Business 1 Lesson 110: Irresistible Offers

When working in a business, it is your main job to sell something. Whatever your business happens to be, everything always boils down to selling something to someone and making a profit. In my business class, we have been learning how to do this. This week, the focus has been on Mark Joyner’s book: The Irresistible Offer. Today I have been asked to watch the following advertisements, and determine which one best follows Joyner’s standards on irresistible offers.

M&Ms (1957)

Radio Shack TRS-80 Computer (1980)

Commodore (1987)- Australia

American Express (late 1960’s)

Of these four ads, I thought the Commodore IBM PC commercial followed the standards the best. The ad follows most of the rules that Joyner laid out in the book. For example, Joyner says in his book to make the offer POP, and make sure that people feel that they absolutely need to buy the product.

In the 1960’s, a man named Ron Popeil formed his business Ronco. Ron then coined the phrase, “But Wait! There’s More!” This is important because in an irresistible offer, you want to attract your audience’s attention. One way to do this is to add more to the offer. This is exactly what the Commodore commercial, and people like Ron Popeil did.

Although I thought this was the best ad of the group, that does not mean that it was perfect. For example, Joyner says that an ad should give an easy way to get the product. However, in the commercial, there was only one mention of how to get the product. This  was: go to the store!

There should be more ways to get ahold of the product than simply going to the store. This is especially true since in 1987 most families had home phones. Since that was the case, the company should have had a phone number that customers could call in order to obtain this product.

One intelligent thing that the company DID do was to create a way for people to think that they are saving money. In other words, they told the audience that they could basically save $1,000. People are always more likely to buy a product if they think that they are saving money. However, the company will probably get the original price through warranty and shipping prices.

Commodore also sold the product by telling the audience all of the things that the computer can do. For example, it can do most large programs that other computers can do. However, what made it an easy sell was that it was easy to move, and it was small.

In conclusion, the Commodore IBM PC followed Joyner’s standards more than the other ads in this list. Although the commercial still had some problems, it was a pretty good ad and it most likely sold the product.

I hope that you enjoyed this essay! If you did, be sure to Hulk-Smash that like button!

(Which ad did you think was the best? Do you agree with me? Let me know what you thought in the comments!)

Until next time, your friendly neighborhood Homeschooler…

9th Grade English Lesson 10: Three Stories

Today, I was assigned to write an essay on the three stories I would have to include in my autobiography. I was struggling with a response to this topic, until now. So, let’s get into this essay, and knock it out of the park!

Until today, I hadn’t thought about stories in my life worthy of being “Must Haves.” However, once I did I discovered a couple stories that would help with the bigger picture of my life.  The first story I must include is the story of my Jacksonville Suns “bowling fail.” In this story, I was chosen from an audience of thousands, to bowl for free souvenirs. However, I missed all the pins on my first attempt. Well, then I was given a second chance, and I missed all the pins again!!

The next story is the story of my first guitar. In this story, I was in 3^rd grade, and I had broken my collar bone. Well, that left me in a sling for the next 6 to 12 weeks, so I was pretty much unable to play the guitar. I had told myself that I would eventually play the guitar when I didn’t have a broken bone. Well, I wasn’t wrong but it wasn’t as soon as I would have wanted. So, then five years went by and I still hadn’t played the guitar. I then started taking guitar lessons, and I love playing it!

The third story is the story of Romulus. In this story, I got my first part in a play. I was given the male supporting lead role in my first school play. (This was before I started homeschooling.) Everyone thought that I shouldn’t have gotten the part because it was my first year of school at LaVilla. However, I showed them exactly why I got that part when I preformed.

Well, there you have it folks. Those are the three stories that I will have to include in my autobiography. I hope you enjoyed this essay. Please like and subscribe for more from Homeschooled Hero!

Until next time, your friendly neighborhood Homeschooler…

A Fresh(man) look on this years classes

This school year, I started many new classes. One of which was Guitar 1 with Florida Virtual School (FLVS). In Guitar 1 I learned many new things such as what timbre means in music. I am still using the Ron Paul Curriculum, but I am also using FLVS. So far, my classes are: Latin 1, Algebra 1, Guitar 1, Physical Science, Business 1, English 1: Autobiographies, and Public Speech.

I am very excited for this year to really start going off. I am excited because so far this school year is really fun. The cool thing about this school year is that if I finish a class, I can start another one in it’s stead. Although the year is definitely not the same as last, it will still as good if not better.

What is your school year like so far? Has it even started yet? How long have you been in school? Please feel free to answer one of these questions in the comments below. Or, ask one of your own. Also, what do you guys think of the new design for the site?

Until next time, your friendly neighborhood Homeschooler…

What Virginia Should done with the Money

Hey guys, I know that you probably think that this is about the STATE Virginia. However, it isn’t about that Virginia. This is about Virginia from the book In His Steps by Charles Sheldon. I was given the assignment to write about what Virginia should have done before donating $500,000 to the newspaper editor. My name is Homeschooled Hero and I hope that you enjoy this essay, so let’s get to it!

So, in the book, Virginia donates half a million dollars to the editor of a failing newspaper. She does this to help bring the paper back to a functional position. However, I feel that there is something that she should have done before donating that money. First she should have decided if the newspaper was WORTH funding. Then she should have checked to see if her family was in need of something that would require that money. Those are the first things that she should have done.

The only reason that she should have done those things before donating the money is because if her family DID need that money, she would have given it away to a failing newspaper and basically waste her money. Now, the first step is the MOST important because it determines if it is even worth considering donating the money. If she had done some research into the paper, she would have actually seen that the editor doesn’t publish stories that would be put into a successful paper. He puts stupid things that aren’t as important as others. For example he decided NOT to publish a story that showed the railroad breaking the law. He published something else that wasn’t important at all.

It may behoove you to know that the book was a very popular book for the Social Gospel. However, the author doesn’t really understand anything how businesses like a newspaper are run. In this sense, this book is very similar to Looking Backward. There are many problems in both books, and they both center around how businesses are run. Both authors don’t really know about how a business is run, how it stays functional, and how to make money. They rely upon how they think that businesses SHOULD  be run, and that is not how the business world works at all. That is the problem with authors like Charles Sheldon, they don’t know what they are writing about. They write about how the world ought to be, instead of how it is. Then, that makes it a big problem when they try to write because it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. I find this to be a big problem.

In conclusion, Virginia should have looked into what she was investing into. She also should have made sure that her family wasn’t in need before she donated $500,000. I think that Charles Sheldon is a good writer, but he has no clue as to what the real world is. It will never be exactly perfect, and what he sees as perfect is not really. Please like and subscribe for more from me, Homeschooled Hero! If you enjoyed this essay leave a comment and let me know why you enjoyed it so much. If you have read the book, let me know what Virginia should have done before she donated the money.

Until next time, your friendly neighborhood Homeschooler…

Space Exploration and the 1970’s Recession

Today, I had to decide what to write about for my history class. I was told to choose one topic to write about, however there were two that really interested me so I decided to make a fusion of topics. The topic of Space Exploration is something that probably interested everyone at one point, but the recession of the 70’s is something a little less well-known. So, without any further adieu, let’s get into the essay.

Let’s start with Space Exploration, just to get you into the mood of the essay. The first country to get a man-made object into space was actually…. Nazi Germany. The fact that they were able to get to send something to space, while at war is amazing, but also very scary.

After Nazi Germany had sent their man-made object into space, a new organization was created. This organization was then called the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles or ICBM for short. Their purpose was to launch nuclear missiles to create a “mutually assured destruction” situation.

Later on, in the Space Race, the country with the most “firsts” to its credit was the U.S.S.R. (Russia). Unfortunately this means that they had done things before other countries had the chance to. Which, in the end, resulted in the U.S.S.R technically winning the Space Race. However we (U.S.) hold the first man on the moon to our credit. Speaking of people getting on the moon, want to guess how many people have stepped foot on the moon? I bet you guessed about 5, well that’s wrong… 12 people have stepped foot on the moon. The first of which was Neil Armstrong.

There was a group of space shuttles known as the 5 space shuttles. Can you guess what their names were? They were called: Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavor. Now, I know that I listed six. This is because of the Challenger disaster. The Challenger was launched to go to space, but it exploded before it even left the atmosphere. The thing that really made this incident super-famous was that there was a teacher on the shuttle going to space. Her name was Sharon Christa McAuliffe.

Now we will talk about the recession of the 1970’s. To start, the longest sustained period of growth in U.S. history, before 1990, was from 1961 to 1968. (Note that this is all information from 2013. This may be out of date.) Now this growth is growth in the economy. This is where the stock market was up and businesses are doing very well. This is a very long time for things to be running on time, so naturally it has to fall apart.

Now, there are four phases of the business cycle. These steps/phases are Expansion, Boom, Recession, and Depression. The recession has the root word recede. Recede means to move backwards. In this case it means to slow and start to backtrack on progress made. In this scenario, the recession is a very bad thing. This is because after the business has been doing so well, they didn’t see anything coming their way to stop them from doing so well, now they are going to lose a lot of what they just earned. This was the recession of 1969. Luckily this recession only lasted about a year is lasted from 1969 to 1970.

Then there was Nixon. Nixon was the president at the time, and he didn’t know what to do to stop this. So, he pulled the U.S. off of it’s fixed exchange rate for gold. This was probably a good thing, because the U.S.’s gold reserves started to shrink very quickly.

Meanwhile oil was being sold very cheap, because it was easy to get. However, after the Nixon Shock, OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) chose to cut back on its oil production, which in turn raised the price per barrel to $12.

One thing that President Nixon and Ford had in common was that they both tried to do something that was ultimately very bad. This is one of the problems that we have today, inflation. They both tried to continue inflation to get the economy back on its feet. So, this didn’t work for either administration and the people were not very happy that they even tried that.

The third highest period of oil prices in history, when you account for inflation, was in 1979 where the price per barrel was $24. That is just a fun fact that I thought would be important. (Plus it was in my video!)

In conclusion, Space and the 1970’s recession were both pretty important times in American history. They both had different end results, but they were both very significant. I hope that this essay broadened your understanding. Please like and subscribe for more. Also, be sure to Share your favorite essays and pieces to your friends!

Until next time, your friendly neighborhood Homeschooler…

What Would Cause this to Accelerate More?

Today I am writing about acceleration for my 8th grade science class. Today’s match-up is between an Elephant and a Mouse. The only catch is that I have to explain this using Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion. So, without further adieu, let’s get this show on the road with some acceleration!

The object that the two contestants need to move is a beach ball. Now that you know this, go ahead and decide which you think will send it farther… Now that you’ve done that, I think that the Elephant will send it farther. I think this because the Elephant weighs much more that the mouse, so then that would make it seem as though the Elephant would have more strength in its leg to kick the ball farther. Newton’s third law of motion states, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This being said, the mouse and elephant have to push the beach ball with more force than the beach ball has to keep itself still. For example, if you place a block on the floor, it won’t move right? However, once you push the block with a lot of force, it will move. This is what needs to happen to move the beach ball.

Well, now that we know that they will both be able to push the ball, which will go farther? This is obviously the elephant because it has more mass, and a higher chance to use the right amount of force to apply to the ball.

That being said, we must assume that the mouse is not somewhere near the elephant. Almost everyone knows that elephants are scared of mice, so the mouse can’t be near the ball, because then the elephant won’t come anywhere near the ball.

Until next time, your friendly neighborhood Homeschooler…

Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union

Today I am writing about Joseph Stalin and his role with the Soviet Union. I am writing this essay for my 8th grade history class. Stalin was a bad leader but his bad leadership also had good side effects for the Soviet Union. He even has an approximate death toll for the time that he lead the Soviet Union. Now, without delaying any further, let’s delve into “Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union.”

Joseph Stalin was the Dictator of the USSR/Soviet Union from 1929 to 1953. Under the Dictatorship of Stalin, the Soviet Union went from peasant country to military superpower. While this may seem great and all, he had some strict rules over the people in the Soviet Union. If history had been different in the Soviet Union however, and Stalin didn’t come to power, the Soviet Union would not be where it is today. So, no matter how we look at this, Stalin had to take over Russia in order for  it to be in the state in which it is.

Stalin was not always someone higher than everyone. He was just a normal kid from the Soviet Union. He lived like almost everyone else in the entire country. Then once the Bolshevik Revolution broke out, Stalin began his rise to Dictatorship. To begin his rise, he was promoted to be part of the governing council.

As Dictator, Stalin establish that he was the best Dictator since the beginning of the Soviet Union. However as he tried to implement concepts of Communism, he failed. This is because Communism doesn’t work for anyone. Everyone thinks that sharing the cost of something is perfect but it isn’t. For example if you and one other live on an island, and you each have to collect coconuts for yourselves. At the end of the day you have collected 20 and the other person has collected 16, you would be forced to give them 2 so that you would have “equal” amounts. Then the next day, you would do less work, because your hard work would be shared with someone who doesn’t work hard anyway. This is a basic idea for why Communism doesn’t ever work.

While Stalin was Dictator, the Soviet Union suffered terribly. This is because he forced everyone to live the way that he thought that they should, which was wrong. This is because when you force someone to do something or live a certain way, you basically take away everything that they had thought was theirs. So, many people would resist this. Then, when Stalin would find out who it was, he would eliminate them.

Stalin had an approximate death toll of 10 million people in the countries of Russia and Ukraine. This is scary, because it meant that not only did he kill his own people, but he killed people in another country like 30 times smaller than his own. This is a massacre of 4 million people more than the Jews killed in World War 2. Also, he most likely ordered his own soldiers to kill more than that but died before the order was carried out… This makes me glad that I didn’t live in the Soviet Union while Stalin was Dictator. Actually, I am glad that I don’t even live in Russia at all.

Free nations fear Communism today and they did in the past as well. If you don’t know why, I will explain now. They feared Communism because Communism basically stands for everything other than what freedom represents. Communism is terrible and never works for any nation or country that has ever tried to use that system of government. This is not to say however than any other government is perfect because none is, but almost all of them are better than Communism.

In conclusion, Joseph Stalin was a dictator of the Soviet Union. He was a very bad person, but he did change the course that the Soviet Union was headed on. He took it from super poor to super powerful within his 24 years as dictator. Please like and subscribe for more from your friendly neighborhood Homeschooler. If you know of any consequences to using Communism, please tell me about them in the comments below.

Until next time, your friendly neighborhood Homeschooler…

Which Dream in Looking Backward was more Realistic? Why?

Today I am writing about which dream from Looking Backward was more realistic to me. To get this started, there were two major dream sequences. These were, the dream back to 1887 and then 2000. These dreams were both rather strange in some aspects but one of them was still more realistic. So, without further adieu, let’s get into this essay.

I think that when he (Bellamy) woke up in 1887, it was more realistic than him waking up in 2000. I think this because when he woke up in 1887, everything seemed like it did before he went to 2000. I say this because in 1887 he lived like he normally would, but in 2000 he had to change to fit into the new society. I don’t like the new society, but it made more sense to me for it to be a figment of Bellamy’s imagination. When he woke up in 1887, I was rather confused but I eventually came to the conclusion that this was all a dream, and that Bellamy was going to try and move America to a socialist community. However, when he goes from the dream in 1887 to 2000, it was a little strange. To me it seemed as though Bellamy didn’t really like the Utopia that is the year 2000, it seemed that he wanted to go back to  his time. I wouldn’t blame him for wanting to see his family, but the dream sequence seemed to be a bit more than that, at least it did before he awoke in 2000 again. In 1887, Bellamy realizes that he has been living in a “perfect” society where everyone lives very differently than in 1887, but when he wakes up in 1887 he wants to change the world into that “perfect” society. I have a problem with this because, if the society was perfect in 1887 chances are, in 2000 it won’t be perfect anymore.

In the year 1887, Bellamy lives like everyone else, he earns a different salary and he does different jobs. This is pretty much the same for everyone in 1887. However, when he makes it to 2000, his life changes. In 2000, everyone has the same salary, and everyone is happy because, they are all equal. Once Bellamy lives in this he develops this lifestyle so that he thinks that this should be how everyone lives. Then when he wakes up in 1887, he resents where he came from, he thinks that it should be just like the Utopian society of 2000. This is not good for him, because he could be classified as crazy, because he would talk about how the year 2000 was. Then, when he woke up in 2000 again, he was very relieved, but he also felt bad because he dreamt of going back to 1887.

In conclusion, I think that Bellamy’s dream of 1887 was more realistic than his dream of 2000. I hope that you see it the same way, if you don’t please explain why. Also, if you haven’t read the book, please do. This book had a pretty big influence on the Socialist movement. Please like and subscribe for more from Homeschooled Hero.

Until next time, your friendly neighborhood Homeschooler…

The 43rd and 44th Presidents and Social Media

Hey guys, today I am writing about the 43rd and 44th presidents and their ties to social media. Now, keep in mind I don’t know everything about social media so if you have any more information on that subject, please leave it in the comment section. I think that these presidents are pretty important in American history as the worst president and one of the interesting ones. That I will leave to you guys to decide, but I definitely have an opinion on these presidents. So, without further adieu, let’s get into this essay!

The 43rd president of the U.S, is George Walker Bush. He is known mostly for launching the war on terror. The war on terror was the fight the Bush initiated to fight terrorists after the tragedy of 9/11. Now, something pretty cool about George Bush is that his father George H.W. Bush was also the president of the United States. This is interesting because only one other family holds this distinction, of a father and son being presidents. As many of you have guessed it was John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Another unique thing about George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush is that the only difference between their names is a middle name. His father’s name is George Herbert Walker Bush whereas his own is just George Walker Bush.

Many people know that when someone runs for president they do it because they want to help their country, well Bush was no different. Many people also know that the people that run for president are typically in politics before they run. There are a few exceptions, such as Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump because they weren’t in politics prior to their presidency. However this portion of the essay is about George Bush, so his first major elected position was as the governor of Texas. Something that I have found in common with many presidents throughout the many lessons this year, is that most of them either started off as a governor or they were a senator. THis just seems to be something common among previous presidents.

In the election of 2000, George W. Bush was elected president. The only problem was that he was the first president to NOT win the popular vote. His opponent won the popular vote whereas Bush won the Electoral College. As I have learned before, the popular vote just gives you an estimate to see which person has the “most” popularity and best chances to win. The Electoral College is what decides who actually wins the election. There is another example of someone losing the popular vote but becoming president and that is Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton was the person who won the popular vote but Trump won the Electoral votes. People were a little contested about this event.

George Bush responded to the terrorist attack on 9/11 by launching the war on terror. The war on terror consisted of two major wars. These were the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The war in Afghanistan was launched to dismantle the terrorist group Al-Qaeda and to remove the Taliban from power. The war in Iraq was launched in order to destroy the government of Saddam Hussein as he was accused of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having ties to Al-Qaeda. These wars, while they may seem very dangerous and it may be better to keep our guys alive. I think that this was a pretty scary time, and had we not retaliated, we would not be where we are now.

Social Media was created while George was in his last couple of years as president, so he didn’t really use it while he was in office. However I know that the 44th president did use Social Media while he was in office. On that note, let’s learn about some Social Media and the 44th president of the United States.

Many of you know what Social Media is in a nutshell. However, if you don’t here is a basic understanding of what it is: social media is an application used to communicate with people you aren’t very close to geography wise. Some social media programs include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and GooglePlus (Google+). Social Media is used very often, and it is very popular and it is a very good idea so some people are getting pretty rich.

Since we have a little bit left to talk about, let’s talk about the 44th president of the United States. The 44th president is Barack Obama Jr.. He won the presidency originally in 2008 and then won again in 2012. Many people don’t know that Obama was actually a Jr.. Obama’s father was named Barack Obama Sr.. One interesting thing that I learned about Obama’s father was that he wasn’t actually a U.S. citizen. This is because he was actually Kenyan. Obama’s mother was an American citizen however. His mother was also white, which would make Obama actually the first “mixed” president and not the first black president. The first elected position that Obama was elected to was as Illinois state Senator.

In conclusion, I think that George Bush was a good and interesting president. However, I think that Obama was one of the worst if not the worst president. If you agree, please like and subscribe. If you don’t, leave a comment explaining why. Please like and subscribe regardless, and comment what you thought about this essay for more from Homeschooled Hero!

Until next time, your friendly neighborhood Homeschooler…

President Ronald Reagan

Hey guys, today I am writing about the 40th President Of The United States. Ronald Reagan is considered by a large majority of Conservatives and Republicans, to be one of the very best Presidents in the history of the United States.

As I was doing my research, I realized that the current President, Donald Trump, seems to be very similar to Ronald Reagan. Actually, the day that I wrote my rough draft, I learned that Trump passed a bill that was very similar to a bill that Reagan signed when he was President. I hope that you guys see the similarities as well, but if you don’t feel free to leave a comment explaining why you feel otherwise. So without further adieu, let’s learn about Ronald Reagan.

Let’s start with his birth, Reagan was born on February 6, 1911. He was born in Illinois. Some personality traits that people commonly attribute to Reagan include his optimistic faith, and the fact that he always saw the best in people. Before World War 2, Reagan had held the jobs of a lifeguard, a radio announcer, and an actor. Let’s start with the lifeguarding. When Reagan was a lifeguard, he would never get his suit wet unless he was saving somebody, as were the rules at the time. He would actually have a wooden log that he would put notch into every-time that he would save somebody. Historians say that he saved around 75 people.

Now let’s talk about his radio announcer job. When Reagan was a radio announcer, he wouldn’t actually watch the games like announcers do today. This is a little strange, but there would be people at the game who would send telegrams with play-by-plays that Reagan would read into the microphone. One time, the telegraph information just stopped coming in, so Reagan had to stall. He started saying that the batter hit a foul and kept hitting them, until 12 which he thought was just ridiculous. Then, the machine turned back on and Reagan filled the nation in on the actual play-by-play. That was pretty scary for them, but I bet that Reagan had some fun.

Reagan was the first president to be elected out of a non-political position. He was an actor. Many people know that much, but some people don’t know this. They don’t know that Reagan was actually the first of two presidents to have been divorced. (The second is Donald Trump) Reagan’s first wife was Jane Wyman, he actually had a daughter with Jane, and he had to explain to her why her parents were getting divorced. However, he didn’t understand very well (Neither did his daughter) so that didn’t work very well. The divorce was completed in 1949. Then, in 1952, Reagan met his next wife Nancy Reagan. When he met Nancy, he was a Democrat but as time went on, he became a Conservative Republican. He also became a life member of the NRA (National Rifle Association). Another strange but cool connection between Trump and Reagan is that they are both the two oldest people to be elected president.

Many people don’t know this, but Reagan was actually the oldest president to be elected, he was inaugurated at 69 but the next day he turned 70. This was true until Donald Trump was inaugurated. Many people also don’t know that Reagan’s mom died of Alzheimer’s disease. This is probably why Reagan died of the disease himself.

Reagan’s legacy as a president is important to know. His legacy is as a firm and unswerving leader, which restored faith in the presidency after two decades of weak presidents, until Bill Clinton. When Bill Clinton went into office then the presidency started to slip again. However now that we have Trump, the economy seems to be changing in the same ways that it did when Reagan was president.

In conclusion, Ronald Reagan is arguably one of the top 3 best presidents in the history of the United States. I hope that you saw similarities between Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan. Again, if you didn’t leave a comment why not, or write a blog post on it and link to me! I hope that you enjoyed this essay. Please like and subscribe for more from Homeschooled Hero!

Until next time, your friendly neighborhood Homeschooler…