However, few of us are prepared for the kind of stress business owners often experience. If you’re a startup owner, you may be struggling to keep your stress levels under control. Since the success of your business hinges upon your mental well being and ability to do your job, you have to learn how to manage and minimize the stressors in your life.

This isn’t always easy, but it can be done. Here are a few tips to help you stay sane in the crazy world of business ownership:

• Make prioritizing tasks a priority – You probably have what seems like hundreds of things on your agenda each day, and each of those things probably seems important to you. However, it’s crucial that you take a step back and focus on doing what needs to be done right away. It’s not a mistake to put some things on the backburner. You can get those things done when you have some extra time or you can delegate non-essential tasks to your employees. Trying to do more than you can realistically handle is a recipe for stress.

• Don’t forget about your health – Your ability to do well as a business owner depends on your mental and physical health. So, eat healthy, exercise often, and spend time doing non-work-related things that you enjoy. Keeping yourself healthy will allow you to be better equipped to deal with stress and the challenges of your demanding job.

• Don’t lose sight of the big picture – Things will go wrong. You and your employees will make mistakes. Unless something happens that seriously threatens the health of your business, don’t sweat the small stuff. You’ll have a much easier time if you can focus on the big picture, take mistakes with a grain of salt, and learn from everything that goes wrong.

• Figure out ways to make your job easier – Research and invest in software that will help make your job and life easier. If your budget allows for it, consider hiring an assistant to help you with all the paperwork, data entry, reporting, and correspondence associated with your job. Next time you go on a business trip, consider flying on a jet charter and skipping the chaotic and unpleasant experience at the airport. Do what you can to lighten your load and make things simpler. Eliminating all the stressors you possibly can makes a world of difference.

The foregoing article was a guest post by Logan. Logan is a guest blogger on the subjects of startup management, entrepreneur self-help, and the benefits of business travel on private jet charters.

*source of image: myhealthliving.com

Indeed, the unemployment problem of the Philippines can be remedied by job creation and employment generation by businesspersons and entrepreneurs.

That is why when AIESEC-University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman invited my blog Business Sphere to be one of its media partners, I immediately agreed. I know that AIESEC is also into leadership training, business opportunities seeking and management development for college students. I believe that entrepreneurial, leadership and business trainings must start from college, or even in high school.

What is AIESEC?

It is a global, non-political, independent, and not-for-profit organization run by students and recent graduates of institutions of higher learning. Its members are interested in world issues, leadership and management, and is present in 110 countries and territories with over 50,000 members.

In the Philippines, AIESEC UP Diliman formed in 1968, is the first local chapter of AIESEC in the Philippines.

The AIESEC Global Business Seminar in Manila

The AIESEC Global Business Seminar is an exclusive two-day event for top-notch university students and student leaders in Metro Manila.

The seminar is limited to 150 students to gain insights on personal branding as well as to learn how to achieve global impact through business. It is scheduled on February 18 & 25, 2012.

The seminar is aimed at providing the students with the fundamental and practical knowledge necessary for business starters. The participants will get first hand information from the speakers who are noted for being pioneers and leaders in their respective fields.

For more information, you can visit the AIESEC Global Business Seminar on this site: agbs2012.weebly.com

This question popped up into my mind today as I think of the recent crisis in the Philippine government last week that has brought untold repercussions in  public governance and the Filipinos in general. 

The crisis was the result of the standoff between the two co-equal and independent branches of government – the Executive Department and the Supreme Court.

It happened when the country’s former President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, petitioned the Supreme Court to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against the Department of Justice for her to travel abroad to seek medical treatment.

Arroyo could not go abroad because of the pending “WatchList order” by the Department of Justice for her, even though at that time, no criminal cases were filed against her in court.

President Benigno Aquino, through his alter ego Secretary of Justice Leila de Lima, appeared to have defied the TRO issued by the Supreme Court, on the flimsy excuse that her department has not yet received the written order, though everybody knew about it, as it was broadcast in all the mass media.

Later, de Lima changed her tune, saying that the government would be filing a motion for reconsideration on the TRO. In truth, the government had been defying the Supreme Court order, and did everything to ensure that Arroyo could not leave the country.

Then the government’s Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Jesse Robredo, another alter ego of the President, said he was asking the legal experts so that in case of conflicting orders from the Supreme Court and the Secretary of Justice, he would know whose orders should be obeyed.

Of course, it is elementary that the order of the Supreme Court interpreting the law, takes precedence over other orders, and that it must be obeyed. That is the basic principle in a democratic and republican state. In fact, any diligent second year law student know this principle.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Secretaries de Lima and Robredo, under President Aquino, were setting a bad example to the citizens and creating dangerous precedents in not obeying court orders even from the Supreme Court.

This incident has led me to ask the oft-repeated question: Is Leadership a myth?

A country’s development (or the company’s success) is dependent on the success of its leader. On the other hand, the success of the leader depends on the good, competent, experienced followers and subordinates who constitute his management team.

Thus, a country’s success – economic development, good peace and order, vibrant investment climate, employment opportunities, improvement in the quality of life of the people, depends on firm and effective leadership and astute management of its resources – human, land, capital, entrepreneurship, and sound public governance.

Therefore, leadership is NOT a myth. It is important in governing a country like the Philippines.

However, in the case of President Aquino, without good, experienced, competent, and committed cabinet secretaries and without the people who follow him, leadership cannot be effective.

For peace, development, and progress cannot proceed without the rule of law, or if the rule of law is not followed.

*source of image: sncsolutions.wordpress.com

Venue of the Philippine Blog Awards – Visayas is Silay City, Negros Occidental, to be held at the Dr. Jose C. Locsin Cultural and Civic Center.

The Dr. Jose C. Locsin Cultural and Civic Center is the first cultural center in the Philippines, and is older than the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in Manila.

Silay City is the seat of arts, culture and eco-tourism in Western Visayas. The Department of Tourism identified Silay as one of the 25 major tourist destinations in the Philippines.

The Philippine Blog Awards-Visayas is also sponsored by the City Government of Silay and other companies like AirPhil Express, Smart Communications and Nokia.

If you are a blogger and wants to attend this memorable activity, you can preregister here.

Well, here’s the advice from Paris Hilton, a 30-year-old American businesswoman, multi-millionaire socialite heiress, fashion icon, television and movie star.

In her book “Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chick Peek Behind the Pose”, Paris has the following advice, which are good quotes. I have included my own interpretation and comments after each quote.

On Branding Yourself.  Paris says: “I’m an actress, a brand, a business woman. I’m all kinds of stuff.”

What Paris means is that each of us must have our own individual identity, our own brand. This means we must package ourselves into what we want others to see us, to know us. This is important if we are to create our own reputation.

What is your brand? How do people see you – as a person, a unique individual, a blogger, businessman or woman, a wife or husband, a professional?

In addition, as Paris says, we must be “all kinds of stuff”. This means we must strive to be persons who know how to multi-task our roles, who have other skills, or know many things.

On Being Your Own Boss. Paris says: “The best thing about owning your own nightclub is that everything’s free and you can tell the DJ to play whatever you want.”

Here, Paris is giving us business advice on having our own business. Having our own business means we are our own boss. We can tell our staff to do things for us, delegate responsibilities,  maximize our time, resources and profit.

On Friendship. Paris says: “I only want friends who are there for me like I’m there for them. Otherwise, it’s too painful.”

This is very important. We must be careful to select real friends, true friends who will stay for us and with us through thick or thin. Or as Paris says, friends who are there for us. But we should also be true to our friends, and we must be for our friends as well.

This means we don’t need fair weather friends, – those people who are with us only when the going is well. And leave us at first opportunity when we are of no use to them. The world is full of such opportunistic people.

On Creating First Impressions: Paris says: “Trust me, people act differently toward you when you’ve got jewelry on your head.”

What Paris probably meant is that we must try to look our best, to create a good impression. First impression counts.

It’s true, to look good, “having a jewelry on our head” makes all the difference. To have a good facial expression, to smile, to look pleasant, is important to project our image, our brand, our identity. It’s like having a jewelry on our head, figuratively speaking.

On Being Consistent.  Paris says: “You can see all these girls leaving a party at the end of the night and they look terrible … This is a huge mistake. People remember how you look when you leave as much as they remember how you look when you arrived.”

This means we must be consistent on how we look and on our outlook. This includes our job performance, our managing the business and tending the store, and the way we treat others – our friends, families, business associates, customers.

This means that whatever we do, we should strive for excellence, from beginning to end, since the ending is as important as the beginning.

As they say, all that begins well, ends well.

 *credit for image: Glenn Francis at en.wikipedia

“Dear members,

Today we have made the decision to close CMF Ads, with effect from late October 2011. This blog post is to explain why the site is closing, and what happens next.”

What Is CMF Ads?

As a member of CMF Ads for more than two years I, too, felt sad upon reading the announcement, just like the many blogger-members.

For those who don’t know what CMF Ads yet, it is an advertising firm for blogs where the advertiser-bloggers can have:

• Network Ads start at $0.30 for 10,000 impressions ($0.03 CPM).
• Firework Ads start at $1.00 for 50 unique clicks.
• Campaign Ads run for 30 days at a price set by the publisher.

At the same time, a blogger can also earn by being a publisher:

• Passive income with performance-based payments.
• Earnings go into your account – no need to keep topping up.
• Reinvest your earnings – buy ads and get your blog noticed.

Recession and Blog Advertising

It seems that recession, coupled with many members’ cutting down on expenses to advertise their blogs, has forced CMF Ads to close shop. As Ben Barden, CMF Ads creator and Admin says:

“Why the Closure?

For several months we have noticed a sharp decline in activity across the site. Many of our advertisers have simply stopped coming back.

We have had several attempts to bring the site back to life, such as Atomic Ads, but these have hardly been used. We have also noticed a big decrease in the amount of payments coming into the site. General site usage is also down.

There are always reasons for activity to decline, such as people going on holiday, having time off work or school, going back to work or school, going outside during the summer, and so on. However, there’s only so long you can come up with excuses. It’s reached the point where we can’t ignore it any longer.”

In closing, Ben has this to say:

“We understand that this will come as a disappointment to many of you, particularly if you’ve supported us since the early days. We really appreciate your support and would not have lasted this long if it had not been for you. CMF Ads is closing because we feel it has reached the end of its life, and we don’t want to drag it out any further.”

So Long CMF Ads!

I don’t want to say Goodbye to CMF Ads. Knowing Ben Barden, his expertise in web development, his experience in running an ad network and his love for it, I know he’ll soon  come back with a new advertising for blogs – better and more vibrant.

If you are presently employed, how would you know if the company you are working for is a good one?

In “A Great Place To Work: What Makes Some Employers Do Good (And Most So Bad)” Robert Levering gives five hints or indicators about a good company to work with, or the five things make for a good company. These are as follows:

1. A friendly place. Few of the companies had separate executive dining rooms, executive parking spaces and other perks that set ranks apart in a social hierarchy. People enjoyed each other company.

2. A minimum of politics. Management did not encourage politics by such acts as demoting or dismissing for what employees may perceive as personality conflicts rather than performance deficiencies.

3. You get a fair shake. Employees are treated fairly and not taken advantage of. Complaints are heard impartially and fully.

4. More than a job. Employees believe their work has meaning, and that they have responsibility and control over it. They feel free to criticize the actions of others without fear of retribution.

5. Like family. A caring, nurturing environment in which one’s personal concerns are important to others in the organization, engenders a lifelong career commitment by employees. Exuding a “We’re all in it together” spirit, god workplaces are often more productive and profitable than their competitors.

Does your company have the foregoing characteristics? Why or why not?

*source of image: happyfuturegroup.com

His immediate problem, as he told me, concerns his two new employees whom he called “lousy employees”. Francis said his two employees, a male and a female, always came in late for work, and don’t follow instructions.

Is there such a thing as a “lousy employee”?  Do you have under your employ “lousy” workers? Lousy is defined as “totally repulsive, or comtemptible, or miserably poor or inferior.”

This gets me thinking. If there are what we call lousy employees, could there be also lousy bosses or lousy managers and lousy employers?!

For if the employee is lousy, it may be because the employer who has hired him or her is also lousy. It takes two to tango, as the saying goes.

Going back to Francis. I suggested to him to explain exactly what he expects from his new employees. He should begin by assuming that his new employees know nothing about each task. He should make them understand exactly how the job should be done. This way, he won’t be faced later with the more difficult task of breaking their “lousy” habits.

After all, it is the job of the employer or manager to be prepared to teach the workers, especially the newly hired employees, punctuality, dependability, and most important, how to listen and follow instructions.

In the last analysis, a manager or employer must or manage by example. He should model the kind of behavior that he wish to see in his employees. He should be on time, work hard, and never break any of his own rules!

*source of image: ibnlive.in.com

I remember this management saying when I read in a newspaper today about the road in Japan which was devastated by the March 11, 2011 devastating earthquake. The highway was situated in Naka, Ibaraki prefecture, Japan, and was severely damaged because of the 7.2 quake.

However, a Japanese company restored the damaged section of the highway linking Tokyo and Ibaraki in just six (6) days. Yes, in only six days!

I then kept on thinking why countless other road projects in many countries of the world took many months to repair or rehabilitate. I know for a fact that the repair of just a small damaged portion of some roads or highways in some countries took six months to one year to finish

Where lies the difference? Is it due to graft and corruption? Is it due to the incompetence of some contractors?

Whatever the cause for the unreasonable delay in fixing a damaged road, management is a factor. For management is defined as getting things done through people. It is the art of using limited resources – time, money, organization, machines, the services of men, to accomplish an objective.

The principle that lies behind in fixing a road efficiently and effectively is the same principle that can be used in all other human endeavors – like running a bank, an organization, a small business, a job, a career, an event, or any other human activity.

Too often, we heard and witnessed a lot of business being closed, of companies going bankrupt, of firms in the red. The root cause of these problems is lack of management, or due to poor management.

The key to effective performance is to manage, and manage effectively and well. This principle applies to any human activity, be it in running a business, a family, a relationships, a school, or even in blogging.

But how do you manage? What is your management style?

* source of image: project-management-software.biz

Value of DMOZ listing

Business Sphere’s listing in DMOZ is significant because DMOZ is the internet’s largest directory system in the world, with over 3 million websites, and is maintained by human editors.

Thus, a website or blog listing in DMOZ can also be an important part of having a website rank well in Google, because Google uses DMOZ results in its own directory.

Business Sphere is worth $ 23,362.00

In addition, Business Sphere is now worth US $ 23,362.00 as valued by Website Shadow. com. On the other hand, Value The Website.com estimates Business Sphere’s worth to be $ 20,131.00.

A PR 3 Blog, Alexa’s Top 100,000 websites

Since September 2009, Business Sphere has been consistently included in Alexa’s Top 100,000 websites in the world, and has a Page Rank 3 from Google beginning December 31, 2009.

Business Sphere’s Top 10 Visitors by countries

Moreover, after 18 months, Business Sphere has a lot of visitors from many countries of the world. According to Google Analytics, Business Sphere’s Top 10 visitors for the last 30 days came from the following countries:

1.      United States              1,472

2.      Philippines                   1,347

3.      Australia                         344

4.      United Kingdom           192

5.      India                                 187

6.      Canada                             171

7.      Malaysia                           66

8.      Singapore                         64

9.      China                                  39

10.  Slovakia                             36

Thanks and Acknowledgment

On a personal note, I met a lot of bloggers and friends in the blogosphere. I want to thank my pretty friend Glady Tomulto of the noted blog Experience Negros.com for introducing me to blogging and Sheila Sultani, a popular blogger of the well-known blog The Ad Master, for giving me my blog avatar.