This is actually a genious of an idea.
A small loan company in Latvia is offering no-problem loans to their clients. No paperwork needed, just sign a piece of paper saying that you are using your soul as collateral – i.e. – you don’t repay, you have no soul.
I know that I’d think twice before skipping that payment.
Read Full Story at Reuters:
Would you pledge your soul as loan collateral?
The New York Times is reporting that we’re one step closer to having the GM
mess cleaned up.
Judge Robert E. Gerber released his 95 page decision today, which overturned the 850 objections to the Government buyout, and gave his approval for the American taxpayers to lend the company $1.17 billion dollars.
I am not a fan of government backing, I believe in free enterprise, but I’m almost not a fan of feeling a complete collapse of one of the largest companies in the world. I’m not that brave.
Read Full Details At The New York Times
Plan To Sell G.M. Assets Approved
In “Canadian Economy Not Out of The Woods Yet” , John Morrissey from The
Finanacial Post, tries to rain on my Canada Day, but I didn’t let him.
It is a reality that the economy contracted .1% in April, after a 5.4% drop in the first quarter of this year, but the whole tone of the article is incredibly discouraging, with the heaviest focus on how the American economy is going to effect us.
My question is always why are we only focusing on the American consumer? Let’s look back to a few weeks ago when Goldman Sach’s predicted the Australian, British and Canadian economies to be the leaders out of the recession.
The Americans are our neighbours, our partners, and I believe that we should fully support them through their recovery, but there’s enough Canadian to go around. If you’re an ad agency, are you going to wait for your American clients to start spending money again? If you’re selling t-shirts, do you think they don’t wear t-shirts in brazil?
Let’s of course not forget our cross-provincial business relationships. I sometimes think that we’re so used to crossing the border, that we can forget to cross the mountains, the prairies, and the lakes.
I knock on doors, all around the world, all day long, because when one time zone closes down, another opens. This isn’t 1932 where I have to wait for the telegram to arrive. We can connect with anyone, anywhere, anytime.
There are thousands of economies available to work with – someone needs what you’re selling.
The question is: are you going to wait? Or are you going to hunt?
Blog and Run:
In case you haven’t seen it yet – Fortune has released their mid year 
edition of the “Dumbest Moments in Business”. GM is right at the top of the pack with their Segway/Rickshaw kindof contraption called the “Puma”.
Just my opinion – but I don’t look at this thing and think of the sleek and grace of a big black cat. This actually looks like something Peter Griffin would design in some kind of Family Guy episode.
As you go through the whole list you’ll be reminded that money and brains don’t always go together.
If you’ve ever taken your kids into the dollar store, and bought one of those 
candy-filled grab bags – you know that sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don’t. Well, investment firm KKR has been putting together their own grab bag of investments over the past several years, and while most have turned out to be stale candy corn, their acquisition of Dollar General, has turned out to be the full-sized chocolate bar.
KKR as a whole is bleeding money, with reported 2008 losses of $1.2 billion. After buying 6 new companies in 2007, five of them were down in value by 20 to 50 percent. The only one making money was Dollar General, which reported revenues of $10.5 billion in 2008.
While companies like Tiffany’s and Sak’s Fifth Avenue are struggling to survive, Dollar General is planning 450 new stores which will generate over 4000 new jobs.
Read The Full Article At Canada.com
Hi Everyone!
I’m very happy to let you know that I’ve been very busy – blogging for the Green Business News, at Allbusiness.com. Please swing by and visit me over there for the latest in environmental news that’s relevant to business, and of course make sure to keep visiting the Royston Review. I’ll still be posting here regularly – stay tuned!
It’s 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning. You have your cup of coffee and you sit down at your computer; time to check the email. And it’s it’s warming up, it’s logging on, and it’s checking, checking… checking an-n-n-n-n-n-d, there’s nothing. You decide to check again because there’s probably something wrong with the server. ——- Still nothing.
You take a deep breath- no email isn’t that big of a deal. You’ll spend a few moments checking job boards. Board #1-nothing. Board #2-nothing. Board #3-nothing; in fact-there’s been nothing new on this board for two months.
You begin to hyperventilate.
This has been the same scenario for two weeks now. You’re wondering if you can get your old job back. Yes, you called your boss a balding, stupid, lazy idiot-but that was a while ago, maybe he’s forgotten. Your friend is quitting her job, maybe you can leap into her space.
Stop. Take another deep breath and begin to think clearly. No one ever said working for yourself was going to be easy. All businesses face tough times but you have to be a survivor. Remember all the advice that you’ve given your clients and remember all the great work that you’ve created. It’s time to put all of your talent into yourself.
First, don’t take the set back personally. Everyone is experiencing pains right now and the lack of work has nothing to do with your capabilities.
Secondly, keep working. Whatever you do, do not give up. Do work on commissions, reduced rates or even volunteer. Anything is better than nothing. Your mind will stay active and who knows what other great leads or ideas you may stumble across.
Start reading. Read every trade magazine/journal for your expertise. You’ll ensure that you have only the most up-to-date information and these publications can be an incredible source for business leads. You’ll know who’s expanding, who’s shrinking and what new projects are on the horizon.
Touch Base with all of your old clients. Make sure they remember you and the fantastic work that you performed for them. You might hit at just the right time when they could use a little help.
Start cold-calling-become the salesman that you never wanted to be. Selling yourself can be the most daunting task but you have to become a superstar. Remember, the worst that can happen is you can be told no. We’ve all heard that word before and it’s not that bad.
Expand your skills. Use this time effectively, if you’ve never built a website, try. If you’ve never submitted to search engines, do it. If you’ve never designed a database, give it a shot. The more skills you have the more marketable you become.
Remember, this too shall pass. The economy is based on peaks and valleys and what goes down will come up. Be ready for the next upswing.
Quick Site Review:
Found a new site for women – Shine – from yahoo. Going back to what I was talking about a few months ago in “They’ve Got The Power” , we have another example of big business chasing down women as the ultimate consumer, which can only be a good thing for women.
Shine is a well-organized site, with an obviously smart team putting everything together. As soon as I hit it yesterday, I was drawn in with all the news, stories and features that were targetted for my demographic/age group (and never mind asking what age group that might be). They have a wide range of topics, not just centering on the typical “mom” and “fashion” stories, and a nice layout. Best of all, you can start your own blog, which of course, I’ve already done, because I just can’t stop talking.
Check them out, but be warned, be prepared to spend a couple of hours searching around, there’s a ton of good stuff here.
It’s true. Pepsi has introduced “Cucumber Pepsi” in Tokyo.
I’m not saying yes – but I’m not saying no either. The cucumber is interesting, who doesn’t like cucumber? I’m a little concerned though because it’s an “artificial flavour to make you think of cucumber”
I’d give it a shot though – why not? You only live once.
Read about Pepsi Ice Cucumber and other new flavours on MSNBC
Excellent, excellent program. Stop giving your free time to Scrabulous and Facebook; give it to Freerice.com and help feed the hungry.
Free Rice has a fabulous vocabulary game. The game itself is easy to use, the words are interesting, and the difficulty adjusts to your personal level. Your mental dictionary will definitely improve. The best part of course is that as you’re playing it, you’re generating ad revenues which will purchase rice for the United Nations World Food Program.
We’re spending hours every day, fiddling around with all the games and toys on Facebook, but the only people that helps is Facebook. Do a little good today and spend some time on Freerice.com – and tell your friends too.
The Royston Review 