If you are anything like millions of Americans out there, you are probably staying as far away from the stock market as you can. However, you will likely agree that the stock market reacts on fear. It also reacts on speculation. If you can handle the wild ride and avoid the fear and speculation, you beat out a lot of competition and stand to make yourself a few bucks in the stock market. My inspiration for this post came as I was watching CNN this morning. One of the top headlines read, “Yesterday’s Biggest Losers, Some of Today’s Biggest Gainers” in reference to the stock market. And it’s not the first time I’ve heard this story.

Many friends of mine have curbed spending and investments because they are reacting on fear from the media. In my last post, I wrote about how we must look beyond the negative in to media to see the positive in our current economic situation. I understand people have lost their jobs, as I am in the same boat myself, but if the unemployment rate is 10.5% that means 89.5% of people are still employed. Many of these people are making the same or greater salary as they were last year. While it is always a good idea to curb “frivolous spending” there is no reason to stop investing especially when stocks that would otherwise be robust have crashed due to fear.

Take a look at the stocks that have had a beating during the last few years and evaluate their valuation. Not to mention, there are “bargain stocks” out there right now. If you have a retirement plan, or IRA, do NOT stop your contributions. Now is the best time to cash in on low stock prices before they start regaining value but do so with great research and investment on your part.

If you have been laid-off, then you may want to check out RecessionWire for updates on the stimlus package, jobs, deals and cultural analysis.

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It is said that single women get stressed out the most during this time of year. Could it be all that pink and red fluffy stuff, candy hearts, or stuffed teddy bears?

Instead of being stressed out over being single, begin to look at the power of single women around the world.

Just when businesses and advertisers thought they had women all figured out entered the single woman with her buying power. It is projected that single women will spend at least $400 million dollars a year, which has the business world standing up and taking notice.

There use to be a time when single women were treated like outcasts and looked on with pity. Friends and family secretly called unmarried women “spinsters” if they were not wed by the time they hit 30. Let’s remember that the grass is always greener on the other side. The tide is beginning to turn as single women send out the message that they can do for themselves.

Businesses as well as politicians are now checking in to see what makes single women tick. The census data shows that 40% of women between the ages of 25 to 29 are not married. While 23% of women in the 30 to 34 age rage are not married. One can only guess that the percent of single women over 30 will grow due to the fact that more women are stating that marriage is not of interest to them. The messages coming from single women are diverse from choosing the single life as the preferred lifestyle, choosing career over marriage first, to one-person homeownership.

Advertising companies are beginning to get it when it comes appealing to the single woman. One of my favorite commercials has two women who are sitting down after a wedding doing a high five for having “not” caught the bridal bouquet. This message says that businesses are seeing that single women are a viable strong market. That is girl power that is about to be in full effect.

Aimee Davison is an actor and model hailing from Montreal’s West Island.  She studied at the University of Calgary and has been acting and modeling commercially for the last decade.   Always creative and entrepreneurial, Aimee’s modeling career has not been limited to corporate clients, like Lise Watier, French Dressing Jeans and Avon: her self-produced artistic fashion editorials have been published in Maisonneuve Magazine.    

She created Fashion Ambush in the Fall of 2008 as a means to connect the average man or woman with major fashion labels and the experience of editorial photography.

1.   How did you get started doing what you do?

 After working as an actor and a model for nearly a decade, I decided to take my fate into my own hands and start my own web series.  I realized that I had a previously untapped passion for production, so I came up with a series idea, saved up and shot the pilot in September 2008. 

2.  What is your biggest joy and what is your biggest headache?

My biggest joy is performing and interacting with the people that we ambush on the shoot date.  I love getting out there and making my show happen.  I’m a go-getter and a people person! 

My biggest headache is not knowing if the series will attract viewers.  I need an audience for my show, so I can keep producing more videos.

3.  Where do you spend most of your time online (business-wise)?

I usually check my series, Fashion Ambush, on YouTube (several times a day) to see if my numbers have gone up.  I usually celebrate at the 5 view increase mark!. Other than that, and against every artistic grain in my body, I have started writing in HTML to maintain my website.  We are sitll in beta, but man, it is a lot of work to change even the smallest thing.  Maybe I should have listed that as my biggest headache!

4.  What is the one thing, person, service or resource you can’t do without?

I couldn’t do without my partner, Eric and my production team, Moonday Productions.  They have stood by me through all this and continue to help to build the project.

5.  What do you wish someone had told you the day you started your business?

That I would need to have the patience of a saint and the dedication of a monk (albeit a very fashionable one!)

Girlfriend can we talk? At the beginning of the year did you make resolutions that you have yet to jump start? You may have said you were going to make more money this year, start a business, get your financial crises RIGHT, etc. February is already here so what is going on..what are you waiting on?

In reality you are not alone. Only 10% of people who make resolutions for the New Year actually stick to them. Challenge yourself, cause you have it in you to be a part of that 10%. Oh yes you do have it in you, push that thing called fear right out of the way. What you need to succeed in your life and business is already inside of you.

Actions are the key to your success. If you start to take action, even small action it will propel you forward. Commit to an action a day that helps you take a step toward your goal There is nothing wrong with taking baby steps to reach your goals.  Nothing is to small of  a step as you venture on your quest for success.  What happens is you will notice that those baby steps become big steps. After the steps you begin to jog, then eventually you running in the direction you want to go.

Dust off that list of resolutions and take a good look at them. Add things to the list or change them if you need to. Now put a deadline next to the resolution. A deadline turns that resolution (dream) into a goal. Knowing that you have a deadline gives you something to shoot for versus a thing that you will get to when you have time.

This is your year to start that new business, get your finances in check, basically it is time to get it together. 2009 is your year to shine! You know it, so own it. Take ACTION today.

Julie Tice is the owner and principal of Eastend Design Group in Baltimore, Maryland, and has a background in sustainability and historic preservation. Her focus is on small projects like residential renovations and rehabilitations, which satisfies her need to help find solutions to problems, as well as catering to her short attention span. Thanks in part to her compulsive volunteering, she has developed a network of contacts and clients that has kept her firm busy entirely through referrals, but thinks that it’s time to get her own website. In her abundant spare time, she serves as a board member of two non-profits and is working on the finishing touches of her recent home renovations.

1.   How did you get started doing what you do?

I decided to be an architect because of my 7^th grade history class – I fell in love with ancient Rome at a time when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, and realizing that I loved both art and math and wanted a career that could encompass both. (I wonder if I really figured it out way back when, or if I’ve just been too stubborn or lazy to come up with something different.)  After finishing my degree in architecture and working for a few different firms, I realized two things: 1) I really love small projects and working with people to create spaces that make their lives easier, and 2) if I’m going to work for an idiot who only knows half of what he thinks he knows, it might as well be me. So, in 2004 I quit my day job and started working for myself.

2.   What is your biggest joy and what is your biggest headache?

My biggest joy is getting to see the construction of my ideas, and hearing from clients how well the spaces work for them.  It’s also been extremely rewarding to be able to work entirely from referrals, because it means I’m doing my job well.  My biggest headache is dealing with taxes and health insurance.

3.   Where do you spend most of your time online (business-wise)?

Most of my work-related online time is spent collecting data from the city and state land records. I’ve been lucky in that Baltimore has put a great deal of public record data online, which saves me tons of time and hassle.

4.   What is the one thing, person, service or resource you can’t do without?

Professionally, it would be my computer. Personally, it’s my great group of friends who know just when to drag my butt away from the aforementioned computer and shove wine down my throat.

5.   What do you wish someone had told you the day you started your business?

Get an accountant and a housekeeper. Seriously, I think the biggest problem for women is that we’re so used to having to do (or choosing to do) everything, that we resist delegating the “simple” things.  So, before your dust bunnies start exercising their Second Amendment rights, and the IRS starts sends hate mail, delegate to other professionals and cut yourself a break.