Archive for March, 2012

The Recession Generation

Business & entrepreneurship, Career, Parenting, Personal finance

I saw an article on Yahoo News that stated the the Recession has affected people in their twenties and thirties the worst.    I am of this generation.  Generation Y.  The Recession Generation.  I wasn’t surprised by the study cited in the article.  After all, my generation graduated from college during the worst economy since the Great Depression.  My friends have lost their jobs because they were the last hired.  The world changed.

But a lot of the comments at the end of the article were from older generations.  These folks said the “Young Generation” can’t find employment because we’re lazy, obnoxious, and essentially lacking the general attitude, aptitude, and work ethic to keep a job. A typical comment went something like this: “of course they can’t find a job—they are happier playing video games living in their parent’s basement.”

Occupy Wall Street was also cited in the comments as a justification for my generation’s unemployability.  Such arguments are not unique nor endemic to modern times.  Even in Greek philosophy it’s not rare to read how, in an older generation’s mind, the younger generation is worthless.  Those Baby Boomers who, perhaps are more to blame for the current state of world affairs than any other generation, were themselves once decried by their parent’s generation as “hippies” or “radicals.”  The circle will, I’m sure, continue.  I know I was surprised to learn that the generations younger than mine are no longer taught to write in cursive.

But the more I tried to justify my generation in my mind, the more I began to wonder about the cumulative affects of the modern age.  This: post-modern age.  Maybe it’s because I just read Don Delillo’s White Noise, but I began to suspect maybe there’s more truth to those comments then I’d like to believe.  How much time does the average person in my generation devote to entertainment versus the average man or woman one hundred years ago?  I’m not sure, but I suspect it’s a great deal more time.  And has the “helicopter parenting” nature of my parent’s generation as well as their financial success created a “generation of losers,” as one poster called us.

I know that I am not personally immune to such weaknesses.  I was raised to value education over almost anything else—including knowledge.  I know what you’re thinking and yes, they are not mutually exclusive.  I went to college because a degree was thought to be a ticket to somewhere: namely the suburbs.  Graduate school was, for me, just more of the same.  It was just me following a roadmap somebody else created. But it wasn’t until the last few years that I’ve actually taken an interest in knowledge.  Maybe it’s maturity or just the fact that I am more of an independent studier, but I find myself relishing reading or learning things I used to curse back in college.  And I regret all that I wasted by floating by during my college years.  All that time trying to fit in with a crowd I don’t even talk to anymore.

Now that I have my own business, I feel upset with myself for reading histories, biographies or other works outside my industry.  I should be spending all my time reading about the law, or practice management, I think.  But other times I feel so ignorant in general that I can’t help but continue on my quest for knowledge, no matter how tangential it is to my most important priorities.  I am twenty-eight years old, and I am ignorant—both in and of the world.  Seven years of higher education and all the schooling before it hasn’t changed that.  I’ve never read the Bible all the way through but I can name the five best picture nominees from each of the last twenty years.  And I don’t even own a video game system or have cable.

Some argue that Americans have been dumbed down over the decades.  Take a Life Magazine from the 194o’s and it will seem as hard to decipher as Shakespeare.  When Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea was first published in Life Magazine, that copy sold something like 5 million more copies than usual.  People were hungry for good fiction.  Is that still true today?

The grammar, style and vocabulary of even a few decades ago is a world apart from where we are today.  Clear writing and clear thinking are more linked together than we’ll ever know.  I sure wish I had a more crystallized notion of each.

We are the Recession Generation, and I worry that we’re bankrupt in more ways than we can even understand.

Excel Macro Example With A Loop

Excel macros

Hi everyone, today I’m thrilled to be able to publish a new example of how powerful Excel macros can be. This is an email that I received from a reader (would love to get yours as well, simply contact us) and I decided to take up the challenge. First, here is the email:

“Hello.. Random e-mail. I stumbled onto your blog and found the tutorials suprisingly easy to read and understand! which isnt normal for me! I was wondering if you could just show me how to work this spreadsheet..
I work for a chauffeur company and i’ve recently made a spread sheet with the customers name, date of travel, place they travelled, e-mail address and whether the travel was for business or leisure.
What I need to do is to be able to filter the customers.. Say if they travelled to Heathrow in march 2011. And e-mail all of those customers. Do you see what I mean? It would be great if you could e-mail back with some help!

Laura”

So basically, this can be done in a number of different ways. I did think about using an advanced filter but in the end I decided to simply take a quick macro. First, you can take a look at what the database looked like (don’t worry, you can download the spreadsheet later in this post):

Basically, I wanted to give the option and finally decided on doing a simple loop. Sure, if the database had a few tens of thousands of lines, this could slow it up by a few seconds for this specific task, it looked like a perfect solution. If you would like a quick introduction on building an excel macro, I recommend that you go here!

So basically the steps in my opinion are as follow

1-determine the criteria
2-go through each line of the database to determine if it meets all 6 criterias
3-if it does, simply copy the line

Here is the code that I wrote:

As you can see, it is very simple, the only line that is more complicated is the verification of each line. Basically, I make sure that either the result in that cell meets the criteria or that the criteria is empty.

Here is the result as you can see it:

You can also download the spreadsheet here.

The Art of Experimenting By Always Asking

Personal finance

If you don’t ask the answer is always going to be no. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take (classic Gretzky quote).

What I’m getting at is that you need to get into the habit of asking. This post is coming to your directly from Puerto Plata. On top of beautiful weather and unlimited drinks, there’s something else I can brag about. I got upgraded to a junior suite.

How much did this upgrade cost? It was completely free to be honest. Well I did tip the gentleman a few dollars for his time and for looking out for me. My brother and I got to our room and there was only one bed in it. One bed in a room is fine for a couple, but not for two guys that weigh over 180lbs. We immediately went to the front desk to complain. Instead of being rude we were polite and pleasant. We kindly asked if he had anything available with a small tip provided.

After a few minutes of just browsing around, the clerk at the front desk said that there would be a two room suite available for us the next day. We accepted and were pleasantly surprised when we saw our room the next day. It wasn’t a room, it wasn’t even a suite, it was like an apartment. There was a living room, kitchen, two bed rooms, a washroom, and a flat screen tv (not that we watched it at all).

If we never asked or said anything, we would have been stuck in this tiny room with one bed in it. Instead we spent the week in a pretty sweet suite (you like that?)

I’ve been doing something different the past few years. I’ve made it a habit to experiment by always asking.

What are some examples of how you can start asking?

  • Ask for discounts. Whenever you’re making a purchase, large or small, it makes sense to ask for discounts. The person on the other end is trying to make a sale. To gain your business they’ll likely be willing to lower the price a bit. You have to remember that you work hard for your money, so others should work even harder to get your money. You can negotiate everything in life in my opinion.
  • Look for better offers. There’s always a better deal out there. It makes sense to at least ask to see what options are available to you. Companies are working hard to keep customers these days. You never know when a better offer is waiting out there.
  • In your dating life. I used to be worried when it came to getting a girls number or escalating things. Then I learned that if you don’t try, you’re never going to know. Instead of stressing about failure, why don’t you ask that nice young lady at the gym out for a cup of coffee? Success isn’t about perfection. Success is about execution.

You have nothing to lose from asking. The worst case scenario is that you’ll get a no. I’ve been turned down so many times in my dating life and in general that I wouldn’t even try to guess how many times it has been. I don’t care any longer because I know that I have nothing to lose. If you want to be financially successful you need to be bold. To be bold you need to ask questions. If you don’t ask for a lower rate or another option, you’ll be stuck with the standard option. Do you want just the standard option or do you want more? I think that you want more. Go after it.

“Trying and failing is better than merely failing, because trying makes you an artist and gives you the right to try again.” – Seth Godin

New Business Owners—Don’t Be Charitable

Business & entrepreneurship, Career

If you’re a new business owner, then you need to avoid being charitable.   Think I’m kidding?  I’m not.  You need to tell your favorite charities to stay away for a while.  Unless required, you need to limit or stop donating your time or giving “pro bono” advice.  Why?  Because in most circumstances, getting a new business off the ground will require all the time and money you have.  Later on, when your company is on solid economic footing: that’s the time to start giving back.  Right now, you need to do everything you can to keep the lights on.

I know I must sound like the Grinchiest Scroogiest son of a you know what to ever own a business, but in most instances what I’m saying is true.

When I first started my business, I tried to keep up with my charities.  My business was in the red but I was still donating $100.00 a month to XYZ charities.

Even worse, I took on a lot of “pro bono” work.   That means I was doing work for free, when what I really needed was to be out finding paying clients.  This work ended up bogging me down and taking away from my ability to find paying customers/clients.  It almost destroyed my business.

Later On….Be Generous

In a few years when your company is hugely profitable, then give as much as you’d like.  But when you’re first starting out, you’re either using up what little money you have or you are running your business with debt.  Your creditors are not going to be as charitable if you don’t pay what’s owed each month.  As mentioned above, time drains can be an even more serious issue.

Tax Issues

Some people will recommend giving to charities (money—not time) for “the tax benefits.”  But when you’re first starting a business, you’re unlikely to be earning much money, so the tax benefits (if any) will be limited.  Even if you’re completely altruistic, you might have to face the reality that giving to others is one of the first things you’ll have to limit for a while.  If you’re about to become a charity yourself, then perhaps that charity might have to “start in the home”—or in this case, your business.

Giving to Get Business

It’s not such a large secret: not all giving is altruistic.  Besides the tax benefits, others give in hopes to “look good in the community,” “get a foot in the door with a certain company” etc.  If that’s the case then perhaps what I’m saying doesn’t apply, but again, it’s still turning charity into a business decision.

Conclusion

Every situation is different, but for most small business owners, it might not make sense to be overly charitable in the first fews months/years of their business.  The startup is a monster with its own needs, and it needs to constantly be fed.  In other words, if you can’t afford to pay your rent, then you might want to cut back on giving to charities.  And if you can’t find time to find paying customers, then perhaps you shouldn’t be donating much of your time either.

And if despite all that, you still decide you want to give like before, well….then you’re a nicer business owner than I.

 

Using Excel On Apple Computers

Excel spreadsheets (.xls)

While I have written a decent amount of content about using several excel functions, how to build a macro and various other excel tutorials, there are also alternatives that can be used. Recently I wrote about Google docs which is a cloud based alternative to using Microsoft excel. I mainly discussed using the finance functions to get live portfolio pricing. It is incredibly powerful and while the tool is relatively new, it has been a growing part of what I’ve been personally working on. Why? Cloud computing isn’t new but it continues to become better and more powerful and there is certainly a lot more flexibility when you do not rely on your data always being accessible from the computer you are using.

So yes, I will be writing a lot more about Google docs spreadsheets and how to use them for finance tools, etc.

My Wife Goes Apple!!

After the arrival of the iPod and the iPad into our house, I should have known that having an Apple computer would be that next step. That is exactly what happened when my wife decided she’d like to have a MacBook Air as her new laptop (it was well due for a change). Since we left for vacations recently, I decided that we should bring the slimmer laptop (hers!) instead of my clunky windows based laptop. I did have work to do but I figured that with the Apple Excel version, I’d be good to go right? Wrong…! In fact I turned out having some issues with functions but mostly with running some macros. Being away from home, it was quite a challenge to work on figuring out and resolving those issues but as I am now back, I’d like to tackle some of them. I figure that I’m surely not the only person running into such issues.

So before starting to write, I’d love to hear from you if you’ve had challenges adapting to the Apple excel version and if so in what ways. I’d be more than happy to try helping you out and at the same time get good examples to display on this website.

I’d love to hear from you, simply comment on this post and I will get back to you by email if I can help:)

Look forward to more about alternative spreadsheets uses such as Google Spreadsheets and Apple-based Excel:)

Thanks again!