After some 30, 40 years of toiling, battling and rushing days and perhaps nights in the corporate rat race (or could be in a cut throat business world), you finally call it a day – you retire.

“Good. I’ve more time on my hands to do things I haven’t got round to do….” You think.

Yes. But little do you know that after a while, you get bored because you don’t have enough to do to occupy your time.

I have 10 retirement ideas here that will add sparks and interests, to occupy you more….than when you’re working!

But no, they won’t tire you out. You’ll have fun, growth experiences and tops, helping others, along the way. You’ll feel relaxed and fulfilled too.

Work part time – you’re active and earn meaningful income. The work could be what you’ve been doing while still working; or could be areas you’re good at like art, craft, computer, home repairs, organizing parties/events….. Start a business – build a business from scratch, online or offline, it doesn’t matter. You sure won’t get bored with this; what with plenty of learning curves and growth experiences to get busy with Volunteer to help in true, genuine charitable organizations – help others in terms of your time, money and effort, to help them achieve their dreams; good for them and for you too! Get going an exercise and fitness program – keep your body in strong and fit condition by consistently and regularly exercise: cardio (running, walking, swimming, jogging, bicycling….) 3-4 times per week for at least 30 minutes per session, working on your heart and lungs (to keep them strong and fit) and burning off excess body fat, to lose or maintain weight Grow a hobby – especially a hobby (of your heart) you haven’t got the time to indulge in when you’re too busy working your butts out in the corporate world Teach in your local community – offer and share your work-related expertise/knowledge by teaching/tutoring in youth clubs, student societies and churches who have members in need of your expertise/knowledge Go back to study – learn new things. Pick up new knowledge. Who knows, you might discover new talents and potentials which are otherwise buried deep and dead because you’re so busy working all these years Initiate a website/blog in your areas of passion – if you’re crazy about cooking, why not share your “best kept” recipes? Your “home secrets” in cooking up tantalizing meals? Then, when you’ve a raved following, make money by selling catering services, recipes, cookbooks…..Hey, you could become a hot celebrity in your own niche Organize a book club – get like-minded friends and relatives, working professionals and students to have regular readings, discussions, debates and reviews on books, articles, novels and any other intellectual reading materials, to sharpen and widen yours and others’ minds Join political party and get active in its community services- this is a sure way to serve your community, if you’re up to it, that is. Hmmm….you might become a “popular” political champion….serve your country, your people, your community….Things that’re positive and good for all

Are these retirement ideas enough to get you cracking up more exciting ideas of your own?

No matter what idea(s) you’ve in mind, the most important thing is that you enjoy it, have fun and growth experiences, to enrich your retirement years. And you don’t waste away your time, mind and existence.

Fortune 500 companies have the solution and it could help your business in 2007

What’s the secret for budget management that is used by many top fortune 500 companies? Does it apply to government and law enforcement?

Most governmental agencies are looking for more effective ways to stretch their department budget dollars. They want to work smart, not harder and need a way to identify what is really costing them time, money and labor hours. They recognize that a simple way to implement management strategies is exceptionally important and want their staff to not only understand their overall mission, but also carry out that mission in their everyday activities.

What the public wants to see with all governmental agencies is simply a return on their investment.

How do you proceed from the budget problems to the solution? What do you do if hiring more staff is not the answer?

One solution, called Six Sigma, is what has saved the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana more than $7 million over the past few years. Six Sigma technology is used by the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Navy, Air Force, Marines and the Army. The top corporations using Six Sigma have, in the last ten years, reduced internal costs and increased profits by more than $100 billion.

Six Sigma is a process improvement methodology that identifies and eliminates defects, re-works, and redundancies in any process in your organization. It has been described, accurately so, as the most powerful management system ever devised. Six Sigma is applicable to any organization, any business, and will results in substantial internal savings.

Six Sigma was developed by the Motorola Company in the mid-1980′s in an effort to identify and reduce defects. General Electric, under Jack Welch, adopted the methodology, and both companies dramatically improved their processes, resulting in large-scale cost savings, and enhanced profitability.

Here’s an example of how Six Sigma works in a local police department. Assume the department handles 100,000 calls for service each year. Research estimates that between 50-70% of calls for service where officers are actually dispatched have little or no relationship to the police mission. As a consequence, the department requests additional staffing and resources every year at budget time. They need a far more effective policing strategy and by truly partnering with the community and asking for their help on these activities (for example, “Before you call 9-1-1, do this…..”), the change significantly impacts the police budget.

In terms of fiscal and personnel resources, let’s say that 50% of those calls are calls that don’t support your mission. That’s 50,000 calls for service. It’s unreasonable to eliminate all 50,000 of these, but if, over time, the department reduces these calls by half, or 25,000 calls for service, we’ve made progress.

Let’s calculate the impact of the Six Sigma change. Assume each call takes an hour. Now, the police department has freed up 25,000 personnel hours to deploy as they see fit on true mission-oriented activities, such as crime problems.

In terms of financial resources, the average salary and benefit package for a police officer is about $50.00 per hour. At 25,000 personnel hours times $50, the deparment has just saved itself $1,250,000.00 Imagine someone handing your department that kind of money and having the freedom to apply it to achieve far more substantial results. This example is one of literally dozens that if applied, would result in the department being able to reinvest 25-35% or more of its existing budget. Imagine the outcomes after applying the methodology to every department in a city or county.

Six Sigma has proven to be an extremely effective strategy for thousands of businesses and more companies are adopting it every year. It is here to stay.

One excellent Six Sigma practitioner is William E. Cooper, M.B.A., M.P.A, a retired police chief who has applied Six Sigma principles to various work settings. He has also included these principles in his book, Leading Beyond Tradition (See http://www.LeadingBeyondTradition.com) For more information or to schedule a Six Sigma consultation, email him directly at bipd1@comcast.net

An eCommerce Web Site provides a secure Internet-based facility for transactions between a business and a customer. It can use rich media presentations to help customers in their buying decisions, provide live support for customer inquiries, take and fulfill orders, and even provide real-time tracking of deliveries for physical products. Whatever feature these eCommerce web sites may have, they have one primary purpose and that is to bring in sales for the company 24 hours a day.

Although setting up an eCommerce web site has never been easier, the bigger challenge for most businesses is to set-up an effective website that tirelessly pulls-in sales for the company day in and day out.

The crucial element is in the design and structure of your eCommerce web site. This will make or break your online venture. It’s like having a 200 horsepower engine but without the proper chassis, it will end up nowhere.

So, in order to ensure a good return on the time, money and skill to be invested, make sure you take these factors into account.

1. Answer the #1 Question in Your Customer’s Mind

All successful eCommerce web sites know how to answer one critical question of customers – “What’s in it for me?” Let’s face it, all customers are “me-oriented.” You, yourself, are a customer and you can attest that before you give any bit of attention to a product or service, it must first answer, “what’s in it for you?”

So if you don’t give site visitors a reason to care about your product or services, no amount of sophistication to your eCommerce site can deliver the sale.

2. Organized content

Ever been into a market place where every vendor yells at you about what they have to offer? Not only is it confusing, it’s irritating. This would also be the case if you’re trying to present all your products benefits, features, prices and promos on a single page.

So structure your content wisely. Categorize your products or services based on functionality, benefit, feature, color, or size. However it may be, always put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Organize your products/services on how you think your customer can best find and decide on what he or she is looking for.

3. Use color and images to your advantage

Colors and images inspire feelings. It’s no accident why coffee shops like Starbucks and Coffee Bean are using almost the same color tones and images. Upon entering them, you instantly feel soothed by the ambiance and the cozy chairs invite you to sit, unwind, forget the world while enjoying the warmth, aroma and taste of coffee.

In almost the same way, proper use of color and images in your eCommerce web site will set the mood for your clients to stay awhile, read, listen or watch about what your product can do for them.

4. Don’t over sell or over promise

Nothing will make a customer hold-on to his wallet and ran away faster that an infomercial sounding sales pitch. No matter how other marketers would vouch that it’s effective, don’t degrade your web site by sounding like a used car salesman.

Your website should convey a lot of credibility and prestige to gain your customers trust.

And lastly…

5. High touch vs high tech

It’s no doubt that an eCommerce web site has a lot of intricacies wired into it in order to quickly process multiple online transactions at any given time. It’s a whole lot more efficient compared to hiring a lot of sales people to handle every customer on a one-on-one basis. However, you should never use the ‘high-techness’ of your web site to impress your customers. Gone are the days when people are awestruck by technology. As a matter of fact, some are already nauseated by it.

Instead the your eCommerce web site should interact to customers the way a real person would. It should be User-intuitive where only information and functions relevant to the customer are presented to him or her.

Since people want information and they want it now, your eCommerce web site should create an impression that you can quickly cater to their wants.

Ultimately it depends on you as to what you feel about the hobby you have taken up and how much time, money or effort you wish to invest in it. That will decide how or what shape your hobby takes and lawn care is no exception to this rule. When you take up lawn care as a hobby, you need to also ensure that you devote enough time through effective lawn care remedies to make sure that the lawn you have developed continues to look good and fresh over time and it does not start showing signs of neglect. That would be most unfortunate as maintaining a good lawn is such a wonderful hobby and showing it off to your friends, visitors is sure to make you proud of your sustained interest and care in your new found hobby.

Many a time, people have started the process of developing a lawn and have given it up half way through due to the lack of time or effort. The result has been something that is not at all desirable since the initial investment of time as well as effort, not to mention the enthusiasm and expectations they had built up in themselves as well as in others who have followed their activity all goes down the drain.

The good news is that lawn care is not all that difficult and with the right lawn remedies as suggested below, you should have a lawn that you can be proud of.

a) If you are thinking of planting grass, do your homework on the best seeds available and whether the existing climate or weather will suit its growth.

b) Ensure you water the grass enough such that there is never a problem of the grass thirsting for water once it attains about three inches in height. Keep in view however any watering the lawn may have already received due to any rainfall as you do not want excess water to spoil the show.

c) The procedure of right aeration is extremely crucial and should be adopted to allow clean drainage of water as well as for allowing the grass to breathe.

d) Use the right fertilizers in the correct quantities and ensure that you are providing the grass with enough compost that is not only rich in nutrients but also makes available sufficient nitrogen for the healthy growth of the grass.

In addition to the above, once you have a good lawn that has come up, it is necessary to mow it regularly so that you are able to promote fresh growth which in turn would be much healthier and thicker.

Follow the right lawn remedies and you would not have cause to complain at all about your lawn getting worn out or faded.

A garden brings to mind lush green grass and plenty of trees and bushes. Green is a color that is associated with growth and positive energy. A patch of green in the house or on the road or anywhere else gives a feeling that we are one with Nature. Nature has indeed bestowed upon us all her bounties in plenty. Basically a garden consists of plants, flowers, fountains, long winding pathways, ponds and not to forget green grass. A lawn with neatly trimmed grass is a pleasure to the sight as well to walk on. It is believed that kids should walk on the grass barefoot as this helps in circulation of blood in the body. It’s a kind of acupressure for the feet.

A lawn needs to be tended to regularly. Mowing, weeding out the unwanted stuff, clearing the dried and fallen leaves, watering the lawn and trimming it from time to time is an ongoing process. Since time immemorial lawns have been in vogue.

Just as you tend to a baby, a lawn also needs to be cared for. Only then it remains green and fresh. Pesticides and fertilizers are used from time to time to keep the pests and insects away. In this polluted world, lawns keep the air fresh and give coolness to the surroundings. If the soil is good then you can have a healthy luscious lawn in your home. Soil, water and some attention can improve the quality of lawns.

Watering your garden is an important aspect of building your garden. The amount of water required depends upon the weather, soil conditions and the type of grass used. For example, the Kentucky blue grass requires less amount of water. Where as the newer improved varieties require more water. Organic manure helps in growing healthy grass and you will not need pesticides and fertilizers.

Choose a type of grass which is popular in your area. Some types of soil will benefit some variety of grass. It’s always wise to find out which grass grows well in your area and select accordingly. Choosing the right type of grass to grow will save you time, money, and heartache.

Besides planting trees, hedges and bushes are also essential for building your garden. Ear mark a place for a pond where you can have colorful fishes and water lilies and get the plumbing done to that area accordingly. Just as you take pains to build your house you need to equally devote time and energy to build your garden. Having a swing in the garden will be a pleasure to your kids. Flowering plants and trees are a pleasure to the sight. Take an excursion to your neighborhood nursery and get the right plants and seeds. The gardener there will be able to guide you what grows well in the area.

You can also grow herbs in your garden and have a patch where you can try to grow some vegetables and home grown herbs. Having a patio with a deck can be refreshing when you feel like relaxing outdoor.
A garden not only adds beauty to a home but also provides peace and tranquility to your mind and soul.