Tax accountant business

Tax Accountant
Help clients organize their taxes to get the biggest return.

Business Overview
Tax preparation can be time-consuming, detail-oriented, confusing, and, for most people, frightening. Tax laws change frequently, the IRS has a tyrannical reputation, and most of us balk at arithmetic anyway. But if you’ve got a head for figures, you like solving puzzles of the financial kind, and you can keep up with changing tax laws, this could be the business for you. You can work with individuals to fill out their yearly tax forms, specialize in small-business tax preparation, or represent clients who’ve fallen under the IRS’ beady eye and are being targeted for hefty liens or penalties.

The advantages to this business are that you can work at home, you get to learn an awful lot about everybody’s personal and company business (although morally, ethically and legally, you must keep it to yourself), it’s recession-proof because people will always need to pay their taxes, and it can be very profitable. As a tax preparation expert, you should have a solid working knowledge of tax laws for your target market--individuals, estates, partnerships, or other types of small or large businesses. (Our tax system is too broad for you to know everything.) You’ll need a good eye for math and the people skills to help your clients make the best of a usually nerve-draining situation. You should also have the experience and instincts to judge whether the information your clients give you is A-OK or doesn’t quite ring true.

The Market
Your clients can be individuals or businesses. Get yourself the business by placing ads in your local Yellow Pages and newspapers, networking with professional and small-business organizations in your area, and with CPAs and attorneys who can refer their clients to you. Direct-mail your brochures to local businesses or to individuals who have just moved to your area.

Needed Equipment
You don’t have to have any sort of license or certification, but you may want to get certified as an EA (enrolled agent) by the IRS. This involves training followed by a rigorous two-day exam, the completion of which is a bonus as far as your credentials are concerned. It also allows you to go before the IRS in place of your client during an audit. (Only enrolled agents, CPAs and attorneys are granted this privilege, which means you can charge more than an uncertified tax preparer.) Whether or not you go for the EA designation, you’ll need a computer with a laser printer, a fax machine, a copier, the usual office software, as well as tax preparation software like Intuit’s ProSeries. You’ll also need reference materials, including the U.S. Master Tax Guide (available on Amazon), and regular updates to all this stuff. You can get a CD containing IRS forms for $22, plus lots of freebies, all for the asking. Be sure to check with your insurance agent about errors-and-omissions insurance as well.

The ghost novel

The Ghosts is a novel written by Antonia Barber in 1969. It was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. It was filmed in 1972 as The Amazing Mr Blunden with Laurence Naismith as Mr Blunden and Diana Dors as Mrs Wickens.
Plot summary
The story opens with an elderly man visiting Mrs. Allen, a widow who lives with her three children Lucy, Jamie and her baby Benjamin, in Camden Town, London, England. He offers her a job as caretaker of an abandoned house of Mr. Latimer until the Blunden, Blunden and Claverton company can find the rightful owner. Mrs. Allen takes the job, despite the rumours of ghosts living in the old house.
One day, Lucy is walking in the garden to explore and to pick flowers when she hears the ghosts calling her name. She goes closer, only to discover the ghosts in person: a teenage girl and her younger brother.Lucy and Jamie return the next day to discuss with the ghosts. It turns out their uncle is trying to "get rid of them", or murder them, and they are travelling forwards in time in order to get help. The ghosts' names are Sara and Georgie Latimer.
By drinking an infusion of various leaves, made from a recipe that Sara provides, Lucy and Jamie go back in time with the ghosts to meet Mrs. Wickens, the housekeeper and mother to Bella who is to marry Sarah and Georgie's guardian.; Tom, the gardener's boy; The children also meet Mr. Blunden (who is believed to be the creator of Blunden, Blunden and Claverton company), who helps Jamie and Lucy rescue Sara and Georgie from a fire supposedly started by their drunk adoptive father.
In the end, Jamie and Mr. Blunden travel through the fire by holding hands, and because Mr.Blunden is the one who must suffer. Jamie will not have to. And they save Georgie while Sara is safely outside. Mr. Blunden dies.In the end, a lawyer named Mr.Smith returns to the household. It turns out Sara married Tom (the gardener boy), and Georgie moved to Camden Town. And Sara moves to the U.S.. According to a letter sent by Sara to Georgie, her great-grandson is the late Mr. Allen, Jamie and Lucy's father, so Jamie is considered heir to the house, being Sara Latimer's great-great-grandson

The cat in the hat

The Cat in the Hat is a children's book by Dr. Seuss, featuring a tall, anthropomorphic, mischievous cat, wearing a tall, red and white striped hat, a bowtie, and an umbrella. With the series of Beginner Books that The Cat inaugurated, Seuss promoted both his name and the cause of elementary literacy in the United States. The eponymous cat appears in six of Seuss's rhymed children's books:
In the first book featuring the character (The Cat in the Hat, 1957), the Cat brings a cheerful, exotic and exuberant form of chaos to a household of two young children one rainy day while their mother leaves them unattended. Bringing with him two creatures appropriately named Thing One and Thing Two, the Cat performs all sorts of wacky tricks to amuse the children, with mixed results. The Cat's antics are vainly opposed by the family pet, who is a sentient and articulate goldfish. The children (Sally and her older brother, who serves as the narrator) ultimately prove exemplary latchkey children, capturing the Things and bringing the Cat under control. To make up for the chaos he has caused, he cleans up the house on his way out, disappearing seconds before the mother arrives.
The book has been popular since its publication, and a logo featuring the Cat adorns all Dr. Seuss publications and animated films produced after The Cat in the Hat. The Cat holds up a cup, some milk, a cake, three books, the Fish, a rake, a toy boat, a toy man, a red fan and his umbrella while he's on a ball.
Seuss wrote the book because he felt that there should be more entertaining and fun material for beginning readers. From a literary point of view, the book is a feat of skill, since it simultaneously maintains a strict triple meter, keeps to a tiny vocabulary, and tells an entertaining tale. Literary critics occasionally write recreational essays about the work, having fun with issues such as the absence of the mother and the psychological or symbolic characterizations of Cat, Things, and Fish. This book is written in a style common to Dr. Seuss, anapestic tetrameter (see Dr. Seuss's meters).
More than 10 million copies of The Cat in the Hat have been printed. It has been translated into more than 12 different languages. In particular, it has been translated into Latin with the title Cattus Petasatus and into Yiddish with the title "di Kats der Payats".
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back
The Cat in the Hat made a return appearance in this 1958 sequel. On this occasion, he leaves Thing One and Thing Two at home, but does bring along Little Cat A, nested inside his hat. Little Cat A doffs his hat to reveal Little Cat B, who in turn reveals C, and so on down to the microscopic Little Cat Z, who turns out to be the key to the plot. The crisis involves a pink bathtub ring and other pink residue left by the Cat after he snacks on a cake in the bathtub with the water running. Preliminary attempts to clean it up fail as they only spread the mess elsewhere, including a dress, the wall, a pair of shoes, the bed, and then eventually outside where a "spot killing" war takes place between the mess, the main cat, 22 smaller cats (Little Cats A through V), and an arsenal of primitive weapons including pop guns, bats, and a lawnmower. Unfortunately, the initial battle to rid the mess only makes it into an entire yard covering spot. But then Little Cats V W, X, and Y take off their hats to uncover Little Cat Z, who takes his hat off and unleashes a "Voom" which cleans up the back yard and puts all of the other Little Cats back into the Cat in the Hat's hat.
The book ends in a burst of flamboyant versification, with the full list of little cats arranged into a metrically-perfect rhymed quatrain. It teaches the reader the alphabet.
Little Cats A, B and C were also characters in the 1996 TV series The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss.
The Cat in The Hat Comes Back was part of the Beginner Book Video series along with There's a Wocket in My Pocket! and Fox in Socks.Adrian Edmondson narrated both Cat in the Hat stories for a HarperCollins audiobook that also includes Fox in Socks and Green Eggs and Ham.

Babar the elephant book

Babar the Elephant is a very popular French children's fictional character who first appeared in L'Histoire de Babar by Jean de Brunhoff in 1931 and enjoyed immediate success. An English language version, entitled The Story of Babar, appeared in 1933 in Britain and also in the United States. The book is based on a tale that Brunhoff's wife, Cecile, had invented for their children. It tells of a young elephant called Babar who leaves the jungle, visits a big city, and returns to bring the benefits of civilization to his fellow elephants.

Jean de Brunhoff published six more stories before his premature death in 1937 at the age of 37. His son Laurent de Brunhoff was also a talented writer and illustrator, and from 1946 onwards he carried on the series with Babar et Le Coquin d'Arthur and many more.An animated TV series was produced by Nelvana Limited and Clifford Ross Company, and originally ran from January 3, 1989 to June 5, 1991. There were 78 episodes.

After Babar witnesses the slaughter of his beloved mother, he flees from the jungle and finds his way to Paris where he is befriended by the Old Lady. Babar eventually returns to the Elephant realm following the death of the previous King, who had eaten some poisonous mushrooms. Babar is crowned king, marries his third cousin twice removed Celeste, and founds the city of Celesteville. Babar, who likes to wear a bright green suit, introduces a very French form of Western civilization to the elephants, and causes them to dress in Western attire.
Among Babar's other associates are the monkey Zephir, the old elephant counsellors Cornelius and Pompadour, his cousin Arthur, and his children, Pom, Flora and Alexander.

Later, a second daughter, Isabelle, was introduced. The Old Lady comes to live in the Kingdom as an honoured guest. Despite the presence of these counsellors, Babar's rule seems to be totally independent of any elected body, and completely autocraticBesides his Westernizing policies, Babar engages in warfare with the warlike rhinoceroses, who are led by Lord Rataxes.

Recipes for disaster book

Recipes for Disaster: An Anarchist Cookbook is an anarchist book released by the CrimethInc. collective in December 2004. It provides information on and strategies for direct action useful to activists and dissenters.
There are sections on forming affinity groups, organizing demonstrations, stenciling, black blocs, sabotage, squatting, and more personal topics like mental health and "Supporting Survivors of Domestic Violence". It was written over a span of three years by dozens of radical collectives from all over the world working together.
The title alludes to The Anarchist Cookbook, a controversial book from 1971. CrimethInc. denounces the earlier book, saying it was "not composed or released by anarchists, not derived from anarchist practice, not intended to promote freedom and autonomy or challenge repressive power--and was barely a cookbook, as the recipes in it are notoriously unreliable.
At best, it was a fraud, a spoof; at worst, an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of anarchist practice, and cause readers to injure themselves. The recent movie by the same name is equally embarrassing, not so much to anarchists as to the industry that produced it." The work was positively reviewed in Fifth Estate (Spring/Summer 2005) and Clamor (Spring 2006, #36), as well as by Kirsten Anderberg

Imperial hubris book

Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey's, 2004; ISBN 1-57488-849-8) is a book originally published anonymously, but authored by Michael Scheuer, a CIA veteran with 22 years service, who ran the Counterterrorist Center's bin Laden station from 1996 to 1999.
Scheuer describes his thesis this way:"Imperial Hubris is overwhelmingly focused on how the last several American presidents have been very ill-served by the senior leaders of the Intelligence Community. Indeed, I resigned from an Agency I love in order to publicly damn the feckless 9/11 Commission, which failed to find any personal failure or negiligence among Intelligence Community leaders even though dozens of serving officers provided the commissioners with clear documentary evidence of that failure."
The book is highly critical of the Bush Administration's handling and characterization of the War on Terrorism, and of its simplistic portrayal of Bin Laden as "evil" and "hating freedom." The book is notable in criticizing the idea that Islamist terrorists are attacking Western societies because of what they are rather than for their foreign policies. Scheuer writes:
"The fundamental flaw in our thinking about Bin Laden is that "Muslims hate and attack us for what we are and think, rather than what we do." Muslims are bothered by our modernity, democracy, and sexuality, but they are rarely spurred to action unless American forces encroach on their lands. It's American foreign policy that enrages Osama and al-Qaeda, not American culture and society."
Imperial Hubris argues that Osama bin Laden's war against the U.S. is a classical example of defensive jihad waged against an enemy occupier rather than an apocalyptic attack on "freedom." Scheuer is particularly critical of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, which he characterizes as "an avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked war against a foe who posed no immediate threat but whose defeat did offer economic advantages." For Scheuer, the war in Iraq was like a "Christmas gift" to bin Laden not just because it distracted the U.S. military from the war against al Qaeda, but more importantly because it has provided global jihadists a failed state from which to operate that is even more conducive to terrorism than Afghanistan. By attacking and occupying the second holiest place in Shi'a Islam, the U.S. has turned Iraq into a lightning rod for jihadists from around the globe to come attack the occupying armies. The invasion, he argues, has provided credibility and substance to bin Laden's assertion that terrorists are waging a defensive jihad against foreign occupier bent on destroying Islam.
The book is also notable for its critique of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, which Scheuer insists that the U.S. is losing badly. The Taliban, he argues, was not defeated; it is simply biding its time for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops and the inevitable collapse of Hamid Karzai's government in Kabul. "Karzai's defeat may not come tomorrow," he writes, "but come it will, and the Prophet's banner will again be unfurled over Kabul."In the September 7th 2007 Osama bin Laden video he says that "if you would like to get to know some of the reasons for your losing of your war against us, then read the book of Michael Scheuer in this regard."

marathon

The marathon is a long-distance foot race with an official distance of 42.195 kilometers (26 miles 385 yards) that is usually run as a road race. The event is named after the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens. The historical accuracy of this legend is in doubt, contradicted by accounts given by Herodotus, in particular.
The marathon was one of the original modern Olympic events in 1896, though the distance did not become standardized until 1921. More than 800 marathons are contested throughout the world each year, with the vast majority of competitors being recreational athletes. Larger marathons can have tens of thousands of participants

The name marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger. The legend states that he was sent from the town of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon. It is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming "Νενικήκαμεν" (Nenikékamen, 'We have won.') before collapsing and dying.

The account of the run from Marathon to Athens first appears in Plutarchs On the Glory of Athens in the 1st century AD who quotes from Heraclid Ponticus's lost work, giving the runner's name as either Thersipus of Erchius or Eucles. Lucian of Samosata (2nd century AD) also gives the story but names the runner Philippides (not Pheidippides).

There is debate about the historical accuracy of this legend. The Greek historian Herodotus, the main source for the Greco-Persian Wars, mentions Pheidippides as the messenger who ran from Athens to Sparta asking for help, and then ran back, a distance of over 240 kilometres each way.[ In some Herodotus manuscripts the name of the runner between Athens and Sparta is given as Philippides. Herodotus makes no mention of a messenger sent from Marathon to Athens, and relates that the main part of the Athenian army, having already fought and won the grueling battle, and fearing a naval raid by the Persian fleet against an undefended Athens, marched quickly back from the battle to Athens, arriving the same day.In 1876, Robert Browning wrote the poem "Pheidippides". Browning's poem, his composite story, became part of late-19th century popular culture and was accepted as a historic legend.

badminton

Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players (singles) or two opposing pairs (doubles), who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their opponents' half of the court. A rally ends once the shuttlecock has struck the ground, and the shuttlecock may only be struck once by each side before it passes over the net.
The shuttlecock (or shuttle) is a feathered projectile whose unique aerodynamic properties cause it to fly differently from the balls used in most racquet sports; in particular, the feathers create much higher drag, causing the shuttlecock to decelerate more rapidly than a ball. Shuttlecocks have a much higher top speed, when compared to other racquet sports. Because shuttlecock flight is affected by wind, competitive badminton is best played indoors. Badminton is also played outdoors as a casual recreational activity, often as a garden or beach game.

Since 1992, badminton has been an Olympic sport with five events: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles, in which each pair is a man and a woman. At high levels of play, the sport demands excellent fitness: players require aerobic stamina, agility, strength, speed, and precision. It is also a technical sport, requiring good motor coordination and the development of sophisticated racquet movements.

Badminton has been played since ancient times; an early form of the sport was played in ancient Greece. In Japan, the related game Hanetsukiwas played as early as the 16th century. In the west, badminton came from a game called battledore and shuttlecock, in which two or more players keep a feathered shuttlecock in the air with small racquets.The modern form of Badminton however can be traced to India, where British military officers stationed there in the late 19th century CE became interested in a similar local game which was known to them as Poona (derived from Pune, an Indian garrison town). This game was taken back to England where the rules of badminton were set out. Another early version of the game was recorded in the 1850s in the southern Indian city of Tanjore, called pooppanthu vilayattam (Tamil for flower-ball game) in which balls made of wool and cardboard were used in the place of the modern-day shuttlecock.

Isaac Spratt, a London toy dealer, published a booklet, "Badminton Battledore - a new game" in 1860, but unfortunately no copy has survived. The new sport was definitively launched in 1873 at the Badminton House, Gloucestershire, owned by the Duke of Beaufort. During that time, the game was referred to as "The Game of Badminton," and the game's official name became Badminton.Until 1887, the sport was played in England under the rules that prevailed in India. The Bath Badminton Club standardized the rules and made the game applicable to English ideas. The basic regulations were drawn up in 1887. In 1893, the Badminton Association of England published the first set of rules according to these regulations, similar to today's rules, and officially launched badminton in a house called "Dunbar" at 6 Waverley Grove, Portsmouth, England on September 13 of that year. They also started the All England Open Badminton Championships, the first badminton competition in the world, in 1899.
The International Badminton Federation (IBF) (now known as Badminton World Federation) was established in 1934 with Canada, Denmark, England, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales as its founding members. India joined as an affiliate in 1936. The BWF now governs international badminton and develops the sport globally.While set-out in England, international badminton has traditionally been dominated by Denmark from Europe. Indonesia, South Korea and Malaysia are among the nations that have consistently produced world-class players in the past few decades and dominated competitions on the international level, with China being the most dominant in recent years

Elephant polo

Elephant polo is a variant of polo played whilst riding elephants. It is played in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Rajasthan (India), and Thailan. Equipment consists of a standard polo ball and six to nine foot cane (similar to bamboo) sticks with a polo mallet head on the end.

The pitch is three-quarters of the length of a standard polo pitch, due to the slower speed of the elephants. Two people ride each elephant; the elephants are steered by mahouts, while the player tells the mahout which way to go and hits the ball.

Although elephant polo was first played in India at the beginning of the twentieth century, the modern game originated in Meghauly, Nepal, reportedly after a drinking bout Tiger Tops in Nepal remains the headquarters of elephant polo and the site of the World Elephant Polo Championships. As of December 2008, the world elephant polo champions were England.
Elephant Polo in Nepal and Thailand is played under the auspices of the World Elephant Polo Association. WEPA enforces strict rules regarding elephant welfare and game play.

As of December 2007, Chopard, Hong Kong is the reigning champion of the World Elephant Polo Association. Other tournaments, such as those played in India and Sri Lanka, are managed independently of each other and the World Elephant Polo Association.

Paragliding sport

Paragliding is a recreational and competitive flying sport. A paraglider is a free-flying, foot-launched aircraft. The pilot sits in a harness suspended below a fabric wing, whose shape is formed by its suspension lines and the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing.
In 1952 Domina Jalbert advance governable parachutes with multi-cells and controls for controlling lateral glide of the device.
In 1954, Walter Neumark predicted (in an article in Flight magazine) a time when a glider pilot would be “able to launch himself by running over the edge of a cliff or down a slope ... whether on a rock-climbing holiday in Skye or ski-ing in the Alps”. In 1961, the French engineer Pierre Lemoigne produced improved parachute designs which led to the Para-Commander (‘PC’), which had cut-outs at the rear and sides that enabled it to be towed into the air and steered – leading to parasailing/parascending.
Sometimes credited with the greatest development in parachutes since Leonardo da Vinci, the American Domina Jalbert invented his filed-for January 10, 1963 US Patent 3131894 the Parafoil which had sectioned cells in an aerofoil shape; an open leading edge and a closed trailing edge, inflated by passage through the air – the ram-air design. Meanwhile, David Barish was developing the Sail Wing for recovery of NASA space capsules – “slope soaring was a way of testing out ... the Sail Wing”. After tests on Hunter Mountain, New York in September 1965, he went on to promote ‘slope soaring’ as a summer activity for ski resorts (apparently without great success).NASA originated the term ‘paraglider’ in the early 1960’s, and ‘paragliding’ was first used in the early 1970’s to describe foot-launching of gliding parachutes.
Author Walter Neumark wrote Operating Procedures for Ascending Parachutes, and he and a group of enthusiasts with a passion for tow-launching ‘PCs’ and ram-air parachutes eventually broke away from the British Parachute Association to form the British Association of Parascending Clubs (BAPC) in 1973. Authors Patrick Gilligan (Canada) and Betrand Dubuis (Switzerland) wrote the first flight manual "The Paragliding Manual" in 1985, officially coining the word Paragliding.
These threads were pulled together in June 1978 by three friends Jean-Claude Bétemps, André Bohn and Gérard Bosson from Mieussy Haute-Savoie, France. After inspiration from an article on ‘slope soaring’ in the Parachute Manual magazine by parachutist & publisher Dan Poynter, they calculated that on a suitable slope, a ‘square’ ram-air parachute could be inflated by running down the slope; Bétemps launched from Pointe du Pertuiset, Mieussy, and flew 100 m. Bohn followed him and glided down to the football pitch in the valley 1000 metres below. ‘Parapente’ (pente being French for slope) was born.
Through the 1980’s and since, it has been a story of constantly improving equipment and ever greater numbers of paragliding pilots. The first World Championship was held in Kössen, Austria in 1989.

motard sports

Motard is the French word for Biker.
Supermoto, or Supermotard is a cross-over or evolution of motocross and road racing. Races are commonly held on road racing or medium sized go-kart tracks with an off-road section in the infield. Most supermoto race tracks are typically configured with approximately 70% tarmac and 30% dirt with small jumps but a dirt section is not required. The motorcycles used are frequently custom-created combinations of off-road motorcycles and road-racing rims/tires, known as 'supermotard' bikes. Riders also wear a combination of road race and offroad equipment, normally leathers and a motocross helmet and boots. Unlike normal motorcycle racing, the emphasis lies on slower (<100 mph / <161 km/h), short and twisty tracks, where rider skill matters far more than outright machine performance.
History
Supermoto has its origins in the 1970s where ABC’s Wide World of Sports was the highest-rated sports show in the United States. In 1979, ABC commissioned a made-for-TV event to be included in the series, named Superbikers, whose intention was to find the ultimate all-around motorcycle racer. Superbikers was then manifested as a yearly event run at southern California's Carlsbad Raceway. The show's tarmac-and-dirt courses were intended to draw on talent from the worlds of off-road, flat-track and road-racing. World and National Championship-winning motorcycling greats such as Kenny Roberts and Jeff Ward, whose respective sports at the time were road-racing and motocross, participated in the races. The Superbikers quickly became a huge Nielsen rating contender, running until 1985, at which point ABC was forced to cancel the show due to new management and cuts; its cancellation also initiated a long sabbatical of the sport in the USA. The European racers who participated in the sport at Carlsbad, however, brought it back to Europe with them, where it quickly gained popularity in countries such as France.
2003 signalled the resurrection of the sport in the United States with the birth of the AMA Supermoto championship and with the ESPN X-Games Supermoto championship.
Machines
Prior to the 1990s, supermoto bikes, including the precursor motorcycles used in Superbikers, were converted open-class two-stroke motocross or enduro bikes desired for their lightweight and jumping abilities. The motorcycles currently used for Supermoto racing are predominantly single-cylinder 4 stroke powered dirtbikes with 17" or 16.5" wheels. The 17" rims allow the use of up to 5.5" wide superbike road racing slicks. Slick tires are often hand grooved on the rear tire to facilitate slightly better acceleration on the dirt stretches of a supermoto course. Suspension is lowered and slightly stiffened in comparison with a stock dirt bike, and braking power is improved with oversize front brake rotors and calipers. Despite the lack of trees on supermoto courses, 'bark busters' (hand guards) are frequently added to supermoto bikes due the extreme cornering angles achieved by riders. Hand guards also greatly improve survivability of the brake & clutch levers during a fall making supermoto bikes highly crash resistant and often able to quickly re-enter the fray during a race following a crash.

F1 powerboar sports

F1 Powerboat World Championship is a competition of power yachts with rules similar to Formula 1 car racing. Each F1 powerboat race lasts approximately 45 minutes following a circuit marked out in a selected stretch of water, usually a lake, river, or sheltered bay.
Qualifying periods decide the formation of the grid, and timing equipment records the performance of competitors to decide the final classification and allocation of championship points. The sport is governed by the Monaco based Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM, International Power Boating Association).
Format
Inaugurated in 1981, F1 powerboat racing is a Grand Prix style event, similar to Formula One automobile racing, in which teams compete in 13 venues around the world each season. In the 2006 season, 27 drivers competed for 12 teams, with 24 boats competing in any one race. The races take place along a track of approximately 350 meters with multiple turns, over which the boats can reach 240 kilometers per hour (150 mph). The races are longer than most powerboat races at approximately 45 minutes, but still shorter than most automobile races.
Boats
F1 racing uses tunnel hull catamarans that are capable of both high speed and exceptional maneuverability. Overall, the boats weigh 860 pounds (390 kilogrammes), including 260 pounds (118 kilogrammes) of engine. They are 20 feet (6 metres) long and seven feet (2 metres) wide, keeping weight low through extensive use of carbon fiber and kevlar. The tunnel hull design creates an air cushion under the hull, so that at speed only a few inches touch the water, leading to the high speed possible with these hulls.
F1 boats are powered by a Mercury Marine V6 two stroke that burns 100LL Avgas at a rate of 120 liters (32 gallons) per hour, generating 350 horsepower at 10,500 rpm. This engine can propel the boats to 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than four seconds and to a maximum speed of over 240 km/h (150 mph).
Safety
Although F1 boats have not changed much in appearance since the start of the event, the construction and safety has been dramatically improved from the original open-cockpit plywood boats.
The first major development was the hard composite cockpit capsule designed to break away from the rest of the boat in a crash. This also inaugurated the practice of securing the drivers to their seats with a harness. First developed by designer and racer Chris Hodges, this system was optional for a time due to the opposition of the drivers but, after it saved several drivers in major crashes, the UIM mandated it for all boats. In the early 1990s F1 boat builder Dave Burgess introduced a canopy that fully enclosed the cockpit to protect the driver from the full force of water in a nose-dive. In the late 1990s boat builder DAC introduced an airbag situated behind the driver that prevents the cockpit from completely submerging if the boat flips.
These specific changes in safety features were also accompanied by a progression of lighter and stronger composite hulls that also reduced the hazards of racing. F1 drivers now also wear a HANS Head and Neck Restraint device similar to that worn by their Formula One automobile racing counterparts to combat head and neck injuries.As of the 2007 season, all boats are required to have a crash box installed. Potential future safety features include collapsible bows that would deform rather than penetrate another hull.

fighter kites

Fighter kites are kites that are used for the sport of kite fighting. Countries where kite fighting is particularly well-known include Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Korea, and Guyana.[citation needed]
Most fighter kites are small unstable single line flat kites. Tension in the line will cause the kite to deform into a shape that allows the kite to track in a straight path, so to control the kite, the flier will release line until the nose of the kite is pointed in the direction that the flier wants the kite to go, and then they will pull in line to make the kite track.
Traditionally most fighter kites are flown with an abrasive line with the aim of cutting the line of opponents kites, but in some forms of competition kites are flown to capture and bring down the opponents kite - or to just touch the opponents flying line.
Materials used to make fighter kites
In most traditional fighter kite manufacture, the skins of kites are made from a lightweight thin paper and the spars are usually made from a lightweight and flexible wood, usually bamboo.
In modern American fighters, the kite skins are made from a variety of synthetic materials - mylar, aircraft insulation (orcon or insulfab), nylon, and polyester sheeting. The spine is often bamboo but the bow, and often also the spine, is usually fiberglass or carbon fiber.
Line used for fighter kites
Historically, for most Asian type fighters, a thin cotton or hemp line is coated with a mixture of finely crushed glass and rice glue. In recent years, synthetic line has been coated with a variety of abrasives and stronger glue, also, there have been some reports of metallic line being used. Some cultures use line that has metal knives attached to hook and cut the opponents line.
In line touch competition, synthetic braided fishing line, 15 to 20 lb test, is used due to its low stretch and high strength for the line diameter and weight. Waxed cotton or linen line is also used.

Hare coursing

Hare coursing is the pursuit of hares with Greyhounds and other sighthounds, which chase the hare by sight and not by scent. It is a competitive sport, in which dogs are tested on their ability to run, overtake and turn a hare, rather than a form of hunting aiming at the capture of game. It has a number of variations in its rules around the world. Informal coursing can be a true form of hunting. It is often conducted to kill game or vermin, mainly for food, and occasionally as a form of gambling.
Coursing is a long established and almost universal hunting technique, practiced historically with Greyhounds, other sighthound breeds, or with lurchers which are cross bred sighthounds, and working breeds. The sport grew in popularity in the UK and Europe during the 19th century, but has since experienced a decline due in part to the introduction of Greyhound racing and betting.
In recent decades some controversy has developed around hare coursing in the UK and USA, with some viewing it as a cruel bloodsport and others seeing it as a traditional activity that assists in the conservation of hares and tests the ability of sighthounds. Since 2002, hare coursing has been banned in Great Britain but continues elsewhere in the world as a regulated and judged, competitive sport, especially in the Republic of Ireland and Spain, as well as in Russia and the Western United States. Elsewhere, in Eurasia for example, coursing continues as a classic form of hunting.
Whether for sporting or hunting purposes, hare coursing was in the UK and Europe historically restricted to landowners and the nobility, who used sighthounds, the ownership of which was at certain historic times prohibited among the lower social classes The oldest documented description of hare coursing is the work Kynegetikos (Greek), otherwise known as Cynegeticus (Latin), which was written by Arrian circa 180 AD. This work, known from its first complete English translation as On Coursing 1831, by William Dansey, was considered by its original author as a necessary addition to the classic work of the same name Cynegeticus (On Hunting), scent hunting, by Xenophon. Arrian felt compelled to describe the sight hunt and sighthounds because the Ancient Greeks only knew the scent hunt. It is from Arrian that the most famous quote on the sporting fairness of coursing originates "... true huntsmen do not take out their hounds to catch the creature, but for a trial of speed and a race, and they are satisfied if the hare manages to find something that will rescue her".
The competitive version of hare coursing was given definitive form in the UK when the first complete set of English rules was drawn up in the reign of Elizabeth I by Thomas Duke of Norfolk, providing for a pursuit of no more than two hounds, a headstart termed "Law" to be given to the hare for a fair run, and for the manner of awarding points on "Speed", "Go-bye", "Turn", "Wrench", "Kill" & "Trip", to judge the dogs' performance. The first modern coursing club was established at Swaffham in 1776, and the National Coursing Club was founded to regulate the sport in 1858.During the 1800s, coursing crossed the class divide, and reached its peak of popularity, with more than 150 coursing clubs in Britain, some attracting up to 80,000 people.By the late 19th century, hare coursing had become a predominantly working class sport.
Coursing declined during the 20th century, notably due to the development of urban Greyhound racing in the 1920s, and there were less than 30 coursing clubs in the UK by 2000.

cluster balooning sports

Cluster ballooning is an uncommon form of ballooning in which a single balloonist is attached by a harness to a cluster of relatively small helium-inflated rubber balloons.
Unlike traditional hot-air balloons, which possess vents for easy altitude control, cluster balloons rise uncontrollably, expanding as they go. Cluster balloonists must periodically cut balloons loose to maintain altitude and descend. Bottled water is a common ballast, and can be partially emptied to slow descent.
One of the most notable cluster balloonists is Larry Walters, who, in 1982, without any prior ballooning experience, attached 42 helium filled weather balloons to a piece of patio furniture (a lawn chair) and lifted off. He intended to rise just a few hundred feet (about 100 metres), but vastly underestimated helium's lifting power and as a result, he quickly rose nearly 3 miles (5 km) into the air (over 50 times his intended maximum altitude).
Although cluster ballooning predated Walters, his feat captured the public imagination and helped to raise the sport's public profile. Today, one of the most prominent cluster balloonists is John Ninomiya, whose flights have been featured on The Science Channel, The History Channel, TechTV, TLC, and MTV.
The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes the highest altitude attained via cluster ballooning to be that achieved by Mike Howard (UK) and Steve Davis (USA), who on August 4 2001, over Los Lunas, NM, USA, used 400 helium balloons to reach a height of over 18,300 feet (5,600 m). Larry Walters is estimated to have reached 16,000 feet (4,900 m) in 1982. His record is not recognized, however, because he did not carry a proper altimeter.
Walters' flight achieved the status of urban legend. To prove the feat was possible, it was tested in an episode of MythBusters, where one of the show's hosts was successfully lifted to a height of about 100 feet (30 m) in tethered flight; he gradually reduced his altitude by shooting out balloons with a pellet gun, proving the plausibility of the story.
In April 2008, in Brazil, Roman Catholic priest Adelir Antonio de Carli suspended himself via 1000 balloons. Ground observers lost track of him when he floated out above the ocean, and he was missing until his body was found by an offshore oil rig support vessel on 5 July 2008. Carli at one point reached an altitude of 6,000 metres (19,685 ft) before losing contact with authorities; his altitude may have indeed been the record for cluster ballooning, but it cost him his life.
Just two months later, in June of 2008, FAA licensed pilot Jonathan Trappe attached a cluster of balloons to his standard, unmodified office chair and flew it to an altitude of 14,783 feet. The flight reportedly lasted four hours and covered 50 miles before Trappe returned to earth, retired the chair, and returned it back to his workplace.

aerobatics

Aerobatics is the demonstration of flying maneuvers for training, recreation or entertainment.
Many aerobatic maneuvers involve rotation of the aircraft about its longtitudinal axis (rolling) or the pitch axis (looping). Some complex maneuvers, such as a spin, also require that the aircraft be displaced around a vertical axis, known as yawing. Maneuvers are often combined which demands a higher level of skill from the pilot, but greatly increases the spectacle of an aerobatic flight sequence.
Aerobatics is also practiced as a sport. Some pilots fly solely for recreation, while a smaller number (several hundred world wide) choose to compete in aerobatic competitions. Competitions start at Primary, or Graduate level and proceed in complexity through Sportsman, Intermediate and Advanced, with Unlimited being the top competition level. Unlimited pilots perform much more complex figures and sustain higher g levels (+/-10g's).
In the early days of flying, some pilots used their aircraft as part of a flying circus to entertain. Maneuvers that had no practical purpose were flown for artistic reasons or to draw gasps from onlookers. In due course some of these maneuvers were found to allow aircraft to gain tactical advantage during aerial combat or dogfights between fighter aircraft.
Aerobatic aircraft usually fall into two categories—specialist aerobatic, and aerobatic capable. Specialist designs such as the Pitts Special, the Extra 200 and 300, and the Sukhoi Su-29 aim for ultimate aerobatic performance. This comes at the expense of general purpose use such as touring, or ease of non aerobatic handling such as landing. At a more basic level, aerobatic capable aircraft, such as the Cessna 152 Aerobat model, can be dual purpose—equipped to carrying passengers and luggage, easy to land, as well as being capable of basic aerobatic figures.
Flight formation aerobatics are flown by teams of up to sixteen aircraft, although most teams fly between four and ten aircraft. Some are state funded to reflect pride in the armed forces whilst others are commercially sponsored. Coloured smoke trails may be emitted to emphasise the patterns flown and/or the colours of a national flag. Usually each team will use aircraft similar to one another finished in a special and dramatic colour scheme, thus emphasising their entertainment function. Teams often fly V-formations—they will not fly directly behind another aircraft because of danger from wake vortices or engine exhaust. Aircraft will always fly slightly below the aircraft in front, if they have to follow in line.
Aerobatic maneuvers flown in a jet powered aircraft are limited in scope as they cannot take advantage of the gyroscopic forces that a propeller driven aircraft can exploit. Jet powered aircraft also tend to fly much faster which increases the size of the figures and the length of time which the pilot has to withstand increased g-forces. Jet aerobatic teams often fly in formations which further restricts the maneuvers that can be safely flown.

cue sports

Cue sports (sometimes spelled cuesports) are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber cushions.Historically, the umbrella term was billiards. While that familiar name is still employed by some as a generic label for all such games, the word's usage has splintered into more exclusive competing meanings among certain groups and geographic regions. In the United Kingdom, "billiards" refers exclusively to English billiards, while in the United States it is sometimes used to refer to a particular game or class of games, or to all cue games in general, depending upon dialect and context.

There are three major subdivisions of games within cue sports:
Carom billiards, referring to games played on tables without pockets, including among others balkline and straight rail, cushion caroms, three-cushion billiards and artistic billiards Pocket billiards (or "pool") generally played on a table with six pockets, including among others eight-ball (the world's most widely played cue sport), nine-ball, straight pool, one-pocket and bank pool.
Snooker, which while technically a pocket billiards game, is generally classified separately based on its historic divergence from other games, as well as a separate culture and terminology that characterize its play. More obscurely, there are games that make use of obstacles and targets, and table-top games played with disks instead of balls.Billiards has a long and rich history stretching from its inception in the 15th century; to the wrapping of the body of Mary, Queen of Scots in her billiard table cover in 1586; through its many mentions in the works of Shakespeare, including the famous line "let us to billiards" in Antony and Cleopatra (1606–07); to the dome on Thomas Jeffersons home Monticello, which conceals a billiard room he hid, as billiards was illegal in Virginia at that time; and through the many famous enthusiasts of the sport including, Mozart, Louis XIV of France, Marie Antoinette, Immanuel Kant, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, George Washington, French president Jules Grévy, Charles Dickens, George Armstrong Custer, Theodore Roosevelt, Lewis Carrol, W.C. Fields, Babe Ruth, Bob Hope, Jackie Gleason, and many others.
All cue sports are generally regarded to have evolved into indoor games from outdoor stick-and-ball lawn games (retroactively termed ground billiards) , and as such to be related to troco, croquet and golf, and more distantly to the stickless bocce and bowling. The word "billiard" may have evolved from the French word billart, meaning "mace", an implement similar to a golf club, which was the forerunner to the modern cue. The term "cue sports" can be used to encompass the ancestral mace games, and even the modern cueless variants, such as finger pool, for historical reasons.
Accordingly, in addition to the three general subdivisions listed earlier, a now rare obstacle category was prevalent in early times.The early croquet-like games eventually led to the development of the carom or carambole billiards category – what most non-US and non-UK speakers mean by the word "billiards". These games, which once completely dominated the cue sports world but have declined markedly in most areas over the last few generations, are games played with three or sometimes four balls, on a table without holes (or obstructions in most cases, five-pins being an exception), in which the goal is generally to strike one object (target ball with a cue ball, then have the cue ball rebound off of one or more of the cushions and strike a second ball. Variations include three-cushion, straight rail, balkline variants, cushion caroms, Italian five-pins, and four-ball, among others.
Over time, a type of obstacle returned, originally as a hazard and later as a target, in the form of pockets, or holes partly cut into the table bed and partly into the cushions, leading to the rise of pocket billiards, especially "pool" games, popular around the world in forms such as eight-ball, nine-ball, straight pool and one-pocket amongst numerous others. The terms "pool" and "pocket billiards" are now virtually interchangeable, especially in the US. English billiards (what UK speakers almost invariably mean by the word "billiards") is a hybrid carom/pocket game, and as such is likely fairly close to the ancestral original pocket billiards outgrowth from 18th to early 19th century carom games.

mixed material arts sprots

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full contact,combat sport that allows a wide variety of fighting techniques, from a mixture of martial arts traditions and non-traditions, to be used in competitions. The rules allow the use of striking and grappling techniques, both while standing and on the ground. Such competitions allow martial artists of different backgrounds to compete. The term may also be used, less correctly, to describe hybrid martial arts styles.
Modern mixed martial arts competition emerged in American popular culture in 1993 with the founding of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Initially based on finding the most effective martial arts for real unarmed combat situations, competitors of various arts were pitted against one another with minimal rules for safety.[ In the following decade, MMA promoters adopted many additional rules aimed at increasing safety for competitors and to promote mainstream acceptance of the sport.The name Mixed martial arts was coined by one of the developers of these rules Jeff Blatnick a former Greco-Roman wrestler and Olympic gold medalist. Following these changes, the sport has seen increased popularity with pay per view reach rivaling boxing and professional wrestling.
The rules for modern mixed martial arts competitions have changed significantly since the early days of vale tudo, Japanese shoot wrestling, and UFC , and even more from the historic style of pankration. As the knowledge about fighting techniques spread among fighters and spectators, it became clear that the original minimalist rule systems needed to be amended.The main motivations for these rule changes were protection of the health of the fighters, the desire to shed the image of "barbaric, no rules, fighting-to-the-death" matches, and being recognised as a sport.
The new rules included the introduction of weight classes; as knowledge about submissions spread, differences in weight had become a significant factor.
Small, open-fingered, gloves were introduced to protect fists in punches, reduce the occurrence of cuts (and stoppages due to cuts) and encourage fighters to use their hands for striking to allow more captivating matches. Time limits were established to avoid long fights with little action where competitors conserved their strength. Matches without time limits also complicated the airing of live events. Similar motivations produced the "stand up" rule, where the referee can stand fighters up if it is perceived that both are resting on the ground or not advancing toward a dominant position.
Gloves were first mandatory in Japan's Shooto promotion and were later adopted by the UFC as it developed into a regulated sport. In the U.S., state athletic and boxing commissions have played a crucial role in the introduction of additional rules because they oversee MMA in a similar way to boxing. Smaller shows may use more restrictive rules because they have less experienced fighters. In Japan and Europe, there is no regulating authority over competitions, so these organizations have greater freedom in rule development and event structure.
Victory in a match is normally gained either by the judges' decision after an allotted amount of time has elapsed, a stoppage by the referee (for example if a competitor can not defend himself intelligently) or the fight doctor (due to an injury), a submission, by a competitor's cornerman throwing in the towel, or by knockout.

rulles of boxing

Rules of boxing.
A boxing match typically consists of a predetermined number of three-minute rounds, a total of up to 12 rounds (used to be 15). A minute is typically spent between each round with the fighters in their assigned corners receiving advice and attention from their coach and staff. The fight is controlled by a referee who works within the ring to judge and control the conduct of the fighters, rule on their ability to fight safely, count knocked-down fighters, and rule on fouls. Up to three judges are typically present at ringside to score the bout and assign points to the boxers, based on punches that connect, defense, knockdowns, and other, more subjective, measures. Each fighter has an assigned corner of the ring, where his or her coach, as well as one or more "seconds" may administer to the fighter at the beginning of the fight and between rounds. Each boxer enters into the ring from their assigned corners at the beginning of each round and must cease fighting and return to their corner at the signaled end of each round.
A bout in which the predetermined number of rounds passes is decided by the judges, and is said to "go the distance". The fighter with the higher score at the end of the fight is ruled the winner. With three judges, unanimous and split decisions are possible, as are draws. A boxer may win the bout before a decision is reached through a knockout; such bouts are said to have ended "inside the distance". If a fighter is knocked down during the fight, determined by whether the boxer touches the canvas floor of the ring with any part of their body other than the feet as a result of the opponent's punch and not a slip, as determined by the referee, the referee begins counting until the fighter returns to his or her feet and can continue. Should the referee count to ten, then the knocked-down boxer is ruled "knocked out" (whether unconscious or not) and the other boxer is ruled the winner by knockout (KO). A "technical knockout" (TKO) is possible as well, and is ruled by the referee, fight doctor, or a fighter's corner if a fighter is unable to safely continue to fight, based upon injuries or being judged unable to effectively defend themselves. Many jurisdictions and sanctioning agencies also have a "three-knockdown rule", in which three knockdowns result in a TKO. A TKO is considered a knockout in a fighter's record. A "standing eight" count rule may also be in effect, in which the referee counts no higher than eight to a boxer who regains his or her footing after a knockdown, allowing the referee time to assess if the boxer is able to continue.
In general, boxers are prohibited from hitting below the belt, holding, tripping, pushing, biting, spitting or wrestling. The boxer's shorts are raised so the opponent is not allowed to hit to the groin area. They also are prohibited from kicking, head-butting, or hitting with any part of the arm other than the knuckles of a closed fist (including hitting with the elbow, shoulder or forearm, as well as with open gloves, the wrist, the inside, back or side of the hand). They are prohibited as well from hitting the back, back of the neck or head (called a "rabbit-punch") or the kidneys. They are prohibited from holding the ropes for support when punching, holding an opponent while punching, or ducking below the belt of their opponent (dropping below the waist of your opponent, no matter the distance between). If a "clinch" – a defensive move in which a boxer wraps his or her opponents arms and holds on to create a pause – is broken by the referee, each fighter must take a full step back before punching again (alternatively, the referee may direct the fighters to "punch out" of the clinch). When a boxer is knocked down, the other boxer must immediately cease fighting and move to the nearest neutral corner of the ring until the referee has either ruled a knockout or called for the fight to continue.
Violations of these rules may be ruled "fouls" by the referee, who may issue warnings, deduct points, or disqualify an offending boxer, causing an automatic loss, depending on the seriousness and intentionality of the foul. An intentional foul that causes injury that prevents a fight from continuing usually causes the boxer who committed it to be disqualified. A fighter who suffers an accidental low-blow may be given up to five minutes to recover, after which they may be ruled knocked out if they are unable to continue. Accidental fouls that cause injury ending a bout may lead to a "no decision" result, or else cause the fight to go to a decision if enough rounds (typically four or more, or at least three in a four-round fight) have passed.

boxing

Boxing (sometimes also known as Western boxing or pugilism) is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight,fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds.
Victory is achieved if the opponent is knocked down and unable to get up before the referee counts to ten seconds (a Knockout, or KO) or if the opponent is deemed too injured to continue (a Technical Knockout, or TKO). If there is no stoppage of the fight before an agreed number of rounds, a winner is determined either by the referee's decision or by judges' scorecards.
Although fighting with fists comes naturally to people, evidence of fist-fighting contests first appear on ancient Sumerian, Egyptian and Minoan reliefs.

The ancient Greeks provide us our first historical records of boxing as a formal sport; they codified a set of rules and staged tournaments with professionals. The birth hour of boxing as a sport may be its acceptance as an Olympic game as early as 688 BC. Modern boxing evolved in Europe, particularly Great Britain.
In some countries with their own fighting sports, the sport is referred to as "English Boxing" (e.g. in France to contrast with French boxing, or in Burma with Burmese boxing and in Thailand with Thai boxing). There are numerous different styles of boxing practised around the world.

rule of base ball

Rules and gameplay of base ball
A game is played between two teams, each composed of nine players, that take turns playing offense (batting or hitting) and defense (fielding or pitching). A pair of turns, one at bat and one in the field, by each team constitutes an inning; there are nine innings in a game. One team—customarily the visiting team—bats in the first half (or "top") of every inning; the other team—customarily the home team—bats in the second half (or "bottom") of every inning. The goal of a game is to score more points (runs) than the other team.

The players on the team at bat attempt to score runs by completing a tour of (circling) the four bases set at the corners of the square-shaped baseball diamond. A player bats at home plate and must proceed counterclockwise to first base, second base, third base, and back "home" in order to score a run. The team in the field attempts both to prevent runs from scoring and to record outs, which remove opposing players from offensive action until their turn in their team's batting order comes up again.

When three outs are recorded, the teams switch roles for the next half-inning. If the score of the game is tied after nine innings, extra innings are played to resolve the contest. Children's games are often scheduled for fewer than nine innings.
Diagram of a baseball field (the term diamond may be used to refer to the square area defined by the four bases or to the entire playing field). The dimensions given are for professional and professional-style games; children often play on smaller fields.
The game is played on a field whose primary boundaries, the foul lines, extend forward from home plate at 45-degree angles. The 90-degree area within the foul lines is referred to as fair territory; the 270-degree area outside them is foul territory. The part of the field enclosed by the bases and several yards beyond them is the infield; the area farther beyond the infield is the outfield. In the middle of the infield is a raised pitcher's mound, with a rectangular rubber plate (the rubber) at its center. The outer boundary of the outfield is typically demarcated by a raised fence, which may be of any material and height (many amateur games are played on fields without a fence). Fair territory between home plate and the outfield boundary is baseball's "field of play", though significant events can take place in foul territory, as well.
There are three basic tools of baseball: the ball, the bat, and the glove or mitt:
The baseball is about the size of an adult's fist, around 9 inches (23 centimeters) in circumference. It has a rubber or cork center, wound in yarn and covered in white cowhide, with red stitching.
The bat is a hitting tool, traditionally made of a single, solid piece of wood; other materials are now commonly used for nonprofessional games. It is a hard round stick, about 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) in diameter at the hitting end, tapering to a narrower handle and culminating in a knob. Bats used by adults are typically around 34 inches (86 centimeters) long, and not longer than 42 inches (106 centimeters).
The glove or mitt is a fielding tool, made of padded leather with webbing between the fingers. As an aid in catching and holding onto the ball, it takes various shapes to meet the specific needs of different fielding positions.

Protective helmets are also standard equipment for all batters.At the beginning of each half-inning, the nine players on the fielding team arrange themselves around the field. One of them, the pitcher, stands on the pitcher's mound; he will begin his pitching delivery with one foot on the rubber, pushing off it in order to gain velocity when throwing toward home plate. Another player, the catcher, squats on the far side of home plate, facing the pitcher. The rest of the team faces home plate, typically arranged as four infielders—who set up along or within a few yards outside the imaginary lines between first, second, and third base—and three outfielders. In the standard arrangement, there is a first baseman positioned several steps to the left of first base, a second baseman to the right of second base, a shortstop to the left of second base, and a third baseman to the right of third base.

The basic outfield positions are left fielder, center fielder, and right fielder. A neutral umpire sets up behind the catcher.Gameplay starts with a batter standing at home plate, holding a bat. The batter waits for the pitcher to throw a pitch (the ball) toward home plate, and attempts to hit the ball with the bat. The catcher catches pitches that the batter does not hit—as a result of either electing not to swing or failing to connect—and returns them to the pitcher. If the batter hits the ball into the field of play, he must drop the bat and begin running toward first base, at which point he is referred to as a runner. If the runner successfully reaches first base, he is said to be safe there; he has recorded a hit and is now on base. He may choose to remain at first base or attempt to advance to second base or even beyond—however far he believes he can reach safely. Any runners already on base may attempt to advance on batted balls that contact the ground (land) in fair territory, before or after the ball lands; a runner on first base must attempt to advance if a ball lands in play. If the ball is hit in the air within the foul lines over the entire outfield (and outfield fence, if there is one), it is a home run: the batter and any runners on base may all freely circle the bases, each scoring a run.

This is the most desirable result for the batter. If the ball is hit in the air and caught before it lands, the batter has flied out and any runners on base may attempt to advance only if they tag up or touch the base they were at when the play began, as or after the ball is caught. Runners may also attempt to advance to the next base while the pitcher is in the process of delivering the ball to home plate—a successful effort is a stolen base.
A pitch that is not hit into the field of play is called either a strike or a ball. A batter strikes out if he gets three strikes. He is awarded a base on balls or walk, a free advance to first base, if he is thrown four balls. (A batter may also freely advance to first base if any part of his body or uniform is struck by a pitch before he either swings at it or it contacts the ground.) Crucial to determining balls and strikes is the umpire's judgment as to whether a pitch has passed through the strike zone, a conceptual area above home plate extending from the midpoint between the batter's shoulders and belt down to the hollow of the knee.
A strike is called when one of the following happens:
The batter lets a well-pitched ball (one within the strike zone) go through to the catcher.
The batter swings at any ball (even one outside the strike zone) and misses.
The batter hits a foul ball—one that either initially lands in foul territory or initially lands within the diamond but moves into foul territory before passing first or third base. If there are already two strikes on the batter, a foul ball is not counted as a third strike; thus, a foul ball cannot result in the immediate strikeout of the batter.
A ball is called when the pitcher throws a pitch that is outside the strike zone, provided the batter has not swung at it.

A shortstop tries to tag out a runner who is sliding headfirst, attempting to reach second base.
While the team at bat is attempting to score runs, the team in the field is attempting to record outs. Among the various ways an out may be recorded, five are most common:
The strikeout: as described above, the batter is out if three strikes are recorded against him before he puts the ball into play or is awarded a free advance to first base.
The flyout: as described above, the batter is out if he hits a ball in the air and a fielder catches it, whether in fair territory or foul territory, before it lands, whether or not the batter has run.
The ground out: the batter (in this case, batter-runner) is out if he hits a ball that lands in fair territory and, before he can reach first base, a fielder retrieves it and touches first base while holding the ball or relays it to another fielder who touches first base while holding the ball.
The force out: a runner is out if he is required to attempt to advance—either because he is on first base and a batted ball lands in fair territory, or because the runner immediately behind him on the basepath is thus required to attempt to advance—but fails to reach the next base before a fielder touches the base while holding the ball. The ground out is technically a special case of the force out.
The tag out: a runner is out if he is not touching a base and a fielder touches him with the ball or a glove holding the ball.
Players put out or retired must leave the field, returning to their team's dugout or bench. A runner may be stranded on base when a third out is recorded against another player on his team. Stranded runners do not benefit the team in its next turn at bat—every half-inning begins with the bases empty of runners.
An individual player's turn batting or plate appearance is complete when he reaches base (or hits a home run), makes an out, or hits a ball that results in his team's third out, even if it is recorded against a teammate. On rare occasions, a batter may be at the plate when, without his having hit the ball, a third out is recorded against a teammate—for instance, a runner getting caught stealing (tagged out attempting to steal a base). A batter with this sort of incomplete plate appearance starts off his team's next turn batting; any balls or strikes he recorded the previous inning are erased. A runner may circle the bases only once per plate appearance and thus can score at most a single run per batting turn. Once a player has completed a plate appearance, he may not bat again until the eight other members of his team have all taken their turn at bat. The batting order is set before the game begins, and may not be altered except for substitutions. Once a player has been removed for a substitute, he may not reenter the game. Children's games often have more liberal substitution rules.
If the designated hitter (DH) rule is in effect, each team has a tenth player whose sole responsibility is to bat (and run). The DH takes the place of another player—almost invariably the pitcher—in the batting order, but does not field. Thus, even with the DH, each team still has a batting order of nine players and a fielding arrangement of nine players.

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four markers called bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team (the batting team) take turns hitting against the pitcher on the other team (the fielding team), which tries to stop them from scoring runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the batting team can stop at any of the bases and hope to score on a teammate's hit.

The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team gets three outs. One turn at bat for each team constitutes an inning; nine innings make up a professional game. The team with the most runs at the end of the game wins.
Evolving from older bat-and-ball games, an early form of baseball was being played in England by the mid-eighteenth century. This game and the related game of rounders were brought by British and Irish immigrants to North America, where the modern version of baseball developed. By the late nineteenth century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States.

Baseball on the professional, amateur, and youth levels is now popular in North America, parts of Central and South America and the Caribbean, and parts of East and Southeast Asia. The game is sometimes referred to as hardball in contrast to the derivative game of .
In North America, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League (NL) and American League (AL).

Each league has three divisions: East, West, and Central. Every year, the champion of Major League Baseball is determined by playoffs culminating in the World Series. Four teams make the playoffs from each league: the three regular season division winners, plus one wild card team. The wild card is the team with the best record among the non–division winners in the league. In the National League, the pitcher is required to bat, per the traditional rules. In the American League, there is a tenth player, a designated hitter, who bats for the pitcher. Each major league team has a "farm system" of minor league teams at various levels. These teams allow younger players to develop as they gain on-field experience against opponents with similar levels of skill.

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a ball through a 10 feet (3 m) high hoop (the goal) under organized rules. Basketball is one of the most popular and widely viewed sports in the world.
Points are scored by shooting the ball through the basket above; the team with more points at the end of the game wins.
The ball can be advanced on the court by bouncing it (dribbling) or passing it between teammates. Disruptive physical contact (foul) is not permitted and there are restrictions on how the ball can be handled (violations).

Through time, basketball has developed to involve common techniques of shooting, passing and dribbling, as well as players' positions, and offensive and defensive structures. Typically, the tallest members of a team will play center or one of two forward positions, while shorter players or those who possess the best ball handling skills and speed, play the guard positions. While competitive basketball is carefully regulated, numerous variations of basketball have developed for casual play. In some countries, basketball is also a popular spectator sport.

While competitive basketball is primarily an indoor sport, played on a basketball court, less regulated variations have become exceedingly popular as an outdoor sport among both inner city and rural groups.

football

Football is the word given to a number of similar team sports, all of which involve (to varying degrees) kicking a ball with the foot in an attempt to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer".

The English language word "football" is also applied to "gridiron football" (a name associated with the North American sports, especially American football and Canadian football), Australian football, Gaelic football, rugby football (rugby league and rugby union), and related games. Each of these codes (specific sets of rules, or the games defined by them) is referred to as "football".

These games involve:Two teams of usually between 11 and 18 players; some variations that have fewer players (five or more per team) are also popular a clearly defined area in which to play the game; scoring goals and/or points, by moving the ball to an opposing team's end of the field and either into a goal area, or over a line; the goal and/or line being defended by the opposing team; players being required to move the ball—depending on the code—by kicking, carrying and/or hand passing the ball; and goals and/or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts.

In most codes, there are rules restricting the movement of players offside, and players scoring a goal must put the ball either under or over a crossbar between the goalposts. Other features common to several football codes include: points being mostly scored by players carrying the ball across the goal line and; players receiving a free kick after they take a mark/make a fair catch.
Peoples from around the world have played games which involved kicking and/or carrying a ball, since ancient times. However, most of the modern codes of football have their origins in England.

golf

Golf is a sport in which players using many types of clubs including woods, irons, and putters, attempt to hit ball into each hole on a golf course in the lowest possible number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not use a standardized playing area; rather, the game is played on golf "courses", each one of which has a unique design and typically consists of either 9 or 18 holes. Golf is defined in the Rules of Golf as "playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules"

The first game of golf for which records survive was played at Bruntsfield Links, in Edinburgh, Scotland, in A.D. 1456, recorded in the archives of the Edinburgh Burgess Golfing Society, now The Royal Burgess Golfing Society. The modern game of golf spread from Scotland and has now become a worldwide game, with golf courses in the majority of affluent countries.
Golf competition is generally played as stroke play, in which the individual with the lowest number of strokes is declared the winner, or as match play with the winner determined by whichever individual or team posts the lower score on the most individual holes during a complete round.
Golf as a spectator sport has become increasingly popular, with several different levels of professional and amateur tours in many regions of the world. Players such as Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sörenstam have become well-recognized sports figures across the world. Sponsorship has also become a huge part of the game and players often earn more from their sponsorship contracts than they do from the game itself.
The Rules of Golf and the Rules of Amateur Status is published every four years by the governing bodies of golf (R&A/USGA) to define how the game is to be played. The Rules have been published jointly in this manner since 1952, although the code was not completely uniform until 2000 (with mostly minor revisions to Appendix I). The Rules Committee of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) has responsibility for upkeep and application of the rules worldwide except in the United States and Mexico, which are the responsibility of the United States Golf Association (USGA).

The term "Rules" can be said to include the following:
Decisions on the Rules of Golf, a book published every 2 years by the USGA and R&A to clarify questions and queries raised by the Rules.
Local rules set by the Committee of a golf club, for example to denote the method used to define the boundaries of the course, ball drops, environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs), etc.
Rules of etiquette, covered by the main book, define the proper behaviour of those playing the game. Rules often adopted in competitions, for example the prohibition on using automotive transportation during a round and Rules related to Temporary Immovable Obstructions (TIOs). Rules governing the size, shape and performance of golf equipment (clubs and balls) as defined by the R&A/USGA . Rules governing golfers with disabilities who play in accordance with A Modification of the Rules of Golf for Golfers with Disabilities as published by the R&A and USGA.
Note that while the USGA defines its own Handicapping and Course Rating system, the R&A defers this responsibility to each respective national governing body.The R&A is a private golf club run for the benefit of its members. As such, since 2004 it has passed responsibility of publishing the rules to a private company, R&A Rules Ltd, operating under the stewardship of the R&A.
In 2004, the University of Chicago Press published a plain-language translation of this book. It was entitled The Rules of Golf in Plain English, by the lexicographer Bryan A. Garner and USGA rules official Jeffrey S. Kuhn. The purpose was to make the rules more accessible than the official version, which is pervasively legalistic and opaque.

Laminate floor installation business

Laminate Floor Installations
Lay down a path to success with a laminate floor installation business.

Business Overview
Laminate flooring that is manufactured to resemble hardwood flooring is an incredibly popular alternative to the high cost of installing real hardwood flooring. Laminate flooring is available in a wide range of finishes and is virtually impossible to damage or destroy. Best of all, laminate flooring is extremely easy to install even if your knowledge of flooring installation is limited.

Te set this business in motion, first check to see if the home improvement centers in your area provide an installation service of this product. If they don’t, then it’s a marriage made in heaven. They sell it, and you install it. You can talk to interior decorators and designers to promote your service and establish a client base. The fastest way to market this business if you intend to concentrate on commercial applications will simply be to knock on doors and sell your product and service on the many benefits this type of flooring finish can provide to their business establishments. requirements: a few basic tools including a jig saw, cordless drill, portable table saw, tape measure, chalk line, transportation, and most importantly, a good set of knee pads.

Though it is not required, you will probably want to familiarize yourself with local building codes and safety regulations. start-up costs: total business start-up costs, including tools, sales samples, and brochures will be well less than $2,000 providing that you already have suitable transportation, such as a truck, van, or station wagon. profit potential: the profit potential is excellent.

Laminate flooring is currently retailing for $4 to $6 per square foot, while the wholesale cost of materials is in the $1.50 to $2 range. Typically, for this type of installation service you can expect to earn $35 to $40 per hour after expenses. Selling and installing new baseboard moldings while you are on the job site can earn additional business revenues and profits.

Interior Decorating service business

Interior Decorating Service
What makes a house a home is the details. If you have the gift to make a room complete, you could be on the road to financial independence.

Business Overview
Starting an interior decorating service is the perfect business enterprise for the person that has artistic abilities and a creative flair. Generally, certification from a recognized institution in the field of interior decoration and design is required. However, the service can be launched without the certificate, but it will be much better received by potential clients as a professional service with proper accreditation.

Not required is a lot of startup investment, as equipment purchases are minimal and the business can be operated from a home based or shared office location. Most interior decorators prefer to specialize in providing either a commercial or residential decorating service.

Residential decorators establish alliances with new homebuilders and renovation contractors as a method to gain access to their clients. Commercial decorators generally build alliances with commercial property managers and commercial contractors and architects. Home and garden trade shows are also a fantastic forum to promote the service and collect sales leads.

Starting this business will require a great deal of patience and time, but with good business and design skills utilized, the determined entrepreneur can establish a very rewarding and profitable business providing interior decorating services.

House safety service business

House Safety Service
Help parents keep their kids safe while at home by serving as a safety consultant.

Business Overview
Statistically, the greatest numbers of injury causing accidents involving children happen at home. This creates a fantastic opportunity to remedy this very real situation as well as start your own business as a professional house safety consultant.

Your service can focus on all the household items that can potentially harm children and you can show parents how to secure these household items so accidents don’t happen. Establishing the service will require a fair amount of research to educate yourself about harmful household chemicals, cabinet safety latches and overall proper procedures to making a home a safe and child-friendly environment.

Begin to market your consulting services by designing and distributing brochures, building alliances with related businesses for referrals and, most important, offer your service for free. Wait, what do you mean free? Exactly that--provide no-charge in-home consultations to potential clients.

Once in the client's home, it'll be your opportunity to blow them away with your knowledge (the old fear sale) on how to make their homes a child friendly environment. By the time you “free” consulting visit is over, the chances are good that clients will have committed to hundreds of dollars worth of installed safety products and information manuals.

Chimney repairs business

Chimney Repairs
A damaged chimney can be the source of unwanted fires or carbon monoxide intrusion. Keep people safe with a chimney repair service.

Business Overview
Providing you have basic masonry skills and experience, starting a chimney repair service can be a very profitable business to own and operate. Brick and stone chimneys all require maintenance in order to stay structurally sound and perform to their design specifications.

The best types of chimney repairs to focus on are repairing or replacing damaged rain pots, rebuilding crowns, installing new base and counter flashing, and repointing and sealing brick and stone chimneys. The tools and equipment necessary for repairing chimneys are also very basic and include ladders, roof jacks, stone chisels, and a few hand tools.

Providing you already have a vehicle, the business can easily be started for less than $1,000. Chimney repair services can be marketed to homeowners by designing and distributing door hangers and fliers describing your service. Or you can work as a subcontractor providing roofing companies and home renovation contractors with chimney repair services for their clients.

The raw and manufactured materials required for chimney repairs are extremely inexpensive and available at most building centers. Visiting used building material yards can supply you with all the old and various colored bricks that will occasionally be required to replace broken or missing bricks while repairing profitable business to operate. There should be no problem in maintaining a billing rate of $50 per hour to provide chimney repairs, as well as a markup of at least 50 percent on all the material required for the chimney repair.

Apartment prep service business

Apartment Prep Service
Use your talent for handiwork to start an apartment prep service business.

Business Overview
When tenants vacate apartments, they usually fail to clean up after themselves. Even the tidiest tenant can leave a trail of normal wear and tear--carpets that need cleaning, nail holes to be filled and walls to be painted. And apartment managers and other assorted landlords rarely have the time or the inclination to handle the tasks. But if you like transforming shabby to shiny and you’re not afraid of a little elbow grease, then you can answer an apartment manager’s prayers with an apartment prep service. You’ll scrub bathrooms, kitchens and baseboards, wax floors and shampoo carpets. You’ll toss out junk, patch holes, paint, and replace cracked windows, broken towel bars and off-track closet doors.

The advantages to this business are that you can start on a shoestring, you often find interesting treasures among the former tenant’s trash, it’s recession- and trend-proof, and if you like the glow of accomplishment that comes from putting in a good day’s physical labor, then you’ll have a long and satisfying career. It’s also gratifying--landlords and managers faced with a tenant mess are always appreciative when you come in to save the day. You’ll need experience in patching and painting, plus a few other fix-it skills like replacing mirrors or doors, and the ability to do a sparkling cleaning job in a relatively short time. You’ll also need a sense of logistics to take you from one job to another efficiently.

The Market
Your clients can be managers or owners of large or small apartment complexes, individual landlords who own rental properties, and real estate agents charged with managing rental properties or selling vacant ones. Send your brochure to apartment managers or owners and realtors, and follow up with a phone call. Or stop in and introduce yourself--this works even better. If you don’t get a job immediately, check back. Persistence pays off. You can target individual landlords by calling “for rent” ads in the newspaper and asking if you can send them a brochure and card for future reference.

Needed Equipment
You’ll need a caddy of cleaning supplies, a vacuum cleaner, carpet shampooer, mop, broom and dustpan, rolls of rags or paper towels, scrub brushes and sponges, rubber gloves, rolls of garbage bags, a stepstool or a small ladder, flea spray, a general-purpose bug spray, and carpet deodorizer. You’ll also want paint brushes, rollers and trays, putty knives, spackle, window putty, a glass knife, and a caddy of tools like hammers, screwdrivers and wrenches. And you’ll want a cell phone so clients can get in touch with you quickly.

Antique sideboard vanities business

Antique Sideboard Vanities
Convert antique sideboard cabinets into vanities to give homeowners an out-of-the ordinary washroom option.

Business Overview
Antique sideboard cabinets make fantastic washroom sink vanities, especially when used in heritage and Victorian homes. Converting antique sideboard cabinets into washroom vanities is an excellent and potentially very profitable new enterprise to set in motion.

The main requirements for successfully establishing and operating this type of business include: • A well-equipped workshop • Carpentry and construction skills and experience • Excellent marketing and promotion skills

Patience will be required, as obtaining the antique sideboards to be used for bathroom vanities could mean spending a fair amount of time scouring garage sales, flea markets and auction sales. Potential customers or buyers can include custom homebuilders, interior designers and decorators, and contracting and renovation companies.

The vanities can also be marketed directly to homeowners by way of home and garden trade shows, print advertising and the internet. To minimize startup costs to get the business rolling as well as the skills required to operate the business, consider subcontracting out the installation and transportation aspects of the business to local qualified plumbers and transportation firms.

business plan consultant business

Business Plan Consultant
Use your entrepreneurial experience to help aspiring business owners through the planning process.

Business Overview
Entrepreneurship is in, with more and more Americans starting their own businesses. But to get the most from a startup--from knowing where you’re headed to obtaining financing to planning that perfect marketing campaign--the small-business newbie needs a business plan, but most people don't know how to write one. If you’ve got business experience, you know how to pen a business plan and you like working with other people to make their dreams reality, then you can write your own success story as a business plan consultant. You’ll work with startup companies seeking financing or investors, or who simply want a business plan to use as a guide. You’ll also work with established companies that are looking for new or additional financing, want to franchise, or want to form a merger or acquisition with another firm.

The advantages to this business are that you can work at home, you’ll always be working on a different and interesting type of business, you get to exercise your creativity and your business skills, and you get the excitement and satisfaction of helping in the birth of a new and potentially lucrative business entity. You’ll need a solid grounding in business basics from finances to marketing and in the mechanics of a good business plan. You’ll also need good business writing skills, the ability to manipulate figures and super communication skills. You’ll need to work closely with your clients to interpret their ideas and produce plans custom-made for their businesses instead of boilerplates that go nowhere.
The Market
Your customers will be new businesses of all descriptions as well as up-and-running firms seeking new direction or financing. Target their owners by networking among bankers, venture capitalists, attorneys specializing in business affairs, accountants, and at your local chamber of commerce. You should also introduce yourself to the staff at small-business incubators and other SOHO assistance centers. Place ads in your local Yellow Pages and don’t forget to network among friends and associates. Get yourself written up in--and write articles for--the business section of your local paper. Give talks at professional and civic organizations. Teach courses at community colleges and alternative learning centers.


Needed Equipment
A computer system with the usual office software, a laser printer and a fax machine are all must-haves, as is special business-plan-writing software or some other spreadsheet software for working out financials.

business consultant business

Business Consultant
Help others grow their businesses as a business consultant.

Business Overview
If you’re a business expert--you’re a whiz at marketing, reorganization, setting up franchises, retooling the company image, or any number of other specialties--then you’ve got the right stuff to be a business consultant. Instead of reporting to the office every day as a company man or woman, you’ll work as an independent contractor on special projects for a number of clients.

The advantages to this business are that you can work at home and you get the excitement and pacing of the corporate world without having to live it on a 9-to-5 basis. You’ll need a strong background in your area of expertise coupled with stellar marketing skills to convince potential clients of your worth. You’ll also need excellent communication and people skills--you’ll be going into the company as an outsider, which can be good or bad, depending on the interpersonal culture of the company.

The Market
Network among professional and civic organizations in your area and among present and former colleagues. Write articles for the business section of local publications. Give talks to business groups and seminars or workshops at local colleges. Place an ad in the Yellow Pages. Put up a website.

Needed Equipment
You should have top-notch credentials in your specialty--you’ve held prominent positions, can cite professional certification, belong to pertinent organizations, have written books or articles, or taught courses or workshops. You should also have a reference network--colleagues or other businesspeople who can attest to your expertise and business smarts. Besides what’s in your head, you’ll need the standard office setup--a computer, a laser printer, a fax machine and the usual office software.

Book indexing service business

Book Indexing Service
Are you a master organizer? Try book indexing.

Business Overview
When you dip into a nonfiction book, hunting for a particular piece of information, your first stop is the index at the back. There’s everything neatly organized, alphabetically by subject matter with the exact page or pages on which to find that nugget of data. Who puts together that index, tidily chronicling each page of text? If you love books and snippets of fact, you’re detail-oriented and a stickler for accuracy, it could be you as owner of a book indexing service.

The advantages to this business are that you can start on the proverbial shoestring, your overhead is minimal, and you get to learn all sorts of interesting things from books on a wide variety of topics. As a book indexer, you’ll need to have a highly organized, detail-oriented personality--this is a business where nitpicking is a virtue. You should enjoy books and the written word and be able to put in long hours hunched over a manuscript without suffering the fidgets.

The Market
Your clients will be editors and publishers of nonfiction books. You can live anywhere and work with clients in New York, California or wherever they happen to be based. The best way to solicit business is to call editors and offer your services, then follow up with a letter and your business card.

Needed Equipment
All you need to get started are a computer with a laser or inkjet printer, the usual office software, and a comfortable work space with good lighting.

boardroom facilities business

Boardroom Facilities
Many small businesses don't have their own boardroom. Woo them with attractive facilities.

Business Overview
The increasing trend toward conducting business enterprises from a home office continues to grow at a record pace in North America. Due to this fact an entirely new business requirement has surfaced. What do you do if your business is homebased, yet you require short-term meeting facilities? There's one simple solution to the question if you’re an enterprising entrepreneur: you start a boardroom office facility that can be rented and utilized by homebased business entrepreneurs, employees and traveling businesspeople. The best way to reach your target market--which, of course, is homebased business owners--is to join local business associations in your community and start promoting your boardroom rental service.

Almost every city and community across North America now has a Homebased Business Owners Association or Chamber of Commerce. Most of these associations host networking meetings, and these networking meetings are fantastic forums to meet other business owners and introduce them to your new boardroom service. Likewise, you'll want to get the message out to corporate and business travelers that may also require this type of service while conducting business in your area.

The Market
Homebased business entrepreneurs, employees and traveling businesspeople who need to temporarily rent a space to conduct business

Needed Equipment
The boardroom facility will have to be well equipped with office fixtures, furniture and other equipment such as private meeting rooms, computers, internet connections, copiers, overhead projectors, a catering service, secretarial services, stationery supplies, multi-line and function telephone system, and other related client support services and products. When choosing a location for this business, the following should be considered: a central location, alternately an airport location, good parking, and at least 1,500 square feet of floor space. Prior to establishing the business, a market study should indicate if the business would be supported mainly by homebased business owners or business travelers

awning cleaning business

Awning Cleaning
Do you love cleaning, but hate being indoors? Try out an awning cleaning business.

Business Overview
An awning cleaning service is a fantastic new business enterprise to put into action, as it requires no special skills or technical experience, and the income potential is outstanding. If the following list appeals to you in terms of excellent reasons why to start a business, then you may have found the right business venture to start in your community.

• Extremely low initial investment, and a fast return on investment. • Easily managed from a homebased office. • Flexible full- or part-time work hours. • No special skills requirements. • Unlimited market demand, with minimal competition. • No inventory to warehouse. • Potential to earn $75,000 per year or more. • Excellent growth potential, with franchise possibilities. In the past decade more and more business owners have been switching to commercial awning signs, as opposed to the traditional box sign for advertising their business.

All of these awnings have one thing in common. They all have to be cleaned on a regular basis in order to project a good corporate image for the businesses they are promoting. This fact creates an enormous opportunity for the enterprising entrepreneur to cash in and profit, by starting an awning cleaning service. The best way to market, promote, and gain clients for this business is to simply start knocking on doors. Visit all the businesses in your community that have awning signs and talk to the business owners.
Explain the benefits of keeping the awnings clean and maintained, as well as the benefits of using your service. This may seem to be an old-fashioned and time consuming marketing method. However, if you set a goal of visiting ten potential clients per day and can close two of these presentations, you will then have 40 new clients in a month’s time and be well on your way to establishing a solid and profitable business concern.