There are magazines, books, and online advertising promoting “the best” home based businesses. It is mind boggling to digest it all and too often we think “scam” when looking at these options. The best way to choose a home based business is to get to know someone who is already in involved and to use the products. This article will focus on the importance of the relationship side of home based businesses.Some of the most successful people who are making millions of dollars actually toured the plants and met the presidents of ten to twenty companies before making their final decision. The beginner doesn’t have to take it to that extreme, but will do well by forming a personal relationship with a business member who serves as a mentor. A duplicatable business system is ideal for working out of the home. The team member/mentor should be able to explain the process of duplication.The rule of thumb is to understand that people respond to people. The product is the reason to be in business but it is secondary to the seller’s knowledge, passion, and ability to communicate with rapport.Here is a simple check list to use when choosing a home based business:How comfortable are you with your potential team member who is working with you?Do you feel the potential team member just wants to sign you up or establish a long term relationship with you?Are your questions answered with enthusiasm or with irritation?Has the potential team member provided a summary of the duplicatable process or does it sound as if there is a complicated training system?Does your potential team member make time to talk to you?Before signing up with a company, it is important to feel comfortable with the people are who teaming up with you. The focus of most home based businesses is to be in business for yourself, but not by yourself. The actions of the group should prove beneficial for all involved.

Finding home based business ideas for moms isn’t a difficult task. With a quick online search, you can end up with thousands of different ideas. Some of them will be great whereas some won’t even make any sense. In order to determine which ideas are going to be the best fit for you, it is critical that you create some type of sorting or filtering process. This will not only allow you to find the best opportunities but also quickly sort out the options that aren’t compatible with what you are looking for. Here is a quick look at some of the most common variables that are used to find the best home based business ideas for moms.1. FlexibilitySome moms want to find a home based business that will give them the flexibility to choose when they work, whereas others have a specific schedule or time-frame to follow. If you are looking for an opportunity that will only require you to work certain hours, such as when your kids are at school, then an opportunity like opening a small day care could be a good option. On the other hand, if you need more flexibility during the day, then working online as a freelancer or as your own boss might be a better choice because you can not only work during your free daytime hours, but can also work in the evening. As a busy mom, the need for either flexibility or structure can be a great way to quickly eliminate opportunities that don’t fit your lifestyle.2. InvestmentThe initial investment for home based business ideas for moms can vary widely depending on what you choose. Some can be started with little more than a computer and internet connection. On the other hand, some opportunities can cost thousands to get started. Requiring a smaller initial investment doesn’t necessarily mean that one opportunity is inherently better than another, however it can be a factor that limits what businesses ideas can be considered.3. Income PotentialIncome potential provided by home based business ideas for moms is a very important element to consider. As a mom, you might be looking into home based business opportunities simply to generate some extra income to pay for a family vacation or you might be looking at opportunities that will allow you to create a thriving long-term business. By looking at the income potential, it will be easier to choose a business opportunity that meets your needs. If you want a full-time income, then you don’t need to even look at opportunities that will be capped at a few hundred dollars per week.When deciding which home based business ideas for moms are right for you, it is important follow a set of criteria that will help you identify which opportunities will meet your needs and which will not. There are a wide variety of different variables that can use including flexibility, investment, and income potential. All three of these criteria can help you quickly filter out any opportunities that will not meet your basic needs, while helping you identify the ones that will.

One of the biggest mistakes that the home business entrepreneur makes is to build their home based business around one product or service. There is an old saying; don’t put all your eggs into one basket. How does that apply to the person building an in home business?More income sources simply means’ more security for you the business owner. Personally, I would rather have a mediocre income from ten income sources than a large income from one income source. If one of my ten income streams takes a hit and your one income stream takes a hit, guess what. I still have nine income streams and you have, you guessed it, none! Find out what successful people are doing and do the same. The top income earners in the home based business industry all have one thing in common, multiple income streams.Building an online in home business is the perfect place for a multiple income stream. First, let’s answer the question, why have more than one income streams? As we stated above, very simply; what happens if your one income stream dries up? Well, obviously you are out of income. So many things change so swiftly in the business world today. So it’s a good idea’s to protect yourself by having multiple income streams in your home based business.Secondly; it’s easy to do and to manage if you are using the right system to build your in home business. With the computer programs that are available today it is easy to manage multiple businesses and projects. More importantly is having the right home based business system to follow. A good proven system will have all this set up for you. All you will need to do is follow instructions.As stated above, a good system will have multiple income streams for you to tap into already in place. Make sure you pick a system for your online business that is networking with solid, reputable companies that pays their affiliates well and on time. These types of businesses will allow and even encourage you to grow your in home business. Systems that network with these types of businesses will have a solid support network available to you 24/7.So, do some investigating of the home based business system before you sign the dotted line. Make sure the items listed above are in place before jumping in. Ask questions and make sure you check out the companies the system is affiliated with. Follow this link for information on just such a system.For more information on proven and successful Home Based Businesses go to, http://www.EZIncomeNow.com.

LET’S BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING
An artist once said, “To paint the perfect painting, first live the perfect life, and then just paint naturally.” The message here in your new found career as a real estate investor might be translated like this: “In order to make the perfect real estate investments, first live the perfect real estate investor’s life, and then just invest naturally.”

Notice the emphasis here is on living the kind of life, if not perfect, then at least the kind that is most appropriate to the activity you intend to pursue. Another way to look at this is to say those who are most successful are those who already are living most successfully. Success breeds success. If you’re going to play the part, you should already be living the part. A lot of how successful you’re going to become is based on how successful you already appear to be. There’s still a lot of truth in the old-fashioned idea that, to get a new job, first go out and buy yourself a new suit.

If you don’t communicate to the world that you’re already successful (even if you’re not there yet), then you at least need to communicate to the world that you’re already in business. How you do that is outlined in my text entitled “100% Financing When Buying Real Estate.”

BE A SEASONED REAL ESTATE INVESTOR RIGHT FROM THE START
At the moment you may very well be working full-time (40-50 hours per week) for somebody else. You may be working overtime, or even two jobs, just to be able to pay all your bills. So right from the beginning you don’t have much time to spend as a real estate investor. Believe it or not, this puts you in exactly the same “shape” as the most successful investors! As you can well believe, the whole idea of becoming emmensely successful is to be able to spend most of your time (40-50 hours per week) doing something else. Like enjoying yourself, partaking more in family life, or traveling extensively for pleasure. So your task at hand is to replace your current full-time job with forthcoming full-time pleasure, and in the meantime live just like a successful real estate investor does.

The successful, or seasoned, investor in real estate spends his or her minimum investing time in the most productive ways possible-just like you should. This seasoned professional has all the knowledge, all the tools, and all the experience needed to invest profitably and successfully. The very reason why you’re reading this text is to acquire the same knowledge that most of these others have only gained through experience. Hence, this is a shortcut to success as a real estate investor. You’ll acquire the knowledge you need in just a few weeks, instead of several years. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll easily be able to acquire the right tools, and your first experience should be positive. After that, it should become even more so, building your confidence as you experience continued success based on the knowledge you acquire right here, right now.

The first thing to do then is to act the part of a seasoned real estate investor. An important part of that is having the knowledge-which you are acquiring-about creative real estate financing, as, say for example, “100% Financing When Buying Real Estate.” My real estate investment course teaches you many ways to do exactly that, and you should review this material often as you begin and continue to invest in income producing real estate.

One of the most important parts of this material that you should begin immediately to absorb, and review continuously until you’ve mastered all the terms, in the glossary of my text, “100% Financing When Buying Real Estate.” The first thing anyone needs to learn when taking on a new role in life is the language of that role and/or that career. Ask any Shakespearean actor, for example. Thus the sooner you learn the lingo of real estate investing, the sooner you can present yourself as a seasoned real estate investor. So please be sure to purchase my text entitled, “100% Financing When Buying Real Estate.”

The United Nations does it. Governments do it. Companies do it. Fund managers do it. Millions of ordinary working people – from business owners to factory workers – do it. Housewives do it. Even farmers and children do it.

‘It’ here is investing: the science and art of creating, protecting and enhancing your wealth in the financial markets. This article introduces some of the most important concerns in the world of investment.

Let’s start with your objectives. While clearly the goal is to make more money, there are 3 specific reasons institutions, professionals and retail investors (people like you and me) invest:

For Security, ie for protection against inflation or market crashes
For Income, ie to receive regular income from their investments
For Growth, ie for long-term growth in the value of their investments
Investments are generally structured to focus on one or other of these objectives, and investment professionals (such as fund managers) spend a lot of time balancing these competing objectives. With a little bit of education and time, you can do almost the same thing yourself.

One of the first questions to ask yourself is how much risk you’re comfortable with. To put it more plainly: how much money are you prepared to lose? Your risk tolerance level depends on your personality, experiences, number of dependents, age, level of financial knowledge and several other factors. Investment advisors measure your risk tolerance level so they can classify you by risk profile (eg, ‘Conservative’, ‘Moderate’, ‘Aggressive’) and recommend the appropriate investment portfolio (explained below).

However, understanding your personal risk tolerance level is necessary for you too, especially with something as important as your own money. Your investments should be a source of comfort, not pain. Nobody can guarantee you’ll make a profit; even the most sensible investment decisions can turn against you; there are always ‘good years’ and ‘bad years’. You may lose part or all of your investment so always invest only what you are prepared to lose.

At some point you’ll want to withdraw some or all of your investment funds. When is that point likely to be: in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years or 25 years? Clearly, you’ll want an investment that allows you to withdraw at least part of your funds at this point. Your investment timeframe – short-term, medium-term or long-term – will often determine what kinds of investments you can go for and what kinds of returns to expect.

All investments involve a degree of risk. One of the ‘golden rules’ of investing is that reward is related to risk: the higher the reward you want, the higher the risk you have to take. Different investments can come with very different levels of risk (and associated reward); it’s important that you appreciate the risks associated with any investment you’re planning to make. There’s no such thing as a risk-free investment, and your bank deposits are no exception. Firstly, while Singapore bank deposits are rightly considered very safe, banks in other countries have failed before and continue to fail. More importantly, in 2010 the highest interest rate on Singapore dollar deposits up to $10,000 was 0.375%, while the average inflation rate from Jan-Nov 2010 was 2.66%. You were losing money just by leaving your savings in the bank.

Today, there are many, many types of investments (‘asset classes’) available. Some – such as bank deposits, stocks (shares) and unit trusts – you’re already familiar with, but there are several others you should be aware of. Some of the most common ones:

Bank Deposits
Shares
Investment-Linked Product1
Unit Trusts2
ETFs3
Gold4
1 An Investment-Linked Product (ILP) is an insurance plan that combines protection and investment. ILPs main advantage is that they offer life insurance.

2 A Unit Trust is a pool of money professionally managed according to a specific, long-term management objective (eg, a unit trust may invest in well-known companies all over the world to try to provide a balance of high returns and diversification). The main advantage of unit trusts is that you don’t have to pay brokers’ commissions.

3 An ETF or Exchange-Traded Fund comes in many different forms: for example, there are equity ETFs that hold, or track the performance of, a basket of stocks (eg Singapore, emerging economies); commodity ETFs that hold, or track the price of, a single commodity or basket of commodities (eg Silver, metals); and currency ETFs that track a major currency or basket of currencies (eg Euro). ETFs offer two main advantages: they trade like shares (on stock exchanges such as the SGX) and typically come with very low management fees.

The main difference between ETFs and Unit Trusts is that ETFs are publicly-traded assets while Unit Trusts are privately-traded assets, meaning that you can buy and sell them yourself anytime during market hours.

4 ‘Gold’ here refers to gold bullion, certificates of ownership or gold savings accounts. However, note that you can invest in gold in many other ways, including gold ETFs, gold Unit Trusts; and shares in gold mining companies.

With the advent of the Internet and online brokers, there are so many investment alternatives available today that even a beginner investor with $5,000 to invest can find several investment options suited to her objectives, risk profile and timeframe.

Diversification basically means trying to reduce risk by making a variety of investments, ie investing your money in multiple companies, industries and countries (and as your financial knowledge and wealth grows, in different ‘asset classes’ – cash, stocks, ETFs, commodities such as gold and silver, etc). This collection of investments is termed your Investment Portfolio.

Some level of diversification is important because in times of crisis, similar investments tend to behave similarly. Two of the best examples in recent history are the Singapore stock market crashes of late-2008/early-2009, during the US ‘Subprime’ crisis, and 1997, during the ‘Asian Financial Crisis’, when the price of large numbers of stocks plunged. ‘Diversifying’ by investing in different stocks wouldn’t have helped you very much on these occasions.

The concept and power of compounding are best explained by example. Assume we have 3 investments: the first returns 0.25% a year; the second returns 5% a year; and the third returns 10% a year. For each investment, we compare 2 scenarios:

Without compounding, ie the annual interest is taken out of the account.
With compounding, ie the annual interest is left (re-invested) in the account.
Let’s look at the returns over 25 years for all 3 investments, assuming we start off with $10,000 in Year 0:

With 0.25% return a year, your investment will grow to $10,625 after 25 years without compounding; your investment becomes $10,644 after 25 years with compounding.

With 5% return a year, your investment will grow to $22,500 after 25 years without compounding; your investment becomes $33,864 after 25 years with compounding.

With 10% return a year, your investment will grow to $35,000 after 25 years without compounding; your investment becomes $108,347 after 25 years with compounding.
This shows the dramatic effects of both higher returns and compounding: 10% annual returns coupled with 25 years of compounding will return you more than 10 times your initial investment. And 10% returns are by no means unrealistic: educated investors who actively manage their portfolio themselves and practise diversification can achieve even higher returns, even with some losing years.

People of all ages and backgrounds need practical and customised guidance in developing their financial knowledge and skills in order to reach their financial goals. In this article we’ve tried to describe in simple terms some of the most important concepts and principles you need to understand on this journey.

I hope you find the following information on Legal Secretarial/PA jobs useful.

THE ROLE

Legal secretaries assist in all aspects of running a law firm. The legal secretaries¡¦ jobs can include basic tasks such as word processing, audio-typing and dealing with general clerical work. Some legal secretary work can include meeting clients, arranging meeting and some even attend court or police cells.

Legal Secretary jobs can incorporate all areas of law – from criminal and civil law to property, family, corporate, private client and banking.

SKILLS and INTERESTS

If you are looking for a Legal Secretary job you should:

Have an interest in law

Have excellent secretarial skills

Be PC literate

Be accurate and methodical

Be discreet when dealing with confidential information

Have a good standard of English, spelling and grammar

Work well under pressure and be good a meeting deadlines

Of course, a polite friendly manner helps!

A mix of these skills would provide a solid foundation for anyone looking for jobs as a legal secretary

Click here for Legal Secretary jobs

QUALIFICATIONS

There are no formal qualifications to becoming a Legal Secretary, athough a high standard of general education is required. To become a Legal Secretary office and administration experience is useful as is some existing knowledge of the law.

Career Development

Employers often offer on the job training. There are different pathways that lead to legal secretarial qualifications:

** The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PA¡¦s

The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PA¡¦s offer a diploma that¡¦s has been recognised as the most comprehensive qualification for Legal Secretaries. The diploma is extremely useful if you are looking for jobs as a Legal Secretary. The syllabus for the general diploma is divided into five main units:

Outline of the English Legal System

Outlines of the Law of Contract and the Law of Tort

Conveyancing and an outline of Land Law

Civil Litigation

Succession (Wills, Probate and Administration)

The Institute of Legal Secretaries and PA¡¦s also offers courses for Legal Secretaries who would like to specialise in one are of law.

The subjects covered are:

- Civil Litigation

- Company and Corporate Law

- Conveyancing

- Criminal Law and Practice

- Matrimonial Law and Family Practice Succession

Click here for Institute Of Legal Secretaries Website and further information: http://www.institutelegalsecretaries.com

** ILEX Legal Secretaries Certificate & Diploma

ILEX offer a Legal Secretaries Certificate (Level 2) and a Legal Secretaries Diploma (Level 3)

The ILEX Paralegal Programmes (ILEXPP) for Legal Secretaries are now considered the benchmark for those aspiring to or working in a legal environment as secretaries or personal assistants. Reflecting the National Standards in Administration, the programmes offer: a flexible route,
no entry requirements (although a Grade C or above in English Language GCSE is desirable),
a choice of when and where to study, task based assignments which are all accompanied by up to date training manuals.”

The ILEX Legal Secretaries Certificate covers the following areas:

Legal Word Processing

Administration in the Legal Environment

Communication Skills in the Legal Environment

Information Processing in the Legal Environment

The ILEX Legal Secretaries Diploma covers the following areas:

Advanced Legal Word Processing

Advanced Administration in the Legal Environment

Advanced Communication Skills in the Legal Environment

Advanced Information Processing in the Legal Environment

Click here for ILEXPP Website and further information on the ILEX Tutorial (Training to be a Legal Secretary) Web pages

** OCR (RSA) Legal Word Processing

OCR(RSA)offers specialised qualifications in legal text and legal word processing. The course is for those with previous word processing experience who wish to specialise in legal work. This programme is ideal for those who are in employment or wish to gain employment in the legal sector. You will be taught about the production of a range of documents in a legal context. Legal styles and formats. Legal terminology and English grammar are also covered
Legal Text Processing is part of the OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA) suite of qualifications in text processing which are widely recognised by employers as benchmark qualifications in text processing.

Candidates who are successful in achieving accreditation will be able to extend their range of text processing skills at intermediate level and progress to different optional units within the suite of units at Level 2 or to progress to the OCR Text Processing Advanced (Level 3) qualification.

Legal Secretaries work in all areas of law from solicitors offices, barristers chambers through to law courts, police stations and within in house legal teams. It is possible to start as a legal secretary and work towards becoming a legal executive, paralegal or a licensed conveyancer. You could even study for a law degree.