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March 24, 2009
MOTIVATIONAL BUSINESS KEYNOTE SPEAKER HELP IDENTIFY NEED FOR AFFORDABLE HEALTH INSURANCE
Working for an insurance company part time, I have gotten to see first hand this business, and the ins and outs of it. I have always been interested in becoming an insurance agent. I know that sounds kind of odd, but when I was a teenager, I went with my mother to her insurance agent's office and it really just seemed like a very classy job. To sit around and talk with people about their needs and to help them get what they need. Recently my company had a motivational business keynote speaker come in and speak to everyone. Normally, when they have great stuff like this going on, I usually wind up having a conflict in schedule and can't attend, but lucky for me I was able to go and hear this guy and I was really impressed. He was speaking mostly about affordable family health insurance, which he said is really on everyone's mind these days, and he talked about things that the agents and customer service representatives could do to help these people. He spoke specifically about seeing the needs of the client before they even know they have them, and the one way he said to help the clients is to watch who is not paying their bills on time. By doing this, he said, you can see who may be struggling financially and you can try to address this by down sizing their insurance, before you completely lose them as a customer. He said that many times when people are having financial difficulties they won't just come to you and say that they need more affordable family health insurance. He said they are more likely to be embarrassed about their financial difficulties and therefore they will just slip away quietly.
The speaker said that if you can help them before they cancel their policy or before they allow their policy to lapse, they will be extremely grateful to you and will probably be a customer for life. Identifying the need and helping your customers realize that there may be more affordable insurance options available to them, can make all the difference in their lives and in the quality of your business as well.
Posted by juliusp at 02:49 PM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2009
Going back to school
There are a lot of older people in some of my classes. In my biology class for instance there are three guys I think that are probably over 40 years old. I think it is really neat that they can afford and have the time to come back to school and get a degree in something that they want to pursue in order to get a job that they love.
As good as this scenario is though, there are so many people that are looking into continuing their education and going back to school for whatever reason and that really isn't an option for them. I know a few people who decided to go back to school and they still have jobs and children and responsibilities that stand in the way of being able to go to and from a classroom daily. That's why elearning has become so popular in the past few years.
The growth of elearning is tremendous and has helped parents and older adults especially (as well as younger adults) continue their education. The U.S. Dept. of Education has put a huge focus on elearning and it is turning to everyone's benefit.
Another popular thing for those who want to stay in their current job while at the same time move up the ranks for instance is online computer training. Online training allows a company to certify its employees or even renew an old certification. It also allows them to train for newer technology or procedures. There are a lot of people that have been with companies for years and the employers want to keep them with that company but they also need to make sure that they are up to date with the technology of today.
There was a turning point about ten years ago or so where a lot of companies switched to more technology based work and a lot of the workers needed to be trained and had to adapt to this change. Online training helps them do so while still being employed at the same time.
We have so many resources now and opportunities and it is up to us as employees or potential employees to take that next step and prepare ourselves for a job position. Once we get that job we also need to continue to stay on our toes and keep updated with everything going on to keep moving forward.
Posted by juliusp at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2009
Being Away from school
When I am at home I am the oldest child. I usually look after my younger siblings (ages 18, 12 and 10) and tend to worry, even when I don't have to. I think that is just part of being the oldest child. When I was at home before I left for college though I think I took a lot of stuff for granted.
When I needed someone to talk to that really knew me, I had three people (and my dad) to turn to. I could say anything I wanted without someone judging me or having to worry about what they would think. Even after we would fight or disagree, five minutes later we were over it and it was all forgotten.
And I always come home for holidays and I get to do stuff like carve pumpkins and decorate this Christmas tree, but at times I miss things that I never knew that I would. I miss looking for Halloween costumes with my younger siblings and playing tricks on my dad. My sister called to tell me about her barbie costume because i missed it this year and it was so sad to me. And I always get to do the Easter egg hunt, but I'm not always there to paint the eggs with everyone because our schedules are always so busy and I only get the weekend off so I don't get home until Friday night before. And my brother will talk about his basketball games and baseball games and my sister has gymnastics meets. I remember being home and dreading having to wake up early and drop them off or to watch their practices with my dad or go when he went to the other ones event. But now that I am gone I actually miss those things (I know weird right).
I remember when I was little my dad would tell us how lucky we are to have each other and we always played and hung out and fought, but I don't think we really realized how right he was. Obviously I see them all summer and we email and talk on the phone and I come home for breaks and it's like I never left (and now my other sister is in college too) but it still isn't always the same and I really do realize now how lucky I am. I see how close my dad is with his brothers and I can't wait to be older and have that relationship with my siblings too.
Posted by juliusp at 07:19 AM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2009
DEBT CONSOLIDATION AT TWENTY?
It seems that more and more young people are accumulating credit card debt.I just can't really understand why it is that credit card companies would offer a student, just struggling to get by, as much credit as they do. Are they intentionally setting them up for failure? Take my friend Beth, she started at school with 5 credit cards, and one of them was American Express and one was a Visa, which I really thought was just a debit card, but it turns out it was a credit card. Now, she blew through those cards really quick with living expenses and stuff for her room, etc. Now she is a sophomore at school and she has already had to go for credit counseling. When she went they basically told her that there is no way that she can truly afford the type of bills that she has run up and now her credit is shot and she has had to get a debt consolidation loan, just to try and pay these bills. When they sat with her and looked at her budget, even they were wondering why it is that the credit card companies gave her this much credit, but honestly, it doesn't surprise me. I even heard a news report about the whole thing and how the credit card companies actually make more money off the bad debt, than on those who have good credit and pay their bills in full every month. I guess it is no wonder that the economy in this country is so truly messed up. In a system where college kids with little to no income can get credit cards with high limits, do they really believe that we will even balance the budget.
Living above our means has become the American way, and unfortunately I personally believe that the only way to truly fix the system, is to move to a cash only system, by which there are absolutely no loans or credit cards. After all, you can't live above your means, if you have to pay cash for everything, can you?
Posted by juliusp at 08:38 AM | Comments (0)
March 04, 2009
looking_for_a_p
Posted by juliusp at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2009
real_estate
Posted by juliusp at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)