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How To Fight The Winter Blues By Building Doll Houses For Fun Or Profit
How often do you find yourself stuck in the house on them cold winter days, suffering from the winter blues? I bet you said quite often, if you did then your answer is like that of most people during the winter months. I want you to stop right now and think about what you just read, if you do find yourself stuck in the house during the winter with nothing to do, you should consider yourself very lucky. Most people are always complaining that they don’t have enough time in the day to get things done. So, according to a lot of folks, if you have nothing to do in the winter because your stuck inside, you are indeed a very lucky person.
Now, if this is true and you find yourself in the winter with nothing to do, and you need an idea to fight the winter blues, why not take up a great hobby like building dollhouses for your children, or as gifts to other children or to make some great extra money. Building a dollhouse is a great winter time project for any adult, from a male to a female. Now, if you are a carpenter by trade, such a project will be pretty easy for you, but if not, you can still make a dollhouse pretty easy. First of all you must decide if you want to build one from a kit or completely from scratch, by making your own parts.
Dollhouse kits can range in price from $40 to a few thousand dollars, depending upon the size, parts and the uniqueness of the project. A dollhouse is basically a copy of a real house that is made in miniature. If you are planning on making a dollhouse from a kit, then simply purchase one and follow the instructions that are included with it. If you are interested in making a dollhouse from scratch, using material you purchase, here are some things you should know before beginning your project.
Most folks use plain plywood to make their dollhouses out of, it’s pretty cheap and a single full sized sheet in 1/4 inch thickness, is enough to make a whole project. You do not need to get the best or most expensive plywood either, the standard or good grade is fine. You can always sand and fill in any holes or damage in the wood, before painting and assembling it. Windows are usually created with clear sheets of plastic or Plexiglas. And the roof shingles can be made from actually parts from spare shingles, cut into small versions, or some people say using sandpaper makes great shingles.
You can use the internet to get some great, free dollhouse plans to follow or buy yourself a couple books on building dollhouses. You will need a saw capable of cutting out small pieces of wood, a sander or sandpaper, some small nails and a good wood glue. You can purchase everything including the plywood at most Home Depot stores or Lowes. When making a dollhouse from scratch, you are only limited by the amount of money you want to spend on the parts and by your imagination, you can have real working lights, doors and windows that actually open and close, and more unique things.
A nice finished dollhouse can sell for anywhere’s from a few dollars to several thousand dollars, depending upon the skill, time, and uniqueness of the finished project. It is something that can last a lifetime, and would be one of the greatest gifts you could make for your young daughter or a friend, or you can make them and sell them for profit from your own website or on an online site such as eBay. Now, when you find yourself stuck inside on the long cold winter days with nothing to do, head to your basement, or wherever your workshop is set up, and get working on a dollhouse, it’s not just fun and rewarding, it’s also a great way to help fight against the winter blues.
An Analysis of Wells Fargo & Company (WFC)
Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) is a huge Western and Midwestern bank that provides a diverse array of financial services to its more than 23 million customers. The company employs more than 150,000 people at its over 6,000 locations nationwide. Wells Fargo has about $500 billion in assets.
While the company continues to derive more than half its revenues from interest income (about $26 billion), its activities are not limited to collecting deposits and lending money. Wells Fargo engages in other businesses such as brokerage services, asset management, and investment banking. The company also makes venture capital investments.
Over the last ten years, Wells Fargo has averaged a 1.57% return on assets and an 18.19% return on equity.
Location
Wells Fargo is closely associated with California in the minds of most investors. The company now operates in 23 different states. However, the concentration in California remains.
Mortgage lending in California accounts for approximately 14% of Wells Fargos total loan portfolio. Commercial real estate loans in California account for another 5% of the companys total loans. No other single state accounts for a similarly sized portion of total loans. In fact, neither mortgage lending nor commercial real estate lending in any other state accounts for more than 2% of Wells Fargos total loans.
Cross-Selling
Wells Fargos focus on cross-selling is well known. The company has a stated goal of doubling the number of products the average consumer and business customer has with Wells Fargo to eight products per customer (from the current four products per customer).
Cross-selling increases customer stickiness. It also helps increase profitability by decreasing expenses relative to revenues. The need for a large physical footprint is reduced as is the need for a large number of bankers. Instead, the existing infrastructure is able to provide additional revenue from the same customers.
Wells Fargos Chairman & CEO, Richard Kovacevich, explains the importance of the companys cross-selling in the Vision & Values section of the corporate website:
“Cross-selling or what we call needs-based selling is our most important strategy. Why? Because it is an increasing returns business model. Its like the network effect of e-commerce. It multiplies opportunities geometrically. The more you sell customers the more you know about them. The more you know about them the easier it is to sell them more products. The more products customers have with you the better value they receive and the more loyal they are. The longer they stay with you the more opportunities you have to meet even more of their financial needs. The more you sell them the higher the profit because the added cost of selling another product to an existing customer is often only about ten percent of the cost of selling that same product to a new customer. This gives usas an aggregator a significant cost advantage over one product or one channel companies. Cross-selling re-invents how financial services are aggregated and sold to customers just like other aggregators such as Wal-Mart (general merchandise), Home Depot (home improvement products) and Staples (office supplies).”