TCAM

Working from home is becoming increasingly popular. I work from home and I love it. I don’t think I could ever work at a shop again, but I must face the possibility that I may have to transfer my enterprise into commercial premises if it keeps growing like it has in the last few months. Even if parts of my business get relocated, I’ll try to stay at home myself as much as I can.

Times are changing and working from home, particularly for the self-employed or contract workers is becoming more common. It is pointless paying rent for commercial premises if they are not required. Working from home has many perks.

You can work back late without getting into strife with your family. You can “drop into the office” anytime you like. You can get up really early if the mood takes you and put in a few hours work then go back to bed. But as a web designer, there is one feature I really like, all the tax deductions!

You can claim some of your household expenses on your tax return. Based on the floor area used for business purposes, you can claim a portion of your mortgage interest, insurance, rates, water, electricity, maintenance and the bulk of your telephone bill as well as depreciation on the carpets, curtains, business furniture and so on. At the end of the financial year you will be surprised by the list of deductions.

You will also save on travel costs, wear and tear on your car and more importantly wear and tear on you, having not to deal with peak hour or public transport. Not to mention picking up approximately an extra one to two hours per day of work when you don’t have to travel.

There is a downside to working from home. The first problem is family distractions. Kids home from school at three o’clock, a friend at the front door, phone calls for other members of the family.

You also may not have the perfect workspace, or space may be limited. Work space is vitally important, you must have an area set aside purely for business, nothing else, just business. I have found that it’s best also if you can close the door on the weekends and at the end of the day so you can “leave work”.

I think many of the perceptions of people that working from home is “unprofessional” have lapsed into history. The number of major companies that allow their workers to work from home via the internet has increased dramatically in recent years. “Outsourcing” has become a commonly used term and this has brought about a spate of self-employed former employees, most of them working from home.

The other problem that many people working from home suffer is motivation and discipline. You must start work everyday just as you would if you were employed by someone else.

Want to work from home in your own home based business for women? You can learn more about starting your own profitable and flexible business at home.

Hong Kong welcomes visitors from all over the world with a wide grin. The urban embodiment of the compromise between Chinese and European cultures, Hong Kong has long been one of the most exciting business centres on the planet.

Few travel to Hong Kong for the sights; they come for business and excitement. Hong Kong is so lively it sizzles like the oil in the woks of its ubiquitous street vendors. Little has changed since the 1997 return of the British colony of Hong Kong to China. The city that flourished through co-operation between the Chinese and British societies is, if anything, more fascinating and vibrant than ever before.

Opium highs and wars.
In the early eighteenth century, the original British traders to arrive at what would be Hong Kong, found only a few fishing villages. Hong Kong had no importance at all within the Chinese Empire and had been ignored for centuries.

The British built a trade port here in 1711, and it thrived during the early nineteenth century when goods from China were in great demand in Europe.

As the fashion for Chinese goods declined the British began to deal in opium instead, growing it in India and importing it illegally into China, where the Qing dynasty emperor had banned its sale. When the Chinese tried to halt the imports, the British responded with violence.

The resulting Opium Wars (1838-1856) were disastrous for China. In 1842, the British took control of the city of Hong Kong and it became a British colony. A 1898 pact with China made Hong Kong and 234 nearby islands a British protectorate for ninety-nine years. The treaty ended in 1997.

Negotiations took place in 1982 to modify the original agreement in order to protect Hong Kong’s special status. China had originally demanded control not only of the so-called “New Territories” around the city, but also of Hong Kong itself. Through a series of agreements and negotiations, the UK was able to prevent Hong Kong from being directly absorbed into mainland China. Instead, on 1 July 1997, Hong Kong was declared a Chinese Special Administrative Region.

Skyscrapers and feng shui.
Hong Kong’s special status has allowed it to remain a modern economic city. Despite its visible modernity, traditional ways of life are never far beneath the surface. The ancient Chinese art of feng shui is still used with new constructions, where measurements are configured according to lucky numbers and windows positioned so as to let prosperity in and bad luck out.

Skyscrapers loom where splendid colonial buildings once stood, only a few of which have remained. In the central district, the Cathedral of St. John, the former French Residence and the Legislative Council Building are among the few pre-modern buildings that remain.

Omnipresent Buddha.
Traditional life has a strong influence in the New Territories than in the city itself. Stunning temple complexes are everywhere, built in traditional style in tranquil settings. 10,000 Buddhas Monastery is one of the most visited. This number represents “very many” or “countless” in Chinese, rather than a specific number of Buddhas.

In fact, there are more than 10,000, perhaps as many as 13,000. The enormous bronze Buddha towering above Lo Pin Monastery on the island of Lantau is the largest Buddha in the world, measuring 26 metres tall. Visitors can climb a steep path of 260 steps to reach it. The panoramic view from the top definitely rewards the effort, as does the spiritual enlightenment achieved along the way.

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Unless you are thinking about 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 car, 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 stunning!

This does not mean just washing and vacuuming it, although that’s a good start. It is the overall preparation and detailing that gets a good price. This is a well-known secret of most used motor 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 vehicle! 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 spent.

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 via the newspaper.

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 carried out you should make sure any small defects are repaired. 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 car. 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 car.

What is your car going to sell for?
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 price 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 dealership’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.

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

This data is only 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.

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