Mari's Banana Cupcakes

IngredientsOriginal recipe makes 14 cupcakes


3 bananas, mashed


1 cup white sugar


2 eggs, lightly beaten


3/4 cup vegetable oil


2 cups all-purpose flour


2 teaspoons baking soda


3 tablespoons buttermilk


1 cup chopped pecans(optional)


1 cup confectioners' sugar, or as needed

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease 14 muffin cups.
2. Lightly beat bananas and white sugar together in a bowl until smooth; add eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. Beat in vegetable oil until well blended, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in flour, baking soda, and buttermilk; mix well. Fold in pecans. Pour batter into the prepared muffin cups.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 30 minutes. Sprinkle cupcakes with confectioners' sugar.

• PREP15 mins
• COOK20 mins
• READY IN35 mins

Wowowillie

Wowowillie is a noontime show in the Philippines aired by TV5, Premiered on January 26, 2013, and broadcast live from TV5's Delta Studio in Quezon City, the timeslot is every Weekdays at 11:45 am to 2:45 pm and Saturdays at 11:30 am to 2:30 pm with its main host and producer,Willie Revillame.







History
Willie Revillame's previous show Wil Time Bigtime ended its run on January 5, 2013 as he announced in late 2012, and will move to the noontime slot, with a new show under the titleWowowillie. The show premiered on January 26, 2013 and being part of Revillame's birthday celebration the next day

Host


Main Host
Willie Revillame

Co-Hosts

Some of the former co-hosts were transferred from the previous show, Wil Time Bigtime
Mariel Rodriguez-Padilla
Camille Villar
Lovely Abella
Grace Lee
Arci Muñoz
Ethel Booba
Ava Jugueta
Gil "Ate Gay" Morales

Featuring
Anna Feliciano
Owen Ercia
DJ Coki
Ligaya (AJ Suller)
Liwayway (Sandy of Sexbomb Girls)
Wowowillie Girls

from: wikimapia.com

and

photos from:

http://www.facebook.com/mariel.termulopadilla

10 Questions to Ask Before Family and Friends Become Business Partners

Bringing a family member or friend on board as a business partner may seem like a fine idea, but the relationship can prove tricky to navigate--or to end, if things don't go well. "It's easy to get into business, but it's hard to get out," says Wayne Rivers, president of the Family Business Institute, a consulting firm based in Raleigh, N.C.

That means you need to take a step back and think carefully before partnering with a friend or relative.




Here are 10 key questions to consider:


Are we in it for the same reasons?
Be clear about your goals. Do you want to expand your business and eventually sell it, or build something your family can pass down? "The mistake is not being clear about what your intentions are," says David Ransburg, a consultant with The Family Business Consulting Group, Inc., based in Chicago. If you don't have the same goals for the business, you'll have a hard time making plans or coming to a consensus on big decisions.



What is this person bringing to the job?
Don't let your relationship color how qualified and well suited for the job your potential partner might be. Think about the credentials and level of commitment you would expect from anyone you were giving such a key role in the company. You may want to write a job description with qualification requirements and see how the experiences of a friend or family member measure up, Rivers says.

Should you offer an equity stake in the business?
You need to decide whether you want to offer your new partner an equity interest in the company, and if so, how much and how soon. Not only do you want to be sure a potential partner can add value to the business before sharing ownership, but you also should consider giving the person an interest in the business over a period of time, say five years, rather than all at once, says John Davis, faculty chair of the Families in Business Program atHarvard Business School. It can be easy to deal informally with family and friends, but you want to make the terms clear in a signed shareholder agreement.



What will happen when we can't agree?
Resolving conflicts with family and close friends can be particularly challenging because personal feelings can easily get mixed up with business decisions. "With friends and family... you might make more knee jerk reactions," says Ira Bryck, Director of the UMass Family Business Center in Amherst, Mass. "You can be your worst self where you need to be your best self." You will need to figure out a way to remain professional by taking personal feelings out of decision-making and focusing instead on objective measurements and standards.

How in sync is our risk tolerance?
Despite your personal connections, you and a family member or friend may feel very differently about taking risks. For example, an older sibling who saw his parents take many risks when starting the family business might be more willing to take risks himself than a younger sibling who got involved later when the company was more established, Bryck says. Determine how in sync you are on such vital decisions as launching new products or trying out new forms of advertising. While you can certainly disagree from time to time, you don't want to constantly butt heads.

What will each of our roles be?
In a 2010 study of 518 family-owned businesses, the most successful ones had made each person's role in the company clear upfront, says Tracy Shaw, assistant vice president of business market development at MassMutual Financial Group, which oversaw the "FamilyPreneurship" study. For Lidia and Uli Fluhme, married founders of Gran Fondo NY, which began running an annual 110-mile cycling event in New York in 2011, the division of labor has been clear from the get-go. While Lidia Fluhme takes care of logistical aspects of the event, her husband is responsible for interacting with cyclists and handling marketing and legal matters. "He's the visionary, and I'm the implementer of what happens," she says.

How will we keep our personal and professional lives separate?
When working with family or close friends, the boundaries between your personal and professional lives are bound to blur. But you can maintain some work-life balance if you establish a few rules. For example, you might agree not to discuss work during family meals or to talk about personal matters at work only in an emergency.

How will we keep our personal and professional lives separate?
Family and friends tend to sweep a lot of things under the rug in business rather than addressing them, Rivers says. But you need to hold one another accountable and figure out how you will evaluate each other's performance on a regular basis. If providing feedback, especially criticism, seems too difficult given your personal relationship, you can seek out a third party for the assessments, Rivers says.

If it doesn't work out, what do we do?
It isn't unusual to want to change your career, but when you're in business with a close friend or family member, you might feel you can't leave because it will hurt your personal relationship. Before asking a family member or friend to become your partner, consider what might happen if one or both of you wants out. How will you handle the exiting partner's shares? Who will take over the responsibilities of the departing partner? What will this do to your personal relationship?

What will our succession plan look like?
Even if you both plan to stick it out for the long haul, you're still going to have to think about your successors. Unfortunately, succession planning often goes unaddressed because it suggests mortality, illness or other unpleasant life events you'd rather not discuss. But failing to address succession planning "is like getting on a plane with a pilot who hasn't learned how to land the plane," Bryck says. "You really need to sit down and have this difficult discussion."

Is a Juice Cleanse Right for You?

Do you really need to "cleanse" your body?
Most experts agree that your body gets rid of toxins pretty well on its own and you don't need to live on liquids for that to happen. "The human body cleanses itself 24/7," says Samantha Heller, R.D., exercise physiologist and clinical nutrition coordinator at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital in Connecticut. "Your liver, kidneys, lungs and digestive system all work to detoxify and cleanse your body's immune system on a daily basis."






However, one expert points out that juice can help your liver do the best job possible: "Your liver cleanses your blood stream and clears out toxins that accumulate from the outside," says Susan Blum, M.D., M.P.H., assistant clinical professor of preventive medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and founder of the Blum Center for Health in Rye Brook, N.Y. "And giving your liver the nutrients it needs-through fruits, veggies and whole foods-helps it function optimally." So you don't need to cleanse your liver, but you can help support the natural process by boosting your nutrient intake. That doesn't mean you have to starve yourself for an extended period of time to make this happen. (Both of the monitored cleanse options at the Blum Center involve real food as well as juice/smoothies.)

Considering a juice cleanse? First, define your ultimate goal to find out if juice can solve your health woes. Do you want to…






Lose weight?
Red light! Do not proceed!

If you drink only liquids for any amount of time, you will likely lose a few pounds. But, what you lose will be mostly water weight and will creep back on as soon as you start to eat real food again (sorry to burst your bubble). What's more, going on a liquid-only cleanse for longer than three days can backfire, because it puts more stress on your body, and can affect your immune system and your ability to focus, says Heller.

Reset your palate?
Yellow light/Proceed with caution

Drinking fresh, healthy juice for a day or two can help you put the brakes on overeating and overindulging. However, the real test comes after the cleanse. The trick is to plan ahead before you start, says Heller. So stock your pantry with whole grains, legumes, cottage cheese and healthy sources of protein like tofu and edamame. This way, once you're feeling refreshed and back on track with healthy eating, you'll have good-for-you food on hand as you ease back into real food.






Get more greens in your diet?
Green light/Go for it!

Adding a fresh-pressed juice or smoothie as an afternoon snack or a breakfast alternative every once in a while is a great way to get more important vitamins and antioxidants, saysLisa Drayer, R.D., author of "The Beauty Diet." Juices can also serve as sources of beauty nutrients if they include compounds like vitamin C and beta-carotene, which are important for your body's ability to make collagen for glowing skin.

- by Abigail Cuffey

Top 10 detox foods

1.
Lemon: Lemons are a staple of many detox diets, and there is good reason for this. Firstly, lemons are packed with antioxidant vitamin C, which is great for the skin and for fighting disease



2.
Ginger: If too much fatty food or alcohol has caused problems for your digestive system, it may be worthwhile adding some ginger to your diet.



3.
Garlic: Garlic has long been known for its heart benefits, however the pungent food is also good at detoxifying the body. Garlic is not only antiviral, antibacterial and antibiotic,






4.
Artichoke: If you have recently been overindulging in fatty foods and alcohol, adding some steamed globe artichoke leaves to your meals is a great way to help get your body back on track



5.

Beetroot: For those needing a quick health-boosting shot of nutrients, you can't do much better than beetroot.



6.
Green tea: While it's not technically a food, no detox plan would be complete without regular consumption of essential liquids. Fluids are essential for keeping our organs healthy and helping to flush.






7.
Cabbage: Many celebs have resorted to the cabbage soup diet to help lose weight and get in shape quickly before a big event, however cabbage is not only good for weight loss - it is also an excellent



8.
Fresh fruit: Fresh fruits are high in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre= and are also low in calories, making them an important part of a detox diet. If you're after brighter eyes and skin





9.
Brown rice: If you want to cleanse your system and boost your health, it is a good idea to cut down on processed foods. Instead, try supplementing your diet with healthier whole grains such as brown





10.
Watercress: Like most green herbs and vegetables, watercress is an excellent health-booster and detox food. Firstly, watercress leaves are packed with many vital detoxifying nutrients, including

Five startup strategies

All successful enterprises started with a brilliant business concept. Come up with a mediocre concept and it sure hurts the chances of a business taking off.

This principle guided business partners and longtime friends Esel de Sagun and Em Somera in putting up a quirky concept store. Although de Sagun and Somera’s business is into selling cutesy products, Ready for Rain has become more than that. Proof of this is its survival of three rainy seasons, countless number of storms and even the global economic slump.

Now Ready for Rain, which sells rain gears such as Plueys and umbrellas, is well into its fourth year and boasts of a growing number of clients.  Besides coming up with a unique concept, the duo also shared  some of the lessons they learned in navigating their way from startup to success: 


 

1. Proper marketing and product awareness strategy

In starting a quirky concept, one major pitfall identified by the duo was the possibility of their products being misunderstood by the market as a mere fad.

“Being a new concept, education was key; we had to educate the consumers on exactly what the product was and what it wasn’t. Especially for a fashion product, people perceive that it is a fad that will come and go.  We have to reiterate to our customers over and over again the importance of rain gears. The rainy season will always come around every year,” Somera said.


 

2. Treat your business like your own baby

Being hands-on  has helped the partners truly understand their business’ nature. “It’s the first time for both of us to start our own business and we learned that when it’s your own business, you generally don’t stop working at it (especially at the beginning). We’re a very young company and we find ourselves fulfilling all roles from CEO to janitor to quality assurance to sales agent. It’s tiring but it is most fulfilling when we hear and see the satisfaction and excitement in our customers,” Somera said.

3. Emphasis on service

In ranking a company’s assets, coming in a strong second after a great product is  wonderful customer relations. In this age of social media, a bad customer service reputation easily travels across the globe, thanks or no thanks to Facebook and Twitter.

“We attend to online and phone queries ourselves, and work closely with our retail partners. This way we gain insight on people who actually use and sell our products, so we are always aware of our areas for improvement,” de Sagun said.

 4. Be proud of your product

Besides believing in yourself, you have to believe in your own product too, regardless of their quirkiness. After all, who else will believe in your product if you don’t?
 

“Don't be scared to put your product out there. The benefit in building a business based on a quirky idea/concept would probably be the ease of getting PR for your product. Being different or being the first automatically makes you interesting…In our case, printed rainboots were memorable, striking, exciting and possibly intimidating. It was a new idea, that’s why girls were hooked. Even guys were curious,” de Sagun said.

 “We got a lot of free media mileage after we joined the Rockwell bazaar for the first time, simply because our product stood out and people were intrigued by the concept.”


5. Think long-term

In business, always  plan for the long-term. Prospects may be rosy for the next few weeks, but what about the next few months or years? “When we look at our business, we started with rain boots, but we didn’t stop there. We expanded our line of products to include waterproof ballet flats, also galoshes for men, and limited edition hand-painted umbrellas for a cause. It would be good to start with a concept but also know how to branch it out, to find  alternatives to address the same need,” de Sagun said.

Landing your first client

The most memorable experience for any entrepreneur would be their how they landed their first client. There seems to be an unusual quality to the first deal where you feel that all your hard work has paid off. It is not unusual for most entrepreneurs to keep a memento of that first deal.

But landing the first client could also be the hardest as you normally don't have a reputation and contacts. Pamela Alfaro who runs a travel agency, Ashta Holidays, says that landing her first client felt like her dreams were fulfilled. Here are some tips from Alfaro on how one can land that first client.

1) Build up your business by relying on word of mouth

Although startups usually have no reputation one can have industry contacts refer you. Thus often your first clients would be friends and relatives. Alfaro says that her first client came from a referral and that her initial clients were all referrals from friends and relatives. She says that good service helps build up word of mouth that can allow one to rapidly gain clients.

2) Be transparent

Set yourself apart from other businesses by being transparent. Being transparent helps create trust that is vital for maintaining a long lasting relationship. Alfaro recalls how being transparent helped land her several clients. She was approached then by a group of rich kids from the province who had a bad experience with the travel agent in their place. The problem was that the group didn't enjoy their tour because of several unrevealed destinations in the tours. So what she did was to be transparent and tell them what to expect from the package that they chose. "I tell them you paid for this so expect this." The transparency paid off because even before the group left on the first trip they were already asking her to arrange the next.

3) Follow up and get to them

Clients like it when they fell that you have respect for their time. That is why Alfaro says that any inquiries must be addressed as soon as possible. "Get back to them fast if you leave three to four days without hearing from you they tend to leave.' She says that by processing client inquiries fast you gain an advantage by making clients feel important. Being fast in getting back to clients can gain you referrals from satisfied clients.

4) Offer a good product and make them feel important

Normally some clients feel ignored particularly if you're dealing with bigger companies. That is why it pays to offer personalized services that cater to the client's specific needs. Personalizing a product maximizes the chances that the client will be satisfied and makes them feel important. But emphasize that the personalized product comes with its own price tag. So Alfaro tells her clients "If you want to have a better package, accommodation, then you will be charged more."

5) Offer value added services

Sometimes something very minor can help you land clients. With so many providers offering the same or variants of the same service even providing an added service could help you land clients. The value added service could be something that saves money or time or takes a particular concern off your clients mind. Alfaro says that to get clients she adds online check in to her services that allows clients to arrive later in the airport later than usual. "I'm not required to do that but I do it to make it more convenient for the client."

10 questions before you franchise

We have come across franchisers with nothing else to offer the franchise applicants but a franchise agreement. While this is an important document in franchising, it is only one of the many components of the franchise system. You have to put a number of things in place before you open your doors to franchising.

Below are several of the questions you must answer before you entertain any franchise inquiry:

QUESTION 1: What is your franchise business model? How would you know if the franchisee would make money or not?

 

QUESTION 2: What is your value proposition to the market?

QUESTION 3: What are your reasons for franchising the business?

QUESTION 4: What are your short- and long-term goals?

QUESTION 5: Who will be involved in franchising?

QUESTION 6: What are the franchise fees and royalties, its breakdown and computations?

QUESTION 7: What are the phases of the application process and the rationalization of each phase?

QUESTION 8: How will you evaluate franchise applicants?

QUESTION 9: What franchise organization will you set up?

QUESTION 10: What support and assistance will you provide prior to opening and while the franchise is operational? 

Vice Ganda

José Marie Borja-Viceral, popularly known as Vice Ganda, or Vice (born 31 March 1976) is aFilipino comedian, television presenter, and actor. Viceral is a regular host/judge on ABS-CBN’s noon time variety show It's Showtime and starred in films, one of which is considered thehighest-grossing film in Philippine cinema.

He is best known for his stand-up routines, for which he uses observational comedy, situational irony and sarcasm in pertaining to Filipino culture and human sexuality. He is also the first openly gay endorser for a major product (Globe Telecom).

Early life

The youngest of five children, Viceral grew up in the neighbourhood along José Abád Santos Street in Manuguit, Tondo, Manila. His father, abarangay captain, was murdered when he was young, prompting his mother to leave the children for work abroad as a caregiver. He readPolitical Science at Far Eastern University,and aged 19, had begun writing and performing stand-up comic routines in comedy bars inErmita, Manila.

Career

[edit]Stand-up comedy

Viceral launched his stand-up career in Punchline and The Library, whose owner Andrew de Real gave him the stage name “Vice Ganda”.

There he spent several years developing his materials in the comedy clubs. Vice’s career began to build after appearances on television and reviews from tabloid columns. He works alongside fellow comedians Chocoleit, Pooh, John Lapus and Rey Kilay.

Television

He appeared in several television series and sitcoms but his character in Dyosa under the direction of Wenn V. Deramas. Vice also had another supporting role in the drama series Maging Sino Ka Man: Ang Pagbabalik. In 2009, he became part of Showtime, a talent search programme where he eventually gained his present role as a regular presenter-judge. His life story of being bullied as a young, closeted homosexual has also been featured in the drama anthology, Maalaala Mo Kaya. Aside from Showtime, he is currently hosting his own Sunday talk show, the consistently top rated Gandang Gabi, Vice!.Currently, he is under the management of ABS-CBN, and handling him is business unit head Deo Endrinal after being managed for four years by local entertainment columnist/host Ogie Diaz.

Film

Viceral starred in minor roles until in 2009 where he appeared alongside Vilma Santos and John Lloyd Cruz in the film In My Life. A year later he, starred in a remake of the comedy film, Petrang Kabayo.It proved to be a hit when it was released.

 The following year, Vice starred in Praybeyt Benjamin with Derek Ramsay directed by Wenn V. Deramas. The movie became the first local film to reach 300-million Pesos in ticket sales and proved to be an even greater box office success than Petrang Kabayo. He is presently under contract with Viva Films.

This Guy's In Love With U Mare! is a 2012 Filipino comedy film under Star Cinema and Viva Films. It stars Vice Ganda, Luis Manzano and Toni Gonzaga, and it is directed by Wenn V. Deramas. This Guy's in Love with U, Mare! is about an unlikely love triangle. After Lester (Vice Ganda) catches his boyfriend (Luis Manzano) proposing marriage to Gemma (Toni Gonzaga), it seems as if his whole world comes crashing down. He devises a brilliant plan to keep Gemma away from his ex by making her fall in love with him.

Music

On 15 June 2011, Vice released his first studio album, Vice Ganda: Lakas Tama under Vicor Records. It features mostly pop and novelty songs, including "Palong Palo" written by Callalily frontman Kean Cipriano. He is also included in the compilation album of Showtime released by Star Records.