Candela Call

Read the transcript of Candela's (CLZR) earnings call by clicking on the title of today's post.


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Business Owner Investment

Motley Fool Hails InfoUSA

We already own InfoUSA! It's nice to see that Motley Fool likes it now. We're already up almost 40% since September 1, 2006. I love buying value. InfoUSA's stock symbol is IUSA. Read the article by clicking on the title of today's post.


I created a Google Finance portfolio of what we currently own. Visit by clicking the link below.
http://finance.google.com/finance/portfolio?action=view&pid=2

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Business Owner Investment

Career Education Up Over 50% Since Purchase

We bought CECO August 29th at 18.88 and at this moment it's 28.67. August 29th to January 29th is 31 days +30 + 31 + 30 +31 for a total of 153 days. 365 days divided by 153 = 2.39. 50 times 2.39 equals an annualized rate of 119.5%.


http://finance.google.com/finance?q=ceco

Click on the title of today's post to see my other blog, YouStepUp.


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Business Owner Investment

CNNMoney Web Tips For Entrepreneurs

I was not aware that nearly half of all U.S. businesses do not have a website. Boost business for even the tiniest company with these tips. Click on the title of this post to view the CNNMoney article.

ABHH, CLST, FMXIQ, OPTI were left off the portfolio mentioned in the previous post. I'm not sure of the reasons, but Google would not add them to the portfolio. You can still search them at Finance.Google.com -

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=ABHH&hl=en

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=CLST&hl=en

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=FMXIQ&hl=en

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=OPTI&hl=en

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Business Owner Investment

Today's Investment Candidate Portfolio

I created a portfolio of investment candidates for today. Right now we are 99%+ invested, so there is no available cash. I will create these portfolios from time to time. You may notice that some of the stocks we currently own are candidates. When the time has come for us to sell a stock according to our discipline, we can choose to continue with it if it is still on the list. Also, this list is for today. Tomorrow will possibly bring some changes. Theoretically, all stocks could change tomorrow, but my best guesstimate is that a complete change of all the candidates might not happen even once in 50 years or maybe even 200 years. Much likelier is that there would be 1 to 8 different stocks tomorrow.


http://finance.google.com/finance/portfolio?action=view&pid=1

Visit my Toastmasters club where I speak about investing on occasion. Click on the title of today's post to see our club's blog.

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Business Owner Investment

Candela's Wild Ride

Wow. Down 20% early, it never occurred to me that Candela (CLZR) would end up in positive territory. Candela closed up .34% at 11.94.

Career Education Corp (CECO) was also up 2.23% to 26.61. Is this just delayed reaction to the lifting of the government restrictions on the company? Read what The Chicago Sun-Times wrote by clicking on the title of this post.

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Business Owner Investment

A Bit On Scottrade And My, Oh My Candela

I'm experimenting with where to put my writing, so I have written an article on experiences with Scottrade. It's not comprehensive, just a start. The editing process is a little different for me, so there are some things I want to change. For instance, the article starts with "We started using Scottrade in 2007..." which should read 2006. Here's the link:
http://www.helium.com/tm/118250

Yesterday we saw a change in Career Education (CECO) which was a couple percentage points smaller by the end of the day. Today seems to be the most drastic down day we have had in any single stock, but right now it's not as bad as it was in early trading. Candela (CLZR) was down 20%. As I type this it's down 8.49%. I'm pretty sure this will be the worst one day showing for any stock we have owned up to this point even at this level. View a minor discussion about Candela at Google Finance by clicking on the title of today's post.


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Business Owner Investment

News From Career Education, Candela, Jackson Hewitt

I usually look for news about our stocks at Google Finance. Yesterday was a big news day. Career Education moved up 5.75% by yesterday's close on good news. Curiously, Candela (CLZR} moved down 4.32% on what I would interpret as good news. Jackson Hewitt (JTX) moved down a little - .11% - on bad news.

Career Education news http://flingk.com/n1pnnyc

Candela news http://flingk.com/wp0ijq7

Jackson Hewitt news http://flingk.com/l7k5sbt

Recently, other companies we hold have made news, including:

InfoUSA (IUSA)http://flingk.com/yj60fl7

McClatchy (MNI)http://flingk.com/vbee54a

Pacer (PACR)http://flingk.com/fp3o59i

Another minor article relevant to Jackson Hewitt can be viewed by clicking on the title of today's post.

January has been anything but a slow news month for our stocks.

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Business Owner Investment

Good News For Career Education Corp.

Click on the title of today's post for the SmartMoney article. You can also visit Finance.Google.com and enter the stock symbol (CECO). How much is good news worth?
At this moment the stock is up 7.52% today.

We Are All In Sales

Many people do not like the word or the concept of sales. A man who used to successfully teach military recruiters during the Carter administration told me that sell comes from Selje, a Norwegian word for service. Real selling is serving the person to whom you are selling. Chew on that a while. Are you serving people?

You may need to sell someone on a concept or idea, even if your main income is not from getting people to buy products and services. I have even heard of a soldier in Vietnam who "sold" an enemy soldier on the "idea" of not killing him through his eyes. The last enemy soldier to leave his platoon's area after defeating most of them in a firefight decided to have compassion on him because he pleaded with him through his eyes. Though they spoke different languages, a truly big sale happened.

We all sell, it's just that some of us are afraid of or put off by a word.

You can click on the title of today's post and find a checklist to help be prepared for selling. justsell.com calls this being "salesready". Are you salesready?

Our Experience With Scottrade

My article on some of our experience with Scottrade is now available by clicking on the title of today's post.

The stock symbol for VAALCO, which we purchased earlier, is EGY.

We Bought VAALCO Minutes Ago

If you watch this blog, you stand a chance of trading similarly. We just bought VAALCO Energy @ 6.66 a share.

I recently started writing on another site and will provide links to articles mostly related to investing. I am waiting for acceptance of an article about some of our experience with Scottrade. Until then, here's an article on a helpful mindset for employees -
http://www.helium.com/tm/116701