Froodee

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Writer’s Survival Kit 1: Stone-Age Tools

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If a girl scout has to have her flashlight, swiss knife, can opener, and mosquito repellant handy in order to survive camp, a writer has to have her essentials in order to survive her personal jungle, too.. My personal jungle includes: traffic jams, waiting for friends, long train rides, lazy afternoons with nothing to do in an Internet-devoid coffeeshop.

While I surely have yet to encounter situations wherein I am devoid of the luxury of being online in a coffeeshop, as WiFi is abundant in my country, who knows, I might get stuck killing time in javalandia without my beloved Sayuri and no WiFi to boot.

In order to survive traffic jams, friend-waiting, train rides, and situations wherein I would need to actually wait and kill time, I have a few things in my handbag that help me while my time away. Here is my personal survival kit, so that while I wait, I can keep my fingers busy, and do a bit of work at the same time.

Wait, while I started out quite proud of my personal “survival kit,” I realized that my personal survival kit was too stone-age, it’s embarrassing. I have a pen, a tiny notebook, and.. A calculator.

The tiny notebook serves to hold all my mental notes, most of which end up incomprehensible to me a few days later anyway. Some are still useful, like article topic ideas that I get to pursue. But most of which are too harebrained to make the final cut. Oh well.

And the pen.. Of course it’s the only partner to the notebook in making those incomprehensible notes! But I just have to spell out what it’s for, because I like making things clear.. Forgive me. :p

The calculator serves to help me figure out my budget, my salary expectations, and whatever else I can figure out while I kill time. But surely, I do not end up tallying my total word counts away from my computer. I have software for that, because I’m too lazy to count words manually. Besides, I’d be too vain to do that offline, right?

In an age beyond the PDA’s, where iPods, do-it-all cellular phones, and even e-book readers are now rulers of the market, why do I choose these stone-age tools? Simple. Because these do not require batteries, won’t conk out, and you won’t need to replace their LCD’s when they bleed.. Because my tools are too low-tech for LCD’s anyway! Haha!

My system just helps kill trees though.

Image source: ViewImages.com

System reforms can solve the problem of tax avoidance

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Based on what a group of business leaders have discussed in a recent gathering, a comprehensive reform in the tax system is the most effective solution to the problem of tax avoidance.

According to a recently conducted comprehensive study on tax avoidance, the Institute of Directors (IoD) has signified its advocacy for the redesign of the entire tax system in order to remove the current artificial boundaries between things that are considered as close commercial substitutes.

The employers’ organisation has been insisting that a swift action on the problem is absolutely needed what with taxpayers getting more and more creative with regards to finding ways around the anti-avoidance legislation and the Government formulating an increasingly complex legislation as a response to these methods.

According to Richard Baron, IoD’s Head of Taxation, “Reforming the tax system would obviously not be an easy task. It would mean some drastic changes. However, the task may still be worth undertaking as the current approach is leading to an impossibly complex and confusing tax system.”

The IoD report emphasises the kind of moral ambiguity that is associated with the commission of tax avoidance. The report also acknowledges the arguments that are forwarded against avoidance like competition distortion (this is when a person who performs extensive tax avoidance pays less taxes than a person who does not). But even though it may be true that a business can present more avoidance opportunities compared to others the real fault still lies with the tax system.

The first step

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Among the first essential steps to starting a business is establishing the corporate entity. Sadly, this is sometimes the last thing aspiring entrepreneurs take care of. For instance, I have a business contact who’s had an interesting (and viable) business idea for years, but still has not incorporated a local company. My friend goes about talking to prospective investors and partners, but some feel that he is not too serious about getting into business because of the lack of a solid corporate entity.

Hence, the first step one should consider in setting up a business is incorporating into a new legal entity. Not only does a businessperson get the protection of limited liability, he also enjoys a higher level of trust from prospective investors.

Besides, incorporating is an easy and inexpensive activity to undertake nowadays. Even if you don’t have a bankable idea yet, you can actually already begin to incorporate a holdings company for all your business ideas.

UK business owners over-stressed

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A recent survey of 7,000 small and medium-size business owners in the UK shows that as much as 43% experience rising stress levels. This is due to various factors, majority of which involve an unsure business environment in some sectors.

For instance, business owners are said to be facing constant pressure in terms of competition from the global market (after all, who could compete with low-cost labour countries such as China?). The study also points out the number of holidays in a year taken by the respondents as a factor to reducing stress.

Here’s a great tip for business owners and those planning to start a company: don’t work hard; work smart! That goes against the age-old tradition of working hard, does it? Well, working hard involves putting in a great amount of time and effort onto one’s craft. But working smart involves coming up with creative business solutions to achieve the same amount of output with less effort. And with less effort means more time to relax and spend on much-deserved vacations and holidays.

Worth considering, eh?

Productivity and being on-call

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You’re midway into a week-long vacation in the peaceful countryside when your boss rings you up and asks you to turn in your report due for the week after you arrive. You try to argue to no avail–as if you had a choice. Road warriors are all too familiar with this scenario: with all the high tech gadgetry we carry around us all day, we tend to feel as if we’re on a short leash with our offices.

Sometimes, the freedom of mobility associated with being connected and/or online from anywhere translates to the feeling of being tethered within a tight circle. In other words, vacation time may just be a transfer of office space to somewhere with better scenery.

Perhaps businesses are not quick to realize it, but business solutions experts believe that companies should respect employees’ vacation times as these are moments to unwind, relax and recharge—coming back to the office in the next few days more productive and more efficient. Well rested employees are known to have better output and faster turnovers than overworked and stressed staff. Company formation experts advise startup firms to consider having contingency measures for instances when employees go on vacation, such as redundancy of tasks, or redistribution.

Otherwise, an employee’s vacation may just end up being costly in terms of communications cost and decreased productivity.