Charity vending machine

Concept: Most machines offer a product in return
for inserting money. This one offers nothing except
a feeling of contribution as you have donated that
money to one of the nominated charities on the
"vending" machine. A variation of this machine is
that you buy an item and have the option of donating
your change to a charity of your choice from the options
available.

I think the main strength of this idea is that people
always use vending machines because they are
available everywhere. Also they can easily donate
money to charity while they are buying some drinks
or snacks. So as I said before vending machines can
be located everywhere. That is another strength.
They can be located in schools, universities, offices etc.
I can't see any serious weaknesses. Maybe only that
not everyone would like to donate money for charity.

Discussion....New business idea =)

As we were discussing the previous Kirill's idea
about service in restaurants we thought about
new business idea which is actually connects with
the previous one. One of the most hardest business
is to start up restaurant business. There are a lot of
problems such as competitors, staffs, location etc.
We should have brand new idea to attract customers.
The first idea is to set up `Healthy Fast Food` cafe
such as McDonald's or Subway. The main strength
of this idea is that every food or products will be
healthy and also will include organic products such
as vegetables, fruits etc. Also it will be `fast food`
which is good for office workers, students because
service is really fast and cheap.
As I said before this idea connects with the previous one.
In this cafe we can put that slogans on the table so
customers will decide to pay or not to pay for service.
Actually they will pat if they like service.
Weaknesses are:

• staff
• location

Evaluating of Kirill's idea

First of all I'd like to explain his idea
because as I know a lot of people didn't
understand what it is about.
As we everybody know when we go to
the cafe or restaurant we should pay some
amount of money to waiters (usually it
is 10% of the bill) for their service.
Sometimes in some restaurants service
is not good enough. So we don't want to pay
for service because we don't enjoy it but we don't
have any choice because the bill is include
money for service. In this situation customers
start to feel presure and disappointment as
Kirill does in "Dong Dong" cafe.
So the main idea is to do not make any pressure
to customers and to take money from them by
another way. Kirill counted that in local pubs
and restaurants waiters and barmens gets
approximately 1.5 pounds for service per each
customer. In restaurants or in pubs on the tables
should be some kind of slogans where it will be
written: `We are happy to see your gratitude
for our service that you will leave on the table`.

I think that the main strengths of this idea is that
customers don't feel any pressure. They can decide
by theiselves if they want to pay for service or not.
Weakness of this idea is that some customers
may not like service so therefore they will not pay
for it. Restaurants should have qualified staff who
will be nice and kind with customers so maybe
restaurants should train staffs or motivate them.

It's an emergency. Long-term cures must wait

I've read an article about current credit crunch.
Anatole Kaletsky presents the credit crunch
as one kind of illness of the world economy like
cancer. He was talking about the main reasons
of this `cancer` and ways of solutions.

The main reasons of this credit crunch is excessive
borrowing, property speculation and reckless and
dishonest banking practices. Another cause of
this credit cancer was the global imbalance between
exuberant consumption and house-price speculation in
America, Britain, Spain, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe,
on one hand, and excessive saving and austerity, on the
other, in China, Germany and Japan.

Because of this problems required consumers in the US
and Britain to spend and borrow less, while the surplus
countries invested and spent more. Govenment must
support and subsidise banks to make eaier conditions
for people to borrow and spend money. They should do
everything to encourage consumption.

The best way to do it is to cut interest rates and taxes,
especially taxes on consumption and on lower income
households. As Mr.King said policymakers all over the
world must be willing to cut interest rates to levels never
imagined before. If it is necessary to cut it to the zero point.

If interest rates will be near to zero and taxes will be cut for
a big amount then probably in the middle of next year recovery
of the world economic system will begin. It will start in
America and China, spreading to Britain and eventually reaching
continental Europe in 2010.

Barclayloan for Business

I want to describe a loan scheme of one

of the UK's bank which is called Barclays.

I think everybody know this bank because

it is quite famous.

So the main idea of this scheme is that

with loan from £1,000 to £1,000,000,

you can use a Barclayloan for business to

finance a wide range of general business needs

from buying equipment and machinery to funding

your working capital requirements. Barclay promises

a quick decision and fast access ti the money.

For loans up to £25,000 you can borrow for up to

10 years and benefit from fixed monthly payments

so you know just what it is costing your business.

An optional 12-month repayment holiday and no early

repayment fees gives you even more breathing space.

If your business needs to borrow more than £25,000

you can borrow for terms up to 20 years with a choice

of fixed or variable interest rates and an optional

two-year upfront repayment holiday.

90 Second Dual Pizza Oven

Concept: One of the mantras of successful small
initiatives is to `do it faster` than your competitors.
This is 1440-watt high speed pizza oven certainly
fits that criterion.

Strengths:

• 15 times faster than traditional ovens
• High quality pizza
• It is new idea

Weaknesses:

• High price
• Competitors. There are a lot of ovens which are cheaper than this one.

About universities

I think it is time for all A-level students to think which

university we want to study in. Of course everybody

want to study in the best universities such as Oxford

university, Cambridge university, LSE or Imperial

College but there are a lot of things that we should

do before applying to univrsities.

First of all we should think about our subject combinations

because there are some subjects that were blacklisted by

TOP universities.

As we can read in newspapers "soft" sublects are accounting;

art and design, business studies; critical thinking;

communication studies; dance; design and technology,

drama/ theatre studies; film/ media/ TV studies; health and
social care; home economics; information and communication

technology; leisure studies; music technology; performance

studies; performing arts; photography; physical education;

sports studies; travel and tourism; business and management;

IT in a global society, theatre arts; visual arts.

So TOP universities prefer pure subjects such as Mathematics,

Further Mathematics, Economics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics

etc.

I have looked at LSE website and this is what they tell about it.

`The School considers not only the subjects offered by applicants

at A level (A2) and AS level, but also the combination of them.

The School generally prefers certain subjects because it considers

they are more likely to serve as effective preparation for studying

at LSE. Admissions Tutors will normally consider one of the subjects

listed below only if it is offered in combination with subjects that are

not included in the list. For example, Mathematics, French and

Economics would be a suitable combination for almost any of our

degrees. Mathematics, French and Business would be acceptable,

but we would prefer the first example. On the other hand,

Mathematics, Accounting and Media Studies would not normally

be considered as suitable as this combination includes two subjects

on the list. You should also note that we are less concerned with subject

combinations at AS level.`