Archive for August, 2008

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Special Needs Sensitivity and Business

Monday, August 11th, 2008

I’ve noticed at amusement parks and some places that for special needs people, there are certain hoops that a person has to jump through now to get passes for special access.  Some parks have modified their rides to be wheelchair friendly to the point where you can literally take your wheelchair on a rollercoaster. 

Some parks though have gotten pretty tight with granting access because so many jerks and lazy slobs have abused the special needs pass access.  Because somebody is tired they should NOT be given a wheelchair.  Sit down and rest.  If they actually have a documented condition, that is fine with me.  Bring a doctor’s note with you otherwise you are taking access away from my daughter and others like her.

I am tired of the Carlos Mencia (that isn’t even his real first name, by the way, he uses it to sound more Latino) nonsense about people expecting special needs people to say that others are either better than that.  His harping on special needs because they are an easy target is nonsense.  If he ever has a child or relative born with special needs he will sing a different tune.

To be fair, there are some special needs comics who use their disabilities as part of their routine.  More power to them I say.  For a lot of people who can’t speak to defend themselves, all they are asking for is a little bit of courtesy.

At one of the amusement parks in Southern California, we had people give us grief about Arianna trying to get a pass.  One look at my daughter and as gorgeous as she is you can see that she, due to her hang-wringing from Rett Syndrome has something going on.  The guy gave us the party line until we basically showed him the pass we had last time.  Sharren and I had gone to the park with our documentation in the past. 

Also, please tell all everybody that special needs chairs and access are there for special needs people first people.  Get your freaking baby strollers out of the way.  We had an instance where we were cut off by a family with a stroller.  Not cool. The amusement park employees wereon it and corrected the situation.  Kudos all around!

Our money is just as good as people’s money who don’t have special needs relatives.  I can just as easily find another venue where my wife, kids and relatives can go to spend more money.

Have any rants or bones to rattle about special needs and business? How about people who aren’t disabled using driving cards they shouldn’t?  Let me know your beefs here.

Part of all my book proceeds go to research finding a cure for Rett Syndrom and reversal of symptoms.

Kim Greenblatt

Questions or comments? Let me know about them! Thanks for taking the time to visit and for more information or to get back to the beginning of the blog, go here.

Special note: Effective immediately any comments to post over a week old may not be added. I may add them subject to editorial discretion. Just to let you know…

Kim Greenblatt, on his blog, profitable, talks about the recent breakdown in treatment of people with special needs because of people abusing the system and what people can do to change it. More at http://www.kimgreenblatt.com/wordpress.

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Comic book rush is on and I give it two years

Sunday, August 10th, 2008

With the success of Iron Man, Wanted and the Dark Knight movies it looks like the next two to three years will be comic book movie years.  It had been hit or miss with Marvel with hits like Spider-Man and some misses like the second Fantastic Four (movie).  Warner Brothers DC Superman Returns did okay but not as phenomenal as the Dark Knight movie.

How do you profit from this?

If you are a creator or owner of comic book character rights, this is the time to pitch your characters since studios are goobling up comic book stories or trying to build their franchise.  Disney will be developing in house their own comic book line characters apart from what they license already.  I give the window two to three years before people get tired of them since these things seem to go in cycles.  I may be completely wrong here but that is my story and I am sticking with it.

If you own comic book related collectibles, now is the time to sell your Watchmen comics with the movie coming out, anything related to recent comic book movies or collectibles.  It has been my experience that after the movie is out is a bad time unless you are one of the first people who can buy or sell the collectible item.

My motto on collectibles is that if you sold it a profit, count your blessings.  You don’t want to be the owner of a mint condition set of Watchmen comics at $400 if you cannot sell them for $150 two years later!

If you are planning on buying anything for speculation I would stick with rare items.  Limited items from the Comic Con, true items of scarcity are the way to go.  That is the way to get collectors interested in buying something from you and better yet, to pay top dollar.

I posted on somebody else’s blog a comment about what happens if a movie that costs $180 million dollars fails at the box office?  A lot of studio people will cry and even worse, they will stop making movies in that genre for awhile because they goofed with the previous film.

Follow the entertainment companies like Marvel, Disney and Warner Brothers.  Keep in mind that if they have other divisions other than their movie division they may net out with a loss despite a great year in their film division.  Also, film division profits are notariously all over the map.

Due your own due diligence, super friends!

Kim Greenblatt

Questions or comments? Let me know about them! Thanks for taking the time to visit and for more information or to get back to the beginning of the blog, go here.

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How Long Will the Bad Times Last?

Saturday, August 9th, 2008

With the start of the Olympics, the celebration going on in China, I see a lot of good times happening. Unfortunately, here in Southern California, as well as other parts of the United States, I have to ask myself, as I am sure you do, dear reader, when will the bad times end?

People are getting laid off, people are losing their homes, and despite the drop in gasoline, people cannot afford to pay for gasoline, food and clothing.

These are basic items – food, clothing and shelter- that we have taken for granted in this country as inalienable rights. It is amusing because as we move into more of global capitalistic economy the only right that seems to matter is financial survival of the fittest.

It doesn’t have to be this way and hopefully we are nearing the end of the bad times. A lot of people seem to put stock in whoever wins the presidential election. Maybe they are right because it looks like Congress is going to hold off on any major legislation until after January 2009. It will be interesting to follow up on this post to see what happens maybe a year from now. Let us hope that it isn’t “business as usual”.

I know in my own life I see people finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. Part of it may be their own doing for over-extending their credit. Hopefully this site will help them get back on track to being profitable or give them some ideas to get their lives turned around.

People trying to take care of special needs children, parents or relatives are being crushed by medical bills, higher drug costs and lack of support from their communities.

My suggestion, dear readers, is to start writing and if you can, screaming at our leaders. Our congressional representatives, senators, Governors and presidential candidates need to hear that we have to change things. We need to spend some money on rebuilding our infrastructure. Our bridges, highways, subways, and cities need to be rebuilt. If we get enough government bonds going we can not only get the money to get working, that will employee people. Employed people will spend their money while they are working. It will keep the circle called our economy going.

It won’t happen overnight or be easy but it can happen. If you are reading this from outside the United States, welcome to the site and any suggestions or thoughts would be welcome as well.

Let the good times roll and let them please start rolling soon!!!!

Kim Greenblatt

Questions or comments? Let me know about them! Thanks for taking the time to visit and for more information or to get back to the beginning of the blog, go here.

Kim Greenblatt, from his profitable blog, http://www.kimgreenblatt.com/wordpress, asks how long the bad times will last. Hopefully, if we all open our mouths and take action, not too much longer.

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Discipline and Attitude are “The Secret” keys to success in business and life

Friday, August 8th, 2008

Almost sound liking a drill instructor, huh?  I was talking with people on the Rettnet, one of the special needs support groups for people who have children who have Rett Syndrome and one of the things that came up was the discussion of the “The Secret”.  Basically, it is the Law of Attraction (what you can imagine you will get, Like Attracts Like, etc).  I don’t have too many gripes with it except for the fact that the so-called secret has been around forever in mystical teachings.  It hasn’t been taught to the masses because generally they need to have their bodies and minds tuned so that they can clearly broadcast what they really want and is it a noble, life and society affirming wish.  Or at least that is how it is presented.

It seems today that everybody wants everything now and fast.  I’ve talked about this before in some of my other posts.  My cure for this in business, in relationships and in life is to tell people to be disciplined and be positive. 

By being disciplined, that means that you don’t give in to every impulse to by the latest gadget or goodie that is thrown in front of your face on television, the internet or anywhere.

That means that you need to get your family on board with discipline as well since it won’t do you any good saving money or energy if everybody else leaves the lights on in every room when they aren’t in it or spend their paychecks as fast as they get it – and then try to max out their credit cards.  Sheesh!

I will not be going into some of the fundamental problems I have with the presentation of plans like the Secret, but I will say that positive thinking does work and overall I think that will power and desire are what drive the universe. 

The problem I have is that everybody has all sorts of will power and desires that don’t always go along with the wills or desires of everybody else.  A lot of the time their desires don’t even go along with the best interests of society as a whole and I thing it is best to leave the subject there for now!

I guess that is where things like social communities like blogs come in.  For further discourses please post me a message. In the meantime, I need to practice what I am preaching and get back to working on my next book.

Kim Greenblatt

Questions or comments? Let me know about them! Thanks for taking the time to visit and for more information or to get back to the beginning of the blog, go here.

Kim Greenblatt believes that discipline and Positive Attitude are “The Secret” keys to success in business and life in his profitable blog at http://www.kimgreenblatt.com/wordpress.

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Get Attention, Keep It and Getting People To Buy Something

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

It is next to impossible to monetize something on the Internet.  You can try to stir up controversy and sometimes you can try the direct marketing approach.  Unfortunately the approach below only works if you have shaved your head bald and your customers are all named Joey.  Fortunately, my hair has grown back somewhat and  there are other, better ways to do marketing. 

First, don’t try to be something you aren’t.  I wish I could write romantic fiction because if you are good at that you can make a lot of money.  I don’t have the chops for it.  You’ll note that none of my books are romantic fiction though I have dabbled with children’s fiction and young adult horror.  The reason I have written fiction books is because I think (and I have been told) that I am pretty good at it.  Well, I’ve actually been told that my first book was kind of quick and the second one is better, but they both are part of an overall series.  But I digress….

 Second, There is money to be made if your niche is big enough.  Everybody is good at something.  The question is can you monetize what you are good at.  If you are good at more than one thing, like I am (ahem, hey it is my blog and I can leave modesty at the door), try and pick the one or two things to focus in on so you don’t waste your energy.

Third, expect to be an overnight success after several years of work.  It is rare that you will get the instant monetary recognition or even fame that you want right out of the chute.  Remember, people may be tickled by a novelty but will they stick around and buy anything from you?  Only if you can show them that you have something to say that hasn’t been said before or you are showing them how to make some money.

Fourth, watch your costs in terms of money and time.  Sure it is fun to be able to take an ad out in the American Super Bowl if you have a few million dollars.   Will that really translate to sales though?  The flip side is all that time you are using to make domino art, as cool as it looks, will it help you get gigs setting up falling domino exhibitions around the world?  You can be the judge of that stuff yourself.

Fifth, whatever you do, be prepared in your business to be able to work the market so you don’t end up having to close up shop so early.  And be sure that you don’t end up having so small a niche that you will be limiting yourself in your market.

Unless your market is everybody who has a name of Joey.


Questions or comments? Please post them below.
Kim Greenblatt

 

 

 

 

This profitable blog talks about getting attention, keeping attention and monetizing it!

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Taxes and UFOS-Unidentified Financial Obstacles

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

Every tax season I run into people who have been abducted. That’s right. They have been kidnapped by unidentified financial obstacles- that is a term that I coined that is very top secret. These ufos come along and teleport the money right out of their pockets and when it comes to tax time they sometimes are in a position where they don’t have the money to pay their taxes.

Warnings that you may be a victim of ufo incident?

1. You have cashed out a 401K or retirement account early and haven’t put aside at least a third of it for taxes for the Federal government or the state.
2. You have received a cash prize, gambling winnings and you have spent it all without putting money aside for taxes.
3. You have received a bonus from work and the taxes don’t seem to be taken out however you already know that it will show up on a W-2 as income at the end of the year.
4. You have sold a screenplay and made a lot of money. If so, congratulations!

Folks, do yourselves a favor and force yourself to put aside at least a third of that money for paying taxes. Lock it in an interest bearing account or worse case, a checking account, and please try not to touch it. If you can, pay the money at the nearest financial quarter that you can or wait and make sure that at the end of the year that you have the money to pay for any taxes that are due.

Aliens laser beaming cities are almost welcome if when it comes tax time you find yourself owing thousands of dollars.

Whether you are planning on starting a business or dealing with day to day tax planning, please take the time to account for paying your taxes. I understand it isn’t a popular position to take, but it is a dirty job and somebody has to do it!

While I am speaking about ufos, since they are unidentified financial obstacles, please try and get a savings program in place and definitely an emergency fund so when they ufos attack, you can fight back with cash.

If you are dealing with a person with special needs, I don’t have to tell you about the money that gets disintegrated frequently when trying to make ends meet. That is all the more reason that you should try to be sensitive to any financial gifts that happen to come your way.

Be profitable (and happy and healthy)!

 

Kim Greenblatt

Questions or comments? Let me know about them! Thanks for taking the time to visit and for more information or to get back to the beginning of the blog, go here.

Kim Greenblatt talks about ufos, unidentified financial obstacles, in this profitable entry.

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Improve Your Product or Service With Each Release By Kim Greenblatt

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

Unless you have a perfect product out of the chute everytime, and if you do, please call me or drop me an email because I want to work for you, you constantly should be looking at what you can do to improve your product, your service, your research. 

An example of this is my first book, Your Daughter Has Been Diagnosed With Rett Syndrome.  It was my first self published book and it wasn’t heavy in the number of pages, and in fact, I added a flip book inside which chewed up pages but still it was fairly well received.  The reason is that people searching for information are pretty forgiving if they get the information they are looking for.  In the case of my first book, I have been lucky and one of these days I need to get a sequel out with changes in Arianna that have been happening and our lives in general (from the perspective of coping parents).

My poker books were presented differently and there have been various comments on them ranging from hatred to delight.  I think the truth is somewhere in between that I didn’t right the great American poker book but something that had some practical value to the reader (hence the name of my series of books that start off “Practical”).

I did get better with subsequent books though my experiment into larger print for the Crazy Pineapple 8b book was either appreciated by the older set or booed and hissed.  Sales have picked up on the book and from emails I have been getting, I think again, that content is king and that is what people look for.

Incrementally, I decided to move onto cover illustrations and I added that for my fiction books, The Inappropriate Library and Clean, A Tale From The Inappropriate Library.

With each book – fiction or non-fiction, I get a little better and as the saying goes, instead of making a million mistakes I only make 999,999.  The take away for you, dear reader, is try and list one or several things that you are doing that the next time you try to do it, you will have improved it someway.

The Japanese built up their economy from the 1960s thru 80s by incrementally just developing existing products.  They did this by taking products like televisions and making them better, one thing at a time.  They improved size, color picture, etc.  They ended up owning large chunks of property for a brief time in the United States and companies like Sony are what people think of when it comes to electronics.  Their overnight success was accomplished by gradully changing one thing at a time and releasing it.

Apple took a pocket mp3 player, repackaged it and marketed it as the must-have device and the iPod has taken off and is still flying several years later.

If you aren’t making a product, think of what you can do with your service that will add value for your customer or client.  The little things go a long way like being polite, taking the time to listen to the customer and getting the orders right the first time. 

Hopefully I got the order right this time.  Did you want some fries with that?

 Kim Greenblatt


 

Questions or comments? Let me know about them! Thanks for taking the time to visit and for more information or to get back to the beginning of the blog, go here.

This entry by Kim Greenblatt, www.kimgreenblatt.com/wordpress, talks about growing your business by changing one thing at a time in production or service.  The Japanese did similar business growth from the 1960s to the 1980s.    From his profitable blog.

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Kim Greenblatt on being profitable if you have special needs people who need caring

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Let’s face it, you aren’t going to live forever.  Try as you might sooner or later (hopefully later) you will be out of this sphere of existance.  It is hard enough planning for your family and their needs as is but it is harder if you are caring for a special needs relative.

It is important that you have whatever insurance you can in place and current.  It is important that you have a guardian already in place to take care of your parent, child, grandchild, etc. in the event something happens to you.  You don’t want a judge to make an arbitrary decision as to who should be taking care of your special needs loved one.

Are you saving enough now?  I know, I know – money is tight, you may lose your job (maybe you aren’t working) but it is important to try and have enough cash stashed away. 

What about special long term considerations if something happens to you that prevents you from taking care of that person?  Costs for long term care rocket if you don’t plan for them early on and get insurance where you can for yourself.  The Federal Government allows great tax breaks if you are currently paying for Long Term Care insurance.

2008
For 2008, the maximum amount of qualified long-term care premiums you can include as medical expenses has increased. You can include qualified long-term care premiums, up to the amounts shown below, as medical expenses on Schedule A (Form 1040)

  • Age 40 or under – $310.
  • Age 41 to 50 – $580.
  • Age 51 to 60 – $1,150.
  • Age 61 to 70 – $3,080.
  • Age 71 or over – $3,850.

 Note. The limit is for each person.

Those amounts above are for premium payments and surprisingly, the deductions for the medical expenses are pretty close to what the premium payments are for the long term coverage.

Please make sure you talk to other special needs parents about setting up a trust fund.  You need something pretty bulletproof so any money that goes to your loved one is not going to be taxed or they might end up losing whatever other government benefits (like Medi-Cal, disability) that they are currently getting.

Please write your Congressmen (and women) as well as the Governors, and Presidential candidates.  We are in a rough situation right now where if you make any kind of money, any kind of funding that helps a lot of special needs people will be yanked.  Make your voices heard so that the people who can’t talk for themselves to get the special care and assistance that they need, get heard.  It is cliche to say that but it still is an effective cliche.

Make sure that you also trust the people that are taking care of your elderly or special needs charges on a daily basis.  A lot of people are in the health care field for the money and not for the calling to help others.  That is fine by me and they are entitled to make a profit as long as they do their job and do it well.  After all they are taking care of our daughters, sons, parents, grandparents, relatives and ultimately in some cases, us.

Please drop me a post as to what you might want to see tax wise or business wise in terms of special needs.  I have a daughter who has Rett Syndrome and I get where you are coming from. You don’t want to gamble if you can help it with something like this.

A portion of all my book sales from all my books goes to finding a cure for Rett Syndrome and research to make girls suffering with Rett Syndrome lives a little easier. Rett Syndrome affects a girl born every fifteen minutes. Most boys born with the Rett gene die at birth. Rett is not Tourette. That is a different syndrome.

Kim Greenblatt

Questions or comments? Let me know about them! Thanks for taking the time to visit and for more information or to get back to the beginning of the blog, go here.

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Hold’em Turn Rats As Bad As River Rats and Random Reinforcement

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

If you play Texas Hold’em, you have no doubt heard of the term, “River Rat”.  That is the unglamorous phrase used for people who by any stretch of the imagination should have folded their cards earlier but by sticking around and throwing in their money, they end up winning the hand.  

You may have encountered “Turn Rats” in low limit no limit games or games where people want action:

You are in the big blind at a $40NL table. Players just come in and no raises.  The stacks are all roughly the same.  Here is our flop:

You bet $5 and everybody folds except one player who calls.

 

              

You                                              Your Opponent

You are the favorite here but since it is low limit, no fold’em $40 hold em you aren’t sure if this player is holding pocket queens.  Well, you are actually.  He didn’t go all in so what can you do so you don’t make it worth his while to stay in the hand?

You can try to raise him $10 and in this case, and he may call.  If you go all in and he has enough money in his pocket to rebuy, he might call you to try and catch a miracle card.

With players like this who are action addicts, they will call you no matter what.

And if the turn comes like this (and it will once in awhile):

 

You will have to just force a smile, force the acid from coming up your throat and watch yourself lose no matter what.  The comfort in this is that players like your opponent will go bust and a lot of times in the same session after a few hours.  They have a lot of lucky hours but they might end up with unlucky days when the dust settles.

I’ve talked to some players and for the most part, they still remember the few times that they win with cards that come at the last minute.  I am tempted to ask some of them, and I do this of my friends, “But how many times have you tried that and lost?”  Generally you get a “I dunno” and a shrug of the shoulders.  It is random reinforcement.  People tend to remember the things they want rather than what actually has happened.

Hey, the truth can hurt but it is better in business and in gambling that you at least be honest
with yourself so you don’t end up bluffing yourself out of your money in the long run.

 

Kim Greenblatt

Questions or comments? Let me know about them! Thanks for taking the time to visit and for more information or to get back to the beginning of the blog, go here.

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Kevin Rose is he an alcoholic, urine drinker or none of that?

Saturday, August 2nd, 2008

Shamelessly picking on Kevin Rose for my own self-serving interests and to educate you guys and gals about critical thinking and gambling let me throw this out there.  What is Kevin Rose drinking?

Seriously. He just had another announcement about another upgrade to Digg and there he is again with that blissed out grin of his holding a fluted glass with something in it. That, my friendly readers, is the question. What is it he is drinking? First blush, somebody would say that it is champagne. Okay, he has a great company and he is celebrating. I don’t know him personally so I can’t say if that is really Martinelli’s apple cider. Same kinda bubbling. Maybe it is just water. Maybe it is something faintly bubbling like Fizzies.

Maybe it is urine. Yuch. To each his own I suppose.

Here is the deal. If I have done my job right, I have got you thinking about not taking images at face value. For all of us humans that have been thrown into forced short term attention span thinking, we look at an image and depending on our background and experience, make a logical conclusion based on our own experiences without thinking about asking the question – what exactly am I looking at?

Most of the time, you can pretty much assume that what you are looking at is what it seems to be. Whatever it is that Kevin Rose is drinking, he clearly is happy about it and is in either a toasting mood (“To urine?” Yuck) or to us (“To my Diggers” Better and not so Yuck). The impression that he wanted to deliver is clear and well received. Pretty innocent so far, huh?

The problem in real life is when you get news pieces, web blasts, pictures and information without anything other than a soundbite or web blast. Most people turn into parrots and start repeating what they have heard without thinking about was the context of the information. Questions you need to ask yourself or at least think about when you get information (and even from a guy who writes about urine like me) are:

What is the context of the information?
What does the person who is releasing the information have to gain from telling us about it?
Is it really from an unbiased source or am I being gamed?

With the coming political campaign hitting a head I strongly urge everybody to really listen to the candidates and ask them hard, clear questions that you are entitled to get hard, clear answers.

When you see the ads from either party, make sure you sift through the rhetoric, the emotional bullets they are trying to fire and get to the meat of the images.

The same holds true in business and in gambling. People will focus in on anything that will reinforce what they believe in. When it comes to craps for example, people think that just because a number hasn’t been thrown with the dice that the number is “due”. The reality is that the odds are the same for each throw of a pair of dice (if they are not fixed) no matter what.

When it comes to something more subjective like pictures, videos and articles (especially by urine writers like me), things aren’t cut and dry. As you speed thru your digging or your social interactions of choice, please take the time to sometimes ask what is going on behind the scenes.

Oh, and by the way, for whoever gets to be elected President, if you want to get America going, spend money rebuilding the infrastructure (freeways, bridges, roadways, dams, etc). The money will be put to keeping America together in a very LITERAL sense, it will create jobs in America, and the people making that money will spend it in America.

Oh, and spend more money in helping people and families with special needs, like Rett Syndrome.

See? All of that urine stuff was just to get your attention to tell you how you should vote and what you should you tell your candidate of choice!

Practical Craps: A Guide to Being a Winner With Dice

Kim Greenblatt

Questions or comments? Let me know about them! Thanks for taking the time to visit and for more information or to get back to the beginning of the blog, go here.

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