Tempest7: Blogger

Holiday Marketing

The holiday marketing should start to pick up soon. This is usually an interesting time as retailers viciously battle. I ran across this little piece by Starbucks today. I thought it was cute, I'm not a coffee drinker but I do like Starbucks. Ever since Wendy gave me the skyline mug from Vancouver I've developed into a collector. If you're traveling about and you happen to drop by a Starbucks think of me.

I remember meeting up with Yoshiro to make Rui's birthday video at the Starbucks near Yonge and Bloor. That's when I first noticed all the international students taking English lessons. I've applied the model directly to my life now in Hong Kong since Starbucks is both a comfortable place and has followed the precepts of the original chain. What I found in Hong Kong is that most places will try to force you out. They're looking for a high turn-over to maximize their sales. But this has really turned me off. I suppose if all places are like this and you don't really have a choice then you'll learn to accept it. As a good supplement to my income I've been tutoring about once a week at Starbucks. I might just form a caffeine addiction.

There's another source or revenue picking up for me, and that is teaching at Reader ship. I had a couple of extra classes added in and I've been covering for teachers that happen to be sick. I don't know how it eats into Phoebe's profit margin but the teachers are paid fairly well at Reader ship. It is tough work but I appreciate how she looks after the teachers, it seems that kind of mentality is really lacking in Hong Kong. I notice way too many unhappy workers here.

But, from what people tell me, the unhappy workers are waiting for Chinese New years to change jobs. I have just been too lazy to apply for a new job. Also some of you know that I've been speaking with a few locals about a different project. Since there are few job openings at this time of the year I really need to make sure I can survive until January. The good thing is that I'm slowly improving on my Microsoft Excel skills. I haven't really found a financial planning program that works for me so I can only depend on my custom made excel spreadsheets. Since I'm a database guy this was sort of tricky to get use to. I try to separate all my data so that I can use it to calculate my total assets, liabilities, net income, and do a basic acid-test ratio for each month. I do funny formulas to make flexible estimates based on historical data I input. My basic cash-flow spreadsheet is starting to look like a program. Since Microsoft Money 2006 keeps crashing on me I've just installed Quicken 2006. I don't really like it. Maybe because I'm not use to it so I'll have to review it again once I get it actually to do what I want it to do. The main thing is that I need to depend on my spreadsheets to keep me inline this holiday season. It is nice to spend money, but it is critical to do that cash-flow analysis to know where it will land you post December.

I passed by TST/Harbour City on my way home last night (vai Star Ferry). Oh it is really beautiful. They did a wonderful job with the lights. Ada keeps telling me the displays in Hong Kong are the best during Christmas. I have to admit they are beautiful and impressive. But, I miss seeing the snow. There's something missing about Christmas displays when there isn't snow on the ground. I've picked up a touch of the holiday blues. I'll be go out to Volar again this weekend with Tiff and Priscilla, hopefully that will help.

posted by Tempest7 @ 12:07