Dear Sir or Madam
Upon reading your advertisement for writers brought to light several mutual interests and commonalities between the work of your company and my background and skills.
I know you are seeking to fill this position, and would like to express to you my interest in discussing the possibility of working as a writer. I think I have the type of experience that would benefit your efforts, including:
* 15 years experience working as a writer for several newspapers.
* 9 years experience working as a freelance writer.
* A desire to work any day or hours you require in order to help the company be successful.
* I enjoy writing about markets, stocks, bonds, commodities, and current events.
* I can write as many articles you need in a week.
* I currently write for Yahoo Finance, Forbes, Game Day MD and Investopedia
* I am also currently writing by second book.
I have taken the liberty of enclosing my resume and writing samples below for your complete information. If you like what you see, I hope you will contact me. I would relish the opportunity to explain to you how I think I could help your company go to the next level through my education and skills.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Best Regards,
Chris Seabury
Resume Below
Name: Chris Seabury
Address: 904 1/2 S. Main St.
Lamar, CO 81052
Telephone: 876-860-3028, 719-688-6074
Work History:
2002 to Present: Freelance writer.
1998 to 2002: Writer for the El Paso Times.
1996 to 1998: Writer for the Chicago Business Journal.
1991 to 1996: University of Colorado at Boulder majoring in Journalism. I was a writer and editor for the student newspaper The Colorado Daily.
If you have any questions or need further information please contact me via email or telephone.
Writing Samples
Eli Bienstock: Qunice Orchard Wrestling
GAITHERSBURG, MD - In all sports there are those people who are so dedicated that they will do whatever it takes to become the best. This desire to want to become the something better, forces them to go the extra mile, when it is so much easier to do something else.
As a result, this is how champions are made. A local athlete wrestler who has been exhibiting similar kinds of dedication is Eli Bienstock of Quince Orchard. Currently, the sophomore is on pace to have another productive season following his second place finish at state last year. This can be seen by looking no further than when Bienstock outmatched Michael Nguyen in an 8 - 4 decision not long ago. Yet, when you look beyond the success, it's clear, that there is so much more to Bienstock than just another up and coming wrestler.
Focused
Upon visiting with Eli it is clear that he focused on what his short and long term goals are. On the wrestling mat, his goal this is year is to win state, then build off of his successes to become even better in the following years. He would ultimately like to attend and wrestle for Cornell (this is where is his father attended as well as his brother currently going to school).
To achieve these objectives, Eli has been aggressively working on becoming even better by wrestling as much as possible throughout the year. Where he not only wrestles with the Cougars, but he also wrestles with the Gaithersburg Eagles of the Beltway League.
This has allowed Bienstock to consistently improve his wrestling while others are relaxing, which helps explain the meteoric rise of the young grappler.
Always Looking for Weaknesses
One of the key pieces for Bienstock's success has been his ability to always look for his possible weaknesses and work to make it a strength. A good example of this can be seen by his disappointment of losing once this season. This forced him to fix the mistakes from the one loss, helping to improve his overall level of wrestling. In practice and on his own personal time Eli, always wants to work on improving his endurance, strength and speed.
While these are at high levels, Bienstock believes that if he continues to keep working in these areas he could be considerably more dominant.
No One does it Alone
While Bienstock has enjoyed the lime light from his hard work; none of his success would have been possible without the support of many different people. His father has played a major part in helping to keep him motivated, working hard and most importantly: to always remain focused on academics.
Then, he receives support and ideas from head coach Christopher Tao. Also, he has been working with former Olympic Champion in wrestling Wade Schalles. The reason why this is so important is: because Schalles, is the world record holder for most amateur wins and pins in wrestling.
As a result, Eli has a deep pool of talent and support that are only continuing to make him better. When you combine this with his focus and the ability to always look for different weaknesses, it is clear, that Eli could be one of Maryland's most dominate wrestlers in the coming years.
It's not only about wrestling
While wrestling is an important part of Eli's life, there is one area that has an equal priority, academics. Despite his busy schedule, Bienstock has maintained a 4.0 GPA. His ultimate ambition it to wrestle for Cornell and possibly in the Olympics, but he would ultimately like to follow in the footsteps of his father by becoming a lawyer.
What all of this shows, is that if Bienstock continues on his current path he will become one of the most dominant wrestlers in his weight class. The dedication, support and focus on his goals have given him a drive that is hard to find in many student athletes, especially so young.
While no one knows what the future will bring, it would not be surprising to see Bienstock become one of the most sought after wrestlers in the state by college scouts. Especially, if he continues with his levels of performance on the wrestling mat and in the classroom.
The Bright Side of the Credit Crisis
By Chris Seabury (Contact Author | Biography)
A credit crisis, also known as a "credit crunch" or "credit shock", occurs when there is a rapid reduction in the availability of loans from banks. This is caused by loans going sour, forcing the banks to tighten up lending standards.
Credit shocks create both positive and negative effects in the economy. By examining these effects carefully, we can gain a greater understanding of how credit shocks work and what we can learn from them. Read on to find out more.
The Downside of a Credit Crisis
Credit shocks have several negative effects on both consumers and businesses. Some effects are felt right away, while others take time to be seen.
Consumers cut spending
As a credit crunch runs its course, the economy continues to slow. This creates a situation where consumers are less optimistic about the future prospects for the economy and cut back dramatically on their spending. Since consumer spending accounts for 70% of economic activity, even a slight cutback in spending can cause the economy to slow dramatically.
Banks fear making loans
Credit shocks can create a situation where banks are afraid to make new loans. This fear causes many businesses and consumers to cut spending dramatically or even close their doors. This causes a ripple effect in the economy as more businesses have trouble surviving and consumer wealth erodes.
Businesses lose access to capital
When businesses do not have access to the capital they need to expand, pay expenses or pay bills, a liquidity squeeze can occur. This squeeze can force many businesses that have been thriving for years to shut their doors and let their employees go. (Find out how this economic cycle affects both small and big businesses in The Impact of Recession on Businesses.)
Rising foreclosures may bring property values down for communities
If banks are forced to foreclose on too many borrowers, this can have dire consequences on communities. Not only do property values decline in communities where foreclosures are high, but there are several untold economic consequences as well. These include a loss of property tax revenues for both state and local governments, economic blight for areas being affected by waves of foreclosures and the failure of local businesses that are dependent on the community to survive.
The crisis may force the government to take emergency measures
As the economy becomes weaker and the credit shock spreads from Wall Street to Main Street, a cycle of economic weakness spreads throughout the country, creating rising unemployment and negative growth. This forces the government to take drastic measures to break the cycle once and for all by spending hundreds of billions of dollars to revive the economy.
A falling stock market eats away at wealth
The credit shock and uncertainty about future earnings cause many investors to sell their stock holdings and move into safer investments. This causes the equity market to go into a free fall that eats away the values of 401(k) plans, IRAs and pension plans. Diminished nest eggs force many who were planning on retiring to work longer.
Consumers and businesses feel panic and fear
Left unchecked, the credit shock can create a loss of confidence in the nation's financial system. This causes many people to assume the worst and take drastic steps to protect what little wealth they have left. It is at this point that bank runs become more common and even more financial institutions collapse.
The Upside of a Credit Crisis
Credit shocks can create many lasting, positive changes. These changes can be seen in the aftermath of the crisis. Some of the positive effects of a credit shock include the following:
The economy cleans out excessive debt and spending
During good economic times, many businesses and consumers increase their overall debt. This behavior is fuelled in part by businesses needing to expand and in part by consumers who are feeling good enough about the economy to make large purchases without worrying about what will happen in the future.
But while the economy will continue to expand and debt levels consistently rise for a while, at some point the economy will slow down and many who overextended themselves during the good times will be forced to live within their means or may even fall behind. As businesses and consumers are forced to cut back, some will stop making payments on their debts, forcing financial institutions to write the bad loans off. These forced write-offs, either by the banks themselves or through government intervention, will cleanse the financial system so that businesses can have strong balance sheets and consumers who were once tapped out can increase their spending without being burdened by large amounts of debt.
Corporations clean up their balance sheets
Businesses can use debt to expand and increase their overall profits. However, debt can be a double-edged sword: during recessionary times, the amount of overall debt that businesses took out during the last expansion can cause the company to face liquidity problems. By writing off the bad debt on their balance sheets, businesses become leaner, can weather the slowdown and can expand even more when positive growth returns to the economy. (Learn about the role of debt in determining corporate health in Debt Reckoning.)
Transparency and regulation in the financial sector improve
A financial crisis can expose the loopholes in regulations that people were taking advantage of - loopholes that may have contributed to the crisis. The government then reacts by creating new regulations to address the situation. Over time, these laws bring confidence back to the U.S. financial system and investors feel secure again.
Hard times force consumers to regain control of their spending
During times of expansion, many consumers try to keep up with the Joneses by living a lifestyle beyond their means and accumulating more debt than they can handle. Credit shocks force consumers to rein in their spending and lead lifestyles that are more appropriate to their incomes. People then regain control of their finances and cause the national savings rate to increase.
Declines in stock prices create great long-term valuations.
During the crisis, when everyone is panicking and selling both good and bad investments, many smart investors are buying those good investments and holding them long-term. Once the crisis is over and the chaos has died down, they make tremendous profits. Some of the more well-known investors that have employed this strategy include: Warren Buffett, Sir John Templeton and Benjamin Graham.
Conclusion
Credit shocks have many negatives, but they also create opportunities. During times of economic crisis, it is important to keep a clear head and not get caught up in the fear. Left unchecked, large-scale fear can wreak havoc on the world economy. But over time, the crisis will end and the economy will begin to expand once again.
9 Tips for Growing a Successful Business
By Chris Seabury
To succeed in business today, you need to be flexible and have good planning and organizational skills. Many people start a business thinking that they'll turn on their computers or open their doors and start making money - only to find that making money in a business is much more difficult than they thought. You can avoid this in your business ventures by taking your time and planning out all the necessary steps you need to reach to achieve success. Read on to find out how.
1. Get Organized
To be successful in business you need to be organized. Organization will help you complete tasks and stay on top of things to be done. A good way to do this is to create a to-do list each day - as you complete each item, check it off your list. This will ensure that you're not forgetting anything and you're completing all the tasks that are essential to the survival of your business.
2. Keep Detailed Records
All successful businesses keep detailed records. By keeping detailed records, you'll know where the business stands financially and what potential challenges you could be facing. Just knowing this gives you time to create strategies to overcome the obstacles that can prevent you from being successful and growing your business.
3. Analyze Your Competition
Competition breeds the best results. To be successful, you can't be afraid to study and learn from your competitors. After all, they may be doing something right that you can implement in your business to make more money.
4. Understand the Risks and Rewards
The key to being successful is taking calculated risks to help your business grow. A good question to ask is "What's the downside?" If you can answer this question, then you know what the worst-case scenario is. This knowledge will allow you to take the kinds of calculated risks that can generate tremendous rewards for your business.
5. Be Creative
Always be looking for ways to improve your business and to make it stand out from the competition. Recognize that you don't know everything and be open to new ideas and new approaches to your business.
6. Stay Focused
The old saying that "Rome was not built in a day" applies here. Just because you open a business doesn't mean that you're going to immediately start making money. It takes time to let people know who you are, so stay focused on achieving your short-term goals and give the rest time to come together on its own.
7. Prepare to Make Sacrifices
The lead-up to starting a business is hard work, but after you open your doors, your work has just begun. In many cases, you have to put in more time than you would if you were working for someone else. In turn, you have to make sacrifices, such as spending less time with family and friends in order to be successful.
8. Provide Great Service
There are many successful businesses that forget that providing great customer service is important. If you provide better service for your customers, they'll be more inclined to come to you the next time they need something instead of going to your competition.
9. Be Consistent
Consistency is key component to making money in business. You have to consistently keep doing the things necessary to be successful day in and day out. This will create long-term positive habits that will help you make money over the long term.
Conclusion
Starting and running and running a successful business can be rewarding and challenging. Success requires focus, discipline and perseverance. However, success will not come over night - it requires a long-term focus and that you remain consistent in challenging environments.
A Moment to Remember in New York
For many New York can be called the city of dreams. There are very few places that you can be at one spot and have an experience happen to you that you will remember for the rest of your life. New York is a city that offers these experiences daily to countless numbers of people.
In my case I had such an experience many years ago. One day I was reading the Village Voice as I rode the subway. I always found it interesting reading about the famous movies stars that were in the city filming various types of movies. In this case I was reading about how the actor Bruce Willis was in the city filming a movie and the writer of the story was telling about how he as well as many other stars liked to walk around the city in disguise. The article claimed that these celebrities wanted to enjoy just being normal during the times that they were off from filming. I remember thinking to myself, "What a bunch of garbage". Nobody really runs into celebrities in Manhattan without vast amounts of security around them.
On a cold winter day I was walking around Fifth Avenue looking in the store windows. This was something that I always liked to do because it often reminded me how unique New York can be in its own way. As continued to go from store to store looking at the different displays it seemed like no other time. Then as I was looking in one particular window a man in a baseball cap and sunglasses came up to me and we started talking about the display. Our conversation continued for some time. When at one point I realized who I was talking with, Bruce Willis. I asked him, "What are doing looking at the store windows with me"? He said, "I just like to get out and walk around the city to relax". A couple of minutes later he said he had to go and we shook hands.
I will always remember this experience because it showed me that New York can really be the city of dreams. There are not very many places in the World that you can run into a movie star just by standing on the street. I feel that this is just one of many stories that make the city a unique place to live, work and visit.