Friday, October 26, 2007

Downtown Philadelphia: A Bit of History

Downtown Philadelphia: A Bit of History
As a long time Center City Philadelphia REALTOR®, I am
often asked about the history of downtown Philly. Here are
a few tidbits I find interesting about some of my favorite
areas to help people buy Center City condos: Society Hill,
Rittenhouse Square, and Delancey Place.

Society Hill ~

As you might think the name implies, it's neither an
elevation nor the site and badge of social position. It's
actually named for the Free Society of Traders to whom
William Penn made liberal concessions of land and
privileges.

In 1683, its assets included a sawmill, a glasshouse and a
tannery. In the 18th century, Society Hill was removed from
the avenues of commerce and given the residential character
it retains today.

It fell upon hard times in the 20th century, but today it
is a model of urban renewal and urban amenity in a historic
setting. Society Hill is now a vital part of the city and
encompasses the land from the Delaware River to Washington
Square and from Walnut Street to Lombard Street.

One of Society Hill's many charms is that its homes are not
museums, but are lived in by Philadelphians who love 18th
and 19th century houses. And, people who enjoy the
hassle-free lifestyle provided by living in Center City
condominiums, which are spread fairly evenly throughout the
area.

Rittenhouse Square ~

One of William Penn's original five squares, Rittenhouse
Square was known as the southwest square until 1825 when it
was named for the astronomer-clockmaker, David Rittenhouse
(1732-96).

This amazing man of universal talents — one of many
in 18th century Philadelphia — was a descendant of
William Rittenhouse, who built the first paper mill in
America in Germantown. David Rittenhouse was at various
times a member of the General Assembly and the State
Constitutional Convention, president of the Council of
Safety, president of the American Philosophical Society and
the first director of the United States Mint. He was also
Professor of Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania
and inventor of the collimating telescope.

Since the first house facing the square was erected in
1840, Rittenhouse Square has always denoted quality. During
its next century the Square kept its residential quality.
In 1913, the architect Paul Cret, who was one of the men
responsible for Benjamin Franklin Parkway and many of its
buildings, designed the Square's entrances, central plaza
with the stone railings, pool and fountain. To have lived
near or on the Square was a mark of prestige.

Today, almost all private homes are gone, but it's still
prestigious to live in one of the many high-rise
Rittenhouse Square Condominiums. There are several houses
still standing in the area, but many have been converted
into apartments and Brownstone-style Condo Buildings. Even
though cooperative apartments and Philadelphia condominiums
displaced private dwellings in the last three decades, some
of the Old Guard still live on here — in Center City
condos in the sky rather than family mansions.

Delancey Place ~

There are a myriad of things to see on Delancey Place:

• Caryatids (female statues) as mullions (vertical
window separators) on the window of 1810 Delancey Place,
perhaps the only ones in the city

• Acanthus leaves and grape design on the ironwork
fence at 1823 Delancey Street

• Leaded and stained glass windows at 1821 Delancey
Street

• The small garden with the iron fence at 1835
Delancey Street

From the vantage point of the garden we can have a fine
view of 1900 Delancey Place, now the offices of a law firm.
Designed by Frank Furness, it is generally considered one
of the finest examples of his townhouses. The ornate
decoration and the oval window above the entrance door give
it a distinctive appearance in this age of austerity in
architectural decoration. Be sure to observe the cherubim
and seraphim on the pediments.


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Want to live in one of these historic locations in either a
Society Hill Loft or one of the many Rittenhouse Square
Condominiums? Let me help you find the Philadelphia condo
to fit your needs and desires. Give me a call today at
215-521-1523 or email me at Mark@CenterCityCondos.com.
Mark Wade
http://www.CenterCityCondos.com
Prudential Fox and Roach REALTORS
530 Walnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19106

Customers Tend To Buy The Who, Not The What

Customers Tend To Buy The Who, Not The What
Recently, an associate made an astute and intriguing
observation, one that captured my immediate attention. He
stated that "most customers buy the who (us) not the what
(products) that they can easily buy from anyone." What a
statement of fact! That is such an important distinction
and a lesson well worth additional discussion and
remembering. Why would anybody want to buy from just anyone?

While most salespeople represent a company's product line,
ranging from pharmaceuticals to cleaning products, they are
typically not the owner of the company. They do however,
represent that company, sharing their brand image and
reputation in the marketplace, whether good or bad.
Customers tend to see salespeople, not the companies they
work for. From a customer perspective, salespeople are
often synonymous with their employer. Their individual
identity often fades into the background.

The superior salesperson is continuously aware of the
critical importance of nurturing customer relationships in
their daily selling efforts. These salespeople strive to
expose their own identity, their own brand, in addition to
their employer's presence. They inject themselves into the
process, making a personal investment in the selling
experience. By cultivating relationships with their
customers, salespeople endear themselves to their customers
as dependable and valued resources. In this manner,
salespeople become indispensable.

Let's face it salespeople: Assuming that your customer
knows what he needs, almost without exception, he can
locate an alternate source for virtually any product that
you sell, many times at a lesser price. The internet is
loaded with sites ready to sell almost anything at
unbelievably low prices. These dot-coms usually offer many
generic products for sale, well-known products requiring
little assistance from anyone to put into immediate use. A
mere press of the "Buy Now" button your product is well on
its way to you.

Of course, many customers do not know what it is that they
need to solve their problems. They require careful
assistance and guidance. This very fact is responsible for
your presence. Your role is to add value to the equation by
being a knowledgeable and helpful resource, providing
solutions, not merely products and services. Value is the
determining factor. They level of value added dictate the
importance of price in the selling equation. The greater
the value added, the lesser the importance of price in the
transaction and the greater the potential for profits.

Customers do indeed buy the who, not the what. Learn that
critical distinction and prosper.


----------------------------------------------------
Daniel Sitter, author of both Learning For Profit and
Superior Selling Skills Mastery, has garnered extensive
experience in sales, training, marketing and personal
development spanning a successful 25 year career.
Experience his blog at http://www.idea-sellers.com

Want a Six-Figure Income Without Getting a College Degree of Any Kind? Here Is How

Want a Six-Figure Income Without Getting a College Degree of Any Kind? Here Is How
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

As someone who has 5,000+ high end clients who are
interested in jobs and careers, I paid attention Tuesday
when I came across a story about six-figure incomes by
Laura Morsch of CareerBuilder.com.

According to Laura Morsch and the United States Bureau of
Labor Statistics, "physician jobs dominate the list of the
nation's highest-paying positions, holding 9 of the top 10
most lucrative jobs."

Morsch reminds us that there are other high-paying jobs in
our economy.

"Although statistically more education means better pay,"
says Morsch, "you can land a very high-paying job with just
a bachelor's degree and considerable work experience."

She then goes on to list these 9 examples: Chief Executive
at $140,000, Airline Pilot at $135,000, Dentist at
$134,000, Lawyer at $111,000, Air Traffic Controller at
$106,000, Engineering Manager at $105,000, Computer and
Information Systems Manager at $102,000, Marketing Manager
at $102,000 and Astronomer at $101,000.

I have clients making six-figure incomes in all of Morsch's
examples, however, you need more than a bachelor's degree
to realistically become a Dentist, Lawyer or an Astronomer;
therefore, they are not good examples.

I have a client making $350,000 a year with a high school
diploma. I have another client making $144,000 who is a
high school graduate with two additional years of technical
training. A third client is making $250,000 with a high
school diploma only. All three of these examples are men.

Men can make excellent money with a high school diploma in
a number of occupations.

Women can also make $100,000+ with a high school diploma,
but they tend to do it generally in three ways:

1) They own their own business, usually a small business
that is very profitable. Some research organizations report
that there are more small business owners making
six-figures-plus than in any other job or occupation.

2) They work in commissioned sales rather than salaried
sales. A sharp woman can many times outsell a man because
of the dynamics between the sexes. A sharp woman calling on
a male client many times gets more time and attention than
a male calling on the same client.

3) They work in a financially-related position, such as a
stockbroker, mortgage banker, mortgage broker, loan officer
or chief financial officer.

Here is some information you can use if you are a high
school graduate and have zero interest in getting a
bachelor's degree at this point in your work career: go
into sales if you have any people skills or personality.

Sales is the second highest paid profession in the world,
and it does not usually require a college degree. There are
some corporate sales jobs that do require a degree, but
there are many more opportunities available if you can
generate sales production.

There is not a single business in America that cannot
benefit from more sales, and almost every one will pay for
sales production.

Here is some even better news: If you are selling and
producing big time and the owner or company is too cheap to
compensate you at the level you should be compensated at
($100,000+++), dump the owner or company and sell for
someone else.

A far better idea would be to start your own business, go
into competition directly against the cheap owner or
company that would not pay you, and wipe them off the map.

There really is no reason you should be working for someone
else anyway. Working in your own business can be an
outstanding deal. You call your own shots. You will not
fire yourself, lay yourself off, or deny yourself
promotions, fat bonuses for production, outstanding benefit
packages, and a lot of time off to enjoy your money and
family.

The nine examples listed above have 7 positions that amount
to no more than hired help, that includes the Chief
Executive position. Only the Dentist and Lawyer positions
might be either self-employed or hired help.

All nine examples cited by Morsch and the Bureau of Labor
Statistics have more stress than anyone needs and are labor
intensive. Even the Dentist and Lawyer positions, which
might be self-employed, require them to report to work or
not get paid. If a Mac truck runs over either them, their
income stops in a heartbeat.

Has anyone ever heard of income-producing investments when
these job opportunities come up? Income producing assets
allow you to take possession of your own time while your
investment throws off the income to fund your lifestyle
without working a job.

It might be fancy to have any of those nine jobs with
status and making $100,000 a year. Some people would rather
make $250,000 a year and not have a job, have a boss, and
deal with the stress.

Here is a rare career path: Own the business, company or
organization and hire the six-figure people in the examples
above to work for you. There are people who would gladly
pay the above examples their listed wages when they could
make $250,000 free and clear and not work.

Who needs status and aggravation when you have money?


----------------------------------------------------
Ed Bagley's Blog Publishes Original Articles with Analysis
and Commentary on 5 Subjects: Sports, Movie Reviews,
Lessons in Life, Jobs and Careers, and Internet Marketing.
My intention is to inform, educate, delight and motivate
you the reader. Find my Blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/MovieReviews.html
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/LessonsinLife.html

Looking to Earn Extra Income?

Looking to Earn Extra Income?
With the holiday season just right around the corner, a lot
of us are looking to earn some extra cash. With rising
energy costs and inflation, the normal forty hour work
weeks just don't cut it any more. Lost are the days where
we could depend on our careers to provide us a holiday
bonus or a quarterly raise. If we truly want to earn extra
income, we can only count on ourselves.

Four Steps to Earn Extra Income

If you want to earn extra income, you have some options:
You can get another job of course, sell things you own i.e.
collectibles, car, house, your kidney(not suggested), or
use the internet! I have provided here four easy steps to
follow to set yourself up to earn that extra income by
using the internet.

Step 1) Start by opening up your own website or creating
your own blog. Or better yet, do both! This will provide
you a 'home base' to set things up and will make it easier
for you to market whatever products or information you
decide to sell.

Step 2) Sign up for some affiliate programs and showcase
them on your website or blog. There are many programs out
there that are free to enroll in and you can earn
commissions on the products you sell or the referrals you
bring in. Most programs provide you with top notch
training and quality products because they want you to
succeed.

Step 3) Bring traffic to your website or blog. In order
to make sales or sign people up you have to divert the
traffic your way. There are free ways to do this. You can
write articles like this, post in forums, write classified
ads, use good SEO techniques, promote off line, and ping
your blogs on a daily basis. Be creative as possible,
whatever method you use, just get them to come.

Step 4) Convert your traffic to sales. You can have 2000
visitors a day to your website but it will not do any good
unless your site is easily navigable and appealing to the
eye. Even if you don't know the first thing about html and
web code, there are programs that will make it easy for
you. Or you can do what's best for you and just learn!
It's really not that difficult and there are plenty of
people in cyberspace ready and willing to help out.

There you have it! Earning an extra income from the
internet in just four steps. These steps are pretty
vanilla in detail but provide you with a basic outline of
what you need to do to get started. There are a plethora
of different paths and steps you can take to make money
online. Do some research and figure out just what path you
want to go to make that extra income. The internet is a
wonderful tool. Use it to your advantage. Use it to make
money!


----------------------------------------------------
Matt Helphrey invites you to sign up for his free extra
income tips and tricks newsletter and receive 3 informative
ebooks.
http://www.LiveLifeToTheFullest.biz/newsletter.html
Or visit his blog to learn more ideas on earning extra
income.
http://www.LiveLifeToTheFullest.biz/blog

What to Do When You Feel Like Pitching YOUR BUSINESS OUT THE WINDOW!

What to Do When You Feel Like Pitching YOUR BUSINESS OUT THE WINDOW!
Sooner or later, I can guarantee there will come a day when
getting out of bed and facing another day of Prospect
calling, talking and checking downline, you decide the
results aren't shaping up fast enough, or soon enough, and
the only thing you can think of is QUIT NOW!

Since by now you know what happens to quitters. The go to
the old MLMer home and face the reprobate Triple Triple
Triple Supremem Director Upline Diamond Crown head person
where they make You must sit and listen for eternity how to
prospect and do belly-to-belly prospecting and listen to
BUSINESS BRIEFINGS until they come out of your ears.
HAHAHAHA not really but you know what I mean on how it
makes you feel.

I'll focus instead on what to do to help you hang in there
and be brave, be bold, and be Brilliant. Here are steps to
make sure your decision is easier and that you will make
the right one for you.

1. Write down what's going on. Your journal could be the
greatest asset you own, if you make time to empty your
brain (of course, this is easier for some of us, myself
included) of all those frustrated thoughts that are
nagging, beating, bouncing and kicking around in there.
There is nothing worse 'brain freeze'; the condition where
your thoughts become so intense that they lock up your
ability to think rationally or even to think at all, i.e.,
where are my glasses and where did I leave my car and those
car keys. Again, take a look at the list of questions
that are at the end of this article and answer them for
yourself, first in your mind and then in writing.

2. Take a break. Take a weekend or a week off from your
business or project to think about what you're doing. Often
just some absence from the work, especially if you've been
chipping away at it every day for a long time, is
enlightening. You can gain just enough perspective to
evaluate what's truly going on. You might even want to take
time to ask yourself the questions at the end of this
article. Then, instead of acting rashly, you can act
rationally.

3. Get support. Go to MLM anonymous and get your help.
Just like an AA member contemplating going to take that
next drink, you need to call your sponsor, upline, mentor
or coach, pastor, rabbi, etc, etc, and get help. This is
precisely why you lined them up in the first place—so
when the chips are down, they can talk you on to the next
level you need to climb to and move along. If you feel
embarrassed about appearing in front of them in this state
of “FALLING APART”, remember that you would
want your organization to come to you if they needed help
this badly so please get HELP.

4. List the pros and cons of staying or quitting. If none
of the above work, sit down with a piece of paper and
evaluate the pros and cons of quitting your endeavor. Be
brutally honest with yourself, and do this with your
sponsor, upline, mentor or coach, pastor, rabbi, etc, etc,
to help you be honest with yourself .Don't leave a single
pro or con. Then walk away from your list. The give
yourself 48 to 96 hours before you go back over this list
again. Remember it is always the darkest just before the
dawn.

5. Then if all the above has failed to settle the question,
take a spiritual retreat. In the spirit of all the great
religious seekers who ever wandered a desert, take a day,
weekend, week or even more time if you can to tune in,
spiritually. Remember if the spirit is not settled the
mind will wander also. This could be a friend's weekend
house by the beach (if you go, make sure you've got some
time to get away by yourself a nearby nature sanctuary or
state park that permits camping or even a monastery or
spiritual sanctuary or that special place you have to get
away from it all including the spouse and family.. By
removing yourself from all hustle, bustle and noise of
everyday life and going into that special quiet place, you
can really make the deep, soul searching, life-altering
decisions such times demand. I urge you to choose a place
that is not only nurturing and soothing to your spirit, but
one that allows you plenty of space, time and quiet to sort
out your thoughts, feelings, and the main thing that place
between your ears. Try This . . .

Seventeen Important Questions to Ask Yourself When You Feel
Like Quitting

1. What have I learned from my work in the past?

2. What am I learning now?

3. What I might be able to learn in the future from this

4. Have I generally been a quitter in life?

5. What would I leave behind if I quit?

6. What do I gain if I quit?

7. What will I never know about if I quit?

8. How will I feel about this at the end of my life?

9. What do I need to explain to my spouse and kids or
family?

10. What do I need to keep going?

11. What do I still need to learn?

12. Here do I find the recourses for what I still need to
learn?

13. How will I feel if I can achieve my goal?

14. How will I feel if I miss this goal and others?

15. How will achieving my goal help other people?

16. Am I helping or hurting others by quitting?

17. Will my feelings change in 30 days?

I must be secure in this as it will change the direction of
my life and those around me. Just a pebble is dropped into
a lake even a small one the ripples are felt all across the
lake. Remember, you coach and mentor is there for you and
please do not wait until things get so bad the only thing
you see is quitting. Remember a short leave of absence may
just turn things around. So keep your chin up and move
forward know that you are not alone and we all have been
there.

Have a great time. Find a good mentor that will mentor and
help anyone in the Network Marketing business and help you
grow into a 22nd century Marketer.


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If you'd like to learn more about a brand new prospecting
system that builds YOUR primary business and get a free
E-Book
go here:http://www.bookwisepro.net/blindguy55
Become president of your life at

http://www.pathtopresident.com/r/blindguy55
Remember you can also learn more of the 35 years in Network
Marketing from Dr Robin Rushlo
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