What’s the African Perspective?
In 1992 I visited four nations in West Africa: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and Benin. One thing that struck me was how spiritual the Africans were and how in tune they were to nature. Although they may embrace Christianity or other religions, they don’t abandon their naturalistic beliefs. Africans were resourceful. They learned to make use of plants and trees in their environment for building homes and curing diseases. George Washington Carver, who was of black African descent, invented many things. And what was his secret? He tapped into the wisdom of God, the maker of all things. According to George Washington Carver http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_washington_carver.html: “I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”
George Washington Carver
American Indian Tribes
The American Indians are another group that embraced and honored the earth. The president of the Sioux Tribe is organizing a meeting of the National Congress of American Indians to discuss BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill and its impact. Perhaps they will come up with an enlightened spiritual way to clean up the oil spill or otherwise deal with the environmental crisis the spill has caused. Based on the American Indian traditions, I’m sure they will incorporate tribal wisdom.
Tribal Wisdom of Elders
In tribal cultures the elders are honored. Even if the elder has passed on, homage is still paid. They recognize the wisdom that comes from going to sleep and getting up many days. As the old saying goes “stuff happens”. So the longer we’ve been here on this earth, the more stuff we’ve walked thru and survived. Hopefully us over 50 senior folk have learned from our mistakes. The British Petroleum’s current wisdom is to use the same techniques that were unsuccessful with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill back in the 70s.
Clean Up Oil Spill
We’re all one tribe, one race – the human race. And there is one earth. So, when it comes to environmental issues, we’re all in this together. Perhaps we need to convene a tribe of seniors from all cultures to weigh in on the oil spill clean up.
In the US, us “over 50″ folks spend $2.3 trillion and
we controls 50% of all discretionary income.
In 2011:
Those of us over age 50 will respresent 25% of the population.
In that same year it is estimated that the US population will be
12.5% Non-Hispanic Black and
14.8% Hispanic origin
Marketing Implications:
If you’re starting a business, you should consider products and services that appeal to the over 50 population.
And if you’re already in business, we’re still a worthwhile target market.
Anyone with more than 1/40th black blood was considered black and was subject to the discrimination that was directed toward blacks or Negroes. All of us in the nation watched the news and TV coverage of black people being beaten and dragged and water hosed, just because they wanted to have the same rights as white Americans.
Barack Obama is now the 44th President of the United States of America. We have overcome. Not just the Negro, the black, the African American. But the entire United States nation has overcome. Yes, there are the bigots and racists. There will always be narrow minded people. But bigotry and racism does not define us as a nation anymore. No longer does bigotry, racism and prejudice drive our policies and actions and laws.
The hot issue now is the recession and our economic woes. And the ripple effects are felt globally. Putting politics aside, I’m hoping the country can focus on the business of healing our economy. Barack Obama is our new president and leader, but he cannot solve problems alone. We all must help with the restoration to economic health.
President Barack Hussein Obama: We love you, we bless you, we support you. I know the nation joins me in wishing you well.
Leesa Barnes made 4 predictions about social media. One I found particularly alarming.
“The popularity of some social networks will decline as business owners insist on owning their community’s content. Tools such as Facebook, Ning and KickApps are great because you can form your own niche community. However, with Facebook banning people for unknown reasons and with intrusive ads on Ning and KickApps, more and more business owners will turn to social networking tools that they can host on their own server so they can avoid these problems. I see Buddypress rising in popularity and alternatively, I see Facebook, Ning and KickApps declining in terms of page views. Look for Buddypress to become the small business owner’s social networking tool of choice in 2009.”
I’m still working on getting up to speed with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like. And how to best use them for marketing and making money. And, I was totally unaware of the problems with Facebook.
Now there is a new frontier / social network I have to explore.
Leesa Barnes is an award winning blogger and critically acclaimed author who helps businesses get active using social media in 3 simple steps. To learn how you can become Marketing Fit, visit http://www.marketingfit.com to get your complimentary eCourse called the Marketing Fit Detox: 3 Ways to Get Rid of Fattening Marketing Tactics for Good Using Social Media.
I recently found out about Dotsie Bregel who has a couple of sites for baby boomer and over 50 woman. One of her articles is about the “Boomerang Generation”. Can you guess what the term means? I got it wrong.
The Boomerang Generation refers to those born in the 1970s and 1980s. So allegedly, these people are the children of baby boomers. But the term does not apply to all people in that age bracket. It more specifically refers to those who, due to economic conditions and challenges, are back at home with their parents, the senior citizen empty nesters. So the “boomerang” part of the phrase is quite clever.
However, the boomerang concept is not limited to the 70s and 80s groups. Everyone is at risk. With the business / corporate financial failures, mortgage crisis, layoffs, gas prices, etc, many who are trying to conserve their financial resources are forced to re-evaluate and revamp their living situations. I’ve thought about renting out a room in my house to tide me over until Noble & Associates Consulting and / or Noble Finances start bringing in some substantial revenues. And, sometimes it’s the senior citizens and retirees who are moving back with their children. So there are variations on the boomerang theme.
I’m not in touch with the economic situation in other countries. But. we in the United States need to pull together to help each other out. Just saw a video of the Donnie McClurkin story. Marvin Winans allowed McClurkin to stay in his house for months. But there comes a time, when helping becomes enabling. So McClurkin was kicked out. Each situation is different.
As Shakespeare says “The quality of mercy is not strained”. When it becomes strained, it’s up to you to take the appropriate action.
Cash and cash flow problems are big topics in the news these days. Large, global investment and financial institutions are in trouble. Banks are failing and being taken over. If you listen to some, without financial bailouts, the United States economy is in danger of financial ruin. Many who insisted that the country was not in a recession a couple of weeks ago, are now mentioning the dreaded “d” word: Depression.
It’s big news when the big guys are in trouble. Small, women owned and minority businesses have always had difficulty with finances. Lack of cash flow and working capital is a leading cause of business failure. Noble Finances has some solutions that can help cure financial woes for companies turned down by traditional banking institutions.
The Atlanta Tribune’s “Moving Your Business Forward” (MYBF) event will be held October 9, 2008 in Columbus, GA. The theme for this 3rd annual MYBF conference in Columbus, GA is “Strategies for Business Growth: Finding Money & Understanding of the Benefits of Certification”.
Sandra Noble, that’s me, is featured on the financial panel at the Columbus MYBF event. I get to share about Noble Finances and the alternatives to traditional bank financing that we provide.
Well the actual term is tweeter. When you make an entry into Twitter, you are tweeting. And what is Twitter? It’s called a micro-blog. Tweets are limited to 140 characters of data. The idea is to share what you’re doing at that moment. People who care about what you’re doing will sign up to follow you. They get entries in their Twitter account whenever people they are following make tweets.
So, now I’m confessing. My blog post titled “Business People Over 50 – Who are we?” ended with the statement “no twittering for me”. Well, I’ve learned to never say never. I admit that I am now twittering or more correctly tweeting.
The younger set primarily uses text messaging to do their tweets. I turned that feature off on my phone. Since I have no texting capability, I assumed I would never do tweets. However, I discovered ping.fm. It allows me to use the internet to enter my tweets. And the beauty of ping.fm is that it sends my postings to multiple social networks. So, my entries are simultateously sent Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse and now Delicious. Ping.fm makes it easy to actively participate in the Web 2.0 social networks.
There are those who allegedly use Twitter for business. I’ve attended teleseminars on the business use of Twitter as well as on the business use of Facebook. Business people under age 50 are using Twitter and other social networks. I have my doubts about the participation of the over 50, senior citizen group. I’m on Twitter and I’m over 50. I’m making a concerted effort to keep up with web 2.0, internet marketing and other new technologues and techniques. The purpose for this blog is to share my journey with other AARP qualifiers. Hopefully, I can help ease the process for my contemporaries.
Not convinced about the benefits. But for now, I’m trying Twitter.
Internet marketing success is about being found on the web. Alexa is one of those services which determines how well a website is organically positioned. Organic ranking means that the search engines have evaluated your site and determined how well it matches your search terms. There are billions of sites on the World Wide Web, so a good search ranking does not come by accident. There are consulting firms that specialize in what is called search engine optimization (SEO). Noble & Associates Consulting is now offering internet marketing consulting services also.
SEO is more than optimizing your website for your keywords in isolation. There are other tools and techniques to boost your ranking. It’s about volume – how many times you appear and are linked to on the web. And in the World Wide Web / Web 2.0 circles you hear the motto “Content is King”. The more content there is on the web associated with your name and your site, the better your SEO and organic ranking.
So what do I mean by: less is better? Winning sports teams say they are #1. In Alexa, the lower number / rank the better. A rank of 1 means that this is the most frequently searched for and accessed website out of all the websites in the world. Being in the top million is an impressive list. See the even more impressive Alexa top 100 list.
Get the *FREE* report,
“5 Internet Marketing Success Tips”
by visiting http://www.Internet-Marketing-SEO-Success.com
Baby Boomers Go Into Un-Retirement is an interesting blog post about how baby boomers are handling retirement or not. Don’t know if Atlanta is different, but I know a lot of over 55 people who are going the NOT route.
Why?
Telecommunications used to be big in Atlanta. Telecommunications has taken a deep dive. And lots of other major employers in metropolitan Atlanta are faltering. And of course, the problem is not unique to Atlanta.
The three main effects of the recession or the financial downturns:
1) people are prematurely forced into requirement,
2) people are laid off and
3) pension funds and retirement accounts have lost value.
We’re not even going to talk about real estate, which in years past have been a source of funds for the senior citizen group. Our homes were the investments that were supposed to allow us to sustain ourselves after our working days were over. The equity that has been lost in our housing has forced the AARP aged folks to continue working to get the extra or essential spending money.
In an ideal world, many more would choose to retire. But the economic climate, both national and personal, removes some of the options. So I, as a late stage entrepreneur, am not alone in working long days and in pursuit of the dollar. Sandra Noble NOBLE FINANCES NOBLE &ASSOCIATESCONSULTING, INC
