Travel the World - for Free!

I have been very fortunate to travel to several countries of the world while on business - countries I may have never visited on a holiday. There are pros and cons to working/doing business in a foreign country vs. visiting as a tourist but I have found it to be very rewarding. I have made many friends, been invited into many colleagues' homes to meet their families, dined on local specialties, and seen all the local attractions (I've been to the Giza pyramids three times - see photo on the right) because business partners are always proud to show you their country. After all, don't we always take visitors to Alberta to the Rocky Mountains? Foreign business delegations traveling to Calgary always schedules time to go to Banff, often timing it to coincide with the weekend.

So even though I don't sell a product, I do consider myself an exporter. That is because I am exporting my experience and knowledge - basically I export a service. Many more Canadian service companies (and consultants), from environmental companies to engineering firms, could be exporting, but aren't.

Here are four ways to get started.

1. Consult.

Consulting overseas is essentially exporting a service. For many Canadians the obvious first step is to examine the opportunities offered by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) - the executing agency of Canada's $2.87 billion aid program.

CIDA funds various development programs, some of which are administered and implemented directly by the recipient government and others by Canadian partners. In either case, experts are required for some aspect of the project. In my case, over the past year I have spent a total three months working in Indonesia providing export-related technical assistance to garment manufacturers in Bali.

To work with CIDA, all consultants must be registered with Consulting and Audit Canada. However, CIDA does not directly contact everyone and therefore it is useful to know the partners that cooperate with CIDA, and luckily a list of non-governmental organizations (NGO) is available on the CIDA web site (type 'voluntary sector division' in the search box, choose the first result and then click on 'Links to CIDA's partners').

CIDA also publishes a list of all its current bilateral projects which includes the name of the primary partner organization, the value of the project and time remaining. You may be able to offer your services to these organizations. From CIDA's home page, click on 'Projects' and then 'CIDA's contracts and agreements.'

Once you have gained experience working with CIDA, many international financial institutions such as the World Bank also hire consulting firms to plan, manage and evaluate their projects. For example, right now there is an Expression of Interest for a "Country Environmental Analysis" for Vietnam. It also helps to cultivate contacts within the World Bank as contracts under $100,000 are not publicly posted.

Even if you are not in the "development" business, think about what expertise you can offer to other countries.

2. Partner Overseas.

Very few companies are successful overseas if they do not have a local partner, regardless of whether they are selling a product or a service. The format of a partnership in services exporting (i.e. joint-venture, strategic alliance, equity agreement) is not necessarily the prime consideration but the Canadian company must take the time to determine what they need and want from their foreign partner. Someone to identify and pursue leads? Labour to undertake certain aspects of the project? Administrative assistance? Insight into local laws and customs? Language support? Competitive intelligence? The Canadian partner also needs to consider what they bring to the partnership. New technology? Expertise? Financing?

CIDA has funding available for Canadian firms developing partnerships in developing countries under its Industrial Cooperation Program.

Do you have a unique technology in demand overseas but are reluctant to start exporting? Don't assume all of the responsibility yourself - find a local partner and reap the benefits.

3. Network Locally.

This method for entering new markets is probably one of the most overlooked, despite its low risk. Every Canadian company working overseas is outsourcing some aspect of the project, usually to someone they know and trust - often one of their domestic suppliers. For example, most Canadian oil and gas companies have operations overseas as well - often in remote areas that require housing and catering. Rather than relying on local capabilities, they generally contract their camp services to well known Canadian firms, thus ensuring the comfort of their workers - because a camp full of unhappy and miserable oil rig workers is not a good thing!

Take a look at your current clients and see if any of them are doing business overseas.

4. Teach.

Everyone is aware of the opportunities to teach English overseas, which is what my sister is doing right now in South Korea (see photo at left). She signed her contract through a Toronto-based agency which is essentially exporting her knowledge of English and Canada (she has actually sung O'Canada to a room full of junior high kids, with no accompaniment!). At the post-secondary level, countries that are rapidly expanding their education systems are demanding skilled teachers and partnerships with foreign institutions in all professions. China and the United Arab Emirates are two that come to mind. However, it is not only within the formal education system that teaching and training opportunities emerge. The same issue of Canadian Business that printed my exporting advice (June 6 - 19, 2005) features a scantily clad model on its cover (I guess sex sells even business magazines) with the line, "The Business of Becoming China's Top Model." After four years of working in China, where white skin is highly valued (and here in North America millions are spent on tanning lotions and tanning salons - go figure), Canadian model Tracey Grebinsky is working with a local talent agency to: 1) train Western models about the complexities of working in China, and; 2) educate Chinese firms about the business of modelling (i.e. contracts, choosing a "look", working with agencies, etc).

Buying a Florida Investment Property

Purchasing Florida Investment Property
Considering researching the purchase of Florida Investment Property? Do you find yourself wishing you didn’t have that lawn to mow and the constant upkeep on a home? Purchasing Florida Investment Property can relieve you of all those household chores but purchasing a Florida Investment Property but requires you do some homework. You need to know what you are looking for in Florida Investment Property. Some important things to consider in Florida Investment Property are: size, price, location and future salability. Are you looking for the best price on an economy unit, or do you desire luxury Florida Investment Property with more to offer. Prices on Florida Investment Property will vastly vary depending on size, location and other amenities provided. Remember to keep the main thing, the main thing when purchasing Florida Investment Property: location, location, location. This is the most likely factor in determining whether your purchase of Florida Investment Property will escalate in value. A Florida Investment Property location near banks, shopping, restaurants and cultural venues in a growing real estate sales area will probably mean home values will continue to escalate. The market can always be volatile but purchasing Florida Investment Property in areas such as this will give you a greater chance of profitable resale value.
Purchasing Florida Investment Property in High Traffic Areas
Are you looking for Florida Investment Property as your primary residence or are you considering purchasing Florida Investment Property as a source of providing rental income? Or is your goal to purchase Florida Investment Property that can be used for family vacations, giving you the benefit of anytime availability without the hassle of searching for last minute specials on low cost holiday lodging. Owning Florida Investment Property can provide you with the security of owning your own vacation villa. Purchasing Florida Investment Property in high traffic tourist areas will also give you the benefit of renting to help off-set the cost of your purchase. Many profitable rental locations exist with one of the hottest areas being the Orlando, Florida area. Orlando is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations due to its proximity to Walt Disney World and the major area theme parks, Sea World and Universal. Owning Florida Investment Property in the Kissimmee, Florida, Orlando, Florida or Davenport, Florida area will provide rentals with the closest lodging locations near the major theme park attractions.
Owning Florida Investment Property Close to the Major Attractions
Kissimmee is closest to Disney World, the number one Central Florida tourist destination. Besides Disneyworld, don’t overlook other area attractions near Kissimmee that are also a boost to owning a rental accommodation in this area. A family with kids will have loads to do when booking rental accommodations in Kissimmee. Green Meadows Petting Farm transports you to the country where more than 300 farm animals are on display to touch and see. Other farm activities are also scheduled at this country adventure land. For the horse lover, Horse World is what you’ve been dreaming of! 750 acres are yours to explore with nothing above you but blue sky and nothing below but the creaking of the saddle. Along with horse riding, Horse World also allows you to relax with a good old fashioned game of horse shoes, volleyball, or basketball. Reservations are suggested. A trip to Kissimmee would not be complete without a visit to the Silver Spurs Arena where rodeos are held every Friday night at 8:00pm. Opening in October of 2005, the Silver Spurs Arena has a capacity of 8,300 with 12 luxury skyboxes in an indoor arena hosting concerts, sporting events and more. Along with these old Florida attractions, you won’t want to miss the Arabian Nights dinner theater which was voted best dinner show by Orlando Sentinel readers. Step back into medieval times where an Arabian fairytale is played out before your eyes on horseback. Along with the amazing entertainment, you will feast on an elegant three course meal. Kissimmee is loaded with amazing hidden surprises.
Owning Florida investment properties in the Orlando Area
Owning real estate resort condominiums in the Orlando area will provide you and your renters with access to all the theme parks around Central Florida plus the hundreds of discount attractions in or near Orlando. Orlando’s nickname is The Beautiful City”. It more than lives up to its name with its towers of gleaming glass metal skyscrapers set between sparkling lakes. Orlando is also all about historic preservation also. You will find charming brick streets and many gardens and parks. Cultural attractions near Orlando Florida investment Properties include the Morse Museum of American Art where a permanent display of Tiffany glass is on exhibit along with American paintings from the 19th century. The Orlando Museum of Art features American portraits and landscaping, art of the ancient Americas and American impressionist works. Looking for a garden oasis far removed from the hectic tourist pace? Try Leu Gardens, an oasis covering 50 acres featuring annuals, palms and an orchid house. These fine cultural experiences will seem like cheap deals for their reasonable price.
Florida investment properties – Other Fine Attractions
The list goes on and on. After spending a fortune at the major attractions, you will appreciate finding low cost but fun entertainment near your Florida investment Properties. A trip to Florida would not be complete without a visit to Gatorland. The name says it all, as this 70 acre park is home to thousands of gators and some crocodiles. Breeding pens and nurseries are available to view, containing critters of all sizes. Don’t miss gator feeding time when you will get a close up view of gators in a feeding frenzy. This family owned park also has a mini water park for children, a petting zoo and a 2000 foot boardwalk which winds its way through a cypress swamp. Looking for the “au naturale” wild side of Florida? Wekiwa Springs pumps 42 million gallons of sparkling clear water a day. Canoeing, swimming, picnicking and fishing are popular outdoor activities. You are also likely to spot a gator in the wild, along with other wildlife native to Florida. For information on these and other local Orlando attractions and to check out the lowest price see www.orlandoinfo.com.
Renting Florida investment Properties

ATTRACTION OF HOWARD CRUSE

HOWARD CRUSE's comic strips and humorous illustrations have appeared in Playboy, The Village Voice, Artforum International, Heavy Metal, The Advocate, Starlog, and numerous other national magazines.

The son of a Baptist minister, Cruse was born in 1944 in Birmingham, Alabama. His proximity to that city's racial turmoil during the early 1960s affected him deeply and ultimately provided the basis for his internationally acclaimed graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby. Despite his attraction to cartooning from the age of five, Cruse's creative adventures have ranged far beyond comics, having included a professional acting stint at the Atlanta Children's Theatre in 1973 and eight months as Art Director for Starlog magazine in 1978. An undergraduate drama major at Birmingham-Southern College, Cruse credits his early emersion in all aspects of stagecraft with sparking his lifelong interest in the nuanced dialogue and multi-faceted characters that have been characteristic of his comic book work for over a quarter-century.

Upon his graduation from BSC in 1968 he was awarded a Shubert Playwriting Fellowship to Penn State University but, finding himself unsuited to grad school priorities, he abandoned further academic pursuits after a single term, where he shared living quarters and a hippie lifestyle with fellow refugees from Alabama until the fall of 1969, when he returned to Birmingham late in 1969 to regroup.

He soon found work in the art department of a local television station where in addition to designing station IDs, ads for local advertisers, and cartoon weather board icons he engaged in improvisational puppetry on a daily afternoon kiddie show. During downtime and off-hours he sought additional creative outlets in both mainstream and "underground" venues. For mainstream audiences he sold Tops & Button, a daily cartoon panel about talking squirrels, to the Birmingham Post-Herald; on the heels of his squirrels' debut he created a far freakier comic strip for the Crimson-White, the student newspaper at the University of Alabama. After a year spend offering trippy humor to collegians, Barefootz moved on to appear in a string of Birmingham-area underground and alternative newspapers, until Denis Kitchen propelled it into a national spotlight beginning in 1972 via Kitchen Sink titles such as Snarf, Bizarre Sex, Dope Comix and Commies From Mars. Kitchen also invited Cruse and Barefootz along for the ride during his tenure as editor of Comix Book, an ambitious but swiftly abandoned effort by Marvel Comix to turn magazine-rack browsers on to underground sensibilities.

From 1975-76 Cruse led a double-life (and that's not counting his increasingly open gay side). With Kitchen Sink's help, using money raised among friends to cover printing costs, Cruse published two issues on his solo title Barefootz Funnies and continued to contribute to underground comic anthology titles, all the while holding down a day job pasting up ads and doing occasional drawings for a prestigious Birmingham advertising agency. Then Cruse decided he would have to leave Birmingham behind in order to pursue the full-time cartooning career he desired. He moved back to New York City and, after false starts and some months spent at Starlog, he began finding open doors at Playboy, Heavy Metal, and other newsstand magazines. In 1979 he met and fell in love with native New Yorker Ed Sedarbaum and the two of them moved into an apartment in Queens. He published the third and final issue of Barefootz Funnies that year, having decided it was time to leave that feature behind in order to take his work in new directions. Shortly thereafter Denis Kitchen asked if he would edit a new underground comic book series to be called Gay Comix, and the new direction took off.

Editing and contributing to Gay Comix provided Cruse with a perfect opportunity to begin being totally open about his sexuality without apologizing for it (He had published his first gay-themed story in Barefootz Funnies #2 back in 1976 but had stopped short of declaring his own orientation at that point.) Drawing with new honesty on his personal experiences as a gay man gave his work a heightened impact, a change that began being noticed beyond the usual underground-comix circles, leading to platforms for political satire in The Village Voice and an invitation by The Advocate, the national gay newsmagazine, to create a new gay-themed comic strip exclusively for its pages. Wendel was Cruse's response.

Wendel's largely comedic but progressively substantive depiction of 1980s gay life lived in the shadow of hostile moralists and a horrific epidemic solidified Cruse's standing as one of America's premier openly gay cartoonists, aided by Dancin' Nekkid with the Angels, a compilation of the cartoonist's underground comix published in 1987 both by St. Martin's Press (in softcover) and by Kitchen Sink Press (in a signed, limited-edition hardcover). Portions of Wendel Trupstock's adventures, meanwhile, were collected in book form twice during the feature's run in The Advocate (first by Gay Presses of New York; then by St. Martin's Press), and after Cruse discontinued the series in 1989 its remaining episodes were collected by Kitchen Sink in a comic book called Wendel Comix. In 1990 Fantagraphics Books published Early Barefootz, a collection of the 1970-73 Barefootz strips and stories. In 2001 Olmstead Press reissued the entire Wendel series from beginning to end in an omnibus collection called Wendel All Together.

Cruse spent four years in the early 1990s writing and drawing his most widely acclaimed work, the graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby, which was published in 1995 by DC Comics under its Paradox Press imprint. A tale of racial strife, homophobia, and personal self-discovery set in the American South of the early-'60s, Stuck Rubber Baby won both Eisner and Harvey Awards in the U.S. and, in translation, won a Luchs Award in Germany and a 2002 Prix de la critique at the International Comics Festival in Angouleme, France. SRB has also been published in Italy and a Spanish-language edition is forthcoming from Dolmen. (Wendel, meanwhile, was recently translated for Spanish readers by Ediciones La Cúpula.)

Cruse's most recent book, his illustrated adaptation of a fable by Jeanne E. Shaffer entitled The Swimmer With a Rope In His Teeth, was published by Prometheus Books in April 2004, the year that Cruse and his partner Ed Sedarbaum decided to resettle in northwestern Massachusetts after twenty-five years together in New York City. Long married in spirit, they were wed legally under Massachusetts law in July 2004.