Invest Now: A Canadian's Guide to Investing

Invest Now: Ahmed Dawn

I have a special announcement to make. But first, I would like to thank all of you for making A Dawn Journal and Canada’s Personal Finance Web Site a huge success. Some of you may have noticed a tiny ad on the top right corner of this site. Yes, this is about Invest Now. My first book Invest Now will be available in early 2008. I do not have a definite date at this time as Invest Now is going through design and format manuscript process at the publisher.

What is Invest Now about? Invest Now is a simple, step by step guide to start investing for the first time. I have put together some information about Invest Now on Canada's Personal Finance Website. Please click here to visit - Invest Now

I will keep you updated from now on and I have created a new category Invest Now to post all my Invest Now related news. I truly hope Invest Now will help Canadians to start investing for the first time. This book is written for Canadians who never invested before and would like to start with minimal risk.

First Published: Oct 22, 2007 ADawnJournal.com

Different Perspectives to Entrepreneurship

What Approach Should You Take?

There is a cliché image surrounding entrepreneurs which essentially amounts to a caricature of a man (almost always a man) with a cell phone clamped to one ear and a briefcase held in the other hand, looking increasingly impatient as the rest of the world fails to give them their due for being so clever. In fact, entrepreneurs get a bit of a hard time from a lot of people, but in all truth the definition “entrepreneur” tells you no more about a person than the word “tall”. There are many different perspectives to entrepreneurship, and the one thing which unites all entrepreneurs is that they use their initiative to make money. The many things that separate them, now, they are the important bits.

Some entrepreneurs are just like the cliché mentioned above. It is inevitable that they will be, really, as clichés tend to have some basis in fact. Often it is this kind of impatience and hustle that takes a business from being quite average to being the best in its field. This is the case for as long as any entrepreneur will benefit from being impatient and persistent. That is to say that it works well for quick pressure selling, but not so well for more specific niches. Some entrepreneurs are successful for other reasons. Some are actually a lot more methodical because it is that approach that will gain them the most interest from customers. What is it, you need to ask, that defines the niche in which I work?

Sometimes you need to be the details guy or gal. Customers set a lot of store by getting exactly what they want, and will pay what it takes, wait as long as it takes, to get it. being strong on detail will get you everywhere with those customers. A manufacturing entrepreneur may well find that their target market is full of such customers. Then again, it might be all about the quick turnaround. A good sense of observation rarely goes to waste for an entrepreneur – being aware of what seems to be popular can feed into making lots of money, and being ready to ask questions and learn about your customers often pays off handsomely too.

To find what makes your entrepreneurial spirit unique to you, you need only look at what you are like as a person. If your friends use words like “considerate” to describe you, then you are, in all likelihood, going to make money by being attentive to customers’ needs. If you are often described as “witty”, then you may well find that you have the sales pitch that can sell just about any product to a captive audience. Play to your strengths, and what’s more, always be inwardly tenacious. You don’t need to always be in the customer’s face. Being there when they need you – whatever kind of entrepreneur you may be – will always pay off. Having a reputation for reliability is the kind of advertising that money cannot buy.

First Published: Aug 24, 2009 EntrepreneurJourney.com

Why is American Express Canada Removing Their Minimum Income Requirement?

Amex Canada Eliminates Minimum Income

Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are my own and not anyone else’s or those of the credit card companies. My opinions are based on my own analysis and in reality credit card companies may be pursuing these policies and procedures to achieve very different objectives.

American Express recently removed the minimum income requirement on all their cards, including high-end cards such as Amex Gold and Amex Platinum. Today, I will give my take on the reasons behind this decision and what it means for Visa and MasterCard.

Currently Visa’s elite series card, Visa Infinite, has a minimum annual income requirement of $60,000/00 personal and $100,000/00 household and MasterCard’s elite series card, World Elite, has a minimum income requirement of $80,000/00 personal and $150,000/00 household income. By establishing a higher minimum income requirement, Visa and MasterCard don’t want everyone or those with lower income to hold these elite series cards.

This is my understanding that the reasons behind this: merchants pay higher fees on elite series cards and by restricting these cards to only higher income groups Visa and MasterCard are trying to balance out the higher fees merchants pay because it is expected these groups will spend more than lower-income groups. However, in reality this may not be the case, as it is not necessarily true that high-end cardholders will spend more than regular card holders.

This is where Amex comes in. By targeting those left behind by Visa and MasterCard, they are grabbing a significant part of market share that will turn out positive for their business. American Express is mainly targeting those groups of people.

They are targeting young people who just joined the workforce, college/university students, and middle-aged to older people who want high-end credit cards. The main boost Amex will get will be from younger people who just joined the workforce and students, as these people will remain loyal to Amex in the latter years when their income goes up. Amex is not just looking at business today, but they are looking to grab market share from Visa and MasterCard for years to come.

It will be interesting to see what reactions this brings from Visa and MasterCard. They may decide to idle away and do nothing, watching American Express grab market share from them or they may take actions to lure these groups Amex is targeting by releasing innovative products or by lowering the minimum income on their elite series cards.

Canada Is Back In The Top 10 Of The Least Corrupt Countries

Canada Least Corrupt

Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) tracks corruption worldwide and their 2007 Index was just published recently. 2007 CPI looked at 180 countries (the greatest country coverage so far) and collected corruption related data carried out by 14 expert opinion surveys. Canada is back in the top 10 of the least corrupt countries.

 In 2006 Canada fell out of the top 10 of the least corrupt counties. Critics argued that sponsorship scandal had a major role ranking Canada out of the top 10. I am glad we are no longer in the same ranking as 2006. Canada has always been a corruption free country and congratulations to Canada for maintaining this achievement. I expect Canada to rank even higher on the list in 2008.

Let me give you the top ten 2007 least corrupt countries with their score:

• Denmark 9.4

• Finland 9.4

• New Zealand 9.4

• Singapore 9.3

• Sweden 9.3

• Iceland 9.2

• Netherlands 9.0

• Switzerland 9.0

• Canada 8.7

• Norway 8.7

If you would like to find out more, please visit Transparency International website at http://www.transparency.org. 

First Published: Oct 1, 2007 ADawnJournal.com 

A Budget Travel Tripod - Koolehaoda 56-inch SLR Camera Tripod

Compact Travel Tripod Review

If you are searching for a lightweight and compact tripod that you can travel with, you know how hard it is to find one that is wallet friendly. Of course, there are those high-end brand name ones, but not everyone may want to shell out $300 to $400 for a travel tripod.

That’s where value brand like Koolehaoda comes in. At a fraction of the cost (of the fancy ones), you can have very similar features and functionality that work without burning your wallet.

The one I purchased is a 56-inch, compact, and lightweight. Here are some specs:

Weight: 1290 kg or 2.85 lb

Height: 13.6 inch and 56 inch

One leg can be detached to work as a monopod.

Made of aluminium alloy and comes with universal ball head handle letting you perform 360 panoramic rotation. Flip lock legs are very quick and easy to manoeuvre.

As my YouTube channel www.YouTube.com/ADawn is growing, I needed a portable travel tripod without spending too much, and Koolehaoda is what I decided on after doing my research. Of course, there are other similar low-cost brands, but Koolehaoda is what I picked and have been using.

I also did a Koolehaoda YouTube review on my channel, which you can watch to find out further. Also, here is my Amazon link for Canadian visitors. Full disclosure: If you purchase using this link, I get a small commission.

Like my other reviews, this was not paid by anyone and all the opinions are unbiased and honest. There are some features of this tripod that I did not like, which I mentioned on the YouTube review. Always take your time to do your research to decide before buying anything, so you won’t regret it later on.