Thursday, July 30, 2009

Thinking About Homeschooling Your Children? It’s an Awesome Experience that Delivers Superior Education!

Thinking About Homeschooling Your Children? It’s an Awesome Experience that Delivers Superior Education!
Many parents are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the current public education system. The coursework has systematically declined in content and class sizes, typically consisting of 30 or more students, creates a situation where a lack of discipline among students sets the stage for bullying and even more dangerous events. The overcrowding of classrooms makes it difficult, if not impossible, for teachers to exercise adequate supervision.



All of these factors contribute to greater numbers of parents seeking an alternative education venue. How about homeschooling? Educating your children at home is one of your best alternatives. You need not have a teaching credential to home school. Every state has accredited homeschooling programs, with a curriculum defining the subjects you must cover and periodic testing that demonstrates a certain level of achievement equal to public school programs.


Here we take a look about homeschooling programs and how your child can receive a superior education to that offered in the public schools. We hear so much about that ‘quality time’ spent with your kids. Well, homeschooling offers a way to spend hours with your kids every day, in one of the most valuable experiences parents and children can share. Imparting knowledge in this one-on-one environment is one of the richest, most productive and satisfying you’ll ever enjoy.


The only caveat about homeschooling is that you must enroll your child in an accredited homeschooling program. This is not a difficult or highly bureaucratic process, not much more than is required to register your child in public school. A call to your local school district gets you on the rosters in short order.


One of the best features about homeschooling is that you can organize the school lessons pretty much the way you like. A mix of structured and unstructured lesson plans usually works well for almost any schedule. For example, scheduling for sick days: if your child wakes up with a sore throat, has a case of poison oak or a sprained ankle, this doesn’t mean a missed day of school. This may be a good day to read story books, or watch a special on Animal Planet. Learning can take place cozied under a blanket on the sofa, with a cup of soup or cocoa. You’ll also find that your child will have fewer sick days, not being exposed to kids with a cold or fever in the public classroom.


Another wonderful thing about homeschooling is the latitude you have with respect to what you can add to the education of your child. While fulfilling the requirements of the state mandated curriculum, your one-on-one environment allows for comprehensive, in-depth examinations of subject matter. Let’s say your child’s coursework requires that you cover state geography. In public school, a certain amount of time is allotted to this lesson, but when you’re talking about homeschooling, you have the time to pull out the atlas and explain topographical maps. Kids learn faster and more easily when they can take their time and ask as many questions as they like. If your child is fascinated with the subject matter, why not spend the entire school day on that subject? Tomorrow’s another day.


On the other hand, there are bound to be some subjects which your child doesn’t enjoy. In public school classrooms, there’s no latitude in choosing time slots for subjects. How about homeschooling? You can break up the lesson into manageable chunks, diminishing the boredom and frustration. The material will still be covered, in a manner that promotes learning and gets the tasks completed and understood.


This approach also helps a child’s self esteem. There’s no peer pressure by other students which may cause your child to feel ’stupid’, or falling asleep in class, resulting in a poor grade and a lasting dislike for that subject. When it comes to educating children, one size does not fit all. So this is yet another of the advantages about homeschooling: your lessons can be customized to the specific needs of your child.


Television can be a terrific resource for the home schooled child. Animal planet, the Discovery channel and the History channel offer lessons your child might never get in public school. You’ll find abundant TV resources for the language arts, including grammar, composition, and even foreign language lessons.


In addition to television lessons, you’ve got the net. Let’s say your child does not enjoy math. There are hundreds of kid’s learning sites which have interactive math games which are fun for kids and produce results. These sites are run by education professionals, who provide practice tests. These help point out the concepts your child finds difficult, so you know where your future lesson emphasis should be.


Teachers in public school seldom have the time to identify an individual student’s weaknesses. So there you have another plus about homeschooling in contrast to public school. Other net resources include free online and downloadable dictionaries, thesauri i, grammar and spelling game sites and e-books to enrich your child’s learning experience and knowledge base.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Homeschooling versus Public Schooling

Homeschooling versus Public Schooling
When you look at academic achievements only, homeschooled children seem to advance quicker than their counterparts in public schools. A report published by the ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) shows that homeschool test scores were exceptionally high and well above that of public and private schools. They found that homeschool students in the 8th grade are four years ahead of their peers in public or private schools.


In a study conducted by Dr. Lawrence Rudner, he discovered that learners who were being homeschooled their entire school career, achieved the highest out of all the children.

Interesting information that came from this research was the difference that homeschooling made to the achievements of different race groups. There was very little difference found between the scores of white, black and Hispanic children in homeschooling. On the other hand, there was a significant difference between the achievements of different race groups attending public schools. Eight grade public school learners scored on average at the 58th percentile in math, where black children scored at the 24th percentile. White students scored at the 57th percentile in reading and Hispanic students at only the 28th percentile.

Dr. Ray, in his book, Strengths of Their Own, came to another interesting conclusion. The amount of money spend on tuition had no effect on the achievement of the child. In fact, the cheaper homeschooling option had better results than the far more expensive public schooling. In his research, based on statistics from 1998, he found that a homeschooled child cost parents on average $546 compared to the $5 325 for a public school learner. The average score for the homeschooled child was at the 85th percentile, where the score for the public school learner was averaged at the 50th percentile.

These research studies were done in a number of the states and in all the results the findings were the same. The homeschooled child scored on average 20-25 percentile points higher than their counterparts in public schools.

The research also found that the qualifications of the parent responsible for the schooling had no real affect on the achievement of the student.

Monday, July 20, 2009

CRM software: is yours a cash cow or a white elephant?

CRM software: is yours a cash cow or a white elephant?
IN THE realm of business software, few — if any — class of product is as criminally under-utilized as customer service management solutions.

A properly integrated CRM system should be able to:
– Track and organize existing client and customer contacts, as well as prospective clients and customers;
– Provide information about customer and client interactions;
– Improve services provided to clients customers;
– Track client contacts as they move jobs, with a view to leveraging new business from existing relationships; and
– Provide information to inform targeted marketing campaigns.

Why is CRM seen as glorified Rolladex?
So why is it that following CRM installation and promotion by in house stakeholders, do so many firms’ employees use it as a glorified Rolodex — if they use it at all? The answer could lie in recent Forrester research showing that “organizational cooperation and coordination remains a major impediment to the success of CRM initiatives”.

In 79 per cent of companies that have reported a negative return on their CRM investments, cultural issues within the enterprise are cited as the cause, the report reveals. CRM guru is needed to drive customer relations ?The study concludes that to execute a CRM strategy effectively, businesses must appoint a senior-level CRM guru who coordinates all CRM activities and reports to the CEO.

But there are further barriers to CRM uptake. In traditional vertical corporate structures - typically where line managers lead teams - the guru approach could work well. But in sectors where the senior employees are partners rather than managers, even a dedicated guru is unlikely to shake firms free of CRM inertia.

Partners in CRM crime
The reason is the partner model is a flat corporate structure; partners co-own the firm, and enjoy equal status. In such an environment, a CRM guru would find him or herself answering not to a CEO able to drive CRM measures through the chain of command, but a panel of 50 partners — all acutely mindful of their time and all ferociously protective of their contacts.

But this partner structure, and the partner mentality, is damaging the profitability of tens of thousands of companies worldwide.

Andy Haven is a US-based legal marketing consultant, and a former chief marketing officer for a major corporate law firm, and has watched CRMs withering on the vine in the legal sector.

“CRM for lawyers and law firms shouldn’t be different than for other businesses. In fact, CRM for lawyers should be easier, as I don’t know of a single one who doesn’t track their time by quarters or tenths of hours in order to be able to bill.”

Partner-owned firms missing out on CRM benefits
Although each day a torrent of valuable CRM information flows through partner-owned firms, partners are disinclined to use this to their firm’s advantage.

“They could provide truly rich data about what kinds of work is producing the most profit, the most referrals and the least amount of administrative waste,” says Havens. In so doing, he points out, such firms could identify the most efficient and effective areas for business development.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Customer Service is the Start of Success

Customer Service is the Start of Success
Participant in the major and proactive forums. Obviously, there are many resources stating that participating in the forums is a great way to generate free traffic to your website. However, with this affiliate marketing ideas, I highly recommend you to choose the forums before joining those forums; even they are free to join.
There are some factors for your concerns when you join the community. For example, a number of members in the forums, how active forums are, and what kind of topics there are in those forums. My experiences show that you have to be in the active forums along with the proactive members and a great discussion. With those stuffs, you are in a great position to be socialising with them and ensure that the opportunities to generate more traffic are opened. The great place to start joining is the Warrior forums. There are a lot of proactive members and great discussion over there.
Everybody dreams to make some easy money just working in the comfort of their own home. Affiliate marketing is literally the easiest way to make that possible, being one of the best methods to make money on the internet.

Although some marketing informational programs try to make you think you’re going to start earning money the minute you get involved in this kind of industry, it’s going to take time and work until you’ll start earning some serious cash.

The fact that anyone can be an affiliate marketer has made affiliate marketing one of the fastest growing industries today. Just by promoting a product that can be bought on the internet you can get a commission from that sale.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd (HGSL) partners with Sistema Tele

Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd (HGSL) partners with Sistema Tele
Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd (HGSL) a part of Hinduja Group, announced a strategic partnership with Sistema Shyam TeleServices for managing the Telecom Service Provider’s operations. Under this partnership HGSL will manage the customer care operations of their MTS brand in Chennai.
Initially, HGSL’s customer care center in the city would cater to the prepaid customers of MTS both in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, he added.

“Currently we have around 98 agents on this project. However, we have planned to employ over 400 people during the next 24 months,” he explained.

HGSL currently had over 9,500 employees in the country out of which 2,500 constitute in Chennai facility, he said.

Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd customer care center in Chennai will cater to MTS’ prepaid customers offering inbound and outbound support activities including welcome calls and customer support services 24×7. The number of agents will be based on the call volumes projected by MTS based on HGSL’s scalable delivery model.

The estimates are that on an average about 100 agents will be hired and this will be scaled up to 300 in the next 24 months. HGSL’s customer service representatives will cater to English, Malayalam and Tamil speaking customers. This will help generate employment amongst the semi urban and rural population Said Mr. Partha De Sarkar, CEO, “Our rich experience in and the telecom industry and commitment to deliver greater value to clients is evidenced in Sistema Shyam TeleServices decision to partner with HGSL. We look forward to a long and mutually rewarding relationship”.

About Hinduja Global Solutions:

Hinduja Global Solutions, part of the multi-billion dollar conglomerate, Hinduja Group excels in providing outsourcing solutions that include Back Office Processing and Contact Centre services to its global clientele comprising several Fortune 500 Companies. The Global Services Magazine, in association with Neo IT, in January ‘07, has ranked HGSL the Best Performing Call Centre worldwide. Hinduja Global Solutions’ BPO domain expertise is in the areas of Banking & Financial services, Consumer Electronics, Insurance, Telecom etc. Hinduja Global Solutions has marketing offices in North America & UK and 21 delivery centers in Bangalore, Chennai, Durgapur, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Mysore in India, El Paso, Lyndhurst, Peoria, St Louis and Waterloo in the United States, Montreal in Canada, Cyber City in Mauritius and Manila in Philippines. The Company has world-class infrastructure in line with global standards and employs over 14,500 people worldwide. Hinduja Global Solutions is amongst the few BPO business leaders that have implemented six sigma standards to its processes, is HIPAA compliant and has BS 7799 & ISO 9001:2000 quality certifications.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Potential of an exquisite logo in business

Potential of an exquisite logo in business
In the era of globalization, many entrepreneurs have entered the business world. The globalization has made it feasible for these marketers to promote their businesses at the worldwide level. This has given rise to competition in the marketplace. Marketers employ various innovative ways to gain recognition in the competitive world. For this purpose, they utilize many branding elements. Creating a logo for a company is one of the ways to display inimitable and artistic pursuits of an organization. The main aim of creating an elusive logo is to not only convey the message or include the initials of a company in a fashionable style. A striking logo also aims at leaving an everlasting and positive impression on the minds of the prospective customers.A designer can create a unique logo in a number of ways. One should design a trademark for the company in a way so that it elicits immediate recognition of an organization. In other words, a designer should design a logo that reflects the nature and vision of a company. For instance, a company that deals with ice cream and ice cream related products should not have a logo that relates to apparel or shoe manufacturing industry. Therefore, a company should design a logo that reflects the business with which it deals. A trademark should convey the personality, attitude, character, goal and belief of an organization. A designer should design a company’s graphic symbol in an attractive manner so that a potential customer can associate his feelings with the product. In other words, a customer should have a feeling of familiarity with the product. A designer should design a logo in a way so that the product appears authentic and credible. You can make the product appear authentic by creating a logo that appears completely original. Creation of a trademark involves creating and using designs or graphics that does not have even minute resemble with any other company’s logo. You should avoid using lavish designs in a logo. Simple appearance of a logo can render elegance and magnetic appeal.

There are many logo design services offering logo services to many companies. Before selecting any service, you should find out about the working process of a company. You should also find out about the company’s credentials and certification before making a final selection.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Overview of Metal Inert Gas (MIG) Welding

Overview of Metal Inert Gas (MIG) Welding
There are many types of welding that are available to learn today and MIG is one of those types. This type of welding dates back to 1940s when it was discovered to weld aluminum and other types of non-ferrous metals.Many people refer to MIG welding as GMAW or gas metal arc welding. Often these two terms are used interchangeably. This type of welding is considered to be automatic or semi-automatic because it happens quickly. The process works to join two pieces of metal by continuously passing a wire through a welding gun. The wire is connected to a direct current and then passed through the gun with an inert gas like Argon.

The wire acts as an electrode and the inert gas acts as a shield as the welding is performed. This means that contaminates are air borne instead of being put into the weld zone.

An MIG welder will use this method to meld metal quicker than regular stick welding especially when they want to weld soft metals like aluminum. When this method was first started the inert gas was too expensive to do the process all the time. Today, carbon dioxide can be used instead of the more expensive gases and makes this method more cost effective.

Advantages of MIG Welding

There are several advantages of MIG welders:

* It is faster than traditional methods of welding and it produces longer, continuous welds. * It produces a cleaner weld with less splatter. * It can be used with a wide variety of alloys and metals which makes it a versatile elder process.

Disadvantages of MIG Welding:

Although this is a very specialized process that works efficiently for many projects there are a few disadvantages that include:

* The welding equipment is complex and bulky to use. * The equipment needs a source of continuous current and a constant feeding of the wire through the gun. * It is a very different process than traditional welding so there is a learning curve for all welders who use this technique. * Because of the inert gas, MIG welding cannot be used an open area because the wind would cause the gas to cause more problems for the MIG welder.

MIG welding has become very important in many industries because of its ability to weld metals quickly. You will see this type of welding done in many industries that include automobile industry and nuclear industries