May 2022

Art Career Success with Local Businesses

Local businesses are often the best places to sell your original arts and crafts. If your goal is gallery representation, local sales can build your reputation, and fill in your resume. In addition, income from local sales can exceed what you earn with some galleries.
JOIN REGIONAL ART ASSOCIATIONS
Most communities have an art association of some kind. You’ll find them listed in the yellow pages of your local phone book, and sometimes online. Look in categories such as “Clubs”, “Associations”, and so on.
These groups are usually a mix of professionals and eager amateurs. At their meetings, I’ve seen everything from gorgeous, $10K watercolors to crocheted dolls in unnatural colors & fibers. No two groups are the same. Visit as a guest before joining, and see if the association or club is right for you.
Most art associations sponsor regular gallery shows in their own meeting place or in a town hall or library meeting room. They often have at least one outdoor art show, at which you can display your art and perhaps demonstrate your techniques.
Art association meetings include regular demonstrations (of art technique) by artists who will usually sell some art to the members, too. This can be a good outlet if you want to do demos.
Start by creating a form letter that you’ll send to every art association in the phone book. When the demo is announced, make sure that the publicity mentions that you’ll have art for sale, too. The art association takes a commission based on how much you sell, and everyone goes home happy.
USE THE ART ASSOCIATION’S CONTACTS FOR LOCAL SALES
Many art associations have working relationships with local businesses, especially restaurants, bookstores, beauty salons, and banks… anyone with blank wall space that wants an “art show” to generate interest. (They use this to attract visitors and for press releases, publicity, etc.) Libraries are less likely to be able to offer work for sale, but it depends upon the local laws.
This works best if the sales go through the art association. Next to each piece of art, place the art association’s business card. On it, write the title of the art, the artist, the price, and how to contact the art association for more information.
Of course, this should be something better than voicemail; someone needs to be on hand to answer the phone. A member who works at home is good for this job.
If your local art club hasn’t done this before, help them to set it up. The art association can have a single phone number, and use Call Forwarding to whomever is manning the phones that day.
HELP YOUR ART CLUB TURN PROFESSIONAL
If you are in an art association that doesn’t have a working relationship with local businesses, bring it up at the next business meeting. Some members may already work at offices or shops that would cheerfully display your art.
There are issues to sort out, including how the art is insured, if it’s protected from damage, and so on. You can check with other art associations and see how they handle it.
Once you start contacting businesses about displaying local art, you may be surprised at how easy this is.
ART ASSOCIATIONS AND CREDIT CARD PURCHASES
In most cases, the art association makes the sale, and has a merchant account that accepts checks and credit cards. The art association takes a percentage of the sales, usually about 20%. At the end of the month, the association issues a check to everyone whose art sold that month.
IF YOU CAN’T FIND THE RIGHT ART GROUP FOR YOUR WORK
If you don’t have a local art association–or if their interests don’t match yours–start your own. A simple, free announcement in the local newspaper will attract interest, and your public library can probably provide a free meeting room.
Selling your arts and crafts locally is a great first step for any artist. In addition, it’s usually fun, brings you recognition from your neighbors, and adds a little extra beauty to the businesses that participate.

Lean Manufacturing 3rd Party Logistics

Implementing Lean Manufacturing by Third Party Logistics Outsourcing

Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing is one of the business philosophies of today that have been embraced by most corporations around the world. Though it was initially intended for the improvement of manufacturing systems and processes, it made its mark throughout the rest of the enterprise as well.

Lean manufacturing originated from the business policies of one of Japan’s top automobile maker Toyota. This is very obvious since several of the terms used in the lean manufacturing processes or systems are Japanese words like kaizen, kanban and andon.

Lean manufacturing has since been part of the business system and is regularly observed by most companies around the world.

Lately, lean manufacturing is being implemented by companies by hiring third party logistics. Lean manufacturing by third party logistics is possible by outsourcing.

Lean Manufacturing By Third Party Logistics

Outsourcing is currently the trend in most businesses today. In fact, General Motors of North America has been using outsourcing as part of its competitive advantage strategies. This company has plenty of experience when it comes to the analysis of an outsourcing company’s capabilities and solutions.

Lean manufacturing by third party logistics is being utilized by most of the companies today including General Motors. General Motors identified the Powertrain Warren plant where General Motors can implement lean manufacturing and they used third party logistics to do this.

It embraced lean manufacturing principles by third party logistics and used the plant to effectively manufacture engines. It also used lean manufacturing by third party logistics to resolve transportation issues.

Later general Motors decided to further use lean manufacturing by third party logistics for the entire group. Greater benefits are evident from the economies of scale. Clearly, the teachings of lean manufacturing are to add value and eliminate waste simplifying the manufacturing process.

Steps Done In Choosing Lean Manufacturing By Third Party Logistics

General Motors made its choice on what potential supplier or third party logistics to choose from a number of factors enumerated below:

1. The overall quality of the lean manufacturing by third party logistics.

2. The service of the lean manufacturing by third party logistics.

3. The available technology or innovation of the lean manufacturing by third party logistics.

4. The price of the lean manufacturing by third party logistics.

The Benefits From Lean Manufacturing By Third Party Logistics

In line with the principles of lean manufacturing, the outsourcing party must be able to do it all in the least costly and the most relaxed manner.

The strategy of General Motors to outsource its transportation function has been very effective and is rather working well. The third party logistics have a 99 percent record for on-time performance and has met its objective to gain significant savings for General Motors.

The lean manufacturing by third party logistics has been implemented rather well in the case of General Motors. The available visibility of the products and data information via the supply chain pipeline of General Motors has been a value that was unexpected.

Furthermore, the lean manufacturing by third party logistics strategy covered scanning of all the General Motor’s freight and updated the advance shipping notifications of General Motors.

To make sure that both parties will combine their efforts to continuously improve processes in line with the principles of lean manufacturing, the outsourcing arrangement will include a gain sharing component.

Lessons Available From The Outsourcing Journal

The lean manufacturing by third party logistics strategy is effective since outsourcing several of the company’s functions such as the transportation functions will allow a buyer to possibly leverage the strength of the supplier in the economies of scale in order to be able to achieve a number of objectives that include on-time performance and cost reduction.

From the view of the third-party logistics supplier, it will manage the transportation function. It may also decide on using subcontract arrangements for some portions of the route, or otherwise perform and deliver the transportation services along with the management decisive component.

Lean manufacturing by third party logistics have a gain sharing mechanism indicated in the outsourcing contract which is a highly effective option for an incentive as well as for continuous reduction of cost and the improvement of services.

Review of Online Gambling

Just like any commercial market today, gambling also took its chance of having to saturate a broader area of gaming through the Internet.

Nowadays, there are as many online gambling games as there are gambling games. Every kind of gambling game has their online counter parts in the Web. From poker to sports betting, every gambling activity seems to be online.

Most proponents of online gambling assert that online gambling is just as safe as gambling in known casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Just like the usual casino, online casinos are also required to have their licenses and permits before engaging into online gambling.

By doing so, online casinos are systematically regulated and audited by professional firms. All online casinos use the secure e-cash facilities, in cooperation with the credit card companies, so that the customers are being protected from unauthorized use of credit cards or from cases of identity theft.

Generally, online gambling in an online casino will entice new players by requiring them to deposit an amount by offering bonuses. An online casino that will offer you a free $100 for a $50 deposit is a good example. In this manner, more people believe that online gambling offers better chances than real-life gambling. However, this poses more risk in getting addicted to the game.

For people who want to play online gambling, deposits can be made through credit cards, fire pay, or 900 pay. Fire pay works like an ordinary online debit card. Normally, the player places money into the account and can be spent to any online merchants. Funds can be deposited through wire transfers. 900 pay, on the other hand, is another way of depositing money by calling a 900 number and the amount that is to be deposited is charged to the player’s phone bill.

What’s more, online casinos are further classified into two groups based on their interface. Online casinos could either be web-based or download-based.

Web-based casinos are forms of online gambling wherein users may directly play online casino games without having to load any software to the local computer. Online gambling is mainly presented in the browser plugins like Macromedia Flash, Shockwave, or Java.

On the other hand, download-based online casinos are the most common online gambling sites in the Web. Here, online gambling users have to download certain software in order to play the casino games. And because it has pre-downloaded software, it is faster to initiate casino games on it compared to web-based casinos.

All the same, and due to the basic nature of online gambling, any transactions with it are vulnerable to fraud. There are online gambling known as rogue casinos wherein these sites refuse to pay the customers or contains a cheating software.

Plus, there are other ways of frauds in online gambling. Most of these cases are player-based. Players who want to cheat usually uses Adobe Photoshop or a comparable tool to maneuver the graphics of a slot machine screenshot in order to deceive the casino into thinking that the player just hit a jackpot.

Whatever forms of deception, it is evident that frauds are more likely to happen in online gambling. And if in any case, players get to be addicted in playing online gambling, they must remember that their obsession did not happen by mistake.

Online gambling is a highly interactive game, meaning whatever choices players make are based on their own prerogatives. So, however enticing online gambling can be it is a must that players must know their own dispositions so as not to be deceived.

Generations of Video Game System: Defying the Way we Define Entertainment

Entertainment takes its new form. With the development of technology and its integration to various aspects of our lives, traditional entertainment such as theatrical plays and cultural shows is replaced by so-called “electronic entertainment”. There you have various digital and animated films that you can watch on movie houses or on your home entertainment system, cable television system (CTS), and the video game system, which is popular not just to young and old gamers alike but also to game developers, merely because of the development of innovative technologies that they can use to improve existing game systems.

The video game system is intended for playing video games, though there are modern game systems that allows you to have an access over other forms of entertainment using such game systems (like watching DVD movies, listening to MP3 music files, or surfing the Internet). Thus, it is often referred to as “interactive entertainment computer” to distinguish the game system from a machine that is used for various functions (such as personal computer and arcade games).

The first generation of video game system started when Magnavox (an electronics company which manufactures televisions, radios, and gramophones or record players) released its first video game system, which is the Magnavox Odyssey designed by Ralph Baer. Odyssey’s popularity lasted until the release of Atari’s PONG video games. Magnavox realized that they cannot compete with the popularity of PONG games, thus in 1975 they created the Odyssey 100 video game system that will play Atari-produced PONG games.

The second generation of video game system came a year after the release of Odyssey 100. In 1976, Fairchild released the FVES (Fairchild Video Entertainment System), which made use of a programmable microprocessor so that a game cartridge can hold a single ROM chip to save microprocessor instructions. However, because of the “video game crash” in 1977, Fairchild abandoned the video game system industry. Magnavox and Atari stayed in the video game industry.

The rebirth of the video game system started when Atari released the popular arcade Space Invaders. The industry was suddenly revived, with many gamers made purchase of an Atari video game system just for Space Invaders. In other words, with the popularity of Space Invaders, Atari dominated the video game industry throughout the 80s.

Video game system’s third generation came into being after the release of Nintendo’s Famicon in 1983. It supported full color, high resolution, and tiled background gaming system. It was initially launched in Japan and it was later brought to the United States in the form of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. And just like Atari’s Space Invaders, the release of Nintendo’s famous Super Mario Brothers was a big success, which completely revived the suffering video game system industry in the early months of 1983.

Sega intended to compete with Nintendo, but they failed to establish substantial market share. It was until 1988 when Sega released the Sega Genesis in Japan on October 29 of the same year and on September 1, 1989 in the United States and Europe territories. Two years later, Nintendo released the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1990.

Atari came back with their new video game system, which is the Jaguar and 3DO. Both systems could display more onscreen colors and the latter made use of a CD instead of game cartridges, making it more powerful compared to Genesis and SNES. Nintendo, on the other hand, opted to release new games such as Donkey Kong Country instead of producing new video game systems. Sega’s Vectorman and Virtua Racing followed suit. Several years later, Sony, Sega, and Nintendo released the fifth generation of video game systems (PlayStation, Saturn, and N64, respectively).

The sixth generation of game systems followed, involving Sega (Dreamcast, which was their last video game system and the first Internet-ready game system), Sony (PlayStation 2), Nintendo (Game Cube which is their first system to make use of game CDs), and the newcomer Microsoft (Xbox).

The latest generation of video game systems is now slowly entering the game industry. These are as follows:

• Microsoft’s Xbox, which was released on November 22, 2005;
• Sony’s PlayStation 3, which is schedule to be released on November 11, 2006 (Japan), November 17 of the same year (North America), and March 2007 (Europe); and
• Nintendo’s Wii, which is scheduled to be released on November 19, 2006 (North America), December 2 of the same year (Japan), December 7 (Australia), and December 8 (Europe).

The development of video game system does not end here. There will be future generations of game system being developed as of this moment, which will defy the way we define “entertainment”.

What To Look For In A Full Coverage Automobile Insurance Quote In Florida

Compared to most other states, Florida actually requires very little from its residents when it comes to the automobile insurance they are required to purchase if they wish to drive a vehicle on a public roadway in Florida.

If you have a good driving record you can legally drive your automobile in Florida if you purchase just $10,000 of Personal Injury Protection (PIP) coverage and another $10,000 in Property Damage Liability (PDL) coverage. If your driving record includes a crash or if you have gotten speeding or other tickets the state is allowed to force you to also buy Bodily Injury Liability (BIL) insurance before you can legally drive.

What does this minimum insurance cover? Not much, really.

Personal Injury Protection – PIP coverage – covers medical expenses for anyone in your vehicle if you are in a crash regardless of whose fault the accident is. If you’ve been to a doctor or spent even one night in a hospital or made even one visit to the ER in the past year then you know that $10,000 in insurance coverage will barely cover the cost of a scratch to someone’s upper arm, let alone anything even remotely serious.

Property Damage Liability (PDL) insurance covers the repair or replacement of the other person’s car and certain other property due to a crash, regardless of whose fault the accident is.

Again, $10,000 will barely cover the replacement of a bumper on many of today’s high-priced cars.

Bodily Injury Liability (BIL) insurance covers the medical expenses of anyone in the other car if you are in an accident. This insurance also pays for certain legal expenses if you are sued following an accident. Considering today’s medical costs you may wish to consider carrying as much BIL insurance as you can afford, especially if you have a home or other assets which you could lose in the event of a lawsuit.

If you want your automobile to be repaired or replaced in the event of an accident you need to purchase two additional insurance policies – a comprehensive policy as well as a collision policy.

As the name implies, collision insurance protects your vehicle in the event of a collision with another moving vehicle or with a stationary object, such as a tree or a light post or a guardrail. If your vehicle’s engine is running and your vehicle is moving when an accident occurs, then your collision policy will cover the cost to repair your automobile up to the limits of the policy or up to the Kelly Blue Book value of your automobile.

Comprehensive insurance covers repair or replacement of your vehicle if it is damaged by an “Act of God” – such as a tree branch crashing down on it during a storm – or if it is damaged by vandalism. Your comprehensive insurance also covers you if you hit a deer or other animal which causes damage to your vehicle.

So in Florida what you want to look for in a full coverage automobile insurance quote is:

• Personal Injury Protection (PIP) insurance
• Property Damage Liability (PDL) insurance
• Bodily Injury Liability (BIL) insurance
• Collision Insurance
• Comprehensive Insurance

Now you know exactly what to look for in a full coverage automobile insurance quote in Florida. The amount of each type of insurance that you choose to carry should be based on your personal assessment of the risks that you face each day, the cost of the insurance and the assets which you wish to protect.

Getting the best deal on full coverage automobile insurance in Florida is a matter of determining what you want in a policy and then comparing the price for that policy among all of the insurance companies in Florida. The best way to do that is through the multitude of automobile insurance comparison websites on the internet.

Just remember that since no one comparison website makes comparisons between all of the automobile insurance companies operating in Florida you really need to spend the extra time to make your comparisons on at least 3 different websites.

Once you’ve done that then basically all that’s left is to choose the best price that you find. Happy hunting!

Factors That Can Affect Your Life Insurance Premium

Taking out life insurance is only common sense in an unpredictable world, and is essential if you have loved ones dependant on you. While we all don’t like to think of the worst happening, it can and does, so taking out adequate protection on your life is essential.

Basically a life insurance policy pays out a predetermined sum of money in the case of the death of the insured.

However there are many clauses which can affect and cause the policy to become void should the cause of your death be linked to them. There are also many factors which apply to policies in general regarding premiums and cover.

This is why it is important that you understand what you are covered for and what exclusions apply to your policy. While these can vary there are some common factors:

Not mentioning an illness you already have at the time you take out the policy can have a serious affect on whether your loved ones can make a successful claim. It is essential you always give honest information at the time of taking your policy out and declare any illness you have or have had when applying.

The premium you are quoted when you consider taking out life insurance is dependant on many factors. As an example, how old you are at the time of taking out the policy is a big factor in how much the policy will cost per month as will your height and weight.

Your occupation is also is taken into consideration – the more at risk you are, the higher the premium. Whether or not you are a smoker and the general state of your overall health will also play a deciding factor.

How much you will pay will also depend on the amount of cover you wish to take out and the type of policy you have chosen. Along with this you will be asked questions regarding your lifestyle. Obviously, if your favourite weekend activity is sky diving or a similar high risk sport, then you will be classed as a higher risk and the costlier the cover will be.

Always make sure you know what you are covered for and what you aren’t covered for. Check out the exclusions which will usually be found in the small print and definitely take the time to look a policy over.

Is Golf A Sport?

For some reason, many people think of golf as being a boring sport. Actually some even feel that it isn’t a sport at all, at least not comparable to basketball, football, baseball or even hockey. Why could this be? Well, first of all, golf is such a quiet, low-key type of activity that is doesn’t quite seem like a sport. When most people think about sports, they think about a stadium filled with fans whopping and hollering as their favorite teams strives to win the game. Golf is more laid-back, calm. It can actually be considered more of an activity than a sport. A person definitely doesn’t have to be in shape to play it. Unlike physical sports that require players to be in shape, you can be four hundred pounds and play the game of golf without expecting any serious problems. There is really nothing physical about it. All you do is stand there and guide a ball in a hole. And golf carts don’t even require you to walk—you ride to the designated area.

Another reason why people don’t consider golf a sport is because actually, it isn’t. There is no such thing National Golf League, so why would it even be considered a sport in the first place? It shouldn’t be. Golf is a very relaxing recreational activity. It can promote relaxation in stressed-out individuals, and can even be lots of fun. And not only old people play the sport like some people may think. People of all ages, and races play it and think that it is a great hobby or leisure activity. Just because lots of people play golf after retirement doesn’t make it an ‘old timers’ activity. No matter what age you are, if you enjoy playing golf, then you shouldn’t be embarrassed about it.

There are many places for a golfer to buy all of their gear. Local sporting goods stores, malls, and even the internet.

So, even though golf isn’t a sport like football or baseball, with a professional league, players, coaches, etc, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be a very fun, very relaxing activity. Just give it a try, and you may discover that it’s one of the most enjoyable things you’ve ever done in your life.

Business To Business: The Explanation Behind It

If you are still the uninitiated one, you might wonder what is behind business to business marketing. In fact, it might be new to you, as like any others who weren’t updated with this business trend. You might also happen to hear business to consumer marketing. Now, if you want to learn more about business to business, or B2B, we need to distinguish it from business to consumer, or B2C.

Marketing Programs

There are many distinctions which can be found between the two marketing strategies although they use several related marketing programs like advertising, public relations, direct marketing, and internet marketing. They also employ similar initial steps with as far as developing marketing strategy is concerned. However, in terms of executing these programs and as well as the results coming from their marketing activities, the distinction begins.

In B2B marketing, the relationship building activity efforts are made from one business to another.

So, in this effort, the value of the business relationship is maximized, in which multi-step buying process plus the longer sales cycle are involved in the activities, is strengthened. The business value also determines the rational buying decisions by focusing principally on awareness and educational building activities; therefore the brand identity of B2B is made based on personal relationship created.

On the other hand, the business to consumer marketing, or B2C, the relationship building activity efforts focus on the consumers.

The activities evolve around disclosing, selling, or marketing goods or services to the community, or to the consumers themselves. Unlike the business to business marketing, its major goal is to convert shoppers into buyers as constantly, forcefully, and frequently as possible. As it is the consumers that are the main target of B2C, the marketing program is product driven.

In addition to that, it capitalizes on foregoing the value of each transaction made with the people. Maintenance software and in-house service networks are provided for other organizations to make use of so to develop sales, profits, efficiency, and marketing. Examples of these networks include locations and marketing sites which target decision makers, managers, and business holders.

Again, in contrast of the business to business, the business to consumer marketing does not employ multiple buying process and longer sales cycle. The shorter sales cycle and single-step buying process are what the concept of B2C evolves around. It creates its brand identity in the form of imagery and repetition. It focuses on the point of buying and merchandising activities such as displays, store fronts, and coupons.

In short, the businesses which provide retail product to the buying public falls under the B2C marketing.

Business to business marketing

Both marketing programs target on creating a strong brand. While the business to business marketing does not essentially create products and services to directly target shoppers’ loyalty and buying instincts, it promotes these goods based on the emotional buying view of the consumers, as it is with the business to consumer marketing.

And while in business to consumers marketing, the targeted consumers come up with purchase decisions seeing status, quality, comfort, and security as the strong factors, business buyers in business to business marketing depend on the aspects of enhancing productivity, reducing costs, and increasing profitability.

Earn Money Online

Everyone is looking to earn money online. Can you blame them? With the boom of the Internet everyone is looking to strike it rich. The Internet is the modern day gold rush with everyone looking to earn money online. The problem is just like the gold rush many people are looking to strike it rich overnight.This just doesn’t happen unless you get lucky playing the Lotto or hit a winning slot machine in Vegas. And the chances of winning are totally stacked against you when you gamble or play the lottery. Now yes you can earn money online and large amounts of it as well but it will take work and effort. There is no free ride when working online.No matter what any online company promises you there are no quick fixes for anyone when it comes to earning money online.

One of the easiest ways to earn money online is to sell on Ebay. Think of Ebay as a large garage sale but buyers bid on your items.Now the hard part is finding products to sell on Ebay. Many people I know make a good living just from selling on Ebay alone.

Now you can take this one step further and create your own online business to earn money online. One of my friends use to make candles and sell them from her home. She was making a few bucks here and there. Then she decided to take her home business to the next level. First she created a website with all of her candles listed on the site. Next she realized she had no clue on how to drive traffic to her site. So she had to take some courses on Internet marketing. Once she figured out how to market online her business took off.

Which brings me to a different point. Many people want to earn money online. But the problem most people have is they have no clue how to market a product online. Which leaves them stuck in one place. Just like during the gold rush many people were flocking to the west to strike gold. Many of the people coming to the west in those times had no clue how to mine for gold and they went back home broke, cheated out of their money by con artists. Just like what is going on online today. Many hard working and honest people trying to earn money online are being cheated by con artists and crooks. If you have ever been suckered by an online company you know exactly what I’m talking about.

The key to earn money online is to become educated on how to market online. Once you understand how to properly market online you can earn money online selling just about any product. Do not buy into the hype of online companies promising to make you rich overnight, it does not happen. It takes work to earn money online and it doesn’t happen overnight. But if you commit and work to earn money online you will open up a door of endless possibilities.

Career Planning

Whether you are about to graduate from college, or want to change jobs at a later point in life, career planning is a very important aspect of the process. Before you actually start applying for positions, it is essential to be certain of the areas you would like to work in. The worst thing that could happen is not to take any steps in the career planning process, and end up in a job that you are unhappy with, or do not have the proper skill set for.

Career quizzes are often helpful in the career planning process. These are often a great first step when trying to determine what type of jobs you’d be best suited for. Many are available online, and address some of the following areas: identifying your skills and abilities; determining if you prefer working with people, data or things; or summarizing what workplace values are most important to you. By compiling all of this information, you’ll usually get a general idea of what fields you should be seriously checking out. The quizzes often list suitable occupations based on your answers.

One avenue that would be best to explore is signing up for career counseling. There are many free services, mainly ones offered by the government, or at post-secondary institutions, that will get you started on your career planning journey. Career counselors are trained professionals that will be able to offer you advice and make realistic recommendations on what area you would be best suited to work in. They will look over your academic training, and often administer aptitude tests to see what careers you should be exploring.

Researching companies that you could picture yourself working for is another great step in the career planning process. Check out their websites for information, and to see what type of positions they may be hiring for. When possible, try to set up a meeting with a member of the department you’d like to be a part of, so that you may ask them questions and find out about the day to day aspects of the company on a more intimate level. Check the newspapers and magazines to see if the company is mentioned at all, and see if the articles are favorable or not. Although this may seem very simple, it can be a valuable part of your career planning.

If you think you may need to go back to school in order to make a career change, obtaining a catalogue from a local post-secondary institution is a good way to kick start career planning. Look through what programs are offered, what skills are required to be accepted to programs of interest, and what type of a time commitment you’d be looking at in order to make this change. See if prior employment or life experience will work in your favor, and give you advanced standing into your selected programs. People often forget to check into educational requirements for certain careers, and may waste time and energy by skipping this step in the career planning process.

An often underrated aspect of career planning is talking with your friends and family. Discuss with them in detail what it is they do, and ask them to honestly tell you what they could picture you doing for a living. Who knows? They may see something that you’ve overlooked, and it could be the missing link to your career planning process.

Career planning is something that everyone is faced with at some point in their lives, and it should not be taken lightly, although you can have some fun with it. Most important of all is to be honest and realistic with yourself, and make sure you ultimately choose a path that will make you happy and keep you financially secure.