Visit the Elizabethtown Coffee Company

Amy Smith

Guest Writer

Thursday December 06 2007

What’s new in Etown? The answer is the Elizabethtown Coffee Company. Hidden away at the Elizabethtown Library, one can find a cozy coffee shop. The atmosphere is warm and welcoming and the drink selection extensive. The shop offers all different kinds of coffees, teas, and specialty drinks. In fact, the library and coffee shop are one in the same. Patrons are welcome to buy a drink, take it into the library, and sip while browsing. It is not uncommon to find high school students studying over a latte or parents sipping tea while watching their children during story time.

This company is not only selling coffee but it is providing opportunities. The profits go directly back into the library which in turn goes towards the Elizabethtown community. One of the common sayings at the library is, “Educate, Empower, Enrich - together we build our community.” The library is taking a proactive stance on getting involved and the coffee shop is one of those ways.

Now the question is why should Elizabethtown students go to the public library? First off, it’s a great place to go, and is within walking distance when you feel like getting off campus. The staff is friendly and there are several perks: the Library provides information, resources, internet access, meeting space, newspapers and magazines, books, Wifi, downloadable audio books, print books, books on tape & CD, story times & other educational and entertaining programs, DVDs, beverages and treats.

A final appealing aspect of the library is that the drinks are offered at reasonable prices. Sophomore Kelly Castor said, “I was welcomed with friendly smiles and I was very impressed with the prices and quality.”

The baristas who work there are friendly and very knowledgeable about their products. There are numerous treats, two being coffee cake and baklava, which are savory and delicious.

So next time you are out, stop by the library and visit the Elizabethtown Coffee Company. By doing so you can enjoy a refreshing drink, visit the public library, and give back to the community.

This article was originally published in the Etownian on Thursday, December 6th, 2007.

EC SIFE is working in collaboration with the Elizabethtown Public Library to aid them with creating successful awareness of the new Elizabethtown Coffee Company and its benefits to the community.

Holiday budgeting simplified by SIFE

Whether deciding what old-time favorites to surprise your mom with this holiday season or designing the sweetest gift for your special someone, one factor will almost certainly come into play: money. It is important to remember that there is no such thing as a free lunch, or a free iPod, for that matter. Unless you are the child of a Fortune 500 executive, chances are that you are purchasing your holiday gifts on a tight budget. Fortunately, there are some techniques you can use to ensure that you get the right gifts for everyone at the right price.

A fundamental part of any budgeting challenge is setting priorities. You will want to allocate the most money to your most desired purchases, and then decrease the money you spend on items in diminishing order of importance. Tabulate each of your purchases in a spending diary, regardless of the amount spent.

Also, many people find themselves encountering dire debt woes when they place too many purchases they cannot afford on credit. Remember to limit your purchases to those which you can pay for immediately or can reasonably expect to pay in the near future.

The first step is identifying those for whom you wish to purchase gifts. Then, you need to determine how much you can afford to spend on these gifts. In addition to the gifts themselves, you should also budget some money for paraphernalia such as wrapping paper, cards and postage stamps.

For these items, purchasing in bulk may earn you a discount. When you finally venture out to find your gifts, remember to create a definitive list and avoid making unplanned “impulse purchases.”

Whether you will be celebrating Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa or another holiday, it will nevertheless be crucial not to overextend your finances while purchasing gifts. Your loved ones may be priceless, but their gifts do not necessarily need to be pricey. With the ideal budget, you can find a way to keep everyone festive and joyous without the added blast to your wallet.

This article was originally published in the Etownian on Thursday, December 6th, 2007.

Ways to Invest in the Stock Market

Like most transactions, there can be more than one way to purchase stock in a company. Most people hire stockbrokers to do this for them. Web sites such as Scottrade, E*trade and Ameritrade provide online investment services. To keep track of increases and decreases in the price of stocks, you can go to Web sites like Yahoo Finance or simply look in the newspaper, such as the Wall Street Journal.

There are quite a few options to use when trying to pick the best stock to invest in. First, you can select a few stocks on your own and then look over their progress from the last few years.

Have their stock prices gone up? How much do they earn per stock? Are the companies declaring any dividends to the investors? What do the future dividends and returns look like for the stock?

Having some knowledge in accounting might help this process, but it is not necessary. If, though, you do not want to risk your success on your own opinion and research, then you may want to talk with a financial consultant, who can help you.

Do you want to play the market or pick a stock and stick with it? Some risk takers will attempt to predict the market. If the prices continue to rise, they might choose to sell the stocks and invest in other securities with the earnings instead of staying put.

Also, if a price significantly drops, they may pick that time to invest in hopes that the prices will climb back to their past heights, if not higher.

Generally, the more you risk, the more you can gain. Those who make the most on average in the stock market are those who attempt to predict and make money by buying and selling at key points.

Money can also be made through dividends and just by waiting it out and having faith in your investments.

The simplest way to get into the stockmarket might be to hire a stockbroker, and let him or her handle the accounts and make the money for you.

You will be charged a set fee, but he or she will be required to earn you a return on your money. Stockbrokers have more and more money to work with to earn returns as well.

These are a few of the investing basics — where to go, how to buy, who to talk to and what can be gained from this. The stock market is a crucial part of our economy and a somewhat risky way to make money if you don’t understand how it works.

This article was originally published in the Etownian on Thursday, November 15th, 2007.

Stock Market Investing

The stock market can either be the most lucrative investment of your lifetime or drain your worth, depending on how you “play the game.” While numerous multimillionaires or multibillionaires have earned their fortunes investing in small firms that eventually blossomed into hugely successful corporations, placing “all of your eggs in one basket,” or investing your entire worth into one venture, is very risky. Only a very minute percentage of startup firms ever reach the financial success of the Microsofts or the Yahoos. The safest game plan for the investment market is to choose a select group of attractive and feasible investments. However, if it is a windfall of fortune you desire, you will need to remember that greater reward generally corresponds with greater risk.

All corporations offer stock, although some prefer to keep their interests closely held or private, meaning that stock can only be purchased by the managers of the organization. However, many corporations are publicly-held, which means that outside interests can purchase shares and thus purchase a stake in ownership. Public corporations sell two distinct classes of stock shares: common and preferred. Common shares are attached to the privilege to vote for the company’s board of directors; however, companies may experience times of financial difficulty in which they find it impossible to pay their common shareholders dividends, or portions of the company’s earnings disbursed to shareholders. The purchase of preferred stock guarantees that you will be paid your declared dividend before common shareholders.

Individual stocks are traded on stock exchanges, whose price listings can be found in special sections of most major newspapers or online at investment Web sites. Examples of renowned American stock exchanges include NASDAQ (marketing & major tech. firm’s stocks) the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the American Stock Exchange (AMEX). Transactions on the stock exchange are conducted through brokers, the most prominent of whom actually conduct business on the floor of the stock exchange houses. Investors interact with the brokers directly via telephone or indirectly via Internet investment sites such as Charles Schwab, Scottrade and E*TRADE.

Regardless of your method of investing, the stock market still offers the greatest potential for financial gain of all investment opportunities. However, it is crucial to bear in mind that great financial rewards rarely come without great financial risks.

This article was originally published in the Etownian on Thursday, November 1st, 2007.

Simple Business Ethics Tips for Everyday Situations

Lead by Example – Be honest in everything that you do; people notice and respect honesty and respect.

Communicate your concerns – If you see something that seems unethical, talk to your superiors about it, and do not stay silent. Most illegal and/or ethical problems are allowed to continue because those who know about don’t make a stand and stop it.

Treat everyone with fairness and respect – this isn’t just the right thing to do, you never know when someone you treated well will become a resource in a time of need.

Reward ethical decisions – recognize when an ethical decision is made, and show it as a positive example of good work in action.

Adapted from ideas from the Better Business Bureau - Business Ethics

Going Green for Your World & Your Wallet

Simple changes can result in easy savings, for both the climate and for your budget. Try these simple tips:

• Close the Refrigerator door - Leaving the door open for only a few minutes releases cool air, making the compressor work harder, and wasting significant amounts of energy.
• Turn off the lights! - Energy is saved by turning off a light for just one second. Think how much energy can be saved by turning off the lights when at class.
• Unplug appliances when not in use - Appliances continue to use energy even when turned off. Unplugging them removes this energy loss and is also safer, reducing the chance of an electrical fire.
• Avoid excessive amounts of fast and/or prepackaged foods - These types of food (which are often rather expensive as well) are often over packaged. Limiting their use reduces the amount of trash headed to a landfill. If you do have trash left over after a meal, make sure to dispose of it properly instead of throwing it along the roadside.

By using common sense, you can easily save some money in your wallet, and save help the future as well.

These tips are based on those originally posted in the September issue of EC SIFE's Bathroom Business, a monthly publication distributed throughout the Elizabethtown Campus. Check out this month's issue for more tips.

References:
Save a buck save the world - CNN Money - June 1, 2007
Going Green

Company Business Ethics

It is important to be able to judge yourself on your own personal ethics in order to use them in a business setting. Once you have defined yourself in terms of ethical business behavior, then you should locate businesses in which to work so that you can minimize the possibility of compromising your ethics.

Individuals – not corporations – make ethical decisions. When comparing companies, the ethical environment should be assessed. This can be done by researching its code of ethics, ethics programs or interviewing future coworkers and managers. Do not treat the company as an individual when determining ethical behavior, instead understand the individual employees.

Remember though that the personal business ethics that you bring to the ethical environment of the business means more than the ethics already placed in the company. Think about how your career activities in the company will require certain business ethical decisions. How much dilemma risk can you handle when working for a company? A business whose ethical standards align most with your standards will tend to decrease the number of dilemmas. You must assess your own code of ethics before assessing that of a company’s.

There are six basic guidelines that you can use in determining your actions and a potential company’s environment: laws, rules & procedures, values, conscience, promises and heroes.

Initially, always look at the legality of an issue in which you are about to make a decision. Sometimes, the easiest way to determine your action is to do what is legal. However, sometimes actions can still be considered legal and unethical to a person. It is necessary to look at all sides of the issue to make a well-informed decision.

When comparing your business ethical code and a company’s, look at how your planned action in situations is compared to what is already stated in the company's policies and procedures.

Take a look at the concept of laws again. Even if an action is thought to be legal, is the legality superficial? Does the action follow the spirit of the law as well as its word? Here, loopholes might affect a situation; an action that becomes legal because of a loophole might not have actual legal value.

When thinking about business ethics, it is important to use your conscience and your inherent ability to distinguish what’s right from wrong. Use this concept when comparing companies as well.

Research what the companies have promised in the past and see if they have fulfilled their promises. A company that has a poor reputation for making its promises might not have a strong ethical environment.

Since you cannot really judge the company as a whole when comparing business ethics, you can always research the ethical behavior of its figurehead, CEO or president, in order to see how that company’s potential hero applies his or her ethical behavior. The rest of the company could potentially align itself with the ethical conduct of its leader.

Resources for this article were adapted from http://ethics.georgesmay.com.

This article was originally published in the Etownian on Thursday, October 18th, 2007.

Why are business ethics so important in today’s society?

In the past ten years, corporate scandals have become too widespread in our society. We hear about them all the time, Enron, Rite-Aid, AOL-Time Warner, the list is endless. But what few people understand is that when these companies act in such an unethical manner, it hurts more then just their employees and direct customers. When companies like Peregrine Systems, which is traded on the NASDAQ, overstates their sales by more then $100 million, the consequences go beyond the company itself. The share’s of stock lose their value, and the company in turn needs to cut costs. Where do they start? With their employees. These people lose not only their jobs, but also their benefits; in addition, they will try to collect unemployment. As the government is getting charged with giving out aid, they have two options: cut spending in other places or increase taxes.

In the case of Enron, they hid their debts, manipulated the Texas power market and Californian energy market, and bribed foreign officials. Not only is the latter illegal under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, it is unethical to use bribes to get business. Another problem with acting unethically is getting other businesses you work with caught in illegal or unethical activity too. In this case, Arthur Anderson had shred all of Enron’s documents. This cost them not only money in legal fees and penalty charges, but also in lost revenue. After this was brought to the media, they lose hundreds of clients because of their damaged reputation.

Unethical behavior doesn’t always have to do with finances, those are just the cases we hear about. Companies engage in behavior that is not socially responsible all the time. This includes piracy, counterfeiting, and more commonly, damaging the environment. As consumer’s are becoming more aware of these activities, it is imperative that companies begin to act more ethically or they are at risk lose customers and profits.

This article was originally published in the Etownian, on Thursday, October 4th, 2007.

Sife Sense - Going Green (Extended Edition)

Authors Note: This is an extended edition of the Going Green article that appeared in the Etownian, it contains additional ideas and ways to be friendly to the environment and save some money.

In today’s world of complex electronics and disposable products, being environmentally friendly can seem a challenging and expensive task. Yet there are many things that an ordinary college student can do to save the environment, and save some money at the same time.

There are always the simple things you can do to save some green (both the natural and the monetary kind). First, when you go to bed at night, turn off your computer; it doesn’t need to be on while you sleep, and if someone has an important message to leave you, they can always send an email. Another simple computer tip is to set your monitor to go into power-save when you haven’t used your computer in a while, this saves both energy and makes your screen last longer. Lastly, you probably didn’t grow up in a barn, so turn off your lights when you leave a room. Right now you may be thinking to yourself, why does this matter, the college pays my electric bill. You’re right, they do pay the bill, and you also need to remember that you pay their bills every year. Why not save a little bit of power, and maybe keep that tuition increase a bit smaller next year?

Want to be a bit healthier and save some cash, do something that you do every day, walk. At well over $2 a gallon, gasoline is expensive and pollutes. Walking, or riding a bike, is a good way to save some money and the environment. Have to head to the quads? Walk there, or ride your bike, there is no reason to drive. Even a walking trip from campus to the grocery store is entirely plausible on a nice day. Those short trips are also the most damaging to your vehicle, reducing performance and driving up repair bills. Also, watch your speed while driving home for the weekend or on a break. For every 5 mph over 60 mph you drive, it can waste up to 10 cents per gallon.

At the end of the semester or the year, don’t throw out all those things in your room that you don’t want to take home. As the adage goes, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. Have an old shelf you don’t need any more, or perhaps a slightly used futon? Put it in the campus classifieds, or if its small, put it on eBay. Selling things on eBay is easier than you think, and if you sell it for a few dollars, it’s better than making nothing. At the same time, you are reducing the amount of trash that is hauled off to landfills. If you can’t sell it, try to recycle it, or give it away for free to someone who can use it. When looking for new furniture, or almost anything, check out sites like Freecycle (www.freecycle.org) or Craigslist (www.craigslist.org), for bargains in the local area. Items can cost significantly less, and you prevent them from going to a landfill.

If you buy bottled water, consider purchasing a water filter pitcher, or one that mounts on a sink. Most bottled water is just filtered tap water, and is expensive and wasteful. The energy used to pump, transport, disinfect, and bottle water is more than you may think. Unless the bottle is recycled, it also adds to landfill space. Using a water filter can pay for itself quicker than you may think, at over a dollar per bottle, the cost of the most plentiful resource on earth adds up fast.

Here are some other items to consider. Buy and sell used textbooks; they are cheaper and avoid wasting paper. Avoid printing unnecessary pages, only print what you need. Don’t take more food than you are going to eat in the Marketplace or at a buffet, you can always go back for more. Reuse what you can, recycle what you cannot.

Going green can be done without any really hard work, just a few simple changes in your everyday tasks. Remember that every little bit helps, and that being friendly to the environment can save you some green in the bank as well.

Portions of this article appeared in the September 20th edition of the Etownian.

Sife Sense - Going Green

In today’s world of complex electronics and disposable products, being environmentally friendly can seem a challenging and expensive task. Yet there are many things that an ordinary college student can do to save the environment, and save some money at the same time.

There are always simple things you can do to save some green (natural and monetary). When you go to bed at night, turn off your computer. Another simple tip, set your monitor to go into power-save when you haven’t used your computer in a while, this saves energy and your screen. Lastly, you probably didn’t grow up in a barn, so turn off the lights when you leave a room. You may be thinking, who cares, the college pays my electric bill. You’re right, but you pay their bills every semester. Save some electricity, and keep that tuition increase a bit smaller next year.

At well over $2 a gallon, gasoline is expensive and pollutes. Walking or riding a bike is a good way to save some money and the environment. Have to head to the quads, downtown, or the grocery store? There’s no need to drive. Those short trips are also the most damaging to your vehicle, reducing performance and driving up repair bills. Also, watch your speed while driving home for the weekend or a break. For every 5 mph over 60 mph you drive, it can waste up to 10 cents per gallon.

At the end of the year, don’t throw out those things you don’t want to take home. Have some old stuff you don’t need anymore? Put it in the campus classifieds, or sell it on eBay. Selling things on online is easier than you think, and an easy way to make some cash and reduce trash. If you can’t sell it, recycle it or give it away for free. When looking for new furniture, check out sites like Freecycle (www.freecycle.org) or Craigslist (www.craigslist.org) for bargains in the area.

If you drink bottled water, consider purchasing a water filter. Most bottled water is just expensive filtered tap water. The energy used to pump, transport, disinfect, and bottle water is more than you may think, and most water bottles are never recycled. According to the Sierra Club, the cost for filtered water is approximately $.13/gallon and for bottled water at minimum $1.27 per gallon (or much more in smaller bottles). A filter clearly is an easy and inexpensive way to get water.

Going green can be done easily, just a few simple changes in your everyday tasks. Remember, going green can save the environment, and your wallet at the same time.

Published in the Etownian, September 20th, 2007.