Parish House Resources

Ah, the finer things in life. Every once in a while, we all enjoy tasting life on the elegant side. The problem is, we do not get that many chances to. It’s expensive to enjoy the richer life. But with gourmet gift baskets, you can give a little taste of the nice life without breaking the bank. With gourmet gift baskets, it’s not about how much you can fit into a basket, it’s about selection. Choosing only the finest options to include in a gift basket is what gourmet gift baskets are all about. Here are some examples of how you can give the sweet side of life to someone you care about:

Gourmet chocolates: This is one of the most popular. These chocolates are smooth and divine. These are not grocery store checkout line candy bars. They are delicious and special to those who get to eat them.

Gourmet popcorn: Freshly-popped and sometimes flavored, this popcorn makes for a treat that you don’t get to enjoy every day.

Preserves: Grandma would be proud! Fresh preserves are a sweet and wonderful alternative to your standard jelly.

There are others as well: cheeses, nuts, and little candies. Giving gourmet gift baskets is giving a delicious and relaxing time for anyone who wants to sit back and dream about the “good life.”

Once a job offer is made, a lot of people think they have no basis for negotiating but they would be surprised, with the right approach, that they can often secure compensation packages beyond what they thought was possible. A key point to remember is that negotiating more at the start of a job can turn into a substantial amount of increased earnings over the course of several years. Once people achieve an increased level of earnings, they tend to maintain that difference over where they were for several years.

The negotiation process we recommend at ITS is easy to use. Based on our thousands of negotiations, it was carefully developed to be easy to use. It is based on common sense and the art of soft selling, so that you get what you want without offending the employer in any way.

There are five key areas you want to consider:

(1)   The initial offer, can you get it increased by 10% to 30%;

(2)   The responsibilities, can you expand them to a larger job that would pay more;

(3)   A signing bonus, which can be 10% to 30% of the salary in some cases;

(4)   The benefits, is the company willing to extend;

(5)   Stock options, whether they are available, and under what terms.

ITS gives job hunter’s guidance in each of those areas. There is also a lot of information on salary surveys to give you current information on which to base negotiations, and a cost-of-living comparison of various areas for those who are relocating. Senior level job seekers will be especially interested in the discussion of the various types of stock options and grants, exit strategies and severance agreements, and a dozen or so other benefits that can be a significant part of the total compensation package.

ITS offers Personal Marketing Services that goes far beyond Outplacement Career counseling. ITS uses its own unique technology to give job seekers access to as much as 85% of the advertised openings, including those from newspapers, recruiter openings, job boards, employer sites, and trade magazines. It also provides access to the unadvertised job market among employers, recruiters and growth companies.

For additional information: pr@changingcareers.com or contact Tom Mortenson at 800-320-1277.

Article By: ITS 

As far as real estate franchises go, there are lots to choose from. Century 21, Coldwell-Banker, and Prudential are a few of the biggest. The biggest in the Charleston area is definitely Prudential Carolina real estate. They sell more houses than anyone else in the area – condos, single family, apartment, historical homes, restored mansions, plantation homes, even light commercial, restaurant, and retail real estate. I highly recommend checking them out!

One trend in the recent slip in median home prices is easily seen in Charleston. Luxury real estate prices seem to have been untouched by recent declines, as the few “haves” continue to try outbid one another for choice properties. Beachfront, waterfront, near the college, or near the hotels, luxury real estate across the board in Charleston is the bubble that keeps growing. When will it burst? If the past is any indication of the future, the answer is that it probably won’t.

There is one aspect of global warming that’s worth considering when making real estate investments, especially if you live on the eastern coast of North, Central, or South America: namely the warming of the Atlantic. Beach real estate is going to be a more precarious investment because insurance is going to run much higher as water levels continue to rise, owing to the melting ice caps. This means that in Florida, Palm Beach and Miami could be cities protected by levies if no gradual shift inland takes place. It also means that semi-coastal communities like Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, and Atlantic beach will become prime beachfront real estate, making them a good investment now, as long as you don’t have to shell out for the expensive flooding and hurricane insurance premiums paid for beachfront properties.

While half-built condos in Palm Beach, Del Ray, Boca, and Miami have seen drops in asking price of over 30% in many cases, one area where condo prices have held up nicely is Jacksonville. Florida Real Estate is not necessarily all connected, one broker explained to me. The biggest factors in determining prices on new condos are supply and demand, sure, but one the big driver is not the supply built by new builders but the demand shifts caused by demographic changes. In Jacksonville, the economy has grown tremendously as a function of college graduates not wanting to move from this relative young person’s paradise. That translates into a cheap work force, which brings in more employers, which creates a greater demand for decent condo-style housing. This, and not a lack of supply, has been the driver of prices in Jacksonville, and that is why condo prices there will continue to increase.