18 January 2012

Walid Mahmoud wanted nothing more in life but to open his own pizza shop. After spending two years in Italy preparing pizza at a common pizza shop he knew he could do it. He opened up his first pizza shop in June under an Italian flag with Arabic writing on it. It was a block down from the “green zone” of central Baghdad. Business did great for a while until the terrorist blew up the United Nations compound. Business slowly got worse and worse. He didn’t last long as an Iraqi soldier before coming home. Once he made his way home he went to Jordan to run a pizza shop with his cousins. After a while of turning out 500 pizzas a day he heard some exciting news on the radio, the Americans overtook Baghdad. Returning home he opened up his finally pizza shop and has been in business ever since.

What made Mahmound’s idea so brilliant? Well he took a bad situation and turning it into a profit. He knew Americans would be in his area for a while, if not forever, and he knew they liked pizza. So using his training he opened up the only pizza joint around knowing that these Americans would go there to eat without having competition. He involves his family not only from borrowing money from them but he also uses there labor.  His brothers put on the toppings, a nephew puts them in boxes, and a brother-in-law runs the cash register.

I think a burger join such as Burger King or McDonalds would do well over there during war. With all the Americans over there they are bound to make businesses. Americans are known to be the fattest people right? So why not feed off of that? You know they want greasy burgers and fries so give it to them and you will make tons of money. I personally would not go into business overseas, especially during a war! It is way too dangerous and I am not willing to risk my life for money.

To open a business you first must decide whether you want to open in the free zone or the UAE market. In the market the regional people are more willing to buy your products and it is easier for you to buy theirs. However the government also takes part of your profit and decides what you can and cannot sell. In the UAE zone anyone can buy your stuff, however it’s a far stretch because people do not want to be out there. You get to keep your profits and sell what you wish but less people are going to be willing to buy. King Rent A Car is a car rental service in Iraq. It originally started here in the United States, the owners opened a franchises overseas knowing that many tourist would need rides places. It has become a very successful business.

9 January 2012

A very common question is whether or not you should hide your body art during a job interview, many professionals say yes. Although some people are okay with body art some are not and you are more likely to get the job if they don’t see your tattoos or piercings. People want to hire people who can represent their companies in the best way possible and body art might conflict that, so to save your own butt, cover it up! I think it is okay to cover up your body art for an interview. You want people to focus on your qualities as a worker not your personal views that are shown as a tattoo or a lip piercing. Although I believe that it is your body and you should be able to with it as you please, I can also see where an employer comes from. If I walk into Wal-Mart and my cashier has her face covered in tattoos I might be spooked, which isn’t good for the company.

                I don’t believe that this is a form of discrimination at all. Yes some people truly dislike tattoos and piercings but I don’t think asking you to cover them up for work is discrimination. I don’t believe that they truly care if you have them, its whether or not you can cover them up in a tasteful way for those people that come into the business that don’t like body art. For example if a little old granny walked into her favorite craft store and saw a person with green hair, rings coming out of their mouths, and a tattoo on their forehead, she will probably have a heart attack. I think business owners have the right to hire whoever they like and not who they dislike, as long as they dislike them for a valuable reason such as they don’t have the education, he seems unsanitary, or he will drive away customers.

                If I owned a business I would hire the people appropriate for the job. If I am opening a skate shop in the mall my restrictions will be less than that if I were opening an accounting firm. I think standards about tattoos are much different now than it was 15 years ago. Back then if you had a tattoo you were a hippy or delinquent now and days you can’t even spot the “types” of people who have body art on them.  In my opinion it is okay to deny someone a job if their body art is offensive and it is okay to ask them to cover it up.

                Suing people in the work force for discrimination has its ups and down. For example Lily Ledbetter lost her right to sue because she had not made a complaint the first time her pay was deducted due to sex discrimination. Because of this she couldn’t do a damn thing about the fact that she was not getting equally treated. Along with Ms. Ledbetter is Mr. Humphries, a man who worked at a thriving Crackle Barrel between 1999 and 2001. When he got a new supervisor he complained about racist remarks and was fired soon after. When Humphries first brought forward his case against Crackle Barrel for the racism and some technical issues it was first dismissed. But he didn’t give up! He changed his strategy and went back to work. After a while of fighting the claim he finally got the verdict he wanted, Crackle Barrel owned him money for discriminating against him for being black and firing him for unfair reasons.

4 Janurary 2012

Dogtown South is an article about a young man named Lincoln Ueda. Mr. Ueda is a pro skateboarder who came off the streets of Brazil $180,000 a year. Now this isn’t much compared to the soccer players of his home town but it’s what he loves to do and has paid off his father’s auto shop and pays for his diabetic father’s medical bills. Mr. Ueda’s career started when he was 12 years old. His father had fought to purchase him and his brother skateboards for Christmas in 1988. He would skate and compete for 4 years before having to take a break due to injury and a recession. After getting back into the game in 1996 he reached the finals of the “Slam City Jam”. After this he moved to California in 1998. He now has sponsors from Nike, Hurley, Element, Etnies and Electric Sunglasses.

            Skateboarding is so popular in Brazil because it is the sport for the underdog. At home basketball is one of the most popular sports in the U.S; all you need is a ball and net. In Brazil that sport is skateboarding, all you need is a set of wheels. As the article puts it “Brazilian skateboarders are like the American black man was in basketball.” It is important for business to recognize when products are popular in other countries because they can see what kinds of activities these people are taking part in. By doing so they know what they can sell to these people and what they can get back from them. Mr. Ueda’s first sponsor was a Guarulhos surfing and skateboarding shop. This was important because the shop allowed Ueda to practice for free at the skating facility. If they hadn’t Ueda might not be able to do as many of his tricks.

            Skate boarding is popular because it is fun and full of suspense. People flying into the air, making 360’s, grinding on bars; it is probably one of the most exciting games out there. In my opinion skateboarding is awesome. I cannot ride myself but I love to watch and see the cool stuff people can do. It takes lots of hard work and practice so I give respect to these people.

            Skateboarding was started in southern California in the 1950 when surfers got the idea to “surf” the streets. They took boards of wood and put wheels on them. Many different forms all came out at the same time so there has never been any proof of the first person to create one. Different people used different forms to come up with the best way to surf the streets. Frank Nasworthy created urethane wheels which are close to what most people use today. He flourished the skating industry when it took a drive into a recession in 1972. Slave Skateboards is the most profitable company in the skateboarding industry.

5 December 2011

Frugal NBA is an article explaining the cut backs franchises have had to make to save money due to the falling economy. The NBA is in a pinch financially because the economy has dropped over the years. The franchises are not making as much money as they use to so they must make cut backs such as limiting assistant coaches, expensive holiday cards, and holiday socials. Most of their cuts backs are more of becoming efficient instead of cutting things back. Scouts from the New Jersey Nets have been grounded due to these cut backs. Instead of traveling to watch upcoming opponents play they are staying home. The Grizzlies have eliminated their whole scouting department.  Some teams are even limiting their players to 13 or 14 compared to their usual 15 players. By doing this they are saving about $1 million a year; however it is also taking away their wiggle room. Coaches won’t be able to rest their key players like they use to or have certain plays.

                NBA teams make money in a few ways. First they are granted some money for each game they have, which included ticket sales, concessions and so forth. Second they are paid off by the TV programs such as ESPN and TNT, which pay each team an average of $28 million a year. Then they get money from merchandise sales and local contacts. Each team gets about the same about for each of these categories; here is where they differ from large, medium, and small markets, sponsors. Large markets make more money from their sponsors, about $30-$40 million. Small markets only make about $10 million with their sponsors. In my opinion I think NBA teams are doing a good job at cutting back on unnecessary spending which is a good start to saving money, but what happens when you run out of things to eliminate? They need to find ways to pay their employees less. So you play a sport for a living, why do you need to make $15 million a year????

30 November 2011

“Fair Play” is an article on Title IX. Title IX is a law that was passed in June 1972. This law made it illegal for any tax funded school to discriminate against females. It all started with Edith Green, a democrat from Oregon. One day she had heard from superintendents that they were making special programs for under privileged boys in their schools, however when Mrs. Green asked if they had any for the girls they said no, that the boys are “going to be the bread winners”. I think Title IX is fair. If boys and men get the right to play baseball, football, basketball and many more then women should have the right to play whatever sports they would like to. I also believe that it is fair that the funding for men sport is being cut for women sports. Both categories should have the same funding. By limiting women’s rights in college it is giving men the upper hand, telling women they can’t while men can, that is a prime example of discrimination which is illegal thanks to the Title IX. In my opinion Mrs. Green did something she should be greatly proud off! She had a vision of making it illegal to discriminate against women and because of that the US was able to win 7 gold medals in the Olympics that year.

Title IX was started in 1972 by Edith Green. It was started because Green believed that is should be illegal to discriminate against women in federally funded schools. Any rights the males had she believed the females should have too. It was originally started with the movement towards not allowing as many women into schools. For example State Universities in Virginia turned away 21,000 women in the 1960’s, however in that same time period not a single male was turned away. Green wanted to fix this. She wanted women to have the same educational opportunities as men had. Now it is more focused on sports. High Schools and colleges have to have more female sport opportunities. High schools have to form more female sports such as basketball, soccer, wrestling, and more because that is what they want to play and they cannot discriminate against that. Colleges have to hand out more sports scholarships to women and allow them to play their sports in colleges. Many didn’t like this at first because it took away from the funding for male sports. I think Title IX will always have to fight for its right to be part of our nation. So many disapprove because it limits something they like such as getting rid of a male sports team to have money for girls sports. However I believe that as long as there is women wanting fair opportunities in schools then the law will stay!

24 October 2011

Mega Bucks is an article about how colleges get funding for their sports teams. For example, OSU has the largest athletic budget is the country. However the sports bring in their own money. For example the football team brings in about $36 million in profits. While their academics may not have the most funding they believe what they do is fair. Athletic department funds them self’s, no money is taken away from academics for the athletic department. Some teams however are cutting sports because they cannot afford them. Rutgers dismissed 6 sports due to “budget cuts” however they were able to give the assistant football coach a raise. This is a school whose athletics don’t run off their own funding.

OSU brings in so much money from concessions, game tickets, endorsements, and from hotels and restaurants that people eat at while in town to see the game. UF’s football team brought in $27 million this year alone. Most schools use the money they raise with the sports on the sports. New equipment, better fields, new stadiums, and even break rooms including flat screen TVs. OSU has a $75,000 hockey treadmill for their men and women’s ice hokey team to practice on. It resembles real ice, goes up to 16 miles per hour and it even simulates shard turns. There are some pro hockey teams that don’t have this machine due to its size and cost! However some money earned is used to better the overall school, from scholarships for the athletes to re-doing the school’s library.

It is important to have such a strong football team because they help pay for the other sports that don’t have such a high income. All sports are important because no one should ever be told they can’t play the game they love because a school doesn’t have money. A strong football team helps pay for these types of sports. In my opinion it definitely is not right for a school to cancel sports because they don’t have enough money but yet they can give raises to the couches of the other more popular sports.  Overall thought, I believe all sports are important to every school.

2 November 2011

“Overinvolved” parents seem to be the new epidemic of colleges. These parents are those that make all the decisions for their kids, what school, what classes, even the roommates! Officials at these schools say that it is not safe for the students, when everything is decided for them they don’t know the common since to stay safe. Most schools are now trying to stop these “overinvolved” parents by setting up their own orientations, hiring people to distract them, anything to move them away from the students for just a bit. The schools must do this in order for the students to be prepared for the college experience. The officials understand that mommy and daddy won’t always be there but these students and parents don’t realize this.

I think schools are right for doing this. It is one thing to get help from your parents and it’s another to let your parents do everything for you. Students have to learn how to do some of these things on their own before they get out into the job world because mom and dad won’t be able to yell at the woman who didn’t hire you, or yell at your boss for being rude. I believe that students will benefit from this. It can teach them some life lessons they have missed out on from being babied their whole lives.

As a senior I will be a part of the fall freshman going into college, and as scared as I am I know my mom will force me to do things on my own. My mom has never been one to do things for me; she has this mato “If you won’t it, you better get it yourself.” I’m sure there will be some things that my mom will involve herself in, but for the most part I think she will stay away. She knows I am a strong person and can do it on my own. In my opinion what these schools are doing is a good idea, these kids need to grow up already and move on.