Top tips for decorating your buy-to-let property

Once you’ve finalised the purchase of your buy-to-let property and got the important paperwork out of the way – such as finding the right landlords insurance policy for your needs – it’s time to turn your attention to decorating your new purchase. If you’re lucky enough to have bought a property that doesn’t need any work doing on it then all the better, but the likelihood is that you’ll need to touch up at least one or two of the rooms.

The most important factor to remember when approaching this task is that your own taste in decoration isn’t necessarily the same as your ideal tenant’s – in fact, by finishing a house in the style that you would choose for your own home could well chase prospective customers away. Your best bet is to decide on the type of tenant you’re looking to attract and then tailor the way you decorate the house accordingly.

The general rule of thumb is that the more care and attention you put into decorating your rental property with style, the more you’re be able to charge for rent. If you’re lacking in inspiration, take a look around at the kind of newly built properties that tend to sell quickly and take your lead from them. Light colours are generally the order of the day as they help to make the rooms of your property appear larger and brighter.

Pay special attention to rooms that can make a real difference in winning round potential tenants who are on the fence. A clean, modern style to the fixtures and fittings in either the kitchen or bathroom can have a real ‘wow’ factor and seal the deal. Wooden floors also tick the right boxes for many people – and have the added bonus of being easy to clean.

Don’t rest on your laurels once the decoration has been completed; it’s just as important to ensure that the decor is well maintained going forward, so make regular checks to be sure that everything is up to scratch and act quickly on any problems pointed out by your tenants.

Clear Vision for Kids

One out of four school children in the U.S. has vision problems, and 86% do not get their vision checked before age 12.

And a lot of kids cannot afford glasses.

The Fresh Air Fund has teamed up with OneSight again to make a difference in the lives of kids.

Read about it here: Fresh Air Vision

The Fresh Air Fund has been making a difference in the lives of children for a long long long time, and I'm proud to support them!

Google's header today, Morse Code, texting and Twitter

Google has an interesting header today, which is below:

Click on it and you'll see it's Samuel Morse's birthday - the inventor of Morse Code, and yes, that is Google spelled in Morse Code.

Morse Code is very similar to texting, except there is no graphic display -- it's all audio. I actually prefer Morse Code to testing personally, and the bizarre (to most under 25 years old) abbreviations used in texting are extremely similar to Morse Code which has always used lots of abbreviations.

Actually it's closer to Twitter I guess as Morse Code messages are typically broadcast.

73 OM and CUL,
(best wishes dude and see you later)

The Fresh Air Fund needs host families this summer

The Fresh Air Fund has been doing a great job with children forever (well, since 1877) and needs host families for the summer. I remember them from when I was a kid.

They take disadvantaged kids from New York City, and give them a vacation or perhaps show them a different world. The kids stay for two weeks in households in the Northeast US and Canada.

More info at their social media press release (that means more than just boring text).

Personal Mission Statement: If you know where you’re going . . .

Do you have a personal mission statement?

As Dumb Little Man says,  "If you know where you’re going, you’ll live a life of eager anticipation and joy."

Do you get so bogged down in the details of your work, your professional life, something you hopeful care about and have some passion about, that you lose or forget the big picture? A personal mission statement, a clear idea of where you are going in life and why, helps a lot.

The big picture -- it IS important.

Then again, maybe you just have a job like Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble and don't really care about it (nothing against Fred and Barney). From what I see about Fred and Barney, their personal mission statements wouldn't include much of anything about work but just family - nothing wrong with that. But I'd rather be into what I do professionally and perhaps I'm lucky that I am?

Dumb Little Man says it far better than I ever will. And no, this isn't any new age gobbledygook -- I'm not into that at all as regular readers know.

Oh yeah, and if you blog. hopefully that fits in somehow too . . .

Thanks to Guy Kawasaki for the heada up, and Stephen Northcutt for first introducing me to the concept of a Perrsonal Mission Statement.

Outsourcing/Delegation/Outtasking - How To Shave Your Head

Outsourcing/Delegation/Outtasking -- all similar and I have troubles with all of them.
Basically handing off work to someone else.

There are plenty of people willing to do stuff that takes me hours, for merely a few backs, and very happily.

I know many people also have this trouble as well, I think many bloggers especially as bloggers in general tend to be quite independent.

As an exercise in outsourcing, I've started the site Hair Loss Advice. The idea is that since I don't really care much about the site (although I do care about my hair, especially the thought of losing it!), it should be easy to "dip my toes into outsourcing."

Yes, I want the site to "not suck" - actually be quite good, and I'm hoping that I make enough money from ads to pay for the outsourcing, domain name, etc., but the main point is to outsource something!

So far, I'm outsourcing article research and writing to a couple of friends and a stay at home mom. Eventually I hope to outsource more, like SEO and who knows what else. Probably start using elance.com to find people as well.

How to Shave Your Head is an example of my success with outsourcing. I couldn't have done a better (or funnier yet still serious) job, and it cost me a couple of coffees. And my unemployed friend is happy as a clam to make a few bucks writing stuff.

Now eventually I hope to outsource more serious things in my business, but it's just "sticking my toes in the water."

Funny, even though I've held C-level positions, when it's Demopoulos Associates, i.e. Ted's Company, letting go of ANY control is tough!

And yes, I have shaved my head in the past

The Fresh Air Fund needs Summer Counselors

The Fresh Air Fund, which does wonderful work with children and has since 1877! is now accepting applications for counselors for this coming summer of '09.

They hire staff members with a wide range in some pretty amazing fields and are looking for people who love to work with children.

Some of the more interesting programs and classes they offer at their camps include environmental science, culinary arts, fashion design, orienteering, leadership, video editing, digital and dark room photography, ropes courses, nutrition and agriculture.

Interested, maybe even just a little? Intrigued?  Click below for details.
Fresh Air Fund Counselors

Web 2.0 Map must see

The Fresh Air Fund needs help

The Fresh Air Fund has been doing great work with inner-city kids since at least I've been a kid! And they depend on donations from people like us . . .

In their words:

Your year-end gift will allow us to invite even more children to experience Fresh Air summers full of learning, fun and new friends. Thank you so much for your generous support. Our entire Fresh Air Fund family wishes you all the best this season.

Donate online now

The Fresh Air Fund is an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Nearly 10,000 New York City children enjoy free Fresh Air Fund programs annually. In 2008, close to 5,000 children visited volunteer host families in suburbs and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada. 3,000 children also attended five Fresh Air camps on a 2,300-acre site in Fishkill, New York. The Fund’s year-round camping program serves an additional 2,000 young people each year.

Blog Only - Or Blog and Website?

There is a trend to have a blog only instead of a Web site and a blog, although that is certainly not for everyone or every organization. Most traditional businesses are expected to and should have a Web site. Could you image going to Walmart's site online and only finding a blog? Probably not. Then again, if I went to my auto mechanic's site and found a blog with hours, directions, and other info in the sidebars, and a post on seasonal car care tips, that would work extremely well.

Here are two examples of people who would just start a blog if they started anew. Guy Kawasaki, has mentioned that if he did it all over he would just start a blog, and in the sidebars of his blog he would have links to all the "brochure type" and other information he has on his website. He almost never updates his website, but he updates his blog almost daily. Also Michael McLaughlin, who is the co-author of "Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants," started both a website and a blog to promote his book but if he did it again, he also would just start a blog.

Most companies however will need a Web site, perhaps even more than one. Most people are familiar with traditional Web sites, and that's what they expect to find. Also Web sites are better than blogs for many purposes, for example a retailer who has many different products available, and sites that contain primarily "evergreen" material that is rarely updated or added to.

Me personally? I am keeping my website as well as my blog. Traditionally I have some very large corporate clients, some big Fortune 500 companies, and they certainly expect and understand websites very well. That said, when considering engaging me for a project, they almost always find my blog and enjoy looking at it and getting to know me a little bit before they contact me.

And for over 100 more tips on successful blogging, I invite you to grab your free copy of my ebook Secrets of Successful Blogging at http://www.secretsofsuccessfulblogging.com