Category: Business/Career

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Freedom Or Self Indulgence

I’ve been thinking alot about getting this scooter since PB got his bike but as much as I liked it I wonder if it was for freedom or is it for pure indulgence on my part. I don’t drive here in Canada but I figured such a small scooter I should be able to handle and not panic when on the road.  But having said that, Chloe wouldn’t go on the scooter with me and if I needed groceries, there really isn’t much space to put my groceries. But it would be somewhat freedom for me just not total freedom, so for now – I’m just going to set this buy aside and think of more feasible transportation that I can use on my own without any help.

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Rainy Season

 We just got back from lunch at the Chinese Restaurant and it was drizzling a little but we also noticed that there were water leaking thru’ the window’s at the restaurant and wonder if the owners knew about it. The  window replacement newport news va  would be the place to introduce them to if they needed replacement of windows but I guess since it is a rented place, the landlord would take care of it.  Any rain coming into windows is never good news at all and must be taken care of immediately else there will be mold in the house and water damage in other areas that needs repair.  I don’t know if I should point this out to the owners without sounding too busybody or how i should do it. Sure they are friends but I don’t want to be seen as being pushy which is not good at all.

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Potential Income For The Future

When I was very little, my parents used to talk about the importance of a pension and annuity from the pension back home in Asia.  Unlike in Asia, in the West, not every company provide their employee with such a plan, therefore, or should I say especially if you lived in the West, it’s important to know or place for your potential income in the future.  My best friends who migrated to USA knows all about the  tax sheltered annuity  and different kind of annuity  and seeing the recent event of another friend going through a divorce, I feel a need to be informed with regards to any potential income I can get when I’m too old to work. They say the earlier you plan, the better it is for both your spouse and your children, so my advise to all Asians who migrated to the West, please look out for yourself and your future as well, do not wait for something to happen in your marriage before scrambling to make ends meet.

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Missing Good Crepes

When the local Farmer’s Market opened its door down on Water Street the first time more than a year ago – the food the impressed us most was the crepe. But it was Chef John with his  chefwear  and his professionalism  with the making of the crepes that impressed us most.  It was just too sad that he chose to retire only after a year and today as I stepped into the Farmer’s market, I cannot but helped feeling sad because I do missed his crepes and they were the best I’ve tasted thus far.  He was generous in his ingredients and he took his time to make the crepes individually and enjoyed every moment of it.  Someone else is in the spot that the creperie was in but I really missed the crepes so much and no one can make crepes as good as Chef John, he is an icon !

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Specially Designed

We specially designed a t-shirt for Chloe a few weeks ago – just to see if it would catch the attention of the people on the street when she is out on a walk or in the park.  But what we really want to do is to make some  custom made shirts  for everyone at the store including myself but mine has to be pretty funny and catchy of course.   Thus far, Chloe loved her specially designed t-shirt – and everyone who she has met on the street commented on it – free publicity for the store of course.

I definitely want PB to get a few – and Gary to have a few too – and since it’s summer – pretty hot around here – just round collared t-shirts would be just fine for now.  For the fall – they probably have to wear those collared ones – but we’ll see how much they cost before deciding on the fall shirts.

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She Volunteered

It was raining hard yesterday and since Chloe had no school for the last 3 days – school marking days – she volunteered to mop the floor at the store and clean the store up.  What a good kid I have eh!  Sometimes, when she doesn’t clean up her mess, I forget that she is only 8 yrs old!  I cannot ask for another better kid – I am truly blessed.

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Investing In Our Business

So our new store sign is up and we are pretty happy with it.  After 13 years in business, we figured a new sign is appropriate and after all – we do need a real new sign that shows that we’ve been in business for this long and still going strong.  And like all business, it’s the smart thing to do else the government is going to think that you’ve made so much money and would tax you even more.  And like most  commercial insurance companies  that we’ve come to know, they too advised us to get small business insurance not only for liability purpose but also to use it for a tax write off and of course, like any small businesses like ours – we really need to look into insurance and even if we don’t think we need it – it’s good to explore and invest in our own business.  And yes, we are in this stage where we are pretty comfortable in investing into our own business.

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Business Is Good

When business is good (knock on wood)  and the inventory is plenty already, you kinda think of ways to spend your money back into  the business and we are this way too.  Besides having a new door in the front of the store, we are putting also a screen door at the back.  A new sign in the front of the store and now we are considering a new Retail POS System  as well.  I guess that’s the move one has to take to upgrade the store and keep it up to date and the demands of your customers.  And with a new POS system – I know for sure we can track our inventory better and it’s always a tax write off when it comes to tax time.  While others are complaining that business is no good, we count our blessings that we have good and loyal customers and everyday it seems like more people are knowing our business – so can’t complain.

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Saving Money At Home & Work

We try to save money in any way we can – from buying things that is on sale – and stock up when there is a good sale on but of course, we also make sure that we don’t buy or spend just because something is cheap.  Owning your own business as well as raising a kid means only one thing – spending your money wisely – so if there is a rebate to get we get it.  Now the only thing that is  killing us is our power bills.  There is no low cost energy  here in our town – and when it comes to winter – it does suxs big time.  I wished we can lower our electric bills – our entire house is electric heat – so we are quite dependent on it.

So this is what we did at home to save money, to save power bills – we had a french door put in our tv room – so that we won’t have to heat the entire kitchen and tv room when we wanted one or the other heated. We also only heat up the rooms that we are using – and at work we brought 2 infra-red heated to save on our power bills.  We thought about putting in a wood stove at home but that would means we need to fork out money to put in a new chimney and of course buy the wood stove and rewire the home a little.  At work, we will heat up the store for a few hours and then turn it down for the rest of the day – using only the infrared machine.  If we are still cold, we have small little heaters turned up for a bit to warm us up.  So there – you have it – on how we save money at home and work with our power bills.  If only we had this low cost energy saving program they have in certain part of the USA – I would definitely bee the first to jump on it.

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Computers For Kids

Friends at Chloe’s school asked me all the time about getting a computer for their kids and they ask for recommendations since they know that we deal with computer repairs at our store.  And you know how I am with money – so I tell them that getting a used pc  would be the best bet for their money since their kids are young.  And there is nothing wrong getting a used PC from a reputable place and one that carries a warranty on it as used PCs are just as good as new ones.  So if you are buying a PC for your kids are even a notebook, a lightly used one – is the way to go, no need to go crazy and spend thousands of dollars just for a kid’s PC when you know you only need the very basic.