::Total Overhaul to CutandFit.com::

In the past few hours, I remade the site to my primary Cut and Fit store. I decided to change the products I offer from health and fitness products to books that I wrote. Currently, I only have one book. But if I see demand picking up for what I am offering, I will gladly produce more books. My primary store is now called: Cut and Fit - Wealth Creation and Preservation.

My objective for the overhaul is to reduce my expense. I changed my shopping cart from Zen Cart to a html based shopping cart. Both of them are free, but Zen Cart is too hard to customize for me. In addition, I think my new site looks so much better -- so much simpler. Since the free html base shopping cart does not support a third-party credit card processor, like Authorize.net, I plan to cancel my merchant account as well as Authorize.net. I planned to do it a few weeks ago, and now I have a reason to. By relying on PayPal and getting rid of the merchant account, I can save $33 a month.

Anyways, take a moment to visit my new site. Hopefully, you can learn something from it.

::My Next Project::

Since search engine optimization is a slow process, I cannot afford to wait. Therefore, I am starting another project -- a book. I plan to write a book about money management. This is a little short marketing description of the book's purpose:

• After reading the book, an average person will know the basics of investing. I will write it in a way a middle schooler can understand it -- simple and short. Instead of giving the information away for free, I want people to buy it because then it becomes a win-win-win situation. Yes, three wins. I win because I get money. Less fortunate people win because they get things they need from the money donated. And the consumer wins because he or she better read the book or their $14.99 (the price of the book) is wasted. After they read the book, they invested in their education, which will yield a return, a benefit so much greater.

Therefore, I am taking a short hiatus from "Cool T-shirts [Cut and Fit]" and t-shirt designing until I see a demand for my designs. Basically, I am trying to deploy my time and efforts which will yield me the most benefits. I believe I have learned much about Adobe, but have yet to learn about writing and publishing a book.

I already started writing. I plan for it to be about 30 - 50 pages -- not too long but full of quality information. I do not want my customers to waste their time (and money) reading fluff.

::Marketing Outcome::

I am someone who is really impatient for results. But bad thing about search engine optimization and marketing is the results are not apparent until a few weeks or months later. For Cut and Fit: Health and Fitness Store, I did not really try any optimization of the page for Google. Instead, I tried AdWords. So far, it has been a dismal failure. My ad showed up 810 times and only got clicked once! I seriously think there is way too much competition in the health and fitness category.

That is why I am slowly moving onto my t-shirt store. What really appeals to me about the t-shirt store is that it is unique! Assuming people do not rip off my cool t-shirt designs, I am the only place where people can buy my shirts. Anyways, I think playing with Adobe Photoshop is really fun. My latest design is related to Zoolander, one of my all-time favorite movies.



You cannot really see the words, but it is a quote from Derek Zoolander: Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty.

There there is a picture of a mermaid. Yes!

To check out the shirts for yourself, you have to visit my cool t-shirts store.

::Afro 'Fro Design::

My hobby now encompasses designing for t-shirts. I have gotten pretty decent with Adobe Photoshop. My inspiration for the design is attitude with humor. The latest design is a perfect example:

You know the afro, like mullets, have not gone out of style. There are a few people still rockin' the 'fro, just mini-sized today. Those who rock the 'fro should exclaim it with pride! Actually, I will show you the picture of the person who inspired the design.

I know what you're thinking. The picture in the shirt does not look like an Asian guy. But I assure you it is. I admit, my design is not as awesome as the real thing. But nothing is.

Get you own cool t-shirts where you can buy the mini afro design.

::New Extention to Cut and Fit::

I have a confession to make. I have yet to make a sell in the primary business of selling health and fitness products. I attribute it to the lack of successful marketing for Cut and Fit. Truth be told, I am not exactly crazy about the fitness products offered. Although the market is huge, there are just too many competitors. I realize I should have picked a better niche product to sell.

However, I am extremely glad to have tried and "failed." I did learn a lot about putting together a business. Nevertheless, I will not quit. I will keep working on my primary business -- giving it more publicity and better marketing. If I can successfully market the saturated fitness products market, I can market anything. The good news is Google recently listed my website on its search engine. All I have to do is improve the ranking. Hopefully, in time, my business will earn a profit!

I decided to work on an extention for Cut and Fit. I spent the last three days designing awesome, funny, classy t-shirts. My favorite design so far is the "Too Sexy For My Shirt." I learned a great deal about Adobe Photoshop. In the meantime, I hope to make money on my design. I really enjoy designing for clothes. My shirts are great for high school and college students. They're also great for young adults who have confidence. You can check out the COOL t-shirts yourself.

::Finished Creating My Business::

After working all week, I finally completed the merchant account aspect of my business. I am happy to say I can now accept credit cards! There were MANY problems I had to solve throughout the whole process. When I first started, I had no idea what I was doing. But now, I know alittle more and more. It took only alittle more than one month to set everything up -- from establishing a relationship with my supplier to getting a merchant account to completing my website. So far, I spent under $500. Now, I need to market my business and start acquiring customers. I will let you, my gentle readers, know how everything turns out later.

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As I promised in my last entry, I will talk about having a job vs creating jobs.

The educational institutions are training camps (abeit, somewhat rather inefficient) for children to become good employees. Schools were created as a place to stash children when their parents worked. (Child labor is illegal.) Do you remember what it takes to get good grades? Doing homework, understanding everything, and following the teachers' directions. This is exactly the same formula to be a good employee: doing work, understanding everything, and following the bosses' directions. Having a job is better than being a bum. But having is job isn't as rewarding as it was in the past. In the beginning of the 20th century, a family could be supported with one working member -- usually the father. However, in today's age, two working parents can barely support a family. The good thing about being an employee is wages are stable but fairly predicatable, even though the company may not be. But the bad thing about being an employee is your keeping of the job is not stable. For example, US' IT department and outsourcing. Another aspect of jobs I personally dislike is the way to obtain it. It requires you to jump over hoops and hurdles set by OTHER people -- people who may or may not be smarter than you, people who may or may not be more ethical than you. And especially in a world with large corporations and large governments, the hoops and hurdles set by bureaucracies are endless. Do you like to go to the DMVs? I rest my case.

On the other hand, creating jobs -- creating your OWN job and creating jobs for OTHERS mean being an entrepreneur. Being a successful entrepreneur is pretty hard. It takes dedication, intelligence (or alot of help), and in most cases luck. The good thing about being an entrepreneur is the job is stable. An entrepreneur is usually the last person to leave the business. However, the bad (and even good) thing about starting your own business and creating jobs is the wage is unstable. This means you can lose money, earn nothing, or even make millions! To me, the risk of wage volatility is work the reward, which is why I am starting my own business.

However, why not take the best of both worlds. Get a job while creating new businesses. This is certainly a valid option for someone to be an entrepreneur without taking as much risks. I want to work part-time in a local bank a few blocks away while my business slowly grows. Let's see if I can jump though the hoops and hop over the hurdles.

::Getting My Business Cards::

Money:
Today, I ordered business cards online. I paid alittle less than $9.00 (including shipping) for 250 cards. I really like the business card I ordered (and made) because it included the logo of my business.

• - What are good prices for business cards?
• - Where do you get your business cards?

This is the logo of my business: Cut and Fit

So far, it has been one month since I graduated from Indiana University and started my own business. Hopefully, everything will be operational by the end of January. There is not much to say yet, except starting a business involves putting all the pieces together -- suppliers, merchant accounts, server (if on-line), and more. In my next post, I'll offer my opinion on having a job vs creating jobs.

Health:
I have bad news. During the winter, my fitness level has decreased dramatically. One of the main reasons for my lower fitness level is because of the lack of exercise. I attribute my lack of exercise to winter; because it is too cold for my tastes, I am too lazy to go outside and do something simple as walking. Today, I did bike to the library, just to find myself huffing and puffing as I pedaled up the slope. Afterwards, I did not even feel cold and started to sweat -- which felt nice. Does this mean I feel now feel motivated to exercise everyday during the winter? Absolutely not. Because of winter, I wish I had an exercise equipment (such as a row machine which works out the whole body) in my house.

• - How do you motivate yourself to exercise when the weather isn't very nice?