#2 Use Coupons More

For many things in life a coupon can be a great way to save a lot of money.  Grocery store coupons are usually small and not really worth it but there are plenty of big ticket coupons that save huge amounts of money, and these coupons can often be used with price matching to make for stellar results.  In this economy many businesses offer coupons and many of these coupons are just begging for you to come in the door.

My favorite coupons are the ones where you spend a set amount at a store and then receive a dollar amount off.  Even better is when you can simply print these as you like.  For example the other day Cabela’s sent me a coupon for $20 off of a $100 purchase.  It was a coupon that could basically be printed as many times as you like.  The key to these coupons is to first price match, to get the best deal, or buy the things that are really on sale to start out with.  I bought Ammo, they had a great deal on it and they had it in stock which is rare, add that with $20 off makes the best ammo deal.  Staples, and OfficeMax also send them out via email, sometimes even $20 off a $50 purchase.  I also get them in the mail from time to time.  And when you don’t have one you can often use Google to find a valid one online.  I often thought about how easy it would be to print out 100 of these and sell them to people who are ready to check out for half of the face value, what an easy way to make money.  The key to the best deals is to always sign up for their free email newsletters.  GoDaddy has so many good coupons that I never buy from them unless I use one.

The next coupons that I love are the restaurant ones.  Many restaurants want you to visit them, at least once, so they give away coupons.  Many are buy-one-get-one-free.  You simply go there, order two entries and only pay for one.  My favorite of these is a small burrito restaurant near my house called Moe’s.  It is nice and upscale, and they send me at least 4 coupons each month in various publications, on top of that the food and environment is awesome.  It gets even better, I can go online to the Az Clipper website, find their coupon and print as many out as I like, and they NEVER expire.  So awesome!

I receive a ton of great coupons in the mail, this is where I get most of the good restaurant deals.   But there is much more than just restaurants that do this, there are dentists, auto repair shops, car washes and much much more that will let you bring a coupon and get a huge discount.

Almost every publication that sends out print coupons also has a website where you can download and print unlimited coupons for free.  Az Clipper is one of the best, but it is only in Arizona.  SavvyShopper is another good publication with national reach, their coupons are located at couponclipper.com.   Money Mailer and ValPak are national companies that send out lots of coupons in one envelope, and you can search and print all the coupons.  You can even do this for areas you don’t live in, great for traveling!

Another interesting site that I like is called 8coupons.  Basically they gather up all the deals they can find, including online circulars and post them in one place.  You video a map of your location and click on the deals to see what is there.  It does not have all of the best local deals but has many of the national chain and online deals.  It also has ton’s of really dumb things like listing dollar menu items from McDonalds or Burger King as a deal alert, those are the prices everyday with no coupon needed.

For the person who eats out a lot these links and ideas can really save you a ton of money.  I know more than one person who does not even buy much food for their home, they eat out almost every meal because it just is cheaper.  It also saves me money on oil changes, car washes, bowling and much more.

Thanks for reading please click a link below to see the other 9 ways to save money in tough times…

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Almost everyone I know right now is concerned about ways to save money and I have had many people ask me about ways to help them to save money.   So I decided to write a list of 10 ways that I use to save money, these work well and help me live better for less.

Of course saving money is only part of the formula to making ends meet, earning more money and investing your money correctly are also two major parts.   I think that everyone should have a reserve equal to at least a few months of expenses…more on all of this in my other blog entries.

So here are 10 ways that I know that can really help your budget, help you save, and help you get ahead in the world.  On some of these I will tell you exactly who I do business with, most of them are local so if you don’t live in Arizona than you are out of luck.  This may be a bit long so I am going to post it as 10 separate entries.  Please read them all, Even if you only do a few of these things it could really help.

1.    Price match all your purchases.

Many companies out there are very willing to price match.  Most people know about this but very few ever use it.  Basically most stores buy from the same supply chain and have basically the same cost so when one store has a huge sale, even if they sell it at or near cost the other stores are still happy to have the business.  So all you need to do is find the best deal on an item that you want to buy, and then show proof of that deal to the store you actually plan to buy the item at.  This lets you get the best deal, but still buy from the store that gives you better service and quality.

If you have an android based smart phone you can use ShopSavvy, a free program that will scan the barcode of the items you plan to buy and show you the best deal, locally or online.  If the local deal is better than what you are paying now simply show the phone as the cash register and you will get the lower price, it has worked every time I have tried it.  If the online price is much lower then forgo the purchase for now and get it online because most stores don’t pricematch online ads. I know that other apps for other phones also exist.  But the best deals are usually found the old fashioned way, by checking your mail and getting the newspaper ads.

For me the BEST result that I have when I go to Wal-Mart and get groceries.  For many households groceries is one of their main expenses other than housing and taxes.  The grocery business is highly competitive.  Companies also do things where they have loss leaders, this is an item that “leads” their advertisement, and it is usually such a good deal that they are actually selling it at a loss.  They figure that people will buy these few items from them and stay to shop for the rest of their weekly grocery needs.  Here in Phoenix, there are at least 8 grocery stores that mail out weekly flyers.   So I just put these in a stack and take it with me when I go to Wal-Mart.  They all seem to take effect on Wednesdays, so that is when I shop.  So just follow a few simple rules and let the savings begin.  The item does not always need to be exact, just similar.  There is a grocery store called “Ranch Market” here in Phoenix.  Shopping there is terrible, they are messy, noisy, smelly and the food is not so fresh, but they have great advertised prices, often they are 1/5 the price of other places.  So I don’t shop there, I just take their ads to walmart, less than 200 yards from my house and get their higher quality and cleanlness for the ultra low price.  Today I bought over $20 in fruits and veggies and paid only $6.42.    I went on to price match doritos, sour cream and 5 other things for a total savings of over $30, while paying only $24.  That is a savings of over 50%.  Combine this with stocking up and you have a great way to save lots of money on food.

Price matching also allows you to buy things that are out of stock at the original company.  The other day one store did 32oz Gatorade for only 40 cents, a very good price, the problem is that they were out of stock after the second day, and they had a limit of only 5 per person.  Not a problem at Wal-Mart, they had plenty in stock and did not care about the limit.  It does not really go bad, so I bought enough for a 6 month supply.  At thanksgiving they did the same thing with 12-pack coke products, just $1.25.  I still have 30 unopened a month later.

On top of price matching you can use coupons, but personally I found that most coupons are not worth the time they take.  For me price matching is very simple.  I usually don’t prepare much, I don’t even look at the ads until I am at the Wal-mart, and then I only buy things that are on sale.  And I stock up on items that are on a huge sale. By doing these things I have found that I am able to save over 50% off of my grocery bill on average.  That comes down to $200 or more per month.

Thanks for reading please click a link below to see the other 9 ways to save money in tough times…

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I have been in the computer business for a very long time and one of the most common questions I have ever received was from people asking about how to take care of their laptops better.  Here is a list of some of the things I tell them.  With this list you should get many more years of life from your laptop.

I have mostly gathered this list from trying to fix many broken laptops and looking at why they are broken, and how it was caused.  Yes you do need to baby them a bit, but not too much.

The screen.

The screen is a very high tech, very thin and fragile thing.  Of course we have all seen the guy who drops his laptop and cracks the screen, that can not always be avoided but there are many other things that cause damage to the screen.

The first one is the keyboard, when you close the screen on most laptops made before 2008 the screen touches the keyboard.  This was not a problem years and years ago because the screens were matte but with the shiny polish that most modern screens have the oil from your skin is transferred from your hand to your keyboard and then to the screen, and it burns little holes in the polish, causing damage forever.  In 2008 it seems that laptop designers noticed this and most laptops moved the screen farther from the keyboard, so they don’t touch.  To fix this many other makers would give you a cloth to put between the screen and the keyboard.  If you don’t have one you can make one yourself out of any semi rigid cloth.

The next common problem is the fact that the screen is not too strong and that pressure can hurt it if it is applied in enough force in one place.  Many people hold their laptops when closed by putting their thumb on the screen and then holding it like a book.  This causes a lot of pressure in a very small area.  I have had at least 5 clients crack their screen this way, and countless others cause damage to the backlight causing a region of their screen to be much darker than the rest.  Please avoid this, try to always hold the laptop with two hands, and when you can’t then please remember to always put your thumb on the bottom side of the laptop so that your firngers will be on the screen side and spread out the force.

The next common problem of long term use is a weak hinge.  This is very annoying because the screen does not stay in place and moves around when you don’t want it to.  This is often caused by people twisting their screen, usually they have a bad habit of opening and closing their screen with one hand, and they do it on one side of the screen.  Just like putting on and off glasses, over time this makes them twisted and loose.  The solution is simple, just open and close it from the middle, or use two hands.  Over a few years this habit will make a huge difference.  The other main reason that a hinge gets loose or broken is when people close their laptop when something is inside.  People create the bad habit of putting ink pens at the bottom of the screen, or they may put it in their bag and a wire gets in the wrong place.

The last screen problem I will talk about is the problem of too much weight.  Be sure to keep your laptop in a nice protected bag, and then don’t stack too much weight on this bag, it is best to always stand your laptop bag up on edge when moving it, and be sure to not pack things in the bag that could focus the pressure on the screen.  One major cause of this problem is the power adapter, it has this large brick like AC/DC converter that you lug around.  You put the laptop in the bag, then the converter on top of it and bam, enough pressure and it damages your screen.  The solution is to always put your laptop in the bag in such a way that the bottom of the laptop is towards the converter.

The Battery and power system

The largest failure of laptops seems to be the battery and power system.  Some simple good habits can really extend the life of your laptop.

First the battery.  Laptop batteries (And cell phone batteries) are Lithium Ion and this battery type does not form a “Memory” like the older NiMH batteries of the past.  You do not need to drain them completly to keep them working at full power, in fact this damages them.  In fact is it best to never let them get under 10% full.  Try to keep them plugged in as much as you can.  Of course laptop makers don’t want you to know this, they make a large amount of money off of selling new batteries, so they program the laptop to try to totally discharge the battery.  This is done with “Stand By” (Aka “Sleep”) mode in windows.  What stand by does is to turn off most everything in the computer and just use a little power to run the RAM.  The allows you to “boot” up in a matter of a second and start using your laptop.  It is a great idea in concept, allowing you to hit a button and be up and running.  You will know your computer is in stand by when the power light is flashing.  The problem is that the default configuration for every laptop I have seen, and the way that windows itself installs the operating system is to have your computer go to stand by for everything, even when you hit the power switch.  This makes you think that you turned off your laptop and you put it away.  Then when you open it up the next day to use it you find out that your battery is totally dead, your battery totally discharged.  Do this a dozen or so times and you just killed your battery.  The solution is to go to windows power options and make it turn off your computer when you hit the power button.  There is another great feature in windows called hibernate.  This feature takes your current info that is in RAM, saves it to the hard drive, and then turns off the computer.  When you turn it on it simply reloads this saved data.  It takes about 10 seconds to load.  I love it and make it the default setting on every computer I work on or own.  Here are the power settings that I use.

You will also notice that I have it do nothing when I close the screen.  I do this because when I move from one location to another in my house I just close the screen and don’t want it to do anything to mess up what I am working on.  I have a good habit of always hitting the power button before I turn it off.

I live in Arizona and another problem that I have seen is when people leave their laptop in their car during the day.  It it hot enough outside, but air trapped in the car can climb to over 170 degrees, baking your laptop.  Most of your laptop is ok with this, except for the chemicals in your battery.  It does not do major damage just once but over time it can really add up to a dead battery.  I have no experience with cold, but I doubt it would be very good for the LCD screen.

The next huge problem is the jack where the power plug goes into.  They are just a small plastic thing, usually just soldered on to the motherboard, or, if you are lucky, ran to the motherboard with a wire.  The problem is that you have this wire sticking out of them, bump the wire, pull on the wire, or just use it a lot and it breaks inside the laptop.  It is a difficult and costly repair job.  Some laptops have a much better design than others, but most will still fail with a huge pull to the wire.  My solution to this is that I never move the laptop when the plug is plugged in.  I just unplug it, move the laptop, then plug it in again after I moved it.  I do this almost every time I get up.  If the kids enter the room I unplug it, just in case.  And I now only like to use laptops that plug in on the side.  When you plug into the back it is just too hard to use it on your lap in bed without pushing against the back.  The best laptops have NOTHING that plugs into the back of the laptop.  My last two have been like that, and I totally love it.

Of course you also gotta keep the wire itself safe.  Doing the above things will help in that, also don’t wrap the wire too tight when you put it away.  I usually don’t wrap it at all, it makes too much of a bulge in the bag, I just stuff it in.

If you always leave your laptop plugged in, on a desk, then remove the battery.  On some laptops it always tries to charge the battery and could cause damage from over charging.  On most modern laptops this is not a problem because the battery reports to the computer when it is full and the computer stops trying to charge it.

Other Problems

Another problem is with the Fan on the bottom of many laptop.  People set their laptop on something plush and the fabric stuffs up the fan.  If it is furry then often the fur may even go inside of the laptop and clog up the cooling system.  Most laptops use very unique fans, making a replacement costly and hard.  Dust and dirt is also a common fan clogging problem.  If you are unlucky enough to have a laptop with a fan on the bottom then keep it in mind when you are working.

Of course, as with any electronic device, be careful with food and liquid.  They can really fry the laptop.  If you do spill something on the laptop, please unplug it and take out the battery as fast as you can.  It can’t really damage circuits too bad if no electricity is flowing though them.  Then you can let it dry, maybe a week or more, and it may work.  Take it to a professional first. Here is an old but correct video.

I clean my laptop about once a month with a soft cloth and rubbing alcohol.  It works really week, and keeps it looking and feeling great.  You can clean the screen directly with light pressure, and it works awesome on the keyboard.  On some screens you need avoid alcohol, and just use distilled water.  I like alcohol because it evaporates quickly.

You, or someone paid a lot for your laptop, respect it and treat it nicely and it will last much much longer for you.

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Today I got my hands on Windows 7.  I have used it a few times in the past just to do a task and it always worked just like Vista.  Today I had the chance to install it on a computer that I own.  Here are my impressions.  

The install was almost exactly like Vista, many of the screens were exactly the same except a different background.  It seems to have taken about the same amount of time as Vista to install.  The installed size was 6GB smaller than when I install Vista.  When it came up it looked almost like vista, except the icons on the QuickLaunch were larger.  But then after more examination I noticed that it is a hybrid sort of QuickLaunch, putting programs that are running and those that are not on the same bar.  Basically you see the icon and when the program is running it draws a box around the icon.  If you run more than one it draws more boxes out to the right.  If a program is running and you click the icon again it minimizes the application.  You can right click and select the program name again to launch a second copy.  If more than one is running and you click on the icon it will show you a thumbnail of each copy that is running.  Not a bad way to do things, but will take some getting used to that is for sure.  I am not sure that I really like this idea, and there is no option to do it the old way.

The major thing I noticed is that it was almost exactly like vista.  Almost every menu is exactly the same.  The Gadgets that come with the OS are all the same, except they added a launcher for Media Center, and you can zoom some gadgets to make them bigger and provide more info.  The games that come with the OS are the exact same group that comes with Vista, and the screen saver list is even shorter.  I was really looking for a really nice new screensaver or game idea, but alas there is not one.

Some really nice things I noticed about the OS is that is DOES seem to be quite a bit faster.  AVG installed much faster.  Also when it connected to a network it automatically started to set up sharing.  No more having to turn on sharing in 5 different places in Vista to get it to share something.  Also it has a really cool feature where it changes the background every few minutes, really making it seem alive, and it was very easy to download themes online.  There also was a large amount of great sound themes installed from the get go, much nicer than vista.

Another feature that I have been wishing that windows had for many years is the ability to simply make EVERYTHING bigger.  Before windows 7 if you wanted to make everything bigger the only real way to do it was to use a lower resolution, but this was so bad, especially on LCD monitors, it would make things blurry and such due to not having a 1 to 1 ratio between the resolution and the native pixels on the screen.  If you wanted to make things bigger you had to do things in many different location.  And vista and xp considered the resolution part of the hardware, so if one user changed it, it would be changed for all users.  Now with this zoom you can and should simply set your monitor to the highest resolution that it supports and then zoom for each user that needs it.  I did notice that some legacy gadgets that I installed did not scale, but everything else did.

Wireless was also easier to connect.  In vista you have to right click on the wireless, and choose to open the connection window, and there you can connect.  Now when you right click it shows a list of wireless networks and a connect button next to each one, so easy.  I also liked how all of the buttons were only white…I am not sure if I will still like that in a few days.  There are also many other minor changed that I have seen.  One thing it does by default now, something that I have been telling people to do for years, is that it puts all of the music, videos, public photos and such in a “Library” a place that all users have access to and it sets it up automatically for network shares, and such.  Very nice that it finally is automatic.  And to make it even better it even installed some modern codecs so that the videos actually play.

After installing a few progams I also noticed that there are many less confirmation dialog boxes, also the put all of those taskbar notifications together so that they bother you less.  3rd party notification are also put all in one area with no more annoying balloons.  I am sure many of the people I help will really like this.

Conclusion. This OS is basically the same as vista with a few nice and useful enhancements.  If you are installing an OS on a new computer I would go for Windows 7 for sure, there is no real down side at all.  But if I had a computer that was working great with Vista and I had to pay to upgrade I would really think twice, that the benefits are not enough for all the trouble.  All and all it is a good and stable OS, because it basically vista with a new interface, so no one should be afraid to upgrade like they were with vista.  If you still use XP, then WHAT ARE  YOU WAITING FOR, get windows 7, it should run on your computer and it MUCH better.

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This is a new feature of my blog.  As with most people I know, many of my friends forward emails to me.  90% of them are useless but every now and then there is something very interesting in the email.  I don’t like to forward as a general rule, but I will take some of these select emails and post them here, on my blog.  This blog then goes out to my Facebook and many people get to read it.   Here is the first one…

About time we accept this attitude. We’ve had enough damage to this country by “Political Correctness”

America, Canada, all Europe ….. needs a President like this

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd - Australia

During a very recent speech here are some points that PM Kevin Rudd made.

Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks.

Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation’s mosques.

Quote: ‘IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians.’

‘This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom. We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, Learn the Language!’

‘Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.’

‘We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.’

‘This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, THE RIGHT TO LEAVE.’

‘If you aren’t happy here then LEAVE. We didn’t force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted..’

Maybe if we circulate this , American citizens will find the backbone to start speaking and voicing the same truths.

Well, let the flames begin!   If you liked this post please use the buttons below to email it or put it on your Facebook also.

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Once again we see how easy it is for corporate America to control the media with ease.  This time it is Sears/Kmart and their new Christmas club.  Today I was watching the local news, something I try to avoid, and they had a 2 minute story on this subject.  Basically here is the deal, you “save” your money by buying a gift card for Sears/Kmart and they are so nice that they will give you a 3% bonus.

It does not really mention that you MUST now spend all of that money only with Sears/Kmart and their sister companies.  They promoted it with multiple interviews and such with no opinion other than “DO IT NOW, or else you are stupid”  But to me I see this as a very dumb gimic, and worse it could harm people by locking them into buying from these companies.  They don’t price match here, and they don’t give refunds from the money “saved” in this account, so if there is a better price somewhere else you are stuck.  If you need your money for an emergency you are stuck.  If you lose the card you are stuck, if you forget about it they keep the extra money and you are stuck.

Now I don’t fault Sears/Kmart for doing this.  For them it makes money, and in these times they need to find every way to make money, heck if I was them I would be loving this program, they get to borrow millions of dollars just when they need it, and they get locked in customers allowing them to predict their holiday sales with ease.  On top of that they get all of this nice media attention.  Totally brilliant on their part.

I DO fault the local media, trying to fill their “News” broadcast with junk like this, with no couterpoint, and promoting it as the sencable thing to do.  They were saying that this card was better than using a back, due to the 3% bonus.   I also did a quick google search and found ton’s of blogs jumping on the band wagon.   Totally crazy.

It would be better to just put cash in a piggy bank and wait for Christmas, or even sock it away in some sort of Auto Savings plan at your local bank.  You need to keep your money free, free to be spent where you can get the best deal, and free to be used when you need it.

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For about 2 years I have been blogging.  At first it was really fun and exciting.  But as time went on I started to feel more and more confined by my subject matter.  It was a business blog, but I wanted to have a nice and in depth look at business.  I soon started making each entry very long and very in depth and it became much more like work and less fun.  Back in August I helped someone else create a blog, but I did the mistake of doing it with my account on wordpress.  They did some things on their blog that made the people at wordpress unhappy.  So they shut down all of my blogs.  This one, the ones for a few of my clients and even my wholesale computer blog.  I quickly got this one back up and running, and re-branded it “The Biz Guy”  But then I decided to take a break from blogging for a bit, relax and come back with something fresh.

The break is over, and I am back.  I have tons of fresh ideas, fresh content and I would really like to you subscribe to my blog.  I will strive to create something interesting a few times a day.  I have also decided to be much more real.  Before I often tried to be politically neutral, and neutral on many different controversial topics, and that HAS ENDED.  You will get my opinion, how ever wrong you may think it is.  I will point out the idiots and the business blunders as I see them.  Everything will still be written from the perspective of me, an entrepreneur, an über geek, a Christian, a right-wing constitutionalist, a world trailer, an avid reader, and a patriot.   Hang on it will be a fun ride.  Subscribe by clicking a link up there in the top right.

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So many people have been wondering why I have not been blogging for a long time.  Well one of the main reasons is that I have been totally distracted by a game that I found called Evony, it is really interesting.  It is a game where you build a city, you create the economy, then you build up armies and fight other people.  

It is a lot like Age of Empires, even with similar graphics, but it takes place in “Real Time”.  Everything takes hours and hours to build, and some research things can take two weeks.  At first I did not like how it was so slow, then I started to like it.  It does not give people a major advantage by how many hours per day that they play, it is more designed for the person who wants to log on every day for 30 minutes and relax, just like me.  Some days I use it for more than 30 minutes, but other days I know I can set all the things to build and then spend a day or two away from the game.  Also because I fix computers and design websites most of the day I can sit here and do a few clicks on the game while waiting for software to install, or when I am on the phone.  It really is quite relaxing.

There are two nice things that make the game really interesting.  First is the market.  You can buy and sell resources with other players.  But what is really cool is that it is a true market, it works just like the stock market.  In fact the market interface is like E-Trade in the Nasdaq level 2 part.  You can see what other people are selling and bidding at and you can choose where to set your price.  You can even play the market and move prices up or down by moving huge volume, and then reverse the trend a bit later to make money.  I tried it a few times but it was too much work to do that.

The next really cool thing is that you join alliances, and your alliance will team up with other alliances and you organize to war against other people.  You also get to chat with your alliance members and after a while they start seeming like friends.  I have played a few other online multiplayer games but none of them really got me into it like this.  Our alliance has leaders and also people who think they can lead but fail, it is really a good microcosm of the business world.

So if you ever play you can look for me.  I am on server 7.  My username is AzDragon, and my towns are in a place called Lombardy.

There also is a good business lesson in Evony.  Basically that success comes from daily activity towards your goal, just like in business.  Every day for my business I place ads, make and receive phone calls, research the industry, and hopefully make sales.  In Evony, you build armies, upgrade buildings, and attack computer and human players.  But in both over time you get stronger and stronger, you start to have more and more success, and eventually you reach a point where you would be considered successful.

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Well I have moved my blog to my own server.  I have actually wanted to do this for a while because it is much more flexible and more powerful.   But on tuesday it become necessary because wordpress decided that my blog was just advertising.  I am sure they did not read it, because as most of my readers know there is very little advertising on here, and tons of great content, IMHO.

So I went off to recreate my blog.  I was able to install wordpress.org on my server with ease, took under a minute.  Then I found the theme I used before.  Then I started to look for my old blog entries, I was able to find over 100 online, and I have been reposting them into this blog using the original posting date.  For most of the entries the old cached version did not have the photos so they are missing now.  So far I have taken about 25 of my most recent entries and a few of the older more popular ones and put them back up.  It will be a long process to put them all up, and some older,  less relevant ones will not be reposted.

With the new location I decided to go with a new name, more of a brand name…. “The Biz Guy” is great, because that is what I want to be about business, but I wanted a more edgy name than the “The Business Blog”  I was able to update all my feeds to reflect the new location.  I will no longer get the 100-200 people a day I got from google, maybe google will find the new location, but I doubt it.

If you have linked to my blog, please update your links.  I really need the traffic now.

Thanks for the 2 years of readership.

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For over 5 years I have always wanted to be more involved in investing in real estate.  I have helped out many people with their investing, but the amount of investing that I have done for myself was not enough.  Sure I bought a few properties but nothing that was a turnkey money making solution….well that is UNTIL NOW.

Over the last few months I have spent countless hours educating myself, working on my connections, and working on a new website for Capital Active.  Well it is done now.  I have a functional site up and running.  But the REAL work was done finding and securing assignments on over 30 awesome wholesale deals.  You heard me right, you can now click HERE and find over 30, way below fair market value properties that you can invest in or simply buy for your own use!!!  This has me really excited.  It was a lot of work but it is worth it.

On top of having all of these great deals, I also have lined up people to help home buyers buy these homes, and if you are an investor we can help you find a tenant.

The readers of this blog will have the FIRST shot at buying these houses from me.  If you are interested in any of these please contact me ASAP, I hope these will go fast, they should because they are killer deals.

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