Your destiny isn't a matter of chance, it's a matter of the choices you'll make in the coming year.
Success isn't something you wait for, it's something you must pursue in the months ahead.
Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities to be successful. Seize common occasions and turn them into great ones. Opportunities sometimes come disguised in the form of misfortune,or temporary defeat.
Start where you are. You're at this moment, standing right in the middle of opportunity. If you act on your dreams you can live them. You have a lot to look forward to.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Hawaii layoffs touch every industry, income level
Friday, December 19, 2008 Modified: Tuesday, December 23, 2008, 12:00am
Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - by Linda Chiem Pacific Business News
Media
On a recent Monday, Paula Hudnall strolled through the aisles of Macy’s in downtown Honolulu eyeing the neatly laid racks of clothing and accessories and enjoying the Christmas music and the chattering of holiday shoppers.
It was something she could rarely do working in mortgage banking, where there was always more to be done in the office.
Hudnall was the lead underwriting manager for the Honolulu office of Ohio-based mortgage lender National City Mortgage. When the company announced in 2007 it was cutting thousands of jobs, Hudnall, 55, oversaw the closure of the Honolulu branch and by March of this year, she was out of a job and a six-figure salary.
Today, she is working as a part-time sales associate at Macy’s for the holidays and has just finished her second semester at Hawaii Pacific University, where she plans to earn a master’s degree in communications.
“I always wanted to go to graduate school and nothing was blocking me anymore,” she said. “I learned quickly not to be afraid because fear just shuts you down. It’s been good actually and I was really happy for the time to rest even though closing that branch was really difficult for me.”
Hudnall is among the nearly 2 million workers who have lost their jobs in the U.S. this year, including 6,200 in Hawaii. There are now 30,000 jobless in the state, up from about 19,000 last year.
The layoffs and shutdowns of businesses have been widespread and have touched employees ranging from entry-level clerks to senior managers in virtually every industry.
The state’s unemployment rate hit a seven-year high of 4.5 percent in October.
“This was probably one of the most dismal periods in Hawaii’s economic history,” said Lawrence Boyd Jr., a labor economist with the Center for Labor Education and Research at the University of Hawaii West Oahu.
“Our unemployment figures are a bit disguised because so much of it is in these service industries where you don’t have big cuts, but drips and drabs.”
Unemployment claims are up 83 percent this year, rising from 7,478 in January to 13,693 in October, the latest period for which figures are available.
The largest monthly spike occurred in April — immediately after the shutdowns of Aloha Airlines, ATA Airlines and Molokai Ranch — with a 23 percent jump in unemployment claims.
A review of data from the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations shows that the hardest-hit industries have been construction, which on average had more than 3,000 workers a month collecting unemployment for most of the year, and accommodations and food services, which had more than 2,000 workers collecting unemployment by October.
Administrative services, which includes office support staff, had 1,545 workers collecting unemployment by October. That’s nearly double the 807 administrative services workers who were collecting unemployment at the beginning of the year.
Sixty-three percent of workers collecting unemployment are men and 37 percent are women.
And most of the jobless are between the ages of 45 and 54, a group that accounts for 25 percent of all people collecting unemployment in Hawaii.
Earlier this month, the state extended unemployment benefits by another seven weeks for people who already have used up their allotted 26 weeks of regular unemployment benefits and 13 weeks of emergency compensation after that.
They can collect a maximum of $523 a week in unemployment but that will increase to $545 a week next year. The increased benefits will help, but the unemployed have to comply with a multitude of guidelines to continue receiving benefits such as showing that they are making at least three potential job contacts a week by sending out resumes or going on interviews.
Public relations accounts supervisor Carissa Tourtelot closed on a new condominium in Kailua only two weeks before she was laid off from Communications Pacific last month.
She was most worried about covering her $2,750 mortgage and the $600 she spends on day care for her 2-year-old daughter. She spent three weeks on unemployment, a process she described as demoralizing, and recently secured a new job as a communications and marketing consultant for the California Milk Advisory Board in San Francisco, the institution behind the popular “happy cows” television commercials.
“It was scary at first and I think that after the initial sadness you just focus on what’s next ... but thank God I had savings and a rainy day fund,” she said. “It’s worked out really well and people always say things happen for a reason. Even though I still don’t know the reason, I’m kind of okay and there’s really never a good time to lose your job but that’s the kicker, you figure it all out.”
Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - by Linda Chiem Pacific Business News
Media
On a recent Monday, Paula Hudnall strolled through the aisles of Macy’s in downtown Honolulu eyeing the neatly laid racks of clothing and accessories and enjoying the Christmas music and the chattering of holiday shoppers.
It was something she could rarely do working in mortgage banking, where there was always more to be done in the office.
Hudnall was the lead underwriting manager for the Honolulu office of Ohio-based mortgage lender National City Mortgage. When the company announced in 2007 it was cutting thousands of jobs, Hudnall, 55, oversaw the closure of the Honolulu branch and by March of this year, she was out of a job and a six-figure salary.
Today, she is working as a part-time sales associate at Macy’s for the holidays and has just finished her second semester at Hawaii Pacific University, where she plans to earn a master’s degree in communications.
“I always wanted to go to graduate school and nothing was blocking me anymore,” she said. “I learned quickly not to be afraid because fear just shuts you down. It’s been good actually and I was really happy for the time to rest even though closing that branch was really difficult for me.”
Hudnall is among the nearly 2 million workers who have lost their jobs in the U.S. this year, including 6,200 in Hawaii. There are now 30,000 jobless in the state, up from about 19,000 last year.
The layoffs and shutdowns of businesses have been widespread and have touched employees ranging from entry-level clerks to senior managers in virtually every industry.
The state’s unemployment rate hit a seven-year high of 4.5 percent in October.
“This was probably one of the most dismal periods in Hawaii’s economic history,” said Lawrence Boyd Jr., a labor economist with the Center for Labor Education and Research at the University of Hawaii West Oahu.
“Our unemployment figures are a bit disguised because so much of it is in these service industries where you don’t have big cuts, but drips and drabs.”
Unemployment claims are up 83 percent this year, rising from 7,478 in January to 13,693 in October, the latest period for which figures are available.
The largest monthly spike occurred in April — immediately after the shutdowns of Aloha Airlines, ATA Airlines and Molokai Ranch — with a 23 percent jump in unemployment claims.
A review of data from the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations shows that the hardest-hit industries have been construction, which on average had more than 3,000 workers a month collecting unemployment for most of the year, and accommodations and food services, which had more than 2,000 workers collecting unemployment by October.
Administrative services, which includes office support staff, had 1,545 workers collecting unemployment by October. That’s nearly double the 807 administrative services workers who were collecting unemployment at the beginning of the year.
Sixty-three percent of workers collecting unemployment are men and 37 percent are women.
And most of the jobless are between the ages of 45 and 54, a group that accounts for 25 percent of all people collecting unemployment in Hawaii.
Earlier this month, the state extended unemployment benefits by another seven weeks for people who already have used up their allotted 26 weeks of regular unemployment benefits and 13 weeks of emergency compensation after that.
They can collect a maximum of $523 a week in unemployment but that will increase to $545 a week next year. The increased benefits will help, but the unemployed have to comply with a multitude of guidelines to continue receiving benefits such as showing that they are making at least three potential job contacts a week by sending out resumes or going on interviews.
Public relations accounts supervisor Carissa Tourtelot closed on a new condominium in Kailua only two weeks before she was laid off from Communications Pacific last month.
She was most worried about covering her $2,750 mortgage and the $600 she spends on day care for her 2-year-old daughter. She spent three weeks on unemployment, a process she described as demoralizing, and recently secured a new job as a communications and marketing consultant for the California Milk Advisory Board in San Francisco, the institution behind the popular “happy cows” television commercials.
“It was scary at first and I think that after the initial sadness you just focus on what’s next ... but thank God I had savings and a rainy day fund,” she said. “It’s worked out really well and people always say things happen for a reason. Even though I still don’t know the reason, I’m kind of okay and there’s really never a good time to lose your job but that’s the kicker, you figure it all out.”
Saturday, December 27, 2008
RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME?
U.S. Loses 533,000 Jobs in Biggest Drop Since 1974
The New York Times
December 6, 2008
This article was reported by Louis Uchitelle, Edmund L. Andrews and Stephen Labaton and written by Mr. Uchitelle.
The government’s report of a giant job loss in November, the biggest monthly decline in a generation, puts more pressure on Congress and the administration to move quickly on a stimulus package, mortgage relief and perhaps financial aid for Detroit’s big automakers.
The nation’s employers cut 533,000 jobs in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
Not since December 1974, toward the end of a severe recession, have so many jobs disappeared in a single month — and the current recession, far from ending, appears to be just gathering steam.
“We are caught in a downward spiral in which employment, incomes and spending are collapsing together,” said Nigel Gault, chief domestic economist for IHS Global Insight. “With private spending frozen, we have no choice but to rely on a stimulus package to revive the economy.”
The unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent, up just two-tenths of a percentage point from October, but up six-tenths over the last three months. More than 420,000 men and women who had been working or seeking work in October left the labor force in November.
More significantly, the unemployment rate does not include those too discouraged to look for work any longer or those working fewer hours than they would like. Add those people to the roster of the unemployed, and the rate hit a record 12.5 percent in November, up 1.5 percentage points since September.
Noting that 1.9 million jobs have been lost since the start of the recession a year ago — two-thirds of them since September — President-elect Barack Obama invoked public spending as the best way to get a dead-in-the-water economy moving again. “This painful crisis,” he said in a statement, is an opportunity “to improve the lives of ordinary people by rebuilding roads and modernizing schools for our children,” and by investing in clean energy projects.
A goal of all this spending is to generate 2.5 million jobs over the next two years, he said, repeating an earlier pledge. Given the accelerating job losses, hitting that target would barely recover the jobs that have disappeared over the last year.
As part of Friday’s announcement, the government revised higher its estimates of jobs lost in September and October. Instead of 524,000 jobs disappearing in those months, 723,000 were lost, or a total of 1.2 million jobs in just three months. In all, jobs have been lost in each of the last 11 months.
“Obama is being deliberately unclear about those 2.5 million jobs,” said Robert Pollin, a University of Massachusetts economist. “He is not going to add 2.5 million on top of recovering the 1.9 million that have been lost so far this year.”
Despite the deterioration of the labor market, Democrats in Congress and a lame-duck president remain in a standoff over rescue measures.
At its core, the stalemate between the Republicans and the Democrats springs from fundamentally different views about the nature of the crisis and the role of government in resolving it. The White House contends that it has rightly focused on the credit and housing markets, while the Democrats see economic problems that can be resolved only through broader intervention.
New efforts to adopt a broad economic package are likely to wait until the new president takes office and Democrats have bigger majorities in Congress. That delay poses the possibility of a deeper recession, according to some experts.
President Bush, appearing in front of cameras on Friday morning at the White House, said he was “concerned about our workers who have lost jobs.” But he offered no hint of softening his opposition to either a stimulus package or a bailout of the automobile industry, saying that the measures already put in place by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to ease credit problems would take time to work.
Shortly after his appearance, a White House spokesman, Scott Stanzel, dashed any expectation of a change in policy when he said that officials expected a stimulus package would “happen in the next administration.”
Support is building for a significant stimulus package as the economy slips into a deep recession. Most forecasters expect the gross domestic product to contract in the current fourth quarter at an annual rate of 4 or 5 percent, and continue to contract through most of next year, shrinking by 2 percent for all of 2009 — a contraction that has occurred only once since World War II: in 1982, a year of severe recession.
“If there was any doubt that a very large fiscal stimulus is required, then the numbers we have been getting recently should dispel that doubt,” said Jan Hatzius, chief domestic economist for Goldman Sachs. To offset the private sector retrenchment, he added, “we will need a stimulus package of $600 billion at an annual rate, or $1.2 trillion over two years.”
Economists and policy makers increasingly share his estimate of what it will take to revive America’s $14 trillion economy, with Democratic leaders talking recently about a stimulus package of $400 billion or more.
Though any broad economic package seems to be delayed, Democrats still had faint hopes of approving next week a rescue package for the car companies. Their goal would be to prevent far more rapid deterioration in the job market.
The latest job numbers were stark evidence of a breakdown in consumer spending and business investment since mid-September, when the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve decided to let Lehman Brothers fail, delivering a shock to the financial sector. Almost simultaneously, stock prices began a free fall, undermining the wealth and the retirement accounts of millions of Americans.
“We have recorded the largest decline in consumer confidence in our history,” said Richard T. Curtin, director of the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers, which started its polling in the 1950s.
Job loss has played a big role in this erosion, he acknowledged. But so have fewer hours of work, smaller bonuses, less overtime, falling home prices, falling stock prices and a drumbeat of job cut announcements — the most recent, this week, from big names like AT&T, Viacom, CVS, DuPont and the Avis Budget Group.
The Dow Jones industrial average, down more than 20 percent since mid-September, fell Friday morning in response to the November jobs report, but recovered later and gained 259.18 points, or 3 percent, by the end of trading, to close at 8,635.42.
With home prices still in decline, one in 10 mortgage holders was either delinquent on loans in September or in foreclosure, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Friday. That was up from 9.2 percent in June and the highest percentage since the association began to collect this data 30 years ago.
The mortgage crisis makes lenders ever more reluctant to lend for the purchase of homes, autos and other big consumer items. In more normal times, lenders bundle these loans into securities and sell them. The buyers of these securities have disappeared in the current credit crisis, however, and the Federal Reserve is considering ways for lenders to borrow from the Fed, using the securities as collateral.
Jobs disappeared last month from every sector of the economy except health care and state government, which mainly added educators. The biggest losses were in manufacturing, construction, retailing — despite the first month of Christmas shopping — financial services, hotel and restaurant work and temporary workers. Over the course of the recession, 604,000 jobs — nearly one-third of the total — have been eliminated in manufacturing, and the Big Three automakers promise more layoffs to qualify for a federal bailout.
“Business shut down in November,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “Businesses are in survival mode and are slashing jobs and investment to conserve cash. Unless credit starts flowing soon, big job losses will continue well into next year.”
The administration says its recent actions are beginning to make credit flow more easily. “We are pulling some very significant levers on the economy right now, through what we’re doing with Treasury and what we’re doing with the Fed,” said Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman.
Jack Healy contributed reporting.
The New York Times
December 6, 2008
This article was reported by Louis Uchitelle, Edmund L. Andrews and Stephen Labaton and written by Mr. Uchitelle.
The government’s report of a giant job loss in November, the biggest monthly decline in a generation, puts more pressure on Congress and the administration to move quickly on a stimulus package, mortgage relief and perhaps financial aid for Detroit’s big automakers.
The nation’s employers cut 533,000 jobs in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
Not since December 1974, toward the end of a severe recession, have so many jobs disappeared in a single month — and the current recession, far from ending, appears to be just gathering steam.
“We are caught in a downward spiral in which employment, incomes and spending are collapsing together,” said Nigel Gault, chief domestic economist for IHS Global Insight. “With private spending frozen, we have no choice but to rely on a stimulus package to revive the economy.”
The unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent, up just two-tenths of a percentage point from October, but up six-tenths over the last three months. More than 420,000 men and women who had been working or seeking work in October left the labor force in November.
More significantly, the unemployment rate does not include those too discouraged to look for work any longer or those working fewer hours than they would like. Add those people to the roster of the unemployed, and the rate hit a record 12.5 percent in November, up 1.5 percentage points since September.
Noting that 1.9 million jobs have been lost since the start of the recession a year ago — two-thirds of them since September — President-elect Barack Obama invoked public spending as the best way to get a dead-in-the-water economy moving again. “This painful crisis,” he said in a statement, is an opportunity “to improve the lives of ordinary people by rebuilding roads and modernizing schools for our children,” and by investing in clean energy projects.
A goal of all this spending is to generate 2.5 million jobs over the next two years, he said, repeating an earlier pledge. Given the accelerating job losses, hitting that target would barely recover the jobs that have disappeared over the last year.
As part of Friday’s announcement, the government revised higher its estimates of jobs lost in September and October. Instead of 524,000 jobs disappearing in those months, 723,000 were lost, or a total of 1.2 million jobs in just three months. In all, jobs have been lost in each of the last 11 months.
“Obama is being deliberately unclear about those 2.5 million jobs,” said Robert Pollin, a University of Massachusetts economist. “He is not going to add 2.5 million on top of recovering the 1.9 million that have been lost so far this year.”
Despite the deterioration of the labor market, Democrats in Congress and a lame-duck president remain in a standoff over rescue measures.
At its core, the stalemate between the Republicans and the Democrats springs from fundamentally different views about the nature of the crisis and the role of government in resolving it. The White House contends that it has rightly focused on the credit and housing markets, while the Democrats see economic problems that can be resolved only through broader intervention.
New efforts to adopt a broad economic package are likely to wait until the new president takes office and Democrats have bigger majorities in Congress. That delay poses the possibility of a deeper recession, according to some experts.
President Bush, appearing in front of cameras on Friday morning at the White House, said he was “concerned about our workers who have lost jobs.” But he offered no hint of softening his opposition to either a stimulus package or a bailout of the automobile industry, saying that the measures already put in place by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to ease credit problems would take time to work.
Shortly after his appearance, a White House spokesman, Scott Stanzel, dashed any expectation of a change in policy when he said that officials expected a stimulus package would “happen in the next administration.”
Support is building for a significant stimulus package as the economy slips into a deep recession. Most forecasters expect the gross domestic product to contract in the current fourth quarter at an annual rate of 4 or 5 percent, and continue to contract through most of next year, shrinking by 2 percent for all of 2009 — a contraction that has occurred only once since World War II: in 1982, a year of severe recession.
“If there was any doubt that a very large fiscal stimulus is required, then the numbers we have been getting recently should dispel that doubt,” said Jan Hatzius, chief domestic economist for Goldman Sachs. To offset the private sector retrenchment, he added, “we will need a stimulus package of $600 billion at an annual rate, or $1.2 trillion over two years.”
Economists and policy makers increasingly share his estimate of what it will take to revive America’s $14 trillion economy, with Democratic leaders talking recently about a stimulus package of $400 billion or more.
Though any broad economic package seems to be delayed, Democrats still had faint hopes of approving next week a rescue package for the car companies. Their goal would be to prevent far more rapid deterioration in the job market.
The latest job numbers were stark evidence of a breakdown in consumer spending and business investment since mid-September, when the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve decided to let Lehman Brothers fail, delivering a shock to the financial sector. Almost simultaneously, stock prices began a free fall, undermining the wealth and the retirement accounts of millions of Americans.
“We have recorded the largest decline in consumer confidence in our history,” said Richard T. Curtin, director of the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers, which started its polling in the 1950s.
Job loss has played a big role in this erosion, he acknowledged. But so have fewer hours of work, smaller bonuses, less overtime, falling home prices, falling stock prices and a drumbeat of job cut announcements — the most recent, this week, from big names like AT&T, Viacom, CVS, DuPont and the Avis Budget Group.
The Dow Jones industrial average, down more than 20 percent since mid-September, fell Friday morning in response to the November jobs report, but recovered later and gained 259.18 points, or 3 percent, by the end of trading, to close at 8,635.42.
With home prices still in decline, one in 10 mortgage holders was either delinquent on loans in September or in foreclosure, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Friday. That was up from 9.2 percent in June and the highest percentage since the association began to collect this data 30 years ago.
The mortgage crisis makes lenders ever more reluctant to lend for the purchase of homes, autos and other big consumer items. In more normal times, lenders bundle these loans into securities and sell them. The buyers of these securities have disappeared in the current credit crisis, however, and the Federal Reserve is considering ways for lenders to borrow from the Fed, using the securities as collateral.
Jobs disappeared last month from every sector of the economy except health care and state government, which mainly added educators. The biggest losses were in manufacturing, construction, retailing — despite the first month of Christmas shopping — financial services, hotel and restaurant work and temporary workers. Over the course of the recession, 604,000 jobs — nearly one-third of the total — have been eliminated in manufacturing, and the Big Three automakers promise more layoffs to qualify for a federal bailout.
“Business shut down in November,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “Businesses are in survival mode and are slashing jobs and investment to conserve cash. Unless credit starts flowing soon, big job losses will continue well into next year.”
The administration says its recent actions are beginning to make credit flow more easily. “We are pulling some very significant levers on the economy right now, through what we’re doing with Treasury and what we’re doing with the Fed,” said Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman.
Jack Healy contributed reporting.
Friday, December 26, 2008
“How Could This Happen to Me?”
by Stacy Whelchel
PPL Corporate Writer
It’s heartbreaking to hear those words coming from homeowners on the brink of losing their property through foreclosure proceedings. Unfortunately, it seems like it’s a daily story in the news.
I recently read a story about a Jacksonville, Fla. woman describing her desperation as foreclosure proceedings closed in on a small home she had faithfully made payments on from 1999 to 2004. Then sickness and loss of a job left her unable to keep up with soaring mortgage payments and the many fees that were quickly tacked on by the loan holder. The more she tried to make smaller payments, the more the bank demanded full payment or nothing.
Can you imagine being in the midst of this frightening situation without legal counsel to guide you through the maze of court papers and overwhelming proceedings? Retaining fees can add up to hundreds of dollars. There is incredible value offered by a Pre-Paid Legal membership. Our members can depend on the sound advice of experienced dedicated attorneys.
Foreclosure can happen to anyone in the tough economic times that continue to ravage our nation. Pre-Paid Legal plans and our provider attorneys can offer answers to the tough legal questions from foreclosure to personal injury issues. Try it. The power of Pre-Paid Legal is ready to work for you today.
PPL Corporate Writer
It’s heartbreaking to hear those words coming from homeowners on the brink of losing their property through foreclosure proceedings. Unfortunately, it seems like it’s a daily story in the news.
I recently read a story about a Jacksonville, Fla. woman describing her desperation as foreclosure proceedings closed in on a small home she had faithfully made payments on from 1999 to 2004. Then sickness and loss of a job left her unable to keep up with soaring mortgage payments and the many fees that were quickly tacked on by the loan holder. The more she tried to make smaller payments, the more the bank demanded full payment or nothing.
Can you imagine being in the midst of this frightening situation without legal counsel to guide you through the maze of court papers and overwhelming proceedings? Retaining fees can add up to hundreds of dollars. There is incredible value offered by a Pre-Paid Legal membership. Our members can depend on the sound advice of experienced dedicated attorneys.
Foreclosure can happen to anyone in the tough economic times that continue to ravage our nation. Pre-Paid Legal plans and our provider attorneys can offer answers to the tough legal questions from foreclosure to personal injury issues. Try it. The power of Pre-Paid Legal is ready to work for you today.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
From the Rapozo household, we wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year. Take care and God bless.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Holidays are a time of giving and sharing. Why not share the biggest opportunity of your life with your family and friends?
by Adam Huckeby, Creative Director
Many of us are going to be around family and friends (who we rarely see) in the next few days. Conversations about the economy, a new president, and many other topics will be thick in the air. Why not take advantage of the casual atmosphere to talk about your Pre-Paid Legal business and how you expect the next months/year to be the best you’ve ever seen?
There has never been a better time in our history than right now to share the opportunity with family and friends. While the economy is going down, we're providing a solution. While people experience layoffs, we heard on the leadership call just this morning that one of our Associates brought 18 new people into the business last week. That's 18 people in ONE WEEK! Pre-Paid Legal is the place to be – right now.
To help you out, several of our leaders are hosting calls every day through the end of 2008. These are calls the reveal their philosophy and techniques of working with Pre-Paid Legal. To tap in to this incredible resource, call 712-432-8995 (then press 1#, and 1# again).
If you find someone with interest in the business, but they’re just not convinced yet, you have at your disposal many tools, but for an easy and convenient tool, simply program the following number into your cell phone. Encourage anyone who is even a little bit interested to listen to this short call. Simply dial this number, and hand the phone to your prospective Associate. The number to program into your cell phone is: Recruiting Call: 712-432-7545 (then press 1#, and 1# again).
Again, both of these numbers will be available through the end of this year (2008).
Many of us are going to be around family and friends (who we rarely see) in the next few days. Conversations about the economy, a new president, and many other topics will be thick in the air. Why not take advantage of the casual atmosphere to talk about your Pre-Paid Legal business and how you expect the next months/year to be the best you’ve ever seen?
There has never been a better time in our history than right now to share the opportunity with family and friends. While the economy is going down, we're providing a solution. While people experience layoffs, we heard on the leadership call just this morning that one of our Associates brought 18 new people into the business last week. That's 18 people in ONE WEEK! Pre-Paid Legal is the place to be – right now.
To help you out, several of our leaders are hosting calls every day through the end of 2008. These are calls the reveal their philosophy and techniques of working with Pre-Paid Legal. To tap in to this incredible resource, call 712-432-8995 (then press 1#, and 1# again).
If you find someone with interest in the business, but they’re just not convinced yet, you have at your disposal many tools, but for an easy and convenient tool, simply program the following number into your cell phone. Encourage anyone who is even a little bit interested to listen to this short call. Simply dial this number, and hand the phone to your prospective Associate. The number to program into your cell phone is: Recruiting Call: 712-432-7545 (then press 1#, and 1# again).
Again, both of these numbers will be available through the end of this year (2008).
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Wouldn't You Say That Hawaii is an Opportunity for Preraid Legal Services?
Hawaii Jobless Rate Highest in 9 Years; Hawaii's Weakening Economy Pushes Figure in November to 4.9%
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
The state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in November reached a nine-year high of 4.9 percent as employers continue to struggle in a weakening economy.The jobless rate was 2 percentage points higher than in the same month last year and a 0.3 percentage point increase from October. Unemployment has climbed steadily since late last year and has been fueled by dozens of companies laying off thousands of workers.
The number of unemployed last month was 32,650, compared with 30,400 in October and 18,850 a year ago, according to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. The number of seasonally adjusted nonagricultural jobs grew by 1,200 from 620,300 in October, but there were job losses in nearly every private-sector industry, the state reported.
Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent last month, the highest since October 1993, when it stood at 6.8 percent. Michigan had the country's highest rate at 9.6 percent, followed by Rhode Island at 9.3 percent, while Wyoming had the lowest rate at 3.2 percent.
Hawai'i's rising jobless rate comes as no surprise as economists have predicted that the economy will continue to slow and unemployment will continue to climb through 2009.
In his economic forecast for First Hawaiian Bank, Hawai'i Pacific University professor Leroy Laney last month projected an average 5.5 percent unemployment rate next year. But, he said yesterday, that "might even be a little low at this point."
"It's just a reflection in economy and it's not surprising to me to see it at that level and I do think that it will continue to rise," Laney said. "Tourism has been very weak and that's reflected in various things, not just the visitor industry itself, but in retailing and in jobs that are directly and indirectly related to tourism."
Just how bad the job market has become was evident Thursday and yesterday, when thousands of people showed up at the Target Corp. job fair at the Hawai'i Convention Center. The retail giant is holding a four-day job fair to fill 1,200 jobs at stores in Salt Lake and Kapolei, which will open in March.
During the first two days of the fair, Target officials have turned away applicants before the official start of the event because so many hopefuls had showed up.
Yesterday, people were allowed to start lining up at 4 a.m. and the doors to the convention center opened an hour later. By 7 a.m., about 1,000 people had entered the center and Target told applicants outside that they can return today or tomorrow when the fair resumed.
Rob Parke, Target district team leader, said about 25 percent of the 1,200 positions were filled Thursday and he expected the same amount of jobs to be claimed yesterday.
"So going into (this) morning, we'll still have approximately half of our jobs open," Parke said.
He said Target officials were pleasantly surprised with the turnout.
"Today was an unusually large second-day turnout," he said. "It's very exciting. It confirms that this is the right place for us to be, and it appears the community is as excited to have us here as we are to be here."
Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.
By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer
The state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in November reached a nine-year high of 4.9 percent as employers continue to struggle in a weakening economy.The jobless rate was 2 percentage points higher than in the same month last year and a 0.3 percentage point increase from October. Unemployment has climbed steadily since late last year and has been fueled by dozens of companies laying off thousands of workers.
The number of unemployed last month was 32,650, compared with 30,400 in October and 18,850 a year ago, according to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. The number of seasonally adjusted nonagricultural jobs grew by 1,200 from 620,300 in October, but there were job losses in nearly every private-sector industry, the state reported.
Nationally, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent last month, the highest since October 1993, when it stood at 6.8 percent. Michigan had the country's highest rate at 9.6 percent, followed by Rhode Island at 9.3 percent, while Wyoming had the lowest rate at 3.2 percent.
Hawai'i's rising jobless rate comes as no surprise as economists have predicted that the economy will continue to slow and unemployment will continue to climb through 2009.
In his economic forecast for First Hawaiian Bank, Hawai'i Pacific University professor Leroy Laney last month projected an average 5.5 percent unemployment rate next year. But, he said yesterday, that "might even be a little low at this point."
"It's just a reflection in economy and it's not surprising to me to see it at that level and I do think that it will continue to rise," Laney said. "Tourism has been very weak and that's reflected in various things, not just the visitor industry itself, but in retailing and in jobs that are directly and indirectly related to tourism."
Just how bad the job market has become was evident Thursday and yesterday, when thousands of people showed up at the Target Corp. job fair at the Hawai'i Convention Center. The retail giant is holding a four-day job fair to fill 1,200 jobs at stores in Salt Lake and Kapolei, which will open in March.
During the first two days of the fair, Target officials have turned away applicants before the official start of the event because so many hopefuls had showed up.
Yesterday, people were allowed to start lining up at 4 a.m. and the doors to the convention center opened an hour later. By 7 a.m., about 1,000 people had entered the center and Target told applicants outside that they can return today or tomorrow when the fair resumed.
Rob Parke, Target district team leader, said about 25 percent of the 1,200 positions were filled Thursday and he expected the same amount of jobs to be claimed yesterday.
"So going into (this) morning, we'll still have approximately half of our jobs open," Parke said.
He said Target officials were pleasantly surprised with the turnout.
"Today was an unusually large second-day turnout," he said. "It's very exciting. It confirms that this is the right place for us to be, and it appears the community is as excited to have us here as we are to be here."
Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Your Custom Brochures are in Good Hands
By Jamie Pittman
PPL Project Manager
Recently, I took a road trip to tour the production facility of Pre-Paid Legal’s custom brochure program (http://www.amacustom.com/). I was excited, and jumped at the chance to view a large print production facility in action. Walking in their office, you could tell this was a quality operation. The receptionist was friendly and we were greeted with smiles from every employee we encountered.
After spending a little time in the operations room (where the orders are taken from the website and processed), we finally made our way to the production equipment. After six hours in the car I was a little tired and wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. After turning the corner in the press room, I was immediately impressed. The equipment is amazing. The sheer size of the operation is a bit overwhelming. The machines rumbled as the print pieces made their way through each step of production; printing, folding, bundling, wrapping, and packaging…and ultimately mailing/delivery.
What impressed me most was the attention to detail, and the amount of care the employees took with each order. The custom brochure process is very fluid; from the Associate clicking to submit an order to stacking the items in a shipping box and sending them on their way. If you are a PPL Independent Associate, I encourage you to take a few minutes to visit the custom brochure site at http://www.amacustom.com/.
PPL Project Manager
Recently, I took a road trip to tour the production facility of Pre-Paid Legal’s custom brochure program (http://www.amacustom.com/). I was excited, and jumped at the chance to view a large print production facility in action. Walking in their office, you could tell this was a quality operation. The receptionist was friendly and we were greeted with smiles from every employee we encountered.
After spending a little time in the operations room (where the orders are taken from the website and processed), we finally made our way to the production equipment. After six hours in the car I was a little tired and wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. After turning the corner in the press room, I was immediately impressed. The equipment is amazing. The sheer size of the operation is a bit overwhelming. The machines rumbled as the print pieces made their way through each step of production; printing, folding, bundling, wrapping, and packaging…and ultimately mailing/delivery.
What impressed me most was the attention to detail, and the amount of care the employees took with each order. The custom brochure process is very fluid; from the Associate clicking to submit an order to stacking the items in a shipping box and sending them on their way. If you are a PPL Independent Associate, I encourage you to take a few minutes to visit the custom brochure site at http://www.amacustom.com/.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
End of Year Deadlines
As the holidays grow closer, the hope here is that all of our associates, members, provider law firms and home office staff enjoy time with their family and friends and celebrate the season.
>From an operational standpoint, please be aware of the
two points below:
1) Deadline for applications to be at the home office
(and processible) is 2 p.m. on Wednesday, December 31.
As you will recall, a one-time exception was made for
EDs at the end of November.There will be NO EXCEPTIONS
made for Executive Director or Player's Club qualification.
You should strive to get business submitted before the last
day of the month;
2) Pre-Paid Legal's home office will be closed on
Tuesday, December 23 through Thursday, December 25.
We will be open on Friday, December 26. While we will
be closed on New Year's Day, we will be open on
Wednesday, December 31.
>From an operational standpoint, please be aware of the
two points below:
1) Deadline for applications to be at the home office
(and processible) is 2 p.m. on Wednesday, December 31.
As you will recall, a one-time exception was made for
EDs at the end of November.There will be NO EXCEPTIONS
made for Executive Director or Player's Club qualification.
You should strive to get business submitted before the last
day of the month;
2) Pre-Paid Legal's home office will be closed on
Tuesday, December 23 through Thursday, December 25.
We will be open on Friday, December 26. While we will
be closed on New Year's Day, we will be open on
Wednesday, December 31.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
A Thought for Us!
“The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.”
—Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959); film producer and director
—Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959); film producer and director
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Hilo Hattie will lay off 31 amid tourism slump
By Robbie Dingeman and Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writers
In a further sign of the troubled economy, three Hawai'i companies have announced they will lay off a total of 123 employees over the next few weeks.
Hilo Hattie yesterday said it will let go 31 members of its Honolulu staff. The company blamed the slump in tourism and difficult economic climate for the move.
Acutron Co. Inc., a thermal insulation company, said it will shut down its operations by Feb. 13 and lay off 59 workers. Also, Unitek Technical Services LLC, an affiliate of Pacific Marine & Supply Co., notified the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations that it also will close down by Feb. 13 and lay off 33 employees.
Officials at Acutron and Unitek could not be reached for comment yesterday.
John Scott, president of Hilo Hattie The Store of Hawaii, said in a statement that the decision to lay off the workers was a difficult one to make, especially during the holiday season.
"Regrettably, we have today laid off 31 staff at our Hilo Hattie headquarters office on Nimitz Highway as a result of a precipitous drop in sales due to the increasingly harsh recession and in particular the decline in visitors to Hawai'i," Scott said. "Hawai'i is hard hit by the global economic meltdown and the consequences of that are especially tough on the retail sector," he said.
On Oct. 2, the company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Scott said the company still employs 227 people at seven stores in Hawai'i and one in California and plans to open a new flagship Hilo Hattie store at the Royal Hawaiian Center in Waikiki in July 2009.
Scott added, "The people that are leaving us are terrific employees and we will support them in their quest to find other positions.
Hilo Hattie is one of Hawai'i's most well-known retailers. Established in 1963 by Jim Romig, the company grew and largely did well over its first few decades under Romig's leadership, but got into major trouble following an aggressive Mainland expansion in the last decade.
Of seven Mainland stores, all but one were closed, and at significant cost.
Sales fell from $69 million in the 2006 fiscal year to $56 million last year and about $42 million in the most recent fiscal year ended Oct. 1.
The company earned a $500,000 profit in 2006, lost $4.6 million in 2007, and recorded an unspecified "large" loss in the most recent fiscal year.
Romig in July sold the ailing company for an undisclosed price to a California investor group led by Ted Nelson, who through another company owns franchise rights to Fantastic Sams salons in Hawai'i and California.
Nelson's group brought in Mark Storfer, a former Liberty House executive, and appointed Scott, a former Hilo Hattie official, as company president.
************************
The economy may be heading south and companies may be laying off employees but Prepaid Legal Services, Inc. is alive and well. Let's make sure we let everyone know about our opportunity. Give them the choice to say yes or no. Now is not the time to prejudge anyone.
Mel
Advertiser Staff Writers
In a further sign of the troubled economy, three Hawai'i companies have announced they will lay off a total of 123 employees over the next few weeks.
Hilo Hattie yesterday said it will let go 31 members of its Honolulu staff. The company blamed the slump in tourism and difficult economic climate for the move.
Acutron Co. Inc., a thermal insulation company, said it will shut down its operations by Feb. 13 and lay off 59 workers. Also, Unitek Technical Services LLC, an affiliate of Pacific Marine & Supply Co., notified the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations that it also will close down by Feb. 13 and lay off 33 employees.
Officials at Acutron and Unitek could not be reached for comment yesterday.
John Scott, president of Hilo Hattie The Store of Hawaii, said in a statement that the decision to lay off the workers was a difficult one to make, especially during the holiday season.
"Regrettably, we have today laid off 31 staff at our Hilo Hattie headquarters office on Nimitz Highway as a result of a precipitous drop in sales due to the increasingly harsh recession and in particular the decline in visitors to Hawai'i," Scott said. "Hawai'i is hard hit by the global economic meltdown and the consequences of that are especially tough on the retail sector," he said.
On Oct. 2, the company filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Scott said the company still employs 227 people at seven stores in Hawai'i and one in California and plans to open a new flagship Hilo Hattie store at the Royal Hawaiian Center in Waikiki in July 2009.
Scott added, "The people that are leaving us are terrific employees and we will support them in their quest to find other positions.
Hilo Hattie is one of Hawai'i's most well-known retailers. Established in 1963 by Jim Romig, the company grew and largely did well over its first few decades under Romig's leadership, but got into major trouble following an aggressive Mainland expansion in the last decade.
Of seven Mainland stores, all but one were closed, and at significant cost.
Sales fell from $69 million in the 2006 fiscal year to $56 million last year and about $42 million in the most recent fiscal year ended Oct. 1.
The company earned a $500,000 profit in 2006, lost $4.6 million in 2007, and recorded an unspecified "large" loss in the most recent fiscal year.
Romig in July sold the ailing company for an undisclosed price to a California investor group led by Ted Nelson, who through another company owns franchise rights to Fantastic Sams salons in Hawai'i and California.
Nelson's group brought in Mark Storfer, a former Liberty House executive, and appointed Scott, a former Hilo Hattie official, as company president.
************************
The economy may be heading south and companies may be laying off employees but Prepaid Legal Services, Inc. is alive and well. Let's make sure we let everyone know about our opportunity. Give them the choice to say yes or no. Now is not the time to prejudge anyone.
Mel
Monday, December 15, 2008
Welcome to PPL Hawaii
Aloha everyone. This blog is for PPL Associates. Please use this blog to share stories, strategies, tips, motivations, etc. This is a great tool so please take advantage. I look forward to moderating a lively and informative blog. Take care.
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