting an iguana tattoo, you should make sure that you know what it symbolizes. You should try to find a meaning that you can identify with.

An iguana tattoo costs pain to get and also costs pain to remove. You should try to make that pain worthwhile and try to find an iguana tattoo that symbolizes something very powerful in your life. However, remember that all symbols are subject to interpretation. Remember that your interpretation of an iguana tattoo may not necessarily be the same interpretation that others hold. When you realize this fact, you should also remember that your interpretation is the one that holds more weight.

2) Identification – some people may not find any symbolic interpretations of iguana tattoos that they can identify with. However, they still get this type of tattoo mainly because they can identify with the animal. Do you have any distinct characteristics that are similar to an iguana's? Of course, this does not mean that you look like an iguana.

Identifying yourself with the different traits of an iguana means you need to do some research about iguanas. Can you identify yourself as a survivor? If you think you are, then you should get an iguana tattoo because iguanas are animals which are able to remain active when other lizards have already retreated from the heat.

3) Interests – there are people who get iguana tattoos mainly because of their interests in the animal. Some people who get iguana tattoos may have pet iguanas or at least hope to own one someday. Some people may consider iguanas to be their favorite animals and may have various reasons for thinking so. The point is, they have very distinct interests for iguanas.

4) Artistry – when you have thought about your personal reasons for getting an iguana tattoo, it's time to decide which iguana tattoo to get. You could opt for something simple and which wouldn't hurt when being drawn. You could also opt for an intricate iguana tattoo, with shades of color that would astound every beholder.

Nowadays, people are able to get designs through the internet and have those designs copied by a local tattoo artist. When getting an iguana tattoo, be sure that you know exactly where you will be getting it. You need to pick a place which could assure your health as well as the artistry of the iguana tattoo. Talk to different people to get recommendations about the place where you are going to get your iguana tattoo.

5) Placement – the placement of the iguana tattoo is also important. Some people like to place their iguana tattoo on a place where flexing of the muscles would make the tattoo move. This gives the tattoo a lifelike appearance when they move. Teenagers sometimes like to place their first tattoos where they are hidden, unseen by their parents or by anyone they do not want to see.